Canoe — Restaurant in Vinings

First, I must start by saying the food at Canoe was... wait for it... superb! I don't know why I waited so long to make a reservation. I just assumed it was an overrated restaurant that did not deserve the fanfare. It definitely lives up to its reputation. The food, the view, the service, nothing was lacking. We went for dinner but I will be back for brunch in order to get a better view of the grounds at daylight.

We started with a few glasses of wine and a few appetizers. First was the house smoked salmon, crispy potato cake, and goat cheese. According to the waiter, this is one of the few dishes left on the original menu. At first, I was wondering if I should even spend my time (and money) on smoked salmon. After the first bite, I understood why it remains on the menu. The flavors all blended so well and the potato cake was like shoe string potatoes but they were actually crispy! Almost like a cracker. I knew if the smoked salmon was that good, I was in for a treat. Next, we had the jumbo lump crab cake and the peppercorn crusted kangaroo.

The crab cake was actually a LUMP crab cake. It was amazing the crab pieces were huge and it had just the amount of crust. Out of all the appetizers I had I would have to say hands down the peppercorn kangaroo was the best. Don't get me wrong, the others were outstanding but the kangaroo won the gold (notice the Olympics reference). I had never had kangaroo before it tasted to me like a mix of beef and chicken. It had great flavor but was very light. It's always amazing to me to taste meat that looks like beef. I had whale in Norway. It looked like beef but tasted like a mix of beef and fish (not in a good way). Back to the kangaroo, very flavorful the snap peas were cooked perfectly and when they bring it to the table they pour the sauce over the top. I could have just had that for dinner.

For dinner, I had the scallop special. The scallops were perfectly cooked over a crispy rice cake with julienne cut carrots and sugar snap peas. I did not even finish the dinner because I was stuffed from the appetizers and I wanted to save a tiny bit of room for dessert. I'm so glad I did.

Dessert was a hard decision. I was trying to decide between the Popcorn Cracker Jack Sundae or the Chocolate Grotto. I decided to opt for the Chocolate Grotto. It's basically a chocolate dome with caramel and a flourless chocolate cake inside. It can with pretzel dust on the plate. Upon arriving at the table it looked very interesting. Our waiter instructed us to break the dome to get to the cake and caramel. As he walked off I grabbed my fork and proceed to tap and then stab the dome...nothing. I told my husband "you're going to have to take a whack at it". He taps it as well and before he was about to stab it. Another waiter comes by and says use the back of your spoon and "beat it like it stole your money". I kid you not. It worked though. The dessert was well worth the aggression. The caramel and chocolate cake paired nicely with the saltiness of the pretzel dust.

All in all the meal was fabulous. Afterwards, we went for a walk along the grounds. It was gorgeous. I will...

This restaurant has harvested much hype / for our party, it fell flat and was a disappointment.

Pros: nice ambience; they keep up their landscaping well and have river view. The service is better than your average restaurant, attentive, for the most part. Unique dishes on the menu. They do work to accommodate dietary modifications which was very nice.

Cons: quality of the food was lackluster. Prices of the food aren’t worth it / at least not for how the food tastes. You’re paying for the “experience” more than a “tasty meal.” I found it odd how multiple times they came by asking if they could clear the table - I noted two of of people were finished and they could take their plates, but other two were still in process. All 3 times this happened, the person didn’t take the (2) plates, despite me asking. Very strange. As we walked out, I asked if they had mints- sweet lady said yes and she went somewhere to retrieve them, brought me back 2 Andes mints. I was very pleased they had some, just would be nice to offer it to all without having to ask

Other note is the majority of folks who were there on a weekday night for dinner were businessmen. Nothing wrong with that, just interesting to note the clientele profile.

Here’s a detailed report on our food choices.

Kangaroo Appetizer - 4/5. kangaroo was perfect but the apple pie piece had no bridge of a flavor between the sweet / savory profile. The meat was cooked well; apple pie without the crust was misplaced (flavor wise they didn’t work) - needs like a chimi curry sauce. Not sure if the inclusion of Apple pie is their fall twist on the dish or a staple. But we wouldn’t order this again

Venison - 4/5 - lacked depth; venison was not gamy. It lacked the complexity of a $50 entree.

Cod - 3/5; needed a creamy sauce. Odd dish to be oil based with the cod, shrimp and ravioli.

Burger - 3/5: very plain, just bread, meat, egg, pickled onion. Would have been better with tomato and cheese on it. Definitely not worth the price. The truffle fries were excellent

Chicken - 1/5; very very dry with zero flavor. I only eat breast meat so cannot comment to the thigh. The truffle fries were the best thing about the dish, which is pretty sad (hard to mess up fries). The green beans had a nice flavor.

Summary. Am I glad I went? Only partially, just to say I’ve been there. But I would not return. I’d call it a...

Overall, I would rate my experience as subpar and a waste of money.

Dinner service started out with three different types of bread: sourdough, cranberry/wheat, and a spiced flatbread of sorts. The bread was advertised by the waiters as freshly baked, yet all of the breads were noticeably cold. As for flavor, I had better sourdough loaves at my local farmer's market. The cranberry and wheat loaf had an enjoyable texture, but overall a little bit less bland than the sourdough. The spiced flatbread flavor was the most delicious out of all three.

As for appetizers, the table ordered the kangaroo, oysters, crab cakes, and rabbit. Oysters had great quality, but I wished the sauce that they served with it had more flavor. Kangaroo pate had a robust, salty flavor and was enjoyable. The crab cakes were great and full of meat, but the salad that they served with it was even better. The rabbit came out much later with the entrees, but the linguine that was on the bottom had a phenomenal-tasting indescribable creamy flavor. I would rate it as my personal favorite dish.

When it came to entrees, we had ordered the red snapper, pork chop, and the 8-oz tenderloin. The red snapper was cooked perfectly, but the wine that they cooked the dish with was a bit heavy-handed. The pork chop was nothing special and cooked a bit rare for our tastes, but the sweet potato mash that it was served with was delicious. The tenderloin was cooked extremely well, and I would say it was the best entree of the night.

If you want an insane sugar rush, then you should order the dessert. We had the popcorn sundae, sweet potato pie, and the crem brulee. Sweet potato pie was very, very sweet as if the crust that came with it was purely made out of sugar. I wish there was more sweet potato because I barely got the taste of it. The ice cream in the popcorn sundae had a subtle hint of popcorn and I would say it was the best dessert of the night. Crem brulee had spices in it that was very overpowering, not to say that I couldn't handle the spice but more so the ratios of the flavors were off.

Again, there are plenty of more cheaper restaurants in the Atlanta area that serve way more delicious food. If you are insanely rich and have no taste buds, I would recommend...