Dining at the Epicurean Hotel, Atlanta

During a recent trip to Atlanta, I stayed at the Epicurean Hotel (which, I loved, for so many reasons!).  During my time there, I did check out the main hotel restaurant for breakfast twice, and attended a private reception at one of their other dining establishments.  Sadly the food was not the high point really, a surprise for a brand so focused on being, well, Epicurean, but everything else about the hotel was exceptional (the rooms, the staff, etc, etc).  But this is Julie's Dining Club, and thus, the focus here is on dining.

Reverence, Breakfast

Reverence is the hotel restaurant, open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, plus weekend brunch.

I opted to do a la carte my first morning, and to get my food to go, but I did look at the buffet before making my decision, and it did look good.  I noticed they allowed that togo as well (others were packing up boxes), which I appreciate as someone who often needs to eat hotel breakfast pretty quickly before heading to the office.

Buffet

The buffet is served weekends (and holidays) only, for brunch, 9am-1pm.  It is a whopping $38/pp, as tends to be standard for hotels.  I didn't partake, but did walk through so I could share here with photos.

Buffet Lineup.

I did appreciate that they provided a menu lineup of the buffet, although that indicates that it doesn't really change much. 

Seasonal Fresh Fruit.

First up, sliced fruits: cantaloupe | honeydew | pineapple | watermelon | orange.

Seasonal Berries.

Then the nicer fruits - berries! Strawberry | blueberry | blackberry | raspberry.

Breads & Spreads.

Basic sliced multigrain & wheat bread with toppings: jam | marmalade | honey | butter.

Hot Foods.

There were 5 different hot items in these stoneware serving dishes, your classic breakfast meats (bacon, chicken sausage), carbs (roast potatoes, grits), and scrambled eggs.

Chef Egg Station.

If you wanted made-to-order eggs instead, a chef was stationed with two burners and fixings for omelets, scrambles, and fried/over easy/etc eggs. 

Omelet Fillings.

tomato | onion | mushroom | jalapeno | spinach | cheddar | mozzarella | goat | feta | bacon | ham | spicy sausage

Cheese & Charcuterie.

Simple assorted cheese, charcuterie, fruit.

Granola Parfait.

I liked the look of the parfaits in the jars, with homemade granola and vanilla greek yogurt.

Regular & Chocolate Croissants.

The pastries looked decent too, freshly baked, nice egg wash shine.

Homemade Cake.

Cake for breakfast! I approve.

Cookies.

And cookies for breakfast? Excellent.  They weren't healthy style cookies either, just, regular cookies.  For breakfast.  Rules don't apply when traveling right?

A la carte menu

Breakfast / Lunch Menu.

I ordered from the a la carte menu, that really was fairly small on brunch days: only 7 main dishes, and some very basic sides.  3 healthy lighter dishes, 1 full breakfast with eggs, 1 sweet carbs, 1 interesting hash variation.  That was it.  My first choice was easy though, I'm all about dessert masquerading as breakfast, so, the French toast it was.  My second order was a bit random, just to try something.

My food was ready within 15 minutes, and came with all utensils and everything needed.

Tiramisu French Toast.  $17.

"Coffee mousseline | white chocolate crumble | macerated strawberries & blackberries."

Ok, so this looked worse for the wear when I opened my box. I'm sure it looks much better when served in the restaurant.  But alas, the toppings were so lofty that they hit, and stuck to, the lid of the box, so I opened it to find this.

Looks aside, this was good.  The base was very very thick slices of puffy brioche.  It didn't really seem to have much French toast eggyness to it, which I liked, as that's the one thing about French toast that I don't generally care for.  Rather, it was just moist inside, and lightly crispy outside.  Dusted with powdered sugar to make a bit sweet.  A good base, better than most French toast, particularly for my preferences.  ***+.

The coffee mousseline was very good.  Rich, creamy, really strong coffee flavor.  I could eat it like a coffee mousse and be more than happy.  I didn't necessarily taste "tiramisu", e.g. it was missing the mascarpone component, and there wasn't anything ladyfinger about this either, nor a dusting of cocoa, but, it was certainly coffee forward, and quite enjoyable.  ****.

