Wisteria

Came here for dinner with a friend because we’ve heard great things about the place. Since we made a reservation, we were seated almost immediately after getting to the restaurant. The restaurant has an intimate ambiance which would be a great place for a date.
I got the Skate Wing because of all the great ratings. Maybe it’s because I had really high expectations going in, I didn’t think it was that amazing. I thought the skate wing was a little too greasy which made it not tasting as fresh. The stone ground grits base was good, but definitely a little heavy which is expected.
We were not particularly impressed with the service at Wisteria. Although our waiter was friendly, he was not very attentive. When we needed cash to tip the valet, my friend asked the waiter if she could tip him a couple bucks more and get some cash (normally waiters at nice restaurants will let you do that, sometimes even offer to do so). He politely declined which was totally fine, and said my friend can buy the valet a beer instead as a form of tip. Maybe I’m just uncultured but I’ve never heard of that! He said it in a way that was hard to say no to so my friend was basically pressured into buying the valet a $ 6 beer.
Overall the meal was good but I was definitely disappointed with the service. Not sure if I will come back again.

The service at this location was second to none. It would easily compete with any five star high-​end restaurant. Our server, Hunter, never left our wine glasses empty. At one point we were about to leave as my girlfriend left for the restroom he even folded the napkin she left behind making sure that the table maintained its presentation. This attention to detail made this a five star experience. The meal was good but not great. Hence the reason for the four star rating. With that said this is a great place for date and I would definitely return.

Fantastic food and service. Ask for Clifford when you go. Shrimp and grits were the best we have ever had.

We loved Wisteria’s food. We ordered the mussel appetizer, a catfish entrée and a skate wing entrée. The food was wonderfully prepared and delicious. I had never tried skate before, so I was slightly disappointed after reading all the great Unilocal reviews. As some reviewers mentioned, the skate’s texture was similar to that of lobster or crab. However, unlike lobster or crab, I found it rather tasteless. Salt and pepper are not provided to enhance the flavors, which reminds me of Paul Luna, who thinks his food is so perfect that no one should change it. The grits made up for the skate’s lack of flavor. They were delicious.
The mussel broth was incredible and the catfish was wonderful. I love catfish and this dish made me so happy. It was perfectly battered and served with an amazing sauce.
In my opinion, the only problem with Wisteria is the cramped seating and the noise level. The atmosphere is rather romantic, but the acoustics suck and the tables are so close together that it seemed we were dining with the couple next to us. We will have to dine early on a week day in the future. The place was slammed on Friday night.
Our server was incredible. He didn’t miss a beat. I wish I had asked for his name. Wisteria is a ten minute walk from our house, so we will be visiting often.

Absolutely incredible! Amazing, unique food combinations, cooked and presented flawlessly. We had the catfish and the duck (which was to die for.) Compliments to Chef Jason Hill, who checked if we had any food allergies and then came out personally to go over the menu when I mentioned I couldn’t have dairy. We went to dinner with our 2 toddlers in tow and Chef went above and beyond preparing them a snack tray. Overall it was one of the best meals we’ve ever had; food, service, and experience.

One of the best meals I have ever had. I had the fried chicken with collard greens and mac and cheese. My date had the sirloin with mac and cheese. The chicken was great, though I preferred the white meat to dark. The greens were amazing and the mac and cheese was some of the best I’ve ever had. Her sirloin had a great favor too. The staff was great and parking was easy with the complimenta

Wisteria has a dish on the 2013 Atlanta Convention and Visitor’s Bureau Signature 100 list, the fried chicken. That’s very good, but still probably not in my ATL top 5.
Last night when I went I had the lamb. It was super tasty! The meat literally feel right off the bone. We started with the calamari, which was good. Had a lot of extra stuff in it. I also had the crab bisque, which was phenomenal.

We decided to try this restaurant based on the Unilocal reviews. I had reservations for 9pm, and we walked in exactly at 9. The hostess, who wasn’t nice and could learn to smile more and act like she’s happy to do her job, said there were no tables available yet and asked to hang around for a bit. Where the hell do you want me to stand? The place is kinda small and there were already people by/​at the bar. Someone finally left the bar, so we take kinda filled in the space. The bartenders are not nice either! Do employees at this establishment not like their jobs or just prefer not to smile or something?! We ordered a few drinks; the old fashioned was pretty good but the other drinks, their version of Moscow Mule tasted like lemonade. The Dark n’ Stormy also sucked. At 9:24pm, our hostess finally says our table was ready. But was it? We stood around for another 5 mins while she they figured it out.
Our waiter was nice and he smiled (yay) but he seemed like he was overwhelmed with too many tables or something. He always had to rush off. The vegetable platter was delicious and the only reason for the 3 stars, and the braised lamb shank was just okay. I don’t know if I’ll give this place another try.

