Little Bear — Restaurant in Atlanta

I went with my wife and two friends for the first time. The entire time we ALL were wondering why the hype and over WHAT...? Extremely small plates and very overpriced.

The raw beef was way overpowered by the quarter size radish it sits on. It would have been far better on top of or next to a couple of fancy crackers to make it look and taste better.

The meatball, although had an odd (in a good way) but decent flavor, it was burning our mouths from the overly salted meatball. The sauce it came with was pretty good along with some small pieces of veges I don't recall now.

The Apple Chicken was about 2 inches by 2 inches and maybe an inch think. It wasn't juicy inside, the skin was ever so slighly chewy and easily almost overcooked it's so small. The flavor was alright, but not good enough to buy again. However, it comes with a couple pieces of root vegetables which a couple weren't even cooked all the way, but still ridiculously small and not worth the price at all.

The better option and great flavor was the cauliflower and broccoli. I really did love that with a creamy almost very complex tangy vinegar like sauce that I can't describe but was our favorite there. However, you got about 3 pieces of cauliflower and 3 pieces of broccoli for ~$13, when it should be a $6-9 tapas maybe you could get elsewhere with better ambiance while paying that much.

Our friends also ate the soup, where you roast tiny marshmello's they bring you a tiny box of matches for that won't stay lit in the cold blowing AC (vs it being warm and comfortable in January...) when you have a candle on the table you could use for the marshmello's. Not at all "fancy"... But anyway, you're supposed to stir your melted marshmello's in the soup, then enjoy. Well they were not at all overjoyed about the soup. It was "meh" at best, so I too tried one spoonful. It was very complex, almost too complex of a flavor and odd to have burnt marshmellow flavor in the soup. Sure, different, odd, but also not worth the price for the size or the lack of a real direction in that soup when it seams so much was just thrown into the soup.

Our friends had the salad...I never heard one thing about it. I think it was the first thing they received and it was never brought up and almost forgot about it here. I do recall them all rating each plate and it was near or at the bottom of their list.

The dessert, There was some custard like dish, I don't recall now what it was called my friends ordered. I believe it was around $10 or so, when it came out they both stared at my wife and I in disbelief...It was literally the size of maybe one scoop of icecream, but in a tiny tiny tiny mason jar that looked like a wannabe flambe. The flavor however was very very delicious. Thick, sweet vanilla like custard, but hard not frozen. I'd love to have eaten more of that but not at $2-3 per bite and there's only 4-5 tiny spoonful's in there.

The blondie my wife ordered, this one was definitely delicious and I would highly recommend this one. :) I don't do many desserts, but this one everyone at the table loved and was not disappointed with. Moist, great flavor by itself or dunked in the milk (and some alcohol flavor if I recall) that was worth getting, definitely over the custard dessert.

Wine was served from a tiny glass not even proper glassware. When I asked about any non alcoholic drinks I was told they had coke, diet coke and some mixers. I'll pass...

Overall, these plates are of the quality and size of maybe a "high end Tapas" restaurant. Would I eat the food again if it were half priced, yes if someone else picked the restaurant but otherwise I have no reason to visit again.

The 4 of us went to Argosy afterwards to order 2 pizzas on...

This place had such great potential, it's kind of annoying I even have to write this review. Long story short... the food pairings are interesting and creative (huge plus) but the service isn't great, the bartender was rude, and the recipes on the menu need refinement (honestly if you aren't a chef/foodie it won't be too big of a deal but if you love food, it'll irritate you because the so menu is so close to being great!).

The longer story - This started out decently well (high hopes for good reviews) but the day just got progressively worse as the meal went on. We were seated at the bar, right in front of the bartender who didn't greet us (awkward). I looked through the menu and was honestly confused on what to order. I can usually tell what I like fairly quickly but the menu (to me) was kind of confusing on what was what. We asked for recommendations on what to order and the bartender seemed annoyed that we even asked. He came off (again) as very dismissive. I kind of brushed it off because everyone has bad days but he just got progressively rude. He made snarky comments to my friend about her meal. He ignored me when I asked for the check (twice) even though he was standing directly in front of me. He made my friend seem incompetent for not liking one of the deserts. He was just so bizarre, uncalled for, and unnecessarily demeaning. He really ruined my meal and the good day I was having.

Aside from the bartender's rudeness, the place has such great potential that all the problems make this place more annoying. So I already mentioned the bartender - again rude for no reason - but then the service was just bad. It was inconsistent, with the food often being given to the wrong person. I had to ask for the anything I needed multiple times. I think what was so annoying is that the place is small, the decor is cute, if they literally spent like 3 seconds paying a bit more attention, it would take make this place fantastic. Instead, it made what had great potential, a sh**y experience. Lastly, the food. That and the chefs, are why I gave this place 2 stars instead of 1. The pairings are creative but the execution missed the mark a few times (food was mushy when it probably should be crispy, crispy when it should be soft, under salted at times). The food wasn't terrible, everything was just off enough that combined with the bad service, it made the place completely not worth it.

Honestly, I want to hope they were just overly busy that day but if so, I wish they didn't seat us. I think had the service been better, I would've given this place another shot but everything together X'ed this one off my list.

Again, shout out to the chefs. Improvements need to be made but the creativity and ingenuity is something worth noting. It is the only reason why I didn't give this place zero stars.

My last thoughts, I don't recommend this place (as it stands). All the problems are easily fixable but the rudeness and dismissiveness from the wait staff - it doesn't make sense to bother with it imo. There are plenty of places you can get a fine dining experience with more food and better service for a...

Great bar and cocktails but even better food. Small plates that feel like full entrees, with a creative and focused menu.

Potato and peach was a great starter, with lots of fresh flavors between the meaty, crispy potatoes and warm sweet peaches. The oil and added veggies were all very tasty as well. 8/10

Next was the hunan beef, and it was extremely flavorful as well. About 4 oz of thin sliced beef that is perfectly tender and cooked, paired with sautéed veggies, relish and dill on a bed of crispy noodles. Very good flavors and well executed. Portions felt small, just needed like double the amount of beef. 9/10

The chicken liver custard was different for sure. You get a jar of chicken liver paste topped with some sort of sweet gelatin, some little blinzetes which are small thin cheese pancakes, sort of like crepe tacos, and some little scallions and cured yolk toppings. The flavors just weren't quite there for me on this one. 5/10.

Finally, I had the chicken shawarma dish. Very solid dish with a large piece of lightly pan-fried chicken. Wonderful flavors with all the accompaniments of herbs, veggies, and slight sweetness from some peach. 8/10.

A lot of the dishes tend to be quite oily, but it doesn't feel that way because the strong flavors and fresh ingredients really come through more than the oils. The drinks and plates can be a little small, and you can easily run up the bill here more than expected.

Very good food and well executed. My only complaint was half the potatoes in the first dish were ice cold, but I'm not sure if that was the intention. Other than that, the food came out very fast, despite having near full capacity. I think for the quality, the prices are okay.

I'll be excited to try a new menu in a month or two, this place is definitely worth a visit to have a couple drinks and some...