On September 1st, Kandi Buruss and Todd Tucker’s (Real Housewives Of Atlanta) restaurant, Old Lady Gang, held a live performance dine in experience featuring Mylah. A fairly new addition to the restaurant, I wanted to experience it first hand. Having visited the restaurant May 7th 2017 for a birthday lunch and first look, I wanted to see if my experience would be different 4 months later, and it was.
OLD LADY GANG B+
Overall the restaurant is great, the food is great, the service is good, and the atmosphere is excellent, however, that’s not what all makes a restaurant. My experience in May having to wait almost 2 and a half hours to be seated, witnessing overbooked reservations, and workers who had no idea what they were doing, drastically changed for the better. Even though I believe their restaurant is great, it’s not exactly an A for me, but a strong B+ and here’s why.
OLD LADY GANG FOOD REVIEW: B
Very good, high quality food. The food is properly cooked, seasoned very well, nice proportions and the Old Lady Gang chefs use quality food and techniques to render an upscale southern food experience. While I’ve not had every single dish on the menu, I’ve had/tasted the entrees, deserts, and some of the late night eats, and none of them disappointed, however, I do have a few suggestions.
- Mama Sharon’s Seared Crabcakes: For Over 15 dollars, these mini crab cakes should be labeled as such, or made bigger (fist size) if it’s not going to come with anything except smeared sauce.
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Bananas Foster Banana Pudding: Banana pudding is sweet enough, adding crusted sugar takes away from the smooth texture of banana pudding, and adds too much sweetness.
Old Lady Gang Restaurant Review: C+
A visually beautiful restaurant with a lovely indoor, outdoor two level three room restaurant experience. A cool place, which in Atlanta is very important. A very clean restaurant graded at an A from the department of health (rumors not included just facts). Even though the latter is true, there are somethings that concern me, and some suggestions to make the experience greater.
- The Metal High Chairs Indoor and Outdoor: These seats are a lawsuit waiting to happen. Considering the demo of Atlanta, Soulfood restaurants, and America, big booties are to be accommodated, and if you don’t have any meat back there then these seats will ruin you. There are no cushions on the metal seats and after an hour of siting can cause hemorrhoids. I hate to be graphic, but seriously, they hurt! However, most of their seating is perfect, but beware the metal high chairs.
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Food Pricing: While the price to portion is perfect at this restaurant, some dishes are slightly over priced. A cup of banana pudding should not be 7 dollars, i’d be comfortable paying 5, especially since for 4 dollars I can get a cup of any side including Kadni Yams, which for many is a sweet treat, from the same restaurant. (see CrabCakes suggestion above).
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Slippery Stairs: When visiting, I noticed the inside stairs where slippery in May and again in September. In September while walking down the stairs I informed the greeter at the end of the stairs that they were slippery, she chuckled and did not tend to the issue. This could lead to dangerous slips, but a stronger no-slip mat or press could fix that.
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Event Lighting: While I’m all for mood lighting, it was simply way too dark in the event performance space to see your food to eat. The entire place was lit with cell phone lights to see their food, a simple fix for this would be cheap battery operated lights on each table if planning to keep the mood lighting.
Old Lady Gang Event Review: A-
With such a big beautiful place, live concerts while eating is perfection, and OLG got it right! However, even though the performers are great, the audio is nice, and the idea is well executed here are a few suggestions.
- Reservations: While it’s nice to seem like you have an upscale place where you have to make reservations to be seated, actually follow through. I placed a reservation for the concert three days before the event, for two. Once there my name was not on the reservation list, however when I said for the live event, I was instructed downstairs. When I got downstairs the woman did not check to see if I had a reservation, she simply asked and I was let in. What’s the point of reserving, if there’s no checking, directing, and structure? At a certain point, she was simply letting everyone in. Some even printed out their tickets, wasting paper for a reservation they didn’t even need.
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Sound Quality: Even though the audio was pretty good, considering Kandi Buruss is a Grammy award winning legend, the restaurant should invest in higher quality audio and sound.
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Maximum Invites: The smaller event restaurant does not handle too many people too well. It was impossible to move around, sit, turn, or be comfortable. There were many people at the door stuffed up, standing behind me while trying to eat, it was not a comfortable experience. However, if people reserved their spot and the doors shut at a certain time, vs trying to get everyone in just to pay the 25 dollar table minimum then the restaurant will actually be an upscale place.
All in all, the place is a great experience. You’d absolutely enjoy! There’s even a high possibility for you to see the Old Lady Gang, Todd, Tiny, Kandi, Kandi’s team, and more. It’s definitely a hot spot in Atlanta. Check out some photos below. (click to enlarge)
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