Kyma — Restaurant in Atlanta

This was literally the WORST experience in culinary dining you could imagine! Let me preface this by saying I have been going to Pano’s restaurants forever, and I even know several chefs in some of his other restaurants, including the late Chef Bobbi who recently passed. So when I say I know his food, I’ve eaten it before, but this was awful. And I wish the problem would have been just the food, it was the horrible and insulting service.

We had a flight, and it was my birthday, so we thought to head to Kyma prior to heading to the airport. We were greeted and seated, and come to order. We ordered the calamari, and asked it to be fried, it was definitely a crowd pleaser. We were going for the baked sea bass encrusted in salt (for two) and two orders of the lobster pasta, and an order of the steak, in addition to several sides.

The sea bass encrusted in salt was great! Perfectly cooked to perfection, flavoured just right and very fresh. But the two portions of the lobster pasta and filet mignon were EXTREMELY salty. I mean I like extra salt but that has high blood pressure written all over it! We tried to get the attention, but they were all far away. We quickly ate to catch our flight. At the end of our meal, the waiter came and we informed him that the two orders of the lobster pasta plus the filet were extremely salty. He said he would let the chef know and he apologised. He would be happy to replace it. We informed him we had a flight to get to to the airport so we ate it because we didn’t have time but we informed him we just wanted to let him know so it didn’t happen again and kindly and politely asked for the check. He cleared one plate, and informed us the manager would be by.

Let’s discuss the manager.. Her name was Fatima. Fatima was aggressive upon approaching our table. She said she heard of the complaint and the sea bass fish is supposed to be salty because it is encrusted in salt. We told her we were not even complaining about that, but actually the lobster pasta and citrus emulsion and the filet had too much seasoning on it. She said she tried the lobster sauce and the emulsion inside in the kitchen. We told her there’s no way we all see it as salty snd we are all wrong. She was aggressive and said she can bring us a sample to give it a try. We told her ok please and to keep one of the lobster plates so we can compare. She still insisted forcefully to remove the lobster plate so we could not compare. We insisted again to keep the dish. She brought over the sample abs it was completely different. It was more fresh, I could taste the beautiful tomato sauce snd not just the salt. I informed her that I wish she could try it but I understand because of Covid she can’t. She said well if I can’t see the difference, at which point my four other guests said they see it’s completely different also, she said well clearly we are the problem.

She was loud, rude, and had so much disregard to anything we were saying. All we wanted was an apology and to feel like we were heard. It was unacceptable at one of Pano’s restaurants!

Such a shame that sea bass was beautiful, and mistakes happen. At the very least just apologise for it and ask if there’s something you can do, that you will mention it to the chef and let it go, if you really want to you can give a complimentary dessert or remove an appetiser or even a gift card but it’s not necessary. But don’t argue with the customers, be aggressive and loud and rude about it, and talk that way. The real problem is the manager! That manager needs a lot of training and she definitely does not deserve that title of assistant manager. We really just wanted an apology.

Like we said.....

What you need to know: Appetizers are wonderful, service is absolutely great, but main course fish is way overpriced for the quality.

I've been to Kyma before and had a bad meal. Decided to give it another try after being vastly disappointed 20 years ago, and having had a decent experience at their bar pre-pandemic.

