BUCKHEAD DINER

He says:
For several years now I’ve been obsessed with the whole “high/low” craze. Hoodie-blazers? Awesome. Mac & cheese made with gruyere and white truffle oil? I’ll take it! So when I first heard of the oxymoronic Buckhead Diner (Buckhead = high-class, Diner = low-class … get it?!) I knew Uptown Girl and I would inevitably make an appearance at this Atlanta stalwart.

Located right off Piedmont Road, the Buckhead Diner does its best imitation of a 1950’s diner. Counter seats overlook the open grill and spacious booths are pressed against every wall. The overall décor is a subtle Art Deco. But there are touches of upper-crust modernity throughout as well. The tables are a rich mahogany and the booths are upholstered with buttery-soft leather. There is the valet, who insists on taking your car even though there are plenty of open spots in the parking lot. And then there is, of course, the menu.

She says:
You can order a burger & fries off this extensive menu as easily as you can select the mahi mahi tostada. As Downtown Boy said, Buckhead is all about mixing the high and the low. Luckily, our choices were made easy by the $30 prix-fixe menu (we visited during Buckhead Restaurant Week).

To start, I had the chevril scented crab cake, which came with your typical butter sauce. It was average… I’ve had yummier versions with fresher and sweeter crab, but I’ve also had ones that tasted like the nasty dredges of the ocean floor.

I also tried the Truffled Chicken Salad. It tasted like ordinary chicken salad on a bed of lettuce. Wah-wah.

He says:
I don’t usually wax poetic about salads, but Buckhead Diner’s beef sirloin carpaccio arugula salad must be singled out for praise. This “salad” consisted of fresh spring greens garnished with six strips of sirloin steak. Most fine-dining establishments barely give you that much in their entrees, but Buckhead Diner tossed the medium-rare cuts into the salad like so many grape tomatoes. The beef was juicy and complemented the greens better than I could have imagined – it was totally a Downtown Boy dish!

The soft-shelled crab also hit the spot. Deep fried into a golden-brown perfection, the crab was briny and crunchy in all the right ways.

She says:
After my two average starters, the entrée I ordered finally dressed to impress. The scallops were some of the best I’ve had outside of the Pacific Northwest, seared nicely on the top and bottom, and tender within. They came atop a delicious bed of vegetable risotto, and I almost never like risotto! It was cooked through without displaying the slightest bit of mushiness. At the bottom of the bowl was a puree of peas, which was disgustingly salty, but certainly made the dish look beautiful.

He says:
I was starving, so I opted for the meat and potatoes entrée: Flat Iron Steak and Mashed Potatoes. It was ho-hum. The steak was dry compared to the lovely steak strips in my salad, which makes me wonder how a restaurant can knock one dish out of the park and then completely whiff on another? The lump of potatoes on the side were nothing special.

For dessert we split a crème brulee with chocolate chunks, which we both hated. The crème brulee itself was more gummy than creamy. It also didn’t jive with the chocolate bits buried at the bottom of the dish. Worst of all, the pastry chef used milk chocolate rather than dark, which would have offset the crème brulee’s sweetness.

We say:
Buckhead Diner is a fun choice for upscale eats with a downtown look. But there are as many hits as misses on the menu, so choose carefully.




Buckhead Diner
3073 Piedmont Rd NE, Atlanta, GA 30305
www.buckheadrestaurants.com/diner.html