Tobi O.
Yelp
I'll start by saying that Belle and Lily's had been on my list to try for a while. I'd seen reviews here, on TikTok, and Instagram, so I was looking forward to trying it out. I recommended it to my friend for her birthday brunch, and she went with it.
The restaurant is located in a strip mall on Chamblee Tucker, so there's lots of parking. We went to brunch on a Sunday, and were surprised that they weren't very busy. We did have reservations, but we had 2 reservations for our party since you cannot reserve for more than 6 people. We ended up with a party of 10 and originally, they did not want to seat the 4 people for the second reservation. They allowed us to sit near the entrance to wait, but it was awkward because they didn't let us add more tables from the empty space to accommodate the full party. There's fault on the people who didn't show up for sure, but it felt weird because we were essentially ignored even though we were sitting with the 6 people as they were getting served from reservation #1.
There are no physical menus nor QR codes to scan to get to a menu. We were directed to go to the website and find the menu. Not the end of the world, but not convenient. The 6 people who were seated were told explicitly by our server "We need to get this party started because we have other parties coming". I understand having a time limit on reservations, but saying it this way felt impolite, bordering on rude.
Now to the food:
Jerk wings - the wings served looked dry compared to the images on the website, but the flavor was still good! Some sauce or extra "juice" would've gone a long way.
Seafood tostones - tostones weren't fried too greasy, but the plantain wasnt smashed thin enough to get the true crispness that you expect. The seafood tasted very good though! Would recommend
Big batty gal - very very fluffy pancakes. Good flavor, but they are super filling.
St. Lucian breakfast - the bakes were very good (they're fried fyi). I love all types of bread - baked, steamed, or fried - so this was gonna be a winner no matter what lol.
Empanadas - very flavorful! The sauce is very cilantro-y
Peach lemonade was good. I love a flavored lemonade and this didn't disappoint!
When it was time to settle the checks, we were told that only up-to-4 payments were allowed. This wasn't communicated at the beginning of the meal or anytime during. Reservations for parties up to 6, but only 4 payments/split. The server left the machine for our party to sort out the checks and walked away for 20+ minutes. She didn't attempt to offer any solutions, no assistance with how to calculate, just put the machine down and left us.
The reservation and check system left a bad taste, BUT all the food was enjoyed by our party, so i'd like to give them another try - maybe solo or with a smaller party. I'll willing to try again