Rookery — Restaurant in Macon

Don’t hesitate, this is everything you are hoping your meal here can be!

Just had an awesome dinner at the Rookery. We arrived at 7:00 on a Wednesday to a 20 minute wait. You can join the waitlist online to skip the wait but it was no big deal - we just headed to the bar for a bit!

There’s an impressive beer and cider menu plus some great cocktails. The bartender here was not afraid to pour some liquor and our drinks were tasty and STRONG.

I had the classic bourbon and ginger beer cocktail called the Horses Neck. My friend drank a sweet and tart Eat a Peach martini but my very favorite was the decadently delicious Sweet Melissa - sweet tea, peach schnapps, vodka and lemonade. It was so sweet and smooth!

Everyone at the table picked a different appetizer because so many of them looked delicious. Really, you cannot go wrong with the pimento cheese dip or the artichoke and collard greens dip. Truly if you’d like spinach and artichoke dip this was very close to the same cheesy tangy goodness. The fried green tomatoes were also tasty.

For me the big winner was the solid gold soul rolls though - OMG - three sizable fried wraps stuffed with pimento cheese, chicken and collard greens are covered with a chili peach sauce. The sweet, salty, slightly spicy combo was TO DIE FOR!! Do not miss them, you will cry. I would drive three hours back to Macon just for another order of these things they were that good.

For dinner, I had the wonderfully named Walden Greenback burger, a juicy burger topped with tangy goat cheese, a fried green tomato, bacon and a sundried tomato remoulade. WHAT a flavor profile! The potato salad on the side was some of the best I’ve had.

I was already stuffed, but you cannot leave the Rookery without trying one of their amazing milkshakes for dessert. And if you’re a grown-up, don’t miss the grown-up variety! I had the Billy Carter - a banana and peanut butter milkshake with bacon and Jim Beam bourbon dear Lord what a boozy treat!

The location is great, and I really enjoyed the antiqued green walls and funky vintage lamps. The vibe is low key and warm, but there’s a giant tv too, so we were able to watch the Braves playoff game!Last but certainly not least, our server Kiki was A DOLL. So personable and funny. Just a gem.

I am only in Macon for three days, and I have a list of places I want to try out while I’m down here, but I’m tempted to scrap it so that I can come back to The Rookery and have another amazing milkshake and helping of those solid gold soul rolls. They are one of the best things I’ve put in my...

Rarely do I ever post a bad review, but our 1st experience at The Rookery necessitates this, because the food and drinks definitely did not live up to the expectations we had due to recommendations by the great people at the Macon Visitor Center! Awesome town to stay overnight and visit, with plans to come again, but next time I would ask for better (freshly prepared) food and drink quality for sure.

We dined there on 8/2/25 at 4:15pm and ordered Burger of the Month, Big “O” Burger, French Fries, Brandy Alexander & Georgia Peach Shakes. The burgers couldn’t have been freshly cooked as they were not even warm and fries were limp, greasy and cold to the touch.

Worst of all the Brandy Alexander was brought to the table with the shake running all down the glass and servers hand too. When it was placed on the table it continued to go all over it as well. Very messy and lots of napkins to clean up the spill.

I tasted it and this too wasn’t even cold, and didn’t taste completely like Brandy Alexander’s I’ve had before. It probably sat at the Bar way too long, and Bartender could have cleaned the glass off, if server didn’t create this issue. But also not made until time to serve to insure greater coldness.

A backup server accompanied our server (Tamika) to help bring all the items, as she was new to the job. Perhaps the other server, if more experienced could have suggested the shake running onto the floor, hands and table might be best served another way.

Tamika was extremely pleasant and good at overseeing our needs, but I didn’t feel like addressing the issues to add to her stress of being a new employee. As I worked in the F&B industry myself for many years, and we had decided to just eat it, so we could get back on the road to continue heading home to Louisville.

The Restaurant wasn’t 1/4 full when we arrived and had our food delivered. The kitchen and bar staff probably weren’t being pushed too hard during this time to oversee better quality control of their dishes. But, regardless of why our experience wasn’t as good as so many others have expressed was greatly disappointing and costly too! ($59.40 plus $13.00 tip).

While this review and details are lengthy, I’m truly hoping the staff at The Rookery might use this as an example of the importance of keeping higher standards when it comes to food temps and table presentation in the future. We loved the vibe and great...

Went to this place specifically for the Cherry blossom burger for the cherry blossom festival; the host said “I think we’re out” didn’t even check with anyone, just said he thought they were out so I couldn’t get it, whatever. i told the host i wanted to order the cheesecake and he proceeded to get an attitude and look at my friend and I like we were stupid and said “please get behind the line so we can serve other guests.” Moving wasn’t the problem at all, it was the nasty attitude the host had, not only that but I still wanted to ORDER, i hadn’t even paid yet or had my order put in, so there was really no reason to move. So my friend and I moved to the back of the line like we were told. He began serving the other guests, saw that we were standing in the back and got an attitude and said “can you guys move over against the wall?” so we were cramped in a corner, my order still not taken. The other host then asked me what I wanted, I then asked if i could just get 2 cherry blossom cheesecakes, and the man proceeded to say it would be $28, so I just ordered 1 for $16. The cheesecake wasn’t even that good, definitely not worth $16. They just charged that outrageous price because of the festival. I can get better cheesecake from publix for $6. So after I pay, we’re just cramped in this small corner. A customer then comes up to the counter and asks if he can place a to go order, and the rude host proceeds to tell him to get behind us and just walks off like he didn’t have a line of people waiting to order. The customer then walks up to the counter asking if he could finally order since no one was helping him. Some other hostess came up and asked us to wait in the waiting room, acting like we were supposed to be doing that the entire time? I’m not sure if this place is always this unorganized, but this was not a pleasant visit. The rude host just kind of never made me want to revisit. He had a nasty ‘i don’t care’ attitude and didn’t acknowledge the customers needs like a restaurant...