The Vortex Bar & Grill (Midtown)

northyorksammy

Ontario (Canada)

3.1/5  rDev -22.5%
vibe: 2.5 | quality: 3.5 | service: 2.5 | selection: 3.5 | $$

A rock/punk type of bar, not for me. Smoking and the like. Body piercings, not too bad in this conservative state. Some craft beers and imports, nice part of town. But nothing special-one non-local craft beer, Bridgeport. Laid back service. Good size of the place. I heard it's much much louder at night, but i do not plan to be back. Decent bottles.Did not try the food. Has good windows and viewing onto the street. Parking is available. Not a bad place to go if you can't get up to the 5 Seasons.

02-08-2008 20:28:57 | More by northyorksammy

TurdFurgison

Ohio

3.8/5  rDev -5%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4 | service: 3 | selection: 4 | food: 4 | $$

I stopped here after finding it on beerfly and subsequently checking out the website. Let me say first that the walls are covered with pictures of girls and all kinds of skeletons (pretty much as advertised), but the servers are not the same quality as the website would lead you to believe. The burgers are good, <$10 for specialty burgers, made quickly too. The beer selection is decent, with about 16-18 taps and maybe 80 bottled selections. I stuck with local beers like Terrapin and Sweetwater.

After dinner we went 1 block north to Taco Mac, and I have to recommend that place over Vortex. Much wider selection of beers on tap at Taco Mac.

09-26-2008 10:46:51 | More by TurdFurgison

shivtim

Georgia

3.25/5  rDev -18.8%
vibe: 3 | quality: 3 | service: 3 | selection: 4 | food: 3 | $$

The Vortex is a pretty average bar with an above average tap and bottle selection. It's a smoky, dark, loud place, and not exactly a beer destination. Sure, the bottle selection is pretty darn good, but I'm not sure how long some of that stuff has been sitting around. I'm also not sure why the hamburgers are so famous - they're good, but nothing special. Certainly not the best in Atlanta. Service is average, and they don't seem to know much about beer (with the possible exception of the bartender).
Overall, it's a decent place, just not a beer mecca. If I'm in the area, I'd choose Cypress Street Pint&Plate and Taco Mac Metropolis over Vortex any day.

12-24-2008 17:06:50 | More by shivtim

glid02

Georgia

3.85/5  rDev -3.8%
vibe: 4 | quality: 3.5 | service: 4 | selection: 4 | food: 4 | $$

The atmosphere is good, just walked through the downstairs on the way to our table and there was a lot of stuff going on. Upstairs is kind of plain but all the windows made it seem like we were sitting outside but with A/C.

Quality was not what I'd hoped. I've heard good things and think I just hit a bad day but the DFH 90 Minute I got on tap was warm and a little flat. It was served in a goblet though, which was nice.

Service was good, everything was out quick and nothing was messed up.

Bottle selection is great, I just wish they had more draft selections. I can only remember about five non-mainstream beers that they had on draft.

Food was really good, I got the burger, which they're known for. The buffalo wing sauce is also really good (had them with my fries). They actually cooked a burger medium rare, which is pretty rare.

I'll definitely go back, it's not really cheap but it's certainly not overpriced. I'm also curious as to how often they change their draft selections.

08-03-2008 04:06:10 | More by glid02

BEERchitect

Kentucky

4.06/5  rDev +1.5%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4 | service: 4 | selection: 4 | $$$

I just kinda fell off of the Marta and stumbled into this place on a recent trip to Atlanta. The edge-y demeaner of the bar is exciting, intriguing, and slightly intimidating. It's kinda like a hole-in-the-wall, biker bar meets a Topix mall store. A spit shined, grunge bar. However it's a bit too nice but tries to be too bad, I appreciate the cover pages to the beer menu and food menu. Their no-nonsense approach is dead-on! The taps are favorable as well. After browsing the coolers (stocked with about 300 beers) and their taps (aobut 30) and the list, I settled on a Lagunitas Censored bottle and a St. Bernardus Abt. 12 from the tap. Although the staff was not overly friendly, they were timely and helpful, but don't expect a ton of dialogue here. They try too hard to act so bad. Although the place resembles a goth-cartoon, it's very clean and presentable. I recommend the bar when in the area, but never mind the attitudes; it's all in pretense.

06-11-2007 15:29:25 | More by BEERchitect

PhillyStyle

Georgia

4.05/5  rDev +1.3%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4 | service: 4 | selection: 4 | food: 4 | $$

This a great place, not really a beer bar, but more of a burger joint with a good beer selection, I had a Bell's Two Hearted Ale, on tap. You won't find hard to find beers here, but what you will find are good beers to go with the awesome burgers.

