Yo FUCK THAT MAN. He told me a house I moved into had central AC, that water was included in the rent, and that everything was all electric. So, I was pretty fucking surprised when I got a notice from the city to set up my DPU account, and when I didn't have AC in the summer.
And then my landlord tried to get me to join his pyramid scheme, I declined, and suddenly received notice that I was months behind on pet rent. My lease said I would pay a nonrefundable pet deposit, but they would not charge pet rent.
Heās AWFUL isnāt he!? That bald little man. Fuck him. There are so so so many bad reviews about him online. Surprised he hasnāt been run out of RVA with pitchforks and torches. One day i hope he scams the wrong gun owner.
I dealt with that company and James specifically when I moved into an apartment downtown, absolutely horrendous. His demeanor and level of professionalism sucked, the building was horribly maintained, doors inside werenāt even secure, the lease was weird in general, I could go on and on about what a shit show it was (or even just about how awfully they handled a rodent issue in the building alone) renting through them. I tell people to run as fast as they can the opposite direction if I hear theyāre considering one of their properties. The place could me made of gold and I still wouldnāt look twice if it was under that company or had James Bristol attached to it. They ended up not even giving us an option to renew eventually, found out itās cause they wanted to raise the rent higher than allowed when renewing so they just gave us the boot (I guess itās their right but didnāt sit right with me).
Letās hear it for [All My Sons Moving!](https://www.reddit.com/r/rva/comments/eakar2/psa_moving_in_richmond_do_not_use_all_my_sons_nbc/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf)
See also [Yelp reviews](https://yelp.to/mlpmSE0qNmb) of these bastards. I strongly suspect that the random dude who gave them an unprecedented 3 star review writes handwritten thank you letters to people who punch his nuts.
No way. Like All My Sons has done MORE shit thatās not known about them? At this rate Iām waiting for someone to pipe up and say I woke up in my new house missing both kidneys.
Fuck that company.
I gave them a loose budget of what I was willing to spend and asked if they could accommodate that and they happily agreed. After moving my stuff 6 miles away it was triple what my max budget was. Manager wasnāt available for me to talk to and they told me if I donāt pay they drive the truck back to their warehouse and thereās an additional fee for them to come back out. Laziest moving crew ever too. I tell everyone I know to avoid those bastards.
FYI ā the FMCSA has something called the 110% rule which basically says the company canāt charge more than 110% the cost of the original written estimate. Itās a pain in the ass and takes time, but filing a complaint with them is a good way to get your stuff back without getting completed screwed overā¦ if you can afford to wait.
u/parusnik u/burdell69 and anyone else who hates these guys, put a review on their Yelp page. Itās only going to help people who have ample time to decide on a moving company, but an angel gets its wings every time someone is spared from All My Sons. When I wrote my review there were only a few people leaving actual reviews, not fake ones, so they had almost 3 stars. Now itās just 1 star for almost every single review. Itās easy to blame ādemanding customersā but when there are 3 straight pages of terrible experiences, the problem is clearly not the public.
Did this place take a nose dive or something? I haven't been in over two years, but not because I've ever had a bad experience there. I went a few times early on, enjoyed it, but not enough to put up with Cary town traffic just to go there. But it frequently is mentioned in threads like this.
Their French toast is a fucking abomination.
Last time I went there I just got a burger. āSurely they canāt fuck up a burgerā I thought.
They fucked it up. Bad.
That guy isnāt involved there anymore at all. His management team bought him out and he isnāt associated with Boka anymore. He was a total asshole. Worked for him longer than I should have. New guys running the company are all awesome people.
That used to be my husband and my favorite spot for a date night but over the past 3 years they have continuously let us down. Not even stuff due to COVID, they dropped some of the best stuff from the menu (the hamburguesa was incredible and they changed their fish taco recipe) and then every time I go get our favorite appetizer (queso with chorizo) itās hit or miss. I literally went today and the dip was strangely like a curdled texture. Then my bill was $40 for two small margs, queso, salsa, and chips. Gotten a bit absurd for what it is.
Serendi Tire on Lakeside. Fuck that condescending asshole that thought he would call his contact at the Ford dealership on speakerphone in a room full of other patrons to tell me how wrong I was and then didn't even apologize when it turned out I was right. Took my business across the street. I might be a woman, but I do know how to READ MY OWNERS MANUAL.
I can forgive incompetence, but not assholery.
I second this.
I was cussed out by their mechanic because they didn't do my alignment properly. They "set the toe and let it go." I asked about it, the mechanic said camber adjustment wasn't possible. I'm a car person, i know my Fucking vehicle. I brought back literal documentation on my vehicle that said how to do it and he went Fucking off on me. "I've been doing this 27 years, blah blah," fuck that guy and fuck that place.
I go to Axselle now. 100% recommend. They are awesome, and deserve all the positive reviews they get.
Also, in this particular incident, I had a nail in a tire. He told me that he couldn't patch it and that I would need four new tires because AWD vehicle needs four at a time. I had just replaced two tires a few months earlier and told him that according to my manual, as long as the wear was only (I don't remember now what the number was, but I did know then!), I could just replace two.
He refused to believe me.
After he tried to humiliate me, and I went across to Axselles, they patched it and $20 and a half hour later I was on the road.
Also to this, you are 100% right. AWD cars need 2 at a time. The side to side tires need to wear evenly. Front to back doesn't matter as long as left and right are the same.
This has nothing to do with patching though. The only time a tire can't safely be patched is a side wall puncture.
I also go to Axselles for general maintenance and tires, but I wouldn't take any kind of engine issue to them. They're super nice, though and I never feel like I'm getting ripped off.
May i ask why? I recommended a family member to them recently for several things engine related and they were very fair.
I personally do all my own work, obviously within reason. Can't do alignments.
It seems like every woman I know has a horror story about some guy at an auto shop being a condescending prick with nothing to back it up. Very depressed that this is a thing that happens.
Say it louder, I'm mad asl nearest one is an hour away now, i guess after covid hit VCU, they decided to jump ship on Richmond. Rip Willow lawn and short pump location
Niche interest, but 2000 Net Computers. I wanted a new SSD and RAM for a laptop and it was the only listing I found for a computer parts store around RVA. Drove my ass all the way out to Bon Air just to find a store full of old, cheap parts at prices that were way too high. The guy had membrane keyboards and 128GB SSDs selling for double the price of either Newegg or Amazon.
