Gu’s Bistro is on the cusp of changing the entire Chinese restaurant scene here in Atlanta. As it stands, ATLiens find themselves pilgrimaging to one of two zip codes whenever they crave something other than Americanized Chinese cuisine. One area is the Cloverleaf, where two Szechuan kitchens founded by the ronin-esq Peter Chang stand by (for the uninitiated, those two restaurants are Tasty China and Tasty China 2). The other area is the much mythologized Buford Highway, home of great mystique and much pomp.
It’s in the latter culinary causeway that we find Gu’s Bistro; perhaps the most lauded example of traditional Szechuan Chinese food in the Atlanta area. No doubt there are many devotees of the two Tasty China outposts; however, a number of his minions now frequent Gu’s in light of Chang’s departure to VA.
Regardless of which restaurant you fancy, most all will agree that good Asian restaurants in inner city Atlanta are few and far between. Now, Gu’s is looking to change that and save folks many many gallons of gas. Their targeted destination is the yet to open Krog Street Market. The ink isn’t on the paper yet but it’s about to be. Call this a rumor; but, call it a rumor with A LOT of legs.
If you haven’t heard of the KSM metroplex, it’s a large project going down in the heart of Inman Park. It’s scheduled to open this year and the builders are actively pursuing restaurants from the likes of Ford Fry. Meanwhile, with the recent opening of BoccaLupo and the impending opening of Staplehouse, the area is almost certain to be Atlanta’s new “it” neighborhood (at least in terms of restaurants … which is the only thing that matters).
It’s been a few years since I’ve said anything of substance on Sushi House Hayakawa, and that needs to change, even if my feelings towards this delightful Atlanta sushi bar have not. Stashed away on the BuHi corridor of Doraville, I half feel like a damn investor. Mind you, this isn’t due to some compromising relationship with owner Atsushi Hayakawa (call him Art or Haya-san). Rather, it’s just that I’ve pumped more than a g-string’s worth of the green stuff into Haya-san’s pockets by way of an onslaught of visits in the near four year run for the restaurant.
During the unfortunate periods when my visits come at a snail’s pace, I find my impression of the restaurant seems to cool and I begin to question its place amongst the handful of better than average sushi bars around the city. I leave realizing how fucking insane and seriously bat shit crazy those doubts are. Each new visit washes away that pish posh and reinvigorates my warmth for the jovial little Japanese restaurant.
Writing about Café Todahmgol in Duluth is an exercise in frustration … I just get hungry. Perhaps that is why I’ve never spent the time to relay my thoughts on this tucked away Korean restaurant way up yonder. You see, as you begin to reach the Northeast border of Atlanta, most often identified by Interstate 285 and Spaghetti Junction, Korean restaurants become as common place as even the most inundating of fast food chains.
Though these spots are everywhere, it seems as if most “ethnic food” passionistas continually identify just a handful of restaurant when discussing Atlanta’s best Korean Barbecue. Restaurants like Han Il Kwan, Hae Woon Dae, Honey Pig, Iron Age, and Myung Ga Won repeatedly get a nod. Cho Sun Ok, Sun and Moon Café, and Star Daepo also get mentioned. That’s frankly just the tip of the iceberg. I’ve been to all of those places, some several times over, and yet I’m constantly disappointed that Café T, one of Atlanta’s best Korean restaurants of any discipline, is buried beneath a heap of the less worthy.
Atlanta’s outskirts, particularly around Buford Highway, are covered by Mexican grocery markets that double as quick hit taquerias. I’ve visited a number of them and little excites me as much as a walk through an instantaneous culture shock. Supermercado Chicago, known to us gringos as Chicago Supermarket, is one such window into Mexican culture and to date is one of my more trustworthy spots for that type of experience.
A bit larger than some of the other Mexican grocery stores in town, Chicago has always struck me as the “CVS” of these shopping sites. With piñatas hanging from the ceiling and a handful of knickknacks scattered throughout the isles, I would not be surprised if Chicago had supplanted Richard’s Five & Dime in my childhood databanks had my parents been of Mexican lineage. Still, I’ve never walked out of Chicago with anything more than what I arrived with. No, the true reason for every single visit to CS is the little taco counter in the back and I don’t leave scraps!
Sorry folks, I’ve been absolutely swamped with work and such. Alas, my blogging has been essentially non-existent. However, I promise to get back on the hobby horse momentarily. While you were sleeping, I’ve been out and about and taken a couple of trips to Hugh Acheson’sEmpire State South. While y’all wait on that … check out Cliff’s notes! Now on to the sad but true.
Wan Lai (4897 Buford Hwy) is apparently the latest BuHiChinese hot spot to go tits up. Infused by EatDrinkMan [If you don’t follow him – you are dead to me] and confirmed by DrZachary thru their own website, this place is gone to the Dead Pool. Take it upon Spark Plug to have the goods as well … her photo is the one above.
Let’s all mourn for a restaurant that most every foodie in the city hit up more than once. I’m sure there’s more to the story, but I’m not privy to any of it. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, might I suggest that ignorance is bliss. If you have a hankering to find out more about that chicken, check out my first impression.
Last night, I rolled out of the house ‘bout 8pm hell bent on a mission. You see, Buford Highway is canvassed with Korean restaurants. It’s a cuisine I love and covered in the past and a culinary adventure reviewed extensively by stalwarts like Eat, Drink, Man (linky), Take Thou Food (linky), and Chow Down Atlanta (linky). My mission: find a place untouched by our collective obsession. That’s no small task but as luck would have it … the food gods smiled on me.
