Banshee — Restaurant in Atlanta

I was so excited about this restaurant and heard nothing but the best things. However, when it came to my experience, I was very very let down and will likely never be back.

First, I'll say it was valentines day, so they were pretty slammed. We sat down and at first had great service, but it slowly declined over the course of the meal. Our server had two other tables and, I hate to be that guy, but it seemed like he really loved the other two, chatting them up and visiting again and again. My fiancé and I, however, were left with empty drinks at least 3 times and had other servers clearing our table regularly.

Now to the food. Fry bread was phenomenal, salt potatoes were very good but not incredibly interesting or unique. Perfect cook on them though and great quality ingredients. Some were absolutely submerged in creme fraiche to where it was a bit cloying. Id suggest keeping them completely separate (some of them were separated, others were drenched).

Cocktails were solid but not crazy fantastic relative to the greats in the city such as Kimball House. Wine selection was great and really enjoyed my suggested pairing of catarratto with the gnocchi.

So, on to the gnocchi then. The sauce was inadequately reduced and super watery. Flavor was really great, but the gnocchi were in a bath of this loose liquid making it somewhat unappealing. The gnocchi were either overcooked or built with too much potato because they were about mashed potato consistency. I love Italian food so I'm familiar with the target "pillowy" consistency and this was pretty far off. Plus they were covered in burnt black spots; it made me sad. My fiancé got the cauliflower as an entrée which was good but both our dishes came out luke warm like they had been sitting at expo for 4-5 minutes.

Our server didn't seem like he really wanted to deal with us towards the end and didn't try to sell us on dessert at all. We asked for menus ourselves. I hate to be that guy, but we were very polite and have had servers at other restaurants comment us on how great guests we are (we've gotten free $100 bottles of champagne because we hit it off with mgmt before). All this to say, I don't think we're rude or demanding... Quite the opposite. We both worked in fine dining for 10+ years.

Finally, we ordered coffee service but were told they only had enough coffee for one so we split it. No problem, we've both worked in the industry and know how swamped it can get on vday. Also during dessert someone tried to bring us a glass of wine we didn't order. I say all this because when we got our check, we were charged for an extra coffee (2 when we only got 1) and an extra glass of wine.

Our server was just not attendant enough to make it worthwhile to debate the price for like $15 so we just paid and high tailed it out of there.

Vibe was killer and great crowd of people. Hostess was super kind and accommodating.

Really I probably would have left with a better taste in my mouth if the service was better. I can tell that the steps of service are there because other servers would come by and clear, wipe and resilver our table after it sat dirty for 15+ minutes.

I want really want to give it another shot when it's not a full booking and maybe I'll have a different experience. Then again, this expensive experience with subpar results from both front of house and back of house makes me...

Amazing food, great atmosphere, and friendly staff. I am very judgmental when it comes to expensive restaurants. The quality of the food here is definitely worth the price, and the portions are perfect.

My boyfriend and I ended up here after trying to eat at two other places earlier in the evening. I had been wanting to go to Banshee for a while. I'm so glad we did!

Food wise we started with the seared venison carpaccio and the potato rosti. We tasted the potato rosti first. The potato was tasty, and I loved the tobiko in the uni cream. The uni cream itself had kind of a bland flavor to me, but I don't know if I've ever had it before, so that could just be me. I really loved the flavors of the roe and the seasoning in the cream, so I think it was still a great dish.

The venison was one of the best appetizers I have ever had. The combination of flavors was perfect, and the venison was delicious. We could have eaten several plates of that.

For our main course we shared the Parisian gnocchi and the General Tso's cauliflower. Both were amazing. The sauce, texture, and taste of the cauliflower was great. They split the gnocchi into two separate plates for us to share, and we felt that the portion size was exactly right for two people. It would actually have been quite a large portion size for one person, as gnocchi is quite dense and filling.

The gnocchi contained sausage, squash, walnut, sage, and lemon. The combination of the flavors was literally perfect. I usually find sage to be very dominant in a dish, but it was just the right amount. The crunch of the walnuts with the sweetness of the sage, and the sourness of the lemon sauce was great. It was such a delicous dish.

We ordered the Kuchisake Onna and the Stoccato, and then later an Old Fashioned and a French 75. The cocktails from the menu were made very well. The French 75 was decent, but the Old Fashioned had a strange taste. It tasted like a hint of Cynar, which is not in an Old Fashioned, but is in other drinks on the menu. I assume that the bartender was using the same shaker throughout the evening. This was really the only disappointment, which I can overlook considering how great the food and staff were.

It was such a happy accident ending up at Banshee last night. We cannot wait to come back and try more dishes!

EDIT: I am now married (not to the aforementioned boyfriend, but I don't want to delet my original review), and my husband and I love Banshee! We go at least a few times a...

Banshee offers a unique menu and dining experience with constantly changing options based on seasonal availability and sourcing.

Unique and creative for sure, but the flavors of each dish just fall flat of what they could be.

First, I had the grilled lamb skewers. Featuring pineapple and lamb, this dish tasting mostly of carcinogenic burnt char.. and not in a good way. Like somebody dragged a pineapple through a bed of charcoal. Also very oily like a full plate filled with oil that the skewers sit on. Would not recommend. 2/10

I had a couple other small dishes - one being the Fava Bean 'Ngreccia + Mousse. This dish was also extremely oily. I opted for the mushroom mousse. The 'warm' cornbread was ice cold. The Fava beans were good, but the oil and seasoning they had on them were EXTREMELY salty. Mediocre execution. 3/10.

Heirloom tomato tataki was recommended by the server. Basically a whole sliced tomato, some thin melon slices, and an array of mayo and jelly-like substance which tasted like yuzu gelatin. Pretty boring, the flavors were muted, and dish was overall very sweet. Even this dish was also doused heavily in a green oil. 3/10

Finally, the halibut. Something decent. Hard to go wrong with a piece of pan seared fish. This was cooked well, the sear had a good crisp. The fish was a little dry, perhaps overdone for a bit. The yuzu hollandaise was flavorless, basically tasted like pure mayonnaise. They must not be using enough egg yolks because it was very white for a hollandaise. The gnocchi was a nice touch and the mushy peas didn't add much. And finally not a dish dripping in oil. What a relief. 6/10.

Overall, banshee is very much a 'hipster' type vibe with the food and space. While they are clearly aiming for a creative and unique food experience, it just falls short on all fronts from a flavor perspective. And too much oil and salt.

You can skip out on this one if you're looking for tasty and creative dishes, the quality is...