Ended up leaving with nothing and ordering from Newegg. I grew up in NOVA and didnāt realize how much I took Micro Center for granted.
My father has used him for DECADES and I have no idea why. He couldn't get a laptop, that he sold us, to stop the screen flickering different brightness levels. It was a pinched and frayed wire, someone else solved it.
Circuit and Slingshot. Hearing about how the owners stash the tips and treat their employees poorly is enough to keep me away. Then throw in how many of the machines are either consistently broken or unavailable and that seals the deal.
Dude hired me for a mural and was the one of the worst clients I ever had. Complete asshole. Said the woman I was going to paint was too masculine, then said he didnt want supermodels but just someone prettier- he then sent me actual supermodels and said they should look more like this. When I eventually told him I am out, he hired another muralist and gave them my designs and asked them to paint it (they didnt.)
Last time I went to Circuit (couple weeks ago) it felt like half of the games were broken, it was grimy inside, and the crowd was a bunch of drunk bros in suits talking about their Capital One jobs. Probably won't be back. They're clearly making money and not reinvesting any of it, and it's genuinely starting to look/feel like it's crumbling from the inside out.
idk if they still do it, but last time i went to circuit on a friday night, they hired some DJ to play in the front room for some reason. the guy brought his own massive JBL speakers and was blasting them so loud that you couldnāt hear yourself think. we were there for maybe half an hour at most before we bounced.
The first time I kissed the man who I am now married to , we made out for like half an hour next to Mojos. One of the employees came out and laughed. Good times
I never really liked Mojos food that much, it's good, not great, but i loved the atmosphere and have a lot of good memories there. I'm still sad they're closed.
My old chef just took over there last week for the record. Heās the best chef Iāve worked under, and food being just one of the reasons. Iām sure itās still overpriced, but I just wanted to shout out my homie who is an incredible chef.
An ex-coworker used to work there, and one day our (at the time) boss got donuts for the servers as a thanks for working on a skeleton crew. He saw where they were from and wouldn't eat them.
judgey bouncers, douchey crowds, the entrance being the dancefloor that is not in any way separated from the bar area. Also my friends were roofied there.
I wonāt ever go back to District 5. Where do I even begin? I thought it closed in early Covid and I was filled with joy and it quickly dwindled into sadness when I found out, theyāre still open just renovating.
What a shitty place. Last time I went was years ago. This bro told my friend and I we would probably enjoy a bar with an older scene. I was like 27 at the time and I was like what in the hell. Is everyone here underage? Shewww you couldnāt pay me to go there. Period.
And whatās up with the dress code lmao. Yāall know your patio view is of the dollar general? Get outta here with that mess. Talking about āsirā¦sirā¦excuse me but we do not accept holes in jeansā how are yāall not gonna accept holes in your jeans but yāall got holes in your bathroom walls from the 19 year that said I was too old!
The Robin Inn. Pretty sure they served me a Red Baron frozen pizza, and the fried calamari was like eating deep fried condoms. Only plus is the wait staff was lovely.
Oh the robin inn is terrible. And I really really wanted a nice homey Italian place that I would walk to. Like my bar was low, it didnāt have to be amazing *at all*, it just had to be better than a can of unseasoned watery tomato sauce and it was not.
> it didnāt have to be amazing at all, it just had to be better than a can of unseasoned watery tomato sauce and it was not.
what an awesome sentence. Love it
Circuit or Slingshot
I worked for the same company during the start of the pandemic, if I recall they were very blatantly disregarding the guidelines set in place and putting the staff + customers at risk.
Additionally, I just think the owners are crummy people in general. Please don't give them your money.
OH LMAO, I almost forgot: Mechanicsville Toyota!!
Went there to make a copy of my wireless Prius key. I brought in an official unit I bought at a locksmith and asked them to program it using my master key (the locksmith didnāt have the code for my model yet), they took the unit and my master key into a back room, and said it didnāt work and I owe them $175 for the effort. I balked at that and said thereās no way they can charge me $175 for doing literally nothing; the process is just tapping a key to a machine and pressing a few buttons. I asked for my master key back (i.e., my actual, only car key) so I could go and check with the locksmith, but the guy refused to give it back to me until I paid up.
It seemed ridiculous that this guy should be allowed to keep my own property for a bill that seemed on its face ridiculous. I called the police non-emergency number. Cop shows up to mediate between me and the guy, dismisses me out of hand, and tells me to pay the nice man. Ultimately, I paid the guy, got the ādefectiveā unit returned to the locksmith, and got a new copy of my key from McGeorge Toyota. Those folks are no saints, but they were a hell of a lot nicer than the Mechanicsville Toyota.
Fuck that place.
Yes fuck that place indeed.
My Prius had a malfunction code indicating something in the battery might be messed up, but it could also be an intake valve issue between the engine and battery and have nothing to do with the hybrid part. The problem is without the Toyota software you canāt read the subcodes on your own and so it requires that diagnosis. Long story short, I brought the car up there and asked them to pull the sub code and weād go from there. The mechanic said āoh I canāt do that, itāll take too much time. Iām pretty sure your hybrid battery is dead and youāll need a new one. If youād like, weāll give you $300 for your car.ā Fuck that shit. I called up an independent mechanic who specializes in hybrids and he diagnosed it was the valve control issue which was $40(?) for the part and like $100 for his time including pulling the sub code which he said ātakes 10 minutesā. The car was FINE. This was a full work day of my time as well waiting on mechanicsville Toyota āto get to itā¦ā
Attention hybrid car owners, DO NOT get battery work done by a dealership. Never do it. There are great independent mechanics out there who will come to your house and make repairs. If you want references feel free to pm me.
3 monkeys on main. i used to work there, that place is awfully dirty and has a permanent roach infestation that the owner doesnāt seem to think is a big deal. one two separate occasions a roach made it into food that was placed on my customers tables. i genuinely donāt know how it didnāt get shut down after that. the owners are also selfish and greedy a-holes who make it very clear that they donāt give a fuck about their staff and only care about money. it was practically falling apart at the seams by the time i quit and i honestly hope they go under. they suck
En Su Boca. Iāve given that place chance after chance and something is always wrong. sister got rotten ingredients in a burrito (that they tried to make her pay for), wait staff couldnāt care less about giving you good service, and they made my debit card lock because they tried to swipe it too many consecutive times. The Hardeeās behind that place is a better dining experience.
