Chai Pani, Decatur GA

Chai Pani is a newcomer to the Decatur food scene, one featuring Indian street food, and for the time being, very well received. It occupies the space in Decatur that Watershed vacated, the one next to Farm Burger. If you’ve not been to this part of the world before, please note it’s useful to take along ten or so quarters. A lot of the parking close to this restaurant is metered, and parking adjacent to the building hard to come by.

Outside.

Inside.

Mango lassi.

The style of service in this restaurant changes depending on when you arrive. If you go during lunch on a weekday, it is counter top service. You help yourself to drinks, cutlery, and a number is placed at your table for delivery. At night and on weekends, they have staff take your order at the table.

Okra fries. Recommended in general, reminiscent of good fried okra. Good for those with carb limits.

One thing I’ll mention up front is that this isn’t the easiest place for a diabetic to be. Most dishes are heavy in starch, and wraps and rolls tend to contain rice. All is not lost. The chicken burgers and lamb “sloppy joe”s are workable entrees and as a not-so-starchy side, I’d recommend Chai Pani’s okra fries. There are, of course, large dinner salads, that in our experience, are good.

Bhel puri. Puffed rice, chickpeas, flour crisps, onions and cilantro.

Corn bhel. Also really tasty.

The real draw here, are the chaat, the street snacks, a kind of eating I’ve not run into before. When I took my daughter and the bhel puri arrived, she said, “I’ve seen this served in a cone on television”. Both bhel puri and the corn bhel are reason enough to come here. A plate of this, some roti, a soda and a couple samosas would leave my wife happy as can be.

Sloppy Jai (lamb sloppy joes). The shoestring fries are excellent.

Chicken burgers, again, with those excellent fries. My wife finished the fries off.

If there’s one consistent effect when you come here and eat, it’s that there is an amazing “first-bite-wow” effect when eating here. Americans aren’t used to hot Indian spices. They get the majority of Indian food from buffets, where all the aromatics have been steamed off the food. But here, with almost every bite, you get a hit of fresh spice, recently ground or cracked, and often cooked in oil or ghee to release the aromas and the flavors. This “hit” is what is so intoxicating about this place, especially when you first bite into a dish you’ve never tried before.

Kathi kabab roll, and bowl of daal., The daal runs a little thin.

Papadam, a hand sized spicy cracker. The other bread offering is roti, a tortilla sized unleavened bread.

Samosa.

What can we recommend? Almost everything seems good at this point. I wasn’t as pleased with the kabab wrap because it had more rice than I could handle for a meal, but the grilled chiken was excellent. Sloppy Jais I think everyone should try. The more timid maybe can go with a chicken salad, a samosa or two, and one of the bhels. Spend as much time as you can with their chaats, because those really are the star here. And oh yes, the beers here are good, with half a dozen respectable craft beers available.

I’m coming to think this is a great place to be introduced to Indian food. Have a friend who is a little picky? Take them here first, before throwing them into the whole of Indian cuisine. Yes, a tandoori chicken spot isn’t a bad first time spot either, but those are often mom and pops with a hole in the wall ambience. This place is clean, brightly lit, fun. Worst case, your friend has a glass of wine or a beer, nibbles at a chicken burger, downs some fries and maybe have a bite or two of a chaat, all in good fun.

Chai Pani is very highly recommended.

Chai Pani
410 West Ponce De Leon Ave
Decatur, GA 30030
(404) 378-4030

 

Sun in My Belly, Decatur GA

Sun in My Belly is a Decatur spot, carved out of an old hardware store. We went during lunch recently, weaving our way down Scott and Ponce De Leon in one of the more exotic Google Map paths, passing everything and then coming back to the eatery. Parking was cramped this day and I wasn’t certain whether we could park in the back of this place at all (there isn’t much space in their lot). But we managed.

Napolean Complex

The sandwich selection here is good. My daughter had the Napolean Complex (brie, proscuitto, fig jam, focaccia bread) and I had a Dagwood (club sandwich on steroids). Sandwiches can be small, so consider getting a salad as well if you’re not filled up.

The look of the place is a little eccentric. There is a fair emphasis on catering here, something not unusual for smaller creative eateries developed on modest resources. There are consistent reports of inconsistent waitstaffing, but I didn’t see any of that today. Our waiter was excellent.

Sun in My Belly
2161 College Ave NE
Atlanta, GA 30317
(404) 370-1088

 

No 246, Decatur GA

No 246 wears well, like a great pair of leather shoes, or an oft washed pair of denims. It is a smaller restaurant on Ponce de Leon, next to Leon’s Full Service. No 246 has a longish bar, some tables, excellent staff and an intriguing menu. If you show up at lunch, you get to see staff prepping food for dinner, something a foodie might actually enjoy watching.

