Your most current guide to all things edible in Atlanta
We need to apologize to all our hardcore followers. We have heard many complaints for our lack of updates with the blog over the last couple months….last post being Nov. 30. The holidays made it tough and then….we’re out of excuses. Anyway, we will be better in 2008. That’s all we can promise. Thanks for continuing to check out the blog and following our food adventures.
I had a girls night out at Portofino on Friday night. The whole restaurant was filled with an older more conservative crowd. We sat comfortably at a quaint table with a white table cloth.
The waiter was young and definitely nice, but also inexperienced. Literally a minute after we had our menu he asked for our drink order..we needed a few minutes to figure everything out After we ordered a bottle of wine, he never once refilled our glasses. He was always a bit awkward, and didn’t add anything to the experience.
I am not sure if anything on the menu stuck out to any of us. We had a hard time deciding. The other girls opted to get an appetizer and a salad as their main course. I was leaning towards the salmon, but the waiter told me the trout was the best option. He seemed pretty confident, so I went with it..not sure if it was the best decision. Some of my bites had flavor, but the others were dry and almost tasteless. Also, polenta is one of my favorite accompaniments; however this polenta did not do it for me. Again, it was a little on the dry side.
The others had a spinach salad, fresh tomato and mozzarella salad, crab cakes, scallops and a cheese plate. Everyone enjoyed their dishes, but I do not think anyone will be running back. The best part of the meal was without question..the company
It was down to Sage and Feast for our next Decatur visit. We had such a good first impression of Decatur at Cafe Lily and Chocolate Bar and we were excited for our follow up meal.
My parents came down on a Sunday to play a little Wii at the house and hang out. Obviously, the most obvious next step was a little family dinner in Decatur because the ‘rents hadn’t been there for more than 10 years. We decided Sage was the place for their menu choices and spot right on the square next to city hall in the middle of Decatur.
Walking into Sage it didn’t feel like anything special or different. It was a quiet night in Decatur so there weren’t that many folks in the restaurant. Hard wood floors, brick walls, simple bar, simple tables, nothing to write on a blog about….wait a minute….Anyway, we sat in a booth ordered some beers and because of our extreme starvation we ordered some hummus and pita chips. Satisfactory.
The problem with Sunday dinners is the fact that it is after the weekend and deliveries new food deliveries don’t happen until Monday at the earliest. Well, we were struck with this problem at Sage as a number of items were out. Not a huge deal as only one of our meals were affected, but a point to note nonetheless. The menu is southern based with all the typical sides of okra, sweet potatoes, brussel sprouts, etc. I ordered the meatloaf which was served with the obvious mashed potatoes, Dad got the Sunday special which included a piece of country fried chicken breast with white gravy that came with two sides and a side salad to start, Jenny got the halibut, and Mom got roasted chicken. We got a number of sides to share at the table.
My meatloaf was two huge pieces that should have fed a family of 3, but I took care of it…no problem. It was good, wasn’t like Mom’s at home, but it was good and I would probably get it next time I went back. Jenny’s halibut was good as well as she finished her meal, but they just weren’t meals that you can’t find at any other typical southern/american type place. You know what I’m saying here? It was all good (okra, gravy, potatoes, fish), but not one of a kind.
So we left satisfied, not poor, full, but our night was not over. We had to hit up the Oreos and Milk at Chocolate bar. See that review for more information, but FYI we cannot make a night of it in Decatur without making that stop.
Mitchell and I ate lunch at Café Sunflower in Sandy Springs and I actually had dinner there a week or two later at the one in Buckhead.
If you are hungry for a hamburger-don’t go there! It is a 100% vegetarian restaurant, filled with organic and even vegan options. Mitchell was a bit confused on what to order, but our laid back hippyish waiter was willing to help. I ordered the black bean cakes and Mitchell got a stir fry dish with tofu.
I must say the black bean cakes were fabulous! The dish came with 4 or 5 cakes, grilled vegetables and coconut flavored sour cream. Every bite was filled with a great combination of spices. My dish was the winner as Mitchell took quite a few bites, which was totally fine because of the large portion. His stir fry was good, standard soy sauce seasoning, also a nicely sized portion.
I am definitely a bigger fan of the lunch menu versus dinner. None of the choices stood out to me for dinner, and I had a hard time choosing my lunch dish. For dinner I went with and eggplant lasagna dish and my friend went with the tofu fajitas. The lasagna was average, not bursting with flavor, no sides and on the expensive side. I took quite a few bites of the fajita dish, but the whole time lunch stood out to me as better.
I think the place is a great option when you are looking for a fresh, healthy, veggie meal!!
Yu-ka is located in the Kroger shopping center across Piedmont from Tower Place. It’s a small joint that you could miss even driving through the shopping center.
Jenny tried it once with one of her friends and came back totally disappointed with the rolls and the fish and the scene, however we decided to give it another go. The decision came because of so many recommendations from other people that raved about it.
We went on a slow night. It is very simply decorated with minimal decorations on the wall. The two of us sat at the sushi bar. We ordered our traditional house salads each and three rolls. I’ll be honest here…I can’t remember for the life of me what rolls they were. However, if you have read any of our other sushi reviews before, we aren’t the most savvy on which places have the BEST fish or most sophisticated negri or sashimi. We are simple roll people, who like a nice-sized roll (bigger than Taka, yet smaller than Typhoon) that tastes pretty damn good. This place covered both bases and also had pretty creative presentation with its rolls. We were extremely impressed from the house salad all the way to the rolls.
Great experience all around. Service was fine, prices were good, food was delicious. It’s moved to the top 5 sushi places in Atlanta to us…..