Opening Night at Lazy Betty

ABOUT

While Atlanta has several fine dining establishments, there is nothing quite like Lazy Betty. I’ve been to Staplehouse, Atlas, Aria, & Bacchanalia, and of course, it is not an apples to apple comparison, but Lazy Betty provides a new level of cuisine for Atlanta. There is a hefty price tag attached that’s not typical of Atlanta, but I think it’s worth it. I knew this meal would be fantastic as I would expect nothing less from the former Creative Director of a three-starred Michelin restaurant in New York City (Le Bernardin), Chef Ron Hsu. Nizar and I always say that even though Atlanta has great food, nothing compares to New York City. Luckily, Ron Hsu brought a piece of New York City to Atlanta with Lazy Betty. I won’t get into too much background on the restaurant, because I think Atlanta Magazine, Eater, and the Atlanta Food Cast did a great job covering it, but here are the cliff notes:

The restaurant is owned by Chef Hsu and his two older siblings, Anita & Howard. Chef Aaron Phillips is also a co-owner and worked as a sous chef at Le Bernardin with Chef Hsu.
Chef Hsu’s passion for cooking came from both his grandmother & mom. Lazy Betty is named after Hsu’s mom (may she rest in peace, she recently passed away on May 29, 2019).
Lastly, Chef Hsu got a lot of attention after competing on Netflix’s show The Final Table. If you haven’t watched it, I won’t spoil the ending, but it’s a great show!

I was lucky enough to be able to dine at Lazy Betty on opening night, Tuesday, February 26, 2019, thanks to my brother!

MENU RUNDOWN

Chef’s Tasting Menu (10 Courses) - $165 per person (including gratuity), excluding drinks
- There are only eight seats at the Chef’s Counter, so you can expect to interact with both Chef Hsu and Chef Phillips quite a bit. I would say that they presented at least 7 / 10 of the dishes to us and the remaining were described by the servers.
Lazy Betty Tasting Menu (7 Courses) - $125 per person (including gratuity), excluding drinks
- This is not just a shorter version of the Chef’s Tasting Menu. There seemed to be two items on the main dining room menu that are not served on the Chef’s tasting menu, like the famous octopus dish. This is one of the first dishes Chef Ron Hsu created at Le Bernardin when he became the Creative Director.
- Lazy Betty can accommodate a vegetarian tasting if given advance notice for both tasting menu options.
A la Carte in the Lounge or Patio - Dishes ranges from $17 - $40
- The a la carte menu prices range from $17 and up and a lot more if you decide to do the caviar service. My understanding is that it is available on a first-come first serve basis, but I would call in advance to make sure it’s not packed.

Make a reservation - resy

bite by bite

Chef’s tasting menu

The menus change seasonally, so there is a good chance that some of the items below are no longer on the menu, but this will give you a good idea of what to expect. Also I wouldn’t say it’s a true “10 course” menu as one of the 10 items are the petit fours.

pear Patrol

My husband and I don’t drink, so we were happy to see that there was a mocktail on the menu. The drink was made with pear & tarragon shrub and Canonborough grapefruit elderflower soda. We both enjoyed the tart and sweet flavor and would order it again. I wish there would have been a few more options, but I was happy with what we got! And when we went back a second time there were more options! So problem solved.

Snapper tartare

This was the perfect way to start the meal. It was light and refreshing and had the right balance of flavors. The snapper tartare was topped with crisped sushi rice and a shio-yuzu sauce. I will say that I was surprised that we didn’t get an Amuse-Bouche to start the meal (which is pretty traditional with a tasting menu), but this dish was fantastic, so I will let it slide.

cauliflower “Bone marrow”

This was the Chef’s take on bone marrow, but with cauliflower. It was 100% vegetarian. The cauliflower puree was served in sourdough bread with onion marmalade. They smoke the cauliflower over hickory wood to imitate the flavor of bone marrow. The smoky flavor was impressive.

biscuits with kumquat butter

Possibly the B E S T biscuits in Atlanta. They had the perfect buttery/crispy texture, but the star was the kumquat butter, so velvety and creamy. If I were to nit-pick, the tasting menus I’ve had (outside of Atlanta) usually provide more than one type of bread, so we were craving that given they were mini biscuits (FYI: you can ask for more! We didn’t realize we were allowed to at the time). But the biscuits & butter were so freaking good, I’ll let it slide. Also, I hope they bottle the Kumquat butter.

cucumber cannelloni

I don’t think I could ever imagine this dish in a million years. The cucumber is wrapped around horseradish panna cotta and served over borscht (aka a beet puree), which was perfectly sweet and salty with the addition of the foam. We cleaned our plates of that beet puree. Light and refreshing.

foie gras

I’m not typically a huge fan of foie gras, but I actually enjoyed this dish and my husband absolutely loved this dish. I enjoyed the salad and the gooseberry inside the foie gras. The gooseberry added a nice sweetness. I think I would have just liked a little bit more of the bread underneath, but that’s just me. I finished the entire plate, which was actually the case for all of the dishes, so maybe I do like foie gras? Or at least Lazy Betty’s version of it.

“Truffle Hunting” in the Georgia terroir

This was my favorite dish. If you can’t tell from the picture, the dish resembles a search for black truffles. The bottom layer is designed to look like Georgia red clay, made from palm sugar + other stuff (that I don’t remember) and is topped with “soil” or potato crumbs. The mushrooms and carrots sit on top of the “soil.” In total, I would say there were 5-6 pieces of truffle in the “hunt”.

duo of salmon

Both Nizar and I were impressed with this duo of salmon. The duo of salmon is one piece of fish, cooked two different ways (raw on top like sashimi and cooked on the bottom half). I am not sure how they did it, maybe a blow torch? The salmon is served with braised romaine lettuce and a parmesan lemon broth. We made sure to drink every little drop of that delicious broth.

Wagyu Steak & Eggs

This was Chef Ron Hsu’s take on Waffle House’s Steak & Eggs. Although I can’t say I’ve had steak and eggs at Waffle House, this is clearly a significant step up. I think my favorite part was the addition of the wasabi. The combination of the wasabi with the wagyu & runny egg was a great way to end the meal before dessert.

white chocolate snowfall

Bring on the theatrics. Can all pre-desserts be topped with white chocolate snowfall!? I enjoyed the combination of the white chocolate mousse and white chocolate snowfall with the grapefruit segments. It was a great palette cleanser after eating that wagyu steak.

Cherry

This dessert is s t u n n i n g. I had seen it in pictures before coming to dinner, but it is even more spectacular in person. The look of it reminded me of the “fruit/vegetable” desserts that the famous pastry chef, Cedric Grolet, makes in Paris but of course very different. The “cherry” is actually coconut mousse stuffed with a cherry jelly served with coconut sorbet and chocolate ganache. My favorite part of this dish was the coconut sorbet. I think it tied all the flavors together.

Petit Fours

A good tasting menu always ends with four sweet bites. I liked that each bite had a different texture. My favorite was probably the cherry chocolate on the end.