Pickle Barrel Cafe & Sports Pub — Restaurant in Sandersville

Posting about my most recent experience at The Pickle Barrel in Sandersville, Ga. About 1-2 weeks ago I called in a chef salad. I picked it up. When I sat down to eat it on my lunch break, I noticed I was missing the bacon and croutons. I had taken two bites out the salad already. I called The Pickle Barrel to report my missing items. I was informed by the waitress who answered the phone that they were short staffed and trying to train new people. She also informed me that they had lots of complaints on that particular day about salads. She gets the manager to the phone. The manager initially states that I can’t get another salad because I already ate out the one I have. After a brief exchange of words, she agreed to give me a new salad but only if I bring the one I had back. I agreed. Fast forward to today. I called in an order for a chef salad for myself and a chicken lime salad for a coworker. I went and picked them up. I looked in the bag for the extra dressing and captain wafers I requested. I asked for more dressing and left. So I get to work and sit down to eat. I then see that there is no bacon or croutons on my salad. I call and they agree to give me bacon and croutons for the one I have and a free salad. I go pick up the salad. When I get there the manager comes out to talk to me. She states, “I looked back on the camera and say you look in the back so you should have noticed what was missing!!” I replied that I did look in the bag but that I was only checking for extra dressing and crackers. I would like to formally apologize to the staff and management at the Pickle Barrel in Sandersville, Ga. From this point on, I will only expect mediocre and subpar service from your establishment. I will check every item throughly before leaving and make sure all 10–15 items are present on any salad I may order before leaving. Again, thank you.

Update After Reply Below from Pickle Barrel——Again, yes I did look in the bag but I didn’t check for every item on the salad. I often pick up food for my entire department at work which sometimes comes to over $100. I forgot to also inform the public that your restaurant charges a 10-15% up charge on all take out orders over $100 and as far as I know ya’ll are the only establishment in the county that does that. Charging the most but wanting to do the least. So again, excuse me for expecting good service for my money in your subpar establishment. You can’t just take people’s money and then treat them any type of way. You were rude and out of order for even mentioning any cameras. But again, thank you for looking at the cameras to see me looking in the bag. However, it may be a better idea to put those cameras in the kitchen to help ensure the meals are being...

So, I will preface this review with a bit of context. I have been coming here probably once every two to three months since they opened. So I’m not a regular.. Initially I was very impressed, probably for the first half dozen visits or so? But it has been a slow decline until today. Me and my employees went there for lunch. We needed to get back to work after we left; I ordered 10 hot wings and a tea to drink. My order came out significantly after the rest of my employees’ lunches came, and that waitress told me that two of my wings got dropped, and they were making them over again and would bring them out to me. I did not get the first refill on my tea for the entirety of the meal. I would say my glass was completely empty for over 50% of the time that I sat there at the table. I finally got a second waitress’s attention, after I had been finished with my eight wings for a few moments already, and as I began to ask her if I could get a refill, she cut me off, (probably accidentally)asking if we would be on one check or separate. I then asked her if I could get a refill on my tea, and she said,‘Yes. Will you guys be on one check or separate?’, as though I did not hear her the first time she asked. I told her it would be on one check, and waited for a few more minutes for a refill. During this time, the first waitress came by and said the two extra wings would be up in a couple more minutes. Ended up going up to the counter and getting a refill from a third waitress. I went back to the table and waited a few more moments after the rest of my wings. At this point, my employees had left, and no replacement wings arrived, so I went up to the counter to pay. I stated to the waitress #2 that I never got the final two wings, and she apologized, stating that she had not known about this. However, not even a cursory offer was made to fix the situation. She did ask if I wanted her to go ask about the wings. I said ‘No, if they weren’t ready, I had to leave.’ She acknowledged this, but said no more about it, & I was still charged full price. I guess at this point, I’m just pretty disappointed. This was @ 2:00 Saturday afternoon, and it was not busy at all. Would welcome a contact...

We went to the pickle barrel 1/26/25 we were a party of 15. We called two days ahead to ask for reservations. They do not accept them. We did let them know ahead a time that we would be eating there after a funeral . Once there, there was only one other table already eating. Our order was placed drinks came out at ok time frame. However the restaurant began to fill up. Our food came out in spurts. Some people from our party had food while others waited 30 mins for theirs. Three people didn’t get food at all after waiting 2 hours. The other people that came in after us were all being served. This was completely infuriating. When we asked where our food was they stated they were sorry but did not offer an explanation. We complained twice about the missing food. The waitress then became defensive and walked away. This was the very first time I did not tip a waitress. Very poor service but from what I was told by others in our group that did get to eat their food it was great.

Hi Kelly, I read your response and feel that you are only making excuses for poor service. Having worked in the food industry for 12 years I can tell you it is not hard to complete a meal ticket before moving onto the next one. The ticket was never completed and the food was served at a very slow pace with long gaps in between. The waitress and staff could have cared less which tells me there is poor management since they were quite comfortable...