half food blog. half tech blog. half george blog.
reviews
Review: Thaicoon & Sushi Bar
Mar 30th
www.thaicoonatlanta.com
1799 Briarcliff Rd NE # W
Atlanta, GA 30306-2142
(404) 817-9805
So L has been having this craving for sushi recently, and as a means of filling her cravings as well as further our restaurant repertoire, we bypassed the standby Sushi Yoko and went online to find somewhere to broaden our somewhat barren horizons for sushi in Atlanta.
Our requirements were fairly simple – it had to be affordable (MF and Hayakawa were out) and somewhere new (so was Sushi Yoko). It was also preferable that it wasn’t a buffet (*sob* bye Nori Nori). L knows I have this thing against Yelp, because I have some egotistical thought that people who post reviews on Yelp are uncouth heathens with uneducated palates who would rather get a double cheeseburger from McDonalds. Then I remembered that I like double cheeseburgers from McDonalds. Regardless, Yelp is always a last resort for me.
Since the forums on Atlanta Cuisine closed down (for the umpteenth time), I didn’t have anywhere else to quietly lurk to get my inside Atlanta restaurant info. Fortunately, the regulars from Atlanta Cuisine rebanded under a new forum: 285Foodies.com. It was there where I carefully perused all the thread titles under the restaurant section to look for my unicorn cheap sushi place here in Atlanta – some authentic hole in the wall place by some trained Japanese sushi chef that’s trying to make it big in the States. Unfortunately, if such a place exists, it still hasn’t been a) discovered, or the more likely b) leaked out even to the food connoisseur community.
At the end, I rediscovered Thaicoon – a Thai/sushi place that has a fairly silly name over by Emory. I ate there a number of years ago, when Andy came to visit and it made for a nice weekend lunch with like 12 other people. It obviously was not good enough to leave a very lasting impression on me food-wise, and never even really came up mentally as a working solution to the sparse Thai cuisine here.
But on to the actual experience. We were greeted at our table by a lady who tonged us some hot towels, which reminded me of the similar service when you fly trans-Pacific on a decent airline (Air China != decent). The sushi roll section of the menu (despite its ethnic authenticity, was what L really wanted) was surprisingly extensive, and even better is that they have specials on Monday and Tuesday from 5pm-10pm. The constant stream of people coming in were evident of the weekly specials, and made us wonder what the place looks like on a Wednesday night. Specials were $1 for most nigiri and $2-$3 for a 4 piece roll for select rolls. Not too shabby, I thought, but we decided to order something off the menu anyways.
What we ended up with, via my awesome cell phone cam, after the jump.
Review: Phnom Penh Restaurant – Tucker, GA
Mar 17th
We went to Phnom Penh last night with Su and Sommie, and it was surprisingly delicious. When looking up directions to this place, I had a sudden recollection of Joe (number 2!) mentioning this place and how he really liked it when he and his coworkers stumbled upon it for lunch one day. Knowing Joe’s tolerance for Asian (and other ethnic cuisines), for him to praise a hole-in-the-wall Cambodian place was duly noted and filed away in my mental file cabinet.
It’s tucked away in a non-descript section of Lawrenceville Highway in Tucker, and you would never find it unless you knew to look for the wrong sign. The signage still bears the marks of its previous tenant, Beef Stix. If you’re looking for the place, just drive down Lawrenceville Highway until you see a modernish white and maroon sign labeled Beef Stix. It’s located between Flanigan’s and The Milk Jug but across the street, for you Tucker locals.
We were a little afraid when we pulled up because the place was fairly deserted. There were one or two cars parked out front, and a table of two inside. For context, this was about 7:15 on a Tuesday night. But through some voracious mobile Yelping, our fears were assuaged as review after review recommended a healthy handful of dishes. Inevitably, we ordered them all.
Quick food review:
Baan Chav – A huge nicely textured crepe with an amazingly flavorful meat filling inside. It’s excellent with their dipping sauce.
Fish Amok – Definitely get the fried version. Even though the fish is covered in delicious sauce, it somehow still maintains a good crispiness to it.
Beef Sticks – Very flavorful, with a touch of sweetness to it. The beef they use is fairly good quality steak, and is quite tender.
Noodle Soup with Chicken – This might have been our least favorite dish of the evening, largely because the soup is unexpectedly sweet. Granted, we’re no Cambodian food experts, but it was somewhat of a turn off. The chicken was also a bit dry, but the rice noodles had a good mouth feel and not overcooked.
Curry Saraman with Beef – Our feeling toward this dish might have been somewhat muddled due to the fact that this was the last one out and we were pretty full by then. There is definitely a LOT of flavor, but that may also be why it didn’t appeal so much at the end of the meal. I can see myself eating the whole plate of this with a big bowl of rice as a nice big hungry lunch.
