10/09/09

Atlanta must know the truth

by RickTruth73

As a person who truly cares for the Atlanta food scene, there is something you all must know. The Restaurant Eugene experience is a farce. I would not now nor would I ever eat at this horrible person’s restaurant. He does his best to talk the talk but he has never, ever, walked the walk. I say person because Linton Hopkins is not a chef, he hasn’t actually cooked in any restaurant in 5 years. All the accolades and awards were due to the paid off PR person in the city that at the time owned all the great restaurants in the city and when one PR firm owns the accounts to all the chefs in the city, when a Magazine calls, the PR is given to the highest bidder. He is never in his restaurant, all the Chef de Cuisines, Sous Chefs and Line Chefs are the ones who do every bit and all the work, without proper pay I might add. Just ask what they’re told they must work to make their current menu work, without pay. All the man does is pompously; self praise himself, even if he is there, all he does is talk about how much he has done. And he would be no where if it was not for his rich and well to do fathers’ money and connections. He has the most entitled attitude of any person I have ever methis is a man, who has only one thing in mind, himself and his reputation as a liar, and how has to cover up and dance around the truth and he has lied and misled the city of Atlanta for five years. He is a liar, a cheat, and he does nothing but use the money that his rich father has rewarded him via their friends and connections for five years. Completely deceiving the city of Atlanta. Linton Hopkins and his evil pompous, misguided, and often drunk wife Gina have only one thing in mind when you sit down to dine at their establishments and that is to use you up and take you for a long ride. They use everyone as much as they can and then they act like it was their true intention to do something for you and the city. They treat their customers badly, their employees horribly and then act like they were doing you a favor, a totally entitled mentality. Even the menu format for the first five years of his business was taken from a restaurant in Vancouver called Lumiere RF- Rob Feenie in Vancouver. His way of doing things were even explained to his chefs saying,”this business makes you cheat”. As a customer, I would not buy into him or his fake persona, this man has not worked a hard day in his life , he has no loyalty to his employees, which is a must in this business and comes from a well to do rich family and don’t let him ever try to tell you otherwise. He claims he knows hard work, the truth is he has no work ethic and has no clue how the world works. He can not cook in any setting that requires more than ten minutes of his time in the spot-light. The only people that actually know and live the business are the business partners of H&F that were suckered into his quick talk to run the new restaurant for him. Poor suckers. This man’s restaurant and his business are a complete fake, fraud and should be taken with big hesitation any time you read anything more about him.

• Pros: none
• Cons: This Man and his Restaurant are a fake

06/07/09

not impressed

by tjolleythompson

I went to Restaurant Eugene with a group of friends this past Friday night. I was anxious to see what the hype was about. Our reservation was at 6:45...it took our waitress 30 minutes to get a drink order....we had to wait another 15 just to ask for bread while we were waiting for her just to take an order for starters. Cheese tray, pretty good, managed to flag her down for an order for our main course. As the restaurant is filling up(keep in mind we were the first table seated), the restaurant was full and everyone was eating except us. At this point, it was 9. While we were looking at our watches, that is when the waitress could saw the confused look on our faces and told us that the food was coming...we received our food close to 10. Normally, my friends and i would love to order desserts and more drinks, but at this point, we had already been there for three and half hours and were ready to leave.

• Pros: water glass was always full
• Cons: SLOW service, small portions

10/06/08

HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE-WORST SERVICE

by hbm62781

I went to Restaurant Eugene this past Friday night for a dinner with girlfriends. We chose this restaurant based upon the great reviews that it received. We arrived on time for our reservation and were promptly seated by the hostess. After waiting 15-20 minutes, our waitress finally took our drink order and asked for our water preference. 15 minutes later we had our drinks and about 20 minutes later our waitress showed back up to take our dinner order. By this time, we had been at the restaurant for ~45-60 minutes and had only seen our waitress 3 times. She informed us that one of the menu items was sold out. Had we actually been taken care of earlier when we arrived, I doubt that entree would have been sold out! They finally brought bread to our table after we asked for it. We had to ask another waiter to get us a 2nd round of drinks. After being at the restaurant for 1.5 hours, we received our food. It was good but certainly not what you would expect from one of the top restaurants in Atlanta. We are in our late 20s and were by far the youngest people there which I believe had everything to do with the horrible way we were treated. Most everyone around was > 60...and the tables around us turned twice in the time that we were there. We enjoy fine dining and have never been treated this way at any other restaurant. I will not be returning nor will I recommend this restaurant...there are so many great restaurants in Atlanta that offer top notch service and better food for the money!!!!

