Bistro VG

good food, nice atmosphere but i found it overpriced.

Some consider Bistro VG to be one of the best restaurants outside the Perimeter. I have mixed feelings. (Note too, that my review isn’t quite four stars; I rounded up.)
I’ll start on a harsh note: If I return and I’m relegated to the same table, I’ll leave. Picture two tables literally next to each other, on levels maybe six inches apart. Nobody above us when we sat, and it was fine. But when a couple was seated above –it was 8 p.m., and we were already eating — it was horrible. Zero privacy. Couldn’t hear my husband talk. The room itself — while pretty, as pictures depict — was noisy. C’mon … not what one expects from a restaurant of this caliber.
Okay, okay. Forget about the seating. You come here for the food.
I learned at a spa that one needs to massage baby kale to make the leaves tender. When my husband proposed sharing a kale salad, I agreed. («These leaves weren’t massaged,» I muttered.) I found the salad bitter and boring. Didn’t see any roasted Brussels sprouts, supposedly part of the greens. In checking in, our waitress — who was great! — told me it would be no problem to exchange my half salad for another. So while T ate the kale (which he enjoyed) I had half a baby gem salad with bibb lettuce, which was more to my liking.
A Unilocaler posted a delicious-​looking photo of tuna tartare, which prompted us to order it. Ours didn’t look anything like the photo! Where’s the sprinkling of caviar? The top was covered by a tasty pico de gallo or something of that nature, and the tuna? Very little — not like the aforementioned photo; too much tomato topping.
Now comes the redeeming part of my review:
– My husband’s seafood bouillabaisse did not disappoint. Clams, mussels, perhaps shrimp (I don’t recall) and swordfish, which was the special of the evening. I expected the swordfish to be overly firm and dry — but no! Chef prepared it somewhat flakey, with a lovely delicate flavor. We sopped up the excellent sauce with the sour dough bread on our table. (BTW, the bread was crusty and really good.)
– Our waitress said that VG is known for its trout, which seems to be my fallback dish. It didn’t appear to be almandine as the menu states, but nonetheless it was very good, and the fish was a nice size. What totally impressed was the turnip purée. Flavorful, somewhat sweet — something I’d like to replicate at home.
I’m pretty easy when it comes to wine lists. I know what I like and we’re not big spenders. We chose a $ 32 bottle of Grayson Cellars chardonnay. As I said to the sommelier, most chardonnays taste pretty much the same to me – but this was really delicious. Sort of flower-​y. (I’m going to see if Total Wines carries it.)
And dessert: mmmmmm. T and I shared a passion fruit crêpe topped by coconut ice cream.
Will I return? Since I now know the pitfalls — and I like having a ‘fancy’ restaurant ten minutes from home — I will give them another go. Cause in summation, the good outweighs the bad.

Decided to check this place out based on reviews and was not disappointed with the food and service. We were a bit disappointed that they didn’t offer valet service on a Saturday night especially given that it was cold and rainy on top of a small parking lot. The décor and ambiance reminded us of Aria but without the sticker shock lol. The menu offers small bites, cheese/​meat plates, main courses, wide selection of wines and other drinks. Our table started off with tuna tartare, calamari and goat cheese ravioli. All very delicious but not mind blowing. The ravioli was on the small side for an appetizer to share. We then ordered the mushroom soup and our entrees. The entrees selected were the lamb shank, sword fish featured dish, filet mignon, salmon and trout salad. The sword fish was not cooked to the right temp the first time but after a re-​fire it was delicious. The lamb shank took the lime light though, so flavorful and cooked to perfection. The other dishes were also really good but nothing mind blowing. To make up for the mushroom soup not arriving on time and the sword fish being redone, the chef sent over 2 desserts and 6 glasses of champagne which was a nice touch to improve our night. The desserts selected were the beignets and tiramisu along with expressos. The deserts were amazing and so was the champagne. Overall all, I give them 4 stars for high quality food, presentation and exceptional service :)

Me and my husband went to celebrate New Years Eve. The place is charming and cozy. The waiter was very friendly and gave us some suggestions from the menu. The food was very good! And in the end we celebrated with a toast at the bar! Great!

Not too sure if I liked this place. Food was ok a bit pricey for the way it taste. To begin with we walked in and the hostess was beyond rude. She went to go seat a couple and when she came back she said «yes?» And my friend and I looked at her and we said «uhm a table for two» and she was like hmmmm and «what time is your reservation», not knowing we would even be going here last night we both politely said we didn’t have one. She told us she could seat us at a table in the sunroom and we both agreed because the restaurant actually did look busy. She seated us next to two different parties that were beyond loud the entire time we were there, basically ruined our experience. My tiny little alcoholic beverage cost more than my meal. Now don’t get me wrong drinks aren’t bad and I get this place is trying to be fancy but the hostess and being seated next to the loud parties made this experience a not so nice one. Probably will not returning here and if you’re thinking about going make a reservation so they aren’t rude to you.