The atmosphere has been great every time that I have been, a very eclectic crowd with rock & punk music blaring in the background. The service is always good and they know what they are talking about, beer-wise and food-wise. I would like to see a bigger tap list, but they do have a rather extensive bottle list with many styles and brewers to choose from.

This is a place, if and when in Midtown Atlanta that you should hit up at least once if not more often. The prices are reasonable and the overall experience is worth it.

11-07-2011 18:26:24 | More by PhillyStyle

sleazo

New York

3.55/5  rDev -11.3%
vibe: 3 | quality: 3 | service: 4 | selection: 4 | $

looking through beerfly this place looked the best and was close enough to my hotel. There is sort of an industrial vibe here. Tables to the left as you walk in and a bar that snakes around the right. First part is devoted to spirits the second part has refrigerated cases full of beer. Also about 20 or so beers on tap. The selection was good but not great. Too many of their taps or bottles are devoted to macro lagers from round the world. however I was able to get a Dry Hopped St Rogue Red, some 90 Minutes on draught and some locals. They have beers from Rogue, Dogfish head, Brooklyn, flying Dog, Duvel St Barnardus and a few others. Quality wise they shouldnt keep their beers on display like that and i felt the taps could have been a bit cleaner as something in the 90 minute tasted off.

Still a good selection and good prices. Worth a shot if in the area

08-21-2007 15:09:04 | More by sleazo

Cyberkedi

Georgia

4.63/5  rDev +15.8%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 5 | selection: 4.5 | food: 4.5 | $

The Vortex is a fun bar, unpretentious and with just the right amount of sleaze. The outrageous decor includes some skeletons (I presume they are plastic models, not the real thing!) on motorcycles, sort of the bar's mascot. Beer selection is very good - they have a number of local brews and quite a few craft brews, plus an impressive selection of imports, both in bottles and on tap. Food is delicious and reasonably priced. Serving people are quick, friendly but not overly so, and efficient. Music is turned up but not so loud that you can't have a nice conversation. Smoking is allowed, so it is open only to patrons 18 and older; however, this means you don't have to worry about screaming brats running amok and interrupting your meal, date, Meetup, or whatever. A great place to get together with friends, or just hang out and enjoy some good brewskis.

08-18-2007 21:39:09 | More by Cyberkedi

jmdrpi

Pennsylvania

3.98/5  rDev -0.5%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4 | service: 4 | selection: 3.5 | food: 4.5 | $$

Ate lunch and had some beers with friends here, we sat outside on a nice afternoon.

Eccentric burger place with a good selection of beer and cocktails. Loved the brash humor of the food and drink menus.

They had about a dozen or so beers on tap, mostly local or mainstream craft beer. Drafts were reasonably priced as they were 20 oz. imperial pints. They had a more extensive bottle list if you couldn't find a draft beer to your liking.

I had the "house" beer and another local Atlanta brewed beer to go along with my Coronary Bypass burger. If you love meat and good bar food, you'll love the menu.

Our waitress was attentive and asked about the next beer before we were finished. Thumbs up!

10-26-2012 19:14:18 | More by jmdrpi

jophish17

Georgia

3.43/5  rDev -14.3%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 3.5 | service: 4 | selection: 2.5 | food: 4 | $$

Review of Midtown location

Atmosphere - rock bar. Very typical, I could understand where this would be a biker's haven. The place is pretty dark with a pretty long bar. Servers ranged from god awful ugly to calendar beauties.. so yes that was part of the atmosphere :) An interesting fit in midtown, home to mostly yuppie hangouts

Quality - nothing too special, beer was still fresh which is a plus when it comes to micros on tap in ATL bars.

Service - sat at the bar. Bar staff was quick and worked together well. Food and drinks were both delivered pretty quick, and I was a bit surprised to have a goblet show up with my Pranqster.

Selection - looking at their menu online, I would have thought it was pretty damn good. However, neither St Bernardus or Chimay are on tap anymore, so the lineup consists mostly of Georgia micros, and standard American and European macros. The bottle selection was a little more interesting, but not much better than a franchised Taco Mac.

Food - definitely the highlight of the place. Excellent burgers, and they offered them in tons of interesting ways. Nice homemade taste, and they were huge. I went with and would recommend the jerk burger.

Price/Value - fair. Expect to pay $5 for a beer ($10 if you want a Rogue bomber) and about $8-10 for a sandwich. Very fair on the beer and I'd consider the burgers to be a pretty good deal.

02-25-2008 00:33:32 | More by jophish17