Baobab Lounge — Restaurant in Savannah

I hate to post another review but unfortunately this bar continues to give me reason to be disappointed. On their reviews you will see great caring responses from the brand to customers with concerns, however the truth doesn’t match the appearance.

I do want to quickly say that the bar itself is extremely cool looking and my wife and I wanted it to be our new go-to place for drinks. That will not be the case. The drinks were absolutely horrible / undrinkable and the management and bartender didn’t care at all.

After my initial review the company reached out and asked for a chance to touch base, then actually called me to discuss it. (How great is that)

During the call they expressed how sorry they were for our experience and told me that they wanted to make it right. (Sounding good up until now right?)

Now I am going to pause for a second and fill in some details, on our visit we spent $50 on two drinks (after tip) which is not a small amount for 2 drinks that we didn’t finish.

The manager that called me and I discussed the situation on the phone with told me that he was sorry and confident that we’d love the bar if we came back.

He was so confident, he wanted to extend a 20% discount on our next visit. (Simple math if we trust him, we go to the bar and spend $250 and we will get the equivalent discount of our initial $50 in wasted drinks back, what a deal)

I calmly explained that while I appreciate his confidence and assurance, after spending $50 on drinks and no one caring that they were undrinkable, we wouldn’t be willing to spend money to give them another chance.

As a comparison, try going to Taco Bell or a McDonald’s (not even a luxury hotel / restaurant) and tell them that your drink (which you didn’t drink) isn’t right, I’d bet they would either refund or replace it.

So my summary here would be, the atmosphere is amazing, the drinks are absolutely horrible and the management has so little confidence in their drinks / quality, they aren’t even willing to replace or refund 2 drinks.

I am disappointed in this bar, this hotel and the Marriott brand. If you visit don’t expect any service or caring when the product doesn’t meet expectation.

Side note: the bartender told us that they aren’t busy and he isn’t sure why, I’m guessing this is probably the reason.

Quick addition: I wanted to share what my expectations are for a bar / restaurant. A normal bar / restaurant I expect the food / drinks to be edible / drinkable and average to above average. A bar / restaurant at this price point I expect the food and drinks to be above average, although I don’t mind the cost being higher due to the amazing atmosphere. If the food and drinks fall below these levels I do expect to receive either a replacement or refund at either of these levels. An appropriate response from the team at a restaurant / bar of this price point would be a refund or full replacement of our drinks and for a company that really cares, to go above and beyond past that to turn a negative experience into a positive.

(In this case they’ve turned a negative into an even bigger negative. If you don’t have the confidence in your brand to invite me back for 2 replacement drinks on the house, why are you charging these prices? After, I take the time to share my experiences via email and phone, I expect that and more, their customers time isn’t free. Now after wasting both our money and my time, it’s...

My husband and I were very excited to try this bar, but left disappointed with the drinks and the management of the JW Marriott Riverside hotel. The cost of drinks at this bar were pretty high for just one drink, however, we don’t mind spending that money if the drink is good. We got our drinks and went ahead and cashed out because we knew we were only going to have one. We took a couple drinks and we both knew that we were not going to be able to drink them. They were the worst drinks we had ever had. They did not taste at all like the description given on the menu. And let me just say that my husband and I have never not been able to finish a drink. We are not that picky. But we could not drink these. My husband spoke with the bartender and all he had to say was sorry and to have a good day. My husband then went to speak to management of the hotel to let them know about the drinks and the bartender’s lack of caring. All the management had to say was they are sorry and you could try one of the other restaurants. They did not offer us our two free drinks at one of their other restaurants or not even just our $50 back. When you buy food or beverage from a restaurant or bar (especially when it’s from a very highly known hotel such as this) you expect the food and beverage to be good or else your money back or credit for that amount at one of their other restaurants. So after we left unhappy with our experience, my husband left a review in order to warn others. A few weeks later the assistant director of food and beverage reached out to us to try and make amends. All he offered us was a 20% discount off the Baobab bar tab if we were to try again. Why would we want to go their and try a drink from that bar again? And 20% ? They couldn’t even offer us 2 free drinks at their other restaurant, which we would be more inclined to believe would have better drinks. Wow. How extremely disappointed I am with this hotels customer service. We live in Beaufort SC and have lots of friends and family that come down this way to visit and are always looking for recommendations for places to stay and eat. We will for sure be deterring people from the Boabab Bar and the JW Marriott Riverside hotel due to their lack of...

My wife & I spent the weekend of July 18th and 19th at the JW Marriott Plant Riverside in Savannah. We arrived a bit late on Friday and headed straight to the Bao Bab Lounge for drinks before calling it a night. We were seated at the corner of the bar.

The first round of drinks were excellent. Sean, our bartender, was pleasant, prompt, and knowledgeable. However, once we finished our drinks and began chatting with another hotel guest, Sean seemed to put us on “full ignore.” despite being just a few feet away, he failed to acknowledge our attempts to signal for service (waived my hand, asked for service, etc). It got to the point where I had to wave my arms, in the manner of being shipwrecked, to get his attention. Eventually, we did receive our second round of drinks, which were just as enjoyable as the first. After we finished these drinks, we continued to wait for Sean to assist us, but he never did. During this time, a bar back accidentally spilled a full bar mat of water, ice & drink materials all over me, my shorts & shoes. He was quick to apologize and offered a towel, while Sean simply watched without offering any assistance or apology. After cleaning up, I finally caught Sean's attention and requested the check.

Here's the surprising part: Sean acknowledged my request, then proceeded to clean the bar and serve his friends and cash them out, completely ignoring us. After about 15 minutes, I told him our room number and mentioned we were leaving due to his refusal to provide the check. He then comped one drink, apologized for the spill, but never addressed the overall poor service we experienced.

While Bao Bab is an enjoyable venue with great drinks, our experience that night was marred by some of the worst service I have encountered, especially for a JW...