I always really enjoy talking with Gary Lin. He’s one of Atlanta’s most criminally underrated chefs, a guy who believes very strongly in food sustainability and healthy ideals. With Chow Bing, he’s come up with a very good menu – even if one item on it is a little bizarre – but the success of large crowds and lots of buzz outside the hobbyist gang has so far eluded him. In part that’s because he opened the first Chow Bing in a very tough location. There’s absolutely no pedestrian traffic crossing the downtown connector from Grady to the Pencil Factory Lofts. So he’s rolled the dice on a big real estate gamble and opened a second location in a much more visible shopping center in Buckhead, diagonally across the parking lot from the “Disco Kroger.” Last month, he invited the Association of Food Bloggers to sample the menu. Continue reading “Chow Bing Chinese Grill, Atlanta GA”
Category: chinese
Gu’s Bistro, Doraville GA (take two) (CLOSED)
I issued a standing demand to Emily, our friend from Spatialdrift, as she and Adam continued their inexorable march north up Buford Highway eating at every single non-chain restaurant. When she got to Gu’s Bistro, I wanted to be there. Any excuse for a trip to Gu’s will bring at least one of us from our distant suburb to this one. Mind you, that Shan City Chicken at Man Chun Hong – see last week’s story – is drop-your-mouth amazing, but Gu’s is probably my overall favorite Chinese restaurant in the city. Continue reading “Gu’s Bistro, Doraville GA (take two) (CLOSED)”
Man Chun Hong, Doraville GA
Over the last four years, all my old stereotypes of Chinese food have been dismantled and demolished, and I have started to enjoy the pleasure of finding more authentic cooking. At this stage, there are only a couple of places in the Atlanta area that we’ve visited a second or third time as we look for more places with exciting menus to add to our small knowledge base. I think we can safely add Doraville’s Man Chun Hong to that short list. This is definitely a place we want to visit again repeatedly. Continue reading “Man Chun Hong, Doraville GA”
Tasty China, Marietta GA
Over the course of 2013, I did a better job of sampling more authentic cuisine from China than the stuff I’d grown up eating, most of which I could take or leave. I had some interesting meals, some okay and some terrific, but none blew my mind quite like Gu’s Bistro in Doraville. In early February, we were going to meet our friends Vincent and Helen for supper, which we usually do at a new-to-us place, but we ended up choosing Gu’s again. I asked Andy and Jo from Burgers, Barbecue and Everything Else to join us – here’s the story – and we had a great meal. Andy was indecisive. He enjoyed Gu’s, but wasn’t sure whether it was better than the celebrated Tasty China. I figured it was long, long past time that I checked this place out to see how we’d rank it. Continue reading “Tasty China, Marietta GA”
The Chinatown Mall Food Court, Chamblee GA
Our friends Vincent and Helen were on a diet. They were cutting carbs for a few weeks, and suggested that if we were to get together for a meal, then lunch might be a better idea for them. That way, if I were to tempt them into falling off the wagon, they could spend the afternoon exercising and eat a very sensible, small supper. The very idea. Me, an innocent lamb, persuading people to indulge. Tsk. Continue reading “The Chinatown Mall Food Court, Chamblee GA”
Tin Drum Asiacafe, Marietta GA
Since the last time that I wrote about Tin Drum, back in August of 2012, the small chain has expanded a little more. There are now thirteen stores in Georgia, although their Birmingham store shuttered last year. The most recent addition to their chain is near Town Center Mall, in the same strip mall that is home to Twisted Kitchen and a Cheeseburger Bobby’s. Continue reading “Tin Drum Asiacafe, Marietta GA”
1968 at Cafe 101, Doraville GA (CLOSED)
Here’s a place that we’ve been intending to visit for ages now, and not necessarily because of the food. In fact, the restaurant has changed owners since I first thought about stopping in for a meal, and, slightly, changed names. Many, many different restaurants (and, apparently, a car dealership!) have found a home in the old Oogleblook building on Buford Highway. Sensational Subs – a very nearly defunct Atlanta chain with, apparently, only one location remaining – had a store here in the 1990s. It has been called Café 101 since at least 2005, but there have been at least three tenants in that time, with three different menus. It’s been a Chinese restaurant since late 2007. In August, the restaurant was quietly renamed 1968 at Café 101, after the year that Chef Kao began cooking in Taiwan. His partner, Chef Yang, specializes in northern Chinese dishes. Continue reading “1968 at Cafe 101, Doraville GA (CLOSED)”
Marie, Let's Eat! 