Restaurant Recap, TravelHere’s part two of my Callaway Gardenspost. I needed to do a whole other post about our dinner at The Garden Restaurant at Callaway Gardens. This flower will be the only non food thing in this post…enjoy.
During our stay at Callaway Gardens we dined at The Gardens Restaurant, the most upscale of the many dining options at Callaway. So upscale in fact that my husband made sure to teach our kids to eat like sophisticated people, both pinkies out please.
Let’s start with the appetizers:
The kids split a crab cake appetizer with lemon butter sauce and micro greens. They both loved the crab cake but my daughter raved about the sauce.My husband had a fresh, crisp garden salad for his appetizer. My appetizer was a deliciously creamy New England Clam Chowder. With tender clams it was perfect on a cool day.
On to the entrees
My son ordered the Balsamic Marinated Grilled Colorado Lamb Chops With toasted walnut pesto, Brussels sprouts with pancetta and cheddar grit cakeThe scallop entree. Prosciutto-Wrapped Scallops, sweet potato puree, maple butter and spaghetti squash. Scallops were perfectly cooked to an almost creamy consistency.I ordered Braised Pork Shank with wild mushroom demi-glace, cheddar grits and sautéed spaghetti squash. DELICIOUS! I love a rich demi glace served with grits to catch it. The texture was perfect, the really know how to cook protein. They got it right every time. My daughter had the Marinated Grilled Flat Iron Steak With wild mushroom demi glace, oven roasted red and gold beets and herb mashed potatoes
Drinks and Dessert
Hot buttered rum with Pyrat rum. Pyrat is the Man’s favorite drank. He was not too sure about the “butter” but once he tasted it he was happyAnd he can’t resist any apple dessert. Warm Apple Galette With housemade cinnamon ice creamMy dessert, pumpkin creme brulee, super creamy and not too sweetChocolate Lava Cake The kids shared this Chocolate ganache center with housemade blood orange ice cream for dessert. They absolutely DESTROYED IT!
Chef de Cuisine Peter Stiles did a fantastic job. Service was smooth, warm and friendly all in all we had a great evening
TravelCallaway Gardens has one of the best Christmas lights displays on EARTH! Yes, it’s that good. It took just under an hour to get through the tour but the time flies by.
I love the weeks leading up to Christmas, I love driving around and seeing the neighborhood light displays. This weekend we saw one of the 10 best Christmas light shows on the planet (according to National Geographic). The Christmas light Show to beat ALL Christmas light shows the Festival of Lights at Callaway Gardens(Pine Mountain, GA). Pictures don’t do it justice, parts of the tour have animated light themes … it’s just great….but wait, there’s more. After you finish the Festival of Lights you have the Christmas Village.
a TON of vendors outside of the Christmas village. Deep fried everything and some great kettle corn. Even maple/bacon funnel cakeInside the Christmas Village at Callaway Gardens there were handmade gifts and a giant gingerbread man
Thankfully we had a cabin waiting for us
We had a two bedroom cabin at Callaway Gardens, that’s the kids room pictured above. They made themselves right at home. Our room was similar and each bedroom had it’s own bathroom. It’s not fancy, it’s like staying with a relative…a relative who leaves you alone. Full kitchen and cozy living room with everything you need to snuggle up by the fire. It was a little cool for the screened in porch
Still more stuff to show you…and remember this is in the late fall, almost Winter. I’d love to go back when it warms up in the Spring and the azalea’s are blooming.
We woke up pretty late the next day and were in no hurry to get moving so we had breakfast in the cabin. I brought cheese, crackers, grapes, cereal, milk and juice with us so we had plenty to eat. We finally got it together and headed out to the Birds of Prey (Raptor) show. All of the birds in the show were rescued in some way or another. Several were human imprints (some well meaning folks tried to raise the birds but now they can’t survive on their own ) and one that was hit by a truck and is blind in one eye. Now in the care of the center we can get a good look at them up close
Rescued birds of prey at Callaway Gardens. The Show was moved indoors due to rain and they added another show to accommodate the guests. Broad-Winged Hawk, Red Shouldered Hawk, Barn Owl and Red Tailed Hawk
Then the horticultural center, I could have stayed in there all day.
Inside the horticultural center Callaway gardens. I can only remember the name of the first one, it’s a chenille plant and the poinsettias below it.
Yes, there’s still more
Bikes for rent at Callaway Gardens
I still haven’t covered it all. There are bikes to rent and trails to hike and golf and a tree top obstacle course and ziplines.The kids were tempted to try the Tree Top Adventure but there was a bit of rain. They’ve been wanting to zipline for a while now, they thought long and hard about it. Some guests were up in the trees on the obstacle course in the rain but my kids decided against it.
