Luella Buckhead Steakhouse: Menu Prices and Booking

Luella Buckhead is a steakhouse with a pasta kitchen and a sushi counter in the manor that used to be the Ivy. You book it for a long, dressy dinner, with steak, pasta, or sushi, and a bill that can climb fast.

Book it when the group can dress up and pay for a real night. Pick another place for children under 10, or for the sports-bar night this address used to be.

This guide covers what the room is now, the house rules that add fees, what to order, what 2026 checks cost, and how to reserve so the table is still yours.

What Is Luella Buckhead?

The restaurant sits at 3717 Roswell Road NE, Atlanta, GA 30342, in a manor Buckhead already knew as a night out. Brothers Jamey and Benjie Shirah closed the Ivy after last call on December 31, 2024, and opened Luella here on Tuesday, November 25, 2025.

Jamey Shirah was 22 when he opened the Ivy on this corner in 2010, 14 years before that last call. Before the sports bar, the building spent 25 years as Carbo’s Cafe, a steakhouse and piano bar. Luella is named for the brothers’ daughters, Lucille and Eleanor.

The menu is three habits at once: USDA Prime steaks and wagyu, handmade pasta, and a raw bar with sushi. Kyle Biddy is culinary director for the group, with 25 years in kitchens and time at the Shirahs’ Little Betty steak bar in Birmingham. Stuart Rogers is executive chef, with stops at Aria, Lyla Lila, and the Optimist, and he cooks the steaks over a wood fire. Danielle Embery is the pastry chef.

Interior designer Helen Hanavich split the large floor into smaller rooms, with oxblood velvet, hand-painted walls, black and white tile, and a round marble bar. The owners describe that pace, a meal you are meant to stay for, on the Revival Restaurant Group Luella page. Shirah has said he likes dinner to run two and a half to three hours, with time to talk between courses.

The House Rules That Change a Luella Reservation

OpenTable tags the dress code as business casual. The door uses a tighter list, and a few fees never show up in a short review. Read them before you invite a family or a group of six.

HOUSE RULES BEFORE YOU BOOK

• Kids: Children under 10 are not permitted, and there are no high chairs or booster seats, though ages 10 and older may come if they dress to the code, sit on their own, and order for themselves.
• Clothes: Athletic wear, hoodies, flip-flops, baseball hats, beachwear, and very casual clothes are not allowed, and men may not wear shorts, graphic T-shirts, open-toe shoes, hats, or sleeveless shirts, with collared shirts and jackets preferred.
• The clock: You get a 15-minute grace period, the table is not guaranteed after that, and the host seats you only when the full party is inside.
• Cancels: A cancellation after 2 pm on the day of the meal is $40 per person, and that fee can also hit a no-show or a sharp cut in the head count.
• The bill: Parties of 6 or more get an automatic 22 percent tip, card payments add a 3.0 percent non-cash fee, checks split no more than six ways, and the restaurant takes cash, Visa, MasterCard, and American Express.
• What you bring: Outside food and drinks are banned except two paid exceptions, wine corkage at $50 a bottle with a two-bottle maximum, and a celebration cake at $5 a slice to cut, and only trained service animals may come in.

Those lines are on Luella’s written dining guidelines, and the downloadable PDF is dated July 2026. A directory amenity that mentions dogs does not replace the service-animal rule on that page. Glitter, balloons, extra lights, and signage are also barred in the dining room, which matters if you were planning a surprise with props.

What to Order at Luella

The menu is wide on purpose. Shirah has called a loose mix of steak, sushi, and Italian a meat market that rushes people, and he staffed Luella with cooks who specialize instead. That width is also why published meals do not crown the same plate.

• The steaks: Wood-fire strips are the plates a May 29, 2026 review would repeat, including a 10-ounce New York strip and a 12-ounce bone-in dry-aged strip, while Texas Akaushi wagyu and A5 Japanese snow-aged beef sit above the prime cuts.
• The pastas: Hand-cut pappardelle in a white Bolognese and a bone-in veal Parmesan held up on that May check, spaghetti and meatballs were let down by a sweet sauce, and spicy lobster rigatoni was hard to justify once the lobster ran scarce.
• The raw bar: Wagyu croquettes, Gouda fries, and the Caesar with preserved lemon were the easy shares, while the same May review called the sushi rolls the weak lane and a March 5, 2026 review told readers to follow a server toward the tuna veil.

“Honestly, if you were to ask me what my last meal would be, I’d just run down this menu. Starting with the focaccia, following it with bone marrow, then going to seafood with the tuna veil or spicy salmon roll.”

Jamey Shirah, CEO, Revival Restaurant Group, in Southern Living

Treat that January 2026 list as his map, then check the board, because he also named pappardelle, bone-in veal parm, a smoky steak with sides, and bananas foster cheesecake. A March review said to order the croquettes and an eight-ounce filet, and to skip the dry-aged strip as chewy with an odd aftertaste. A February review liked that dry-aged strip best and was cooler on an unaged spinalis and a wagyu flat iron. An October 2026 roundup later called an eight-ounce rib eye spinalis al limon, brushed with lemon-chili, the showstopper.

