Restaurant Review – Wisteria

Over the weekend, Meg and I were able to get out and enjoy a nice, adult only dinner. We don't get many of those anymore! We wanted to go out and commemorate the 1 year anniversary of her surgery. I was looking to try to go to one of the new trendy restaurants in the area, but I either heard or read a bad review or couldn’t get in with our time frame. So I decided to go back to an old friend. But don’t think we settled on going to Wisteria, it is one of our favorite restaurants in all of Atlanta and we relish the chance to eat at such a great place. We have been to Wisteria in Inman Park, probably 5 or 6 times and love going there. Executive Chef, Jason Hill, has always provided a great menu with some staples along with some new seasonal fare. The food is always delicious, they have a great wine selection and the service is always solid.

When we arrived at the restaurant, the skies were threatening and a storm was approaching. Once we were seated, the thunder started rumbling and the lighting was crackling. After ordering a couple classes of white wine, an glass of Italian pinot grigio (06 Ca’Donini Pinot Grigio) for Meg and a Washington pinot gris (06 King Estate Pinot Gris) for me, then we decided on the Prince Edward Island Muscles for our appetizer. The muscles were very good but paled in comparison to the muscles we had in Casis, France. Those were incredible! ………..OK sorry, I drifted back to the seaside café for a minute. On to our entrees, Meg decided to have two appetizers as her meal. She went with one of the specials that night which was a locally grown vegetable tart and the seared sea scallops. The scallops were served over a braised pork belly and radicchio with a bourbon molasses reduction. They were cooked to perfection and I loved the bourbon molasses. Meg felt like it was a little too sweet on its own, but went well with the veggie tart. I was torn between the North Atlantic Skate Wing (fish) and the Jumbo Shrimp and Grits. Because I had the skate the last time we were there and I do recommend it, I decided to go with the shrimp and grits. The fresh shrimp was served over stone ground corn grits with sautéed peppers and onions in a spice shrimp broth. The shrimp were excellent with the grits and the peppers and the sauce provide just enough kick to make you reach for the water glass. Just the way I like it!

Speaking of going drinks, with our entrees we ordered a bottle of the 05 Robert Sinskey Pinot Noir. This went beautifully with both of our dishes. It was bold enough to stand up to my spicy shrimp and smooth enough to go with Meg’s sweet scallops. But I knew this would pair nicely with our entrees since this is not the first time we have had a Sinskey pinot noir. Robert Sinskey Vineyards is one of my favorite organic vineyards and I have never had a bad experience with any of his wines. This pinot had nice aromas of cherry and some spice and on the palate there were hints of raspberry, orange, and some earth (due to the organic growing techniques I’m sure). It made a great companion and complimented our meal beautifully.

For desert, Meg and I decided to split three small desserts. One was the chef’s special blackberry cobbler, which was our least favorite. It seemed to be a little freezer burnt. We also had the vanilla crème brulee, which was Meg’s favorite, and the warm fudge tart with Swiss chocolate orange ice cream. That was my favorite! Overall our experience at Wisteria was a good one. The food was extremely good as usual, the wine was excellent, and Vivian took great care of us. We were able to time our arrival and departure just right to miss the storm. Even though the lights did flicker some while we were dining, we pretty much were unaffected by the huge storm that went through the Atlanta area that night. Things couldn’t have worked out better. We had another great dining experience at Wisteria and look forward to going back there in the near future.

Cheers!