The White Bull — Restaurant in Decatur

(this is an updated review) Went here a few months ago and..... My thinking is, maybe I won't go here on a busy night? It just hits different, and by different, I mean OFF. Again ordered the FRITTI appetizer, again it came out cold, and super salty. Whereas the RIGATONI was hot and underseasoned. The host sat us outside, contrary to our original reservation, but we, the customers, we a rare table of all black female-bodied folx, can accommodate a busy dining scene, particularly if we're awarded with the excellent food and service we're happy to spend precious USD on. We arrived hungry, as you do for dinner, immediately upon being seated we asked for BREAD & BUTTERX2 the host obliges us then goes on to gush about the ELOTES dish, enticing our rumbling stomachs. She also tells us, "Tajin is a wonderful MEDITERRANEAN spice, very flavourful." We didn't ask, and OK. Only, TAJIN is a MEXICAN spice of dehydrated lime, citric acid, and chile. Simple. We ordered it anyway. Doesn't matter she didn't know enough about it. Doesn't matter she doesn't know the count on it. BIANNA, why??????!!!!!????! why were you so offput by our table from the get-go? is it because you were sent to tell us the dish your colleague us on was sold out, while we patiently awaited the BREAD & BUTTERS that ended up taking 18 minutes and arrived to us COLD? I'm so curious what the worthwhile ASSUMPTIONS were about our dining group. What turned it around for you when we were finally sat indoors, away from the cacophonous indoor Decatur crowd, that finally warmed you up to us? Our sparkling personalities? Eye-contact? active engagement? Let's face it, eating out is an abject privilege. An activity allocated primarily to folx with so-called "disposable income". It is actually enough to have someone prepare me an extraordinary meal with decent service and I can leave the REVIEW PROCESS to the true trolls and sycophants. In this case, I'm grateful for the food prepared and some of the service rendered, and will just go looking elsewhere for that balanced dining experience where consistent quality meets reliable service. For those of you last night that did try to add value to the experience, I appreciate you. And Bianna, thank you for coming around to us, ending on a kind note. It was worth the journey. & Kyle, thanks!

PS to the Bar. COCCHI ROSA is a fortified wine, coming in around 18% abv. A standard pour of fortified wines, to my knowledge, hovers at around 4-5oz, like wine. As an Aperitivo, is often served on ice with a twist....

I was so excited to try this place for their aperitivo hour with my friends, especially after loving Grana’s happy hour (and regular menu), and seeing a lot of media about it on Instagram. I have recommended Grana to so many friends and had high hopes for White Bull as well.

We arrived at 5:30pm and our server told us about the aperitivo menu— the pastas are same size as the regular menu, etc.

We first ordered Bread & Butter off the regular menu, but was told it was the same thing as the bread on the happy hour menu so we chose that instead. (He mentioned whenever people order the bread off the regular menu during happy hour he will charge the happy hour price. We were happy to have an honest and kind waiter). He later comes back and tells us it actually isn’t the same. No problem, we will get the Bread & Butter still.

We finish off the bread and realize it’s getting close to 6 and we look around for our waiter. At around 5:50 he comes back and we are playfully telling him we are trying to order before happy hour ends. One of us orders the cacio e pepe, but the waiter tells us we cannot order off the happy hour menu anymore, and that the kitchen stops serving happy hour 5-10 minutes before 6. We are very confused, but he informs us we can still order all the same things, just not off the happy hour menu. However, we could still order charcuterie off the happy hour menu (??). At this point it’s around 5:55 and had we known we had to order before 5:50, we definitely would have. Also, he didn’t even come check in on us before we could have ordered happy hour “in time”.

I did not think this would be a concern at all. If you can’t order happy hour by 5:50 then it should be advertised as 4-5:50, not 4-6. Additionally, our waiter knew we arrived 30 minutes before 6, knew we ordered an appetizer, and knew we had the aperitivo menu at the table. It was not as if we rushed in to be seated with 1 minute to spare to order off the happy hour menu. He did not at all mention this timing restriction when we were first seated at the table.

Overall the food was great and the outdoor seating was very cozy, but our whole experience was entirely tainted by this interaction. It feels very inconsistent, unprofessional, and scammy. It makes me even more upset that my friends and I rarely get together, but chose to do so here, and worked hard to leave work early enough to make it...

I want to first note that the people working here were all great, and I don’t want this review to be a reflection of them. My main criticism is that the food, while good, in no way justifies the very high prices.

The restaurant describes itself as farm to table and sustainable, but that appears to be more branding than substance. I called to ask what farms they source their meat from, and they couldn’t actually tell me, except that their chicken came from Springer mountain farms. Anyone that pays attention to local animal farming knows that Springer mountain is not really much better than your typical factory/industrial chicken farm, and plenty of other, MUCH less expensive restaurants around Decatur use it too. And the fact that they didn’t care much about knowing the source of the other meat (lamb, pork, beef) tells me they are likely just getting the same standard meat from distributors as most other restaurants in town, which again, charge a fraction of the cost.

I didn’t ask what farms they got their vegetables/produce from because I didn’t want to bother the server and manager anymore, but I do think it’s telling that they didn’t have anything listing where their produce came from that week. There are other restaurants that really DO try to be farm to table and are very transparent about where their food comes from (meat and produce). They’ll have boards where it’s posted so you can always check it before you order, and, notably, all of these that I can think of are relatively very affordable.

All of that being said, I got the bitter greens salad and beet appetizers, both of which were done well. But, even if the produce came from local farms in part or whole, I don’t think it justifies the price.

I am MORE than happy to pay a premium for high quality, ethical, sustainable food. Which is actually why I’m so bothered by a place that presents itself as having that ethos, but has nothing to back it up and seems to be cynically using it as a marketing ploy to justify high prices.

So, overall, not a BAD place, and the food was well done. But in no way worth the cost - just know that you’re paying a premium for ambiance, not...