Kevin Rathbun Steak
I come from a family of big appetites (thank heavens for good genes or we’d have ballooned popped by now). After eating a plate of fried chicken, collard greens, biscuits, and muffins last Saturday, we had the audacity to keep our reservations at Shaun’s an hour later. But we never made it. The Inman Park Festival was in full force and no valet, available lot, nor parking spot is in sight. Since mom didn’t want to walk in the area late at night (she’s paranoid like that), we ended up at KRS instead. Where there’s valet.
We were surprised to get a last minute reservation for 7:45pm on a Saturday night and even more surprised to get seated right at once, nabbing a great booth in a restaurant where not a single table was empty when we came in. The vibe was cool and upbeat, the crowd, a gamut from the hip to the oldies.
Since we just had dinner, we decided to go light. We started with the Roast Mixed Beet Salad with Sweet Grass Dairy goat cheese and candied pecans. This is one of my favorite salads and I almost always order it whenever it’s on the menu. The version here is simple and pretty straight-forward — big cubes of red and yellow beets, dollops of creamy cheese, candied pecans. I love the contrasting tastes and textures. It was a good sized salad and possibly good enough for two if you’re having a heavy entree.
My mom got the Bone-in Smoked Beef Rib (her favorite). The smoked rib was literally fall-of-the-bone tender and served in an au jus which is delicious: slight, slight hint of sweet, salty, peppery. This is oh-my-gosh-this-is-so-good at every bite. She never tires of it and neither do I.
My sister and I each had the Prime Japanese Waygu Beef Burger: twelve ounces of heavenly meat, ground as you order, and served medium rare. You can’t get any better than this. Well, not really. The meat itself is top-notch, no doubt, but the reason we’re ranking this No. 2 is because of the bread. It was on the dry side and not enough sweetness to cut through the meaty taste. Which is why H&F is still king. H&F bread on Chef Kevin’s burger meat? Well, that would be a dream.
Side notes:
Mom and sister got the Chocolate Mousse and Peanut Butter Ice Cream Cake for dessert. Both were good but it’s evident that desserts are not the major strength here.
Service was impeccable. We had a great kick out of a Hillary Duff dead-ringer for a server who gave us nothing but the best service. My medium burger was delivered medium-rare. No biggie there, I ate it all. Sister’s burger had to be taken back twice (her medium rare was delivered well-done, and very rare on the second try) but the manager handled it so well we didn’t mind the 45-minute wait. Kudos to him for the excellent treatment we were given (just so you know and I must say this, I always dine out anonymously). To top it off, valet had our car ready for us as soon as we stepped out the door. Fantastic.
Insider tip:
A few feet away from Rathbun’s.
They have Anne Amie wine!
The scoop:
Kevin Rathbun Steak
154 Krog St NE
Atlanta, GA 30307
(404) 524-5600
Technorati Tags: steaks, Inman Park, American food, Atlanta, Kevin Rathbun
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3 responses so far ↓
1 sean m. // May 1, 2009 at 11:56 am
oh snap KRS burger isn’t as good as HF? guess I shouldn’t bother going back to try KRS burger then. looks decent, but the bread? oh for shame.
2 Michael Moebes // May 7, 2009 at 11:19 am
I love this place. Thanks for the review and for your other suggestions on great places to eat in Atlanta!
3 Katharine // May 13, 2009 at 6:26 pm
It sounds like your experience was far better than our experience there on Saturday, October 6th, 2007. Maybe things have improved over the past two years. The Heart of the Ribeye Carpaccio had almost no flavor at all; same for the Crispy Fried Okra. We all had the porterhouse when we went with friends, which was fine, but nothing special. It certainly didn’t compare to the steak we had in early March at Craft, in my opinion.
I do agree that the Roast Mixed Beet Salad is a winner. I’d like to try the burger. Maybe if I go there and stick to that and some blue cheese fondue fries, I’ll like it better.
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