Vickery’s Bar & Grill

Goodbye, Vickery’s. I have so many fond memories of hanging out at the bar, or in one of the Soprano’s-style red leather booths, slinging back potent cocktails and chatting with good friends. Another midtown institution bites the dust.

I try not to write a review of a local place until I eat there twice (or if they make me sick), so I had the chance to eat a Vickery’s again. Here is my take.
The restaurant is usually fairly empty if you go during normal dinner hours, even on the weekend. This is a late night place, so don’t be disheartened if you walk in and it is empty.
My wife had the Low Country Seafood Sauté and I had the fish tacos. I love fish tacos, but trying to get a good fish taco in Atlanta is like trying to catch a cold in Hawaii. You can do it, but it takes a lot of work. The fish tacos were light, flavorful, and had a wonder salsa verde that didn’t over power the fish. I would tell you what my wife thought of the Seafood Sauté, but all she did was moan in delight during the entire meal. (Okay, I am exaggerating a bit).
Go there and eat. If there is something that the wait staff don’t think is very good, they will recommend something else, just ask them. Also, they are the only bar in Atlanta that I have been to that has Hendrick’s Gin. Try it, you won’t drink saffire again.

So I was in Hotlanta on business and was going to definitely take the opportunity to eat some good food. I figure since I was in the south some southern cooking was a must. Initially a co-​worker and I were going to go to Gladys Knight’s place for some chicken waffles but unfortunately we were diverted to Vickery’s. Most of the time you can rely on a cabbies recommendation but this time it was a big mistake that I completely regret.
Upon arriving at Vickery’s it was completely empty except for a couple of people at the bar. An empty restaurant is generally a bad sign but I figured it was Monday night and with this economy probably most people are not necessarily going out to dinner. However, I should’ve stuck with my instinct because the food was definitely a disappointment.
Since they didn’t have Chicken and Waffles on the menu I went with the fried chicken, greens, and mac-​n-​cheese. Unfortunately ever aspect of the meal was a real letdown. For one the chicken was a boneless breast that was dry. Are you kidding me? Everyone knows that proper fried chicken is always bone-​in for favor and it helps to keep the meat juicy. I wanted some southern fried chicken not chicken tenders. Hell, I could have went to any bar & grill for chicken tenders. The mac-​n-​cheese was a tragedy and the greens were ok. I won’t even mention the biscuit because I’m trying to forget. If I were to do it again I wouldn’t unless you’re buying
I’m giving it 2 stars because maybe it was a bad night and I’m parcel to giving places the benefit of the doubt.

Pros:
Great ppl, staff included.
fab drinks.
Cons:
Stuffy hot patio.
Not so great food.
With that said, I do love to go sit inside and mingle/​drink it up on a hot day. And at the cost of sounding slightly redundant, it’s extremely rare to meet a rude person in this bar.
I haven’t eaten much here (I mostly go for the alcohol and conversation.), but what I have had, I wasn’t impressed with. I haven’t tried the brunch yet. I have gone a couple of times, but there are usually kids there, so I leave. I’m not saying I hate kids, but I’m not especially kid friendly (potty mouth), especially when alcohol is involved.

We were recently in Atlanta for a family wedding celebration. The wedding didn’t begin until 6pm so we knew we needed some good food to get us through til the big event and we wandered around the block from our hotel in search of sustenance.
We passed three other places and then looked at Vickery’s, felt the vibe of the garden and the cool 80s tunes and we decided, «let’s do it.»
We were so happy with the service and the food (I had the healthy spinach salad with tofu — –EXCELLENT and he had the burger and fries — also AWESOME) that we decided to go back for brunch on Sunday before embarking on the 11 hour drive back to Alexandria. So worth it.
Loved Vickery’s and everything about it!

