Comment Archives: stories: Food & Drink
Re: “Grazing: Atlanta Fish Market”
@Wesleywhatwhat - what is frightening isn't just his inability to read a map etc, but that the man has degrees in psychology! Deep personal prejudices would be disturbing in a psychologist. For want of an unbiased food writer, dare I say food critic (vs people critic), in a major city like Atlanta.
Oh well at least through these comments we can all help each other figure out what is going on with the restaurants.
Re: “Chow Bing: Bubble tea and burritos”
Getting involved in a comment-thread slappy fight about Atlanta neighborhood boundaries is about the dumbest thing I regularly do. But I'm weak -- I'm a map nerd and it's my calling.
The city's NPU W map shows Grant Park's neighborhood boundaries extending northwest to the corner of Decatur and Hilliard Streets, right alongside the Pencil Factory. So calling it a "Grant Park area" place is not wrong.
http://www.atlantaga.gov/modules/showdocum…
Personally, I'd prefer the boundary to not go north of the train tracks because it's a physical barrier. But the map is what it is.
Re: “Chow Bing: Bubble tea and burritos”
smynings. it's all smynings these days.
Re: “Chow Bing: Bubble tea and burritos”
Its not just Cliff on that one. Grant Park people always seem to do this. Anything within a 2 mile radius of them is considered Grant Park.
Re: “Chow Bing: Bubble tea and burritos”
i stopped reading after the first sentence - "The newest restaurant in the Grant Park area..."?
still haven't figured out the ol' google machine, bostock? the pencil factory lofts aren't in grant park. or the "grant park area".
if u can't get basic FACTS correct, why should we think your OPINIONS in the rest of the review have any value?
gary lin, feel free to ignore bostock's opinion. everyone else does.
Re: “Grazing: Atlanta Fish Market”
jadzia, i think you've figured out bostock's schtick.
it's a shame for his sake that he can't read a map or work a GPS device, but then we would all miss out on the opportunity to crap on the shitty articles he writes every week.
Re: “Grazing: Atlanta Fish Market”
@Smitty true about the Hong Kong sauce being sweet. The original AFM chef, who created the dish had a light touch with a savory focus. I moved back to Atlanta in 2008 and one of the first dishes I wanted was the Hong Kong seabass - what a shock!
Almost all dishes in Atlanta restaurants tend towards sweet whether directly or as a supporting flavor. Hard to get a decent savory dish in the Atlanta area. Even some of the Vietnamese places have been turning up the sweetness of their dishes :-(
Re: “Review: Panita Thai Kitchen”
My wife an I went here for lunch. We waited maybe 40 minutes despite being one of two groups in the restaurant at the time.
Our food came. My Pad See Ew was honestly pretty good. My wife's dish was an inedible mess of salt and overcooked hot peppers. She asked to send her dish back and get something else instead. The owned agreed and took her order for the new dish. A few minutes later he came back out an informed us that he was going to charge for all three dishes. The most amazing exchange ensued when we tried to explain that that was not what we wanted:
1) He rather loudly called my wife a racist, informing her "we are equal, our skin is the same." Aside from being bizzarre and irrelevant to trying to send back a dish of bad food, it was actually literally true - my wife grew up in southern china and was the only other asian person in the restaurant.
2) He yelled at us every time we tried to talk or reason with him. Just outright tantrum-style yelled over us when we tried to talk.
3) He refused to adjust the bill.
4) He disinvited us from ever returning.
So... yeah. I mean I guess maybe some of their other food is good? I suppose I'll never know. There's enough other Thai restaurants in Atlanta that I don't think We'll be missing much, other than verbal abuse with our meals.
Re: “Grazing: Atlanta Fish Market”
I knew I shouldn't, but I went to AFM once last year.
Fish and shrimp cocktail were overcooked and ALL the food had too much salt, sugar, or something. The Hong Kong sauce was nauseatingly sweet.
I wrote it off as serving Atlantans what they really want--Red Lobster.
Re: “Chow Bing: Bubble tea and burritos”
Thank you kindly for taking the time out to visit Chow Bing, Cliff. We value greatly your opinions, as we do that of all our customers. Our goal is to make Chow Bing a place everyone loves to come to because the food is delicious as well as nutritious.