I found my new favorite restaurant. This has to be one of the most beautiful restaurants in Atlanta. Besides the amazing ambiance and décor the food and service was exceptional. Matthew at the bar was attentive, friendly and eager to talk about the wonderful dishes as well. Mercedes was another friendly face as well as the server assistants. The manager recommended a bottle of Pino Noir which I should have written down because it was very delicate and delicious. The food was exceptional and it was very difficult to choose a meal because there was so many dishes that sounded wonderful. We ended up grazing on small plates and appetizers and became too full to order an entrée. The crab cake was all crab, the fromage and charcuterie plate was amazing. We didn’t care for one particular meat chosen and Matthew made sure we loved it so he took it upon himself to replace it with another selection. We also enjoyed the fresh baked bread, tuna tartare and lovely crepes for dessert. I look forward to my next visit and not filling up on small plates… it was just so hard to choose. One more note, as an interior designer myself this place is just gorgeous… so much thought and details went into this restaurants. Wonderful!

Meet a friend here on a Saturday night. It was my first time visiting. My friend and I met to catch up and talk business. The dinning area was pretty much book so we sat in the bar area. Amazing atmosphere! We had a choice of sitting at one of the community tables or a love seat with table next to the fireplace. We choice the love seat. There were also lounge chairs in front of the fireplace available.
Service was spectacular! There was a miscommunication with an appetizer and the not only correct it, but did not charge us for either appetizer.
Food was just good as the atmosphere and service. I would definitely return and suggest this place to anyone in the area.

Nice little restaurant in Roswell that I had the pleasure to visit last week. Amazing drink menu. Had the Amber Pashmina. It was unique and exciting. The food is equally amazing. I’d absolutely eat here again.

We selected Bistro VG based on reviews listed here on Unilocal and on OpenTable and we were not disappointed! We had a scallop dish complemented with a rock shrimp risotto and mushrooms for our entrée. It was extraordinary. Our kale salad was perfect, fresh, and beautifully dressed with a lemon vinaigrette. Rather than a salad, my husband started with the calamari and commented that it was the best he had tasted in decades. One special touch to the calmari: they add a few fried onion slices and also lemon slices to the fryer and include them on the plate. We ate both and were amazed by how well they complemented the dish.
Dessert was a chocolate turtle cake for my husband and beignets with a sublime orange marmalade and lovely pot de crème. The beignets were disappointing, but I am particular about my beignets. The pot de crème and marmalade more than made up were the beignets fell short.
The best part of the meal, though, was the service and atmosphere. We had a truly perfect experience.

First time at Bistro VG. I received a gift card for the restaurant group they belong to so thought we would check it out. The atmosphere was laid back yet seemed upscale. They recommended reservations but had very few tables when we arrived for our reservation. Inside is a clean white with tablecloths and cloth napkins. They would definitely be a $$$ restaurant based on menu price. The wine selection is minimal and a little over priced. Most of the wine list is under three years old but carry an aged wine price. The meal started with a crab cake that was a little undercooked. The two of us ate Filet Mignon as our main dish. While they were cooked to temperature and tender they had little flavor. Anyway, for the price point ($ 28) we have had better but have had worse too. The mashed which come with the steak were your basic plain potatoes and both noted they were only slightly warm. So the overall food left us feeling it was just an average meal. Overall we wouldn’t rush back again but they aren’t completely off the list and we would probably try them again. We thought it had a nice atmosphere overall and the waitress was very attentive and seemed to care about her customers.

Very inconsistent. Sometimes the food is good; sometimes it is not. Sometimes the service is good; sometimes it is not. Pricey when you don’t know what you’re going to get…

I’ve only sat at the bar for appetizers, never tried dinner. I’ve tried all their app.‘s and all are fantastic.
Service: Bar service is fantastic.
Atmosphere: great place to mingle at the bar and from what I’ve seen in the main restaurant a nice place for dinner.
Not a place for the family/​with kids unless the kids are well disciplined. Great for a date night.

