Rosebud restaurant was known as Food 101 in a previous life. The name change seems to have been a good move. Rosebud restaurant recently celebrated it’s one year anniversary and on the recent Thursday evening I visited the Virginia Highland restaurant, and it was packed. Under the watchful eye of Ron Eyester, Rosebud restaurant serves up upscale American / Southern food. Full disclosure: I was comped this meal at Rosebud Restaurant as a review.
The wine list is a decent size and there are many wines offered by the glass. I was very impressed with beer list as well. Rosebud has over twenty different kinds of beer available by the bottle. And I’m not just talking Sweetwater 420 or Stella, not that there’s anything wrong with them. But you’ll find unique offerings like Left Hand Milk Stout and Stone Levitation Ale.
Have just said all that, we chose to stick to cocktails this evening. Rosebud’s cocktail list has 6 classics and 6 house cocktails available at $9 a piece. The house cocktails seemed too inventive to pass up. While I had my eye on the AT&T cocktail, a gin and tonic but with house made apricot-thyme gin, my hatred for it’s namesake precluded me from ordering it and I went with the Jackson’s Cup, made with gin, pimms#1, orange-honey syrup and a couple other things thrown in the mix. Glen chose the Fighter Pilot, made with Bombay Sapphire.
These drinks certainly didn’t disappoint. They completely lived up to their dreamy descriptions. Glen did order one of the classics well into the meal, the French 75, which basically tasted a little like a mimosa. So I’d recommend sticking to the inventive house made cocktails.
Rosebud just unveiled a new menu. Some of the previous menu items are still available, however. On my visit, Rosebud was touting it’s Lobster-fest. In addition to a full lobster which is the special of the evening on Thursday, they also have a couple lobster specials: a lobster tail, lobster salad, and a lobster egg roll. While I didn’t want to deal with the messiness of eating a whole lobster, I was in serious need of a lobster fix, and opted for the lobster egg rolls. Great choice as these were chock full of lobster meat in every bite.
Wanting to sample regular appetizers as well, we chose the Eggplant chips, a holdover from the previous menu and a newcomer to the menu, the quail with peach glaze. The Eggplant chips were fried rounds and sprinkled with goat cheese. As someone who doesn’t care for the strong goat cheese flavor, I found these to be pleasantly mild. And the hot sauce that was served alongside was a great addition. As for the quail, I did enjoy it and it is perfectly portioned for two, but it was definitely overshadowed by the lobster egg rolls and eggplant chips without a doubt.
For entrees we chose the twice cooked duck leg and the tuna with lo mein. Both of these are new items on the menu. While the tuna was tasty and cooked rare as requested, the lo mein was quite salty, so salty in fact, that we asked for another side, mushrooms, a much improved side. Chef brought them out himself and apologized for the noodles. My duck leg was served up with some new potatoes and green beans. It had somewhat of an unusual taste – it was like a bitter orange taste mixed with bbq sauce. There was a lot of meat, but can’t say it is something I would order again.
Not to miss out on dessert, we ordered the Mexican coca cola cake and the Rosebud sundae. The cake was moist and tasty but the Rosebud sundae was extraordinary! The sundae is three scoops of ice cream with huge rice krispy treats mixed in on the top. It was absolutely delicious. Oh and it’s ginormous too. We ended up packing up most of it to take home and polishing it off the following evening.
Total cost of the meal before tip was right around $110. Not bad for 3 drinks, 3 appetizers, 2 entrees and desserts. Based on my experience, I recommend sharing appetizers (they are all pretty filling) and around $10 or under. And save room for the Rosebud Sundae of course.
1397 N. Highland Avenue
Atlanta, GA 30306
404 347 9747
Website
