Siena brings Euro-style vibes to Alpharetta
There’s something that feels truly European about Siena, the new Mediterranean and Italian restaurant in Alpharetta.
Siena is clearly cultivating a European vibe with its menu, but there are unintentional aspects of the experience that reminded me of restaurants I’ve visited in Italy and France in recent years. It has an ineffable Euro quality rooted in a combination of high enthusiasm and somewhat casual attention to detail. Siena aims for a level of polish that it doesn’t quite achieve, but it’s because they do a little too much, not from a lack of effort.
One of the first things anyone will notice upon entering Siena is the lighting. A large sign featuring the restaurant’s name coolly glows into the night from the exterior, and another matching sign gleams from a wall in the secondary dining room, where it’s bright enough to cast a shadow. Warm, stylish LED strip lighting casts a soft light from the ceiling, but it contrasts with the cool tone of the Siena sign. In warmer weather, that room will convert to an open-air patio, a setting where such a large, bright sign makes more sense.
Emerald green down-lighting beneath the bar counter gives the area a completely different hue, while the battery-powered, capsule-like lamps on every table are unshaded and a little too bright.
The conflicting lights were slightly jarring at first but became an afterthought after a few minutes of acclimation. It gives Siena the feeling of a casual party, an atmosphere that’s enhanced by the music, especially on Fridays, when a live saxophonist plays.
Those nights, the saxophonist roams the dining room, playing recognizable pop and dance tunes with backing tracks piped over Siena’s sound system. Then it’s definitely a party, fun for a group but not suited to intimate conversation, say, on a first date.
The energetic atmosphere is great encouragement to order a cocktail, but Siena’s beverage program is hit-or-miss. Nearly all of the cocktails, aside from the wonderfully restrained old-fashioned, are very sweet. Just like a food menu, a drink list suffers when it only plays one note, and many of Siena’s cocktails rang at the same frequency. Even the matcha martini, which should have benefited from the depth and earthiness of matcha, was treacly rather than balanced.
Luckily, Siena’s food menu has no issue with flavor balance. The dishes are varied and creative, though the starters tend to outshine the entrees. The restaurant’s marketing leans heavily into the combination of Mediterranean and Italian cuisines but, in practice, Siena falls in line with many other tapas-style restaurants that draw broadly on global influences.
Dishes like whipped feta with burnt honey and crispy halloumi with grilled grapes are addictive, easy and fun to share. The salty, creamy feta is spun into a cloud-like consistency with, and offset by, both bitterness and sweetness from the burnt honey. The halloumi, with its unique texture, has a weighty umami flavor that seems to sink into the soft bread that underpins the cheese.
There are a couple of appetizers that should be automatic double-orders if your party is larger than two. The sweet potato falafel cake, fried to a crunch on the exterior with an impressively light interior, only includes two pieces and left me wishing I’d ordered extra. Another fried dish, the shrimp Francese arancini, included three pieces, but the contrast of the crisp coating and sweet, tender, creamy shrimp and rice filling was irresistible.
For all the technique on display among Siena’s starters, the entrees were less multifaceted. The golden oxtail dish is an interesting concept, featuring braised oxtail and gemelli, a twisted pasta, in a creamy sauce. It’s hearty and indulgent but felt flat, in need of at least one more element — maybe something crunchy or acidic to cut through the richness. And the golden oxtail’s execution was a little inconsistent; the sauce went from thin and watery on one visit to perfectly creamy the next.
The flame steak is a fun entree that involves some tableside showmanship. It’s served by a chef who lights a small cup of liquor on fire and pours it over the sliced steak to burn off in a cast-iron pan. The flair might not add much flavor to an otherwise straightforward plate of steak and potatoes, but it makes your dinner feel like an occasion.
Another dish that required a blowtorch, the saffron creme brulee, missed the mark on execution. The sugary crust on top was too thick, resulting in tough patches that tasted more burned than caramelized, and the saffron flavor was nowhere to be found. The baklava cheesecake dessert was tastier but difficult to eat. The phyllo pastry atop the creamy cheesecake was difficult to cut with a spoon, causing the filling to squish out across the plate.
The service at Siena was solid on each of my visits, though servers occasionally showed a bit of inexperience. Co-owner and manager Aida Lemma said the restaurant has slowly added staff and that many new front-of-house employees have been hired since the restaurant opened in December.
One aspect of Siena that makes the restaurant stand out is its women-led management team. Lemma, who runs the day-to-day operations, is joined by experienced executive chef Baba Estavillo and sous chef Nelly Terraza. Lemma said Siena wasn’t conceived as a restaurant run by women; the all-female management team was just a happy accident.
As a restaurant, Siena still feels like it’s figuring itself out, but with a foundation of solid building blocks. There’s some interesting, creative cooking and it’s brimming with energy, even if there’s a tinge of chaos. I’d rather go to an imperfect restaurant with character than a restaurant that’s polished down to blandness, and Siena is anything but boring.
Siena
2 out of 4 stars (very good)
Food: Italian and Mediterranean
Service: solid, if inexperienced
Noise level: moderate to very loud, depending on the night
Recommended dishes: whipped feta and burnt honey, Siena hummus, crispy halloumi and grilled grapes bruschetta, truffle manchego fries, octopus al ajillo, sweet potato falafel cake, shrimp Francese arancini, Moroccan market chicken, golden oxtail, baked salmon
Vegetarian dishes: Siena hummus, crispy halloumi and grilled grapes bruschetta, truffle manchego fries, sweet potato falafel cakes, charred cauliflower royale, hen of the woods pasta
Alcohol: full bar
Price range: $50 — $100 per person, excluding drinks
Hours: 4-10 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, 4 p.m. — 12 a.m. Friday-Saturday, 4-10 p.m. Sunday
Accessibility: fully ADA accessible
Parking: free lot
Nearest MARTA station: none
Reservations: yes, available on OpenTable
Outdoor dining: yes, seasonal
Takeout: no
Address, phone: 124 Devore Road, Alpharetta. 404-488-3399
Website: sienaatl.com
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s dining critics conduct reviews anonymously. Reservations are not made in their name, nor do they provide restaurants with advance notice about their visits. Our critics always make multiple visits, sample the full range of the menu and pay for all of their meals. AJC dining critics wait at least one month after a new restaurant has opened before visiting.
About the Author
Henri Hollis is a reporter and restaurant critic for the Food & Dining team. Formerly a freelance writer and photographer with a focus on food and restaurants, he joined the AJC full-time in January 2021, first covering breaking news. He is a lifelong Atlantan and a graduate of Georgia Tech.
