Brookwood's Poor Service

Food: Excellent

Service: Very Bad

Valet: Extremely terrible

My partner and I took his brother and fiance' to the Brookwood Grill on 10/16/99, for a "farewell" dinner before he took a new job in Boston. I figured the Brookwood Grill would be a great final watering hole and place for a great meal. Overall we pulled it off, but with no thanks to the Brookwood Grill.

Our party had 6 people, and we arrived late, since we could not find a way to bypass the valet that was incredibly far behind with cars waiting on Piedmont road for the service. Eventually, we noticed a secondary drive on the Peachtree side of the building and took advantage of parking our car ourselves more quickly.

Fortunately for us, our guests are more prompt than we are, and were seated at our reserved table before we arrived. Drinks were offered rather quickly, to which I was very grateful. Unfortunately getting those drinks was a horse of a different color. Adding injury, our guests drinks were long dry already.

We received them approximately a "month" later, and my martini was 3/4 full, as if the bartender or waitress had taken a chug off the top. Our guests drinks were weak, and blan. I sent my martini back, and one of our guests sent his back as well. When they returned, mine was much better, and was one of the better martinis I have had in a while. (Thank goodness for the small things. Okay, that's a big one!)

I ordered sushi, and the portions were VERY nice for the presentation; very well prepared and I enjoyed my meal, as did everyone else. Drinks continued to be an issue, and we eventually settled for "water." until we received the check. Two of our companions were paying for themselves, as we were picking up the other meals.

We asked the waitress to remove the meals and drinks for the companions paying seperately, and were quickly told to "divide it up ourselves," and ordered to "just give her a total to charge each card." Completely insulted, I took the reciept and asked for a pen. She took back the receipt and told me she would do the best she could to divide the check. OKAY!

When she returned, there was a 17% service charge on our receipt, and fortunately not on our companions. Unsure if this was due to her dividing up the ticket, a service of another kind, or gratuity on a party of 6, we declared this her tip and called it a day. We would have offered much more for equally bad service elsewhere. I assume she was admitting to her poor serving skills, and offered herself a lower tip.

We waited for our dinner mates to receive thier cars from the valet, before we continued to the side of the building to retrieve our car. The first car arrived, and they were on thier way moments later. The car of the couple moving to Boston arrived, and the window was rolled down. The driver's window of his 929 has had problems lately, and was panel-locked in order to not be mistakenly lowered. Apparently, the valet removed the lock, and lowered the window, to which we had noticed when we passed it before entering the restraunt to meet our guests. We figured it was a different car, since we knew the window was damaged.

We were incorrect, and our guest asked the valet why he would lower a window taking it off a lock. He was quickly told by the valet that our guest should have "warned" them before to not lower the window. Our guest responded with "I had no idea you messed with people's car... I thought you just PARKED it!" Eventually, the valet decided that it was our guests own fault and it MUST have been rolled down beforehand. Odd, since the owner of the car would know not to do just that, right?

Finally, we managed to fix the window right in the front of the restraunt, and we were on our way. NEVER to return to the newly termed "CROOKWOOD Deal" again. I suppose our guests were ready about then to leave Atlanta.

Now, wasn't that a great way to send a brother off to a new city? We spent just under $200 for the four of us. We had four meals, and 5 drinks (Check 8794). Our watiress was Cynthia. The service charge was $31.93, whatever that was for. We were overcharged for drinks, since both tickets were charged for the companions drinks, whom paid seperately. A Lovely evening!