Twisted Soul Cookhouse & Pours — Restaurant in Atlanta

This place came HIGHLY recommended by friends, so I was really expecting to be blown away. I was not. Nevertheless, I'm open to trying again, because Creative Loafing and my buddies can't be exaggerating, right?! So here's my first experience with a friend:

The decor is excellent. I didn't care for the drive to the area, but once there, I fell in love with the building. The bar is the highlight. We sat at an actual table all of five minutes and relocated to the bar. No regrets there.

The drinks are to die for. Seriously, you don't need to be hungry to visit. Just sit at that bar and order a few of their custom cocktails, then Uber home. We left feeling like we didn't need to eat the entrees, but we did want to come back and drink. Their menu is a real gem.

We skipped appetizers because we just wanted food. If I were to return, I'd do drinks and try those out.

The food was hit and miss. My friend ordered the fried chicken meal. I can't believe I'm saying this about their signature item, but that was some of the most dry chicken I've ever tasted. I'm not kidding. After I took a bite and chewed a bit, I washed it down with water. I expected so much better from a soul food restaurant. Then again, we both debated ordering it. I seriously feel like friend chicken is hit or miss EVERYWHERE except your aunt's kitchen. I can acknowledge we may have gotten a bad batch. The greens were rolled over into what looked like egg rolls and tasted bland. They were also dry. I'm not one for dipping corn bread in greens, so I appreciated a lack of a puddle, but it could've used SOME moisture. The mac and cheese didn't deliver. My friend was hurt. We tried everything on each other's plate, so I felt her pain. She didn't even finish her food, which is unheard of. That heffa is greedy. I'm not even exaggerating. How she isn't as big as me, I'll never understand.

My meal was the stuffed porkchop. Now, the chef is on to something here. I say this because while it wasn't what I expected, and not necessarily a combo I'd want, it was still good and I finished my plate. Something about the combo didn't excite me though. The taste of the dish was ... savory, very savory, and also very sweet. I think the sweet was my issue. It felt like it competed with the richness of everything else. If savory and sweet in a meal, versus dessert, is your thing you'll really like the dish. For me though, it was something I could do without and my friend agreed. The brussel sprouts were a great touch, though nothing special. Brussel sprouts are actually my favorite vegetable, so I even enjoy them when they're prepared wrong. These weren't wrong ... they just didn't have any personality.

Overall, we had $90 bar tab, so I don't think it's unreasonable I wanted to be blown away. Instead it was just okay. Soul food isn't my cuisine of choice. The grease and heaviness don't appeal to me, so I was excited to try this place and get pulled out that box ... instead I feel like I got pushed back in a bit.

But again, everyone can't be wrong. Maybe it was a bad night. And as I said, while it wasn't my favorite combo, the pork chop delivered.

I won't recommend it, but I won't not...

1st time experience with guest from out of town. I selected this experience knowing my friends love (soul food) & I wanted them to have an elevated experience.

Ambiance|Customer Service - overall 4.5 🌟 we were greeted immediately & welcomed with a warm smile, we were early for our 6pm reservation, able to be seated as it was a Wednesday & they weren’t very busy, we did stay over the 90m timeframe but we asked if our server needed to turn the table & we’re told we were good to stay. Throughout our experience we were checked on often. I was disappointed when asking about the oxtails the server advised they weren’t ready… of course I’m willing to wait & I had to ask as this information wasn’t proactively shared when the oxtails will be ready - she replied tomorrow. I was offered another red meat option - not interested & had to finger out a replacement because it’s rude to want to leave with guest. Yes, I was that disappointed.

Meal Quality -overall 3 🌟 Bread Service - we’re ok with the addl’ cost but it wasn’t as expected. We expected the bread to be served warm - it wasn’t. Usually has soft butter with it - there wasn’t. That’s not apart of their presentation. Sweet potato biscuits tasted grainy/powdery not melt in your mouth delicious. Focacca could have been great if it was served warm. My guest only liked the focaccia & would have preferred it warm as well.

