Real Chow Baby, Buford GA

Just to the left of the main entrance of the Mall of Georgia, a Real Chow Baby has opened. This is a welcome addition to the Mall of Georgia dining scene. It isn’t the first Mongolian stir-fry to open in this area, but as the other one suffers from serious crowding (45 minutes from the order before you can get to the food, sometimes), having another alternative eases the crunch.

I think real Chow Baby calls their style of eating “new American stir fry”, but in my generation it was called a Mongolian barbecue, often seen in USAF officer’s clubs, but usually as a rare special, perhaps once or twice a year. In the Air Force renditions, it was also accompanied by hula girls, a local singer, and a real attempt to embarrass whatever ranking officer was attending.

There are no hula girls at this location, just a lot of good veggies, decent meat selections, good staff. The look is a bit more open than the stir frys we have visited. Perhaps the mall itself – adding plenty of glass along the front – gives the restaurant less of a club-like atmosphere.

Talking to staff, this restaurant has been open about two and a half months.

Real Chow Baby
3333 Buford Dr, Suite 2022
Buford, GA 30519
(678) 730-2880

 

Watershed at Peachtree, Atlanta GA

The new Watershed is next door to a Uncle Julio’s, a good thing, as Watershed itself isn’t that easy to see, or for that matter, all that easy to get to. We went recently to try their brunch. It’s a solid brunch offering, perhaps not as over the top as some other brunches we’ve had. It’s a little more ordinary, a little more sedate.

Biscuits were excellent, my wife ordered more after receiving her first.

Seafood melange, a mix of seafood in a bowl that otherwise had a brown gravy and grits, was also pretty darned good. No one in the family are grits eaters, but were were eating those.

Perhaps our favorite was the smoked trout salad, with rich smoky flavors in the fish and plenty of tender spinach.

With it being brunch, we really didn’t get to the kinds of dishes that made Watershed’s reputation initially. That said, service was excellent, and the restaurant is beautiful, certainly suitable for a date.

Watershed at Peachtree
1820 Peachtree Road
Atlanta GA 30309
(404) 809 – 3561

 

Buckhead Diner, Atlanta GA

Buckhead Diner has a way of reminding people what a good dining experience is all about. The little things: asking your name as you enter, whether you have reservations or not, of then using that name in every conversation staff has with you. There is the uniform, with tie, that all staff wear. There is the constant graceful service that follows being seated. There is the manager, who makes sure your meal was right for you. There is the way, when you have food issues, the staff and chefs will work with you to get the whole meal just right. Metaphorically, Buckhead Diner is a fine vintage automobile, reminding people that yes indeed, some folks know how to put together a well oiled machine.

The other thing a reader needs to understand is that it’s easy to read glowing reviews of Buckhead Diner and think, “There is no way a mere diner can be that good.” I’ll suggest that, just as the green of the tropics, so green you might think the photos are retouched, that no, most reviews of Buckhead Diner are actually pretty sober affairs and the superlatives are in fact earned. This isn’t your neighborhood IHOP folks, this is about as close as anyone in Atlanta can get to a walk-in fine dining experience.

Amazingly thick and rich.

We’ll start with the milk shake my daughter received. It was so thick that if you dropped a quarter on it flat side, that the quarter would float and not sink. It was so good my daughter wasn’t able to drink most of it, as my wife started stealing bites of it routinely.

Buckhead Diner’s fried chicken, perhaps the best entree we ordered.

There was the fried chicken, sold only on Sundays and Wednesdays, that when my daughter took a bite, she could help but say, “OMG, so good!” And I’m sure the more cynical of my readers are saying, “Chicken? Give me a break!” But the deal is, Buckhead Diner marinates that chicken. It isn’t the packaged bird from Kroger rolled in panko, it’s something supercharged to another flavor level.

Chili thai calamari. Great tasting, though the sauce was more a classic sweet and sour style than recognizably Thai.

Are there things to complain about? Sure. For example, we had Buckhead Diner’s chili thai calamari, and though the calamari was good, and the mix of peppers, octopus, breading and sauce tasty, the sauce itself more resembled the sweet and sour sauce found in any generic American-Chinese restaurant, as opposed to a distinctively Thai style flavoring. My daughter wasn’t altogether fond of the cheese used on their mac and cheese. But you have to get down to this level of detail before you can begin to find fault with the food.

table breads.

Under the pepper, portobello, and asparagus is a fine bit of lamb.

