Culturistic Kitchen — Restaurant in Stockbridge

It pains me to do this b/c the Banana Foster French Toast was BANGING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I won't Culturistic Kitchen for using egg substitutes b/c many restaurants do it — even restaurants in McDonough with "eggs" in their name serve this stuff. I don't eat that at home, and I WILL NEVER pay a restaurant to serve it to me. My problem with Culturistic Kitchen wasn't the food, atmosphere, or eggs… it was the service. The service was Churchish Chickenish. You know how fast food restaurants will basically throw the food at you and tell you they hate you and your kids, and you take it? It's b/c you paid $8.25 for your entire family to eat. They sell cheap food...I get it...service isn't included.

I don't extend this same grace to sit-down restaurants where people are paid to provide a service. In fact, at Culturistic Kitchen you have 15% gratuity added to your tab as gratuity. My family of four's meal was $75 bucks, but I was treated like I ordered a 5 dollar biggie bag from Wendy's. Here's what happened.

We ordered my kids two Culturistic Breakfasts. You get 2 eggs and two sides. The sides listed on the menu include (See screenshot of Culturistic Breakfast) Potatoes Creamy Grits Pork Bacon Turkey Bacon Pork Sausage Turkey Sausage 1 Pancake 1 Honey Butter biscuits 2 Honey Butter biscuits

So WHYYYYY when I ordered my son the Cultristic Breakfast with bacon and pancakes did the waitress tell me Pancakes were $5.00 extra? I assumed she was new and didn't know what she was talking about. I told her that it's on the menu as a side. Then I asked her to talk to someone and make this right? She was clearly bothered that I wasn't going to allow her to charge me an extra $5 bucks for something the menu said came with my son's meal. She turned around with an attitude and went to the back. Shortly after she came back to the table and was like, "Is that all?" My wife said, "She isn't happy with you?" I chuckled and could hear my mom saying, "It's better to be pissed off than pissed on." After the food came, it was good. Fortunately, we didn't have to see her many more times b/c she avoided coming to our table. I had to call her over to refill my $3.50 tea.

Finally, bill pay time. Normally in the U.S., the server brings you the receipt, you can review, and then give your card. In Paris, they just bring the machine to your table and you pay. So when the server came with the machine without me seeing the receipt, I was like, "Oh, they are going for a certain ambiance…..okay."

I went ahead and paid even though I hadn't seen an itemized receipt. I just wanted to get out of an uncomfortable situation. I even gave her the lowest tip amount which was like 7% despite her horrible attitude, inattentiveness, and ridiculousness. She asked me if I wanted a receipt…"of course!". I walked out of the restaurant and didn't look at the receipt until I got in the truck. I immediately went back inside. They charged me $3.50 for pancakes. Listen, $3.50 will not make me, break me, or even make me blink — IT'S THE PRINCIPAL. I went back inside and said I was charged for the pancakes when it should've been a part of my meal. She tried to explain, but there is nothing to explain. If I am honest, it's is fraud. You can't say one thing on the menu and then charge my credit card for something else. When I protested the original $5.00 charge, she walked away with the last thing being "I am not paying extra for pancakes when the menu says it comes with my son's meal." You can't then go and add on an extra $3.50 — acting as if you are doing me a favor. Fortunately, I didn't have to call my card and dispute the charge b/c they gave me my $3.50 back. No one apologized.

WHERE IN THE HECK ARE WE LEARNING TO DO BUSINESS? Who does this? What owner tolerates this? I DO NOT understand. Next time, I will just get takeout and go to McDonalds for the...