• Pros: none
• Cons: service, not worth the money

09/06/08

Restaurant Eugene - 1st experience

by gbbwino

Celebrated anniversary here tonight....my first time at the restaurant. The ambiance & decor was sleek, modern & upscale. Greeted warmly upon entrance & taken immediately to table (had reservation). Server clearly made an effort to give us our space given our anniversary, but still kept a watchful eye to fill our wine & water glasses. Started with the seared scallops as an appetizer, which was the highlight of the night for me.....perfectly cooked - tender, moist & very flavorful. Ceaser salad was next with unique presentation. Too much dressing for my taste while the wife complained about the "fishy" flavor, likely resulting from sardines in the dressing. Fried sardines were part of the presentation, which had a great effect despite my lack of interest in eating them. Main course was a ribeye with potatoes au gratin (with some grilled onions, red & orange peppers) topped with a mustard sause. Very flavorful dish with variety of color. If steak is your thing though: i recommend going to a steakhouse. While not a grandslam, this was a very good steak with excellent presentation & flavor. The wife had the swordfish, which was excellent. Perfectly cooked (very tender & juicy) with a lot of flavor. Desert followed with a peach cobbler with a buttermilk ice cream, which my wife enjoyed thoroughly. I had the chocolate tart with raspberry sorbet & sauce, which was very tasty as well. While I brought my own bottle of wine; the wine list appeared to be very good in diversity & quality. Nice price points for all budgets. Main dissapointement was getting charged a corkage fee despite pouring my wine (a 100 Parker rated wine - selling for $387/bottle on their wine list-surprisingly) for the server to taste. But, the server also gave us complementary cookies to go, which we'll give to our boys tomorrow! All-in-all, a very nice place to enjoy an evening!

08/22/08

I really enjoyed this place

by neatomosquito

This is what I heard......food not so hot, everybody over 80. This is what I found...a very nice upscale fine dining experience. Not sure how that age thingy came about......the people in my section were in their 30's. Food not so hot?? Found just the opposite. The food was delicious. Everything tasted fresh and competently prepared. I had gazpacho with shrimp starter, red snapper main and chocolate tart dessert. I enjoyed them all and I?m not a person who usually orders fish at restaurants. The service was excellent without hovering. The courses were served at the same time to the entire table which is the right way to do it although at Bacchanalia it was very notably not the case and for only a party of 3. As I was leaving I looked around a bit and saw a small intimate bar that looked like a great place to perch before dinner. One item of note?.a few tables around us appeared to be doing the tasting menu. We always try to take advantage of that and the matching wine course but couldn?t last night. Anywho, the strangest thing?all the wine glasses were on the table for the entire meal?..OK, I get that, but then?..all the wines were poured at the beginning of the meal. That was the first time I every saw that and I've slugged my way through many a tasting menu. While it looks very pretty and some of the wines can indeed benefit from being poured early it sure is one accident waiting to happen since some of the tables were not huge. I saw it as a nice short-cut for the wait staff. A whole lot less work to do it that way. Hmmmm?sure doesn?t stop me from wanting to go back, however, and try out that tasting menu. Bottom line?..an elegant yet comfortable dining experience. Oh yeah?.one thing I found to be a deficit. The mains consisted of 4 seafood dishes, squab, vegetable plate and red meat. That was it. All looked wonderful but I would have enjoyed a little more variety. If you don?t eat fish, last night your choices were pretty limited.

• Pros: Very comfortable fine dining experience
• Cons: None really

06/17/08

Did not meet expectations

by SusanGG

I was somewhat disappointed with this restaurant. After hearing such wonderful words about the food and service, to be honest, there was nothing exceptional about either. I had the salmon. The preparation was not anything special. Our wait staff was not very attentive as one would expect from a restaurant in this price catagory. My expectations were not met at Restaurant Eugene's. I am very sorry to say this.

• Pros:  Atmosphere
• Cons:  Extraordinarily small portions

02/17/08

Great Sunday night value

by corinnetso

We went for the Sunday night pre fixe menu for $30 per person. The first course was so so. We had the salad and fried chicken livers. Second course was outstanding. We had the fried chicken with collard greens and amazing sweet potatoes and the pork chop with amazing grits. The dessert was a fried apple pie. Mostly it just tasted like a funnel cake and had the calories to match. No point in making a great dessert if you are just going to fry it in heavy batter. Coffee was amazing. They gave us each our own french press with delicious thick black coffee. Atmosphere is nice without being overly trendy. Recommended for the value on Sunday night, overwise would have been too pricey for what you get.

11/18/07

All around, pretty good

by medawg

My wife and I visited Restaurant Eugene for her birthday on Sunday to try the Sunday Suppers. I think the Sunday supper special is a great deal. I had a Broccoli Soup, which was great and my wife had the mixed green salad, which she said needed more acid. I had the Country Fried Steak, which was a good, classic rendition. My wife had the Fried Chicken which she liked, but the sides she thought were absolutely AMAZING! Then the dessert. We had poached pears with a profiterole. The profiteroles tasted as if it was frozen and came from Wal-Mart. The pear though was fantasically cooked. All told, we enjoyed our experience, and would recommend it for a special occasion for sure.

• Pros: Good Food
• Cons: A bit expensive, dessert not so good

09/29/07

this place is a treat

by kjones71

Restaurant Eugene was a treat all around. The food is phenomenal (and I tried over half of the items on the menu.) Some of the portions were small for the price, but well worth it! The modest space makes for a very cozy and relaxing atmosphere. The decor is very simple but elegant. This place would make a great date spot, as it is quiet. The server was very knowledgeable of both the food and wine. I will surely return.

• Pros: service, food quality
• Cons: a bit expensive

Glamour and comfort collide--to great effect--at this looker of a New American restaurant.

by Contributor

In Short
Surveying the cozy, opulent dining room, it's easy to see that husband-and-wife team Gina and Linton Hopkins have sunk their hearts (not to mention pocketbooks) into this Peachtree restaurant. Plush banquettes offer intimate seating, gauzy curtains swathe floor-to-ceiling windows, and fresh flowers spill from wall-mounted vases. The New American menu, though elegant, doesn't intimidate: Pan-seared foie gras shares space with grilled chicken and stone-ground grits.