El Viñedo Local — Restaurant in Atlanta

I was really looking forward to getting food from here but it ended up being a slight let down. When coming into the establishment, it really is nice inside but when I ate the food, it left me feeling indifferent. I ordered a beef arepa, 2 beef empanadas, grilled beef skewers with creamed potatoes, yucca fritas and 1 cortado and 1 cafe con leche. Now the drinks were spectacular! That cafe con leche was absolutely delicious and had the perfect balance of sweetness to coffee and the cortado was strong. However, the food left me with mixed reviews! That arepa was atrocious. I couldn't even pick it up because it fell apart in my hands. Between the blandness of the beef and it being over cheesed, it left me saying why did I order this. Now I love me an arepa and have had some great ones, but this one wasn't even put together properly! When I tried to pick it up, it fell apart and that perfect sweet, salty and savory bite was non existent! So for me, I regretted ordering this. The beef empanada was bland and when I pulled it apart, the dough wasn't even cooked through all the way so I literally picked at the beef and the side slaw. On top of that, it lacked some serious seasoning! Although it came with a dipping sauce, I found it to be too acidic for my palette. Now those creamed potatoes were outstanding! I could literally eat a bowl of that by itself but the skewers were bland! The beef was cooked perfectly, but there wasn't enough chimichurri sauce on it to really bring it together. Had more of that been added, that would have been a great dish. The yucca fritas were good and the dipping sauce it came with accentuated that dish. Although I would consider the portions small for the price, would I come back for the food, no. However, I would drive back all day for those drinks. Maybe next time I visit, the food will be better, but my apprehension would leave me thinking maybe instead...

I will start by saying the food here is amazing and I really wish the service was better than what I received.

I booked a 7:45 birthday reservation for 2 on a Tuesday, we arrive and my server is immediately telling me the kitchen is closing and that I need to order immediately. Thrown off simply because it was so soon after seating being told I basically need to hurry up. I ordered 2 of the spinach & mushroom empanadas and 2 of the carne* and a bottle of wine for us to share. I was told I couldn’t sample the wine I was trying to get a bottle of because the bartender is very “picky” about allowing samples.

The problem comes in when my entree is being dropped before my appetizer and it’s cold! My server said he apologizes the kitchen is just rushing the food out so it comes as it comes. So I asked we are essentially being rushed through my birthday dinner? Because if I would have known my starters were going to be dropped at the same time I wouldn’t have ordered them. Considering it was just two people splitting a bottle of wine it would have been nice to actually get them through them at regular pace.

Allowing a 7:45pm reservation but rushing me through my experience is just bad in general. The experience was not what I wanted for a birthday dinner and I don’t recommend coming here for a celebration or after 6pm. They clearly don’t care about the guests at night. Also when I made the reservation it asked if we were celebrating anything and I did state a birthday.. so the fact this entire experience was unenjoyable I truly hope you...

The food/service is just fine. It wasn't amazing but it wasn't horrible. I was not impressed by this restaurant as much as I was expecting given the crazy good reviews (how often do you see 4.9 stars on Google?)

So why am I giving it less than 5 stars... The interaction I had with the owner left a bad taste in my mouth. (No pun intended)

There was a squashed fly my food. My server saw it, and she asked if I wanted my food replaced. I said no. The owner came by, looked at it and said that it was just an effect of the food being burnt. My friend had to look at the food again alongside him to insist/show that it was indeed a fly, with wings, legs, thorax, the whole 9 yards.

He then asked me if I wanted the food remade and I said no... he still had it remade. He also gave me a pastry that I didn't want... yes it's "nice" of them but it was awkward as I was no longer hungry and didn't want it at all. And, at the time of delivery, he drawled/rambled on a second time about the food being burnt by the deep fryer and how it can look like a bug sometimes.

I understood there was some intent of remedying the situation, but was put off by the lack of receptivity & over-explaining the mistake. Guests don't just always want replacements & people to throw us free shit in the event of mistakes... sometimes we want you to simply listen to what was wrong & apply the appropriate discount. I don't even care about y'all apologizing (it's not the owner's fault there was a bug... things happen) but maybe that is just me. Hope that...