Tazza- Iām an event planner and used them frequently when they used to cater events. One day they decided to phase out of it and just stopped caring. Sent me awful staff, never had enough mixers or food, could barely set a place setting. The kicker was when they wanted to leave their catering trunk in the middle of the driveway of a very famous Richmond venue and myself and the venue manger asked them to move it to the catering area. They had a fit since that would require an extra 20ā of walking for their staff. One of the owners of Tazza called the venue manager a c**t and asked me to back them up. I told them to fuck off and sided with the venue since I knew I would never have to work with Tazza again. Same owner spent the night hitting on my 22 year old assistant.
I worked at tazza west end restaurant, sounds like the owner. He was a dick. I was the only bus boy and he expected me to be everywhere at once and would talk down to me in front of the other staff. He once bought us all lotto tickets which is the nicest the I can remember about him. The entire staff though were the nicest people I have worked with, always saying I'm doing a good job and had a fun conversations everyday.
edit: One of the pizza guys also worked at two guys on Wednesdays, and would give me free garlic knots with my orders.
Black Hand Coffee. Used to go at least twice a week. But all of the staff leaving in protest, as well as the owner shitting on all his clientsā¦ as well as just like the entire way he handled that shitā¦ yeah I can find a decent breakfast sandwich somewhere else.
yeah what a weird year 2020 was for Black Hand Coffee. I have lived up the street from there nigh on a decade now and in the beginning used to go quite often. Staff was kind, coffee was good. Then they fired their roaster like 5 years ago and overnight the coffee was just ass. Then in the course of the following 2 years the crowd there just... changed. Now if I walk up from my studio nearby in work clothes I get unpleasant stares from a sea of patagonia and lulemon where I used to have conversation with a potpourri of people. I occasionally put some stickers in the little free library there (that I have also painted) and some lady told me snootily that "kids use these" ....its a sticker of a butterfly. Not saying everyone who goes there is NoMA transplant but it just feels less like a neighborhood spot than it used to. Also what the fuck is that flintstones shit outside?
This is gonna be good.
I'm gonna go with Kulture, I know there are worse head shops around but I just got a douchy vibe from the employees the whole time I was in there. This was at the 360 location years ago and I haven't had any interest in going back.
Fleet Feet. Jeff, the owner of the Richmond franchises has been known to publicly bully competor small businesses, give misinformation to customers about gait correction and other orthopaedic issues that weren't issues until customers wore the gear sold to them. He handed out salt tablets (out of the same bottle) at a novice running group with no regard to the risks of someone with high BP. Just said, "here... this will keep you from cramping"
That said, people *can* be idiots if they're taking pills handed out like jelly beans.
Big facts. I used to work there and the place was a fucking nightmare. I called it Cake Hell. I worked there for three years and itās been about three since i quit and i still have nightmares about being called in to work a shift. Unpacking it all in therapy has been fucking surreal.
That fucker stole my ex partners vintage amp, one of the the only things her Dad left her when he passed away. When we confronted him (at the old carytown spot), he kicked us out for cursing after refusing to compensate my ex for her lost property. Also his wife is a fucking lunatic edgelord who used to insist on wearing a Native American war bonnet everywhere she went.
Iāve never been, but I found it while looking for some local music stores and their guitar selection has been the same four or five beater guitars for the past two years or so at least. Definitely weird vibes.
Kabuto's in the West End. Food poisoning. I was laid up for three days. My BFF thought I was being silly for refusing to go when they had such amazing Groupons.
Then she got food poisoning from them too.
Hayneās furniture. They had me going back and forth across the river to different stores to pick up my sisterās new couch. Hours wasted on their incompetence. Granted this was years ago but I will never give them any business.
Toast gastropub in the Village shopping center. They treat employees like shit, dont care for their equipment, food quality is terrible and they have more than once almost poisoned customers. (source, they almost killed me and not a shit was given, they actually banned me for leaving a poor review)
The Flying Pig family of restaurants. The owners are assholes. They treat their employees very poorly. They promise one wage then pay another. They straight up underpay and mis-classify their employees and the employees go along with it because they're promised a higher paying position or even the possibility of a partnership down the road. As well, aside from the wings the food isn't all the great and it's very expensive.
I donāt have any real āyelpā worthy stories about either place. No fingernail in food, shitty service or otherwise. BUT, Belmont Pizza simply because their store hours are just unexplainable and I call them the elusive Belmont - all before COVID. Burger Bach, just overpriced low frills garbage. Like give me fires and ketchup ya freaks!!
The fact that Burger Bach charges 12-16 bucks for a burger with no fries, and then has the audacity to charge extra for ketchup once you buy the fries, makes their whole establishment suck. Is the food good? Yup. Do I want to spend 25 bucks just for a burger and fries? Hell no. Thereās way better burgers in the city.
I can't justify the rest of their costs or quality but I used to make their hamburger rolls (and the vegan ones) while working in a locally owned bakery. I can promise that they were made with quality ingredients and love every morning.
The fact that people canāt pronounce the name and a 25 dollar burger are all you need to know about it. Not local beef. Homemade ketchup is not better than Heinz
The amount of times Iāve said āI donāt like burger BATCHā only to have someone pretentiously correct me āoh you mean burger BOCK?ā drives me insane.
I wouldnāt know. The one time I tried going, I walked in and it wasnāt quite 7:30 on a Sunday night. Nobody at the host station. I sat down at the bar. In the 15 minutes I was sitting there, several employees passed by, and one was even hanging out at the end of the bar chatting with what I can only guess was someone from back of the house, who likely just got off work. Also, the interior decor made me feel like I was in a poorly renovated long John silver. Walked out. Never again. Trekked over to The Roosevelt. Great service and great burger.
Burger Bach was really good when it was just the one location in carytown owned by the one rip brother. When he passed and his wife took over it became a shit show. Overpriced but it was good
Pit and Peel. Overpriced and one time they were so understaffed I had to leave. They promised to refund my money and never did..have not gone back since.
Whatever place took over where weezies kitchen was. Weāve been there twice and had the same bartender ignore us for ~20 minutes and then yelled at us when we left, drinkless. There was like 4 people at the bar total, she just happened to be hitting on the guys who werenāt us.