We've taken into consideration your thoughts on the "bland" tasting food, and we realize it will be important for us, moving forward, to ensure our customers know they can have their meals seasoned as they like. As everyone has different taste levels, we like to think of what we offer as a canvas, for you to pick what suits your palate. As we continue to grow and build our restaurant, we look forward to receiving feedback from customers such as yourself on how we can be better and also look forward to serving you again, next time, exceeding your expectations.
Kind regards,
Gary Lin
Owner
Chow Bing Restaurant
Re: “Grazing: Atlanta Fish Market”
Haven't been back since getting a severely overcooked piece of fish, ten years ago. Never again.
Re: “What's next on Mackle's plate”
I got no idea what ALIENZRUS is getting at but you have to admire someone who delves more than a decade into the CL archives.
Re: “Grazing: Atlanta Fish Market”
I've been to the Optimist the oyster bar is great, the dining room meals are incredibly uneven. Must everything be "special and different" to be considered an excellent meal? Swordfish poached in duck fat - fine as an occasional offering but not a steady diet. Seafood restaurants need to focus on fresh seafood prepared consistently with a menu that has a majority of entrees that don't have you picking thru choices that have ingredients competing with the flavor of the seafood.
This constant harping on ITP diners being more diverse than OTP is a clear indication of the writers personal prejudices of race/ethnic and money. Let's see I live in Cobb I have Trinidadian, African, Brazilian, Cuban, Colombian, etc restaurants that primarily cater to people from those countries. I can hit Peruvian, Uruguayan, actually all of Latin American, all of SE Asia, and most of Eastern Europe in Gwinnett. Somehow these restaurants (people, food, status in society) don't meet the writer's definition of diverse diners.
Re: “What's next on Mackle's plate”
EDNA ---SHOULDA QUIT WRITING ABOUT THE TIME HER NON-FICTION BECAME FICTION---AND SHE WAS CLUELESS IT HAD OCCURRED--"LIKE A B-A-D CASE OF PARANOIA OR ALZHEIMER'S"...!
Re: “Six brews to check off your Atlanta beer bucket list”
What a great list. It would not be a bucket list if all of the beers are available at the corner store. It is great that we now have the ability to make a list of Atlanta beers. Used to be Sweetwater and Dogwood and a couple of more obscure breweries. Hats off to those pioneers and to the crew that got the ABV limit raised so that we can get the variety we have today, and the possibility of great local beer in the future.
Re: “Villains Wicked Heroes to open Friday”
Clubber Lang was from Rocky 3, not 2.
Re: “Six brews to check off your Atlanta beer bucket list”
Scott, "mediocre" implies just barely acceptable. What else was brewed locally 10 or so years ago that you think was a better beer than 420? Dogwood? Red Brick? (I assume we're talking about packaged beer and not something only available in a brewpub.) I stand by my recollection that 420 was the best local beer available at the time and stand by my assertion that just because today there are more adventurous local beers available doesn't make 420 any worse. What I'm saying is simply that 420 is a very good example of its style and always has been.
Re: “Six brews to check off your Atlanta beer bucket list”
Sweetwater was not the best thing here 10 years ago. Being the biggest craft brewer in the city does not equate to being the best. By using that logic, Bud Light would be the best beer.
Further, don't misconstrue mediocre with bad.
There were and are better choices.
Re: “Six brews to check off your Atlanta beer bucket list”
Hey critics of Sweetwater 420. You people who hardly had any craft beer at all here in this backwater state until just a few years ago sure became beer snobs quickly. It was the best thing here 10 years ago, and it's still pretty good. It was Atlanta's answer to Sierra Nevada, which had, and still has, a major market. I remember when bars in the East excitedly announced they had a new beer on tap: Sierra Nevada. It's a shame that people have lost their enthusiasm for the style. It's not too much of a stretch to think of American or West Coast-style Pale Ale as the archetype of all American craft beer that followed. It's America's contribution to the beer world. You are spoiled for choice now, that's your problem. Enjoy your Imperial Triple Barrel-Aged Hophead monstrosity du jour.
Re: “Chow Bing: Bubble tea and burritos”
You want to see some "creative" neighborhood designations..... Start house shopping. Peoplestown is not Grant Park no matter how much a real estate agent tries to tell you.