Other things of note. It’s easy to forget the bread they bring to the table, but the breadsticks and small jalapeno cornbreads are worth some time and trouble. My entree was a lamb shank, braised until it was fork tender, served with vegetables and a brown sauce. The serving was considerably smaller than the bowl it came in, but tasty and still tasting like lamb.

Serving sizes are ample and we didn’t have room to get to the desserts, which are highly thought of.

Some notes on pricing. I think burgers start around 12 and go up, dinner salads around 15. A main dish may start about 16, tend to be 18-22, and the most expensive thing I saw was a fine steak around 30 dollars. Given the quality and the almost anytime access, I think the food here is reasonably priced. But I would suggest that, for those who use plastic to pay for meals in this price range, to bring enough cash to tip the staff in cash. They’re worth it.

Buckhead Diner
3073 Piedmont Road NE
Atlanta, GA 30305
(404) 262-3336

Atlanta

 

Access from Snellville: Google Maps suggested an excellent route to this diner, one easily summarized. Take 78 into town until the N Druid Hills split and head down N Druid Hills. Turn left when you reach LaVista Road (there will be a Steak N Shake on the left). Take LaVista until it becomes Lindburgh and turn right when Lindburgh intersects Piedmont. 1.2 miles later on your right you will see Buckhead Diner. Don’t be surprised if you see Fogo De Chao first, as it’s a taller building and nearby.

 

Claude’s off the Bayou, Loganville GA

Claude’s off the Bayou is housed in a modest brick and siding building just to the side of Highway 78, and serves both barbecue and some simpler Cajun dishes. It’s an intriguing combination, but for bloggers, represents something of a challenge. It’s just about impossible to make a judgement on barbecue and Cajun in one trip, and for now, that’s all I have.

Crawfish tails with fried green tomatoes, foreground, and alligator bites with fries, background.

The short take home is that you can’t go wrong with any of Claude’s fried platters. The alligator bites are good. Crawfish tails are tasty and have a hint of spice to them. Hugh puppies are decent. I wasn’t fond of Claude’s gumbo, lacking spice, but overall this restaurant can be ranked into the pretty good to good category. About half of all restaurants that claim Cajun/Creole roots in Atlanta will never be written about on this blog. They’re not good enough. And Claude’s is good enough to talk about.

There are bits of bark in that mustard sauce drenched meat.

Claude’s smoker: do they use it to its potential?

In terms of their barbecue, based on a single pulled pork sandwich, I can say they like their product to be fall off the bone tender and to allow the sauce to carry flavor. But clearly there are dark spots in that light brown meat, and hints of smoke flavor. Further, there is a smoker in the back of the restaurant. So without knowing any more, I’d have to say Claude’s has some tantalizing hints of being able to provide a smoked meat product. But whether they do, and on any kind of consistent basis, would have to be determined on further visits.

Claude’s Off the Bayou
2200 Commerce Drive
Loganville, GA 30052
(770) 466-8889

 

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

 

Serpas Restaurant, Atlanta GA

Scott Serpas is one of the name chefs of this city, and his restaurant has certainly been on my wish list for a long time. This Sunday I finally made time to visit. I took my family, and we were all pretty happy we showed.

It’s a roomier restaurant than I expected. It isn’t cramped, the tables have plenty of space. The restaurant has a long bar that occupies maybe a fifth of the total space, never entirely straight, bent at angles. Tables and walls are finished in natural wood. It’s a nice look, clean and modern. Staff are dressed in brown, with aprons, and staff were excellent this day. There is complimentary valet parking if you eat at Serpas. The valets were a pleasure to deal with.

Beignets (excellent).

Oyster appetizer.

Bread Basket, with a scoen and some cornbread peeking out.

Food: we enjoyed it. Everything was good. We may have enjoyed appetizers most of all, with a good bread basket, good fried oysters, and beignets that left the table arguing about whether they had better in Breaux Bridge or not. My wife ordered pancakes, as she’s recovering from oral issues, and my daughter ordered fried oysters eggs benedict. I ordered the creole omelet.

Eggs benedict or eggs florentine?

There was little to regret with the entrees. Yes, I wish I had a bit more andouille in my omelet, and my daughter complained of sour flavors in her eggs benedict (or are those eggs florentine, really). But overall the experience was excellent, the feeling was the food suggested an understated expertise in preparation.

