REVIEW: Tom+Chee (Buford, GA)

Hey readers,

When it comes to ranking my top 5 all-time favorite comfort foods, grilled cheese sandwiches are certainly up there alongside mac 'n cheese and more. Not only are they great alone, but they're also a great accompaniment to soups, salads and just about anything else you can think of. For me, grilled cheese sandwiches paired with a warm, steaming bowl of soup was my favorite things to eat when I was sick as a little kid. Heck, two decades later and it's still one of my favorite sick foods to eat. However, before I go on a long tangent and talk about how my cheesy sandwich obsession came to be, I'll start by mentioning that I first heard of Tom+Chee when watching Shark Tank. Having just started watching the show, I began with the current season and moved my way backwards to catch up on previous seasons. Of all the different entrepreneurs that introduce their product/company on the show, the food-related entrepreneurs are my favorite ones to watch, simply because I love food (as you can probably tell) and love supporting local businesses that start from the ground up and/or have really fun background stories. While watching an older episode, Tom+Chee's co-founders Corey Ward and Trew Quackenbush, were pitching their grilled cheese & tomato soup restaurant concept, which not only immediately piqued my interest, but also piqued enough interests from both Mark Cuban and Barbara Corcoran to make an investment. From there, the idea kicked off and locations began opening all around the US, with the Kennesaw location being the first in Georgia. Ever since I first heard about Tom+Chee, I'd been wanting and hoping for some locations to open up in Georgia and had gotten really excited when I heard the news of plans to open up several locations here. So rather than make the drive out to Kennesaw, I decided to be patient and wait until a closer location was built near me. Not long after the Buford location opened their doors, I knew I had to make a visit sooner than later to see if it lived up to the hype & if the Sharks made a good investment or not. Stay tuned to find out!

Let's get started:

❋Exterior

❋Tom+Chee (Tomatoes, Garlic, Seasoning, Cheddar, Mozzarella, Hardy White) & Chunky Tomato Soup Dipper

❋Strawberry Lemonade Grilled Cheese Donuts (Fresh Strawberries, Lemon Mascarpone, Mozzarella, Donut)

❋FOOD (2/5): Since I had a difficult time deciding on which one of their grilled cheese sandwiches to order, I decided to order the namesake Tom+Chee grilled cheese. To be honest, there wasn't anything special about it-the cheeses were barely melted, the diced tomatoes were still cold and the garlic flavor was barely noticeable. At around $5.50, the only thing this grilled cheese had going for it was the toasted and buttered bread. For $1 extra, I also ordered a soup dipper to go along with my sandwich. While the soup had a great flavor, it was a little too runny for my liking, especially when it's supposed to be a "chunky" tomato soup. And since I can never say "No" to dessert, I also ordered one of their fancy grilled cheese donuts, which with tax, cost just about $6. From the 8-10 flavors they offer, I settled on the strawberry lemonade one since it seemed the most appropriate one to order given these humid summer days. Although the price is rather high, I liked this item the most amongst the other items I had ordered. While the donut itself was nicely crisp around the edges, the lemon mascarpone was just slightly sweet and paired incredibly well with the sweet, ripe strawberries. The mozzarella flavor was overpowered by the other sweeter ingredients in the dessert, but it did add a nice, delicate creaminess. 

❋SERVICE (0/5): The service here was downright terrible. I'm not sure if it is at other locations, but I do know that I was truly disappointed in my experience at this one. Simply put, the employees here were rude, unapproachable and unfriendly. Upon entering, I was the only person standing in the order line at the time. A couple of the workers saw me enter, yet they decided to continue playing on their phones and stand in a circle around the registers and converse with one another, almost as if I didn't exist. When the cashier asked if I was ready to order, I told her I was still looking over the menu. Not a minute later, she says to me "Are you ready to order yet?" to which I answered again "No, I still haven't decided." This went once more before I finally replied "I will stand in front of you when I'm ready to order," since I was clearly standing off to the side and nowhere near the register and also added "Please stop rushing me." When I had finally made my decision, she rang me up and just had an ugly face the entire time, to the point that I was just ready to storm out. Seeing that I was hungry though, I just decided to stay. While I found a table towards the fountain drinks and waited for my meal, the employee who dropped off my sandwich had given me the wrong sandwich twice and never once apologized for it. Clearly the 3rd time's a charm because he finally brought two baskets over. I couldn't have been more disappointed in the customer service here-it was almost a joke!

❋DECOR (5/5): I really like the decor here. It's modern, simple and chic, which makes their concept great for franchising to others. The red, yellow and black color scheme is easy on the eyes and I particularly like how bright, clean and spacious this location is, making it perfect for large groups and families. There's plenty of seating available in the main dining area, the patio area and also what I like to call "the middle room" in-between the patio and the main dining room. 

Overall, I'm not a fan of Tom+Chee nor am I buying into its hype. While the Buford location is great and bustling, the food was below par, the service was horrendous and the grilled cheeses are just overpriced. Maybe I just happened to order the wrong items or make my visit on a bad day, but I was not at all impressed and don't plan on making a return visit any time soon. However, it does look like I'll be using my George Foreman grill more often and concocting my own grilled cheese sandwiches in the meantime.

Have a wonderful day,

-Sandy

FTC: I was not paid or compensated for this review. All reviews and opinions expressed are my own.

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