Chocolate Bar

Doesn't Recommend

bfz1189

Joined 3 years ago

Trying to find a GOOD restaurant in Atlanta. My husband and I took two out of town guests to the Chocolate Bar. I had heard really good things about this place from the reviews in various papers. As a resident of Atlanta for 10 years I have been trying very hard to find more than a handful of consistantly good places to eat. OTP/ITP, I don't care; Atlanta just doesn't live up to other cities I've lived in (including San Fransico, Washington and even Cleveland). Bouyed by the great reviews, we took this couple out for drinks and deserts. Fifty dollars later for 4 almost nonalcholic drinks and one very small souffle with a spoonful of ice cream I found myself disappointed again. The poor overworked waitress tried hard and she did a very good job but she was the only one there making drinks, food and serving. In the hour we were there we counted over seven groups leaving without being served. Only one of the drinks even romotely tasted alcholic. Why would the owner put only one person there during the Decatur Book Fair? And how did the owner think he could get away with charging outrageous prices for so little?

Doesn't Recommend

Moemoe13

Joined 3 years ago

Goes Straight Down Hill After Drink #1. We went. We drank. We ate. We won’t be going back. I’ll explain below.

We had high hopes for this establishment as their specialty was chocolate (hence the name). For one we got the coupons from Group on: Pay $10 and get $25. Great deal right?? Nah. We couldn’t use the coupons for alcohol (although not stipulated during the purchase). One of the main reasons we bought them. So I we had to pay for our drinks out of pocket. $10 bucks for one drink. Ouch.

The Drinks

I had the Mississippi Sidehand martini: This was an absolutely great drink. The best I’ve had in quite a while. Now I’m sorry to say it all goes down hill from here. My wife ordered the Tiramisu martini. This drink does not measure up to its name. No tiramisu resemblance at all. Tasted more like chilled unsweet hot chocolate but with a smooth vodka.

Preparedness

Now after advertising your business on Groupon, one would think your business would be prepared for customers. Our waitress advised us of all the menu items they did not have available at the time. My wife wanted to indulge in the Oreos and Milk dessert. Not available. There were about 5 other menu items not available on the already limited menu. Talk about starting off on the wrong foot.

The Food

I ordered the bbq chicken flat bread which came with salad. Tasted ok but the bread was mushy and came out luke warm. Not how I want my pizza’ish flatbread. Now my wife ordered the vegetarian flatbread. Basically it was the flatbread topped with the same salad from my plate without the dressing. A very bland dish to say the least.

Desserts

Now this being a chocolatier place, you would think the desserts were awesomely incredible. Sorry to say. Nah. My wife ordered the brownie ala mode. Brownies are made with chocolate (hummm…The Chocolate Bar) and it had to be the most tasteless brownie I’ve ever had. It really taste like it was sugar-free for diabetics. Topped with really bland again sugar-free tasting vanilla ice cream. Its as if their bakers/chocolatiers were on vacation during my visit. Now I ordered the passion fruit crème brulee. Now this wasn’t too bad. A very interesting dish. Unfortunately, it was not enough to warrant my return to invest my money into establishment again.

Conclusion

My overall conclusion is if your establishments main appeal is based on chocolate or desserts, at least make sure those above everything else is the best you can offer each and every time. One thing about consumers is if we have something great the first time, we are going to come back for more. On the flip side, if we have something not good the first time we will not come back. As a restaurant’s main consumers are from repeat customers and from word of mouth from those same repeat customer’s friends, there is only a downward slope if a customer’s visit is not even close to their expectations. Unfortunately, I had high expectations from The Chocolate Bar. But like Cleveland’s hopes on retaining Lebron James, I was extremely let down enough to write this.

Cost

After spending $20 for $50 worth of goodies, and finding out that alcohol was not part of the deal. I really spent $42 plus gratuity out of pocket for two and received about an additional $45 in discounts with my Groupon savings. Had I not had my Groupon saving, I would have spent almost $95 for this evening out. Definitely not worth the expense.