Hands down one of the best places for great food. Not only that the servers and bar tenders are some of the best I have dealt with, there is a reason why I have frequented this place since 2005.
I highly recommend any of the burgers and the cuban rueben**

While experimenting with
I came across a coupon for here and decided to check it out. My server was also a Michigander and a joy to chat with. I fell in love with the gazpacho and asked if I could order a bucket of it (apparently, they are fresh out of «bucket size»). It is NOT spicy, just incredibly fresh and refreshing. I’ll go back simply for that dish!

I love you Vickery’s… I love you in the open mouth kiss, hard against the wall way!
I’ve been in Atlanta for almost two years, and Vickery’s has the friendliest bar in this city… HANDS DOWN!
You plop your bad self down and within moments the walls of social convention just melt away… you can start an easy conversation with just about anyone who walks in! And the best part is… there are no rules about where that conversation will take you! The quirky, gregarious bartenders just add a whole new level!
The word, irreverent comes to mind!
I love, love, love, love, love it!
To add some icing to the cake, the food is fantastic! A classic fried chicken dinner won’t break the bank, and the Paella was the best I’ve had since Spain!
Did you hear what I just said?
Yeah… shocking!
Add in the multi-​layered aspect to the space and you’ve got a real winner on your hands! From the sexy high backed leather booths, to the dark wood bar, you can sit wherever your mood takes you! Feel like a fireplace on a cold day, cozy on up to one… feel like sitting outside, problem solved!
In fact… if I were to rewrite this review… I could do it in two words…
PROBLEM SOLVED!

Had lunch here recently and it really deserves 3.5 stars… I like the neighborhood kinda feel you get from this place, especially the seats at the bar that were reserved for some regulars, upon their request! Even a nice business card sized plaques bolted into the bar with the regulars’ names.
Seems like a spot where many who work in the area come for lunch. I saw that the black bean burger was highly recommended, so I ordered that (even tho’ I’m not vegetarian). The burger itself I liked a lot and it was tasty and very filling. The fries weren’t all that. I also that the drinks were small and seriously overpriced, which detracted from an overall nice experience. Staff was friendly, service was a bit slow the day I was there.

I have been to Vickery’s at least once a week since moving to Atlanta. I live 1 block from it, so its very easy to call them up and have my to-​go order ready by the time I walk over there.
This place is just a block off peachtree and its easy to miss if you don’t know the area. It is worth checking out, my two favorites are the Crab cakes and the Black Bean cuban cakes… The Ranch Chicken Sandwich is great as well!
The service is always up to par and the bartenders have your to-​go order ready and everything you need. Seems like the place is always got people in it, which is great cause there are so many great places around it to eat as well, so it can be easily overlooked by people.
The patio is awesome for those nice nights out when you just want a glass of wine and a good salad or sandwich
Not a fan of their brunch, only had it once, but it was much to be desired for.
Check em out!!!

Amazingly, I just had my first visit to Vickery’s after living here all these years. Better late than never, I guess.
I liked it and I wasn’t really expecting to like it very much. We went on a chilly night and we were seated at a cozy table near the fireplace. The outdoor patio looked very nice but it was too cold for that. We walked through the bar and I think if I had been seated in the bar area, I would not have liked this place so much. The cozy table was great.
Service was great, too. I ordered a veggie plate with a cup of soup. I had black beans and rice (tasty), collard greens (tasty) and sautéed spinach (tasty). My chicken vegetable soup was tasty, too. I sampled my friend’s black bean cakes and they were delicious — and HUGE! That dish could have easily have fed both of us with leftovers to spare. Our server told us that the cakes were similar to the patties used on the black bean burger, which makes the black bean burger sound like an excellent choice for next time.
Everything here was great. I would definitely return and I am still figuring out why I had never been here before now.

