five & ten

terrible service, food marginal at best. parking is a pain. dining off bar area is loud, acoustics were never considered. this was our second visit, i think there are several other locations inathensfor a better meal and dining experience.

very disappointing food. we have been away fromathensfor 10 years and were excited about trying celebrity chef hugh atchison’s restaurant again. our party had the quail (see photo) steak, swordfish, and pasta, and nothing was impressive in the least. the quail was quite emaciated and unfit to serve. i reluctantly say that i cannot recommend this restaurant.

cute but underwhelming. given all the chatter on urbanspoon i was super excited to try it out. well parking was a nightmare and there was no valet, but i braved getting towed to dig in. the atmosphere is great at 5 & 10 - but i found the service mediocre and the food, good, but not worth the price. i have had much better inathensfor half the price. overall disappointed.

top chef master hugh acheson sprang to fame in 2000 when he opened 5 & 10 in athens, georgia. named for the old five & dime that was housed in the same space, his french inspired southern cuisine launched him to the realm of celebrity chef. on tv his affable humor, obvious intelligence, and yes the proud unibrow has made him a food tv fan favorite. the girl and i first met him in march of 2012 when he wowed us in a paired dinner for charleston wine and food festival . it only took us 13 years, but we finally made the drive down toathensto try 5 & 10, in its brand new digs in an old antiques shop, and the place is impressive. set among some of the more stately fraternity houses i've ever seen (the university of georgia apparently thought chef hugh's cooking is so good it moved in next door), 5 & 10 features a massive porch, a beautiful bar, several small dinning rooms, and it's own coffee bar. and they have palms in the bathtub  the menu is very representative of chef hugh's new south

good food, lacking service.. five and ten - i really want to say this is one of the best restaurants that i've ever been to, but i simply can't. the food was phenomenal, and very much was on par with other acclaimed restaurants such as chris hasting's hot and hot or frank stitt's highland's bar and grill . however, the service left a lot to be desired.

i came to five and ten, because i wanted to experience the best restaurant inathensbefore i moved for the city from good. i came on a weeknight fairly late and chose to sit at a half empty bar. the bar staff was polite, promptly handed me a menu and a glass of water which was fine. however, after taking my order i was promptly forgotten.

i ordered a drink which, the bar staff checked my identification for. the bar tender was wholly unaware of my drink order and i had to request it again. on the arrival of my entrée, and proceeded to ask every guest with the exception of myself, and only acknowledged my attempts to catch their attention guest when another guest pointed it out.

part of the dining at a restaurant of the caliber is very much the experience and unfortunately the service i received was more in line with what i expect from a 15 dollar meal at applebees, not a 70 dollar dinning at an award winning restaurant.

this is anathensinstitution and has pioneered the food scene. the atmosphere is charming and honestly a great place for a special occasion and definitely a place to impress a date. if you're not familiar with new cuisines take advantage of their prix fixe menu which changes weekly and is a great deal as well.

forgettable. meal was anything but fantastic. have been to empire state south in atlanta and highly recommend you go there for the best of mr. acheson's cuisine.

great bread, drinks and ceasar salad. also highly recommend the tiramisu.

however, my lamb was barely warm and very rare. i am not one of those people who likes overdone, chewy gray meat-- medium rare steaks are great and so is carpaccio--and this was deep purple, chewy and not appetizing at all. i asked for my entree cooked at medium temperature. i didn't bother sending my dish back because a fellow diner sent his back (also rare and cold) and it didn't come back cooked much more. cut of meat was also quite fatty and small. definitely not worth the $28+ entree price.

thankfully, dessert was excellent and filling after the "miss" of an entree. there are much better restaurants inathensthat serve more outstanding food with a much better price tag.

five&ten is the best place inathensto eat, ever! i love the snackies like the olives and homemade pickles. they're specials are the best and come on people, parking is not that bad!

good food, not worth the hastle. i've eaten at this restaurant a number of times, usually with a group of friends. i've been very impressed with the food but for me a dining experience is just that, "an experience". i want a nice physical environment. i want quiet, not crowded and i don't want to hear anyone else's conversation except my own. otherwise, i'll make my own terrific food at home, or i will go outside the downtownathensarea to the iron grill on mitchell bridge rd. or to chateau elan or atlanta. it is not about the money for me, it is about the total experience. i don't get that at five & ten - the parking is a nighmare and absolutely not worth the hasstle factor to frequent this place. i would never make reservations to take a group of people there.

this restaurant was ranked "worth the drive" from atlanta - in fact, it was the ajc's restaurant of the year in 2007 - and sinceathensis an hour's drive from the atl, i knew i had to eat here at some point during my kid's college days. saturday night wa

ok but need to eat in peace. our group came in for tapas and cocktails. the pickles were all vinegar and were lost in the acidity.
the sweet breads were very nice but would have been better if the membrane had been removed. this delicate offal needs to be served as close to perfect as possible and it was almost there. the olives were very good, meaty and flavorful. loved the oysters, nothing like a fresh shucked oyster, clean and salty. our bartender was good, not fussy and not overly absent as can be the case inathensrestaurants.

major negative was the gang of servers staring and chatting up by the bar. customers do not need to know the life of the staff, we really are out to eat to enjoy each other and to enjoy the food.
we will return for the main menu, and will sit further from the server station. it really was distracting.