We went to Nickolai's Roof on Saturday night for our anniversary. It's on the 29th floor of the downtown Atlanta Hilton. The decor is very "elegant 1983", with a lot of brass, marble, and a really elaborate carpet. The servers wear these "awesome" red jackets with the restaurant's crest on the breast, they also wear white gloves. Although the restaurant started out as a purely Russian place, the food has moved into more of "Russian influenced French" cuisine.
The menu is pretty limited as far as options, you can do the 6 course "tasting menu" for $95pp, 4 course "regular" menu for $75, or you can go ala cart, which would still put you at about $75 anyway. We decided to do the 6 course tasting menu, which is fixed, but you can choose which of 3 entr?es you want.
The first course was a trio of Peroshkis, beef, pheasant and shrimp. They were very good, although the shrimp one was a bit too fishy for me (keeping in mind that I don't eat seafood at all, and can handle shrimp only sometimes). Next was Carpaccio of Beef Tenderloin & Quail Egg which was very good. Following that was lobster and scallops, which was pretty rubbery and overcooked. Then it was the Foie Gras, and it was amazing. After this we had a palate cleanser of a spoonful of strawberry sherbet. For the entr?e, DH had the Beef Tenderloin, which was thick and tender and delicious. I had the Breaded Veal Schnitzel. It was very good, but DH's steak was better. After the entr?e came the cheese course. They had about a dozen different cheeses for us to choose 3 each. I don't remember exactly which we ones we got, but 5 of the 6 cheeses we tried were good to very good. Dessert was a Grand Marnier Souffl? with Orange Almond Cr?me Fra?che. At this point we died of ecstasy, and they had to bring out the crash cart to revive us. (haha, ok not really, but that Souffl? was AH-mazing) Dinner was wrapped up by a small plate of cookies and truffles, just in case there was any more space between your stomach and eyeballs that needed filling.
The total experience took about 2.5 hours, and it certainly was an "experience". We had reservations at 6:30, which was a little early, so we got a table right on the windows, 29 stories up, and watched the light fade beautifully over the east side of ATL, and then saw the 99% full moon rise. Service is attentive and detailed. Everything is done with much pomp and ceremony. When they delivered our entr?es, they came with sliver covers, which were lifted simultaneously with a snap. It was all very dramatic.
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So, the place is a little cheesy, but it is also rated 4 Diamonds, and is consistently voted a "Best of" for a romantic dinner. I would definitely recommend it for a special occasion. I think 2/3 of the people sitting around us were also celebrating some type of event. Just make sure you have plenty of $$$$!
Re: Review of Nickolai's Roof (longish)
Southeastern Cycling
My Nest Bio and Cycling Advice
Thanks for the review! We always stay at the Hilton for Dragon*Con and eat at Trader Vic's at least once (usually twice) during our stay, but haven't had the courage to try Nikolai's Roof. I can agree that the views are very nice. For the past two years we've been upgraded to "executive level" on the 26-28 floors.
I'll have to add it to our list to try someday, at least for that dessert!