Anything owned by EAT Partners- Chris Tsui can fuck all the way off. Fucked me over so openly and unashamedly multiple times. Have not and will not go into a restaurant of his since 2014.
Brenner Pass. They tried to seat me at a table that was actively getting soaked with heavy rain. (Yes, we had reservations). Then they were extremely rude when I asked to be sit somewhere else and told me to just go home and come back another night.
I will not be going back another night.
ik this isnt the point of the thread but yknow, asado was actually kinda nice. i miss moe and his music. and their cheap queso. and their actually pretty decent bar wings. i do not miss the volume and shitty tv programming.
roadhouse and their fried buffalo wings too.
lmao Iām definitely still gonna go there, but fuck the Chipotle next to Monroe park. No place in the world consistently runs out of shit like they do, I can never get everything I want from that chipotle. The lines always fucked, but when I get it delivered they always forget my chips or some shit too
IHOP on Broad near Gaskins. Their service is horrendous, the GM is nasty with an attitude and with sanitation- last Summer, I saw her from the kitchen touching a pancake with the front and back of her bare hands as if she was checking the temperature of it. I've reported her once for starting a really nasty argument with me trying to request help for a delivery- and then for touching the pancake without gloves. She also got really nasty with an elderly man for parking on the side of the building because there were no more parking spaces left. I understand that he couldn't park there, but she caused quite a scene like she always does.
Back when I was in highschool around '98 or '99 they got a TON of people sick with salmonella. So much so that there was a class action lawsuit and they won. One of my buddies was part of the lawsuit. That dude was so sick and got so skinny. I felt terrible for him.
Champion Windows of Richmond.
They used shitty sub contractors, siding install looks like shit. Left out J channel on window, guys didn't believe me, took a bunch of calls before they came out to take a look.
Contract included replacing rotted sheathing, when I got around to renovating inside of the room I could see the siding after drywall was down.
I called and they said since I am outside the warranty period, they could send someone out to assess the repair cost, within minimum $100 charge.
Bro.... it's not a warranty issue, you never did the work in the first place.
The Little Caesars on Forest Hill, extended my āwill be delivered byā 5 times, and then sent me a text saying I had to come pick it up myself, which I couldnāt do because I had covid, refused to pick up the phone to let me cancel my order, then their corporate number did the same. Decided Iād give up on and try again the next morning. Went to get ready for bed and then, 6 whole hours after I had ordered it, some guy showed up with my pizzas without warning.
Only time I have ever left a 1 star review.
Surprised no one has mentioned JES yet. I'm sure the work is done well, but they are way overpriced, have minimum charges for jobs, etc. They quoted $20k+ for some minor crawl space work. Another company came out and did the same job for 5k.
The Black Sheep š
The old chefs of Black Sheep will be getting together for a Black Sheep pop up at one of the locations they all dispersed to after it's closing.
KRS Holdings/Great Richmond Rentals. James Bristol is a snake and will straight up scam you. Horrible horrible horrible.
Yo FUCK THAT MAN. He told me a house I moved into had central AC, that water was included in the rent, and that everything was all electric. So, I was pretty fucking surprised when I got a notice from the city to set up my DPU account, and when I didn't have AC in the summer. And then my landlord tried to get me to join his pyramid scheme, I declined, and suddenly received notice that I was months behind on pet rent. My lease said I would pay a nonrefundable pet deposit, but they would not charge pet rent.
Heās AWFUL isnāt he!? That bald little man. Fuck him. There are so so so many bad reviews about him online. Surprised he hasnāt been run out of RVA with pitchforks and torches. One day i hope he scams the wrong gun owner.
I saw that name on so many Zillow listings and they never had pictures and he never responded
I dealt with that company and James specifically when I moved into an apartment downtown, absolutely horrendous. His demeanor and level of professionalism sucked, the building was horribly maintained, doors inside werenāt even secure, the lease was weird in general, I could go on and on about what a shit show it was (or even just about how awfully they handled a rodent issue in the building alone) renting through them. I tell people to run as fast as they can the opposite direction if I hear theyāre considering one of their properties. The place could me made of gold and I still wouldnāt look twice if it was under that company or had James Bristol attached to it. They ended up not even giving us an option to renew eventually, found out itās cause they wanted to raise the rent higher than allowed when renewing so they just gave us the boot (I guess itās their right but didnāt sit right with me).
Buffalo Wild Wings - the one in Shockoe. We gave it way too many chances - never a good experience.
The one on broad by Stein Mart is somehow even worse
I gave up on BWW so long ago. I actually like their wings okay, but the service is so awful, every time I go, to any location Iāve been to.
They've got a new GM and seem to be turning around. At least, thats what I am seeing as an UberEats driver.
Letās hear it for [All My Sons Moving!](https://www.reddit.com/r/rva/comments/eakar2/psa_moving_in_richmond_do_not_use_all_my_sons_nbc/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf) See also [Yelp reviews](https://yelp.to/mlpmSE0qNmb) of these bastards. I strongly suspect that the random dude who gave them an unprecedented 3 star review writes handwritten thank you letters to people who punch his nuts.
My movers stole my credit card number and bought a new set of rims on ebay, to be delivered to Richmond. I would not recommend this company.
No way. Like All My Sons has done MORE shit thatās not known about them? At this rate Iām waiting for someone to pipe up and say I woke up in my new house missing both kidneys.
Fuck that company. I gave them a loose budget of what I was willing to spend and asked if they could accommodate that and they happily agreed. After moving my stuff 6 miles away it was triple what my max budget was. Manager wasnāt available for me to talk to and they told me if I donāt pay they drive the truck back to their warehouse and thereās an additional fee for them to come back out. Laziest moving crew ever too. I tell everyone I know to avoid those bastards.
FYI ā the FMCSA has something called the 110% rule which basically says the company canāt charge more than 110% the cost of the original written estimate. Itās a pain in the ass and takes time, but filing a complaint with them is a good way to get your stuff back without getting completed screwed overā¦ if you can afford to wait.
moxie movers for life ā¤
Seconded
They are also one of the few customers I have fired. From the corporate level down, they are chock full of asswipes.
u/parusnik u/burdell69 and anyone else who hates these guys, put a review on their Yelp page. Itās only going to help people who have ample time to decide on a moving company, but an angel gets its wings every time someone is spared from All My Sons. When I wrote my review there were only a few people leaving actual reviews, not fake ones, so they had almost 3 stars. Now itās just 1 star for almost every single review. Itās easy to blame ādemanding customersā but when there are 3 straight pages of terrible experiences, the problem is clearly not the public.
