This would be my first experience at The Palm, and although I wished it had come at the original location in New York, I was happy to finally get to visit this storied brand. The restaurant is located in the lobby of the Westin hotel in Buckhead, and is decorated in the same style for which the original Palm is famous. Adorning the walls of the dining room are countless caricatures of celebrities and influential Atlantans, such as Andrew Young, Chipper Jones, and various Ron Burgundy TV types.
We were seated at a nice table along a bank of windows which looked out onto the atrium of The Westin. This made me happy, because it combined two of my favorite things...eating and people watching in a hotel lobby. With a Manhattan firmly in hand, and steak cemented on my brain, I opted to skip an appetizer for the first time in recent memory. My wife was also keeping her meal light, in preparation of the following day's Peachtree Road Race, but she began with the Tomato & Mozzarella Salad, which I can only imagine tasted as good as it looked.
Since it was already established that I was craving steak and potatoes, the decision for my main was a relatively easy one. Filet Mignon is pretty much the only steak I'll order in a restaurant, and given that I was trying to avoid being wheeled out the front door for a fourth night in a row, I opted for the "petite" 9 ounce cut. The steak arrived a perfect medium rare, and while I don't really believe in covering up the flavor of filet with spice or sauces, the bearnaise which accompanied it was a real treat. The "potatoes" portion of this duo also didn't disappoint, and as is common in steakhouses, the portion was enough for the Duggar family to share.
I was thankful to have opted for the 9 oz portion of filet, because it left me with plenty of room for dessert. As I looked over the menu, I was really confused, because for some reason I kept reading one item as "Deej's Dream Dessert." Finally, after reading it four times I realized that it actually said "Bag of Warm Donuts," and from that moment on it was clear that I'd forever love The Palm. Far from soon enough, our server delivered a white paper bag with the restaurant's logo. Inside, were warm, fresh donut holes, just waiting to be shaken and coated in the sugars which surrounded them in the bag. I gave the bag a good shake, and slowly began my trip in donut lover nirvana. The donuts were accompanied by a warm chocolate sauce, which only accentuated the high, and left me wondering where these had been my entire life.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my first experience at The Palm, and perhaps one day we will visit the original in New York. Having been to several of the other chain prime steakhouses, such as Morton's and Ruth's Chris, it is my opinion that comparing to those, The Palm is top of the list. Sure, The Palm lacked the imagination in presentation of our other meals in The ATL, but it's a steakhouse...they don't do presentation. They do steak, and on this night, they did it quite well...
Did I mention the bag-o-donuts?
Enjoy Your Stay
