Parkside District — Restaurant in Lawrenceville

People are more likely to review extremely positive experiences or extremely negative ones and unfortunately, this leans on this negative side. I’ve visited this restaurant before and had a great experience on June 14 around 4 p.m. amazing food, beautiful atmosphere, and a fantastic server who gave excellent recommendations. That visit is why I returned. But my most recent experience on July 12, 2025, after 7pm was disappointing.

Due to a last-minute failure from another restaurant (I made those reservations 4 months ago and they closed for the day with no notification or cancelling of my reservation), I needed to quickly find a place that could possibly seat 15 people for a birthday dinner. I knew that was a big ask on a Saturday night, so I came prepared to be flexible and respectful. When my sister-in-law arrived before me, she was told that unless an expected party did a no-show, seating wouldn’t be available and also our entire party had to be present first before seating us. Fair enough. I was told the tone used by the hostess was short and uninviting. When I arrived to clarify the hostess directions for myself, I was met with the same attitude: “Well, like I told her…”

I’ve worked in food service, retail, and now business operations and PR, I “overstand” what it’s like to deal with customers in fast paced environments. But tone and hospitality still matter, especially at an establishment with luxury ambitions. Sis-in-law works in public relations for the largest venues in Vegas, and I trust her description of her experience.

What concerned me most were the operational optics:

*Staff were seen standing around waiting. *Multiple tables where empty in the main area. *A separate section, what looked like an event space, was entirely unused. *The person we were celebrating overheard- someone we assumed was a floor manager- trying to problem-solve with the hostess.

I’ve learned that requiring the entire party to be present before seating is common in Atlanta and the surrounding areas (I’m from NYC, so that was new to me). But even if our full party had arrived, there was still no guarantee we’d be seated. That ambiguity, paired with the tone and layout observations, made us decide to leave. We found another nearby restaurant that accommodated us warmly and the difference in energy was very noticeable.

I still thanked the hostess on our way out. I wasn’t upset, just disappointed. I was ready to pay, tip heavily (above the auto-gratuity), and celebrate. Instead, the experience felt cold and disorganized. That’s not entirely a staff failure; it’s an operations and revenue miss.

This place has so much potential: great food, beautiful space, and upscale promise. But guest experience is about more than just the menu. I might return again with a smaller group, but I hope this feedback helps tighten alignment between front-of-house service and the upscale atmosphere this restaurant is clearly trying to deliver.

Attached are photos from our first visit last month and there is a photo of the space that looked unused to me. That space is so well decorated, I had hoped it...

After relocating to the Lawrenceville area after dining mostly in the Duluth, John's Creek area we were really yearning for more upscale food without having to drive 20 minutes. FINALLY, after lots of fails we discovered Parkside District! We tend to eat earlier than most so never really have a hard time getting a table. Our bubbly, sweet waitress, Collette (big thumbs up!) seated us right away and got straight down to business giving us a quick summary of the restaurant, its recipes and farm to table concept. Everything made in house, to order as it should be! It had great ambiance, an open kitchen (I love to observe), and an industrial look. Full service bar and some decent wine offerings which I hope they will expand. We started with 2 appetizers that looked promising, the Fried Green Tomato Caprese and classic grilled oysters. The caprese was out of this world. A little difficult to get all the different tastes in one perfect bite but I did and it was worth opening my mouth wide for! I cannot properly describe how delicious all of the ingredients come together, especially the housemade pimento cheese (pint to go please)! I begrudgingly shared and moved on to the oysters which were plump and juicy! Our entrees arrived magically (via Collette) as we took our last bite of the appetizers and stole a fingertip of rich balsamic before the board disappeared! I had the Crab and Orzo. It was crab two ways! Lightly fried softshell and lump crab cake! Softshell crab is not easy to find outside of some Japanese places but this was perfect. Just the right amount of crisp and beautifully plated. The large crab cake was chock full of tasty flavorful lump crabmeat, golden brown and no filler! Okay, maybe there was filler but I didn't see any!! Now all of that being said, I have to say, the understated star of the dish was the divine orzo! It was simply forkfuls of creamy, flavorful, goodness with blistered cherry tomatoes and charred corned carrying a smoky flavor through the pasta and spinach! I honestly would have been happy with just a bowl full of that! My fiancee ordered the Scallop and Prawn Risotto. Jumbo, and I mean jumbo, head on prawns and perfectly cooked pan seared scallops on risotto with red curry and chopped broccolini. If you're not a curry person like me, red curry is spicy! The menu doesn't specify. However even with the bite of tingling hot spice it was very tasty! Now, being that we came in really just for apps, we had joyfully eaten everything presented to us! And then we ordered dessert (we usually don't). We ordered the Tiramisu. It was presented more as a parfait in a glass and we dug in! This dessert was our only complaint of the evening and it was that there were not enough lady fingers. It was mostly mousse. Great mousse, but I wanted to taste those soaked lady fingers! All in all, a wonderful experience and we will definitely return to Parkside District many times as long as the menu and staff stay on par! Just as a note, their menu rotates seasonally, we posted a photo of the newest menu as of...

We had a dinner reservation at 6:15pm. We arrived early at 6, and we were seated immediately. We sat for 25 minutes, and not one single wait staff acknowledged us. Other tables in our vicinity were experiencing the same thing. Someone in our party went to the hostess stand to inquire about our server. They sent a manager to our table who asked had we been waited on. We said no, and he said he'd send someone over. We watched as he had a conversation with a server who obviously was not aware we were her table. Meanwhile, a server does bring us wine goblets of water. Our waitress comes over after we had been waiting 35 minutes thus far. She was annoyed and had a slight attitude at inheriting our table. But she takes our order. One person asked for a glass of wine with their meal. One person asks that their salad be brought out first. One person had a food allergy and asked that their not be any dairy with their lamb plate. We order drinks from the bar. An additional 45 to 50 minutes go by. We watched multiple people be seated and served food and leave while we waited on our food. The salad is brought out. It took an hour to plate a salad. Followed by the main course in non-sequenced intervals. Each plate was brought out separately. We didn't get our food at the same time. They forgot the wine with the meal. They served dairy to the person who requested dairy free for lactose intolerance issues. I called the manager over and expressed my frustration, to which he agreed and said my frustration was validated. He blamed the kitchen. We've now been at the restaurant close to two hours. The manager offered to correct the dairy plate issue but was told by the chef that due to delays, it would be an additional 25 minutes before they could start recooking the food. Three of us served food enjoyed the food immensely. But the meal was made awkward by one in our party not having a plate of food. Management and the kitchen were very clearly having communication issues at the detriment of our table. We tried to power through and even ordered 4 desserts. To which the waitress came back from the kitchen and apologized profusely and said they were out of peach cobbler. She could sense our frustration, and her tone had significantly changed for the better as the night went on, knowing what a cluster this was turning out to be. The manager expressed interest in wanting to solve the issue by asking if we would come back to give them another try. The manager did comp the meal for the non-dairy delima. And he asked that I leave my email address with him, leaving me to believe he would offer a gift card or additional discount to come back again. He'd promised to email me at the end of his shift, which he did not. For a $350 + meal, I would have thought the quality of customer service would have been elevated. This was less than Chili's customer service. This did not meet our expectation. This was a birthday celebration, and the tone of the evening was dampered by this...