Aunts et Uncles — Restaurant in New York

Edit per the owners reply:

I appreciate your reply, but it is so far removed from reality it’s insulting. You’ve set no record straight. If the music you choose to play reflects the character of the neighborhood, then I suppose I was wrong, maybe the interior is just as trashy as the exterior. You were playing music so loud my sandwich was shaking, are you seriously defending that in the name of “culture”? You can’t just say “we play loud music, that’s our charm”. Your reply seems to be coming solely from a place of ego, but there is no responsibility for the comfort of your guests.

In what way is this a welcoming environment? I saw two girls eating who plugged their ears at one point. One couple came in talking about wanting to sit outside because it was quieter but the guys throwing bottles on the street were sketchy.

It’s great you’re giving people in the community without prior experience jobs, but how long are you going to say that? I saw reviews from 3 years back saying the same thing. No successful restaurant uses their front-of-house as a training facility for their community, because that would be insane. When I lived in south side Chicago there was a famous vegan BBQ place that employed ex-cons, they were all trained, and they did their jobs very well. And the music was at a normal volume.

Please spare me the “we’re working everyday to improve our community” rhetoric. Really, are you? Let Brooklyn know when you’re done, because we’ve all been waiting for about 75 years. That’s a pretty goofy thing to say. Employing a few people is great, but maybe start with not letting guys throw glass on the ground in front of your restaurant? Offer them jobs since they have so much time on their hands. Or maybe we have wildly different expectations from communities and restaurants.

Your food is incredibly good, but I won’t be back.

Original Review:

Extremely good food. By far the best oyster mushroom “chicken” sandwich I’ve ever had anywhere in the country. However, I would never come back here to eat inside again. The only guy working was decent enough, didn’t really seem like he had any real serving experience but he was holding it down and was nice. But he didn’t tell people what to do when they came in and every single person walked around confused and asked if they should just sit. Not cool to have someone with no customer service skills in a people facing position.

But WOW, the music in this place… it was so loud the table was shaking. My fork was dancing to music I had no interest in listening to. Restaurants are not clubs, this place isn’t a bar. Not every single thing needs a loud hip hop soundtrack everywhere, all the time, without any peace or sanity.

Despite it actually being a really nicely designed space on the inside, I truly think the nature of the guy serving and running the place plus the music is bringing people in who are trashy as hell. There was a family with a kid that came in yell-talking at each other the entire time, their kid is screaming and running around the place and the father is having a loud af call on speaker phone in the middle of the restaurant… and then he started dancing to some song with his kid about smackin b’s up and shooting people etc.

I’d easily change this review to 5 stars if you guys promised to make this place less trashy, have neutral music at a reasonable volume, and have someone working who isn’t cosplaying DJ vibes while at work. Again though, he was a nice dude, I just think he needs trained better.

I’d come back for takeout, but unless it’s a more comfortable environment where I can actually think about my food and not the bass from reggaeton in my ear, I’d eat inside again and recommend this place.

Also, the street is trash. Just utter, disgusting trash. In the hour I was there, a guy on a scooter flew down the sidewalk and hit a lady and didn’t stop, almost hit a kid and then ran into a car, and guys were right outside drinking and throwing their glasses bottles on the sidewalk and dirt. Really nice restaurant in a really gross area, super...

In my opinion, the in-person dining experience is much better compared to the delivery experience, and this is the fault of the leadership. The food is tasty, and staff have always been polite when I went there in person, but there is almost always something that goes awry when I order anything via delivery. I will no longer order through the website or through Uber Eats. Not only have I dealt with spilled drinks, missing items, and instructions not followed, but — the other day — I ordered pigeon peas, Beyond Ground Meat, and wild rice only to be told, again, it was unavailable despite no indication of it being marked as "Sold Out," or "Unavailable," on the Uber Eats app. I tried to order the same thing not long before that, and I was inconvenienced and told it was unavailable for delivery or take-out. While that was inconvenient, it was not the factor that led to my decision to eschew further orders. Being told from one of their staff members that I had to cancel from my end because "they could not cancel from their end," which is a bunch of balderdash because I know stores have this capability, was the final straw. I had to elaborate to the staff member that Aunts et Uncles has had the ability to do it from their end, as other local and chain restaurants have had this ability, also. I elaborated that Uber Eats and other apps sometimes charge us when we cancel from our end, and I do not want to deal with that nonsense. The staff member did eventually check, and said, "Let me see," but this should have never happened because it should have been already known — THROUGH THE PROPER TRAINING — how to address this. They did eventually cancel it from their end, but staff members should already know how to navigate through the delivery software programs. Even with the lack of knowledge, the staff member should have automatically tried to assess if they had this ability rather than making assumptions that they did not. This is probably not the staff member's fault, but this is the fault of the people in the higher echelons of the business. It is gross incompetence; it is not just a minor oversight issue. What if I did not know any better and faced the charges from Uber Eats, due to poorly-trained staff who do not resolve these issues. This business is relatively new but not brand new, so my expectations are higher. Staff should have the ability to solve problems and have the sophistication to handle these situations when they arise and not make claims to clients that there is nothing they can do from their end to, for instance, cancel a delivery.

