South City Kitchen, Atlanta

I was in Atlanta recently for a work summit, and of course, I did my research before my visit to scope out some restaurants to try if I got a free night.  I quickly determined that southern food was going to be my priority, and I was quite pleased when I saw our event hosts had a planned dinner (a full restaurant buyout!), for our group at one of the places on my short list of southern places to check out in the first place: South City Kitchen.

"Southern Hospitality with a Modern Twist." 

South City Kitchen is a bit more upscale than many of the others on my list, not just featuring fried proteins and long list of comfort food sides, but rather, more composed entrees and a curated selection of paired sides.  But of course, they do still have fried chicken, biscuits & cornbread, and other southern essentials.

Venue - Midtown

"We believe that great food isn't just about taste—it's about experience. At South City Kitchen, we serve familiar favorites with an unexpected twist, inviting you to rediscover Southern classics in an atmosphere that feels like home but with a bit more elegance. Come as you are, and leave with a memory."

South City Kitchen has four locations; I visited the one in Midtown Atlanta. It is open for breakfast and lunch weekdays, brunch on weekends, and dinner all nights. Our visit was at 6pm dinner.

Large Group Dining.

We had the entire restaurant as a buyout, as our group was supposed to be around 125 people.  However, things didn't quite go as planned, as mother nature decided to showcase a "once in a lifetime" event the week we were supposed to be in Atlanta (a location picked to be east coast but warmer than our other offices, ha!), and had a crazy cold snap with snow across Texas, Florida, and yes, Georgia.  At last minute, the organizers cancelled our in-person summit, and pivoted it to be virtual.  But myself, and some others, were already en route, and venues we had rented out did not allow cancellation with literally just two days notice, so thus, our intimate group of  <20 had an entire restaurant to ourselves.  It made the trip that much more memorable, but certainly makes this review a bit of a special case.

Our group was broken into two tables, each with different service staff. They did serve us basically all at once, and seemed quite adept at handling groups like this.  The meal was well paced for the most part, about 20 mins between courses, plates and cutlery cleared between courses, drinks kept refilled.  The only qualm I have with the service is that our appetizers came a full 10 minutes before I received my glass of wine, even though I ordered that as soon as we were seated.   I really like to pair my food with my drink, and I either had to just wait while things got cold, or eat without a drink (which, I did).

Food & Drink

Since our group was supposed to be 125 people, we had a special menu.

Event Menu.

The large event menu mostly draws from their regular menu, and features all of their most popular dishes. I was pleased that it wasn't going to be a buffet, or limited to the standard "beef, chicken, vegetarian" main dish choices. Instead, the format was 3 large family style starters for the table, individual choice of soup or salad, and then a choice of not the standard three, but 7 (!) options for individual main dishes (all with different sides).  And dual desserts.  Not a choice of dessert, but "&".  I was thrilled by that part in particular, to say the least.

A great lineup, but I sadly found the meal pretty average.

Red Blend Mending Wall 'Mortar and Stone'. $22.

For drinks, our hosts didn't have any restrictions, so the full cocktail menu and wine list were on offer.  I went for a glass of red wine, a red blend I had heard good things about.

I really enjoyed it.  It was complex, robust, smooth.  A generous pour.  I'd get this again without hesitation.  ****.

First Flavors

Our meal started with a trio of family style appetizers, dubbed "First Flavors" on the regular menu, along with South City Kitchen's signature breads.  Two of the three appetizers are southern classics from their regular menu, one was a bit of a hybrid of some of their other dishes only done for groups.  The meal started off with a high from one of the appetizers, and went downhill for me for the savory food from there.

Bread Basket.

Very soon after we were seated, bread baskets were brought out.  All diners, not just large groups like us, always get a bread basket, complimentary.  We also had butter on the table waiting for us.  The bread was warm.

Inside the basket was two kinds of bread: cornbread muffins at the base, and biscuits on top. Given so many rave reviews about both, I had high expectations for them, and I was kinda let down.  Both were barely average for me, and definitely not what I expected from a decent southern restaurant.  They seemed kinda generic hotel buffet quality, particularly the biscuits.

Cornbread Muffin / Biscuit.

