Little Sparrow — Restaurant in Atlanta

TLDR: bad service overshadows decent food.

My husband and I dined at Little Sparrow for my birthday (on 11/14/23). The food and wine were lovely, but the service was quite bad and that took away from the entire experience.

Every time our server left the table, 20-30 minutes would go by without us seeing her again. Now, mind you, we have both worked in the service industry and we are normally very understanding when our servers are in the weeds. However, this was consistent throughout the almost 3 (!!) hours that it took for dinner.

We arrived early for our reservation so we enjoyed a cocktail at the bar before we were sat at our table. This gave us time to look at the menu, and we had a pretty good idea of what we were ordering by the time we were actually sat. Despite this fact, we waited almost 30 minutes to order our food. We ordered a bottle of wine at the same time, but it didn't arrive until we were almost done with apps. In the meantime, our server rushed to clear our bread plates and took the forks for our clams in the process. We assumed this meant our entrees were ready, but again, she cleared our bread (that we weren't really done with) and then we sat for 30 minutes before the entrees came. So we had apps without wine, and then wine without food.

While we were waiting for entrees, we noticed the couple at the table next to us was celebrating a birthday as well. They were obviously friends of the sommelier, as he kept coming over to speak to them. There were several occasions where our wine glasses were empty as the somm carried on a conversation with these guests. We refilled our own glasses a couple of times because we simply felt forgotten about and wanted to enjoy the wine for which we had waited so long. So many employees walked by during this time (servers as well as managers) and no even glanced in our direction, let alone filled our wine glasses or asked how we were doing. Our server was MIA and we were invisible to anyone else on the staff. At the end of the night, we noticed that this couple next to us had their meal comped. It felt like the somm was more interested in chatting with his friends than actually attending to paying customers. It's really frustrating to spend $200+ on a meal and feel second-class compared to comped guests.

Our food finally arrived, and we thoroughly enjoyed it. However, the cloud of bad service prevented our experience from being truly exceptional.

We were considering dessert, and were told that the souffle would take 20 minutes to prepare. We told our server that we were tired and wanted to go home, so we instead ordered the cheesecake to-go. Our cheesecake came out in about 10 minutes, and our server brought the check at that time. By this point, we were 1 of only 3 tables remaining in the restaurant. Dinner rush had long passed. However, our server still didn't come back to run our payment FOR 30 MINUTES. My credit card sat in the bill folder for half an hour during which time we saw ZERO staff. If we wanted to sit around that long, we would have just ordered the souffle.

Honestly, I expected way more. The food was on point but the service was laughably bad. This whole experience was disappointing. It's obvious based on the glowing reviews here that service is inconsistent at Little Sparrow. It will be a long time before I consider dining...

The restaurant is in the same plaza with Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams so there's plenty of parking lot. There are several restaurants in the same plaza so the parking might be tight in the weekend, but Little Sparrow has valet service right in front of the restaurant too. It's crowded in the weekend, so reservation is recommended.

We had a birthday reservation for my boyfriend, and they have a written birthday note on his menu, which is nice. The restaurant decor and ambience are a mix of classic and chic, feel very cozy. Some table will be in dimmer light than the others but the light over all in the restaurant is in good setting. We're lucky to be on the bright side of the restaurant. I like the marble table surface; it feels nice to the touch.

Our server has a very good knowledge of the menu which to me is one of the signs for a high standard restaurant. His explanation helps us to avoid ordering the wrong dish because of the misleading dish's name on the menu. We had:

Clams: the clams' quality is high. They're fresh, juice, and especially has no sand or sandy texture. I had clams at other restaurants before, but for some reason, the clams always have sand in them. Levian baguette: it's complimentary, and it can go very well with several dish on the appetizer menu for dipping. Dover sole "meunière": this dish comes with the service of fillet and debone at the table. La vie en rose: this is a steak dish. "Dripping" potatoes Pommes aligot: cheesy mashed potatoes Chocolate souffle: it's warm and moist. The sweetness of the souffle is just right, not too sweet.

The clam appetizer, the dessert and side dishes of potatoes are very solid, and delicious. We both enjoy our entrees, though I think the dover sole doesn't live up to its price tag. It tastes good, but not great. Though the table is small, the server comes to clean the table and replace utensil often in between appetizer, entree, and dessert. This enhances the dining experience a lot. It's the small gestures and actions that count.

Overall, we're very happy with our order and experience. We will come back to try another dish in the menu. Besides, this restaurant is one of the Ford Fry's. I've been to several of his restaurant. The quality of their service and food never disappoints. Highly...

Little Sparrow delivers big. Cozy vibes with a well designed room, great service, and French inspired food with rich flavors. My arteries are still recovering, but my stomach was singing! I knew I was in my happy place when the warm sourdough baguette landed on the table with some soft butter that tasted like real farm butter. I tried the sweetbreads out of curiosity as an appetizer since it is not always an easy dish to execute successfully. These were excellent, served with morels and a sauce vin jaune, it was just the right amount for a generous starter. I then had the Poulet on pommes aligot with what was called a vinaigrette, but it was more an au jus vibe. When I see vinaigrette, my brain goes to cold. This was a rich brown warm beautiful jus that was poured table side on the dish. I initially thought it was too much of it, but guess what, it ended up being just right. I had ordered a little wine from Corsica I saw on the menu in the "Et Cetera" section, the Comte Abatucci "Faustine" Vieilles Vignes. Great find that paired nicely with our meals and that drank waaaay too easy. Me and a friend drank the bottle while saying, "Hmmm, this is nice" throughout the meal! The wine list had some gems in there, so kudos to the sommelier who obviously takes great pride in what he/she does. It always warms my heart to see a well curated wine list. Other guests at the tables ordered the beet salad, the crudo, the clams and the Boeuf. If there is any negative note, I would say that the piece of beef felt too small not only for the plate but for the price. It might have been the presentation, in contrast to the other dishes. Now, it tasted just right with some of the signature Frites. My God, those were great! We finished the meal with some Basque Cheesecake and a chocolate souffle. Again, tastebuds were stuck on happy. So, don't wait and go check out Little Sparrow, it is a great time and worth it. You will need a reservation, the place was packed for dinner on a Wednesday night. Oh, and you will most likely need a heavy training session in the morning to burn some of...