Dogwood - A First Taste during Midtown Restaurant Week

I am not alone in my skepticism about Midtown Restaurant Week. I don't know, I guess I just feel dubious that am going to spend just $25 or that I am going to get stuck with a lousy, limiting menu.

Regardless, I was excited about the opportunity to give the new Dogwood Restaurant a try when ETK invited me along last Friday. And I felt like Midtown Restaurant Week is a great opportunity for a new restaurant to showcase some of it's best meals. So, I wasn't completely worried.


The offerings on the 3-course menu were picked straight off of Dogwood's regular menu. For an appetizer, diner's could choose from their grits bar or a green salad. For the main, the option was grilled salmon over grilled cornbread or crawfish stuffed chicken. As for the dessert, it was either the chocolate terrine, grilled lemon pound cake with key lime gelatto, or a peach upside down cake.

Low country shrimp 'n grits!

A statue of grilled salmon

Stuffed chicken

Chocolate terrine

Grilled lemon pound cake - yum!

Peach upside down cake

Overall we enjoyed our meal very much. The grits were sublime - creamy and just right. The salmon was good, although I do enjoy my salmon a bit simpler and probably would have liked it better without the BLT sauce that topped it.

My favorite part of the meal was the grilled lemon pound cake with the key lime gelato - just tart enough to balance the sweetness. The peach upside down cake was like cobbler. It was delicious but not quite as good as the pound cake. As for the chocolate terrine, I recommend this for those who like their chocolate rich and packing a punch!

Dogwood was also nice enough to make special dinner for ETK who is not especially fond of seafood - a more basic version of the chicken dish. In fact, I secretly coveted the simplicity of the dish and somewhat wished I had also made a special order.

naked chicken

The restaurant itself has a beautiful dining room with carpeted floors, which helps keep it from getting unbearably loud like some of my favorite places in town.

Looking down into the dining room

Finally, I would like to point out the salt and pepper on the table - a rare sight in upscale restaurants today. I love salt and adore having the option to add more as I please! (Perhaps I got a little too overzealous with the salt that night, though.)

S&P

On the way out, we were greeted by James Dicke, Dogwood's manager. He was very interested to know about the pictures we were taking and what we might be doing with them, a curiosity I commonly hear when I am in restaurants around town. I often get the feeling that these restaurants are a little anxious about the prevalence of everyday people turned critics by way of the food blog.

I just want to take a moment to acknowledge that I am under no illusions about what I am doing. I realize that one visit to a restaurant can not tell the whole story and I do try to take this into consideration in my write ups. I always welcome additional opinions on my accounts and will happily give a restaurant a second try if it wasn't quite top notch the first time around. I'm just an avid Atlanta foodie who enjoys sharing my thoughts and pics with others!

Dogwood Restaurant
565 Peachtree Street
Atlanta, GA 30308
404.835.1410
www.dogwoodrestaurant.com