Truva - Virginia Highland — Restaurant in Atlanta

This Restaurant have all the elements to be a great spot, not only for a great meal but also for a great bar experience. Unfortunately, the well-done decoration, great patio, ongoing cool layout, does not match your overall experience on an afterwork Friday evening. My rates are based on 3 aspect and my scale is ‘A’ to ‘F’ : • Bar, Wine, & Beverages • Quality of Service • Food and Menu The Scale A. Excellent B. Good C. Average D. Poor E. Fail Let’s begin with Bar, Wine, & Beverages: B Our bartender Natasha has been great every time we have visited the restaurant. However, if the restaurant serves full menu at the bar, the bar staff can NOT be a server, as well, for the tables surround the bar (like a Chef can‘t be also the Maître). Cocktails are very creative, and the wine list is pretty diverse. Unfortunately, the busier the bar it gets, the less of a quality is going to be your cocktail. There is still plenty room for improvement and creativity.

Quality of Service: D Understaffed? Clearly that is the situation with this restaurant. Kudos to the receptionist, we didn’t have a reservation, but she was gracious to invite us to have a seat, while she was looking for a table. Most importantly, she did with a great, attentive, and calm smile. We can’t say the same about the waitress staff, everyone was running little in a ‘evacuation’ mode. All the beautiful décor, comfortable seating, and great view was interrupted by the level of stress of the staff. The lack of floor management, attentive customer service (regardless if the floor is divided by server), smiley faces, and attitude reflected in our ‘stressful’ overall experience. Observation to the management: Observe your staff and the interaction with their clients, identify their challenges, and the restaurant flow as a whole. Take notes and then meet with your staff before the service to over those observations. Clients will note the difference.

Food and Menu: C Why ‘C’, the fundamental reason is poor kitchen’s supervision, this is why. As a Chefs, we spend a lot of time developing a great seasonal menu full of flavors, fresh ingredients, creative presentations, and a diverse vegetarian, seafood and meat selection. Truva has all those elements, but when it comes to translate these creations to a great tasting, it fails in two fundamentals cuisine techniques:

BRAISED LAMB SHANK: Nice presentation, sauce had a nice mellow flavor (I didn’t taste the coriander as the menu highlights). Unfortunately, the Lamb shank was COOL to the bone, with a distinguish ‘refrigerator’ flavor. I understand a braised meat cannot be done ‘a la minute’, therefore, the hot station in the kitchen needs to ensure to provide enough time for the meat to warm up and the expeditor use the thermometer to double check the temperature before it goes to the table.

SEASONED LAMB KEBABS: Fantastic flavor and combination of flavors in the overall platting. Unfortunately, the question of rare, medium, medium well, etc. never got asked to our table, therefore, the kitchen assumed was ’extremely well done’, a crime for a tender lamb meat.

Overall, Truva is a good alternative for your casual, family, friends, date, even business experience. Let’s hope the management reads the reviews and pay attention to the suggestion, then, will become an excellent restaurant and bar...

Visited and sat outside on a rainy day and the place wasn't super packed when we arrived around lunch (maybe 4 tables). We were taking in the pleasing aesthetics when we were greeted by Dani or Danny (sorry I don't know how to spell your name if you're reading this), who made our visit totally unforgettable and with whom we immediately connected with. They were friendly, attentive, funny, entertaining, and most importantly, insightful about what dishes to try during our first visit, all of which were SO DELICIOUS - the kind that when you take a bite, you close your eyes, make a face as though you're in pain from it being so good, and have to exclaim about. I probably would've disturbed the peace of people that were around us if the patio had others on it. If you're wondering what to get, all of these were huge wins in my book and this is everything we ordered (minus what my partner ordered because I can't remember and he's sleeping as I'm writing this) The bread and sundried tomato ordeal - you're going to get this anyway but this was so good that we felt compelled to lick the little bowl clean Stuffed grape leaves - I know it's basic Med food, but when I see it on a menu, I can't NOT get it! I'm like a mouth to a flame when it comes to these bad boys. Mini Lahmacun - Described as Turkish tacos and took me every ounce of willpower not to finish all three because I needed to save room for my meal Shepard's Salad - my friend got this, told me to try some, I nearly ate half of the bowl. All ingredients were so fresh. Calamari - unlike any calamari I've had before bc the breading was perfection Iskender - my friend got this, couldn't finish it, and couldn't take it home, so I did. SO GOOD. I HAVE to learn how to make rice like that (I'm sad she was able to finish most of it bc I had like 3 bites and so badly wanted more). The meat (lamb & beef) was seasoned to perfection and so tasty! Whole Bronzini - I panicked because I couldn't choose between this, the Moussaka, and the Iskender. So glad I went with this because it was so good! Pro tip: you can ask to have the fish filleted instead of served with the head on. Probably easier to take home if you fillet the fish, but I went with head on because that's how Filipinos roll. Thank you to Danny or Dani, the kitchen staff, and whoever manages this place because it was such an all around great experience. We'll...

TLDR: 5* service that surpassed expectations and the food was delicious.

So for context, it's Ramadan 2021 and we (Muslims) are fasting from sunrise to sunset (not even water). On this particular day, the sun sets at 8:10. Everyone in this circle is fully vaccinated (if you haven't gotten vaccinated yet, please do, I want this panini to end).

The initial plan was to go to a friend's house so we can have iftar (break our fast) together, but at 7:00, an hour before we can eat, this friend says he's too exhausted to host and backs out! So someone suggests we go to Truva. I had never been there before, but it was highly rated and I like Turkish food in general.

We get there and the place is BUSY... Mind you, by the time we get there, it's 8:00, there's ten minutes left before we can eat, and we haven't sat down, let alone ordered yet. We walk in, and the host tells us there's a 30 minute wait time. We then explain that we've been fasting all day and would really appreciate if they could get us seated sooner than that. Turns out the "host" is actually the restaurant manager! He asks us to wait one second and within one minute he has a table for us! He then personally brings us water, bread, olives, and dip right away so we have something as soon as the sun sets and instead of bringing us menus he just says he'll take care of us. This all happens in the span of about 4-5 minutes, and miraculously we actually broke our fast at 8:10!

The manager then starts us out with lentil soup, which was superb. He then proceeded to bring us a giant wooden tray of assorted grilled meats and vegetables surrounding a bed of rice that has little pieces of meat in it (photo attached). Everything on this tray was BONKERS good! There was 4 of us, and we all ate until we couldn't and there was still food left over.

After that, the manager brought us some Turkish tea and two knafes (k isn't silent here, btw), which is a dessert of shredded filo dough on top of a thick bed of melty gooey cheese. We were already full, but somehow we managed to annihilate both knafes.

The level of service I received at this restaurant exceeded all expectations and the whole experience ranks as one of the best in my lifetime.

Thank you Truva for the amazing dinner!

5/5...