Caledonia Room at Valhalla Resort Hotel — Restaurant in Helen

I have mixed feelings about my experience at Caledonia Dining Room @ Valhalla Resort Hotel. We visited with a party of 9. My friend Afua was celebrating her birthday. She made a reservation in advance to accommodate our party. She chose to come here for the beautiful view at the Skybar and closeness to our airBNB. I typically do not have high expectations for hotel restaurant food. You know that it will likely be pricey and underwhelming. In this case, this proved to be untrue regarding price, but true with the food and service. Our waitress and bartender Jessica was extremely accommodating and pleasant despite of many mishaps. I don't want to say that the mishaps were a result of racism, but in some ways we felt mistreated. It was an odd experience. The table was ready for us when we arrived. Jessica was the only one servicing the area and there were three couples seated around the same time that we were seated. One couple sat at the bar and the others were seated in the dining area near the railing, closest to the view. We were in the center of the upstairs area. Jessica started us off with the drink menu. We ordered a few martinis and Whiskey Sours. It took about 10 minutes to get drink orders to the table. When the drinks were brought out, Afua's sister's 7-month-old baby fell back in the highchair. He was startled and unharmed, but there was no attention from staff or bystanders when this happened. Also, right before that, a guest at the bar almost knocked a chair over into her baby. Our waitress caught it, but this was still frustrating.

We were offered two food menus. The downstairs menu and the dinner menu. The downstairs menu was less pricey and had a few appetizers, sandwiches, soups and salads. The dinner menu had duck, salmon and a few other entrees. Apparently, this menu changes periodically. Five of us ordered a chicken bacon cheddar sandwich with varying condiments and topping requests (i.e omit tomatoes, add sautéed onion, add a side of chipotle sauce etc.). One person ordered a Vahalla classic burger. I ordered a salad and one of the chicken bacon cheddar sandwiches. Afua's sister ordered the soup of the day with the duck breast entree. Afua and her younger sister ordered the salmon entrée. We assumed that the soup and salad would come out as starters, but they did not. We waited for over an hour for the food. At the hour mark, Jessica advised us that the food would be up shortly. At that point, I asked Jessica if the side items (fries and onion rings) would be hot. I asked because I know that chefs often serve large parties simultaneously. With that being said, salmon and fresh vegetable entrées can sit in a window longer than sandwiches with fries before getting cold. Jessica assured me that they should be and if not, they'd take care of it. When the food finally came out, all 5 chicken bacon cheddar sandwiches were missing bacon. All orders of fries/onion rings were cold. None of the starters (soup or salad) were brought out and we ended up cancelling them. The birthday girl felt that her food was bland. Jessica worked with the chef to get the issues resolved, but it put a damper on the experience. The best part of the night was when Jessica brought out a dessert to celebrate the birthday girl. Afua's sister requested this cake in advance but had to leave dinner early to head back to Atlanta. I followed up with our waitress and she made it happen right after I had each friend share a special memory with the birthday girl. The ambiance was there, and the food was good after correction. However, the mishaps and wait for food made this run less smoothly than intended. I would not recommend the upstairs Caledonia Dining Room for a large party, but I would for a romantic date. The scenery was beautiful as the sunset and the little light accents were...

If you are wondering whether or not you should come here, let me make the decision for you. Do it. Hands down one of the best meals you’ll have. The chef, Tim, is phenomenal. He even came out and spoke to us multiple times (it was a slower night) and truly had genuine conversations with us. Ed, our server, made us feel so comfortable and made fantastic wine paring recommendations. Ps if you like (or think you won’t like) white wines, le petite bougousinesse is a fabulous wine. Smooth slightly tart finish, easy drier white with a beautiful fragrant nose and stunning finish.

BUT THE FOOD…. Everything we ate was amazing. We split their fall salad (mixed spring greens, goat cheese, candies walnuts, dried cranberries, and raspberry vinaigrette). Let me tell you I know a salad is usually nothing to get super excited about but this was art. The candied walnuts tasted and felt like those candies nuts you get at the fair/carnivals - actually crunchy and delicious. The wild rice cake (minus shrimp) was amazing! I have not had a risotto that tasted as good as this since being in Italy 5 years ago. They lightly fry it so it is like a large arancini and about the size of a large crab cake. The arrabbiata sauce it is on is so fresh, flavorful, and beautiful balanced. I could have eaten this as my meal and been extremely happy. For the entrees we had their Caledonia chicken and the pistachio crusted Mahi. The Mahi was my favorite. The crisp that the chef had on this fish was incredible. The sauce was so tangy and flavorful. The basmati rice was perfectly cooked and I mean perfect. Not mushy or underdone, it was literally textbook perfect. The vegetables (zucchini Squash and carrot rounds) were complementary to the dish and had enough give but not mushy. The fish was flaky but not over cooked and had a beautiful fresh flavor -not “fishy” at all. The chicken was delicious as well - perfectly cooked and flavorful . The potatoes were brilliant. I will caution on this particular dish that it really should be eaten as a bite of everything on the fork or else you lose something on the dish. The sauce is truly there to be flavorful and pull it all together. If you eat in pieces (bite of potatoes and then some chicken) it does not translate as well as when all eaten as one. Still an incredibly delicious dish!

Lastly it was my birthday so you know we had to get dessert. Their Italian lemon cake was phenomenal. The flavors were so delicate and simple. The cake itself was moist and had a beautiful crumb. The filling was light and flavorful so it lifted the cake perfectly. The garnishes were perfectly complimentary. Not at all ostentatious but rather humble but a beautiful lesson in “less is often more” in desserts.

They even surprised me with a sparkler for my birthday!

I cannot recommend this place enough. I have worked almost a decade in the restaurant and hospitality industry and this place is truly worth the visit. Thank you to everyone who made this night so special and delicious! We...

My family and I (party of 4) opted to visit a restaurant for our Christmas lunch, we chose to make reservations at the Caledonia Room. Despite arriving early for our scheduled reservation, we were promptly seated. However, the hostess advised us that we had a limited time of one to one and a quarter hours to enjoy our meal. After waiting for approximately ten to fifteen minutes, our server arrived to take our drink orders for four sweet teas, which were delivered without issue. Unfortunately, our server did not return to our table for the duration of our visit, and we had to request the assistance of another server to clear our plates and ask for drink refills, which were never received. Eventually, we had to seek the help of the individual serving water throughout the establishment to request our server and obtain our check. While our server was dropping off the check and retrieving the dirty dishes, he accidentally dropped a knife on my guest - a 20-year-old female - and did not even apologize. His response was simply "Oops." Due to his careless mistake, my guest had to spend the rest of the day with a food stain on her blouse that we couldn't get clean.

Once we finally received our check (which he placed in front of the young lady what was with our party, even though my husband put his hand out to the waiter to retrieve it), we realized that a pen was not provided, so we had to track one down ourselves. When I mentioned this to our server, his response was "I HAVE OTHER TABLES." This was an unacceptable response, especially considering our bill was $298.00. Perhaps service was so lacking because gratuity is automatically added to the total.

Ideally, we would have given an even larger tip if the service had been top-notch as expected.

During our dining experience, our server never smiled or even showed any sign of friendly communication.

Although we enjoyed the food and ambiance, we would not return to this establishment due to the negligent server.

"There was a young man, who appeared to be between 12 and 14 years old, helping with cleaning and delivering water. He was exceptional in his performance, always friendly, with a smile for everyone, and seemed genuinely happy to help. Our server could certainly learn a thing or two from...