Wagyu flatiron steak.

I enjoy the menu, think it well designed and the menu items are ambitious. Take the flatiron steak: how about wagyu flatiron instead? The salads are good. There are tapas style items. You can get a decent sized pizza here as well. Now, despite the care taken on the menu items, nothing really blew me away here. That can’t be said for my daughter, who favors their pastas and thinks they can, in fact, be blow you away good.

It’s a place I like to eat, feel free to linger, want to bask in the ambience and try out the food. I don’t think you can go wrong here, as it’s plenty good enough in a very competitive part of Atlanta.

No 246
129 E. Ponce De Leon
Decatus GA 30030
(678) 399-8246

 

Seven Hens, Decatur GA

Seven Hens is a new fast food concept, located at the strip mall on the northeast corner of North Decatur Road and Clairmont. It features schnitzel sandwiches, though it can serve its meats grilled or tossed in a salad. Actually I should use the singular, as Seven Hens serves either chicken or tofu. You choose the style of your meal, a country (this defines the seasonings), and any sides you might prefer.

Seven Hens

Indian with french fries. I found the fries to be good ones.

Mexican with side salad.

My daughter and I both had grilled sandwiches. She chose Indian spicing, and I chose Mexican. Now both spice blends, to be fair, were okay, but both potent and tasted a little off. I wish, after the fact, that I’d tried the American or the French.

Now my wife is really the chicken eater in the family and she tends to well done meats and milder flavors. The flavors in these two sandwiches are hardly mild, and may be off putting to people just getting used to the concept. Marie Let’s Eat noted the French is the most popular; perhaps the flavor blends there won’t seem as jarring as the Indian or the Mexican did. I’m going to recommend the restaurant because it’s a nifty concept and if they get their flavors down pat they’ll have a winner. Right now this eatery is more “proof of concept”. In my opinion, Seven Hens is an attractive, appealing try.

Seven Hens
2140 North Decatur Plaza
Decatur, GA 30033
(404) 633-3000

 

Raging Burrito and Taco, Decatur GA

Raging Burrito has good food, great beer, and plenty of character, a trip back to the early 1970s in some ways. In others it’s quite modern (a 1970s Tex Mex place would never have served fish tacos, for example).

Beef, pork, and fish tacos.

It also bends with the breeze in other ways. The brisket taco they serve is good, perhaps the best taco of the three I tried, and the beer selection on tap is a really good one.

Service was excellent.

Raging Burrito and Taco
141 Sycamore St
Decatur, GA 30030
(404) 377-3311

 

Big Tex Cantina, Decatur GA

If you haven’t had Big Tex’s corned beef hash, you’re missing out. Yes, this is one time I have to unleash my foodie superego, that urge to tell others what to do, where to go, and how to eat. I  don’t do this often. Perhaps the last time was for Haru Ichiban’s paper hot pot yosenabe, but this is another time.  Yes, just go. Try it. And tell your friends what  you think.

Specials

The corned beef hash is a smoked meat heaven.

Yes, I know, Foodie Buddha said he didn’t like it. To be fair, the rational side of me thinks this is merely a product of FB coming early to restaurants before their teething period is complete. Just go. Make  up your own mind.

Brisket tacos and a good jalapeno cole slaw

The other things they serve range from decent to pretty good. They know they have a winner in  terms of their brisket,  that’s why it’s featured in  three different tacos.  Their sides are good. I liked both their slaw and their turnip greens. This virtue is a holdover from their parent, Fox Brother’s Barbecue (see here and here).

There are a bunch of burgers here, something of a hat tip to Houston’s Goode Company Hamburgers and Taqueria, which was doing the same  back in the 1980s (though back then the word “hamburgers” wasn’t in the name.  GCT was the the first place I ever had pico de gallo on a burger, and at the time, was the best burger in the city, bar none). There are, of course, enchiladas, yellow cheese, and yellow queso. The beer selection is quite good.

Does this place compare, say, to a cornerstone Tejano icon, such as the original Ninfa’s on Navigation in Houston, back in its heyday? No, not really, but it’s not supposed to. The appropriate comparison is to Guy Wong and his endlessly inventive foods in Miso Izakaya. It’s not a copy, it’s a jazz riff off the original idea of Tejano. Expect some hits, expect some misses, expect them to grow into their menu and to slowly adapt the form to what  the Fox Brothers do well. It may not be a home run now, but the corned beef hash is a solid hit of a dish, and I expect more from  this place as it evolves.

