Blue Willow Inn Restaurant & Gift Shop — Restaurant in Social Circle

Visited the restaurant driving in from Atlanta for Mother's Day...we did not have a reservation and were told we should expect a wait of at least 2 1/2 hours...we were told this by the front entrance hostess (once she decided to acknowledge our presence as we stood right in front of her) ...still we recorded our names and sought shade outdoors (as there is no designated waiting area for the throngs of overflow waiting diners)...after waiting an hour and observing even those with reservations being turned back out the door to wait for their reserved table, my daughter was inclined to inquire about our standing on the wait list; not a good idea as the same hostess at the front stand angrily reminded her of an extended wait as "I told you when you first arrived"...(a nasty little helfer)...It was hot and miserable outside and people were beginning to leave and so did we...

After we arrived at another restaurant in Conyers, I got the phone call from the Blue Willow announcing our table ready....I was happy to advise BW to give the table to one of the other miserable souls waiting for seating as we found service at another restaurant...unphased , the BW caller responded okay and hung up....

In the 21st century, service to customers has become an unnecessary, antiquated tool of business trades. As a customer of this establishment, I expected better treatment than that rendered(at least a "hello, welcome to the Blue Willow!)...we were told by someone in the gift shop that the Mother's Day weekend was a busy one for BW...no excuse!... for poor customer service!...It's likely the principles who founded the BW are no longer with us and those who have inherited what the principles built over years care less about the integrity of the business, (content, character, reputation, and quality) and more about revenue, earnings, and bottomline (which all suffer over time when customer Service fails)...

I will follow future reviews of the restaurant to determine if improvement to customer service has become a priority for BW..

As a business owner in Atlanta, I attribute the success of my own business to solidly good customer service...and while you may not please all of the people all of the time, your reviews shouldn't reflect the same recurring customer service complaints month after month, year after year!

My recommendation is that current principles revisit why it is you do what you do and the benefit of building a loyal returning customer base....also take the woman off the front door hostess stand (if she's a principle, hosting is not her calling...find another vocation within the business, preferably behind the scene away...

My family and I went to the Blue Willow Inn restaurant for Thanksgiving dinner. It was the worse Thanksgiving dinner we had ever experienced. The food was terrible and disappointing. The menu was limited to the basics in their lowest form. We were misled as to the menu and the dress code. First, the salad bar consist of lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes and onions. Also only three salad dressings were available. The entree menu consist of unseasoned turkey pieces, thick leather textured beef slices, dried yellow colored fish, undercooked fried chicken, pork infested string beans and collard greens, mac and "no" cheese, mash potatoes, sweet potato something, lima beans and plenty lightly baked butter biscuits and corn bread which were dry and horrible like the dressing. Most of the deserts were store brought or burned on the bottom like the sweet potato pies. I could not believe that we were forced to pay 36.00 per person. When I reviewed the check, I noticed that we were taxed on the tip. Who does that? Is that even legal? Our tip was 17.98 before taxes. I brought it to the attention of the waitress who stated that the cash register on the second level taxed everything but the register on the first floor does not tax the tip. I asked, if they had been taxing tips all day. She said that she would be happy to correct my check and apologized for the error. When I called for the reservation the representative told me that they were expecting 1,600 people for this Thanksgiving dinner. Therefore, that's 1,600 people at 4.49 tip per person at 7% tax rate which equals $502.88. I can't believe that no one else noticed this error or possible over site. Lastly, the required dress code was a joke. I was told during the reservation process, no jeans, sneakers or t-shirts. Guess what, 95% of the people were wearing? Jeans; therefore, 5% of the people were over dressed including my family. This was an embarrassing experience over all and a waste of money. It was more like Golden Corral served in an old mansion. Actually Golden Corral is an overstatement. Most of the people I spoke with were also disappointed and agreed that the dinner was over priced. One older lady stated that it was more like an $8.95 buffet deal no where near the quality of other restaurants priced at $35.00 or more. This was definitely a waste of money and the worse Thanksgiving dinner...

I hate to leave this review - I've been coming to this restaurant since I was 4 years old, but we brought my mom for Mother's Day and I couldn't believe the low level of service and professionalism. I called weeks before and made a reservation (we drove over an hour to eat, so we wanted to make sure we'd be seated with no issues) and was told that we were on the list for 2:30pm. We showed up and our name was NOT on the reservation list and the hostess (kind of rude, older lady) said she would see what she could do but basically, oh well - we would have to wait the two hours. I asked to speak to a manager and got the new owner (said he bought it 3 weeks prior). He seemed genuine and said to give him a few minutes and he'd see what he could do....45 minutes later we were still waiting. Worst thing was that we constantly saw empty tables! He then said he apologized and that he'd cover half of our bill - nice but we were STILL waiting. In the meantime another family came in with the same issue, but they just decided to go elsewhere.

Finally, the owner said we could take a table out front and that he would take care of our bill. After waiting for over an hour, they sat us at a rusty table up front and just placed silver wear and drinks - we didn't even get a table cloth and not once did anyone come out to check on us. Had we not come so far for my mom, we would have left!

The food was just ok - fried chicken and green tomatoes were great but everything else was just ok. Some of the veggies tasted like they could have come from the can. Very surprised at the bland greens (usually my mom's favorite) I was so looking forward to the caramel cake - which was incredibly dry! Best things were the peanut butter pie and peach cobbler.

Really disappointed at the state of this place. I hope that the new owner can get it together, but unfortunately we will not...