We went to Bistro VG for our 22^nd anniversary on recommendations from several friends. We were not disappointed. My wife had the bouillabaisse. It was cooked to perfection with a delicious mix of seafood including Chilean sea bass, which was one of the tempting daily specials. I had the Moroccan Spiced Seared Duck. I find many restaurants do not know how to properly cook duck, especially medium. The chef is to be commended for perfectly cooking the duck as well. This was one of the best duck meals I’ve ever had.
We shared a cheese plate to start, allowing our waiter, Ben, select his favorites. (I was just slightly disappointed that there was not a daily ‘Chef’s Selection’ for cheese plates), however Ben did an excellent job.
It was difficult to select from the desserts. My wife choose the brown butter tart do jour and I the chocolate tart from the menu. Both were tasty. The brown butter tart was reminiscent of many trips to France years ago. While my dessert was very chocolaty, and I’d order it again, it was not traditional French, so order it because it is delicious, but don’t expect it to match anything you may find in France.

Very nice restaurant with a cool atmosphere and décor.
The food: Was really well prepared and met my expectations. I had the North Carolina brook trout and it was delicious. There were 4 of us at the table and everyone was pleased with their dish! This is important to state because there was seafood, local fish, and meat and all of them were very well done and each one had great taste and presentation. The food is on the pricy side but you pay for the fine-​dininig experience.
The drinks: Were amazing and the wine list was a tier above most other fine dining restaurants in the area.
The location is a bit out of the way but if you are near it and or want a nice «Date night» I would definitely recommend coming here.

This review is dedicated to Rich form Atlanta. As this grandmother from Roswell climbs out of her wheel chair (HA), I need to dispel your ignorance regarding seniors and restaurants. While we often drive to Atlanta to dine, go to concerts, sports events and theater in the city, why drive when a restaurant like Bistro VG is available? The food is excellent, the service has always been exceptional, and as for the the wine list, I always find that is a problem for those who are determined to make it a problem so they can bring their own. The restaurant is in business to make money. Corkage fees are charged everywhere, particularly Buckhead. The good news is the next time I visit this wonderful restaurant, I know you won’t be there.
As a side note, Friday night most of the diners were not seniors!

My wife and I came here with a large party for a holiday event. The place has a wonderful ambiance especially in the bar area. Looks good for OTP. We ordered drinks which were average. Ordered the grilled mediterranean octopus. This was very good and tender. I ordered sauted chicken livers with carmelized onions, this is a french place right? They were terrible. Just bad, no favor at all. Ordered duck beast moroccan spiced and a duck confit leg for entrée. Wife ordered trout almondine. My wife’s fish was very moist with a good sauce. My duck breast came out cold rare. I had ordered medium rare. It was so busy and service so slow I just at around it. I did have the waiter show the chef the cold rare piece I left on the plate and they took half off the price.
It was just not the best for food although I did like the décor and feel of the place. I probably would not go back though, there are just too many other better restaurants for the price. I guesss if I lived close by I might just go in for a drink and get the octopus app. 2 stars food. 3 stars ambiance.

I’m really torn about how many stars to give this place. It has the potential of receiving 5 stars, I just can’t do it based on our meal/​experience tonight.
The architecture and modern décor of the restaurant is beautiful! It has really nice lighting fixtures.
I don’t know what it is about the structure, but the sounds echo really bad in there, the noise level in the back room is unbearable. It is a date night type of restaurant, mostly for an older crowd. So you go there to have conversation. But the acoustics make it hard to carry on conversation. The staff is extremely friendly and very attentive.
The food is where I’m torn. It’s definitely gourmet, but I thought the pairing of some ingredients were not very complimentary. My husband ordered soup de jour, lentils with curry and coconut milk. Three strong flavors in one was a little too confusing for the palate. I ordered the beats salad. I’ve had better. The dressing is made of some sort of a heavy oil. The cheese was too bland for the sweet beats. It would have been nice if the cheese was more salty. My husband ordered the scallops served on mashed potatoes. Again, there was a little too much competing flavors in how the scallops were prepared and how the mashed potatoes were prepared. I ordered the duck. The breast was perfect. The drumstick was too gamy. I don’t even remember what the duck was served with, but it was heavy and the flavor too strong and competed with the duck. For desert we ordered the beignets with chocolate. The beignets are served hot and covered with sugar and cinnamon and would have been great served along with a complimentary flavored ice cream. Instead it was served with chocolate. I would never pair cinnamon with chocolate. The chef needs to figure out a way to compliment flavors not have them compete against each other.

