Carpe Diem

One of the best restaurants in Atlanta — and I am VERY hard to please. My ex was a high profile caterer for the the elite of Atlanta, so I have very discerning taste buds.
Never had a bad experience. I love the lounge atmosphere. Every dish is awesome. You feel as if you’re in a café or bistro in Europe and forget you’re in Georgia.
It can be pricey, but you get what you pay for.

I’m sad to (unofficially) announce that Carpe Diem closed it’s doors for good last week. As a resident of the Ice House Lofts right above, I’ll really miss their quick and delicious weekend brunches and the friendliness of their staff.

I’ve never been for anything but brunch, but every time I’ve gone its been fantastic. It’s a great place for a group or an intimate brunch. Great cocktails, delicious sweet and savory breakfast fare and excellent coffee drinks.
One of my favorite places for brunch in ATL. Also, I love that it’s never been overwhelmingly crowded when I’ve gone.

A couple of friends and I have a «brunch crew» in which we go all around Atlanta and little outside the metro Atlanta area partaking of the best the city has to offer in brunch! I’m not exactly sure what let us to Carpe Diem but I’m SO glad it did! First off, it’s on my side of town so that’s already a plus! Second, the décor in this place is beautiful. There are comfy couches for lounging, beautiful artwork all over the walls, a patio and chill music.
I had the shrimp and grits which were awesome! You get to choose 2 sides to go along with your main dish so the potatoes were the choice (yes as both of my sides, don’t judge me). They were so good a couple of people ordered another helping!
We also ordered mimosas which were on point. Since brunch served us well, I had to come back again and try them for lunch which was equally good. They never have much of a crowd when I come in (not sure if people really know about this gem), but that doesn’t bother me much. We had Croque Monsieur, I tried it and it was excellent to me. However, she’s been to France and said it could’ve been better, lol.
We induldged a little and ordered dessert afterward I had a cheesecake, she had a keylime pie. Both were decadent. A little rich for my blood in price too, but it was worth it. Definitely go here!

Have been to lunch 3x and dinner once. Last week at lunch time was a disappointment. Our party of 3 people arrived early and there were only 2 tables occupied. After ordering, it took over 40minutes for the burger, salmon sandwich and fish tacos to arrive. Food was ok-​nothing special. I had to ask the server for our food– you don’t expect lunch service to be dreadfully slow. When we left there were 2 servers handling 8 tables– less than 20 people. However, the staff, said they were busy and got a crowd. huh?
The only food oddity was that the tacos were plated with french fries. i really don’t know if the slow service was the fault of the kitchen or the staff but would not go back anytime soon based on poor service.

Come on Tuesdays when the tapas are all $ 5!
Good drinks, nice patio. Odd layout, tho. Try to get in the main room where the bar is.

Carpe Diem was GREAT! The food was great, service was great! I wish I could remember my server’s name. I had the steak tips and it came with fries and salad. Everything was so tasty and these have to be the best fries I’ve ever tasted. The restaurant is a really nice size with outdoor seating also. I DEFINITELY recommend this restaurant and can’t wait to return!!!

I went on a Monday night for a midnight snack, when the restaurant was pretty empty.
The cakes we had were very very good. The portion size was a little too much, but the cakes were great. I had a While Chocolate Amaretto Cheesecake and the Tres Leches cake. I preferred the Tres Leches, although it was a little dry (must have been sitting out for a while). However, it wasn’t too sweet so it went well with my latte.
The latte, on the other hand, was a little sweet for my tastes. It was definitely not just steamed milk and espresso, there was definitely some cream in there. Couldn’t really taste the espresso. However, it is really just preference for coffees. It was smooth and woke me up, which is what I needed at the time.
Overall, the experience was delightful, and I would definitely go again during the day for a real meal.

