Taqueria Del Sol is a perennial favorite of ours - and the rest of the population of Atlanta, based on the constant long lines! But who can blame the people in those lines? I can't think of a better place for cheap, consistently delicious tacos made from fresh ingredients.
However, it seems that most people aren't in on this secret, which you MUST READ if you plan on eating at Taqueria Del Sol: Skip the line and head straight for the bar, where the seating is first-come first-served and the service is very prompt. We almost never have to wait in line here, as we always make a beeline straight to the bar. And even when the bar is full, we get ourselves put on the list and usually are sitting down and ordering within 10 minutes.
As for the food, in my opinion the best thing on the menu are the tacos for $2.19 a piece. I'd describe them as sort of fancy tacos - they are a bit gourmet compared to tacos you'd get at a truly ethnic Mexican restaurants. Our favorites are the Carnita, the Brisket, and the Memphis (which comes with barbecue sauce and cole slaw - AWESOME). We also highly recommend the delicious, slightly spicy turnip greens as a side dish. There's an assortment of other side dishes, as well as chips and salsa, guacamole, and several entrees like burritos and enchiladas. But nothing beats the tacos, if you ask me. There's also always a "special" taco each day - those that I have tried have been great. Oh, and the margaritas here are also fab.
There's just one caveat to eating at Taqueria Del Sol - despite its awesomeness, I would not attempt to eat here for dinner on a Friday or Saturday night, or even during peak lunch hours on the weekend. Even with trying to sit at the bar, you will likely wait a VERY long time - it's just a super popular place. We usually try to go a little before or a little after peak hours. Inevitably, there will always be a line coming out the door - this is why it's essential to be in-the-know about the bar!
Overall rating: A definite Atlanta favorite. The food never disappoints.
Located in the Westside Urban Market (same shopping center as Bacchanalia and JCT Kitchen) on Howell Mill Road. There are other locations in Decatur and elsewhere.
Taqueria Del Sol
1200-B Howell Mill Road, Westside
(404) 352-5811
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Tasty China
We have read lots of great reviews about Tasty China and had been wanting to try it for a loooong time. We finally went for lunch the other day, and prior to going, we did lots of research and had a long list of recommended dishes that we wanted to try. We couldn't narrow down which dishes we wanted, so we ended up ordering five dishes (oink oink), knowing we'd have plenty left over for dinner.
So, Tasty China is a Szechuan restaurant, which means it serves lots of spicy food with lots and lots of chili peppers. It just so happened that four of the five dishes we ordered were VERY spicy, each full of red hot chili peppers. The nose, she was a'running... and the tongue, she was a'burning. I was tasting that spice all day.
On future visits, I would order only one spicy dish and try to make sure everything else was a bit milder, just to spare my tastebuds from some of the fire. That being said, however, each of those spicy dishes was delicious! Here is what we had:
- Fish and cilantro rolls - these were the one non-spicy thing we had. They are gorgeous little fried rolls with a great flavor. This is considered an appetizer and comes with six rolls per order.
- Chinese salad - this is something that is not on the menu, but definitely worth asking about. It's sort of like a spicy Asian cole slaw, with shredded cabbage, some very skinny almost see-through noodles, little chunks of pork, and chili peppers. It came in an oil-based dressing that I think may have also had chili peppers in it. Delicious - and spicy!
- Dry Fried Eggplant - I'd describe these as sort of like Eggplant french fries. The eggplant is cut into french fry shape and lightly fried, and then garnished with the perfect amount of salt and other spices - and the ubiquitous chili pepper, of course. Again, delicious - and spicy!
- Fish and Soft Tofu - An almost soup-like mixture of big chunks of some white fish and homemade tofu, served in a very spicy red broth. This was good, but it was probably my least favorite dish. However, we liked it much better reheated for dinner later that night.
- Shan City Chicken - small chunks of perfectly fried chicken, served with (surprise) chili peppers. Again, very spicy, but this may have been our favorite dish. Aside from the spice, these were SO flavorful and delicious.
Overall rating: Well, my mouth and my stomach weren't that thrilled with me after all of that spicy food, but I do have to say that each dish was very very good! I don't know much about Szechuan food, but most things on the menu here at Tasty China seemed very authentic. As mentioned above, I would not order so many spicy dishes at once, but I would have a hard time choosing which spicy dish to get.
