Blue Willow Inn Restaurant
Social Circle, GA 30025 (770) 464-2131
- Price Range: $$
- Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
- Attire: Casual
- Good for Groups: Yes
- Good for Kids: Yes
- Takes Reservations: Yes
- Delivers: No
- Take-out: No
- Waiter Service: Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
- Outdoor Seating: No
5 Reviews for Blue Willow Inn Restaurant
With so many options for southern greatness located in and around Atlanta, it's hard to imagine any reason for driving out to Social Circle, Georgia. It's difficult to justify, to provide enough reasoning that it would compel you to load up into your car and drive nearly 2 hours east to the relative middle of nowhere.
Because you took the scenic route. The route that winds between towns with barely a name and pass by in a blink or less and before you realize it, you're at the next field, the next pasture or farm with horses and cattle grazing.
On a cloudy day you arrive in Social Circle, Georgia and pulling up to the parking lot of the Blue Willow, you immediately notice how grand, how immense, how deeply southern and traditional the scene feels. A historic house and tour buses parked in the lot out back. Not school buses, chartered buses, the kind people pay good money for in order to travel in large groups. What's so special about this place? Why drive out to the middle of nowhere or the edge of somewhere and visit Social Circle?
It's simply because of the food. The service is adequate, but it's the food that draws the people. Without getting too intense and overdoing forever made dishes, The Blue Willow Restaurant and Inn is actually a southern comfort food buffet - of the highest quality possible without going much further than the epitome of the greatest dishes any matriarch of a Georgian family could pull together for a special gathering.
Fried chicken, collard greens, mac & cheese, sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes, seafod au gratin, meat loaf, and a host of other dishes.
The deserts are all fine, but as if it were state law, the pecan pie is the best.
The Blue Willow Restaurant is an excellent slice, of Georgia, of southern food, and of road trip destinations that should be on anyone's list of options for a day trip - when you want to leave Atlanta for something else, for something different, when the roads all lead to possibility simply because you've left the main highway and drove until you arrived, wherever you ended up.
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Southern Hospitality perfected.
I remember years ago reading how this restaurant was endangered to closing before author Lewis Grizzard discovered it and wrote a life-changing article in favor of the place.
A quick visit to this antebellum home gone restaurant and its no surprise why.
I admit it has been several years since I have gone to this restaurant but I recall eating foods here that I normally hate or would never even try and absolutely loving it.
Take a road trip Atlanta! Come see this amazing restaurant in the quiet little town of Social Circle just about an hour south down I-20. You wont be disappointed!
The small town of Social Circle is home to the Blue Willow Inn, one of the best buffet-style restaurants in North Georgia and on my must stop list anytime I travel on I-20 between Augusta and Atlanta.
Located north of the interstate, and north of the city as well, the Blue Willow welcomes guests from across the Southeast who know to take exit 98 to visit one of the Treasures of I-20.
From the ample parking lot behind the inn return to the front and enter the main door. A greeter will take your name and verify your reservation (Which are pretty much required-seeing that this place is oh-so popular with tourists and locals alike).
A meal at the Blue Willow Inn is an event. A big, big event. Sunday supper to the max--seven days a week. Located in a grand old mansion, it is a serve-yourself buffet. Pay one price and eat all of everything you want.
Seatings are made on the half-hour, but it is done one party at a time. There are two levels, an upstairs and a downstairs, but there is no appreciable difference in the two.
An older man dressed in tophat and tails or women dressed as cooks call names on the massive front porch overlooking the inn's colorful garden that serves as a waiting room.
When your party is called they escort you to the table and seat you. Drinks are Southern-style, ice tea (sweet or unsweet), lemonade, coffee or water with lemon, and served by a hospitable local crew that take pride in the restaurant.
Once seated and served drinks its time to visit the buffet. As with any country restaurant in North Georgia the litmus test of good food will be the fried chicken, and a generous sample always find its way to my plate.
Fried Green Tomatoes, also seem to find their way onto my plate, and plenty of them.. Aong with a generous helping of macaroni and cheese. And Sha-Zam-Get ready for greatness!
The chicken was oh-so-yummy, with a generous, thick coating of breading consisting of more than simple flour and spices. The skin was left on and while the outside was fried crispy the inside was kept moist and tender.
Fried green tomatoes were well-breaded and simply hit the spot. Slices of heaven I tell you.
The mac and cheese was excellent, traditional in style with a crispy top with elbow macaroni underneath laying in a bed of smooth cheese in a white sauce.
The buffet does not stop at fried chicken. Also offered on the day we visited was ham, roast beef (Georgia style, not the kind you buy in a deli) and a shrimp and crabmeat souffl.
Of the three the ham was outstanding and the roast beef was good. The souffl, unfortunately, was not that good.
Vegetables included green beans cooked Southern-style (with pot licker and bread for sopping), corn on the cob and creamed potatoes.
The stand-alone dessert bar is normally packed with eye-pleasing delights. On the day I visited a strawberry short cake and whipped cream mixture drew oohs and aahs from passing customers.
Also on the menu were excellent home made brownies (plenty of sugar in these delights), a multiple layer chocolate cake, cookies, and pecan pie.
All desserts were above average, with a special nod going to the brownies because of there chocolaty chewiness.
Oh & P.S. In the buffet room of the Blue Willow Inn, there is always a drawer full of warm corn bread. Now you know where they hide it!! Help Yourself!!! Definitely some serious corn bread!
And ....If you have to wait for a table inside, or if you need to relax a bit before making the drive home... the front porch is arraged with rocking chairs that are perfect for relaxing in...
Food: 5
Atmosphere: 5
Service: 5
Recommendations:
Fried Chicken
Mac & Cheese
Fried Green Tomatoes
Corn Bread
Sweet Tea
All in All: Seriously Worth Stopping In ...For One of the South's Best Buffets!!!!
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I agree, I agree, I agree. This is a place not to be missed. Should be on your list of 100 things to do before you die. Don't go without a reservation because you WON'T get in . . . . too many other folks want to eat here. Good, no GREAT, Southern food. The every half hour seating is a bit strange, but just do it their way and you will be rewarded. All in all this is a place your tummy will appreciate. You may need a place to lay down and take a nap before you drive home. ZZZZZ . . . . .
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Oh man, if there is one place to hit in the Metro Atlanta area this is it. Take a half a day away from your business engagements and go. The food is out of this world...true southern fare. The southern food is only matched by the hospitality. The setting in the dining room is classic but not stuffy, and the surroundings are truly confederate...Antebellums and all!
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