After boot camp, you have the munchies. Wanting to try something new (and perhaps the chance to snag a salad with a meal), my boot camp buddies and I wandered over to Vickery’s for a taste.
For starters, I did get my salad. The house salad has gorgonzola, raisins, nuts, mixed lettuce, and dressing of your choice. I wound up trying the balsamic and it’s packed with vinegar. I love this — I hate sweet or oily vinaigrettes — but I could see something else finding it a bit too tart. My boyfriend approved of it, though, and normally he’d speak up on the matter, so perhaps it would be just fine.
The main course was my salmon and wasabi mashed potatoes with fried green beans and candied shittake mushrooms coupled with my boyfriends veggie plate: mac n’ cheese, tots, and fried plantains. Hey, I said I got a salad, right? That’s healthy…
Salmon: It was moist yet crispy on top and packed with flavor. The sauce helped keep the salmon juicy and they married very well together!
Wasabi Mashed Potatoes: They aren’t kidding. The wasabi body slams your taste buds and puts them in a choke hold, but I loved it! Having a mild head cold, it was nice to be able to breathe again… plus the spice with the creamy potatoes tasted delicious.
Fried Green Beans: They are crunchy all the way through and absolutely amazing. Then again, being from the South I’d probably say anything fried is amazing (minus fried Twinkies — can we not go there?).
Candied Mushrooms: Sadly, I’m allergic to shittake. The downside here is that we asked them to put them on the side or omit them but the server forgot to jot down either option for the chef. She admitted the mistake and my boyfriend scarfed down all the mushrooms and said they were wonderful, but I would certainly emphasize «ALLERGEN» if it’s something that could actually cause more damage than an upset stomach if you ate it!
Tots: They were tots. Crispy, crunchy, and greasy. Just like tots should be. Nothing special, but I’m a girl who appreciates a restaurant that can get their tots right!
By this point, I was full, so I can’t say how everything else tasted (though the leftover mac n’ cheese will be lunch, yum). Server was attentive aside from the mushroom request, and such a glass refilling ninja! I’m not sure when or how she refilled my water twice, but I like it when service is on point without trying to strike up conversation every single time they hit the table.
Oh, and if you’re wondering if you can come in here dressed in baggy jeans and a ratty shirt… Oh yes. You’ll stick out a little bit, but they put us boot campers front and center for any patron in our section to see, so clearly our attire wasn’t a deterrent to shove us in a back corner somewhere. They’re probably excited to see something other than the typical club clothes anyway from the hell hole across the street (Opera). Ha.

Cozy and Neighborly Feeling!
I was surprised to learn that there are 2 other Vickery’s. One in Charleston and Mt Pleasant SC. The one in Atlanta opened in 1983 in an old house once owned by Margaret Vickery where up to the 70’s she operated an antique and fabric shop. There was speculation that most of the novel Gone with the Wind was written there but I seem to doubt it.
The layout of the restaurant is pretty cool with a great patio deck and bar. You can really feel the character of the house being here and the dining area is nice and appears clean. Service is pretty decent too.
When I usually go, I order the Vick’s Burger. It comes with fresh egg buns, tomato lettuce and Bearnaise sauce. The sides consisted of delicious fresh fries. Overall the quality of the dish was pretty good and would recommend this meal.
The service and menu pricing are pretty much what you would expect from a restaurant like this. It can get packed on the weekends so try and make reservations if you can.

Brunch: thumbs down on food, thumbs up for everything else.
It’s hard to give a place three stars that had great service, a good atmosphere, and a welcoming, homey feel. But the food was not stellar. They had a $ 10 brunch which was a buffet. The plus side of buffets is that you get your food immediately. The down side is that it’s usually sub-​par, and that was the case at Vickery’s.
It’s not that it was terrible, it just wasn’t great. They had an assortment of sausage, bacon, biscuits, gravy, scrambled eggs, home fries, grits, fruit, and some amaretto french toast. I tried a little bit of everything. French toast– which I usually love– was a definite pass. Bacon had that rubbery feel. Biscuits were hard– had to put the gravy on to soften up. Gravy was pretty terrible– minimal sausage in it at all, and it barely even TASTED like sausage. Eggs were the soft and watery version of scrambled. Sausage tasted like it came right from the frozen food section of Kroger. Home fries were pretty standard. The grits were probably the best thing they had out there. Basically, everything they had I could have probably made better and tastier and cheaper at home.
The service, however, was great. We had a large group and our server was really attentive. Brought us water first thing. Several table-​mates got the bottomless mimosas/​bloody marys, and our server never made them wait. He brought them replacements when there was still a little bit in their glass, and they were definitely happy about that. He even let us know when he was going to grab a cigarette, which I otherwise would have been ranting about where the heck our server was. We talked to the manager twice as he made his rounds and he was really nice– couldn’t bear to tell him I didn’t really enjoy his food.
Overall, the atmosphere and service is great. I really wanted the food to be better but it just wasn’t. For the buffet-​type brunch I’d prefer heading back to Gilbert’s instead.