Biscuit:
The biscuits were kinda dry.  Not much flavor.  No buttermilk tang.  Butter helped, but still these just had  underwhelming flavor.  They were well baked, lightly golden on top, but not flaky.  Low ***.  A biscuit can, and should, particularly in the south, be so much better.

Cornbread Muffin:

The muffins were a bit better.  I liked that they had some whole kernels of corn in them.  Golden tops.  But still, not remarkable.  ***.

The butter was just whipped butter.  I wanted honey butter, or a compound flavored butter.  Eh.

Pimento Cheese.

"Our b&b pickles, celery, benne seed crackers."

First up, pimento cheese, a menu regular.  Such a southern thing.  A dish unfamiliar to many at the table.  I appreciated it for being good exposure to southern cuisine for folks, and for being a homemade version.  It was decent. Lots of chopped pimentos, bit of kick.  ***. 

The dippers though were a let down.   The celery clearly had been prepped way in advance.  The ends of each piece, every single one, were dried out, white or brown.  It just wasn't fresh, and it was obvious.  The benne seed crackers were fine, but most of us just used our biscuits with the spread, as they were better.  Eh.  *+.

The pickles though ... I really did like them.  Sliced not too thick, not too thin.  Super high acid, which I liked.  Some onions.  Slightly sweet, but mostly nice bite to them.  I bet they'd be great with the pulled pork.  ****.

This platter went mostly unfinished.  The celery was visibly not fresh, we all had biscuits instead of crackers to spread stuff on, so those were basically untouched.  The pimento cheese was good, but was awkward to just eat as an appetizer.   I think it would be good as a spread on a sandwich or burger (which they do have on the lunch menu).  I gladly took the rest of the pickles home with me.

Fried Green Tomatoes.

"Goat cheese, red pepper coulis."

Sigh.  I love fried green tomatoes.  Love them.  Crispy fried things, yes.  Juicy tomatoes, yes.  Usually some kind of remoulade.  Absolutely yes.  Such a southern classic, yes.  A menu staple at SCK.  But ... South City Kitchen puts a spin on these, and makes them with a very hefty layer of goat cheese inside.  More like a jalapeño popper style, but with goat cheese instead of cream cheese.  Every review I read mentioned just how goat cheese-y they were.  I loathe goat cheese.

My aversion to goat cheese is so high that I actually didn't try one.  They looked crispy, the group seemed happy, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it.  Sadness.

Pulled Pork BBQ.

"Scallion hoe cakes, bbq sauce, horseradish slaw."

Our last starter is not from the regular menu.  However, the lunch menu does have a pulled pork bbq sandwich with presumably the same pulled pork and slaw, just on a bun, instead of on a hoecake.  Hoecakes are not on the menu at all.  I appreciated that they didn't just do these slider style, but adapted in this way.

The hoe cake is the element I was most excited for.  It was ... ok.  Kinda greasy, soggy as it was at the base of this mound.  I didn't taste scallion.  Still more interesting than a bun, but not crispy, and no real cornmeal flavor I could taste.  **.

The pulled pork was good, others remarked being pleased it wasn't greasy as pulled pork so often can be.  It was moist, juicy, tender.  The BBQ sauce was a bit pedestrian, but relatively balanced, not too sweet, a bit of smoke.  ***.

The slaw was the best element, and my absolute favorite bite of the whole meal.  It was fresh, crisp, creamy, well dressed, flavorful with a bit of kick from horseradish and a smoky nature.  Excellent slaw.  I wish I could get a big bowl of just that!  ****.

This dish did come together pretty nicely, particularly with the pickles from the pimento cheese platter, and it mostly made me more curious about the pulled pork sandwich.  My favorite of the savory dishes, but I probably wouldn't order it again (I'd just ask for that slaw!).

Soup & Salad

Next up, we had our first decision.  A choice of a very simple salad (as in, literally, just lettuces with viniagrette and cheese) or soup.  The regular menu has both of these items (the soup available as cup or bowl), along with more interesting salads, e.g. a caesar with crispy okra and grit croutons, all of which you can add grilled or fried chicken, sauteed or fried shrimp, or grilled salmon to.

