Terrace on Peachtree

Though the restaurant’s commitment to locally-sourced ingredients may not be original in Atlanta, there’s no doubt that Terrace at Ellis Hotel is making an earnest attempt to highlight the best Georgia has to offer, both in terms of its produce and its emerging cuisine. The menu boasts a variety of vegetarian dishes that far surpass the tired vegetable plates and omnipresent field greens that usually serve as a menu’s meat-free selections. Among them is a pleasing and perplexing tofu entrée, coated in herbs and crunchy breading and served over a risotto-like smoosh of Carolina Gold rice, sugar snap peas, carrots and almonds. As for the meatier dishes, a pork belly appetizer served with a jalapeño cornbread waffle touched on all the right notes, both on the palate and culturally. But other dishes weren’t as enjoyable. An appetizer of pearl barley risotto with wild mushrooms and wilted arugula was oddly bland — a problem that popped up with some frequency over the course of meals at Terrace. Still, in a part of town that’s a bit of a wasteland for decent dining, Terrace, with its lofty ambitions, is fully worthy of our attention.