Atrium - American Bistro & Martini Bar — Restaurant in Atlanta

My wife and I love trying new restaurants in Atlanta and the surrounding area. We were very excited about trying Atrium because it was a new restaurant in Ponce. We were both highly disappointed. There were some bright spots that I’ll share below:

The good - My wife and I ordered the Croquettes which tasted amazing. However, these are advertised as “shareable” there were three half dollar sized croquettes. Not necessarily shareable from my point of view. My wife ordered the beef ribs these were amazing and definitely filling. They came with two ribs and the meat fell off the bone. But, no other sides were included. If you just want meat, this is a good choice. If you’re wanting any sides, I would not recommend this entree. The waitress was very nice. Not amazing, but very nice, and gave recommendations to the best of her ability. If you’re into decor and not good quality and taste, the decor is great.

The bad - The menu I saw online has a pork schnitzel which looked amazing!!!! I was really excited about this entree. However, once we got there and looked at the menu we learned that this has been removed as an option. Very disappointing. The menu was further limited. If you want a protein included in your meal there are only a few options. The rest don’t include a protein and have not been well reviewed. I went with the shrimp and grits. I found out very quickly this should be advertised as grits and shrimp as there were only 5 smaller shrimp in the whole bowl of grits. Not only that but three of the five, yes I counted, because THERE WERE ONLY 5, were over cooked, hard and rubbery. The grits tasted good but nothing mind blowing. At this point in the meal we were craving just something additional. We saw that there were salt and vinegar fries with the burger that’s on the menu. We asked if we could order them as an additional side. We were envisioning fresh cut french fries with malt vinegar. Sounded like it would hit the spot perfect. We were sorely disappointed. Not only did it take more than 20 minutes to get them (which we were not charged for due to the wait) but, you can get better fries from any fast food restaurant. These were regular frozen style steak fries. Absolutely nothing special here. DO NOT waste your time with a dessert. My wife loves crème brûlée. She got the crème brûlée and not only was it runny but the overpowering taste of lavender was awful (we were not charged for this at least as this was served before it was fully chilled…thankfully). I got the chocolate tart which is a fancy version of a s’more that costs $13. It’s a chocolate tart with a marshmallow on top. It wasn’t bad, but definitely wasn’t anything I would ever order again. The coffee was either very weak or a light roast French press, nothing to write home about. Please don’t waste your time or calories on the desserts.

We eat very healthy but we also have our “cheat nights” This was one of our cheat nights and both of us came away very very disappointed. Over a $100 check (after the deductions) for a not good to “ho hum”...

I rarely, if ever, write bad reviews. We came here as a group of 9 for a friend's and my birthday brunch. Will not return, would only recommend to an enemy.

When we arrived, the host took us to a 4-person table. We asked if the tables would be moved together and the response was, "yeah, you can if you want to." So we moved the tables ourselves. It was otherwise almost empty for Saturday brunch (I know why, now) despite it being a busy day at PCM.

We gave our orders for drinks and food. Drinks came quickly. But two of them had edible glitter (??) in it? I've never been glitter-bombed by a cocktail before. I'm still finding glitter. I ordered a cocktail and when it came it had paint (??) on the rim? The "paint" not only tasted disgusting, it was also full of blue food dye that stained my lips and finger when I touched it. They need to chill with the gimmicks.

It was an hour before we had to flag down our server and ask about our food. She said it was "coming right away" but we then noticed that she likely never put in our order. My sister and I both ordered the avocado toast with a "runny egg" ($6 surcharge). We had asked for a poached egg, they brought one of the most horribly overcooked, broken yolk, nasty fried eggs that I've ever seen. We said we didn't want replacement eggs, but they brought us some rushed poached eggs despite that. Of course, they charged us $12 for the two eggs anyway. The avocado toast itself was flavorless and lacking in salt, the bread was cheap white bread that disintegrated upon trying to cut the toast.

Despite the extremely long wait, issues with the food, and more, at no point did a manager come by to check with us. Not to mention this was a birthday celebration. The servers were perfectly kind and cordial, but untrained and did not know how to handle the challenges that came up. I was shocked when it came out to over $60/person. Perhaps worst of all, two of our party got ill after the meal.

This is a classic example of a place that focused on the vibes and decor, with absolutely no substance behind it. Clearly ownership is fine with pumping out mediocre quality if the decor looks vibey enough. Maybe spend a little less time and money on these gimmicky cocktail ideas that no one asked for and instead train your staff properly and teach the cooks how to...

Decor wars continue in Atlanta and Atrium is slated to win! When I say beautiful, I mean it. Interior design is well thought out. To me a play on the old motel tropical but CHIC. Take that vision and run with it before you see the pictures. That’s five stars alone!

Food: I wanted everything on the menu but obviously had to settle for 5 items just in the interest of time and, duh, money!

On a serious note, opened with Wagyu beef tartare and let’s just say the presentation matched the flavor, really good. Definitely recommend the tartare to start if you’re a fan. Went straight to mains but I always have to order a gnocchi if it’s available. However, this gnocchi was a big GNO GNO! Very lifeless in contraire to other gnocchi dishes that pack a mean punch. Density, flavor, character is what I think when I think gnocchi. Let me preface by saying I love this place but I’d recommend taking the gnocchi off for now until they can figure out the structure and direction of it. Not completely horrible but enough for Me to spend a few sentences in this review trying to figure out why. Eeekk, sorry, on to the good stuff. KING OYSTER STEAK AND DUCK. If you don’t see anything else in this review PLEASE understand why it’s necessary that you indulge in these two mains. King oyster mushrooms seasoned to perfection paired with a medium steak that will send you to the moon! The DUCK. *sigh. AMAZING. Not a beets fan but with the Dino kale (what I assumed it to be) it all worked. Literally will go down in history as one of the best duck offerings in Atlanta, no cap. There was light at the end of the tunnel! Dessert was ok if you just want something sweet. Tart was good without the topping actually.

Cocktails: Totally regret not getting Le Martini just because it seemed like a huge menu to do but the Deal’s Revenge (old fashioned) did it for us. Kept them flowing. Was looking for after dinner cocktail but too soon timing wise for ports and dessert cocktails.

Overall, Atrium is the spot I’m going to recommend to everyone solely off decor alone but also let me not forget staff was amazing as well! If you want a good atmosphere, cocktails, decor this is your guy! Happy...