Village Tavern — Restaurant in Alpharetta

One of those places that has a smattering of a lot of different foods, so there’s a little something for everybody. I’m seeing Korean cauliflower all over the place lately, so it’s that type of restaurant. It’s the type of restaurant you can always count on to have a piece of salmon and a steak. The type of place with Caesar salad and some sort of Alfredo or other type of pasta. There will probably be some sort of Ahi tuna salad on the menu. Or other sushi type bowl. It’s not the type of place where you’re going get a lot of local food or a lot of super creative fare. This is not going to be far to table with ingredients from the farmers market. But they’re going to do the basics.

This is down the street from my in-laws house, so it’s a wonderful location.

And the place feels nice and bright and festive with high ceilings but at the same time it’s not too brightly lit, and it has a fireplace so it adds some warmth.

So why three stars? Well the appetizers seem to be the highlight. It has been decades since I’ve had bacon wrapped scallops. I think it was the 70s. They were very good. Nice big scallops.

Korean cauliflower was very good. Well seasoned. Again, they’re picking up on that dish which seems to be popping up everywhere over the last couple of years.

The entrées were only OK.

Bbq chicken flatbread was okay. Nothing special.

Beef tacos were good. The beef was tender. The flavor was OK.

My mother-in-law had the chicken Alfredo. She said it was also okay.

The other dishes were also just OK. They were good. Some veered into very good. They certainly were not excellent, but they were a good version of a standard food.

I think our Real issue is that we ordered a bunch of appetizers, and they all came out before our drinks. And then the server really didn’t come to the table to take our food until our appetizers were done. I even flagged him down and asked him to come to the table, and he did, but it was after a little bit. I will say the server was very very very nice. But it didn’t seem too busy, so I’m wondering why we didn’t have more attention. Again, he was lovely. But he just wasn’t around when we were looking for him. We absolutely should’ve put in our food order before we finished our appetizers.

Also, the drinks were good, but I had asked for a tequila old-fashioned and I was brought a regular old-fashioned. I really hesitated to bring it back, because I was with my in-laws, and that’s sort of embarrassing. It was also my second drink and I didn’t want to draw a lot of attention to it as we were trying to finish up our meal. If the server had been more available I would’ve mentioned it, but I certainly didn’t want to spend time flagging him down and making everybody feel awkward to correct the drink. Also, it’s a real issue for me when somebody other than the server drops the food. They had two or three other people that we had never seen before drop the food, and the server should either be with them when that happens or come by two seconds later to see if we needed anything else. All the dishes were correct, but we wanted a couple of different things, like I wanted the second drink and somebody wanted extra mayo etc. So if unknown people drop the dishes and then leave, there’s no real way to ask for that. And if you do ask the people who drop the dishes…They’re not really your server, so they tend to forget.

So overall the experience was between a three and four. I’d say like a 3.3. Certainly the food is good and it’s a very convenient location and again, the restaurant seemed cozy and yet also bright. But next time I would love if we had a server who was a bit more attentive. For $20+ entrées and $20 appetizers we would expect a little bit more attention. I would like to end by saying once again he was very very nice. Just not as available...

Beautiful restaurant building, nice bathrooms, elegant dining room. Sat in the bar area. The only unoccupied tables were still covered in leftover dishes, likely for want of bussers to clean the tables promptly. It is loud during the dinner hour—over 85 dB. I like to eat alone and to be left in peace, and if you appreciate quiet keep this in mind. Servers were stretched thin. My server Payton was very attentive and worked fast considering the volume of clients. She was friendly and polite, and brought me napkins and silverware and refilled my drink often. My Coke tasted funny and I asked for a Sprite instead, which she brought quickly.

I ordered the pork chops with garlic mashed potatoes and macaroni and cheese. Taking into account how busy the restaurant was, I was happy with the time I waited for my meal to arrive. The pork chop was delicious and cooked medium. If you like your pork well-done make sure to specify this to your server. I like mine pink. The pork chop could have in benefited from a harder sear, and I would've loved char from an open flame, but it was tasty nonetheless. The apple chutney was fine, as long as you are aware that a chutney is not as sweet a pairing for your pork chop as an applesauce would be. I would have preferred applesauce myself. The chutney tasted of the refrigerator, cold and stale, but that is only natural: This condiment is used in only one dish, a dish that is likely not their biggest seller, so I imagine they can't just make a fresh batch every day. Perhaps the kitchen may consider ditching the chutney. The macaroni and cheese needed more spice for my taste. It was not creamy. They seemingly use very good cheese because very good cheese makes dry macaroni. They had ought to make a rich cheese sauce, maybe with a creamy American cheese as a base, so that it coats the noodles. The cheese was tasty, as was the breadcrumb topping. The garlic mashed potatoes wanted garlic. My biggest concern with the mashed potatoes however was the texture. I would advise that the restaurant switch from using russets to a more forgiving Yukon gold to avoid the graininess of overcooked potatoes. I would prefer richer potatoes in general, and would've been pleased had they whipped more cream and butter into their mashed potatoes.

And then I ordered the butter cake. I had read reviews of it and I had to try it. It was unbelievable! When I took a few bites, Payton asked me what I thought of it. Of course, she knew the answer. The hype is real for the butter cake. It was very hot, and it tasted fresh. But the cake isn't anything special without the scoop of delicious vanilla ice cream on top that pairs well with the warm cake. But even more so, the tartness of fresh berries scattered liberally around the cake compliments its richness to such a degree that I would not eat the cake without them.

My review can be summarized in this way: I expected more out of the food than I got. This left me disappointed with the shortcomings of an otherwise good meal, save the dessert which was remarkable. Order the butter cake! And finally, if you're a single diner I wouldn't recommend a restaurant that is more suitable as a gathering place to talk and catch up with a...

We have been to Village Tavern several times in the past 10 years. The first several visits were excellent, including one particular night we sat outside on the terrace with a very talented live musician playing outside.

Unfortunately, about 6 years ago they changed their menu and did away with every single one of our favorite dishes, which we could not believe since everyone we brought there loved those meals. Then to make matters worse, we were not impressed with the others that we tried and both the food and our cocktails became consistently inconsistent. Even though we tried half a dozen more times, each time we left more frustrated that something we found would be good once and then would be terrible the next time or two we'd try. Eventually we just took it off our list of restaurants that we rotated to completely.

Today I decided to look up online one of our old favorite meals we used to get here to see how to make it myself (a farfalle bowtie pasta, with chicken, sun-dried tomatoes, and parmesan sauce). While researching, I saw the current menu. There were several things on the menu today that looked really good so we decided to give it another try.

Dago was our server and he was fantastic. He was such a pleasure to talk to, and he shared several fun facts about our meals, drinks, the Dominican Republic where he is from, and just life in general. He made our evening out a really nice experience and was an excellent and engaging server.

The food that we tried was equally as good and reminded us of the meals we had when we first came almost 10 years ago. I had a braised-beef quesadilla (which, although was listed in the small meals section was still a full plateful of food) with an amazing au jus sauce, and my wife had a great spinach salad with incredibly delicious fresh salmon. I also LOVED their Spirited Old Fashioned and she had a really good Cosmo Martini. The prior several visits our cocktails have been terrible but tonight they nailed them!

Thankfully, Village Tavern seems to have turned a corner and we plan to come back again soon, both to experience Dago's personality as well as the...