Kimball House

Loved this place! The food, service, and ambiance were all impeccable. Highly recommend trying their oysters. I personally liked the Murder Point oysters. The chicken roulade and duck breast were sublime. The crème brûlée was absolutely divine. *Chef's kiss*

I was given great recommendations from multiple people about this place. The service was excellent, our waiter was so friendly, but the food was incredibly disappointing. We ordered the snapper crudo, onion soup, roasted oysters, chicken roulade, trout, rum cake. Roasted oysters: The best thing we got! The salsa macha butter was a bit bland, but the oysters were really nicely cooked and the crunch of the potato was extremely pleasant. Highly recommended and maybe the only thing I'd get if I came back here. Snapper crudo: I think coconut milk, snapper, and grapefruit have no business being served together. The fried taste of the sunchoke chip was so dissonant. I'm not sure what the inspiration for this dish was. I don't think any of the flavors made sense. This was a miss for me. Onion soup: Not much to write home about, a fairly standard French onion soup, done well with everything you could want from one. Chicken roulade: The portion was massive. I found the chicken to be really intense and really salty. It's like eating an entire ham steak on your own. In general, you don't want to eat something so rich and homogenous in so many bites. The texture goes from interesting to unpleasant after the first few bites. The risotto was really soft and mushy, overcooked and gloopy Trout: The trout was cooked really nice. Very delicate and flakey, really moist. The problem, however, were the sides. When you see braised greens, you expect tender, soft greens. While flavorful they were quite fiberous and chewy, unpleasantly so. The grits had hard, gritty lumps, some big chunks of just cold, gelatinized corn. It just felt really poorly reheated. Honey rum: This was fine. the filling was good. The crust wasn't anything interesting I don't mean to be so anal about my critiques. But given the $200 that was spent, only 1 dish felt worthwhile, while most had really big misses on key components, while 1 dish I do not think belongs on the menu. I'm a little disappointed as I was looking forward to this meal and there was some hype around it. I cannot say that I would return at this time, but our waiter, I cannot emphasize enough, was the highlight of my experience

Kimball House was one of our favorite Atlanta-area restaurants, but we hadn't been in a couple of months, so we decided to go there for a little pre-Christmas meal/celebration. Unfortunately, it was a very disappointing experience, and I question whether it genuinely warrants inclusion in the Michelin guide. Echoing what others have said on recent visits, the service was particularly poor. Our server (Gerson) was attentive for the first few minutes after we sat down, but once we placed our main order, he disappeared for roughly 40 minutes. Other servers brought our food, and he didn't come to check in until we were nearly finished eating even though we needed new drinks much earlier. He then brought new drinks, but by the time they arrived we had finished eating so there was nothing for them to go with. He then disappeared again for another 10-15 minutes and when he returned he seemed annoyed that we wanted an after-dinner drink which took yet another 10 minutes to procure. Tellingly, once we finally asked for the check, he was very prompt in bringing it and ensuring we paid. Overall, the poor service screwed up the rhythm of the meal and largely ruined the experience. There were other issues apart from the service, however. The oysters, as usual, were outstanding, but the rest of the food was hit or miss. The snapper crudo was excellent, as was the snapper collar. The Hawaiian rolls were tasty, especially with the apple preserves. The shrimp cocktail and the kale caesar salad were meh. The green salad wasn't bad but had too many flavors trying to do too many things. The lemon pepper rock shrimp, which were basically just popcorn shrimp, had way too much breading and were way too salty. The wine selections were okay, but the absinthe was a disappointment. Instead of letting the diner mix the water and sugar cube to taste, the bartender premixed it before sending it to the table, Not only does that defeat the whole point of the absinthe ritual but the bartender's taste was definitely not mine, and the mixture was too sweet. Nevertheless, it was a darkly fitting end to a very disappointing evening, and I would encourage other would-be diners to read all of the reviews before coming here. Two other final notes for potential diners. First, parking is always an adventure around Kimball House, so plan ahead accordingly. Second, the restaurant adds a special fee for health insurance for its workers. The restaurant is up front about the fee, but some people don't like tipping on it. So, be aware of it, if it is a personal issue for you.

The ambiance is nice, outdoor patio seating is good, but the food is terrible and service sucks. Oysters were stinky; very stinky The duck tasted like something out of a package and not real and roasted, rice with the duck was trash. The trout was over cooked like a shoe. We never did get our desserts because the server was busy talking, forever, with the regular guest who was sitting next to us. The coffee from Oppo across the street was a light roast which does not pair well with the food. Need a very dark roast not so acidic.