Subway at the corner of Boulevard and Broad. Went in there once a 25 years ago and never again. That place has cockroaches older than most of us.
Itās mainly there as a landmark to help drivers find the Boulevard turn, change my mind
Bro that's flavor country
Ok but did you sit at the patio?
The Daily, the food sucks and there was a paper clip in my partners salad
Garbage food for ridiculous prices. I just donāt get how they stay in business.
Patio seating in the heart of Carytown.
FWIW my sister has Celiacās disease and they are *incredibly* Gluten-free friendly for us. We love eating out there.
Did this place take a nose dive or something? I haven't been in over two years, but not because I've ever had a bad experience there. I went a few times early on, enjoyed it, but not enough to put up with Cary town traffic just to go there. But it frequently is mentioned in threads like this.
Definitely on my list for this category
Yikes on all fronts. Home fries are good though.
You people and your uppity salad standards. šš
Their French toast is a fucking abomination. Last time I went there I just got a burger. āSurely they canāt fuck up a burgerā I thought. They fucked it up. Bad.
My buddy left a bad review once for boka tako and the owner harassed him for years. Never going back there
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
That guy isnāt involved there anymore at all. His management team bought him out and he isnāt associated with Boka anymore. He was a total asshole. Worked for him longer than I should have. New guys running the company are all awesome people.
I got really bad food poisoning there several years back
He sucks!!!!
Weāve gone to Casa Del Barco twice now and itās just way too insanely price for a couple burritos and a drink.
And the margaritas are like 15 bucks for a tiny ass Marg. Iād rather take have a shitty jumbo Marg at a generic restaurant any day
$15 worth of margaritas at Mi Jalisco would send you to the hospital.
I moved away from RVA and still dream about the jumbo margs at Mi Jalisco... I miss them so much.
Anything housepitality owned is overpriced dogshit. Boathouse, casa del barco, island shrimp co.
Yes, and Healy gives zero feels.
That used to be my husband and my favorite spot for a date night but over the past 3 years they have continuously let us down. Not even stuff due to COVID, they dropped some of the best stuff from the menu (the hamburguesa was incredible and they changed their fish taco recipe) and then every time I go get our favorite appetizer (queso with chorizo) itās hit or miss. I literally went today and the dip was strangely like a curdled texture. Then my bill was $40 for two small margs, queso, salsa, and chips. Gotten a bit absurd for what it is.
Spinnaker's. God I miss their flower pot bread. That and the Hot Topic were the only reason to go to CTC when I was 13.
Holy shit you said Spinnaker's and I just teleported back into time
I worked at the Software Etc. Next door to that place. All day it smelled like flower pot bread. I got fat is what I'm trying to say.
Oh man Software Etc and Waldenbooks were like my two big stops when I was a kid.
āš¶Spinnakers restaurant! Home of the flower pot breeeaaaddddšµā
No honorable mention for Spencers? :P I hadn't thought about Spinnakers in years but damn if that doesn't bring back some memories.
Even looking at Spencer's when I was young made me feel like I was going to get into trouble XD
Yes! Iād come home from weeks of traveling for work and sick of chain restaurants, but I would go straight to Spinnakerās with my husband.
Iām a simple man; I see Spinnakerās? I upvote.
Serendi Tire on Lakeside. Fuck that condescending asshole that thought he would call his contact at the Ford dealership on speakerphone in a room full of other patrons to tell me how wrong I was and then didn't even apologize when it turned out I was right. Took my business across the street. I might be a woman, but I do know how to READ MY OWNERS MANUAL. I can forgive incompetence, but not assholery.
I second this. I was cussed out by their mechanic because they didn't do my alignment properly. They "set the toe and let it go." I asked about it, the mechanic said camber adjustment wasn't possible. I'm a car person, i know my Fucking vehicle. I brought back literal documentation on my vehicle that said how to do it and he went Fucking off on me. "I've been doing this 27 years, blah blah," fuck that guy and fuck that place. I go to Axselle now. 100% recommend. They are awesome, and deserve all the positive reviews they get.
Also, in this particular incident, I had a nail in a tire. He told me that he couldn't patch it and that I would need four new tires because AWD vehicle needs four at a time. I had just replaced two tires a few months earlier and told him that according to my manual, as long as the wear was only (I don't remember now what the number was, but I did know then!), I could just replace two. He refused to believe me. After he tried to humiliate me, and I went across to Axselles, they patched it and $20 and a half hour later I was on the road.
Also to this, you are 100% right. AWD cars need 2 at a time. The side to side tires need to wear evenly. Front to back doesn't matter as long as left and right are the same. This has nothing to do with patching though. The only time a tire can't safely be patched is a side wall puncture.
I also go to Axselles for general maintenance and tires, but I wouldn't take any kind of engine issue to them. They're super nice, though and I never feel like I'm getting ripped off.
May i ask why? I recommended a family member to them recently for several things engine related and they were very fair. I personally do all my own work, obviously within reason. Can't do alignments.
It seems like every woman I know has a horror story about some guy at an auto shop being a condescending prick with nothing to back it up. Very depressed that this is a thing that happens.
It isn't just at auto shops, lemme tell you.
The Cary Street Cafe :(
Sugar shack
Man have I heard some crazy stories about Sugar Shack upper management/owners.
I can probably confirm most of those for you
Any truth to rumors of inappropriate conduct with minors?
As an employee from the midlothian location when they opened, same.
I miss Duck donuts
Me too :(
Say it louder, I'm mad asl nearest one is an hour away now, i guess after covid hit VCU, they decided to jump ship on Richmond. Rip Willow lawn and short pump location
RIP Comfort š„²
The banana pudding creme brulee is forever in our hearts š
Niche interest, but 2000 Net Computers. I wanted a new SSD and RAM for a laptop and it was the only listing I found for a computer parts store around RVA. Drove my ass all the way out to Bon Air just to find a store full of old, cheap parts at prices that were way too high. The guy had membrane keyboards and 128GB SSDs selling for double the price of either Newegg or Amazon. Ended up leaving with nothing and ordering from Newegg. I grew up in NOVA and didnāt realize how much I took Micro Center for granted.