Food: Started with the appetizer tasting menu, where we picked the calamari, scallops, spanakopita, and green ceviche. All of these were perfectly cooked and tasty. First they provided us an array of their traditional Greek spreads to accompany our appetizer tasting, which were all fabulous with the pita bread. The other bread was just dry and unappetizing. The calamari was absolutely perfectly tender and fried to perfection. The scallops were extra tender and juicy but the hummus bed they were sitting on was just too heavy - scallops need a lighter accompaniment in my opinion. The spanakopita was fresh and light and very flavorful. The Greek ceviche was a unique spin on one of my favorite all time dishes - notably the subtle hints of mint gave it a nice contrast. Needless to say, after the appetizers we had high hopes...only to be very disappointed. Everyone's fish was decent, but nothing was "wow" about them - to be honest I could've cooked the same thing at home - not what you go to an upper scale Buckhead restaurant to have. In particular, their salmon was a little dry and just not seasoned very well. I personally had the Lavraki and it was super flaky and moist and flavorful - the only fish that was worth the price in my opinion, even if it there were still a few bones in it. The sautéed kale with it however had way too much lemon and citrus in it that just overpowered anything. All in all, the main courses were such a disappointment. We also got a side of "Greek" fries that were good, but it's fried potatoes, I'd expect most spots to get that right. Lastly, we had to complimentary courses. First the Greek salad that was provided as we had to wait awhile for our food. The salad was very fresh and had a lot of that quintessential Greek marinade that has all that lovely olive oil and lemon and herbs - such a wonderfully light but flavorful salad. Lastly, we had the baklava for dessert with a side of pistachio ice cream. The portion of the side of ice cream was a joke (basically a small circle), but it was very well constructed and had great richness to it. The baklava was a little drier than I'd like, but wasn't too sweet, had that nice crunch, and was all around a solid end to an up and down meal.

Service: A+++++. This was absolutely great. From the valet, to the hostess, to our waitress, and all the other service workers, we rarely had a want or need of anything and they took excellent care of us. Glad to see the valet takes Venmo! Much easier to tip and pay.

Price: Grossly overpriced for the quality. I expected more. Ended up spending about $315 in total for 5 people, and while that's normal for Buckhead, the main course food just wasn't worth it. It was barely worth half what we paid.

All in all, while better than the last time I can here, I won't be coming back again for dinner. The three stars I gave are all for the service and appetizers. Solid spot for drinks and appetizers, albeit still a little pricy for what you get. I expect WAY more from the chef son of the legendary Atlanta restauranteur Pano Sr. and the Buckhead Life Group. Two stars taken away because the main course failed to impress for the price point - it's unfortunate, but if you're gonna charge Buckhead prices, you...

This place is a mess in many ways. Some food is great, some not very special, and some bad. Upon making reservations, only the bar was available. There was a note about the dress code. Upon arriving, there was a note about the dress code. No one violating the dress code, such as wearing shorts with tennis shoes, was turned away. We were seated at the bar and greeted by wilted, almost dead herbs sitting in bar glasses with no water. The bar area also has tables for two. But those seem to be considered dining room seating, as we saw more than one party object upon being led to them. Then there was the party seated at one that had a “reserved” sign on it. The bartender, who oversees the area, objected for even the customers to hear. The hostess demurred, but didn’t actually make the people move. A manager came over and spoke strongly with the bartender for even the customers to hear. Entertaining, but not professional. As for only bar seating being available to us, there remained a number of empty tables in the dining room our entire stay. The bartender gave us only the bar menu. But a person sitting next to us was allowed to order off the dinner menu. The bartender spilled water while pouring and didn’t clean it up. First up: Octopus "Mini". It was great. Next: Lamb Pie. It was great. Next: Eggplant. It was okay. It needed something sharp, like lemon, to set off the flavor. Also, there was no texture. Perhaps they didn’t caramelize it enough. Next: Beef Tenderloin Souvlaki. We ordered one and they kindly brought it out split in two. The beef was hot, the quinoa was room temperature, and the tzatziki was cold. The combination was off-putting. One tenderloin was fine. The other was too tough and sinewy to chew. The bartender quickly had another one brought out. But it, too, was too tough. Lastly: Donuts. Actually, donut holes. They were too dense. And Chef Pano's forest honey wasn’t special at all. Plus, there wasn’t enough of it. We asked for a curbside menu so as to order more to take home. The bartender brought us the bar menu again. We said there was a different curbside one on the web site. He said he didn’t know if they were doing it. He came back and said there weren’t. We went to the web site. It showed curbside active, let us choose items, but then wouldn’t let us check out. The bartender presented us with the bill in a little folder that was wrinkly and smeared from previously being waterlogged as though he had put it in a previous patron’s spill of his that wasn’t cleaned up. Finally, the same hostess who wrongfully seated a party at a table reserved for another used a broken toilet, didn’t warn the person in the bathroom trying to use it after her, and didn’t tell any personnel...