**Warning if you value your health, please do not eat any food from this place and I am going to tell you why. I was looking for a restaurant in the area to take my lady friend who had just left the hospital. I goggled restaurants in the area and unfortunately decided on this one. I thought to myself that is probably Black owned and decided that I would patronize a Black owned business. When me and my lady friend arrived, she noticed that menus were scattered about on the lectern and the hostess was not there but in the kitchen. It took about 5 minutes for her to come out and my lady friend was not feeling the place but I unfortunately convinced her to give it a chance, its Black owned. That was the biggest mistake I have ever made. I ordered fried catfish which I thought would be safe, who could possibly messed that up, Wrong! My lady friend ordered the pork chop. The food came out cold and my fish came out raw and slimy on the inside and I just cut into the end. I don't even want to imagine what the middle section would have looked like and her pork chop appeared undercooked. When the waitress came back I made her aware that the fish was not done, I was told that they cook by timer and that' s the way it is. She said that I should have told her that I wanted it cooked hard and I said why should have done that, you all should cook the fish done. I told her that I could not eat that and asked that the meal be redone. Her response was that she could recook one piece for an extra $10, I was flabbergasted at that point. I told her that I would not pay for the bill if it was not redone and was told their policy was no refund suggesting that I was required to pay for raw uncooked fish. I asked for a manager and was told the same thing. I told her that I would not pay for a meal with raw uncooked fish. They then said that they would call the owner. We waited for 10-15 minutes and got up to leave taking pictures and leaving $15 on the table for my drink. At that point the waitress ran out to block my departure in the parking lot. I asked her to move and she took down my tag number. My lady friend and I went to another establishment to get our meal but while in route, I receive a call from a Henry County police officer and explained the situation. He asked if I could come back but I told him I was a good distance from there getting something to eat. He did a 3-way call with the owner on the line who was now apologetic and now offered to redo the meal if I came back. I told her that I would not come back and she should have offered to do that while I was there. She said that the waitress should have asked if I wanted the fish fried hard and that she would address that but I told her that I would not return and would definitely report this to the health department. A few days later I got stopped for speeding and discovered that the owner had issued a warrant for my arrest because of their negligence. That caused me to be locked up for 4 days and cost me $1100 for bail and the tow and storage of my car. Please for your sake and the sake of others, please do not patronize this place if you don't want to get sick or go through what I went through. Blow the pics up and you can clearly see jelly...

I met my husband here for lunch today (he had the lamb chops). The food was horrible, and the prices were ridiculous for the quality and quantity provided.

First and foremost, the bartender lied. The menu clearly states that the catfish entrée comes with three pieces of fish, but when asked about it, she insisted it was correct. However, this wasn't the main issue. I regularly eat catfish, mac-n-cheese, and collard greens, but today, my stomach didn't agree with the food—it was not fresh. I started throwing up at the bar, and the bartender didn't even ask if I was okay. I told my husband to hurry so we could get home, as I needed to lie down.

Wanting to do the right thing, I asked the bartender to give me a check for half of the amount. She brought me a check for $60.50, which included a 15% service charge. I didn't agree, so I began to walk out to my truck. Before I could make it to my truck, a man came out behind me and said, "Oh, so you aren't going to pay for your check?" He never asked if I was okay or needed medical assistance. They were only concerned about the check.

I can assure you that the food was not fresh, which is the only reason I would have thrown up from the few bites of fish and mac-n-cheese, which were not good at all. What baffles me the most is that when I started to get inside my truck, the man began getting loud and taking pictures of my license plate. I kindly got out of my truck and told him there was no need for that—I would call the police for him. I wasn't upset, just disappointed that they would go this far to upset a customer who had just thrown up.

I wanted this to be a civil situation. When the police arrived, they stated that if I did not pay for my food, which I had only taken a few bites of, it would be considered theft. Being a person of integrity, I paid and left. This has never happened to me before. As a medical practitioner, I know food poisoning when experienced.

Culturistic is black owned and this is the number one reason why we decided to try it, however, they do not have friendly individuals working here and they are totally unreasonable. People are always stating, "support black businesses", well this is a good reason NOT to. The food is OVER PRICED and the SERVICE IS BELOW PAR. I approached this business with good intentions. Instead I left sick, hurt, disappointment and at a financial loss. My husband is a business executive and I am a doctor, we would have chosen any place in McDonough, but decided to go here out of all places. NOT worth the time or money.

I would not recommend family or friends to this restaurant after what I have experienced today.

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