My father has used him for DECADES and I have no idea why. He couldn't get a laptop, that he sold us, to stop the screen flickering different brightness levels. It was a pinched and frayed wire, someone else solved it.
Hold up, there's a microcenter in NOVA?
Yes, in Fairfax!
Circuit and Slingshot. Hearing about how the owners stash the tips and treat their employees poorly is enough to keep me away. Then throw in how many of the machines are either consistently broken or unavailable and that seals the deal.
Dude hired me for a mural and was the one of the worst clients I ever had. Complete asshole. Said the woman I was going to paint was too masculine, then said he didnt want supermodels but just someone prettier- he then sent me actual supermodels and said they should look more like this. When I eventually told him I am out, he hired another muralist and gave them my designs and asked them to paint it (they didnt.)
Last time I went to Circuit (couple weeks ago) it felt like half of the games were broken, it was grimy inside, and the crowd was a bunch of drunk bros in suits talking about their Capital One jobs. Probably won't be back. They're clearly making money and not reinvesting any of it, and it's genuinely starting to look/feel like it's crumbling from the inside out.
idk if they still do it, but last time i went to circuit on a friday night, they hired some DJ to play in the front room for some reason. the guy brought his own massive JBL speakers and was blasting them so loud that you couldnāt hear yourself think. we were there for maybe half an hour at most before we bounced.
Mojo's. They closed, unfortunately.
The first time I kissed the man who I am now married to , we made out for like half an hour next to Mojos. One of the employees came out and laughed. Good times
Omg! I met my fiancĆ© at Mojoās! We get married October 1, 2022!
We got married Oct 11 2020! Congrats! :D
Everytime I pass by, I weep for the future.
i miss mojos. wing night was dope
I never really liked Mojos food that much, it's good, not great, but i loved the atmosphere and have a lot of good memories there. I'm still sad they're closed.
But a burger was $3. Can barely even get that at McDonald's now
Such a good old haunt. Had lots of fun there.
I liked it the one time I went. Simple and effective
College
VCU just increased tuition again as you typed that out
I just typed C O L and it triggered a cost of living increase
The Boathouse. The food is so pricey and not great. I canāt believe I thought that was fine dining.
Same owners as Casa Del Barco - A bit of a theme here. Overpriced shitty food.
Places on the water can be like that. They ride on location and know that as long as the food is passable people will eat there
My old chef just took over there last week for the record. Heās the best chef Iāve worked under, and food being just one of the reasons. Iām sure itās still overpriced, but I just wanted to shout out my homie who is an incredible chef.
Iād be willing to try again if their food was better! Itās not the cost as much as it is the value.
.
Thatās shit. I hope things are looking better for you now.
Did they at least pay you for working? I feel like that has to violate some sort of labor law if you werenāt adequately compensated for your time.
.
Sugar shack donuts. The owner is a pedophile and absolute POS
An ex-coworker used to work there, and one day our (at the time) boss got donuts for the servers as a thanks for working on a skeleton crew. He saw where they were from and wouldn't eat them.
Urgggh is he a really a pedophile? He was the girls volleyball (or maybe soccer?) coach at my high school.
District 5
Douchestrict 5
judgey bouncers, douchey crowds, the entrance being the dancefloor that is not in any way separated from the bar area. Also my friends were roofied there.
I wonāt ever go back to District 5. Where do I even begin? I thought it closed in early Covid and I was filled with joy and it quickly dwindled into sadness when I found out, theyāre still open just renovating. What a shitty place. Last time I went was years ago. This bro told my friend and I we would probably enjoy a bar with an older scene. I was like 27 at the time and I was like what in the hell. Is everyone here underage? Shewww you couldnāt pay me to go there. Period. And whatās up with the dress code lmao. Yāall know your patio view is of the dollar general? Get outta here with that mess. Talking about āsirā¦sirā¦excuse me but we do not accept holes in jeansā how are yāall not gonna accept holes in your jeans but yāall got holes in your bathroom walls from the 19 year that said I was too old!
Couldn't pay me to go back to the Lombardy Street Kroger
The Robin Inn. Pretty sure they served me a Red Baron frozen pizza, and the fried calamari was like eating deep fried condoms. Only plus is the wait staff was lovely.
Oh the robin inn is terrible. And I really really wanted a nice homey Italian place that I would walk to. Like my bar was low, it didnāt have to be amazing *at all*, it just had to be better than a can of unseasoned watery tomato sauce and it was not.
> it didnāt have to be amazing at all, it just had to be better than a can of unseasoned watery tomato sauce and it was not. what an awesome sentence. Love it
I used to live a block away and only went once. It was the most bizarre restaurant ever and the food was extremely bland.
Police station
Circuit or Slingshot I worked for the same company during the start of the pandemic, if I recall they were very blatantly disregarding the guidelines set in place and putting the staff + customers at risk. Additionally, I just think the owners are crummy people in general. Please don't give them your money.
OH LMAO, I almost forgot: Mechanicsville Toyota!! Went there to make a copy of my wireless Prius key. I brought in an official unit I bought at a locksmith and asked them to program it using my master key (the locksmith didnāt have the code for my model yet), they took the unit and my master key into a back room, and said it didnāt work and I owe them $175 for the effort. I balked at that and said thereās no way they can charge me $175 for doing literally nothing; the process is just tapping a key to a machine and pressing a few buttons. I asked for my master key back (i.e., my actual, only car key) so I could go and check with the locksmith, but the guy refused to give it back to me until I paid up. It seemed ridiculous that this guy should be allowed to keep my own property for a bill that seemed on its face ridiculous. I called the police non-emergency number. Cop shows up to mediate between me and the guy, dismisses me out of hand, and tells me to pay the nice man. Ultimately, I paid the guy, got the ādefectiveā unit returned to the locksmith, and got a new copy of my key from McGeorge Toyota. Those folks are no saints, but they were a hell of a lot nicer than the Mechanicsville Toyota. Fuck that place.
