SIP at Riverside

This has to be the most romantic patio to dine on in all of the Metro Atlanta Area.
I agree with some of the other reviewers that the price for the tapas is a little higher than others, but everything that we tried was well executed, full of flavor, and visually appealing.
Live music on weekend nights, a cool breeze, dim lighting, and the sound of the fountain from the «town square» really gives the patron at SIP a dining experience.
The KOBE beef sliders were excellent as everyone has claimed. The Scallops were amazing… again, with just 2 of them on a plate it is a small portion for $ 13 but I enjoyed every single bite of them. The Pasta Stroganoff was a little different. The sauce was very tangy and the Pasta itself was Ravioli filled with short ribs.
Skip dessert. They just seemed to phone that one in, but the wine selection, and the fact that you can sample SIPS of wines for $ 2 – 5 per sip more than makes up for that negative aspect …
All in all, if you want to go somewhere romantic or to impress a date… this is the place…

Awesome experience, awesome service, SUPER AWESOME Pomagranite Margarita-(not on the menu– but they will make you just about anything you ask) Awesome food– had the crawfish beignets and the fritter trio– did I say awesome? Everyone was very pleased with their food and drinks. The sips of wine are quite adequate and afford you the opportunity to try different wines without spending a mint. I also had a Sweetwate rdraught beer, can’t remember the name, it was 9%ABV and only $ 2.00 a glass, needless to say, I could not finish it because I had to drive myself home. I plan to frequent Sip at Riverside.

What?! A one-​star review? How positively vile! Read on for the juicy tidbits why you should never come here.
Five of us came here at about 930pm on a Saturday. Yes, a tad late, but not absurdly so. Finding the place is a bit of a challenge since the signage is almost non-​existent in the midst of its pleasant fake main street locale. We only noticed it because of a few cars parked near it, otherwise nothing else in the area was open.
There was mass confusion when we walked in. As I headed to the bathroom I overheard one staff member indicate they were closed, but upon leaving the bathroom I found my party seated. Apparently another staff member decided they could seat us, but only after seeing there would be five of us. I guess that was enough revenue where they could stay open. Definitely not a good start.
Our waiter was absolutely terrible and made us all feel bad for making the restaurant stay open. He talked about how the kitchen was already cleaned up and they would have to make it dirty again to make our food. Either you’re open or you’re closed, pick one.
The waiter made all those who wanted draft beer to make two selections «in case the keg was kicked». Of course their best draft beer was out, so I ended up with Blue Moon.
The waiter was definitely not all there. After one person said they weren’t getting anything to eat, he said, «good choice». Hello? Anyone home?
I had the tuna tartare, which was covered in some terrible sauce, which made the tuna taste like it was bad. Or maybe the tuna WAS bad, I’ll never know.
The kobe beef sliders were fine, but one had some caramelized onions on it, and the other was barren. It was topped with a green olive? Like a big martini olive. What?
Get me out of here, stat!
After running all the credit cards he said next time we should just tell him to split checks by seat. OK, if it was that easy he could have said something after he saw we wrote CC amounts on the check. He wasn’t pleasant about it.
To put a rotten cherry on top, one person at our table had an additional $ 10 added to the tip she initially wrote in.
From the management mix up, our bad waiter, added tip, and horrid food, I can understand why this place was totally dead on a Saturday night. Hopefully it won’t be here for long.
You’ve been warned!

If your looking for great food and a view this is your spot. A bit pricey and small plates but very good food. Worth the money. Great walking atmosphere with small shops around.

After kayaking with some friends nearby on the Chattahoochee River, we chose to not drive to Midtown to one of our favorite restaurants and try Sip at Riverside. We live close by in Buckhead and were hoping this may be a place to eat regularly. I was extremely patient with the waiter because the food was actually quite good. There was a mix up with the amounts of wine. Half or Full? We were charged two full glasses when we ordered 2 half glasses. The dish that I ordered was brought out as a Slider and not a Stoganoff. The waiter then chose to argue with me about the order and said he heard something different. There isn’t even a Short Rib Slider on the menu, but a Kobe Beef Slider. We felt neglected the whole time we were there. And the place was not even that busy! After bringing our poor experience to the attention of the manager, she comped the two glasses of wine and brought us 2 for 1 discount cards. No thank you. The waiter then confronts me about asking to have the bill adjusted. Why didn’t the manager take care of running our credit cards? And why is this waiter still the point of contact after my complaint? Again, the food was well above average, however, we will never go back. And to think we were going to try Brunch at Vinings Inn.

