The Alden

Fantastic experience at The Alden. Glad to find another fine dining establishment I can add to my list. Service: great, besides waiting on water one time, the serving staff did an amazing job. We barely waited anytime for our courses and drinks. Food: amazing! I order the grouper dish, which was cooked to perfection. Great flavor. Loved that everything on the plate was edible. My wife order the pasta dish, which was also delicious. I'd probably would've chosen the pasta dish looking back because of the bold flavors and how much better than the dish I ordered. I highly recommend trying, 5/5 stars.

The bar tender was so sweet. He made a custom cocktail and gave us another one on the house for bringing back some memories of him growing up in the Bahamas. I enjoyed the desserts. Especially the Thai custard and mango sorbet. It felt light and refreshing. The food was not too bad. The gnocchi did not have a lot of flavor but the scallops were cooked nicely. The main reason for the three star rating was because of the service. The wait time was pretty long between getting our main meals and appetizers.

I wanted to love this place as much as others, but this was a miss for me. Yes, the food here is very creative and plated beautifully. Our visit here started off strong, but our experience just dwindled from there. First off, the area was crazy busy on Saturday night. There are other restaurants around the area and almost every parking spot is filled. They offer a complimentary valet but since we didn't have cash to tip, we decided to find a parking spot ourselves. We got lucky and found a spot in the parking deck. Just a short walk from the parking deck, we arrived at the host's stand at The Alden. We were greeted and checked in by the wonderful host and greeted us for our anniversary. He then led us to our table - a hightop table tucked away in the corner next to the Chef's table. My husband wanted to book for the tasting menu, but none were available so we opted for the a la carte menu instead. Just a few minutes after getting seated, two different servers came to offer us sparkling or tap water. Once our water glasses were filled, it took awhile for our actual server to get our drink orders. I opted for the La Costena and my husband, the Paloma. Some minutes later and she dropped off our drinks, then she took our food order. This was our first time here and I wish our server gave us a background of the food and a bit of a history of the restaurant or the chef to entice of what's to come. My husband knew a bit about the chef, but I came here not knowing anything (I like to do my research typically but didn't get a chance to). We asked our server for some recommendations and from what I remember she recommended the crepe, sweetbread, carpaccio and steak. We opted for the Grapefruit and Fried Goat Cheese Salad, Spring Herb Crepe and Kim Chi Fried Egg to begin with. While I heard the chef call out our orders (since we were that close to the kitchen), I was getting excited. It probably took about 20 mins for our food to come, but they did bring everything together at once. The high of this visit were these dishes - you MUST get the salad and the crepe. The salad was beautifully presented though deconstructed with the biggest serving of goat cheese log I have ever seen. Seriously, you cut into it and it was creamy, so what we did was just mix everything together. It was light and the perfect starter. The crepe was equally delicious, though I wish the crepe itself wasn't too thick. It was filled with different types of mushrooms and that brown butter sauce *chef's kiss*. The Kim chi was good, but was an okay dish for me. I loved how the egg was cooked, and not sure if the intention was to mix everything together and eat it that way. It was during this point I started questioning what type of food this restaurant was serving.We quite literally finished every bit of morsel on these plates, then we ordered our entrees - Sea Scallops a la Plancha and Chatel Wagyu Ribeye. Again, the dishes were beautifully presented but it was at this point where things started dwindling down for us. We wished that the scallops were seared a bit more. It was seared well on one side but not so much on the other side. We were served with 3 big, fresh pieces though so we were happy about that. The black ink gnocchi was a hard miss for me. I didn't like the texture at all. I loved the added crispy sun chokes since the dish needed a texture element. The ribeye was where we had the most issue with. For that price (it was $72 for an 8 oz serving), we expected a bit more. Maybe the term "wagyu" threw us off and expected the best of the best, but the cut we got was just too stringy, which became unappetizing. Thank goodness they had toothpicks in the restroom since some stringy pieces did get stuck in my teeth. The steak was cooked perfect medium rare with grated cheese on top for that salty taste that you want with steak. It was served with the best potato (Alight style maybe?) and a coffee jelly (bitter by itself but tasted amazing with the steak and potato in one bite). The cabbage was cooked well but wish I knew what spice they used since it had a cinnamon-like flavor. We did not opt for dessert, but they were very nice enough to take the time to drop off an anniversary card and gave us a complimentary mango sorbet, which by far is the best sorbet I've ever had since I'm a big mango fan! It was a take on mango sticky rice since it was coated with toasted rice. I expected a bit more from this place considering it's a Michelin recommended restaurant, but unfortunately, did not cut it for me.

The Alden is on my top 5 restaurants in the Atlanta area. The food is always extraordinary and the staff is fabulous. I love how chef Jared always makes time to check on the guests.

Another fantastic meal at the Alden. This is now my go to when I feel like spoiling myself a bit. The staff is lovely and the food is always exceptional! This drink that the bartender said was new was also delicious without being overly sweet.

