Creations Dining Room

Creations Restaurant is the teaching restaurant of Art Institute of Atlanta in Dunwoody. It provides students the opportunity to practice their craft before they go out in the real world. Culinary students are required to put in a certain amount of hours back of house and front of house. Everyone working there is a student aside from the head chef (instructor) and front of house manager. Don’t have high hopes for service because these are not experienced servers. They are only open on Thursday and Friday nights. Service ends at 8pm. To make a reservation, call the line, provide the asked for details, and someone will return your call when available. I asked when the latest reservation time could be since they close at 8pm. The latest is at 7:30pm. However, even then, I felt we were holding up the staff cause we were the last to come in and it seemed others had already been there a while. But i just can’t do early dinners during the week and I wanted to try it out.
One of my meetup groups posted an outing here, but I could not attend so I created my own event with my dinner club. Four of us dined together on a Friday night. I was very thankful for the signage showing where the Insitute’s building was. First confusion– can I actually park here? The signs say that you have to have a permit. Even the visitor parking said you needed to get permit from front desk. But since it was after hours, no one was there. We did confirm with the restaurant that it was OK. Second confusion– where is the restaurant? There are no signs telling you where to go. Luckily, we found someone and they told us it was on the 5^th floor.
The dining room is quite small — I think less than 10 tables. Super quaint. We were greeted quickly (you would hope so!) and seated right away. We confirmed what courses were included in the 3-​course deal and the 5-​course deal. Everyone can pick whichever choice they want or just order a la carte, as well. Three of us did 5 courses. 1 did 3 courses. In hindsight, I kinda wish I had done 3 courses. 5 was ALOT of food and I couldn’t eat it all.
My order
1– Started off with beef tenderloin kabobs. These were amazing. So tender and flavor was great. I shared with others and they agreed that it was really good.
2– BLT caesar salad. This was weird. Your classic caesar but with candied bacon bits, tomato and some fried plantain on top. I just picked at this to have some greens, but it wasn’t enjoyable. I appreciate being creative, but this just didn’t work. Even the dressing was not good. It didn’t have a strong caesar taste.
3– Thai curry chicken soup. Concept was great, but needed more curry and salt.
4– Teriyaki salmon with mac and cheese and asparagus. Salmon was decent, but did not like the teriyaki sauce at all. Too sweet I scraped off as much as I could. Mac and cheese did not have enough cheese or cream. Too dry. Asparagus was fine.
5– Chocolate lava cake with ice cream. Fail on the cake. There was no flowing lava. Just congealed chocolate. I stopped eating after a couple bites. Was supposed to come with vanilla but they ran out. So the only choice was peanut butter white chocolate ice cream. The ice cream was pretty good. The parts that you could eat. The peanut butter was just in huge chunks. So we ate the soft cream around it. And I carved out the white chocolate chunks to eat.
5 courses were $ 28. Wow! But food was hit or miss. I think more misses than hits. But even then, I would try them out again when the menu changes. Up ranked from 2 stars to 3 stars due to the GREAT server we had. We learned so much about the school, the restaurant, and his personal story. He really made the night more enjoyable. Though note, I did ask for a cocktail and never got it. :-(

Great place to stop by and taste some great food. It is run by students but they do a good job most of the time. I don’t even think the art students even know there is a fine dining restaurant on the top floor of their own school. Drawing on the table is encouraged.
Latest outing:
Fried black bean patty, watermelon salad, grilled local caught shrimp from Savannah:
Basically the best shrimp I’ve ever had, and everything complemented each other really well. 4.5 stars on that dish.
Fried bison steak with mashed potatoes:
Had an issue with hair on this dish and sent it back. The tartar sauce tasted like straight-​up baking powder, and the steak itself didn’t have much flavor. Honestly this was the most delicious looking dish on the menu but was the least delicious in taste. I think the sauce ruined it. 1 star.
Salmon with mango salsa/​preserves? and grilled vegetables:
Fish was good, tender, flavorful, not as well seasoned as the cod from two weeks before. Grilled vegetables were nice to bite into and had just the right smoke and seasoning. 3.5 stars.
Apple Caramel Crumb Buckle? Can’t remember the name: I’m not an expert on dessert, but, … it’s Good. 4 stars.
Pineapple rum cupcake: It was a bit dry inside, and the icing on top was kind of bland. Only tasted a ¼ of it, and wasn’t interested in finishing the rest. 1 star.
Earlier outings:
Caesar salad: A bit skimpy on the dressing, a bit watered down? Not a strong salad. Added salt and pepper and it was better. 2 stars.
Cod with mango salsa and … something else I can’t remember:
I really liked the cod, so I thought the salsa kind of got in the way, but the cod by itself was perfect. 3.5 stars.
Monte Cristo: Friend thought the powdered sugar was kind of weird. But I liked the salty sweet combo. Could have been executed better. 3.3.
So, it’s a bit hit or miss. But there are some talented chefs and some great items on the menu sometimes.

Creations is the teaching dining room of The International Culinary School at The Art Institute of Atlanta.
Went for a wine dinner that was a great value @ $ 30. Most of the wines were excellent, but the food was hit and miss.
–Olive Oil Poached Halibut with sweet potato gratin– not a fave, fish had a strange texture and the gratin blob had a hard shell from sitting too long. 2
2007 St Urbans-​Hof Riesling QbA-​4
–Honey Roasted Beet and Goat Cheese Salad-​this salad was horrid. The greens were limp, the onions had a slimy texture and the dressing was not noticeable. ZERO!
2007 Schloss Gobelsberg Gruner Veltliner «Gobelsberg» 2
–Apple and Sage Sorbet 4 refreshing and the sage was delicious
–Braised boneless beef short ribs with mushroom and thyme bread pudding, green beans with caramelized onions and crispy bacon
finished with a red wine cherry demi sauce 4 (bread pudding was the best thing of the night)
2006 Hot Rod Pinot Noir 3
2007 Sattler St Laurent 5
very interesting double wine pairing, had never seen that…
–Cheese Plate: Hand selected German cheeses served with candied walnuts and a mixed berry compote finished with a wine and balsamic reduction 3
compote and nuts were amazing, 5 star, the cheeses had been cut early and had a skin on them from sitting too long. ick.
2008 Schlinkhaus Dornfelder 4
–Trio of Desserts
Delicate fried dough dusted with powdered sugar served with black currant sauce 2
Apricot and walnut strudel with a spiced raspberry sauce-​2
hard, doughy crust
Apple cinnamon ice cream 5-​delicious, and the little cookie and caramel sauce underneath was perfect
This would have been better as an uno with just the ice cream, the other two were HARD and not great.
Overall a nice time with some great wines and a few stellar items, but the food was mostly not impressive.
Cheers~