RA ATLANTA

Let's start here: I never want to dine while Journey's "Don't stop believing" is maxing out the speakers. I recall the last time I heard that song... I believe I was popping a squat in the back room behind our college bar, Delanos, while pumping my fist with one hand, with a mind-eraser in the other. In all seriousness, the atmosphere (minus the top 40, BLARING) was a 10. Dark, Asian, wooden decor with bails of tea hanging from the ceiling. It was a large space with the floor to ceiling windows, jacked open, allowing the perfect nights air in- It was friends & family night and their first night of opening the doors. Starting off with cocktails in the lounge area, I had Sake Sangria. It was not to my liking- it had too many hints of cherry, and I am no fan of cherry. Next drink, a mango margarita. Quite possibly the worst mango marg I've ever had. Okay so I stuck with water thereafter and focused on the food. We first tried the Lobster spring rolls which boasted "lobster mixed with garlic mango sauce, cream cheese & mild peppers wrapped in wonton paper & lightly fried". Since the chef was not liberal with the lobster, they were very standard. The fresh mango didn't really come through either. Nothing special. We took on the Blue claw crab cakes and the Scallop Dynamite dish. Both of which, again, did not impress. Crab cakes were blah and the Scallop dynamite dish was doused in cream and just not dynamite. So we moved on to the sushi, which looked amazing. Taste was again, standard- and did not deliver. All the ingredients were clever but, you couldn't taste the separate freshness which is what I was looking for. The Viva Las Vegas Roll is what I looked forward to the most: Kani Kama & cream cheese rolled in rice and seaweed, lightly tempura battered & topped with spicy tuna, crab mix & sliced lotus root, finished with eel sauce and spinach tempura flakes. We ordered until we couldn't breath hoping we could find something through the loud music that would make us sit back and go "ahhh this is it." but we didn't find that. The Spicy lobster roll was probably the best roll we got, "lobster, cilantro, jalepeno, lettuce, avocado & cucumber wrapped in soy paper. We also ordered sashimi which did the trick. Overall, RA was disappointing! The servers were spunky, fun and quick and with time will surely be extremely on point. Since it IS indeed a chain restaurant I don't see the drinks or the food getting any better, as I'm sure they have to follow a strict corporate recipe- If I was to go back, I would stick with Sake bombs and sashimi. The simple stuff, because it really can't be messed with. 1080 Peachtree Street Atlanta GA 404.267.0114