High Velocity — Restaurant in Atlanta

Located in the Atlanta Marriott Marquis, High Velocity is a sports bar. I think. I wasn't really paying attention to the atmosphere. Coming off working a long conference (the Hillsdale College Free Market Forum), I just wanted to get some food in me before my flight home.

Presentation and Appearance - 3/5

The onion rings were heaped into a small, overflowing bowl, which was in turn stacked on a plate, for some reason. I feel like the restaurant couldn't decide between a "neat" arrangement and a more traditional "throw it all in a basket" arrangement and picked some weird halfway point. The rings were, in turn, stuck together and stacked among each other. Two dipping sauces (ranch and some sort of red sauce I could never identify) accompanied in small metal containers.

That said, the rings themselves are pretty uniform in breading and overall appearance, if a little bland.

Taste - 2/5

Despite the uniform appearance, the rings themselves had a pretty bland taste. With almost no depth of flavor, it reminded me a bit of the frozen onion rings one can buy and put in an oven at a grocery store. Come to think of it, these probably WERE those onion rings, just sold at a restaurant instead.

As for the dipping sauces, the ranch helped improve the taste, but that's only because I was tasting the ranch more than the ring. The as-of-yet unidentified red sauce was about as bland as the onion rings, and added little to the flavor.

Texture - 4/5

Surprisingly, the texture was the highlight of the dish. The breading was crispy, the onions were firm, and the whole product was nice and crunchy. The breading was a bit mealy at times, but otherwise, top notch.

Value - 1/5

For a roughly mediocre bowl of onion rings, the price ($10) was far too steep. Granted, this WAS in a conference hotel, so I wouldn't expect thrift to be a high point. That said, these are nothing special, and absolutely not worth the price.

Overall:...

I try to give fair reviews and I felt I could only give this 1 star because after being told there was a 30-40 minute wait we were "suggested we go somewhere else". It was an extremely busy Saturday night in Atlanta everywhere. There was a concert, the Mayor's ball, a college bowl game, and a modeling competition all in town and that was just at the two hotels were were near. The small restaurant was packed and seamed very short staffed but none the less all the tables were full and more than a dozen people waiting. When we arrived we were only 4th on the list so we felt confident in waiting. As more people came to the hostess suggests so many people order at the bar if they didn't want to wait, it essentially shut the restaurant down. More people kept coming up and she was giving them 45-60 minute wait time now. After we checked on our table she told is it would be a it would be the same for us. I reminded her nicely we had already waited 30 minutes and she said she knew but the kitchen was so backed up they can't take anymore orders or people. So I asked her than if that is true isn't the wait time more than an hour and a half? She said yes and she the suggested to most of us standing there that we try somewhere else because she didn't know when she could seat anyone. I know the pandemic has cause staff and supply shortages and none of that is in their control but there was no sign of a manager anywhere, no communication, and ultimately after waiting (which delayed us getting into any other restaurants quickly) we were turned away. Since it's unlikely I'll be visiting Atlanta any time soon I'm not sure I'll be able to try it again but if they could figure out their staffing and management I'm sure it's at least a 3-4 star but I...

This place is an absolute joke! DO NOT DINE HERE!!! RUUUUNN!!! Honestly I hate leaving anything remarkably negative but during my stay at the Marriott Marquis I wasn't pleased with the hotel's atmosphere or the service at this restaurant in particular. My first visit was on Christmas Eve where my mom and I were greeted ( or at least I believe it was an official greet) by a gentlemen that just threw napkin on the table and asked, with no introduction "what can I get you?" Completely baffled I had to ask him was he our server and his name. I wish I could remember at this point, however, I was displeased with the experience from that start. During our dining experience he slowly worked his way up to be slightly tolerable but definitely Italy still left me with a sour taste. The next day we tried to give them a second chance...again, completely displeased. This time the servers greet was remarkably better and met the par of introduction, but seemed to be overwhelmed with tables or just his work load. Mind you at this point it was Christmas night around 10pm, so not too busy and definitely not enough people to rush our experience. He walked away from the table way too fast to give an order and forgot a couple items that we verbally expressed. Being that we were in the heart of Atlanta at a well known hotel...I definitely expected better!

I really wish they would bring their customer service and guest experience up a notch to match the reputation that the Maequis holds. I am so disappointed. It took 30mins for nachos and soup lol...wow!! I WILL NOT be...