Short REVIEW: Everything was worth it. The service at the bar was great. I cannot remember her name now (yes, I had a few libations) but she was incredible. We did almost all the appetizers. We arrived around 9:45 and left when they closed. We really enjoyed the service, the atmosphere, although we were the only other couple on the bar area (It was a Monday or Tuesday) cheese Balls: yay!

Carpe Diem had a scoutmob and my out of towner wanted brunch with mimosas. And thus we found ourselves at Carpe Diem. It was allright. I certainly can’t think of anything bad to say, but it didn’t blow me away.
Pan Seared Scallop & Spinach Salad: Too much spinach, not enough scallops. The scallops were fairly small and somewhat undercooked. Not very much dressing.
My cousin really enjoyed her Andouille Sausage Omelet. The home fries were pretty darn good.
They have something on their menu called a Jumbo Mimosa, so you know I’m loving that… alas, archaic Georgia law prevented me from trying this as 12:30 rolled around closer to our meals’ end than I would have liked. C’mon! I thought it I could drink at noon!

One of my favorite dinner places in all of Atlanta — I save this one for special dates only. We previously dined here to celebrate a good friend’s engagement. We wined and dined and had a long drawn evening at the venue. I visited more recently to celebrated the husband’s birthday. We had a Nicosie salad that we shared for starters — loved everything about it but the anchovies. Our wines were great too. For main course, we ordered the butternut squash ravioli and the pan seared salmon — both wonderfully flavored and cooked perfectly. We ended the meal with some amoretto flavored sponge cake. Our hostess was the nicest (reminded me a bit of Anna Kendrick) — she took care of us real good. As always I loved the ambience and enjoye dour little booth table by the window and the bar with all the fancy lights up front. Festive!

Successful enough that you can expect a 20 minute wait on a weekday at 1:15 for lunch. My lady loved the salads and the food is pretty good, albeit pricey.
I guess I had better try the cake?

I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to review one of my favorite brunch places in Decatur. Bad, Dru. Ok… moving on.
Carpe Diem… fresh flavors, great daily specials, delicious brunch cocktails and a fun atmosphere. I also love their staff… have always had great service regardless of how busy the restaurant is.
A few things I suggest you try…
* Andouille Sausage Omelet (this comes with goat cheese, basil, roasted red peppers, mushrooms & tomatoes, potatoes, fruit & a biscuit)
*The Carpe Breakfast (Bistro steak, oregano hollandaise. Served, spinach & cream cheese scrambled eggs, potatoes, fruit & a biscuit.)
* Fish Taco (Pan seared blackened tilapia, romaine lettuce, tomatoes, onions, avocado, jalapeño sour cream, flour tortilla & side of salsa verde)
* Kobe Burger (comes with provolone cheese, caramelized onions, heart of romaine, horseradish mayonnaise, sesame seed bun) — Get it medium!
* Cocktails — Super Mimosa (you can also go bottomless for $ 15), MANmosa (Grey Goose Orange, Blue Moon, Cointreau, fresh orange juice, over rocks) and Jomosa (champagne, Gran Marnier, orange juice)
Overall…I highly suggest Carpe Diem for your next brunch. You’ll be thanking me soon.

Very good food at lunch. If they have the lobster sandwich special, it is a winner.
A previous reviewer commented on how their server disappeared for long periods. We had the same problem. That was the only negative to our experience.

I really liked Carpe Diem. Great space, huge restaurant, attentive and friendly service, decent food.
I hit this place with a few friends recently on a Saturday night, fully intending on «eating light» since I had a late lunch. Ha! At least I had good intentions.
I started with one of their specialty cocktails called Surrender — Makers Mark and St. Germaine, with sage leaves and Ginger ale. Nice, on the sweet side but not overly so.
They had a separate menu for tapas dishes, and since I figured I was eating light, I decided to choose just two of these for my meal. I went with the stuffed endive, and seared scallops. After ordering, the server looked at me and said, «Just to let you know, if you’re hungry, that won’t be enough.» I smiled, proud of my strength and resistance, and replied, «I’ll be fine, I had a large and late lunch.»
Well, those two scallops and two or three stuffed endive leaves lasted about 60 seconds. Full of food envy since my friend’s plates looked delicious as hell, and unable to tame the beast that was my supposed light hunger, I decided to get one more tapas dish — the crispy Brussels sprouts. I thought, well hell. A) I love Brussels Sprouts. B) They’re super healthy, right? C) Can’t be THAT many more calories, can they? Well… when they showed up, breaded, deep fried (I guess that’s the «crispy» part), they certainly were not what I expected. But tasty, none-​the-​less.
Resistance was futile. Ugh.

