Anis Cafe & Bistro — Restaurant in Atlanta

Updated based on the owners comments:

Thank you for taking my comments into consideration, but I do find it hard to believe that the table mentioned below is the most requested seat in the house given it was the only one open when we got there. The people seated ahead of us passed on it, and the two couples that ended up with it after we moved were not thrilled. No one was fighting over that table… it was quite the opposite. It wouldn’t have been as terrible if the person on the end (closes to the aisle) didn’t feel like they were sinking into the floor boards.

Maybe we visited this restaurant on an off night, but our overall experience last night was sub par. The parking is street or valet. I made a reservation the same day for 7:30p (the entire evening was open). The ambience was good, but they put us at a table right off the stairs in the middle of the restaurant (which shocked me given we had a reservation for a birthday and there were so many open reservations just a few hours prior to that). The servers were walking past us every two seconds and the flooring didn’t seem stable (I could feel the floor sink when servers walked by).

It took at least 15 minutes for the server to take our drink orders (maybe they’re short staffed). I asked the host if we could move and she allowed it, but didn’t seem overly happy about the request. I would recommend they remove that table from the restaurant. I highly doubt anyone wants to sit there. We received no recommendations or additional information on dishes. The escargot was served without the shell (not typical for this French dish), and the calamari was all breading. Both dishes were cold. The entrees were good and hot. I ordered the Salmon, which was cooked well, and the blue cheese risotto with arugula had great flavor. My fiancé enjoyed a port wine for dessert. In summary, I would not recommend this restaurant. I think they need additional help like many restaurants right now, but I expect great service and high quality food when I spend this amount of...

It was a fun restaurant, lively and with lots of character to its decor. I especially liked the bar,tucked back into the corner of a nook.it was an intimate space,and I could see myself sipping wine there with my wife, lost in conversation for a couple hours. They were just starting to get busy when my party of seven arrived. They had a table set aside for us (hooray reservations!), And we were seated right away. The server was prompt, but stiff in demeanor. He stayed prompt, but cold the whole time. French restaurant, I guess. We ordered cocktails and a table full of appetizers. The cocktails were great! For apps, we got the mussels (tres magnifique!), The carpaccio (equally great), escargot (fantastic!), and calamari. The calamari was the weakest of the lot, but still really good. We eventually ran dry on apps and ordered entrees, plus some bread (some should have come with the mussels) and their soup du jour, which was a really tasty white sweet potato and ginger soup. The entrees came out quickly. Two of us had their steak, which was pretty good, I'm told. Two of us had halibut, and I never heard whether they liked it or not, though they cleared their plates. Two of us had the short rib raviolo. This was a pretty weak dish, in my opinion. It was bland and the sauce a bit watery, making the raviolo soggy. My wife had salmon, which she really loved, particularly the risotto (she wanted more, for sure). Since we're already in for a few pennies, we went in for a few pounds as well and ordered dessert. We split creme brulee, chocolate cake, and banana bread pudding. The creme brulee and bread pudding were amaze-balls and the chocolate cake good, but not particularly memorable. Overall, we had a great time! There were some low points, but it was a nice place. I'll probably be back at some point, but I'm not rushing to do so, as I have about several other restaurants in...

Worst service I have ever experienced at a restaurant. Was a 2 top seated on the patio - waitress came to take our order - 2 apps and a bottle of wine - while we were deciding on our entrees. She came back delivered the bottle and apps - came back to the table once to pour wine and never returned. She was waiting on other tables around us and even paused to look at our empty plates and empty bottle of wine and kept walking right by. She did this several times and chose purposely not to provide our table service or taking our entree order or clearing any of the dirty plates. 45 minutes go by and she still has not stopped at our table all the while carrying on full conversations at other tables. People who got seated after us were now closing their tabs and we have still not ordered our entrees. I had to clear our dirty plates to the empty table next to us. At that time the host came to ask if everything was OK and I told him our server has decided not to wait on us at which point I requested he get us a new server. Darko was our new server and he was great. But considering the terrible service and experience, wasting my time and money at a place a I visit regularly that is in my neighborhood, not enough was done to make up for it. I expect way more from a restaurant where I am spending $250 for two people to dine - especially when there are plenty of great restaurants in Buckhead to where i could have gone and will go to in the future. I also reached out to Anis Cafe directly to tell them my experience before writing a public review and they never responded. Pretty much lines up with my service that night. I wont be...