Miss Toya’s Creole House — Restaurant in Maryland

NO!! NOTHING ABOUT THIS PLACE IS CREOLE!!! My Gawd...I so was soooo pumped about coming here and patronizing yet another new black owned establishment but the food AND the service here FAILED MISERABLY!!

I am not from the Silver Spring area so finding it was slightly challenging as it is tucked away in the cut, and when the address is plugged in GPS it takes you someplace else.

We went on a Friday afternoon and it was not crowded, we were sat in the back right area and my BFF kept complaining about a foul odor, I initially didn't smell it but after visiting the rest room it became very pronounced. Bathroom decor was nice and it was neat BUT never have I seen a public restroom with so many Plug-Ins and deodorizers hanging from the stalls, that signaled to me that there definitely is a problem that management is surely aware of.

Service was slow, the waitress said that she was the only one working at that time (around 1ish). So I'm not fond of restaurants who don't provide bread or something for the table while you wait, especially if the wait is long, but they don't offer anything while you wait when clearly it can come out of that 20% AUTOMATIC GRATUITY but I digress…

Everything on the menu is pricey. The cheapest item is cornbread which is priced at $7, we were hungry so we figured we get that and it wouldn't take long. Cornbread ended up being 1 corn MUFFIN and it was cold & hard, be wary of the presentation because it was NOT giving, it was definitely government syrup they drizzled on it, the muffin ended up being grainy and HORRIBLE. We ordered the Honey Bourbon wings as an appetizer…thee most FLAVORLESS wings we've ever had coupled with way too much pink meat on the inside.

We both ordered the Salmon dish that came with 2 sides for $30. My sides were mac & cheese and sautéed spinach. When my plate came out, it had asparagus on it but even with them getting that wrong, that poor asparagus was so lifeless and colorless, never seen anything like it. She did eventually bring me sautéed spinach and yes that too was cold. My BFF's sides were the sautéed spinach and the loaded lobster mashed potatoes. The lobster looked like it was pre-packaged and dumped on top of some old mashed potatoes that had been sitting out. It was giving warming tray vibes. As the sauce person I am, I was there for the alleged creole sauce that was drizzled on top of the overcooked salmon and it had the nerve to have ZERO flavor! Like how??? We were shocked & appalled!!! Like where was the Big Bang creole flavored food we came for?? Ayyyyyeeee....the mac & cheese was thee ONLY thing close to hitting on maybe Ruby Tuesday level food.

Let's get into these beautiful eye-catching drinks...we ordered the Becky's Sangria with the ice pops and the red blend they chose for this drink was horrid, it instantly gave me BOX WINE vibes...uggggh when I tell you we struggled through this ENTIRE meal/experience , sheesh.

The waitress added $12 additional dollars to the bill for the lobster mashed potatoes without telling us beforehand that there was an up charge. We asked for the manager but she told us that the manager was busy and she slid the $12 in with the receipt folio to cover it. We think she didn't want her manager to know she messed up.

This experience was nothing that we intended it to be, may have been one of our worst dining experiences in a while. We too, like the many others are hoping that they truly look into these reviews, reflect and re-strategize because if not I don't see them being open too long. Try them at your own...

We visited Miss Toya’s for the first time on a Sunday evening.

The food was delicious and I would give 4 stars on food quality. We ordered the surf and turf, deviled eggs and creole Wings, seafood Mac and cheese which all tasted great and were all 5 stars. We also ordered the Miss Toyas chicken sandwich and Lamb. The filet is quite thick and should be sliced thinner. I had to send it back to replace the sandwich. The center of the filet was hard and undercooked. The Lamb was also quite fatty however, had excellent flavor and was served in a good portion size.

The service however is where we were let down completely. The service was 1-2 stars; and that’s with me being as thoughful as possible. We placed all food orders within 10 mins of being seated, however we waited over 1 hour for any food items to hit the table. During the 1 hour the server failed to notice social cues for my attention, failed to refill drinks, took extremely long to revisit my table, and neglected to advocate for us as customer as we waited an extended amount of time for food to arrive. We sat and watched other guests be seated 10-20 mins after we did, and were brought food within 10 mins. This was a failure on Miss Toyas management. At one point we considered getting up and leaving the restaurant. I felt so disrespected.

Around 15 minutes of waiting we noticed house manager Roger walking around, asking guests how their night was going? However his approach was quite unsettling and unprofessional as he greeted multiple tables at once asking “how are you guys doing tonight, everything going well? And shouting over to my table: How about you two? Doing okay as well?”. The more professional way to do that is to walk over to each table individually and have conversations with customers quietly with class, dignity and respect. The people seated at the other table were strangers. I didn’t appreciate being greeted in a group. Roger did however took the appropriate steps to make things right, however his efforts were hard to accept because after sharing my experience waiting for our food, he then placed the blame back on us the customers by stating he thinks I should have said something sooner. Like when he was shouting asking if we were “okay”. Never blame the customer. So apparently according to Roger I was wrong and should have spoken up sooner. While leaving the restaurant we noticed Roger smoking a cigarette seated directly in the front the establishment entry door, while speaking on the phone. The sighting after leaving dinner was completely unprofessional and classless. Roger has potential, however he needs an enormous amount of coaching. I would give this particular experience interacting with Roger a 3 star.

The overall rating out of 5 stars is a 3 star. The company has a good product, however if they fail to address these service issues, I believe many people including myself will...

Underwhelmed is an understatement. Won’t be returning. It started out bad and ended worse. Our waitress was friendly and offered her recommendations which was great. We made reservations, but were then contacted and asked to come 30 minutes later so we did. We then were told to sit and wait…while the restaurant had many empty tables. We were sat 15 minutes later..at a table that had been empty since we walked in. We let them know that we had requested a booth and specifically wanted a larger table. We were told once we sat and ordered we would be moved. There was a clean table next to us so I reminded the front staff and asked to be moved there. She said due to “all that was going on in the restaurant, they would be unable to move us there”. There was a minimum of 8 empty tables near us, 3 of which would have been perfect for us(one was a party of 10 which we didn’t need and the others too small). We asked to speak with a manager regarding not being moved to a different table and a server who was also the manager? Told us we couldn’t be moved because the table we wanted was for reservations(which we were) and that that table was for 6 people. BUT 45 minutes after that table being empty-they sat a family of 4 there(all 3 of the tables mentioned earlier were still empty btw). We were offered to add a small table to ours to give us more room for all the food and sides we ordered. We weren’t given the happy hour menu, which we asked for and was told that it started in 30 minutes. So we let her know we would like to order multiple things off of it. After waiting 30 minutes to order food and drinks off the happy hour menu, she comes back 15 minutes later and says they don’t have the food items on the weekend(you’d think she would know that when we discussed numerous times about waiting to order those food items). Our food finally comes and many items were lacking in flavor. The spinach was not seasoned, the Mac/cheese was flavorless, the bayou pasta flavor was minimal, and the gumbo wasn’t great either. The calamari was good, and the cornbread was ok. It tasted more like cake. We had to ask for the check multiple times, and then I got tired of waiting so I took my check and cards to pay to the bar. We were splitting the check 3 even ways(per their ridiculous policy) and they charged the first card correctly, but put the entire remainder on the second card, and to fix it they charged the same card the correct amount so there was 3 times the amount that should have been on that card. They were unable to give a canceled receipt for the wrong amount and we have to wait 2-4 days to see if it “falls off” our account. They add a 20% gratuity, when I usually tip 34-50%. But due to all the issues, I left it at their 20% gratuity. We weren’t here for a birthday and we just didn’t have the experience we expected, the service we expected nor the flavorful food...