Carpe Diem has a very romantic ambiance; it is cozier and more intimate than Apres Diem. However, I think their location may be a disservice to them. They don’t seem to get as much business as Apres Diem.
I definitely came when the restaurant was not operating at it’s best. There were limited dining options because some ingredients weren’t available and their expresso machine wasn’t working so we couldn’t order some drinks. The server tried her best to help us w our order, but she’d leave and come back to tell us the item was not available due to blah blah blah. The chocolate pecan cake was cold and hard, but to be fair, it was a cold and wet winter evening and there was only one other table occupied when I dined there. Also, the dessert options from behind the counter did not look appetizing. The breaded calamari was alright, but not noteworthy. The chicken dragon lips sounded interesting, but it tasted like buffalo wings w sauce.
Even so, I’d give this place another chance. I feel like I just came on a bad day.
Unilocal 365 #23/​365

Solid place for dinner, very similar to Apres diem in Decatur with alot of the same stuff on the menu.
Service was very good and the food came out reasonably fast.
I enjoyed the calamari tapas dish here and the halibut as an entrée was good. The crispy Brussel sprouts were interesting but could have been a little less fried.
All in all I liked the place and I would go back to check it out again.

When I think of going somewhere GOOD to eat in Decatur, I should say EVERYWHERE (mostly.)
But for a long time it was Carpe Diem. It was the perfect spot for semi-​formals, lunch, dinner, brunch. I love their options. Yesterday I had the Lobster club.
Lemme tell you about this pincher. It had avocado, bacon, tomato and large pieces of lobster. It was one of the best things I have had to eat there by far.
The staff is… interesting. Our waiter pretty much told us that he didn’t like any of the cocktails (really?) but could make a mean margarita for us. (Ohokay). So we chose that.
But another time we went here for a formal, and one of our orders was forgotten. She had gotten the filet. About an hour later, and reluctantly for free.
I enjoy the taste of Carpe Diem, and it’s ambiance is enough to get me to go every now an then.
There’s also a %50 discount on Scout Mob right now (till the end of August/​10). =)

My friend selected Carpe Diem for her birthday lunch. Decatur is always a fun location so off we went. The location is tucked away off of the beaten path and is quaint with a lovely outdoor patio and fountain. Since it was February and old outside we sat inside –they have several indoor dining spaces and a coffee bar /​lounge area — hip urban vibe with exposed brick etc. The menu ranges from tapas, to a cheese platter, salads, entrees and sandwiches.
The burgers with crispy onions, tomato malmalade on a brioche bun served with a small salad and fries was divine and the greek salad in a square bowl looked delicious.
Can’t wait to go again for lunch on the patio. Good good. Inventive menu combining favorites with new twists. Nice service.

Yay! Finally a chance to experience Apres sister, Carpe, in Decatur. A longtime fan of Midtown’s Apres, the vibe at Carpe was much.. . quieter. And a bit more of a restaurant-​y feel, than what you get at sister locale.
Menu echos the same, and being the cheese-​obsessed that I am, had the check out the East side cheese plate. Like other reviewers have mentioned, service is super friendly and our server was appropriately donned in dark plastic-​framed specs.
Once again, a lovely spot for a glass of wine or cocktail.. .one spot with many personalities. And somewhere to truly ‘carpe diem!’ — as they say!