Big Tex Cantina
308 W. Ponce de Leon Avenue
Decatur, GA 30030
(404) 377-3939

Goode Company Hamburgers and Taqueria
4902 Kirby Dr
Houston, TX 77098
(713) 520-9153

 

Zyka, Decatur GA

From the north, Zyka is conveniently located at a fork in the road. Scott Boulevard goes one way, Church Street another. As Zyka shares a common space with a Montessori school, on the Church Street side there is a really large nice parking lot that is hard to miss. On the Scott Street side the divided boulevard makes it impossible to approach without turning around.

This isn’t a place concerned with presentation. Food is purchased at a countertop and served in plastic. Often the foods are oily and it’s hard to fish out the “good bits”. That said, the meats are all Halal and when things are good here, they’re often quite satisfying.

The things to go for here are the Tandoori chicken, the naan, the samosas. We found the Tandoori chicken and samosas to be good, and consistently spiced. The chicken 65 and its cousin, chili chicken, are bland and not really noteworthy. This might be in part to the very poor hot peppers we had on our visits here. They were advertised as “chilis”; with few exceptions they might as well have been bell peppers. This place has quality control issues with its heat, its spiciness. I’ll note I even asked once to make the chicken 65 spicy, and it came out as bland and lifeless as before.

If you watch this video of chicken 65 preparation

Do you think they use 65 different chilis in this preparation?

you’ll note the dish is prepped with plenty of chilis, and that the video author apologizes for how spicy he makes his product. So to be sure, there are different notions of how spicy this dish should be. Even so, I want some spice, and not just a red and underspiced rendition of Kentucky Fried’s best.

I liked most of the other dishes I had. It’s tricky finding diabetic safe vegetables on Zyka’s menu but it is possible.

If you watch the crowds here, they are every color of the rainbow, wearing everything from dress clothes to shorts and slippers. Waiting to place an order, the crowds often extend across a third of the floor, and much of that business is “to go”. Individuals, couples, and large families eat here routinely, so Zyka is surely doing something right.

Zyka
1677 Scott Blvd
Decatur, GA 30033
(404) 728-4444

Another view of Zyka is presented here.

 

Isabella’s Cafe, Decatur GA

Isabella’s Cafe has been slowly creeping up UrbanSpoon’s 10 hottest list, in part due to excellent reviews by Bob Townsend of the AJC, and Amy of Amy on Food, but also in part to a well rounded, diverse menu. The choices were interesting enough that my wife was asking me whether we should go some days ago, and only various misadventures kept us from arriving at this cafe until recently.

I was ravenous when I arrived, a product of missing a couple meals on the day we arrived. Both my wife and my daughter seemed to be looking forward to eating here. The restaurant is very roomy once you arrive, with an exceptionally high ceiling. Tables are spaced far apart, and there is some (though not a lot of) outdoor seating.

There are some good looking appetizers here, and an equally tantalizing collection of salads. One virtue of Isabellas is consistently high quality greens. Food issues such as mine leave me eating a lot of vegetables instead of pastas and other starches. Isabella’s salads are a nice way to avoid the starches that often fill dinner entrées.

This is not, however, a diabetic friendly restaurant (though it does have the potential to be one). The salad dressings are invariably sweet and sugary. Things like a balsamic vinaigrette  are nowhere to be seen. Desserts are all home made, sound wonderful, and are loaded with sweet calories.  All entrées come with plenty of starches, and many of the appetizers are breaded.  Salads and sandwiches make the restaurant bearable, and there are just enough options in the sides and vegetable plates to make it useful.

Ambiance, especially after a hard week, is pretty fantastic. The photos on the walls are appealing, the small descriptions worth a read. The music is a nice accompaniment to the casual atmosphere, and the way the sun filters into the cafe leaves everything bathed in very natural lighting.

In terms of individual plates, the grilled veggie salad was perhaps our favorite, really excellent.  My daughter really liked her Swahili shrimp curry with mango and the samosas we tried went over really well.  My shrimp and andouille sausage sandwich was good and the grilled jerk chicken sandwich pretty good. The spinach was, compared to the other, more spicy alternatives, a bit pale and mild to my tastes. Breads overall were of very high quality.

Wait staff are good, if a little too helpful at times. That salad I ordered was large, but please, step back and realize that some people order a lot of greens for a reason!

Verdict: Deserving of its accolades, with good food and a good staff. A bit too sweet and starchy, but good breads and greens. Highly Recommended.

Isabella’s Cafe
910 West College Avenue
Decatur, GA 30030
(404) 373-7177

 

Community Q BBQ, Decatur GA

I’ve talked to my family about going to Community Q BBQ a number of times, for the most part without success. But on the weekend of the 4th my wife had a serious urge for barbecued ribs. She was working on some old boxes, getting rid of things and just wanted take out. I had called Community Q on the 4th; by the time I called they had closed. This time, the 5th of July, I called earlier and about the first thing I was told is that they were going to run out of meat by around 6:30pm. O-kay.