Recommends

JasonPatlfoodie

Joined 3 years ago

Great post-dinner date spot. I just moved to Decatur, and this is the perfect spot to go after dinner for dessert/wine/cocktails.....We got a couple glasses of great cab, a chocolate martini- yum! and truffles to pair.

The service was fine? Not exceptional but it's a pretty intimate atmosphere so no worries for us....

Highly recommend for fun spot after dinner or for light apps before...Will be back!

Doesn't Recommend

eatiegoodie

Joined 3 years ago

Good drinks. The drinks are good but menu very limited and does not appear to be fresh

Thought the showcase should be more appealing with fresh candy, so go for drinks, avoid food

Doesn't Recommend

Clara B

Joined 3 years ago

AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE.. This place has really gone downhill. I went a few years ago on a date and it was lovely... bistro like ambiance, a bit overpriced but overall a good experience.

Went a few nights ago. Service was probably the worst I've experienced in Atlanta, and I live in L5P (that's saying something). Staff knew NOTHING about the wines, foods, or anything else, and overall seemed clueless and pretentious...which was pretty funny, because there was absolutely nothing to be pretentious about.

Ordered the 2 cheese app. It was literally a wedge of stilton and some 'goat cheese' (it was NOT goat cheese) served COLD (uh, no) with 4 tiny rounds of raisin bread. I'm talking smaller than cracker sized bread rounds. For 2 wedges of cheese? They should take a page from Ecco and do antipasti correctly.

We received no forks. Just knives. I'm not sure if we were supposed to eat cold cheese sliced with the knives or what. I asked for some crostini, crackers, or bread, and was told they had none by an almost gleeful waitress.

We also ordered the salami app. This was even better. Something akin to spam (seriously, CHEAP quality salami sliced up in weird rounds, think pepperoni rejects from pizza only thicker), dumped into a glass bowl with some awful soy sauce/sweet sauce concoction and sesame seeds on top. Basically, a bowl of meat with, no joke, plastic toothpicks on the side. I finally gave up and attempted to stab the 'salami' rounds with a small slice of cheese. Still wasn't very good.

Anyway. Since our mostly absent waitress had no other bread, crackers, crostini, or other carbs in the restaurant, apparently, my somewhat daring friend asked if we could have a box for our cold cheese wedges to take home (by then they'd be an edible room temp!!). The waitress acted again put off, and 10 minutes later threw 2 round plastic containers on the table.. (tossed is perhaps more accurate) saying they also didn't have 'to go' boxes. Interesting!

So, in a nutshell: maybe they have good chocolate martinis. But uh, so do a lot of places in Atlanta, and you can get them for higher quality with real service and food that isn't being served straight out of amateur hour. If, however, you'd like some rock hard cold cheese, a bowl of meat drenched in watery soy, and toothpicks to eat it with for about twenty dollars, stop on by!

Doesn't Recommend

Shelley08180

Joined 4 years ago

Very underwhelmed. We went there with my mom for an after dinner dessert for her birthday. We stood around waiting for someone to seat us and finally just sat ourselves. My mom had the Mexican coffee which was delicious...everything after that was a disappointment. We ordered the brownie but didn't realize it had beer ice cream on it. We told the waiter we didn't like it at all and he just laughed and walked away. We also had ordered the death by chocolate and all it was too tiny blobs of chocolate - hardly the "large" dessert we had expected from the menu.

Recommends

loid222

Joined 4 years ago

great place for chocolates. yes, real big restaurant.. very insteresting place, good for chocolate lovers... whahahaha, i want to go here...

Recommends

bob010

Joined 4 years ago

great place for chocolates. we went here one time, and then i was amazed that there's a place like this. i like their cookies and their chocolate stuffs.. wheeeeehew...

Recommends

tung12

Joined 4 years ago

Great bar. Nice people hanging out in a relaxed mode so you never feel stressed or irritated. Just enter, and feel very comfortable.

Recommends

kdorrigan

Joined 4 years ago

Deliscious.... overall great the food was fantastic. I would highly recommend this place to anyone who is after some tasty treats...