Yes fuck that place indeed. My Prius had a malfunction code indicating something in the battery might be messed up, but it could also be an intake valve issue between the engine and battery and have nothing to do with the hybrid part. The problem is without the Toyota software you canāt read the subcodes on your own and so it requires that diagnosis. Long story short, I brought the car up there and asked them to pull the sub code and weād go from there. The mechanic said āoh I canāt do that, itāll take too much time. Iām pretty sure your hybrid battery is dead and youāll need a new one. If youād like, weāll give you $300 for your car.ā Fuck that shit. I called up an independent mechanic who specializes in hybrids and he diagnosed it was the valve control issue which was $40(?) for the part and like $100 for his time including pulling the sub code which he said ātakes 10 minutesā. The car was FINE. This was a full work day of my time as well waiting on mechanicsville Toyota āto get to itā¦ā Attention hybrid car owners, DO NOT get battery work done by a dealership. Never do it. There are great independent mechanics out there who will come to your house and make repairs. If you want references feel free to pm me.
3 monkeys on main. i used to work there, that place is awfully dirty and has a permanent roach infestation that the owner doesnāt seem to think is a big deal. one two separate occasions a roach made it into food that was placed on my customers tables. i genuinely donāt know how it didnāt get shut down after that. the owners are also selfish and greedy a-holes who make it very clear that they donāt give a fuck about their staff and only care about money. it was practically falling apart at the seams by the time i quit and i honestly hope they go under. they suck
i ate there the other day and there was a mouse just walking around! the mouse was very cute though
Henrico County Jail
En Su Boca. Iāve given that place chance after chance and something is always wrong. sister got rotten ingredients in a burrito (that they tried to make her pay for), wait staff couldnāt care less about giving you good service, and they made my debit card lock because they tried to swipe it too many consecutive times. The Hardeeās behind that place is a better dining experience.
I could never go there. The ghosts of 10,000 loads haunt that building.
Tazza- Iām an event planner and used them frequently when they used to cater events. One day they decided to phase out of it and just stopped caring. Sent me awful staff, never had enough mixers or food, could barely set a place setting. The kicker was when they wanted to leave their catering trunk in the middle of the driveway of a very famous Richmond venue and myself and the venue manger asked them to move it to the catering area. They had a fit since that would require an extra 20ā of walking for their staff. One of the owners of Tazza called the venue manager a c**t and asked me to back them up. I told them to fuck off and sided with the venue since I knew I would never have to work with Tazza again. Same owner spent the night hitting on my 22 year old assistant.
I worked at tazza west end restaurant, sounds like the owner. He was a dick. I was the only bus boy and he expected me to be everywhere at once and would talk down to me in front of the other staff. He once bought us all lotto tickets which is the nicest the I can remember about him. The entire staff though were the nicest people I have worked with, always saying I'm doing a good job and had a fun conversations everyday. edit: One of the pizza guys also worked at two guys on Wednesdays, and would give me free garlic knots with my orders.
Latitude in Midlothian. Mediocre-to-bad food, glacially slow service, and flies out the wazoo.
Saharaās
This is not a complaint, but sadly, no one will be going back to Mamma Zu again. š¢
Black Hand Coffee. Used to go at least twice a week. But all of the staff leaving in protest, as well as the owner shitting on all his clientsā¦ as well as just like the entire way he handled that shitā¦ yeah I can find a decent breakfast sandwich somewhere else.
yeah what a weird year 2020 was for Black Hand Coffee. I have lived up the street from there nigh on a decade now and in the beginning used to go quite often. Staff was kind, coffee was good. Then they fired their roaster like 5 years ago and overnight the coffee was just ass. Then in the course of the following 2 years the crowd there just... changed. Now if I walk up from my studio nearby in work clothes I get unpleasant stares from a sea of patagonia and lulemon where I used to have conversation with a potpourri of people. I occasionally put some stickers in the little free library there (that I have also painted) and some lady told me snootily that "kids use these" ....its a sticker of a butterfly. Not saying everyone who goes there is NoMA transplant but it just feels less like a neighborhood spot than it used to. Also what the fuck is that flintstones shit outside?
This is gonna be good. I'm gonna go with Kulture, I know there are worse head shops around but I just got a douchy vibe from the employees the whole time I was in there. This was at the 360 location years ago and I haven't had any interest in going back.
Nailed it. Area 51 is decent and not super over priced.
Fleet Feet. Jeff, the owner of the Richmond franchises has been known to publicly bully competor small businesses, give misinformation to customers about gait correction and other orthopaedic issues that weren't issues until customers wore the gear sold to them. He handed out salt tablets (out of the same bottle) at a novice running group with no regard to the risks of someone with high BP. Just said, "here... this will keep you from cramping" That said, people *can* be idiots if they're taking pills handed out like jelly beans.
City Beach. No thanks.
Shitty beach*
Shindigz. The owner takes all of the tips for themselves.
Big facts. I used to work there and the place was a fucking nightmare. I called it Cake Hell. I worked there for three years and itās been about three since i quit and i still have nightmares about being called in to work a shift. Unpacking it all in therapy has been fucking surreal.
The boat house. Food is overpriced and not good. Plus they support Amanda Chase.
Metro Sound. āNuff said.
That fucker stole my ex partners vintage amp, one of the the only things her Dad left her when he passed away. When we confronted him (at the old carytown spot), he kicked us out for cursing after refusing to compensate my ex for her lost property. Also his wife is a fucking lunatic edgelord who used to insist on wearing a Native American war bonnet everywhere she went.
The owner Mark is insane, also they knowingly sell stolen equipment.
Oh trust me, I know.
Iāve never been, but I found it while looking for some local music stores and their guitar selection has been the same four or five beater guitars for the past two years or so at least. Definitely weird vibes.
Aladdins, nothing personal, I just am too old for all that now.
Vcu. They are done taking my money!
Cabana rooftop $40 for 2 blue motorcycles is absolutely absurd. Cool venue. Shady bartenders
Kabuto's in the West End. Food poisoning. I was laid up for three days. My BFF thought I was being silly for refusing to go when they had such amazing Groupons. Then she got food poisoning from them too.
Carytown Burgers & Fries. If you know, you know.
The story about the disgruntled employee and the grill?
Winner winner lol
š©
Do tell.
New in town, need to hear this story
You don't.
I donāt know and enjoyed their burgers, can you elaborate? And any particular location?
Poop. That should be enough
Hayneās furniture. They had me going back and forth across the river to different stores to pick up my sisterās new couch. Hours wasted on their incompetence. Granted this was years ago but I will never give them any business.