Aunts et Uncles did send me a gift card when I made my 100th order sometime a while ago, and they were open to my feedback when I addressed issues with delivery in the past, but I expected this business to improve its delivery service, and it failed miserably. This is an example of how improper training and mentorship can affect clients' experiences and the quality of services. This can lead to losing loyal customers and revenue for the business.

I plan to only visit in person whenever I can in the future, as a result of repeated inconveniences and evidence of poorly-trained staff members who lack the sophistication to solve problems on the spot when it involves delivery services. While I understand that some staff might be new, it is not a valid excuse. Staff should not automatically claim that they do not have the ability to fix something. They should try or ask a more experienced colleague who likely knows how to solve the problem at hand. Never short change your customers who might not know any better and cancel from their end and face charges they should never have to pay in a case a merchant is out of stock or no longer offering certain items.

That all being said, I rarely recommend firing anybody, hence I am not requesting that anybody be fired when they likely can be trained and mentored with love, patience, and understanding. We need people to be able to keep their honest sources of income, so firing is rarely the answer in cases staff simply need...

The food was absolutely delicious but the service was severely lacking. The establishment is small and quaint with a few tables outside and a couple of seats inside. The bathroom was clean for the most part, but the garbage can was overflowing onto the floor which was a disappointment. We waited about 15 to 20 minutes for our food and had a confirmed reservation for the evening, it was my husbands birthday. Things seemed fine until we got our food. We ordered 4 entrees and 1 side, but were only served 3 entrees and 1 side, although the young man who brought us the food told us the last dish would be out in a few minutes. Then we had to wait about 5 minutes for utensils and the gentleman only brought us spoons and told us the forks were dirty but were being washed and would be brought to the table. By the way, his mask was under his nose and not covering his nose and mouth as expected. After eating for 20 minutes, again, the food was absolutely delicious, we had to ask the host to bring us forks. She was too busy and ended up bringing them about 10 minutes later when the food was finished. We asked that she remove the missing item from our order and bring us the bill, but the bill never arrived. So we waited another 5 minutes and decided to go to the register and pay directly so we could leave. She asked if the food was ok, we told her the food was delicious and we were disappointed that we never received the last item we ordered even though we were told it would come. She never apologized for the poor service but did ask if we wanted to wait for the item to be cooked. We declined considered we were sitting there for over 45 minutes and they could have easily brought out the dish, we would have sat there and ate it. I still made sure to tip her, although my husband did not think it was deserved considering the poor service and it was his birthday. We will not be returning to dine inside and IF we considered ordering food to go, we would thoroughly check the order because we assume that there would be something missing on our order. It’s a shame because this is a black owned business and the food was so good, but it was so embarrassing to bring my husband here only to receive sub par service. I would think twice before coming to dine here. Hopefully service will improve in the future.

The owners response is disturbing. I don’t understand how anyone, especially someone of color, can feel ok dictating how a customer should navigate their experiences. I’m no Karen, I don’t ask for managers and to be honest I assumed that if I did ask for a manager I would have waited as long as it took to receive a fork, which was almost 15-20 minutes, or would have been told that the manager was not available. I’m not looking for free meals or comps, I came out with the intention of purchasing additional food to-go for my son who was unable to make it to dinner with us. I don’t appreciate being blamed for how I document my experience, it is my right. But the excuses and directions about how I should decide to share my experience say as much as the service did. I mentioned that I’d be willing to visit again when service improves, but don’t blame customers for the learning curve, that is not fair and does not help change the experience. While there are lots of positive reviews, the not-so-positive reviews almost all mention the service needing to be improved, so address that directly with the staff. Keep a manager on the floor to check on the customers or add another waiter so that people are not forgotten about. I did not exaggerate or wish bad on this business, I only stated the truth about my disappointing experience, which...