Little Nickel — Restaurant in Richmond

I have never left a yelp review before and have never left a message on my receipt before but this is a first time for both. This is a place my wife and I have been meaning to try for a long time and were excited to after a long day. It started off great, food and drinks were delicious, our waiter was very attentive, and we were having a great time. We decided to end our splurge with a side of fries, and then were ignored for the next hour. We were in a side room of three tables where one waiter was clearly assigned to two tables and we were the one in the middle, but were then ignored for an hour. I understand the "I'm not your waiter, I can't help you" structure but this was taken to the point of being rude as she would look at our table and see we needed water and food and refuse to make eye contact over the course of almost an hour. We finally interjected and asked about our order and they brought it out in about a minute. They ever so graciously comp-ed the $5 side of fries we had been waiting for out of our $120 tab. My wife and I discussed and despite being ignored we agreed it likely was just a mistake, the waiter didn't intentionally ignore us, something likely happened we were unaware of, and we would still tip 25% or more as we have been trying to do to help out the service industry during this time, knowing from personal experience. Then we get hostily approached by the host telling us we've been occupying these seats for two hours and we should take our drinks outside, while it's raining and 50 degrees so they could flip the table. We would have left an hour ago if someone had ever just brought us our check and fries. They then blatantly keep peering over and leering at us as we finish our side and drinks. I have never left a place feeling so angered before and it's made worse because of how long we wanted to try and like this place. We go out of our way to generously support local businesses, particularly in this time, and this is the only time I have ever regretted it. There is a severe lack of communication between employees and from top down it needs to be revised that all customers are customers, don't institute a system that rewards your employees for actions that cause reviews...

The good, the bad, and the ugly..... We’ve wanted to try this restaurant for a while. My sister was visiting from the Bay Area/San Francisco so we decided to come here before seeing the Garden Glow at Maymont. We had been to Cielito Lindo when it was here years ago when we lived in the Southside. We love what they have done with the outside and the decor. My sister liked the wall paper in the bathroom so much she said she took a selfie. 😂. We were seated promptly. The whole menu looked delicious. and our server recommended the nachos. She said the portion size was huge which it was. We devoured the nachos which were SOOO good!! Highly recommend!!! We were so excited to order.. That’s when things went wrong. We waited and waited and waited. I don’t know if our server was new or if she was overwhelmed, but we sat for probably 20+ minutes. Long enough to eat the huge portion of nachos and wait longer. No one seemed to notice us. We contemplated paying for the nachos and leaving since we had a specific time for the Garden Glow. We flagged down, who I believe was the manager, and explained the situation. She got our server to take our order immediately and said she would put a rush on our order. They brought us a complimentary fried Calamari appetizer. It was very good. We got the crab pasta, the lamb steak and cheese with slaw, and the burger with fries. Everything was delicious! (Except the slaw. I wasn’t a fan) The prices are reasonable, the place has a great atmosphere (even the bathrooms), the music was good, they did very well with COVID procedures, and most important the food was great! Why 5 ⭐️ even though we had a service issue? Well my wife and I worked in the restaurant industry for a good chunk of our lives in every position including Chef, manager, and area manager. We know there can be off days, short staff, new employees, etc. The staff was pleasant. The manager recovered well. We are in a crazy COVID world, and we still made it on time to Garden Glow. We will definitely be back probably sooner than later. Good call on the calamari. I’m going to bring my son next time. He...

If you're dining alone, go somewhere else. I'm giving this 2 stars, bc we've had good experiences before, but if this had been my only time visiting I'd be looking for the "no stars" button.

I went after thinking about their delicious lamb burgers for about a week, but I was by myself & said I would be fine outside or inside (patio was filling up but there was plenty of seating in the main dining area).

They offered me a spot on the totally empty side porch with the door to the back parking lot that bangs really loudly every time it closes. I even joked about being banished to the corner as a single woman dining alone. The hostess assured me that wasn't the case, that my waitress was going to be "amazing", so I acquiesced. I don't mind being alone - most times I prefer it - but being stuck in a completely empty area, with the door constantly banging & a waitress who was far less than amazing ("Do you know what you want to drink?" Asked in a monotone quietly enough that I had to ask her to repeat herself), is not the Saturday night SO-out-of-town- treat-myself-to-dinner experience I was looking for. It shouldn't be what anyone should be subjected to just because they're by themself. My SO & I have been here several times, had great food & great service, but this was the last time I'll go.

I ended up making a half-hearted order of the lamb burger, the waitress mumbled something, left, came back, I asked to have the burger to go. The door was making me cringe every time someone came in & I felt weirdly on display for the people entering the restaurant - who all got seated anywhere else - & I self-consciously didn't want to eat with people walking by like that. The waitress disappeared and I eventually just canceled the order with the host & went to Chez Foushee. Where they know how to treat people, whether they are alone...