Stem Wine Bar — Restaurant in Georgia

A friend an I thought we were going to have dinner at Seed. However, with no reservations and no open seats at the bar we were advised we could try Stem Wine bar. Stem wine bar is essentially a sister company to Seed.

We walked in and grabbed a seat at the bar. The Female bar tender with blonde hair poured us a glass of water, but did not offer a smile or a name. The energy she gave off is that she did not want to help us!! Paul did come over and asked if he could assist us. He was a lot more helpful than the blonde female bar tender.

Note that Since this is a wine bar they serve tapas style items. There is only one entree available and it is a burger. We ordered Brussels sprouts, deviled eggs, shrimp, goat cheese dip and paella. The Brussels came out within minutes of placing our order. They offered a new take on Brussels. They were drenched in an oil based sauce, mixed with apples, and bacon. They were decent. Nothing that I would recommend, but also if I had to eat them again I would. Next the deviled eggs arrived( serving of 1.5 eggs). They were beyond disappointing. There was a hint of a truffle taste. I have had the deviled eggs from Seed and they are 10 times better than the ones offered at the wine bar. The shrimp came out next. They are served with bread. The shrimp are served sitting in a butter sauce. This dish was also just ok. The paella finally came out. This was the item that really disappointed me. This tasted like nothing. Literally the worst tasting paella I have ever eaten. The rice tasted like the rice that comes out of the bag that you cook in the microwave. The dish was salty, and it was not served in a cast iron dish as most paellas are.They should change the name of this dish to rice mix, or something more fitting. The goat cheese dip was another disappointing item. This tasted like warm cream cheese topped with some meat. When asked what was used to make this item, we were told that it's cream cheese, Parmesan cheese and goat cheese. However, this is what the menu reads: baked goat cheese dip: Medjool Dates, Bacon, Pistachio, Balsamica, Baguette. The name of this dip is very misleading. It's primarily cream cheese topped with goat cheese.

Overall this was a disappointing dining experience. I would recommend that if you are not able to dine at Seed skip this place. I would hate for you to experience this first and fail to experience the...

STEM WINE BAR GIFT CARDS DONT WORK ON RESERVATIONS FOR THE WINE TASTINGS

First I’d like to say I’ve been here once before and I had no complaints with the service or food. Everything in those areas were great.

HOWEVER, I have just received a gift card and was excited to go back and use it. It was a very thoughtful gift. Only one problem, I was just told that you can’t use it on making a reservation for the wine tasting. Kind of irritating since it would’ve been nice for me and my husband to have a night out without spending the total $120. It wasn’t going to cover the whole cost for both of us only half so we were going to spend money on the reservations anyway and would’ve bought a couple extra things too. But that’s a no go apparently. So now I’m stuck with either paying the $120 for the reservation and use the gift card on extras while we’re there (although, I’m not %100 sure they’ll accept that either and even if they did we’re not going to spend over $60 on extras) or just going to dinner at Seed (Which will be fine because ultimately we won’t be spending as much money as we would’ve if we went to Stem). Over all why would you put gift cards on the Stem website if you’re NOT going to let people use it for reservations for the wine tastings? Why would you put the Stem bar logo on the gift card if you’re not able to use it on reservations for the wine tastings? Whoever is in charge needs to fix this confusion and let people know up front you can’t use it for buying tickets for the wine tasting.

Super frustrating. Someone spent the money to give this gift and now I can’t use it on Stem for the wine tasting. They may as well have just given me cash but they didn’t know the gift card would have ‘limitations’. 🙄

I understand that you buy the tickets through another site which will make it hard to use gift cards. However, I should be able to call and buy the tickets through the phone where you can use the gift cards, I pay whatever the difference is, then I have tickets for the...

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly...

A pon entry, there was a very busy wine tasting wrapping up, but ample bar seating. The atmosphere was gorgeous, and the bar staff were very nice and Jules made great attempts at humer.

We ordered the 2018 Barolo from the menu; however, we presented with a 2019 bottle instead and offered no expecting or notification of the difference. Truly, we did not notice until the glases were pored. We jokingly ask Jules about it, and he advised that we speak with the Sommelier, which we politely requested. Regrettably, he had retired for the evening after the tasting. It was after 8p. We enjoyed the wine. It is still a Barolo