The white chocolate crumble might have been nicely perched on top before it got ruined in my box, but I didn't really find it.  The macerated berries were good and rounded the dish out.  It also came with maple syrup, that was a bit thick and perhaps not real.

Overall, it was good, easily could be seen as dessert (particularly if you just added a scoop of ice cream or whipped cream), but it wasn't too over the top decadent to be breakfast/brunch.  I'd still consider it more of a thick brioche toast with coffee cream than "tiramisu" exactly, but that doesn't quite roll off the tongue as easily.

Acai Bowl.  $16.

"Acai blended with bananas | honey | peanut butter | granola | assorted fresh fruits."

This one was a strange order on my part, but I have two friends who had both been talking about their love of acai bowls recently, and I was curious to see if I too could love acai bowls.  Plus, I wanted the (housemade) granola and berries anyway.

It too looked a bit silly in the box square box, I'm sure much prettier in an actual glass bowl where you can see the lovely acai base, but hey, it worked.

The fruit on top was fresh, vibrant, ripe, very good.  It was late January, but the fruit really was mid-summer quality.  ****.

The granola was good, a very toasted style, loaded up with lots of crunchy seeds.  No big chunks as I do kinda like, but for an acai bowl, this made sense.  Much better than generic granola.  ***+.

And then the base.  That ... was not a success for me.  It was very bitter.  I didn't taste any of the promised honey, nor the peanut butter really.  And it was more melty than I think it should have been.  Kinda just cold bitter thick liquid.  Maybe I just don't like acai.  Maybe this wasn't very good.  I'm not sure, but I really didn't care for the base at all.  *.

Overall, I salvaged the toppings, but I clearly wouldn't get this again.

The Office Bar, Evening Social

Our first night we had a welcome reception at The Office Bar, a separate space run by the Epicurean, but in the building across the courtyard, not the same building as the hotel and Reverence (where they do have another, smaller, hotel bar).

"An ideal spot to grab lunch on the go, wind down those last few hours of work with a cold one in hand, or catch a game on one of our five oversized LED TVs. Transform your casual afternoon outing into a cozy nightcap at The Office Bar."

We had a small buffet set up, which featured all items from their regular menu.  The food was highly underwhelming, worse than expected really.

Cheese / Charcuterie.

I tried one triple creme cheese that didn't really have any flavor, not even in the rind, and some berries, that weren't particularly ripe (the breakfast fruit was much better).  Not a great lineup.  Nothing looked particularly appealing on the charcuterie platter (no pates, no pickles, just salami).

Flatbreads.

I didn't try any of the three flatbreads that were a thin wafer style.

Short Rib Sliders.

"Romaine | kansas bbq | buttermilk dressing."

I didn't grab one of the sliders on my first round at the buffet, and when I saw that the few people who did didn't bother finish theirs, I wasn't inspired to try them.

Baja Shrimp Tacos.

"Beer battered | chipotle aioli | cabbage slaw | pickled onion."

I had seen reviews of the shrimp tacos not being great, even when served fresh for regular guests (not as event buffet), but, I really do like fried shrimp, and aioli, so I was still hopeful.  And ... yeah.  They just had far too much batter that wasn't particularly good, WAY too much aioli, and a bunch of harsh pickled onions.  Some of the issue was certainly just sloppy assembly, but the flavors weren't balanced, and they were just too heavy in not delicious indulgent ways.  *+.

Fried Curry Cauliflower.

"Homemade hot sauce | buttermilk dressing."

The dish I was most looking forward to, and perhaps the best thing we had, was the fried curry cauliflwoer ... but that isn't saying much.

Like the shrimp, the cauliflower just had way way too much batter on it.  Very greasy, and just tons of batter.  There was some curry spicing, so that made it interesting at least, but most people just ended up discarding batter carcases on their plates (which was easy, as they fell apart as you tried to eat anyway).  The cauliflower was juicy and moist inside.

The buffalo sauce did have some kick, the ranch was ranch.  Both creamy, and flavorful, but not entirely great matches for the strong curry flavor.  *+.