Great food for the older scene. Bar area is a little loud. Even tho’ we came for a late dinner, it was still busy. We had great service!
FOOD: Complimentary bread is dry and not very good. For starters, we had split the Butter Lettuce Salad with red onion, cucumber, and herb-​mustard vinaigrette. It was refreshingly delicious! For dinner, I had the Seared Atlantic Salmon (cooked medium) with herbed organic quinoa, Tuscan kale, and Fava beans. Delicious!!!
I’d come back with older ppl for their great food!

There is nothing not to love in this place. Spotless settings, inventive and consistent food and cool polite staff. The décor is only rivalled by Canoe– and with that I’m taking in consideration their river view, which is not fair. But hey, thats life!- with beautiful white stained walls and comfortable furniture.
Food is exquisite french nouvelle cuisine, with some very welcomed adaptations (eg. portion sizes). I usually go for the crab cakes– soft and with a balanced mustard sauce, the daily special flat bread (today was a chorizo, fuji apple and pecorino cheese with balsamic reduction), finishing with a delicious banana crêpe.
Highly recommended, from the sunday brunch to a romantic duo’s friday night of.

This is a great place to take Nana for Grandmothers’ Day… well, I’m getting a little ahead of myself, and frankly I’m assuming your Nana doesn’t fancy wine.
Let me back up by saying that on Unilocal I’m the «duke» of this place, so I’ve been here a lot over a great deal of time. During that time I’ve watched this restaurant get worse and worse, mostly with poor management decisions. It’s been about six months since I was last up at Bistro VG for dinner, and we took some friends who had never been.
We are seated on-​time in the back room, and we ordered cocktails for some and opened the wine I’d brought (an ’07 Novy Syrah from Page Nord I’ve been holding for about four years now). Unfortunately Bistro VG has changed their cocktail list and got rid of the Basil Cucumber that was great. Also, you still can’t get a decent bit of ice; they use the old time cubed ice rather than hand cutting the ice to your glass like most places at this price point.
As we were enjoying our conversation, the waitress (Kelly) came over and asked us if we could lend her back our menus, because they «ran out». Unfortunately, the service had been pretty slow up until then, so we were not actually keen to do this. (Who doesn’t print enough menus?)
Eventually, we order and the service comes out all messed up. My friend — in fact all of us – has misunderstood the specials and what came with what, so he didn’t get what he wanted. Two of us ordered the hanger steak which was not nearly as good as it has been in the past. The steak was quite sinewy and tough. The cauliflower was not crunchy at all, but had been rendered nearly mush. Too bad.
Around this time, one of my friends looks around and notices that literally every patron that we can see looks past retirement age. He joked, «what are they doing out this late?» Well, I think this actually explains a fair bit. Looking at the crowd, this is the not crowd who are going to good restaurants in Historic Roswell and certainly not Midtown or Buckhead restaurants. Bistro VG is catering to an audience that lives out in the hinterlands and has little interest in dealing with driving more than five minutes away from their house at night. This is a captive audience by the logistics of failed night vision and lack of culinary exploration.
Resolute on having a good time, we dealt with the bad service and the poorly executed dishes, so we asked Kelly to open our second bottle of wine. She then informs me that corkage is $ 25/​bottle. TWENTY FIVE dollars a bottle? Oftentimes places will charge for one bottle if you bring two, but they certainly don’t charge you for both, especially when everyone (except me) had a cocktail and one of the ladies ordered multiple glasses of white wine. In other words we had spent money on drinks. It wasn’t like we were cheaping out.
I brought wine because Bistro VG has a restricted, young and terribly over-​priced wine list. There are few red wines on the base wine list that are older than three years. Most are present releases; I don’t think they are laying anything down in reserve. So if you like a wine to have matured to the point it is meant to be drunk, then you need to bring wine, but Bistro VG charges you $ 25 for each bottle, with no consideration to what else you might be ordering.
After the manager left, I told the waitress that this policy must be something they can get away with because Bistro VG is up in the burbs and the people don’t know any better. She said that her grandmother doesn’t like to drive so she «stays in her bubble». I looked around and realized that everyone was in their bubble, and then it dawned on me. Cafeterias are busy all week, and the locals are looking for a nice place out. Seriously, if your Nana doesn’t like wine, take her to Bistro VG.
For those of you who do like wine, oenophiles of Roswell listen up: YOU CAN DO BETTER!!! I keep a list of places with less corkage (PM me for it, if you want). Here are a few suggestions to free yourself from places overcharging you to open a bottle of wine. Go try Truffles on Lennox with NO CORKAGE and great food! Check out Concentrics restaurants, such as One Midtown Kitchen, Two Urban Licks (going tonight) or the Spence. You can have a chef like Richard Blaise and they won’t charge you for your first bottle and the second is something like $ 15. Much, much better.