Buckhead Diner
It may be a popular spot for ladies who lunch, or red-hatted women, or Tommy Bahama-clad gentlemen, or Elton John with his party of 17 (which I personally witnessed during freshman year college), but I ate here again because of Buckhead Life’s Dine Around program. Like I said, Buckhead Diner is not on the list of places I regularly visit but the gift card was a good enough incentive.
We started off with their famous home-made potato chips topped with Maytag bleu cheese. This is my absolute favorite at this place. The chips are thinly sliced, fried crisp yet without the jaw-breaking crunch nor any trace of oil then topped with warm bleu cheese. It is fantastic. A large plate sets you back a mere $9 but it is truly good to the last bite. Mind you, the last bite at the bottom of the pile is still wonderfully crispy. This is something I could eat all day.
For my main, I chose the boring Blue Plate Special — Herb Roasted Chicken with mushroom bread pudding and thin beans. Nothing on the menu really jumped at me so I went for the savory bread pudding instead. While the chicken was tender, juicy, and very flavorful, it was nothing out of the ordinary. I did get half a chicken which was substantial. The mushroom bread pudding was very good, though. It’s like eating mashed potatoes, only better — and bolder. Not as creamy, but very soft, and you can actually bite into it. The thin beans were also ordinary but the demi-glace that accompanied the dish was really good and added more flavor to everything.
My sister had the Rare Seared Tuna with arugula sald, tomatoes and mozzarella. Hers, too, although good, was just ordinary. The tuna was perfectly seared, the salad, tomatoes and mozzarella were all fresh. But to her, the meal was just “fair”.
For dessert we went with the James Beard award winning White Chocolate Banana Cream Pie and the Chocolate Cake Sundae. Now I can understand why the banana cream pie was an award winner, James Beard, no less, but only if you were back in the 80s. I’m sure it was fantastic then. But this dessert clearly did not evolve to compete with today’s modern cuisine where desserts are more flamboyant and inventive. This was clearly left behind by the times.
The Chocolate Cake Sundae was just a gooey mess. Standard-tasting chocolate cake layered with ice cream then drenched with chocolate sauce didn’t really appeal to us and that’s from the chocoholics that we are. The presentation wasn’t all that great either. All in all, the desserts weren’t that much tantalizing.
My recommendation is this: go to Buckhead Diner to experience it once. It’s an upscale diner where you’ll be served by white-coat-clad-and-gloved servers, which, according to my sister, actually looks comical — “like you’re at Disney World”. But it’s an experience. And service is pretty good, although, ours was a little bit hurried. Food is good but ordinary. You’ll see mashed potatoes and thin beans repeated across the entire menu. Desserts are middle-of-the-road. Nothing fancy.
(P.S. I’m off to the beach for a week. I’ll try to answer emails while I’m gone but since I’m not bringing my laptop this time, all two of you may have to wait 
Later!)
Insider tip:
Reservations not accepted. Priority seating for people who call ahead or are Open Table members. Valet parking.
The scoop:
Buckhead Diner
3073 Piedmont Rd NE
Atlanta, GA 30305
(404) 262-3336
Mon-Sat: 11am-Midnight
Sun: 10am-10pm
Technorati Tags: Buckhead Diner, American Cuisine, Piedmont Rd., Buckhead, potato chips with bleu cheese, banana cream pie
