The Roof Ellijay — Restaurant in Ellijay

Review: The Roof - Ellijay, GA

We are staying in this area for 6 weeks and really wanted to spend time supporting the locals, especially our “family” 🌈 restaurants. However, like all my reviews, I strongly believe in telling both the good and bad.

We arrived around 6:30pm on a Friday to drink and eat dinner. We would have loved to make reservations but they don’t take them and had to put our name in and wait 40 min. The bar is first come first serve and as soon as we saw and opening with grabbed them and decided to eat at the bar.

Loved the local vibe. We sat next to locals and great conversations about the local area. Ambience was as expected for a roof top restaurant.

Service: not impressed. The bartender was very unwelcoming. I think she was a bit overwhelmed. We put in an order for apps first. And waited … and waited … and waited. Finally after like 30 min the apps rolled out. We got the Bologna Sliders and the Shrimp cakes. Food is on point. The Bologna sliders were amazing. My only complaint would be maybe a little but more bologna. But really good. The shrimp cake was amazing.

We ordered our meals also before the apps came out and it was slow going. We inquired on why it was taking so long she said the kitchen was backed up. I get it. People are understaffed. However, I feel the process may be off. We got the steak with mash and seasonal vegetables, trout, fried chicken pasta, and the burger with bacon and eggs. Overall the food was amazing. Flavors were great, cooked right, and definitely a good reward for the wait.

The only thing I would say is corn on the cob is not typically one would expect with a seasonal vegetable. The waitress should always tell people what it is first. Ended up not really being Eaten.

Overall Amazing Food, Decent Ambiance, Ehhhh Service. I would go back but maybe off hours or just lower my expectations on how quickly the food would come out.

Who am I: I have traveled the world including 67 countries and 32 US states and have had the opportunity to eat at over 500 Michelin star restaurants and dined with several international chefs. I believe that every restaurant has opportunities to grow and consider myself fair...

The atmosphere of this place is tough to beat. It is a rooftop restaurant in beautiful quaint downtown Ellijay. You have views of the town square (yes that is a thing here) and purple mountains off in the distance.

The menu may appear limited but I would chock that up to doing a few things very well and not really worrying about putting boring generic options on the menu that you can get anywhere (with the exception of the kids menu, but can't hate them for that). Just about everything on the menu has a unique twist to it and everything we tried was excellent.

The boiled peanut appetizer is a must. I would get an order of it for every two people in your party. It will go fast.

My wife and I split the wild boar sausage dish and the four tomatoe salad. Both were phenomenal.

The only negatives I have are minor, but worth mentioning. We wanted to also split the ham shank but were informed by the server that they were out at 5:30pm. That was a bit of a disappointment. Also, the wine list is very limited. I believe there were only four or five each of red and whites and it appears they can only be ordered by the glass. The wine selection was fine, just limited. Finally, we had some missteps with service. It didn't appear too busy so I'll not chock it up to our server being in the weeds, but more just general oversights. My water glass was never refilled which was a bit of a disappointment. I honestly didn't ask for more water as I was fine with the wine but by the time I was wishing I had it, the meal was wrapping up and it didn't seem worth it to bug our server. We also told the server we would be splitting the salad and out entree and when the meal came out asked for a second plate. One never came and my wife and I just picked off the two plates together. It wasn't a big deal but a minor inconvenience. We still tipped more than 20% and our server was overall cheerful and engaging. She was knowledgeable about the menu and made plenty of good suggestions.

If you're in Ellijay for dinner this place is definitely worth the stop. The view is unbeatable. The food belongs in a much larger city where restaurants have to be creative to stand out....

One of my friends knew that the wait would be long, but it was only a 45 minute wait when we got there. They have told us that they have waited longer. This place does not take reservations. They only take walk ins, so please be mindful of that if you’d like to eat here. You go up an elevator straight to the restaurant. We sat inside, but were able to peep a view of the mountains through their glass sliding doors. Our server was great and while we waited for our table we had looked at what we wanted to order, so we ordered right away. I got the mussels for the table and the flat iron steak for my entree. Inside it is bustling, and you can see how seating is limited by how busy they were. Two of my friends had some of my mussels and they said that they were really good and I agreed. It does have a kick to them and there are peaches for sweetness, but you couldn’t really taste them. It comes with bread which they forgot, but I asked and they brought it out right away. The bread dipped in the sauce was the best part ! Then our entrees came out. My steak was cooked perfectly. The only critique I’d have to say about it was that the portobello bordelaise sauce to me was a bit too salty, but not so salty that I couldn’t enjoy my meal. It was overall satisfying. My vegetarian friend got their mac and cheese as their entree which was not bad, but it was a bit sweet. The way I would describe it is, it was like a cornbread kind of sweet. And then my other two friends got the trout and their burger. I thought their trout was delicious, and my friend agreed, but she said that it was not seasoned enough, so she had to salt it some more. My friend with her burger thoroughly enjoyed her meal. Overall for my first time here The Roof Ellijay was great. The ambiance really takes the restaurant to another level and I understand the experience. Next time if I am ever back in the area, I would get the mussels again and try their meatloaf. I saw so many plates of their meatloaf coming out of the kitchen and it looked really,...