We came here for New Years Eve dinner with another couple and had a lovely time. Our server was attentive and friendly, and we were promptly served.
This is a lovely, small, cozy restaurant with a nice bar and relaxing ambiance. Their cocktail menu leans heavily towards vodka and gin with only one tequila drink that didn’t sound especially promising. Their wines by the glass list was robust and had an excellent selection. They also appeared to have an extensive wine bottle list and their beer choices weren’t too shabby either.
For appetizers we ordered the arancini and the deviled pimento eggs. The arancini were a refreshing and respectable size, slightly smaller than a golf ball and crunchy on the outside with a nice cheesy center. The deviled eggs were good and the pimento cheese added a nice kick that is usually lacking from deviled eggs in my option. And the bread and butter are an excellent start to the meal.
For the meal I ordered the fried chicken which was well seasoned but the breaking wasn’t crispy and the chicken itself was a little dry. The collards were delicious and butter though. The sweet corn pudding was not as creamy as I was expecting and was much more closely related to cornbread, those still very good.
The desserts really shine here, and I would highly recommend saving room for them. The buttermilk sherbet was amazing and had a nice, bright lemon flavor. The bread pudding still had some body to it and didn’t melt into a pile of sugary mush. And the blood orange sorbet was bright and clean and flavorful.
It was an excellent experience and everyone really enjoyed their meal. None of us left hungry and we had a lovely end to 2015.

We came here for our 4 year anniversary and this place is so cozy and elegant. Our server was extremely knowledgeable and he had great recommendations. We got the beef and veal meatballs, arugula and green apple salad, and the beef carpaccio. Everything was extremely delicious and tasty!

Held a business dinner here on a Tuesday night and was treated like royalty! We have a team with divergent requirements (Gluten free, Vegetarian, Carnivore, Seafood lovers, Beer snobs, etc) and finding this place was a score for the team! Everyone ate and drank happily! The Skate wing was the best I have ever had — I introduced my boss to the dish, and she loved it (thank you for the brown nose points there!). The tenderloin was cooked to perfection and loved by our Gluten Free teammate. We ate 2 dozen pimento cheeze deviled eggs (I think we liked them… just a little!) and the Brasied lamb shank was fantastic.
Excellent variety of beers that promote local, but keep it real.
The dessert combos are fun, delicious and allow you to easily share.
The staff is a hoot! Young and fun… hip, but not hipster.
We’ll be back!

My wife and I had an impromptu nice dinner here this past weekend. Overall, we were not disappointed. The food was good and the service was extremely attentive.
We started with two appetizers– the crab bisque and arancini. Both were excellent. For our main courses, I had the pork three ways, which was delicious and perfectly cooked. The amount of food was also generous. My wife had the trout, which was unfortunately a bit underwhelming and bland.
Drink-​wise, their wines were good (I had 1, my wife 2), and I enjoyed my old fashioned.
Overall, a really good meal. That said, Wisteria had a couple drawbacks. First, it was quite expensive– I would say a bit too expensive, for what it was. The atmosphere was just kind of so-​so, as well, and you are literally sitting on top of other diners. This may be unfair, but there’s really nothing about Wisteria that would make me think «we need to go back there» out of the blue. A good meal that we don’t regret, but we may not be back for a while.

*Update 2÷26÷16: Don’t know what party Jason is talking about in his response, but it wasn’t ours. Everyone ordered a meal. But your response says loads. Definitely never returning.*
My dinner club was visiting for Inman Park Restaurant Week. It was a rainy day and was very happy for the umbrella bucket at the front door. We arrived just as they were opening for dinner as it was hard to get a reservation for restaurant week for a party our size — it was either real early or real late. We started off at the bar and then were seated when most of our party was there.
They had a $ 25 and $ 35 fixed price menu. I ordered off the $ 25 menu. I opted for the caesar salad and the Iron Skillet All Natural Fried Half Chicken with bacon braised collard greens, sweet corn pudding, and mushroom-​herb broth. There was no choice for dessert. The Three Piece Sampler included Lemon Pecan Bar, Coconut-​Lemon Curd Layer Cake, and Fudge Tart with Chocolate Nutella Ice Cream. The salad was fine. I didn’t really like the chicken. My favorite part of my main dish was actually the sweet corn pudding. None of the desserts sung to me. Surprisingly, my favorite was the coconut-​lemon curd layer cake. I am not a big coconut fan.
Some things I noted during my visit. They sure do nickle and dime you. Complimentary bread service available upon request, but additional bread service is $ 2.50 per basket. Want to share dessert? Gonna cost you $ 4. Wanna share the pre-​fix menu? It will cost you $ 15. Sheesh! Also, weird. They are super intense about cleanliness. Leave a straw wrapper on the table? Someone will be sure to come pick it up. Got a few crumbs? They will scrape that up. It was too much. I felt smothered.
A friend warned me about visiting, but I had to try it out myself. Well, now I have learned my lesson.