Pick a lane before you sit. If you want the deeper flavor that comes from hanging beef in cold air until water leaves the meat, ask for the bone-in dry-aged strip and ask the ounce and the age that night. If you want tenderness more than that flavor, take the filet. A split table can share croquettes, a Caesar, and a pasta so nobody is stuck with a steak they did not want.

Luella Menu Prices From 2026 Checks

Prices have already moved, and two write-ups did not even see the same size of dry-aged strip. Use the table as a set of dated checks, then confirm the board on the dinner menus Luella posts.

On the May 29, 2026 check, food for two was easy to push to $200 before any wine. Servers were leading with the carrot cake, with the bananas foster cheesecake as the close second.

Some bottles on that same list were marked as much as 300 percent above retail, so the wine can outrun the steak if you do not look at the list. A February 2026 review put a typical spend from under $75 to $150 a person before drinks, which lines up with a couple landing near $100 each in food.

An August 12, 2026 dinner is where the crudo, artichokes, miso black cod, tiramisu, and gelato prices come from. That write-up also put the cellar at about 2,600 bottles. The March cornbread and caviar row is the show-off plate: the cornbread was called cake-sweet and strong enough to cover the caviar.

Luella Hours, Parking, and Reservations

As of late October 2026, OpenTable listed Sunday and Monday from 5 to 9 pm, and Tuesday through Saturday from 5 to 10 pm. The guidelines add a second clock: dining room seating ends at 9 pm on weekdays and 10 pm on weekends, and after that you are offered the bar.

Valet is available on site. A February 2026 review put that fee at $5, while the restaurant’s own page confirms valet without restating a rate, so ask when you pull in. That same review listed no nearby MARTA station and called the room fully ADA accessible.

1. Reserve early. Book a table on OpenTable for Friday, Saturday, or any holiday week, and do not count on a walk-in if the night matters.
2. Dress to the house list. Use the bans in the guidelines, not the looser business-casual tag on the booking page.
3. Arrive together. The host waits for every person on the reservation, and a partial group does not start the clock on the meal.
4. Cancel before 2 pm. After that, the per-person fee is in force even if the plan simply shrank.
5. Call ahead for extras. The phone is (470) 486-6172 for an allergy, a cake, or a party that will not fit a four-top or a six-top.

OpenTable’s late October 2026 page showed a 4.7 from 492 diner reviews. The value mark is the soft one on that page, which fits a room people praise and a bill they feel.

Which Group Should Book Luella?

Couples and friends who want to linger fit the dinner Shirah described. The marble bar is the loud, social seat: a May 2026 review said a free stool there felt like a small win, while the dining rooms vary. A February review called the noise very loud, and OpenTable’s own tag says moderate, so ask for a dining room if you came to talk.

A client dinner is calmer in the private dining room, which the about page and the guidelines both cap at 24 guests. Parties larger than eight are handled as private events. The events page also describes spaces for 10 to 45 guests and full restaurant buyouts for up to 150.

Parents of young children need a different restaurant. The under-10 rule is a door policy, not a quiet hint, and the tables are built for four to six. People hunting the old Ivy will not find vodka-and-energy-drink nights here. A late 2026 steakhouse roundup put the crowd about 20 years older than the Ivy’s, with the music still up, and Johnny’s Hideaway is down the street if you want a dance floor after dessert.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Luella Serve Lunch or Brunch?

Luella is a dinner restaurant. The hours on its OpenTable page in late October 2026 start at 5 pm, with Sunday and Monday ending at 9 pm and Tuesday through Saturday ending at 10 pm. There is no published midday service, so do not plan a lunch meeting at this address.

Can You Walk Into Luella Without a Reservation?

You can try, and the restaurant says it seats walk-ins when a table is free. A reservation is the reliable path on a weekend, and the host does not seat you until every person on the booking is in the room. Showing up in waves leaves the first arrivals standing.

Does Luella Have Outdoor Seating?

Do not plan on a sidewalk table. A February 2026 listing marked outdoor dining as unavailable. OpenTable notes that some guests have been seated in an enclosed patio off the main dining room, which is still an inside room with a door, so ask for a dining room if the bar feels too loud.

Are Phones and Laptops Allowed at Luella?

Take calls outside, and leave laptops and tablets out of the dining room and the bar. The guidelines also ban professional cameras and lighting. A quick photo of a plate is a smaller ask than a laptop at a client dinner, but the written rule is to keep screens and calls out of the room.

Is the Snow-Aged Steak the Same as the Dry-Aged Strip?

No. The dry-aged bone-in strip is the plate in the price table, and servers have also pitched a separate steak aged with snow from a Japanese mountain, alongside A5 Japanese snow-aged beef. Ask which cut is on the board, and ask the price out loud, because reviews have treated the snow-aged steak as a splurge well above the prime strips.

A hours listing updated in November 2026 showed full closures on November 26, December 24, and December 25, 2026. If your night falls on a holiday, confirm the doors before you promise the table.