Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Restaurant Review: Waterhaven

Note: pardon my spelling, spell check didn't seem to work. I know there are mistakes, but there are just too many and I am too lazy to check that many words.

So as part of Atlanta (ha, I almost said Cleveland) restaurant week (well, there were two Atlanta restaurant weeks and this was part of the first one) you could go to a variety of restaurants and get a 3 course meal for $25. Now this is certainly more than I usually spend on a meal, but I will splurge from time to time. We chose Waterhaven since it seemed to be what we could most agree on. Plus it's very near the Georgia Tech campus, making convenience a plus. However, we don't think it will do very well with business since it is in "Tech Square" a primarily student oriented block, and it is out of the price range of your typical college student. At least for your typical college student to patronize regularly. But it was good. I would give it an "above average" rating.

Appetizers
We ordered everything on the restaurant week menu: lamb sliders, calamari, fried green tomatoes, lemon caesar salad, and hummus plate. The lamb sliders were awesome and came with a yogurt sauce with a little flavor (I do not remember what the flavor was, but it complemented the lamb very well) and coolness on the lamb patty. The fried green tomatoes were pretty average, at least from my experience with fried green tomatoes. They basically tasted fried. The lemon caesar salad was fantastic and very summery. The lemon covered up the excessive anchovy taste that I hate and made it taste very fresh. Speaking of lemon and freshness, the hummus was very lemony, and we all loved that. It was refreshing without being compromising the essence of hummus. And we are all big hummus fans.

Entrees
Between the six of us, we only ordered three entrees: Trout, Steak and Oxtails. I'd say the two I tried, Steak and Oxtails (I ordered the oxtails) were very good but relatively safe. The steak was topped with carmelized onions, which are a pretty classic pairing. The oxtails were tasty, I had never had oxtails before. They taste like red meat, but are very, very tender, they basically fall off the bone. They came with herbed potato dumplings which were a nice texture, less dense than what I've had before, which was good because the meat was plenty filling, though they were still pretty firm and cut well which was good for sharing. But like I said, there was nothing exceptional about either dish, they were just very well done, but obviously not that memorable.

Dessert
Clearly I judge restaurants based on their desserts. There were only two (at least on the special menu): Chocolate Icebox Pie and Creme Brulee. Two of the six ordered the creme brulee and claimed that the rest of us would wish we had chosen that and want to eat lots of theirs. Of course I knew this was false since I always like dessert with chocolate, especially when I go out. When we got our desserts, the creme brulee enthusists admitted that the creme brulee was great and they were not disappointed with their choice, but that ours was better (though somewhat rich). And the creme brulee was good. Sweet and warm with a creamy, consistent texture. But the chocolate icebox dessert was awesome: a nice thick chocolate mousse with a tasty oreo crust. Delicious, but again, very safe, nothing that unique or memorable.

Oh, and as I type this, I'm watching Food Network as it advertises the new show with Melissa, the winner of Next Food Network Star, who is doing $10 dinners for 4 people, while still making them healthy. She may become my new favorite since that is the type of cooking I try to do (and write about) except when it comes to dessert. Plus she's and AXO.

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