This course was served after the first round of First Tastes had been cleared, our share plates and cutlery removed, and fresh utensils brought out.  It was a slightly amusing course in that the soup portion was really quite small, a tiny cup, and the salad was served in an amusing large bowl with huge hunks of lettuce ("it was like a whole head of lettuce in there!", the others said).  Yet the soup was very rich, and the salad literally just lettuce and extremely light.  The dichotomy between them was amusing laid out on the table.

She-Crab Soup.  Cup. $7.

"Cream, sherry."

While I'm not normally all that excited about soups, this one featured crab (an ingredient I have a label for on my blog for a reason as I opt for it whenever possible!), and it was a bisque, and hey, I like cream, so it was an easy choice for me.  

It was such a let down for me.  The crab you see on top, the single spoonful, was all the crab there was.  There was absolutely no other crab incorporated in.  One bite.  That is it.  I didn't get much of a sense of the taste of it from that sole bite. 

The body of the soup was extremely rich.  It coated the spoon in a way that wasn't very appealing.  It coated my entire mouth in the same way.  I love creamy, but this was just cream.  It was also fairly under seasoned.  I would have loved some kick, but even just some basic seasoning would really have helped.  I added salt & pepper from the shakers on the table to improve it.  The oil on top didn't match well with it either.

Alas, a complete miss for me.  *+.

Southern Inspirations

We had a whopping 7 choices for our main dish.  All but one come straight from their regular menu.  All their top dishes: the signature fried chicken, pork chop, shrimp & grits, and trout.  A token steak.  Two vegetarian options.  At my table (8? people) we had one pork chop, one steak, one vegetarian, and the rest all fried chicken.  The other table, had mostly fried chicken as well, with one person getting the trout.

I had a hard time deciding between the shrimp & grits (particularly as I know people love it at SCK, and I had a version on my Delta flight to Atlanta that was decent in some ways, but not others and left me wanting the real thing), the trout (because I love fish, and people rave about the crispy skin), and, um, one of the vegetarian dishes.  

Spiced Cauliflower. $19.

"Bbq’d peanuts, green tomato chow chow."

For my main dish, I made a bit of an odd selection.  One of the two vegetarian options, even though I'm not vegetarian, and I was pretty excited by both of the seafood options (shrimp & grits, or trout), both of which get great reviews.  But I was really craving cauliflower after having the mediocre version the night before at The Office Bar, I had seen several rave reviews of this dish, and our server talked it up.

It was a unique dish.  Very unlike anything I've had before.  At the base was the peanut sauce, "bbq'd peanuts", which were chopped, and sorta sauce-like.  But it didn't taste strongly of bbq flavor (which I really did want), and it certainly wasn't like a Thai style peanut sauce.  I enjoy peanuts, but this just wasn't a compelling condiment.  It was relatively low flavor somehow, not even particularly strong in the peanut taste.  This was a cold element.  *+.

Then of course, the cauliflower.  It was nicely charred, but a bit too soft for my taste, and again, just didn't taste like much.  It definitely lacked seasoning.  I believe it was supposed to be a hot/warm dish, but it was mildly lukewarm.  This I suspect was a victim of large group dining.  It was basically just quite boring.  Served as individual pieces, not a "cauliflower steak" as some restaurants do for a main dish.  **.

And then, the green tomato chow chow.  Here we had a real burst of southern cuisine.  This did have flavor, some vinegar, lots of red pepper (which, sadly, I don't love), onion, a little bit of green tomato, and lots of celery.  I did really like the celery.  Flavor, and interesting bits here, but still not something I found myself wanting more of.  It was also barely lukewarm. **.  

Overall, yes, there were 3 layers of components, and they were interesting, and it was unique, but there wasn't a single part of it that made me want another bite, and they didn't combine together to anything better than their individual parts.  I really regretted my choice.  Low, low **.

This dish is actually on the regular menu as a starter, er, "First Flavors", but it was an entree for us, I suspect slightly bigger portion?

Springer Mountain Farms Fried Chicken. $25. 

"Garlic collards, mashed yukon gold potatoes, honey-thyme jus."