Appetizer - Fried Green Tomatoes were well presented, thick sliced tomatoes, the thickest breading we’ve ever tried & without the accompaniments they would have been bland. I didn’t taste any Truffle in the (Truffle Burrata Cheese). You could charge this to my taste buds…. but I love truffle everything! They were hard to cut which is unusual. There was 3 of us and 3 (FGT’s) it was so disappointing we didn’t eat 1 of them. Cocktails - 5 🌟 we all ordered 1 cocktail each - 2 old fashioned & Passport Papi - I sampled some… we agreed it was very delish, cute and looks like an upscale ‘kiddy cup’. It was also ( Whiskey Sample Wednesday) - they feature a whiskey & will give you a tasting plus they feature a few cocktails with the feature whiskey. Very nice.

Entree’ 5🌟 2 of us ordered Cola Brined Pork Chops & I asked for the Apple Mostarda on the side. Not a fan of sweet fruit paired with my meal. The pork chop is smoked & brined… SOLD!! This meal was a mouthgasm! I’ll include a pic😉 My other friend ordered the steak option of which he loved! I don’t take a pic of the steak or the dessert. Dessert 3.5 🌟 1 person had the house made ice cream - delish. 2 of us had peach cobbler w/ butter pecan ice cream. Ice cream was great! Peach cobbler wasn’t as expected. The flavor and texture of the peaches was perfect… however it was served in a tiny glass like ramekin not like the pic from the website of which I’ll include. I didn’t bother taking a pic - it was pretty syrupy & had slices of dough which tasted like dough not like the crust of a good southern cobbler. Maybe this was an off night & I do understand things happen. I would return again with my spouse & hope for an all around...

If I could give negative stars I would! Last night, we were a party of 5, celebrating my Husband's birthday. From the beginning, the line in front had ppl that did not have reservations that were being seated before ppl that had reservations. Our reservation was at 7:30pm. At 7:34pm while waitinf outside, I called inside saying we were in the line outside waiting, I was then instructed to come inside to the Host. I then informed anyone that was on the line ahead of me with reservations to go inside because they did not know either. Someone should have been outside to ensure that! Once inside, we had to wait another 15 or so minutes to be seated. I saw the Host cleaning our table and I realized right away that they were under staffed for the night. This shoukd have been our sign to leave! Once seated, we place the order for our drinks and our appetizer of wings (the wings were never came). My husband ordered a Toyko Iced Tea, it took 3 tries for them to come with the correct drink. Lets get down to the entrees which left much to be desired!! The cornbread had too much butter that you can barely taste anything else about it. We all ordered the southern fried chicken with the mac and cheese and collard green roll with apple chutney. 3 out of the 5 of us ate most of our chicken. The other 2 guests, tried the food and complained that their chicken was dry, underseasoned and they couldnt even stomach it. We all agreed that the collard green roll was absolute trash!! And the mac and cheese was dry as if it was laid out for a day or 2 and lost the moisture. I forgot to mention withour drinks that the bartender was very heavy handed with the alcohol. My drink is supposed to be sweet based, it was alcohol with a dash of sweet! It a pretty drink tho! Now time for dessert! My friend which is a pastry chef, dropped off my husbands cake before our reservations. It took them over 20 minutes to bring out the cake! And we didnt get a knife to cut it. My bro in law had to go get one! And one of the plates they brought out was dirty! About 5 minutes later the waitress came back with a knife after we had already went to get it. The dessert cocktail that was ordered i believe it was irish coffee with whiskey and whipped cream was disgusting! At this point I was getting extremely upset and was just ready to go. We asked for the check. Usually when dining at a restaurant you are asked if one check or not. We were not asked instead we were giving individual checks with incorrect ordering. We had to request the corrections. I had to give a detailed review of my disappointment of a restaurant that I was looking forward to try and for my husband to enjoy his birthday dinner. So we are going to redo his dinner at another time elsewhere. After we left, we went to another lounge to salvage the remainder of our night, which we did! WE WILL NEVER RETURN TO THIS RESTAURANT! I dont want to hear sorry about anything, cuz I am not interested. There are so much more I can say but I am not going to go in any further. I wish...