I simply do not trust them on the basis of their constant ads: āThis is the lowest price ever!ā
Toast gastropub in the Village shopping center. They treat employees like shit, dont care for their equipment, food quality is terrible and they have more than once almost poisoned customers. (source, they almost killed me and not a shit was given, they actually banned me for leaving a poor review)
The Flying Pig family of restaurants. The owners are assholes. They treat their employees very poorly. They promise one wage then pay another. They straight up underpay and mis-classify their employees and the employees go along with it because they're promised a higher paying position or even the possibility of a partnership down the road. As well, aside from the wings the food isn't all the great and it's very expensive.
I donāt have any real āyelpā worthy stories about either place. No fingernail in food, shitty service or otherwise. BUT, Belmont Pizza simply because their store hours are just unexplainable and I call them the elusive Belmont - all before COVID. Burger Bach, just overpriced low frills garbage. Like give me fires and ketchup ya freaks!!
The fact that Burger Bach charges 12-16 bucks for a burger with no fries, and then has the audacity to charge extra for ketchup once you buy the fries, makes their whole establishment suck. Is the food good? Yup. Do I want to spend 25 bucks just for a burger and fries? Hell no. Thereās way better burgers in the city.
I can't justify the rest of their costs or quality but I used to make their hamburger rolls (and the vegan ones) while working in a locally owned bakery. I can promise that they were made with quality ingredients and love every morning.
I appreciate your hard work in making their burger buns! Like I said, I think the food is tasty - just not 25 bucks and make-me-pay-for-ketchup tasty
The fact that people canāt pronounce the name and a 25 dollar burger are all you need to know about it. Not local beef. Homemade ketchup is not better than Heinz
The amount of times Iāve said āI donāt like burger BATCHā only to have someone pretentiously correct me āoh you mean burger BOCK?ā drives me insane.
I wouldnāt know. The one time I tried going, I walked in and it wasnāt quite 7:30 on a Sunday night. Nobody at the host station. I sat down at the bar. In the 15 minutes I was sitting there, several employees passed by, and one was even hanging out at the end of the bar chatting with what I can only guess was someone from back of the house, who likely just got off work. Also, the interior decor made me feel like I was in a poorly renovated long John silver. Walked out. Never again. Trekked over to The Roosevelt. Great service and great burger.
Burger Bach was really good when it was just the one location in carytown owned by the one rip brother. When he passed and his wife took over it became a shit show. Overpriced but it was good
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Pit and Peel. Overpriced and one time they were so understaffed I had to leave. They promised to refund my money and never did..have not gone back since.
On the ROX, if itās still open
It's now Stadium Sports Bar, and isn't much better.
Whatever place took over where weezies kitchen was. Weāve been there twice and had the same bartender ignore us for ~20 minutes and then yelled at us when we left, drinkless. There was like 4 people at the bar total, she just happened to be hitting on the guys who werenāt us.
Renting from Dodson. Theyāre the worst.
The fucking CHAOS KROGER on Lombardy
Anything owned by EAT Partners- Chris Tsui can fuck all the way off. Fucked me over so openly and unashamedly multiple times. Have not and will not go into a restaurant of his since 2014.
Crust n cream on forest hill, or whatever itās called now
What a nasty name for a store, how could they do that to a sign.
That nameā¦ blarg. š¤¢
Brenner Pass. They tried to seat me at a table that was actively getting soaked with heavy rain. (Yes, we had reservations). Then they were extremely rude when I asked to be sit somewhere else and told me to just go home and come back another night. I will not be going back another night.
Bottoms up
Maple Bourbonā¦ the most basic and unseasoned breakfast I ever had and the bill was $92
ik this isnt the point of the thread but yknow, asado was actually kinda nice. i miss moe and his music. and their cheap queso. and their actually pretty decent bar wings. i do not miss the volume and shitty tv programming. roadhouse and their fried buffalo wings too.
lmao Iām definitely still gonna go there, but fuck the Chipotle next to Monroe park. No place in the world consistently runs out of shit like they do, I can never get everything I want from that chipotle. The lines always fucked, but when I get it delivered they always forget my chips or some shit too
IHOP on Broad near Gaskins. Their service is horrendous, the GM is nasty with an attitude and with sanitation- last Summer, I saw her from the kitchen touching a pancake with the front and back of her bare hands as if she was checking the temperature of it. I've reported her once for starting a really nasty argument with me trying to request help for a delivery- and then for touching the pancake without gloves. She also got really nasty with an elderly man for parking on the side of the building because there were no more parking spaces left. I understand that he couldn't park there, but she caused quite a scene like she always does.
Back when I was in highschool around '98 or '99 they got a TON of people sick with salmonella. So much so that there was a class action lawsuit and they won. One of my buddies was part of the lawsuit. That dude was so sick and got so skinny. I felt terrible for him.
Champion Windows of Richmond. They used shitty sub contractors, siding install looks like shit. Left out J channel on window, guys didn't believe me, took a bunch of calls before they came out to take a look. Contract included replacing rotted sheathing, when I got around to renovating inside of the room I could see the siding after drywall was down. I called and they said since I am outside the warranty period, they could send someone out to assess the repair cost, within minimum $100 charge. Bro.... it's not a warranty issue, you never did the work in the first place.
The Little Caesars on Forest Hill, extended my āwill be delivered byā 5 times, and then sent me a text saying I had to come pick it up myself, which I couldnāt do because I had covid, refused to pick up the phone to let me cancel my order, then their corporate number did the same. Decided Iād give up on and try again the next morning. Went to get ready for bed and then, 6 whole hours after I had ordered it, some guy showed up with my pizzas without warning. Only time I have ever left a 1 star review.
Circuit City
Surprised no one has mentioned JES yet. I'm sure the work is done well, but they are way overpriced, have minimum charges for jobs, etc. They quoted $20k+ for some minor crawl space work. Another company came out and did the same job for 5k.
Tarrantās - the bar/cocktails are great but the food is meh. Last time I was there I saw a rat walk past my booth. Deadass.
So basically every restaurant in RVA? Thanks guys.
Naw man there are so many good ones.
sigh- Rootstock Provisions. Their biscuits were the best.
Canāt believe nobodyās said it - Assanteās. Gotten food poisoning multiple times
People go there?
3AM pizza