I have never had wine here.
I am BIG when it comes to ambiance. Therefore,
1. Go when the weather is good enough to sit outside. Great place to see friends and de-​stress from work.
2. Order the BBQ Tacos. So Good.
I’ve tried a lot of the other Tapa selections. They’re OK. Sliders were good.
Comparing Tapas, they’re not as good as Eclipse with Eclipse being ‘Good’.
I don’t remember service being good. Definitely Not Fast. haha

I went to Sip for the first time yesterday after work. This is the kind of place that opens during lunch time hours, closes and then opens back up for dinner. I have been wanting to try this place for awhile but the first time I tried to come with a friend she was sketched out about how dead it was. There was no one inside eating at all.
Yesterday however we were looking for a very quite place and once again the place was almost completely dead so we got what we wanted. Only one other table was seated the whole time we were there. Weird. Maybe it attracts more people on the weekends?
The parking is a little weird just because of the location. Its in like a little town square and there is free street parking but all of the street parking says «5 minutes» or «1 hour» so I didn’t even bother. If you drive right behind Sip there is a great big parking lot that is actually the top level of a parking garage. That is where I parked and it was no problem to walk from there.
When I got there I ordered two «sips» of wine which allowed me to try two different pinot noirs I had not had before. That was pretty cool. Then I ended up just ordering a full glass of white wine because almost all of their reds are over $ 10 for a glass and I think that is excessive. You can order wine by the sip, half glass, full glass, or bottle.
I split the hummus plate with my friend. It came out with pita bread and three different kinds of hummus. A regular kind, roasted red pepper, and one involving eggplant. They were all very very good but I have never had a hummus plate that didn’t also have a few celery or carrot sticks on it. There was plenty of pita bread though.
I also had a roasted beet salad. It was pretty much just beets, a few sprigs of mint and some goat cheese crumbles. It was not bad.
My friend ordered something that was grilled chicken on skewers and it had some Mediterranean-​like vegetables surrounding it. I tried it and thought it was great. She thought that the chicken was a little underdone but I have cooked chicken like that before. It was really juicy on the inside not pink or bloody.
Overall Sip was just OK for me. I would not go there starving because their tapas are a little pricey. I think it would be a fun place to go with someone who is into wine because you can order sips for slightly over $ 1 each and then you could split a bottle with them which would be the best value.

This place used to be the River Room for over ten years. They changed it into a very cool wine and tapas restaurant. They installed 10 wine stations that has 40 different wines available for 1 ounce «Sips,» half and full glasses of wine. A lot of Americans do not really like to share and sharing is the key. Order a bunch of plates for the table and get some wine (bottles are the best deal) and enjoy your company. THe kobe sliders rock, the tuna tartar is very popular and I enjoy the grilled beef tenderloin on truffle mushroom bread pudding with a thyme demi glacé. I usually do the surf-​and-​turf thing and order the grilled Hawaiian sunfish (beurre blanc on leek fennel gratin (gra-​taan). Wine and tapas menus change a couple of times a year to keep it fresh.

I have to disagree w/​most of reviewers here. The wine selection was outstanding. The food was way above average. I think most of the reviewers don’t know what they are talking about. Red wine SHOULD be slightly chilled, the place is called SIP so you can’t be mad that they charge you for sips of wine,
Bottom-​line, it’s an interesting concept, fun date place, and again I was surprised at how good the food was.

