J. Alexander's Restaurant — Restaurant in Troy

The bartender that is a bleach blonde, older and wears a top knot is pretty disrespectful for trying to save seats at a bar that are supposed to be ‘first come, first served’. We waited for 20 minute, but she expected my husband and I to give her ‘regulars’ our seats. It did not matter that we waited patiently behind the couple who occupied them. It did not matter that her ‘regulars’ were already seated across the bar, in a seat (they need to wait for another seat to open up on their side) and drinking a beverage. It did not matter that the seat they had was on the other side of the bar too. It only mattered when we sat down and the ‘bartender’ refused to serve us because she was trying to save our seats for her regulars - that were across the bar. It mattered when we refused to be shoved to the side; we were disrespected and denied service. To add further insult to injury, I asked to speak to the manager. All the bartender had to do was lie to her manager and say that I was rude to her. Please keep in mind, her version of me being rude was merely me saying …as a fifty year old woman, no I will not move because the bar is ‘first come first served’. The manager Kim, that came over, was rude and biased. I asked her to outline the ‘rules for engagement’ of the bar. She refused. She only came over to be confrontational about the ridiculous lie the bartender told her to inflict her will over the situation. When I attempted to reach out to the humane side of her, and thought she was capable of listening with good intentions; it was a complete waste of time. Managers should possess the qualifications of always choosing the best outcome for all parties. She chose to be simple minded and unfair. She only came over to attempt an argument so she could ask us to leave. Needless to say, I was a long standing patron of that location for more than twenty years. I will no longer endorse any locations in the future.

Lastly, POC stopped giving up seats to our Caucasian brothers and sisters on September 22, 1961. It is a shame that I had to go there; but I can not fathom why the bizarre situation even occurred to begin with! Was the bartender that in need of a tip that she sacrificed any shred of integrity? It would be shameful to think it was racially motivated, but I will choose to believe that it may be merely coincidental.

I will let you decide, but I will definitely not eat...

Updated/original review at bottom 5 stars to 1, just like that. I'm disappointed. Likely won't be back - when you're concerned with service and safety at a restaurant of this class, it's not worth it. Decided to go back and bring the kids. We got seated at a table that is right in the way of a major traffic zone for the kitchen and carry out orders. My son almost got hit in the head by servers taking food out to tables, other customers and carry out customers squeezing by between the wood column and my 5 yr old sons chair. Owner, please remove this table from the dining room - it was a horrible experience. Waited for awhile before we were greeted and offered water. Wife's salad was not like what she experienced in the original review below. When I thought we were having a bad experience - a group of 9 (family?) got seated next to us but the host/manager split them up between two different tables. You should have seen the shock and disappointment on their faces as they tried to figure out who was going to be at who's table. I felt bad as for them. When I asked the hostess for the manager at the end, he never came. Appeared to be talking with Troy police in another portion of the restaurant. We left and picked up Carrot Cake at Stony River Steakhouse. Hoping to forget this dining experience. 🤣

Original Review Attention to detail is a key component of exceptional service. When paired with Intentionality, quality is unmatched. Zack had both of these qualities. I would go back to J Alexander's not just for the food (my wife, a picky eater, absolutely loved her Thai Salad and we loved the Avocado Bomb) BUT for the service we received from Zack. We were the second to compliment Zack that night. Hard to find exceptional...

My God, where do I start? The service we received at this location last night was beyond anything we could have ever expected. My friend Kyle just left a review 12 hours ago and he couldn't remember the server's name, it was RYAN! He was fantastic from start to finish.

We were there from 6-9pm and racked up a $400 bill and Ryan just completely took care of us from start to finish, we never felt rushed or hovered over. He was very Johnny-on-the-spot and was anticipating our needs the entire time, BEFORE we even realized we needed things!

A few examples of many: He overheard my friend Kyle mentioning how much he liked the ginger garnish with the ginger martini and he brought a side of the ginger cubes to him. Another, he overheard everyone making fun of me with the bleu cheese stuffed olives (because you have the BEST bleu cheese stuffed olives) and kept bringing me more! Then lastly, he overheard 1 of the people in my party mention that the carrot cake was smaller than what we had told her it would be and he BOUGHT us another carrot cake ON HIM! Ryan even cleared our silverware between the artichoke appetizer, the salad course and then our main entrees.

The food was absolutely on point.. We ordered 2 rounds of the artichoke appetizer, a full caesar salad to split and then 2 orders of the ribeye and 2 orders of the filet.. As I believe Kyle previously mentioned, all cooked to medium rare PERFECTION!

We are coming back in 2 weeks and when we make our reservation, we will be making SURE that Ryan is working that day and taking care of us! Hang on to this guy, J Alexander's.. Give him ALL of the shifts or else we'll snatch him up and bring him to...