I’ve gotta say, Wisteria’s got it going on. And I’m only saddened I didn’t figure out how good this place was before now!
So a few weeks ago, my lovely parents swung into town on their way back home after a tour of the south: New Orleans, Florida, and then Georgia on the way to Missouri. Whenever they stop by for a weekend, I like to try and make at least one dinner reservation at a nice restaurant none of us have been to before.
As I was cruising around on Unilocal and Open Table simultaneously, Wisteria came up, I checked the menu, and decided «What the heck?» and booked a table for a Sunday evening.
That night, we arrived a little after the appointed time and valeted in the steep lot next to Wisteria and were promptly seated by the maitre’d. For a Sunday, Wisteria was doing a good business in its modest-​sized space. It’s cozy inside with a big bar, lots of seating at tables and along the walls in the form of banquets, soft lighting and a laid-​back vibe. Very nice.
Our waiter for the evening was quite entertaining — I don’t recall his name, but we did learn he was from the West coast, but his ancestors were from Ireland (I have no idea how this came about), and he provided excellent service throughout our meal.
For dinner, we had a couple glasses of wine and I ordered the skate wing, my mom got the braised lamb shank, my dad and fiancé both went for the grilled top sirloin (such manly men!). My skate was delicious with the stone ground grits (which I’m very particular about), asparagus and brown butter. Delish and almost too much to finish. My mom did thrown in the towel, and I ended up getting a nice little lunch of lamb shank leftovers the next day, which was awesome too.
Wisteria was really, really excellent, and it is definitely somewhere I will come back to in the future.

The hubs chose this restaurant for my birthday and it was fantastic. They were so kind to us — we were late arriving for our reservation due to accident-​related traffic and they helped us speed dinner along so we wouldn’t miss an event we were attending afterward. I would have much preferred the long, romantic dinner we originally planned but we didn’t want to miss the start of the event and the wait staff was so kind. They even surprised me with a birthday treat ;)
Highly recommend ;)

For the price, you get some pretty decent food. However I expected perhaps a little bit more creative and better complementing flavors. I think that the pairings and combinations were definitely creative, but not quite thoughtful. Mint on rack of lamb? C’mon! It’s be done! There are a thousand other spices out there that go with lamb other than mint…
Other than the rack of lamb, we got the fried chicken, which was actually one of the most tender and juicy fried chicken entrée’s we’ve ever had in the city. And that’s saying something having been to places like One Eared Stag and Steinbecks. I’ll come by again and see if that 4^th star is merited, but after this trip, it’d be higher rated if it cost just a little less.

I never curse in reviews. but…holy shit.
I live in New York, NYC to be exact, so as pretentious as it sounds, I’m not usually wowed by food from other states. Wisteria is definitely my favorite restaurant I’ve ever been to, top’s any restaurant I’ve been to in NY or NYC. No doubt about it. The atmosphere was perfect for our date night on our get-​away. Intimate, dim lighting, cozy, and romantic. Candle lit table among an exciting buzz and chatter of happy guests. The service here is impeccable. I wish so badly that I could remember our server’s name. I cannot give him and the rest of the staff enough high praise, the staff really made our experience incredible. Everyone was so genuinely friendly and helpful which provided for a comfortable and relaxing evening.
Safe to say, I easily gained 5 pounds just from this meal, worth it. Distinctly remember my boyfriend noting that he would be keeping his shirt on for the next few days after eating here. Easily the best meal I’ve ever had. I ordered the iron skillet fried all natural chicken. Juicy, tender, flavorful, chicken, as opposed to many restaurants that just dry their fried chicken out completely. The bacon collard greens it came with were incredibly soft and had a bold, flavorful taste. My favorite was the sweet corn pudding on the side. I’ve never had something so delicious. It’s essentially corn/​creamed corn, but baked into a bread. However, it’s not dry inside… you still get the creaminess on the inside the same way you would with regular creamed corn. Ridiculously amazing… I would fly here just for this! I don’t really have self control, so I also ordered a side of the mac and cheese. Rich, creamy, baked to perfection, soooo cheesy. My stomach hurt from being so full, but I could not stop eating.
This place is incredible to say the least. I’ve never had a better meal.