I like this place, but I would like it a whole lot more, if it just wasn’t as expensive!
I love the idea of getting SIPS of wine! I love my wine… I love switching between different types. So that’s a bonus in my book. I also think the sip prices are reasonable. The glass prices are high, so double check the wine list! That little sip of wine that only cost you $ 2, may end up costing you $ 10 in the size of a glass!
The food is delicious! The braised short rib was my favorite the first time I came here. I was disappointed to see that they changed the American-​style short rib to a Korean short rib and added so much spice to the slaw it was sitting on that my mouth was still burning 20 minutes later (all the sips in the world could not save me).
Other items I’ve had here:
* Pistachio-​crusted scallops (probably one of the best dishes there)
* Mushroom risotto (mediocre)
* Corn fritters (mixed reviews: I absolutely loved them, the fiancé had two bites and let me have the rest)
* BBQ pork tacos (loved the fresh tortilla shells and the spiciness of the taco was just right)
* Hummus (meh…borderline bleh)
To be honest, the only reason I keep coming back here is when I have some sort of Scoutmob /​Groupon /​Sweetjack or whatever deal. Otherwise, I find the price is just not worth the food you get.

If you want to go mainly for drinks, this place isn’t bad. Wines are available by the sip, half glass, glass, and bottle — but the prices are still high for each of those.
I went for the tapas and was disappointed. Nothing we ordered was impressive at all, and there are plenty of other delicious tapas spots in Atlanta.
To top it off, our server was totally inattentive, which was frustrating. He DID recommend we use MyFavEats and get half off, which was a good thing, or we would have been bugged about the price we paid, honestly.
The restaurant itself is very pretty, but the parking is tough as well. I was glad they could split checks, that helped.

We’ve decided to give this place a try since it was on Scoutmob and in Vinings (a relatively unexplored area). The restaurant itself is inside the subdivision in the middle of square with fountains and massive brick buildings that look like they belong on Fifth Avenue. Even though it was Monday night, I made reservation due to the fact that they are running Unlimited Tapas special every monday for $ 30 and it was also the $ 50 5 course dinner night. To my surprise, the restaurant was ¾ empty and we only saw 2 waiters. We were given a menu, however none of the specials were mentioned. The waiter did tell us about buying a card for pouring wine from the wine machines and even offered us to give his unlimited use card in exchange for a bribe :). Looking at the menu, the wines were a bit overpriced at $ 2 – 3 an ounce. We ordered 5 dishes — Tuna Tartare Napoleon, Hawaiian Sunfish Ceviche, Crawfish Spring Rolls, Goat Cheese Ravioli and Kobe Beef Sliders. I have to say that everything (with the exception of the Kobe Beef sliders) was about average. Perhaps, thats due to the fact that I’ve had comparable dishes prepared and presented much better at other restaurants (Tuna Tartare at Top Floor, Ceviche at Spanish Harlem, Spring Rolls at Com Vietnamese, Goat Cheese Ravioli at J. Alexanders). On the other hand, Kobe Beef Sliders were much better than the ones I’ve had at Mosaic in Buckhead. Finally, we saved some room for dessert — there were 6 desserts on the menu and all sounded good. We ordered the S’mores (for my date) and Flourless Chocolate Tort with espresso Ice Cream (for my self). At first, I laughed at the notion of ordering Smores at an upscale restaurant, but when I saw and tried it, I quickly changed my mind. Smores was actually a single giant concoction of dark chocolate and marshmallow, two graham crackers and kahlua/​cinnamon flavoured ice cream. My dessert was equally good. I was impressed with the richness of the dark chocolate cake flavor combined with the gentleness of the espresso ice cream.
Overall, I would give two stars for tapas and four stars for the desserts, for an average of three. On the negative side, the food portions are small and are a little pricey for the quality that you get, and I would not go unless I had a Scoutmob or a discount of some sort.

Muscato wine was just wonderful. The food portions were smaller then an Eclipse Di Luna, but the taste and quality was good.

I want so badly for this restaurant to be good, but twice I have been disappointed. On my most recent visit, my friend & I ordered a couple of half glasses of wine & a variety of tapas. The wine was fine. Some of the food was ok, but most of it was pretty bad. We ordered the chicken kebab that came on a Greek salad. The chicken was unseasoned & I had grit in my salad. We wanted to try the chocolate port, so we ordered the chocolate cayenne ice cream sandwich. After a patronizing explanation that cayenne is hot, brings our port. My glass has bright fuschia lipstick all around the rim. I show the server, he says «oh that’s not your shade» and goes and dumps the same wine into another glass & brings it back. Disgusting. Even with a Scoutmob 50% discount, this place is not worth the time and money.

