Little Alley Steak ~ Atlanta, Georgia

First visit: Apr 2024 (Buckhead)

They have a second location in nearby Roswell.

As noted on North Italia, I was grateful for the light lunch because I knew this was coming for dinner. We concluded our first day and freshened up a bit. We all decided a good walk was in order, and we journeyed the 3/4ths of a mile to Little Alley Steak. This was a recommendation from one of our peers who happens to live in Atlanta. Him and his wife like to celebrate their anniversaries here.

One of the best things about being with a company with deep pockets, especially in the sales organization, is money is no object. All expenses paid - within a certain amount of reason of course. Most of my career has been in delivery, where we were encouraged heavily to pinch pennies. Little Alley is a high end steakhouse. I think it took our waiter 10 minutes to get through the specials, and he spoke fast! There's 11 of us, so it's going to be quite the bill at the end. I think our leadership wisely stuck to cocktails and glasses of wine, rather then loading up on bottles which would have added a healthy percentage.

I can only really comment on what I had, which was the bone-in filet mignon (it was one of the specials - at $99?!?!) and I lightly partook in the mac and cheese and mashed potatoes. For a starter I tried the lobster bisque rather than the usual salad. The bisque was a bit weird honestly. It almost tasted like a meatless chili such were the spices that were so dark and red. They didn't add one speck of lobster. For $15 they would have. Jeez. The steak was thick and pretty large for a filet mignon. This was no petite. Since I'm at a high end steakhouse, I think medium rare is appropriate. It started that way but became increasing rare as I cut into it. About a third of the way in, I would say it was almost raw. And chewy. That's not going to work. I sent it back to cook medium for the rest. For 100 bucks they should nail it every time no questions asked. They didn't, so boo. But it did come back super hot and perfectly cooked, so a decent save. I liked the flavor, but wasn't floored by it. Anywhere else I would have been happy, but places like this get held to a higher standard. The mashed potatoes were creamy and good. The mac and cheese was also excellent, but I didn't need that much starch so I only had a little of both. I enjoyed my meal with two glasses of Bound and Determined Cabernet Sauvignon. A very deep red - I quite liked it and is perfect for a red meat meal. Service was very good, though not impeccable.

Overall conclusion: Super grateful to be able to go here. It's a perk of the job and I don't take it for granted. When reviewing places like this, I consider the experience based on if I did pay for it. I would have been disappointed though not distraught. It didn't make the first division for high end steakhouses.

4/17/24 (new entry)