Dining

Note: We received a media rate and a restaurant credit to help facilitate our review. All opinions are honest and are entirely our own.

When I walked into the lobby of the Westin Peachtree Plaza, I felt as if I’d walked onto the set of a movie.

It’s sleek and has HIGH ceilings with tons of natural light pouring in through windows and skylights. The elevators are housed in a cylinder of sorts, painted with a modern black & white floral pattern. It feels like a place execs would stay and make high-powered mergers, or that celebrities would stay while shooting on location. I have to admit, my first impression of the hotel left me in awe… but wondering if this was going to be a great place for our family with three kids to stay. Would we fit in?

For those of you that haven’t seen the Westin Peachtree Plaza before, it’s a gleaming, towering cylinder that’s the fifth-highest building in the city, and is the tallest hotel in the United States. You can see it as you approach Atlanta, and it definitely stands out in the skyline.

Our hotel room was on the sixty-fifth floor. Yep, you read that right. This hotel has 73 floors and includes a rotating restaurant and bar, called the Sundial Restaurant, Bar & View. We were pretty near to the top, which meant we got amazing views of the city.

Full disclosure: I have a total phobia of elevators. So, as you can imagine, riding one up 65 flights was a little nerve-wracking for me. However, these elevators are QUICK, and we rarely had to stop on more than one other floor on our way up or down, because they’re so well-organized.

Once we got up to our room and opened the door, I could immediately see why people love staying here. The views are simply breathtaking.

The kids thought it was the coolest thing ever to stay up so high, and couldn’t get enough of looking out the windows and pointing out various things they saw (built-in entertainment, folks – can’t beat that!).

As you can see, a lot of time was spent at the windows. The lights of the city at night are spectacular, and make for a perfect nightlight as the kids go to sleep.

The rooms are slightly compact, but we still had plenty of room for the five of us. There are twenty rooms on each floor, but we felt almost like we had the floor to ourselves; we barely heard other guests. Everything is modern and sleek, down to the finishes in the bathroom – I’m kind of in love with the tile work around the mirror!

The next day before we left we decided to have lunch at the Sundial Restaurant, Bar & View. I was a little uncertain, again, if our family of casually-dressed tourists would be appropriate, but was assured it’d be just fine for a weekday lunch.

There are two glass elevators housed in a smaller cylinder on the side of the building, and these are what you take to get up to the restaurant. It takes less than 1 1/2 minutes, and I even enjoyed the ride – the views are so great! You can see part of our ride in the video above.

The Sundial is just what you’d expect to be on the top of the Westin Peachtree Plaza. It, too, is sleek and modern and beautiful. It’s Atlanta’s only tri-level dining complex featuring an upscale restaurant, a rotating cocktail lounge and an observatory View Level.

The kids quickly noticed what makes this restaurant extra-special: the dining area rotates! This meant our view changed as we ate, and we made the full rotation throughout our meal.

It’s not every day you look out your window at lunch and see the top of a skyscraper.

Or this. Gorgeous.

Elsie wasn’t too sure what she thought of it all, but the rest of us thought we had the best seat in the restaurant!

The food was absolutely wonderful. Seriously. We loved every bite and I honestly don’t have a single negative comment. The flavors are masterfully balanced and it was probably our best meal of the trip. It is pricier than your average restaurant, but still affordable, and there’s even a kids’ menu.  Our waitress, Shauna, was great – attentive and friendly, which was especially great for the kids. Shauna, if you read this, thanks for exceptional service!

Here’s what we ate:

Warm corn madeleines with house-made strawberry jam and local honey butter for our appetizer

Chicken tenders with parmesan fries for the kids (surprise, surprise)

Hand cut pasta with tomato, basil, ricotta and spring squash for me

NY strip au poivre for Brian – a 10 oz. steak with horseradish whipped potatoes, carrots, and bordelaise sauce

Fried apple pies with vanilla bean ice cream, cinnamon ice cream, and candy apple sauce for dessert

This was a great special treat for our family during the day but at night I can easily see how this is a perfect date (and proposal) spot. The menu is impressive, the servers and hostesses are friendly, and did I mention there are some pretty great views?

Before we left we checked out the observatory level and pointed out the aquarium, where we’d be heading next. You can really see all of downtown Atlanta from up there!

I have to mention our bellman, Jose, before I close out this post. He was SO great with the kids. He let them ride on the cart with the luggage and asked them questions about themselves, and they thought he was awesome! We really appreciated that he made the extra effort to help the kids feel special and it ended our stay on a perfect note.

If you’re looking for a special experience, I’d highly recommend staying at the Westin Peachtree Plaza. Whether you’re on a business trip, a romantic getaway, or – yes – a family vacation, you’ll fit right in, and will love it. You can make a reservation by clicking here. Keep up with them on Facebook & Twitter, too!

Note: We received chair covers to facilitate this review. We were not compensated monetarily for this post. All opinions are honest and our own.

When you have three small children like we do, you keep things pretty simple in the decor department. We can’t use tablecloths very often because we just know there’s going to be an attempt to pull it off the table – and it won’t end well. We normally have Legos scattered around the table and our chairs are pretty simple:

When the holidays come along, I like for things to feel special. It can be hard to figure out a way to add an extra element to really dress things up, but here are a few tips to transform your dining space for the holidays:

1. Use slipcovers on your chairs. We used Sure Fit slipcovers and chair sashes, and it was literally a 10-minute transformation to make our table feel like something elegant and special. You saw our table above – check out the after pictures:

The slipcovers unify the look of the chairs and soften them – and the big green bows are really a festive touch! Perfect for Thanksgiving and Christmas alike.

2. Use items from nature. For Thanksgiving, gather fall leaves and put them in the bottom of a hurricane vase, then set a fall-colored candle on top. Or get the kids in on the fun and let them glue leaves to a long strip of computer paper taped together to make a nature-inspired runner. Acorns make another great fall decor item! And of course pinecones are perfect for Christmas. You can also find smaller fallen tree branches and paint them white for a nice centerpiece option.

3. Make your table interactive. Put out notecards and pens for people to write what they’re thankful for – or cover your table with butcher’s paper and let people write right on the tablecloth! Kids and adults alike will love doodling and drawing during the meal, and maybe even getting in a friendly game or two of tic tac toe.

How do you make your table festive for the holidays?