The most popular dish at the restaurant, and the one our server definitely talked up, of course is the fried chicken.  The majority of my group got this.

They all seemed happy.  One diner remarked about how incredible a bite with all components from the plate together was.  The only slightly negative remark was around how plating it with the jus like this meant the base got soggy.

I did try the mashed potatoes, and they were quite good.  Rich, thick, rustic chunky style.  Mashed potatoes that I'd have a hard time not finishing.  **** potatoes.

Dessert

The regular menu has just 3 items on it.  Simple and to the point: southern favorite banana pudding,  chocolate bundt cake, and a seasonal hand pie.  I was definitely hoping the pudding would make an appearance on our menu, as I just adore pudding (hence, why my blog has a label dedicated to it).  I was also interested in the hand pie, because, pie!

We did have the pudding AND another southern classic, pecan pie (well, tart).  This isn't on their regular menu.  We were each served both, which I appreciated, but others who are less into dessert thought was too much.

Banana Pudding / Chocolate Pecan Tart.

Banana Pudding

"Banana pudding, banana jam, vanilla wafer, caramel, chantilly."

First up, the one I was most excited for, the banana pudding.  It was served as an individual trifle, not tiny, but reasonable individual size.  Served in these fairly narrow cups it was a bit hard to get a "perfect bite", as the spoon couldn't quite reach down all the way.  The first several bites were basically just whipped cream.  Good, thick, rich, house made whipped cream, don't get me wrong, and I love whipped cream, but, that is basically all we had on top.  It made up at least half the cup!  Oh, and of course the Nila wafer perched on top.  Great whipped cream, ***+, but, just out of balance, so *** overall.

Below that, was the banana jam, and that I really did enjoy.  Sweetened, stewed banana.  Yum.  ****. There were also some fresh banana slices, but just two in my cup.  

And finally, the base, which I guess was some banana pudding, but there wasn't much of it, and it was way at the bottom, so we barely got to taste it.  It was creamy, and had some banana flavor I think, but, the banana jam was so flavorful it was hard to distinguish.  It could easily have been basic instant pudding.  ***.

I don't think there were any vanilla wafers within, which honestly was fine with me, but I did miss the textural component of the softed cake-like wafers in a traditional banana pudding.

Basically, sure, I like whipped cream, and the banana jam was tasty, but this didn't come together all that well, at least as served in these little jars.  I think the version on the regular menu ($10) is larger, and has additional toppings/mix-ins?  *** because I still polished it off, but, banana pudding can be so much better.

Chocolate Pecan Tart

The chocolate pecan tart isn't on their regular menu, although it has been at times in the past (as has a pecan pie).  I love pecan pie, and Georgia is known for pecans, so this is another one that I do generally love, but ... you may read my blog regularly enough to know how I feel about tarts in general (compared to pie crust, or really, most other bases for dessert).  I also was a bit sad because it had chocolate, and I avoid caffeine at night, so I had to save for the next day.

Others commented that it was just too sweet, particularly alongside the banana pudding, and that it was too much whipped cream, given the mound on top of here and the entire top half of the pudding.  They also said they didn't think it actually had chocolate, despite being called a "chocolate pecan tart" on our menu (besides the visible drizzle of chocolate sauce on the plate).  I still brought mine home and waited to try it, as I prefer my pecan pie warm, with ice cream anyway.

They were right - there was no chocolate in here.  I *could* have eaten it fresh that night!  Regardless, I enjoyed the next day, probably even more than they did, as I heated mine up a bit, and did serve it with some vanilla ice cream.  It was a good little tart.

The tart shell was better than average, not just a generic compressed slightly sweet form, it was definitely thicker, darker, and more flavorful than most.  I didn't mind it at all, although of course I'd prefer flaky pie crust.  ***+ shell.

The filling was pretty classic pecan pie.  Crunch from pecans, nice level of sweetness, gooey.  Nothing surprising like honey or maple, just likely corn syrup, which truthfully is what I think makes a good pecan pie anyway.  ***+ filling, although the ratio of filling to tart shell left me wanting more filling.

I wouldn't go out of my way for this, and I still prefer pie over a tart (more filling, better shell), but this was good, and I'd happily eat another.  ***+.