I went to Sip with two girlfriends at 7:30 on a Saturday night. I’ll start by saying that there were some issues with service. Our server had been over-​seated (which can happen). I had a $ 20 ScoutMob coupon, and I thought it would be fun to use that for each us to have a three taste flight of wine before dinner (which the $ 20 would cover nicely). Sip offers wine by the sip (1 ½ oz), a half (3 oz), glass (6 oz) or bottle. Brilliant. Unfortunately, though don’t really have a plan in place for folks to take advantage of the tasting opportunity. Our server was confused by the concept of us ordering a whole flight at once, (they do have self-​serve machines, which is frankly, to me, a bit off-​putting) and struggled with it. It was a bit of a fiasco.
We did each get at least two out of three of the ‘sips’ that we ordered. The wine list is impressive, and there was not a bad pick in the bunch. The port with dessert was really, really nice as well.
The food is by small plate, which I am a fan of. And, again, the menu is impressive. We started with a cheese plate which was delivered without any explanation, but was adequate. The butternut squash ravioli was pretty good (the pasta obviously fresh). Other items were okay, but the spare ribs and the pistachio crusted scallops were standouts. I would give the scallops a five out of five.
Dessert was terrific– chocolate torte, apple-​blackberry crumble, and key lime pie– the latter be the best in the group. The check, despite the earlier confusions, was unexpectedly accurate.
Nice ambiance, and a good location in which to meet my suburban friends. Despite the service struggles (and frankly, our server, poor girl, was no more pleased with the way things went than we were) I would definitely go back. The food (most of it) and wine list were both worth the trouble.

Despite a few negative reviews of some Sip locations we had read, we decided to head to Riverside as a pre-​cursor to a dinner at Canoe. The ambience was nice; brick walls, indirect and low lighting, kind of a ‘modern renovation of an old building’ feel. Would be a cool place to hang for a while. We had done the self-​serve wine machine bar thing before, and knew it to be a fun and different way to do appetizers — totally short-​attention span wine along with small plates seems like a nice combo.
While there was nothing stellar in the wine machines, we weren’t there to discover our new favorite; just getting half-​glasses of so many different ones was great. Sure — that kind of thing isn’t for everyone… but why would you come to a tapas bar and NOT sample lots of different things? For a small appetizer we decided on the Greek Meze plate, an assortment of Med influenced spreads/​dips and pita bread, that hit the spot nicely. We were also given an apple salad on the house, and it was great too (spicy candied walnuts were awesome).
Staff was nice and knowledgable and all seemed to be in good moods despite the thin clientele on a Saturday night.
Overall a good experience, and would be extremely fun with a big group of friends that liked to experiment with different foods and wines. Heck, even the two guys playing guitar in the bar area was nice for a change (we’ll forgive them the Garth Brooks karaōke).

Who needs The River Room when you’ve got a fun concept that offers 10 self-​serve wine machines, right? Well, Sip leaves something to be desired. It felt kind of like an awkward conversation with a nice guy– you want to like him, but you just don’t have it in you to go out with him. The space is large and rustic, yet sort of stiff. And at 6:00 on a Wednesday night, it was like a ghost town. The idea is pleasing: 40 wines that you can either try (sip) or commit to (half or full glass). I had a glass of the Maipe Malbec and the Kaiken Cab; both from Argentina and both perfectly delicious. The wines ranged in price from $ 6 to $ 35 per glass, so there’s something for every budget.
We shared the artisan cheese plate, the meze platter, and the spring rolls, which were all acceptable appetizers. The manager was courteous but awkward, which was baffling until I turned my attention to the desserts that he kindly sent out for us to try. We had the chocolate cayenne cookie ice cream sandwich, the flourless chocolate tart, and the apple blackberry crisp. The chocolate cayenne cookie ice cream sandwich made time stand still… imagine tasting chocolate, then spice, then cool ice cream. I wouldn’t rush back here, but if you’re in the area for happy hour or a meeting, have a glass of wine and the chocolate cayenne cookie ice cream sandwich. If that’s wrong then I don’t want to be right.