Impeccable.Front of staff had incredible energy - so welcoming, fun, and kind. Our waiter was very knowledgeable and friendly. My only complaint is we had 45-50 min between apps being served and the mains. Perhaps it was our own fault as we waited to order mains until we were already eating the apps - feedback would be to provide guests notice around timing expectations as none of us imaged such a long pause between courses. Everything was absolutely incredible. Intentional, thoughtfully prepared food with incredible flavors. Highly highly recommend! The chef even said hello at the end, and wrote my mom a handwritten card for her birthday :) you just don't get service like that these days!

Hum. I am surprised I'm saying this but the food was so weird here. I didn't really enjoy a single thing that I ate. The server was very sweet and kind and suggested several things that we ordered which I'm pasting from the menu: 1) KIM CHI FARM EGG ~ bok choy ~ broccoli ~ rice crisp ~ shallots2) PURPLE SWEET POTATO TORTELLINI, swiss chard ~ parmesan ~ pomegranate ~ brown butter3) WAKAME SEARED KING FISHNothing was good and I'm not at all picky. The server told me that everything was wrapped or marinated in something "earthy" but I don't think the earthy thing was the problem. It just lacked seasoning and flavor. The dishes were all very very pretty. Presentation was nailed. My friend literally ate nothing. I ate a little bit and sort of begged the server to take away the apps and give us the main. We are likely meat-eating heavens with a penchant for salt and pepper. But I would never order food here again. But given the guest count (lots of open tables on a Friday) and super duper young staff, I think they are riding this ATL Michelon star bump. That's why my friend had this on their radar anyway. Also very possible I don't have a Michelon star restaurant quality palate. :(

This place is CHEFS KISS. Fantastic service, menu, and presentation.I came here with some friends and two of us opted for the price fix menu featuring the seasonal offerings. We didn't reserve ahead of time but they were kind enough to serve us table side even though one of our friends didn't get the same. Service was great. We had two servers that were kind and even funny. They presented the menu beautifully and were very attentive. We had a variety of cocktails that were perfectly crafted and delicious.For our dinner courses, I loved the variety of flavors and small bites we had. My favorites were the scallop and the beef. The low points for me were the grouper (fish was dry) and the chocolate dessert (too sweet - fyi, I don't like overly decadent desserts in general). We all left full and very happy. Loved finding such a high-end gem without having to drive all the way into the city. Will definitely be back.

Words could not adequately describe our experience at The Alden and since a pictures says a thousand words, please look on. On second thought keep these words in mind as you view. Thoughtful. Beautiful. Sublime. Delectable. We were seated at the counter off the kitchen. Our waiter was phenomenal. Funny, knowledgeable and relatable. Chef Jared and his crew where amazing to watch. The fact that he took time to check on his guests during the meal and afterwards meant a lot. The care and attention to details from the entire staff was appreciated and a joy to experience. Go for the food come back the ambiance and experience. Best Sea Scallops a La Plancha I have ever had!

I booked a reservation for the Alden's chef's tasting 7-course menu for Valentine's Day and it was a good experience. The Alden is located in a modern plaza with tight parking- so use the complementary valet out front. In total, we were seated for 3 hours as we experienced 2 snacks + 7 courses + 1 special Valentines treat. Overall, the food had beautiful and artistic presentation, light and balanced flavors, and unique ingredients. Note that the chefs tasting has considerably smaller portions than ordering dishes a la carte and I finished the last dish completely stuffed. My three nitpicks would be: 1) the first half of the 7 courses was much less impressive than the second half which led to a poor start, 2) because the dishes were hit or miss, $175pp is a steep price for a pre-fixe menu lacking standout flavors. I would personally come again, but order a la carte. 3) I wish the ambiance of the chefs table was more intimate- especially for valentines. Itwas more like sitting at a (very) loud bar. - Snack: popcorn- smoked popcorn with bernaise seasoning. So smoky and delicious! - Snack: beet soup, tom kha oyster, fruit leather with goat cheese- one of my favorites of the night. I would definitely order the tom kha oysters again. 1. Carrot salad: while the sherry aoili and tomme crumb were tasty, the whole salad was very bland and underwhelming. The carrots were also very firm and hard to cut, even with a knife. 2. Lamb belly: I have never had lamb/pork belly cooked SO perfectly. And that sweet pomegranate glaze? Amazing. Unfortunately the kale puree was so off-putting- and ruined the dish. 3. Sunchoke tortellini: you usually can't go wrong with pasta in browned butter, and the Parmesan foam was a fun touch. But nothing stood out here. I also wished there was more salt and sage. 4. Dover sole: our favorite entree. A must try. The perfect amount of breading on a zesty, browned butter sauce. 5. Wagyu steak: this tasted like a tender filet, disappointingly not really like wagyu, with perfectly cooked mushrooms. I liked the black onion jam, but didn't care for the other purées. 6. Passion fruit tart: the star of the show! Tart, creamy, crispy, coconuty! The best. 7. Lunar Chocolates: I love chocolate and I loved this. Buddha hand gelato? A perfect example of how creative the menu was. My only gripe was- the popped grains really threw everything off. Would have been great without it.