If you want to get a little out of the city (and I do mean a little), Wisteria is a great choice. We were commuting back to Midtown and battling tons of traffic so we were looking for a great place to eat on the way and stumbled upon this gem.
Great food, especially the appetizers which are numerous and delicious if you’re in the mood to share stuff with your dining compatriots. It’s also located in an aggressively quaint little house-​type building which makes for a unique dining experience.
Food: ⁵⁄₅
Value: ⁴⁄₅
Service: ⁴⁄₅
Atmosphere: ⁵⁄₅

As good as an eatery can get.
Ambiance, trendiness and scrumptious entrees, this place has got it all.
Tried the lamb rack; very well balanced with its own meat flavor and the sides, adding savory and sweetness on the same plate.
The service however i’ll give 4 stars since it was a little rushed and lacked a friendly attitude. Nevertheless its certainly on top of my fav eateries in atlanta.

Wisteria blew me out of the water. A few of us came for dinner since it was Inman Park Restaurant Week. I thought their $ 25 menu looked sexy until I saw their $ 35 menu and had no words. Overall, their appetizers were the best part of the meal, and if I had the choice, I might just go back next time and order a bunch of appetizers and one entrée to split with others. One entrée is enough to fill you up, let alone add appetizers and desserts.
ATMOSPHERE — 4 Stars
The space is pretty cozy and tight — not much walking room. We made the mistake of waiting inside near the bar but it took our table a while to get set up so we ended up blocking a lot of server’s paths. If the table isn’t ready, I’d recommend waiting outside. The lights are dim, but not too dark — photos will still turn out without flash (but barely). The noise levels I thought were a bit loud and had trouble hearing the person next to me. Overall clean space, but not much of a wow factor with décor.
PIMENTO CHEESE DEVILED EGGS — 5 Stars
There were 3 halves of eggs with pimento cheese mixed well into the egg yolk, and there was one pickled okra split down the middle on the side, and two spiced pecans also on the side. Originally I thought they would’ve diced up the pickled okra to make a relish on top of the deviled eggs, but it was fine on the side as well. It reminded me of when you get a meat and cheese board and they put other flavors on the side. Overall, very very tasty deviled eggs.
CRAB BISQUE SOUP — 5 Stars
Amazing. You could taste the pieces of crab meat in the soup, and it had quite a nice flavor and substance. I would definitely recommend it.
PORK BELLY AND SCALLOPS — 5 Stars
Normally I shy away from scallops in fear of it being too rubbery or with a lack of flavor, but I tried my friend’s scallops along with pork belly and they were FANTASTIC. There was so much flavor, and the textures were absolute perfection. The pork belly melted in my mouth.
FRIED CALAMARI — 5 Stars
Again, this was so flavorful and delicious. The cornmeal that they used with the calamari was an interesting touch and I liked it. The calamari itself was a little too soft for my liking, but the flavors were all spot on, especially the sweet and sour apricot sauce and the wasabi cream dip.
MOLASSES-​RUBBED PORK TENDERLOIN — 4 Stars
The pork tenderloin was cooked perfectly! This dish is also super paleo friendly (once you remove the fried onion rings) — it has meat, sweet potatoes soufflé, and a onion/​apple/​walnut relish. If I wanted a nice place to go out to celebrate with friends but were on the paleo diet, I’d come here. Only complaint was that it could’ve used more punch in the sauce.
BLACK ANGUS TOP SIRLOIN — 4 Stars
This steak costs an extra $ 5 on top of the $ 35 dinner price for restaurant week. It was a nice steak and all, but I wouldn’t say it’d make it to my list of memorable steaks I’ve had in my life. The braised greens mac and cheese, however, was the best mac and cheese in my life hands down. I really loved what the braised greens brought to balance out the richness of the mac and cheese. It was A LOT of food though, so order this if you are pretty hungry or don’t mind packing mac n cheese for lunch the next day.
PAN SEARED SKATE WING — 5 Stars
The flavor of the actual skate was phenomenal. I could’ve devoured this dish with no problem. It came with asparagus and grits. Of all the entrees that I tried tonight, I think the Skate was my favorite main dish.
THREE PIECE DESSERT SAMPLER — 4 Stars
This was one of my most pleasant dessert experiences because it comes with 3 things! Lemon Pecan Bar, which was the best lemon bar of my life — full texture without being too sour or sweet and topped with a light and delicious whipped cream. The carrot cake was really sweet but since it only took 3 bites to finish, it was a nice break to the other desserts. Finally, the fudge tart with Mexican chocolate ice cream — the fudge tart was a bit too dense and dry for my liking, and the Mexican chocolate ice cream wasn’t as spicy as I thought it would be. The lemon bar was my favorite.
SERVICE — 5 Stars
Our waiter was super friendly, super fast, and super knowledgeable. Our entrees came out almost right after we finished our appetizers, which was very pleasant. He split our checks perfectly as well.
Overall, I had wonderful wonderful experience at Wisteria, and would love to go back again. Thankfully they’ll be participating in Virginia Highlands restaurant week as well!