The River Room has changed names… wanting to become something more of a wine bar. So concept is great — these machines from Italy are awesome but they are still not failsafe.
Had a few tastings that were pretty decent — nothing out of this world. Glasses are really cheap and need to be upgraded for the prices they are charging. I expect a good basic glass not a Pub wine glass.
I decided to end on a high note and tried the amarone — well it was vinegar (argh!). As I mentioned these machines are not fail safe — the wines do not last forever.
And for 5.70 an ounce they need to be checking the quality. But Jackie changed it out for me.
Bar looks great and the menu looks inviting — but I was there to taste some grape juice.
Staff is super friendly and I will be back to see if it improves. Right now I have to get that bad taste out of my mouth.

i really wanted to like this place because it is close to home and I’ve always wanted to try it. I wasn’t disappointed. It was pretty empty (a little bit after 8 on Tuesday) but we were greeted warmly and told to sit anywhere we liked in the bar (we were only getting appetizers.) My friend and I immediately agreed that this seemed like a good date place. Dark but not too dark, cool décor, exposed brick and a nice sized flat screen for entertainment in case the dude is a total dud. Our appetizers were quite good overall. We had the crab cakes which I wouldn’t normally have ordered. my friend complained a bit but they were 9 dollars and you get what you pay for. There were 2 nice sized good if a bit overseasoned crabcakes. I think she was expecting jumbo lump crabmeat but for 9 bucks… well…On to the mussels! Yum! Lots of tiny mussels in a delicious green curry broth. My only criticism was that they didn’t come with a hunk of French bread for dipping. 3 thin slices of toasted French bread just isn’t enough. Then again I spent the morning mending a rip in my skirt that occurred when I was trying to tug it over the hips so I guess they were doing me a favor. Lastly we got the Kobe beef sliders. They were so so good. They had a red onion marmalade and reypenaer cheese. My belly normally doesn’t tolerate onions well so my first instinct was to scrape this marmalade off. and then to put most of it right back! This is a popular condiment these days and I see why. The papas fritas were perfect! Crispy and not greasy, well seasoned and the spicy homemade ketchup made them a hit for both of us. I suspect they are the reason for the skirt debacle however. Service was also good. I saw another review about plates and glasses being dirty and on the table upon arrival but we were brought fresh plates and silverware twice and fresh glasses even on soda refills. We asked what was on tap and after ordering a Belgian brew we had never heard of I appreciated the fact that she explained that had we ordered a high gravity bev and therefore would be a short pour and cost 8 dollars. On the more traditional end miller lite and coors lite are available on draft for 2 dollars. I will be back… its close to la casa and there were lots of other yummy sounding small plates that I will want to explore. I also saw a 2 for $ 10 lunch deal online that seemed very promising.

Wrong, wrong, and wrong.
First of all, we were seated to find glasses already on the table along with appetizer plates. One of our plates was visibly dirty. Bad.
Then there was the timid and less-​than-​experienced waiter who seemed to not be too familiar with the menu and unable to make good recommendations. Nice guy, but noticeably novice at waiting tables. Not a huge issue in and of itself.
Then there were the entrees. Yeesh… where to begin. I had the Short Rib with braised collard greens. I thought they had forgotten the collard greens as they were buried under the short ribs and a HUGE pile of what tasted like KC Masterpiece. Seriously? At least make your own sauce and don’t use something out of the bottle. My dinner date had the Pork Tenderloin. Again, we thought they left out the sweet potatoes because they were buried under the loin and the sauce which also tasted like something made from the box and not made from scratch on site.
Boo…
From the dirty plate on the table when we were seated to the horribly wrong and out-​of-​the-​box sauces on the main entrees, my first trip to Sip @ Riverside was a complete loss. I had high hopes for this place, especially since it is only about a mile or so from my place. But sadly, I will have to write it off.
The wine list had a few nice choices on it, especially the El Chaparral and the Termes Numanthia. So if you plan a trip to this new establishment, limit it to the bar and skip the food. Trust me.