#kimballhouse

Kimball House

We’ve heard about Kimball House from several different sources and finally decided to try it.  It was also Decatur Restaurant Week, so our decision was easy. 

We arrived at Kimball House in Decatur around 7:00 pm.  They do not take reservations so we expected a wait.  The wait was not the issue.  The first issue was the parking.  Thankfully the gentlemen parked the cars while Jess and I waited.  The bar area was quite crowded and we kept getting bumped into.  The guys smartly chose to stand outside.  On the other hand, the service was very pleasant.  All the servers were friendly and helpful.  However, it did take about 10 minutes to get the drinks we ordered.  The drinks themselves are an experience.  Honestly, I didn’t know what a majority of the ingredients were in my Afternoon Delight.  It resulted in a deceiving looking drink that appeared to look refreshing but had an overwhelming taste of anise from the absinthe.  The beer list is also different.  We started our palettes off with a terrible choice of a beer that consisted of peat moss and a wild strain of yeast that had a taste I cannot even describe. The next choices were a saison that had undertones of peach and basil, very refreshing, and a bourbon style beer with coffee undertones, rich but good.  The general architecture and décor of the restaurant is interesting.  I believe it used to be an old train station.  The wrap around porch would be great for a meal outside, the bar is intricate, and the lighting and fans all fit the space very well.  All that being said, if the Prohibition era, speakeasy-style, hipster-type servers isn’t your cup of tea, this place isn’t for you. 

We were finally seated and our bar tab was seamlessly transferred to our table, which is always nice and not all restaurants will do that for you. We began to peruse the menu and had to request the restaurant week menu separately. 

I have heard this restaurant is known for their oysters and particularly their oyster happy hour, which is half off all oysters.  We arrived just after happy hour ended (4pm-7pm) so they were out of some of the oysters.  The menu had a good description of the taste differences of each of the oysters so we chose a few different ones to sample.  The oysters were fresh and presented well.  We also ordered the bread service, which was just one brioche roll per person at $1 each and a side of butter and a delicious marmalade.  Our last appetizer was the tempura onion rings, since we observed many tables ordering them.  They arrived in a tower presentation with a side of hot sauce for dipping.  Although good they were nothing out of the ordinary with slightly too much tempura. 

The restaurant week menu was very limited.  First course was a choice between salad and liver pate, the entrée was catfish or pork loin, and dessert was crème brulee.  Jake was the only one to choose the restaurant week menu choices.  He chose the salad, which for me seemed a bit bland.  The salad had very little dressing and toppings and the nuts on it were supposed to be smoked I believe but only tasted stale to me.  His entrée was the pork loin.  He said the pork was good, but spicy and the accompanying side appeared to be a sort of pepper salad.  Jake, who likes spicy food, had to stop a few times for a swig of beer to cool down.  Jake hates crème brulee so that was handed over to me for consumption.  I would rate this as one of the best crème brulees I’ve ever had. 

For my attempted entrée I ordered the scallop appetizer and a side of broccoli salad and specifically asked for them to be brought out with the entrees and not the appetizers.  Unfortunately, my meal came out with the appetizers and I finished my meal before the rest of our table got their entrees.  The scallop was one of the freshest, most tender, cleanest tasting scallops I’ve ever had.  It was barely cooked, with a shaved radish topping and grilled pineapple.  This appetizer only consisted of one medium-large size scallop so this is not an appetizer to share.  The broccoli salad was interesting, it had meat, beans, mushrooms, and broccoli all covered in a slightly bitter sauce.  I would not order it again. 

Finally, for dessert, I had the delicious crème brulee, Jake ordered the apple tart, and Jess and Chris split the pumpkin cheesecake.  The apple tart was half a small, baked apple on a cookie round with a spoonful of ice cream on the side.  It was not what I was expecting but it tasted good.  The pumpkin cheesecake was 2 layers of the pumpkin cheesecake between graham crackers and a side of 2 different spoonfuls of ice cream.  I did not taste much of the pumpkin or the cheesecake, so I was definitely unimpressed with that dessert.

Our night ended with Jake and Chris doing a birthday shot of absinthe.  Chris was told it was an experience that this restaurant specializes in with several types of absinthe.  They were handed their glasses of cold absinthe that had already been poured over the sugar cube and into the cold water.  Neither of them liked the taste and actually had to force themselves to finish it.  Also, they weren’t impressed that they were handed the already prepared beverages rather than preparing it at the table. 

Overall, we all walked outside and decided we wouldn’t be dining at Kimball House again.  Although the quality of food was good overall, we weren’t overly impressed and with so many other impressive restaurants in Atlanta we won’t be wasting any more time or money here.