From the owners of Max Lager comes a new nouveau Southern resto... Yeah yeah, not another friggin one in this city that seems all too familiar and similar. But whatever, y'all know I have to see what the fuss is about up in this piece.
Downtown dining is not popular with the locals, they are engineered to cater towards tourists, conventioneers and the work force lunch crowd. By 6 at night, downtown is dead as dead can be. It's basically a ghost town in the "city that's too busy to hate"... What the fuck does that exactly mean anyways? We want to hate but haven't gotten to it yet? Baffling. But anyways, since I'm so busy these days, let's go check out this new spot and see if I'll be hating or congratulating.
Biggest Jenga game in the city. If that shit falls on your head, it ain't gonna tickle.
Part of the dining room. The entire space is quite large with a few private rooms off to the side and in the back. It is nicely designed without a lot of clutter.
BREAD, lots of it. Strawberry raspberry jelly with the mini butter loaf hiding under the napkin was the highlight.
BEAUFORT STEW, roasted prawns, homemade andouille, fingerling potatoes, hominy, smoked pork belly brodo. A tad too thick for a stew but overall the flavors were nice.
CHARCUTERIE, boudin blanc, rabbit rillettes, wild boar pastrami, pickled sunchokes, fennel, fried apples, toasted pumpernickel, rosemary muffins, ciabatta. Having only 2 types of cured meat is not what a charcuterie plate make. They were ok as a charcuterie but would work better in a sandwich. The rabbit rillettes was decent except for the layer of foamy fat on top, not the best presentation but the fat is there for a purpose. Rest of the plate was ok but the grain mustard was nice.You don't need all those fillers for this, just put down some great thinly slice cured meats and that's all you need for a great charcuterie dish.
FOIE GRAS, Tennessee Farms Foie Gras torchon, bacon jam, Hardy Farm's peanuts, banana E-ervescent. I think they called it an Elvis foie gras or other... It's a cute idea but the execution needs work. The torchon were bits and pieces and got lost in the sea of the other elements that adorns this app. It was ok, but I wouldn't order this again until they do some more work on it.
STEAK, cast iron eye of ribeye, barely smoked deckle of beef, tomato pie, mustard greens, white BBQ sauce. Is that a fruit tart??!! Oh, it's a tomato pie... Strange take on it, didn't love it like a classic version. The thick chunk of ribeye was cooked a perfect medium-rare with a few slices of deckle on top. Deckle is prolly one of my favorite cuts if not the top cut... It's what meat dreams of becoming when they grow up.
SHRIMP, gulf white shrimp, low country carolina gold, house made andouille, brillant tomato butter. This is not a shrimp and grits. It's more like shrimp and redneck risotto. It was a well executed dish but kinda boring to me.
SHORT RIB, braised beef short rib au poivre, roasted french beans, pomme frites. A giant hunk of meat that was flavorful, fork tender and cooked well. If you're hungry, get this. The hairy coverts were vibrant and snappy. The skin-on french fries were pretty good, too.
LAMB, sorghum cured rack of lamb, baked ratatouille, sweet potato frites, pepper jelly. Everyone is on the sorghum train, why not rub it all over a rack of lamb... And let me tell ya, this was a nice rack of lamb. Kinda reminded me of Kate Upton doing the Cat Daddy. Nevermind. Lamb was cooked spot on medium-rare, just a beautiful piece of meat. Ratatouille was fine but the sweet tater fwies were really good.
DUCK, roasted muscovey duck breast, sweet potato, bacon terrine, duck confit, okra "hay stack", red-eye ham gravy. There is a lot of stuff going on on this plate... And I liked it. Once again, they did a great job cooking all the meats and the duck breast was no exception, it was near perfect. The confit duck leg was nice as well with a lovely crispy thin skin. I don't want to say it but could it be too many flavors going on here... Nah, more the merrier.
FRIED CHICKEN, caramel fried chicken, pickled vegetable, pan gravy, fleur de sel potato chips. Tip: make sure you have them put the pan gravy on the side or else that chicken will look like it just came off a porno set. The crust was very nice, seasoned well and super crispy. The meat was tender but coulda been a little juicier. For this price point, you would expect some dark meat (which is a must for any respectable fried chicken dish) like a leg or a thigh or both. The pickled veggies were so-so and the pan gravy was a little sweet, especially, when combined with that caramel sauce. Not a bad fried chicken at all, pretty decent for a new joint. Just include some dark meat for crying out loud. The chips were thin and fried nicely.
RED VELVET. A rather large heaping of a slice... But a few dusting of red stuff on a chocolate cake make not a red velvet cake. It was a bit dry and I was not a fan. No wonder why I'm not a dessert person.
While the meats were all cooked well to the requested temp and tasted great... There were other things that didn't make the grade. I'm not going to nit pick all the little things to death but hopefully they will work it all out in time. I like this resto and it has promise to be a consistent one even though the menu is not exactly grounding breaking. The cocktail menu is average with some decent originals. They seem rather content on doing proven dishes that will taste good and sell well because it's familiar to most people, whether it's a local or a tourist. I would like them to be a little bit more adventurous on the menu in the future, until then it's a safe bet. Oh, and the service was friendly and attentive... Mebbe it had something to do with it being empty on a Sunday night.
2 Stars.
270 Peachtree Street NE
Atlanta, GA 30303
(404) 524-7200
http://whiteoakkitchen.com/
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