Pauley's

Food and service fine, server had lovely personality. However, negative seating policy. I have no problem waiting for table when restaurant is full, but on this day we were a party of 4 and with 2 tables for 6 EMPTY ….they put us on waitlist… and continued to add people to wait list instead of seating saying, “would only seat for large parties” some left for somewhere else. Manager type person came over and reiterated this to hostess. I can understand not sitting a party of 2 there but really unfair to ask 4 of us paying customers to stand outside and wait as a party of 6 just walks up and gets sat immediately . By the time the party of 6 came in , We would have been half through with our meal by then thus increasing table turnover. Interestingly enough the party of 6 sat, looked at menu and left 10 minutes later w/o ordering. Another party of 3 near us equally annoyed outside was talking to friends who said “ hey the 3 of us can join you so they will seat the 6 of us and then we can leave you all with the table….” Seemed like a clever idea.

We were passing through Athens, on our way from Augusta to Atlanta. We took a side tour and stopped in front of Pauley’s to check out the area and decided to look at the menu. We ordered the chicken and sausage gumbo, which had just the right amount of heat and good flavor. The salad had strawberries, walnuts, green apples, spinach and we added chicken to it. It was crisp and refreshing. We finished with the apple pie crepe which had cinnamon and graham crackers that paired nicely with our coffee. We also ordered a Brie and apple sandwich to go that we enjoyed a bit later. There is more than crepes (and apples) and there is a solid drink menu but we were traveling so didn’t partake. The flavors were good, the portions were just right and the environment was bright and airy. It was a very enjoyable discovery.

Every time I have gone here I have had the worst experience. We went for my friend’s birthday and the blonde hostess was so impolite. She told us to stand and wait for our whole party which we understood. As we are waiting it hasn’t even been long she comes out with red tape and starts telling us to move and we were all so confused as to why she is doing that as of right now. She ended up telling us to move outside rudely and taped a line to prevent us from waiting in the spot she told us to stand at. We all wanted to leave but we decided to stay for our friend to celebrate her. Our waitress was so sweet to make up for the fact that we had to deal with someone that had no prior home training. Everytime I went again for a friend’s request we had to deal with this hostess’s terrible attitude and her coworkers had to work hard to makeup for her actions.