I cleaned up, asked my wife what she wanted and ordered (my daughter wanted Indian. Thankfully, Bhojanic was next door). I told them I’d arrive at 6:00pm and that’s really about the time I arrived. I then waited to pick up some lamb curry for my daughter and headed home. Since I’m judging a restaurant on take out, it’s not going to be a meal that I compare to anyone else in town. It’s a long drive back from Decatur to Snellville.

While at the restaurant, the music was blues, with a driving beat, and some of the patrons were dancing when I arrived. The line was short, and elements of “community” seemed in place. They’re selling produce at present, along with food. You can get fresh tomatoes and pastured eggs at Community Q. You can also get knives and scissors sharpened, if you’ll drop them off. Not the usual, to be sure.

Half rack of ribs

The bag the meats came in was well secured. Sauces were placed in containers on the side. We got collards, cole slaw, and baked beans. I liked the collards a lot, and ended up eating both servings, along with the slaw. My wife was a little indifferent to the beans, which she described as syrupy. The meats were a different story. We had ordered brisket and ribs. Both were good meats. The brisket was exceptionally tender. Ribs were good. Both were smoked, and you could smell and taste the smoke, even after a long drive home. Smoked meats to me are the difference between “okay” and “really good” in the barbecue world, so we were quite happy.

Now I have to talk my family into actually showing up at Community Q.

Verdict: At the very least, above average smoked meats with good sides. Highly recommended.

Community Q BBQ
1361 Clairmont Road
Decatur, GA 30033
(404) 633-2080

 

Farm Burger, Decatur GA

Farm Burger’s motto appears to be simplicity. Take a good idea, and execute. Ignore the frills, go for the gusto. In this case the driving force is well sourced meat, locally grown, featuring as little processing as possible. The virtues of grass fed beef are becoming better known: cows fed a diet of corn have a relatively poor fat and nutrient profile, heavy in omega-6 fatty acids. Cows feed grass have a more diverse fat and nutrient profile. The butter in particular from pastured animals is superior.

Farm Burger is also a popular place (reviews here, here, here, here, here, here, and here), but for once, it’s a popular place within reasonable reach of Snellville. Of course, the mainstream critics and a whole 80 readers (in a greater metropolitan area of 5.5 million) are already bored of the phenomenon, of actually being forced to eat a locally sourced burger. Must be a hard life, being forced to eat excellent, healthy food.

I’ve been trying to go there a while, to get my family to go, but my wife has had a lingering illness for weeks. This time I had missed a meal to give blood to the physicians, was running low on calories and needing to eat. So of course the most sane solution was to dive down Clairmont Road and head into Decatur, and fix this hunger of mine.

Farm Burger is housed in the same building as Watershed, carved out of the same former gas station. I’d been to Watershed, and so this restaurant was going to be easy to find. Of course, the parking lot was packed. On a side street a couple blocks away, I found parking, and walked to the eatery.

Inside, there is a lot of wood, a lot of blue steel chairs, and a line in which you make your order. Seating is along the edge of the restaurant. There are numbered burgers and build your own. There seems to be a train of thought (Cliff Bostock, iirc) that a burger as subtle as this one shouldn’t be drowned in rich tasting extras. That was certainly also my approach when I bought a burger. Arugula, tomato, red onion, some jalapenos, a slice of swiss. I bought the large salad, a bit expensive at $7.00 but more accessible to a diabetic than fries.

I’m given a glass, I find a place to sit. No water, so I head up to the drinks and they’re taking away the water container. No problem, I’m told. “We’ll get you a bottle, take it to your table.” It wasn’t soon before I had this oversized milk bottle full of H₂O. Yes, very impressed.

Soon after the salad and the burger came. The burger was mostly pink inside. I’d call it medium more than anything else. The texture of the meat was surprisingly smooth, almost creamy. I’d compare it to the Kobe burger at Summit’s, but it didn’t achieve this texture through huge amounts of fat. I suspect it’s the effect of being freshly ground. The effect is subtle, and those critics that said “don’t drown this burger in too much stuff” are dead on.

The salad was tender, at least 2 cups of greens, and pretty well covered in a dressing with bits of cheese in it. There were bits of onion, carrot and celery in it, and at least one garlic clove.

Other notes: I asked about the size of the burger and the amount of fat in it. I was told the burger was between 5.6 and 5.8 ounces in weight, and over 93% fat free.

Verdict: No frills. Excellent burger. Diabetic friendly. Staff rocks. Highly recommended.

Farm Burger
4108 W. Ponce de Leon Ave.
Decatur, GA 30030
(404) 378-5077

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