All in all, the food was surprisingly good. There was so much flavor in every dish. Large portions, along with being incredibly affordable, was more than enough for me to grab a take out menu to ease this place into our rotation of go-to quick-and-cheap eats.
The owner was incredibly nice too. He served us the entire evening, and his wife does all the cooking. On weekends, his daughter comes in to cook as well. It’s a true family affair, and it shows. The restaurant, although sparse, is the result of this family doing what they do well – serving up good plates of home cooking.
If you haven’t had a chance to go, make some time to go. It really is a hidden gem in the middle of Tucker.
Some shamelessly stolen pictures from Linda’s phone after the jump:
Review: Two Urban Licks – Sunday “Splurge”
Mar 1st
So we went to Two Urban Licks (or using their trendy capitalization, “TWO urban licks”) for their “Sunday Splurge” last night. It was their first one, I believe, and the food of the evening: lamb. I figured, I like lamb, and so does L, so the two of us along with 4 other friends made reservations like a month ahead of time for last night.
I’ve never been to Two Urban Licks, but I HAVE been to its older sister restaurant, appropriately named, One Midtown Kitchen (okay fine, “ONE. midtown kitchen”). Maybe it was because it was many years ago and Richard Blais was on hand in his pre-Top Chef days, but it was quite a delicious dining experience. Also, the Atlanta restaurant blogosphere in general have given it some favorable words. And for $15 for all you can eat ($21 for all you can eat AND drink), it was too good of a deal to pass up.
Well, I’m glad I went in with not a lot of expectations. When we got there, while waiting in line for the valet, I was explaining to L why we’re eating in renovated warehouse in some out of the way abandoned industrial area. We concluded that it was because restaurants are poor, and so they’ve wound up marketing their cost-savings as something “trendy”. As soon as I opened my car door to the valet, it started going downhill, just as you would expect for dining in an abandoned warehouse. It started with them trying to give my reservation away. We got there a few minutes late, but Aaron had boldly gone in before us to get our table, only to be shot down to discover that our table reserved for 6 got cut down to 4, claiming it was a first-come first-serve basis. Yeah, that wasn’t going to fly with me and my month-old reservation. By the time I stormed in there, they magically had a table for 6 for us. Weird.
The place was packed out. Once we sat down, the food started coming. A cast iron dish of hummus, a Mediterranean cucumber salad, some small pita rounds, and a place of smoked lamb and roasted potatoes. I shared a similar sentiment with my fellow diners when they looked around and was like, “That’s it?” It’s hard to use the word “splurge” for the equivalent of one entree, one side, and one appetizer.
Regardless, our hunger surpassed any complaint and we dug in. Quick initial food review:
Cucumber salad – mediocre
Hummus – garlicky, with a hint of peppers
Pita rounds – somewhat stale
Lamb – smoky, but cold
Roasted potatoes – mushy
The all-you-can-drink part of the meal consisted of a cheap Spanish red and a white that I didn’t pay a particular amount of attention to. Bottles were all open and not full by the time they landed on our tables, which leads me to suspect some discrepancy between what’s on the label and what’s in the bottle. I personally didn’t have any, but it didn’t seem like I was missing out on much.
Service was also fairly abysmal. Granted, the server to table ratio could have been better for such a busy night, but our server definitely paid more attention to the table behind us than us. Automatic gratuity was added on for our table of 6. That probably had something to do with it.
Successive food refills were delayed and inconsistent. The second plate of lamb was so raw that JW thought it was an entirely different dish. When we finally grabbed the attention of our server, she tried to pawn it off as medium rare. For someone who takes pictures of everything he eats, this meal was so unmemorable that it didn’t really matter. Besides, I forgot my camera. But had I brought it, I think I would have taken a picture of “medium rare” raw lamb. The third plate had maybe 5 pieces of lamb and 48 chunks of mushy potatoes. The fourth was the most tolerable, as it was a) warmer than room temp, b) actually cooked, and c) we all got at least 1-2 pieces. Unfortunately, having no other scapegoat, the lamb wound up being overcooked and became an exercise in not cramping up your jaw muscles.
During the course of this meal, the kitchen ran out of pita circles as well as red wine, with a run on the white. That’s okay, by this point we were legitimating discussing Taco Bell as a finisher.
So that’s that. There are two more “splurges” scheduled for March – one for chicken and one for seafood. Caveat emptor.
Maybe their actual order-off-the-menu items are better. But Two Urban Licks (I will use proper capitalization thankyouverymuch), you did not leave me with a very good impression. I’d choose your big sister over you, but at the end, it’s still Concentrics Restaurants that gets my money.