Kimball House — Restaurant in Decatur

Parking - 4/10 There isn't any restaurant-designated parking or valet. There is street parking close by but that is dealers' luck. There are also some spots right in front of the restaurant but those get filled up pretty quickly.

Initial reception and service - 10/10 My partner and I were greeted warmly when we arrived and were sat promptly. Everyone was very nice and very polite. We definitely felt warm and taken care of.

Sitting down - 9/10 We sat inside the restaurant (main dining), in a corner booth that was adjacent to the bar. The seat gave us a pleasant view of the restaurant and made it very easy for us to call our waitress when we needed to.

Noise level - 7/10 We had a very early reservation,at 5:15PM, but after about an hour, the place filled up pretty quickly and the noise level rose. My partner and I were still able to hear each other without raising our voices so that was good! The music that was playing was not overbearing and nice. The longer the evening went on, the more the general noise level of the restaurant rose, which was expected.

Ambiance - 7/10 During the daytime, the sunlight filtered in very nicely. There are some high windows that let the sun in, which was hitting us just perfectly. It made our selfies really lovely. As the sun dwindled down, the mood lighting of the restaurant took over, which added this warm aesthetic to the evening. Even though there were a lot of people for what seemed to be a busy evening, the mood and ambiance of the place did make it feel intimate.

Apps - 10/10 We started our dining with Hawaiian rolls, blue crab claws, and grilled oysters. The Hawaiian rolls are to die for; Extremely soft with a light butter top and salted finish, these rolls were just the beginning of a delightful culinary experience. The homemade whipped butter and preserves added an even more exciting adventure to our taste buds. We had to get these to go because, wow.

The blue crab claws were a nice surprise. The true definition of small but mighty. Extremely tasteful and very well seasoned, the tamarind citrus glaze dripping off the crab was the perfect companion for the crab meat. I also dipped some of the Hawaiian rolls into the sauce, and that was truly wonderful.

I am not a fan of oysters but I must say, these grilled oysters were really well-balanced. They were cooked perfectly and well seasoned too. The roasted garlic butter sauced rounded off the warmth of the oyster and left a very juicy taste in your mouth.

Drinks - 8/10 My partner is currently pregnant and so it was a mocktail type of evening. We let our waitress surprise us with the drinks and gave hints as to what we were looking for. The bartender did an excellent job of catering to our request for sweet and balance drinks. I did have the mocktail version of the New Tokyo, which is a house favorite. I felt that the ginger was too overpowering for me but would be interested to know what it would taste like with scotch.

Entrees - 7/10 I ordered the duck breast for my main and was slightly disappointed. The tenderness of the duck and the duck fat was excellent but I felt that it could have been a hit with a little bit more seasoning. I was not a huge fan of the dirty rice and the duck jus.

My partner had ribeye. The temperature was good and it was juicy, but she felt it wasn't fatty enough to be a ribeye cut. The stirfry, fingerlings, and onion rings were excellent.

To top it all off, we also ordered the green romaine caesar which was exquisite. The slightly burnt romaine together with the granda padano made us really appreciate the creativity and taste of the salad.

Final thoughts - 8/10 This was our first time at Kimball House and overall, we had a very pleasant experience. The highlight of the evening was most definitely the appetizers. We received really excellent service and never felt the wait in between our meals was too long. The bathrooms are really clean, cute, and set in a retro aesthetic. They are also well-maintained. We would most definitely be back as this is likely to become one of...

This was an interesting culinary experience - sort of tragic in a lot of ways. And memorable for some of the right reasons. My mother and sister took me out for my birthday when I came into town on business. I love oysters like whoa. They said Kimball House was the place. We get to our reservation a few minutes early, they seat us and we put in an oyster order. Forty minutes pass. At that point it comes to light that we unintentionally put our order in at happy hour, and the oyster shuckers are super backed up. Honestly, that would have been totally cool, if someone had told us what was up. But no one did until forty minutes later. At this point hanger is turning to desperation. And this brings us to the second weird experience of the evening. Kimball House attempts to do the very-chic-right-now every waiter is your waiter, served by all thing. They do this by running what amounts to a life huddle in the back, communicating what the tables need. This is a hard thing to pull off well. And frankly if you can’t pull it off at 7.30 on a Tuesday, you can’t pull it off. Lemme give you an example - so it’s 40 minutes since we’ve put our oysters order in and FINALLY someone comes to check in. Only then do we realize we’re not getting our oysters any time soon. So we order mussels. They come quick, are delicious, and my mom likes them so much she orders bread to sop up the juices. She asks the waiter not to take the serving plate away - she wants those juices. But because they are running this silly every-waiter game, she has to tell no less than six people not to take the plate away until she gets her darn bread. This is uncomfortable because she is growing more frustrated and each waiter gets progressively more ire. I start to worry she’s gonna shiv someone with a fork. And the waitstaff is sorta dumbfounded because they have no idea what’s up. Had there been one waiter this would not be an issue. Had there been one waiter, they might have come back to see if we needed anything in the FORTY minutes between ordering and hearing another peep from waitstaff. But alas, no. Anyway, bloodshed is mercifully averted when my mom gets her bread. So then the oysters come out. Fully an hour after we order. And they are impeccable. Everything. The clean shell split, the dropper for the vinegar shallots. It’s perfect. The rest of the food is great too. So are the cocktails. They take forever and a day too, but frankly after the oyster thing, it barely registers. We order oysters again for dessert cause that’s the kind of people we are. They come out fast and are beautiful. Other things. The decor throughout this restaurant is lovely. Well thought out. From the sinks in the toilet to the alternating table surfaces. It’s really impressive. So those are my thoughts - a thoroughly impressive kitchen and restaurant let down by some poor front of house management. Before posting this, I emailed it to Kimball House to see if they had any kind of response. It's been a week and I haven't...

I was given great recommendations from multiple people about this place. The service was excellent, our waiter was so friendly, but the food was incredibly disappointing.

We ordered the snapper crudo, onion soup, roasted oysters, chicken roulade, trout, rum cake.

Roasted oysters: The best thing we got! The salsa macha butter was a bit bland, but the oysters were really nicely cooked and the crunch of the potato was extremely pleasant. Highly recommended and maybe the only thing I'd get if I came back here.

Snapper crudo: I think coconut milk, snapper, and grapefruit have no business being served together. The fried taste of the sunchoke chip was so dissonant. I'm not sure what the inspiration for this dish was. I don't think any of the flavors made sense. This was a miss for me.

Onion soup: Not much to write home about, a fairly standard French onion soup, done well with everything you could want from one.

Chicken roulade: The portion was massive. I found the chicken to be really intense and really salty. It's like eating an entire ham steak on your own. In general, you don't want to eat something so rich and homogenous in so many bites. The texture goes from interesting to unpleasant after the first few bites. The risotto was really soft and mushy, overcooked and gloopy

Trout: The trout was cooked really nice. Very delicate and flakey, really moist. The problem, however, were the sides. When you see braised greens, you expect tender, soft greens. While flavorful they were quite fiberous and chewy, unpleasantly so. The grits had hard, gritty lumps, some big chunks of just cold, gelatinized corn. It just felt really poorly reheated.

Honey rum: This was fine. the filling was good. The crust wasn't anything interesting

I don't mean to be so anal about my critiques. But given the $200 that was spent, only 1 dish felt worthwhile, while most had really big misses on key components, while 1 dish I do not think belongs on the menu. I'm a little disappointed as I was looking forward to this meal and there was some hype around it. I cannot say that I would return at this time, but our waiter, I cannot emphasize enough, was the highlight of...