Serpas Restaurant
659 Auburn Avenue #501
Atlanta, GA 30312
(404) 688-0040

Atlanta

 

Georgia French Bakery and Cafe, Duluth GA

Georgia French Bakery has been in Duluth for, roughly, one and a half decades, and yet, bloggers just don’t write about this place. Why? Because the new insert-trendy-cliche-here joint in Midtown is more newsworthy than an authentic French bakery in the ‘burbs? I suspect in all honesty, as the location is a little tricky (on Satellite, a bit to the mall-side of the corner of Satellite and Pleasant Hill), and the proprietor (yes, French) is modest, disconnected from the food news machine, that it gets missed. No spiky jelled hair, no chummy chum with Tony, and well, whether you’re authentic and serve the real deal just doesn’t need to count, does it?

At lunch they serve sandwiches. You get four styles of bread, and the offerings for the day are placed on a blackboard, easy to see. I’d show the blackboard but the picture is blurred.

I enjoyed the proprietor, spoke with him briefly, largely about the closing of Cafe Gourmandises, which used to be the lead French eatery in these parts.

Recommended? Yes. We’ll be back. Authentic French isn’t all that common.

Georgia French Bakery and Cafe
3512 Satellite Boulevard
Duluth, GA 30096
(770) 622-2682

 

Zoe’s Kitchen, Dunwoody GA

Zoe’s Kitchen calls its cuisine “Mediterranean inspired comfort food”, but arriving at lunch hour peak to the Dunwoody location, you’ll find very little comfort in the dining experience. It is a nightmare dealing with the crush in the parking lot, the crowd in the eatery, the dirt and filth spread by overuse of the facilities, loud out of control children, dirty cramped tables shared with strangers. Since Zoe’s is a chain, I suspect they think making people eat under these conditions is a good thing, but given the alternatives in the area (isn’t Joey D’s Oak Room just across the street?), you have to ask yourself what kind of masochist you are to even brave Zoe’s.

That’s the lunch hour rush view. Step back a bit, let the rush pass, and suddenly, private seating opens up, the efficient staff quickly clean and free space, and you can get a glimpse of what the dining experience could be when the appropriate number of folks are occupying the space. And what it is is a very mixed dining experience.

Ambience: First of all, let’s lead by saying the Dunwoody Zoe’s is pretty. It has some nice tables, nice chairs, real plates, real knives and forks. There is plenty of glass with a north side view. The eatery is much wider than it is deep, and for someone wanting some sunlight while they eat a huge bowl of salad, it has plenty of offer.

One of the best things about Zoes are the marinated beef kabobs.

To the food: I had steak kabobs, grilled vegetables, and a small greek salad. The kabobs were good, with large chunks of tender, tasty marinated beef. Other items on the kabob were lacking, thin slices of vegetables that didn’t really satisfy. The grilled vegetables were a mixed bag, lacking the umami you would expect from a mix containing as many onions and mushrooms as it did. The broccoli seemed undercooked compared to the much softer vegetables in which it was found, and the texture change was jarring.

The greek salad was full of tender green leaves, and otherwise, nothing really to speak of. It lacks the flavor you would expect from a more serious attempt at Mediterranean cuisine.

If you can avoid the crush, there is some food value in Zoe’s, especially the meats. But nothing else about the food quality rises much above fast food levels, and as fast food goes, Zoes is a pricey option. It really isn’t competitive in quality with, say, the filet mignon sandwich that Joey D’s serves next door, and Joey’s is an infinitely more comfortable place to wait.

Take home: There is enough virtue in this restaurant to review it. There is not enough virtue to recommend it in a eatery rich environment like the Perimeter Mall area. There are a fistful of better dining experiences within two blocks at this price point. If you love kabobs, large servings of fresh, tender, uninspired greens, or the vague hint of ethnicity that Zoes evokes, feel free to go. If one of these appears in a suburban dining hell, there may not be a better, more restful option. But if you’re in the Perimeter Mall area and considering this restaurant, for heaven’s sake, avoid this place during the lunch rush.

Zoe’s Kitchen
1165 Perimeter Center West
Atlanta, GA 30338
(770) 512-8637

 

Hammock’s Trading Company, Sandy Springs GA

Hammock’s is a cozy place, living in repurposed space, and with nothing really like it nearby. In terms of having a deft versatile menu, it compares well with No 246, which we recently reviewed. It’s not as exotic a menu as 246, but has both tapas style dishes and main courses, and plenty of variations of oysters, clams and shrimp.

It’s really good looking inside and could be used for a variety of purposes. You could eat a burger, get a brew and watch some sports – they have a large screen or two. You could eat light, exploring the various seafood options this restaurant provides. And it is upscale enough for a business lunch or a sales presentation.

Staff here have been excellent when I have visited, one of the strengths of this restaurant.

Hammock’s Trading Company
7285 Roswell Road
Sandy Springs, GA 30328
(770) 395-9592

 

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