Leo's Cafe — Restaurant in McDonough

Maybe the lunch wasn't the ideal choice here -- the breakfast options occupy a large part of the menu and look truly interesting and tasty. I can't review that, thus I'm only able to review what I did have, and maybe I had the one poor choice on the menu. I had the grilled chicken deluxe with fries, which is your standard grilled chicken breast on a bun with lettuce and tomato. It really wasn't bad, it was just... meh. Bland, unseasoned, no interesting sauces, no sauces whatsoever. Did I mention unseasoned? The meat was just flavorless.

Service is where I have to really dock the score, because at the time I walked in the place wasn't especially busy and looked like it had an adequate staff for the customer volume. No one came to seat me, no sign indicated whether to wait or just go ahead and seat yourself, and in cafes like this, I've seen it both ways and it's usually obvious which way it works. I seated myself, and then waited a while before someone showed up with a menu. I ordered a Diet Coke, and this is sadly another of those places where you get a can and a glass. I hate that. It tells me right up front there aren't going to be any refills, nor is it very economical to serve that way in restaurant volume, nor is dropping off an aluminum can in a full service restaurant a very classy presentation. Just get a soda fountain, for crying out loud.

I had 2 or 3 people drop by for various parts of the service, leaving me with confusion as to who my server was or if I even had a dedicated server. None of them seemed especially enthusiastic or engaged or were at all engaging. Not outwardly UNFRIENDLY, just not convincing me that they are glad I'm there buying food. Giving me a menu, taking my drink order, taking my food order and then someone collecting the empty plate were the extent of server visits. As expected, no effort to offer any refill because when you're given a can, that's the way it is. No effort to see if the food was OK -- someone dropped it off and scrammed. No question by the person collecting the plate whether I'm ready for the bill or want anything else. In fact, that's the last time anyone stopped at my table. I sat for 15 minutes further while awaiting my bill, made eye contact with several different people several different times, giving that "hey, I need something" look, and maybe, MAYBE my mistake was that I should have actually verbally said "hey, I need attention here", but should a customer need to do that? Usually the onus for this is on the server, to see the customer sitting there with nothing on the table, knowing they have been served already, and to DO SOMETHING... bring the check, ask if anything else is needed, whatever. Just don't keep walking by ignoring them. This is pretty inexcusable.

I saw a few other people having bills brought to the table so I presumed this is how it's done. I ended up walking up to the cash register, standing behind 3 other people, at least one or two of which were ordering to go and maybe one was paying directly due to failure to have his bill brought to him (I'm speculating here). I asked if they don't usually bring a bill to the table. She said "we were busy so we weren't able to". I guess I'm not sure what to even say to that. Yes, they had gotten a bit busy but you find a way to not leave someone sitting there idle for 15 minutes. She also had to get me to go through a menu and show her everything I had because either no one had written anything down or it had been misplaced or she just didn't want to go look for it or whatever. No apology for the s**y service, and even being rung up was a depressing process with a disinterested attendant.

I'll leave the 2nd star because at least the place was clean and the food wasn't awful.

Doubtful that I'll bother going back any time soon, and I will hope the problems are due to the restaurant being new and after enough time they will figure out how to do...

Edit: so I DoorDash when I’m not selling furniture at Ashley, and I’m ALWAYS getting orders for Leo’s, so I decided to take myself there for a lunch date. I’m so happy I decided to try them again because my Monte Cristo was besar al chef 💋! Absolutely Delicious. Today was a solid 5 so I’m bumping them up to 3.5. I’d give them 4, but to me $4.50 for a side of fries is a bit much and the ranch was in a packet 😒.

This was my 3rd time eating here. The first time was decent, so I decided to come back with Brock. We were disappointed; my food was Luke warm, and his scrambled eggs were too soft. We decided to give it another try while waiting on our cars to get an oil change. The mechanic mentioned this spot, and it was walking distance. We requested his eggs scrambled hard. They had to be sent back. I tried something new, and my omelette was scorched. I requested some of their homemade salsa which was super good the first time I came, and I got something out of a bottle. I asked one waitress about it, and she said it was homemade. I asked another and she said no it was all they had. That’s fine, but don’t lie. I wish I would have taken a picture before I sent it back. Not even Old El Paso; generic Ortega at best 🤣🤣 And Brock’s French toast. I asked the waitress if they cooked it like that on purpose or was it just burnt. She said she didn’t know. You all can judge for yourself. Looks burnt to me. He’s not a complainer; he just doesn’t return, and since I had already sent his eggs back for him, I just said forget it. 2 stars because the first time I ate here it was ok. I really should only...

I really enjoyed this place previously for breakfast but recently for a brunch it just fell a bit short for me. I ordered a Reuben and was let down by a few things that if (In my opinion) had been done correctly would have made for a absolutely wonderful sandwich. For starters the sandwich was presented open faced which I found kind of weird. One half of the sandwich was served on the end piece of the bread which while I may eat a sandwich made at home on the end piece when ordering a Reuben at a restaurant that's just bad form in my opinion, especially when the bread it was served on had a rather thick crust to it, which kind of ruined the texture of the sandwich. The thousand island dressing was brought to me on the side after I had already took my first couple bites. To top things off the "side" of potato salad was a very small ramekin (the same size ramekin they brought my dressing in) of what was maybe 2 ounces of potato salad. I'd honestly rather just get the sandwich at that point as it felt stange being served such a small portion of a side.

A Reuben is a pretty common sandwich and doesn't leave a whole lot of room for variation at least when not explicitly stating their differences such as the fact that they served it open faced and used the crust piece (with the crust part facing inwards). This is truly sad because everything inside tasted good and the sandwich would have been wonderful if it was served how I had anticipated it to be. If I had known that it was gonna be served the way it was I probably would have passed or gone elsewhere to satisfy my...