Nice atmosphere, dark woods with paintings for sale on the walls. It has a great porch but it was a bit too humid outside to partake. My friends and I ordered the fried green tomato tower that had herbed goat cheese with the FGTs. Very tasty. I ordered the jerk chicken with black beans and rice and fried plantains. The meal was enough for two. The plantains were delicious, perfectly cooked. The jerk chicken could stand to be spicier as could the red beans and rice, still tasty though. I tasted a friends black bean burger and that bad boy rocked. It wasn’t mushy like typical black bean burgers, much crispier. The sweet potato fries were yummy too. Our server Robert kicked ass. Go there, you wont regret it.

We sat outside for brunch on a Saturday and had a great time. The setting is an old house on Crescent Ave. in Midtown with a nice little garden terrace in front. The brunch buffet is basic bacon, sausage, grits, potatos, and scrambled eggs– and good. The menu has a lot of good choices from paella to salmon BLT to burgers. The food was good and the service was friendly, playful, and excellent.
They also had «bottomless» bloody Mary’s & mimosas for $ 15. They were good.
For outdoor dining, Vickery’s is a great choice.

I had to give this review a woohoo. I came here for lunch the other day and I had the best burger I’ve had in all of Atlanta. I’m not so much a fan of the fries, but if you’re a tots fan you’ll be giddy with delight. Decent prices, good service. Way too cold inside though I must say, ease up the air conditioning when it’s barely 70 and raining outside.

Vickery’s is a pretty good place. Nice patio, good service. The food is good. I especially love the french fries. Prices are fair. I like it.

I had to meet a good friend here for brunch, well since I have never been here, I was like lets check out the menu online… I should have known better… the brunch menu was not posted online, this should have raised a flag… but being the person I am… I gave it the benefit of the doubt and said okk maybe its a «special» brunch menu… yeah SPECIAL it sure was!!!
I love hot tea… well being indian… we love our chai… so of course I order hot tea… the waiter gave me my hot tea… but not cream… I asked for cream… n he just starred at me… like I was from mars or something… his facial expression was like «WHATTT u want cream with tea??? weird lady» no joke… I was like UMM YEAH! CREAM PLZ! geeezz…
Okk so we ask for the brunch menu… he tells us its a buffet… all you can eat for $ 10 bucks! whoa I thought I hit the jackpot…
Brunch for 10 bucks??? where in midtown can u find brunch for 10 bucks. so I was excited!!! Okk that excitment did not hold for too long… we go look at the buffet… its Four trays… it looked like a hotel breakfast u get when its «free»…I tray had scramble eggs, the other had sausage and bacon and the last one had porridge and french toast… That was it!!! it was something I could have made at home…
I starred at the food going ummm… it did not look appealing at all!!! Yeah I should have know… what should I expect for 10 bucks…
Very disappointing… was not a good start to my sunday… thats for sure!

Another long day of apartment shopping, my Mom and I stopped in to Vickery’s for lunch. We were quickly greeted by a few friendly people and then seated in a great cozy room, complete with functioning fireplace. Hooray.
I scanned the menu and decided on the steak sandwich. When it arrived, the fries were kind of lukewarm and the sandwich was just fair. It definitely had potential, it just didn’t deliver.
And that’s just kind of how I feel about this place. Great location, beautiful setting, nearly overly friendly staff, but there was just that special something missing that makes it a place worth returning to.