Wahoo! Grill — Restaurant in Decatur

No offense to Callanwolde or the Botanical Garden, but if money was no object and I could recommend literally any venue in the city to host a wedding, I would still pick Wahoo! Grill.

First, the elephant in the room, or at least it was for me. The name of the place makes it sound like nothing special. Like it's maybe a beachside sports bar with fried fish and beer specials or something. Maybe you're not liking the idea of telling your parents that you're getting married at a place called "Wahoo! Grill", or how it'll look on the invitation, or whatever. Let me be clear with you. The name is a MASSIVE undersell for what this place really is. Do yourself a favor, be open-minded and give it a fair shot, because what's inside this normal-looking restaurant is not at all what you'd expect from the outside.

As soon as you walk through the entrance, you see their outdoor space, and it is incredible. Upscale rustic design and an impossibly lush garden surrounding you on all sides. Tour it in the warm season if you can, because everything is in bloom and you can see the garden at its peak. (We toured in winter, so a lot of the garden's beauty was hypothetical. Luckily we took their word on what it would be in summer.)

We were a little worried about the size, thinking it would be too small for our 110ish-count, but it was all good. The space is laid out nicely with an open area on one end for the ceremony, a tented area on the other end for dancing, and a tighter circle in the middle that gives it overall kind of an hourglass shape. We also purchased the restaurant buyout for a little extra breathing room. As far as weather plans, they have a thin shroud hanging over the ceremony space that handles light rain but recommend having a tent plan for heavy rain.

The food here is beyond excellent. All of our guests were raving about it, particularly the ahi tuna and the steak. Just as excellent as the food itself is their serving setup. These guys have the buffet down to a science, restocking it quickly and by demand so nothing is sitting out too long.

Honestly, though, what really won us over wasn't any of this as much as it was Pam and her team. They have taken their venue and restaurant and made it into a PERFECT WEDDING MACHINE. Pam herself is all at once the business owner, the venue manager, and your personal wedding director. She toured us herself, taking notes on us even before we decided to go with them, and made us feel taken care of from start to finish. Sydni was our point-person as we put our plans together, and her emails and questions were incredibly helpful. At one point we called her simply to say our budget was getting tight and ask if there were any ways to cut costs, and she combed through our entire banquet order and found as many cuts as she could within the day. And Caitlin was our hero during the event itself, seeming to be everywhere at once making sure everything was smooth. And it was. A lot of our family and friends said it was the most stress-free wedding they'd ever been to.

At the end of the day, what they're offering here is honestly worth far more than they're charging. But Pam says that's on purpose, and that she'd rather give people a great wedding experience than play the wedding upcharge game just because. I think her energy goes a long way toward making Wahoo! what it is, and I highly recommend you experience it...

My Memorable Wedding Day!

Words cannot express my gratitude for Pam Ledbetter and the rest of her staff, especially Sydni & Reggie! These people are a class act! My husband and I had the wedding we wanted and more! I didn’t want a huge wedding, but I wanted an experience nonetheless. Our initial plan was to whisk off to Hawaii to have a quaint ceremony and later have a party with lots of friends and family. We quickly realized that our close family and friends had other ideas and wanted to celebrate with us and see us take our vows. So, we had to change gears and try somehow to bring a bit of the Hawaiian tropics to us, but we couldn’t afford to blow our budget on an idea. We searched so many places in Atlanta and either they were waaay too expensive or the setting wasn’t quite right. Not to mention, we didn’t want a huge guest list. A family member suggested I take a look at Wahoo Grill in Decatur. I thought at first, what would a restaurant be able to do for me, but after making an appointment to see the location with Pam and what they could offer me, I quickly fell in love and put wheels in motion to plan my special day. She turned me onto, Sydni and I cannot tell you how important she was to me. I had no clue what to expect, how much my wishes I had would cost or next steps, as I had never planned a wedding. I only knew what my vision was and I tell you, this woman had the patience of Jobe! I will simple say that everything I threw at her she handled with patience, grace and a smile over the phone. She never let on to me that she was tired of the questions or changes I had. She simply told me what was possible and if she couldn’t do it she offered suggestions, right up to the very day! My husband and I had some unfortunately things happen during the planning of our wedding and I was really overwhelmed and stressed by it all and planning a wedding certainly didn’t offer any relief. For a moment I didn’t even think we could go through with the wedding, but Sydni was right there all the way and put me at ease with what was possible. Needless to say, our wedding day was all that I had hoped for! Let me not forget Reggie! I don’t know how this woman did what she did the day of my wedding. She had gotten off around 2am in the morning and had to meet me and my mom and hair stylist at 7am running on fumes! She knows her stuff and was the constant professional and lead this wedding with lots of patience and due diligence while keep me and my wedding party calm and focused. The food was excellent the drinks were delightful and the scenery from the outdoor covered patio and private garden brought my Hawaii directly to my footsteps in October 2019 with an absolutely gorgeous sunny brunch wedding day at the end of the fall season, all at an affordable cost. I cannot thank them enough, but I will never forget Wahoo Grill, its captain Pam and her crew of talented individuals that made our special day one for the record books. A simple thank you isn’t enough, however if you are looking for a local place to hold a special event with lots of charm at an affordable cost and flexibility, especially your “once in a life time wedding day”, look no further than this diamond in the rough. There is a damn good reason they get so many great reviews and they deserve each and every single...

Dismal experience for our table and at least 5 other tables around us. The poor front-of-the-house execution was the talk of many tables yesterday evening. It was the talk of the restaurant and the valet stand.

Despite having an early reservation in a half empty restaurant, it took 40 minutes for our order to be taken and an additional 45 minutes to receive our entrees. We saw runners running food all over the floor, looking confused, putting down food, then picking it up again, and wandering back and forth with the same plates of food over and over. It was a really poorly run operation, which is odd since we've dined there in the past and never seen the place running in such a confused, pell-mell tangle. It was evident from the upset looks on other diners' faces that we weren't alone in this assesment, and the talk around the valet stand, coupled with hearing waiters comping desserts and bar tabs for other tables by way of apology, painted a dismal picture.

35 minutes after placing our order, I saw food going to other tables that wasn't even on the menu. I asked Mitchell, our rarely-seen server, if he maybe didn't mention a special menu item or something. He replied by saying he missed his pre-shift meeting and didn't know if there were any specials (which there were, we found out, from another waiter). Good bread is a staple at Wahoo, but we had to resort to asking other waiters to get any at all, and it arrived as we had finished our entrees.

We opted to forgo dessert at Wahoo in favor of driving across the city to another establishment, figuring that even with the drive, we'd be served in a reasonable amount of time.

The food, as it was, was well prepared, as it has been in the past. The menu is a fairly accessible one, albeit slightly dated. The mechanics of running dinner service are the issue here. I can't recommend dining there at this point. The confused, disorganized customer service we witnessed, at our table and others, cancels every good thing that comes out of what is normally a fairly inspired and well-executed kitchen. The front of the house is really undercutting the good work of the chefs and cooks there.

If you should go, the grilled octopus is a standout item, cooked just enough to still be a bit tender. The chickpea puree could be a little thinner, as is smacked more of a dense dollop of hummous than anything. Still, really well done.

We'll be giving Wahoo a miss for a while and writing the management...