Stationed in one of the dime a dozen strip centers in Chamblee is a brand new Korean restaurant. It’s so new that they don’t even have menus and even the name seems to be debatable. The sign outside might tell you the name, but I don’t know cuz I can’t read the damn thing. For now, I’ve assigned it the title of Korea Soup House. It’s located at 7130 Buford Highway, denoted by a 24-hour sign, and sits next to Mirak, a Korean joint discussed by the aforementioned Gene Lee, aka EDM. Let’s put it like this … despite casual digs and no menus, I felt like I had fleeced them when I saw the $25.00 pre-tip bill they handed me.
What The Pho (actually spelled phở and pronounced fuh as in fuck – hey someone’s gotta say it!) is one of suburban Atlanta’s long standing Vietnamese restaurants. It’s been in the Duluth/Gwinnett area for a handful of years and has seen its share of foodistas slip quietly through its very casual digs. Though I’ve dusted my share of pho bowls, it’s been some time since my last visit and hence we have a faux first impression.
Joined in arm by one sleek beauty, we set off from the inner city one Tuesday evening destined for this Pleasant Hill mainstay. It’s just a few steps east of Buford Highway, sitting north side and next to the destination worthy Café Todahmgol. Given the area’s propensity for mysterious signs that might as well say “Go Pho-ck Yourself” in some other language, you might want to tote a GPS with you if you’re navigationally challenged. Somehow, even though I’ve been in the area a million times … I managed to take a wrong turn!
Detours aside, I finally manage to convince Laura that when I pulled into the strip center, I meant to. We walked in ready to Narfle the Garthok and chit chat our night away. [This is where you ask yourself … What the Pho is he talking about?]
Mrs. Vennerable and I make it our personal quest to check out as many bulgogi offerings as we can. That being the case, it should be no surprise that the two of us made our way up to Doraville and stumbled into Today Restaurant (or Woori Jip for the Korean in you) to add another notch in that bedpost. You see, most Atlanta foodie fanatics have made a food quest or two up Buford Highway in search of great grub. The area is knee deep in what we American’s identify as “ethnic food;” and, if you didn’t know better … you could probably spend a few years eating a meal a day there and never enter the same stronghold more than once.
Despite the endless array of options, a handful of restaurants in each cultural compartment always seem to garner a good bit of attention. In the case of Korean cuisine, Hae Woon Dae is one such establishment. Why do I mention HWD in a review of Today Restaurant? Simple, because they are smack dab on top of each other. Unfortunately for Today, Hae Woon Dae is a bit of a behemoth in reputation and I can’t imagine it helps to be their neighbor. However, as Vennerable and I turned into the somewhat off the beaten path parking lot at 5805 Buford Highway, the mystery of the unknown is exactly why we stepped out of the shadows for a meal (well, that and the fact that Don Quixote is closed on Sunday’s).
Snuggled between those two eateries you’ll find a demonstrative sign and a busy as a bee doorway. Behind that door sits the predictably styled establishment known around these English speaking parts as Today Restaurant. At first sight, the ground work was certainly there for a foodie discovery worthy of the “Foodie Finds” tag (currently reserved for The Kind Pie and Celia’s Carniceria). While the meal didn’t quite knock it out of the park like those two, we left feeling like we got our monies’ worth.
It’s amazing how often one can drive by a restaurant and never even think to enter. It’s even more astounding when one breaks from tradition (Peking Duck), samples the grub, and finds that the restaurant is a real gem. Such is the case for Wong Kee BBQ & Peking Duck, a stealth bomber Chinese restaurant in Norcross, GA. Even if the meal wasn’t flat out perfect, there isn’t a single reason to think that our abbreviated lunch experience at Wong Kee won’t go down as one of the more scrumptious samplings of this calendar year.
Tucked in the corner of Ben Thanh Plaza (know to us Gaijin as Oakbrook Square Shopping Center), foot traffic for this strip mall usually goes the way of Hong Kong Supermarket. To (Peking duck) complicate matters, Wong Kee’s immediate neighbor is the widely overrated Bento Café (which I’ll recap in the next few days if not hours). As a consequence of those two hot topics, this “little Chinese restaurant that could” seems to get a little lost in the mix. After a single glance, that appears to be a real shame.
Having just spent a good 30-minutes stuffing my face full of Celia’s, Spark Plug and I left Brother Chris behind and went to top off over at Bento Café (Peking Duck). On our way through the Ben Thanh parking lot, two words of mystical harmony caught my eye: “Peking Duck.” One look in the window and we were hooked. Adventures were in order and Wong Kee gladly obliged.
Buford Highway restaurants carry with them a certain pedigree that is often unsubstantiated. The straight shot road that stretches from the inners of the city to well beyond the loop is home to a number of ethnic delights. However, self-proclaimed foodies seem to treat any establishment located on or near BuHi with unabashed reverence. Call it guilt by association.
Public enemy number one, none other than the ever popular Café 101. The large, free-standing rotunda that sits about a half-mile inside the loop, has been there for years. It seems like a good two or three since I myself last sat down to sample C101’s goods. So though this isn’t quite a first impression, this isn’t a full review nor a quick hits post.