Located in a strip mall near the intersection of I-75 and the South 120 Loop in Marietta.
Tasty China
585 Franklin Road SE #215, Marietta
(770) 419-9849
So, Tasty China is a Szechuan restaurant, which means it serves lots of spicy food with lots and lots of chili peppers. It just so happened that four of the five dishes we ordered were VERY spicy, each full of red hot chili peppers. The nose, she was a'running... and the tongue, she was a'burning. I was tasting that spice all day.
On future visits, I would order only one spicy dish and try to make sure everything else was a bit milder, just to spare my tastebuds from some of the fire. That being said, however, each of those spicy dishes was delicious! Here is what we had:
- Fish and cilantro rolls - these were the one non-spicy thing we had. They are gorgeous little fried rolls with a great flavor. This is considered an appetizer and comes with six rolls per order.
- Chinese salad - this is something that is not on the menu, but definitely worth asking about. It's sort of like a spicy Asian cole slaw, with shredded cabbage, some very skinny almost see-through noodles, little chunks of pork, and chili peppers. It came in an oil-based dressing that I think may have also had chili peppers in it. Delicious - and spicy!
- Dry Fried Eggplant - I'd describe these as sort of like Eggplant french fries. The eggplant is cut into french fry shape and lightly fried, and then garnished with the perfect amount of salt and other spices - and the ubiquitous chili pepper, of course. Again, delicious - and spicy!
- Fish and Soft Tofu - An almost soup-like mixture of big chunks of some white fish and homemade tofu, served in a very spicy red broth. This was good, but it was probably my least favorite dish. However, we liked it much better reheated for dinner later that night.
- Shan City Chicken - small chunks of perfectly fried chicken, served with (surprise) chili peppers. Again, very spicy, but this may have been our favorite dish. Aside from the spice, these were SO flavorful and delicious.
Overall rating: Well, my mouth and my stomach weren't that thrilled with me after all of that spicy food, but I do have to say that each dish was very very good! I don't know much about Szechuan food, but most things on the menu here at Tasty China seemed very authentic. As mentioned above, I would not order so many spicy dishes at once, but I would have a hard time choosing which spicy dish to get.
Located in a strip mall near the intersection of I-75 and the South 120 Loop in Marietta.
Tasty China
585 Franklin Road SE #215, Marietta
(770) 419-9849
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Tassa Roti Shop
Tassa Roti Shop is a small restaurant in Marietta that specializes in food from Trinidad and Tobago and the rest of the Caribbean. They have a decent-looking menu (although honestly I just glanced at it), but we were enticed by the buffet. What better way to try a bunch of different foods than doing the buffet? For lunch on a weekday, it cost $6.99 a person. I think it may be slightly more on the weekends.
The buffet included several veggie dishes: beans, potatoes, rice, slaw, and a delicious coconut-flavored cornmeal dish, to name but a few. The meats included three kinds of chicken: a jerk chicken, a barbecue-like chicken, and a curried chicken. Everything was really really great! My only complaint is that the jerk chicken was simply too spicy for me. Pretty much everything on the buffet had a bite to it, which was great - but that jerk chicken was like a five-alarm fire. I couldn't handle it, but Ryan said it was his favorite dish.
If you order the buffet, don't miss the homemade salsas that are on top of the buffet bar. And also, help yourself to the roti (a tortilla-like bread, much like Indian chapati) located in a small cooler right next to the buffet. After eating here, I was struck by just how similar the food was to Indian cuisine - lots of curries, Indian spices, etc. Most Caribbean food that I've had before is more like full of plantains, mangoes, etc. This restaurant wasn't quite like that (although who knows - maybe they have those types of dishes on the menu), so I really enjoyed having a different kind of Caribbean food.
If you'd like a drink (and your mouth will likely need one!), they are located in a refridgerator case behind the register - just ask someone working there to get you one. We each had a Caribbean soda, and I believe they were $1 each.
Overall rating: Yum! If you like Caribbean food or Indian flavors, I can't see how you'd be disappointed.
Located in a small house right near the intersection of Powers Ferry and the South 120 Loop, just off of I-75.
Tassa Roti Shop
224 Powers Ferry Road, Marietta
(770) 977-3163
The buffet included several veggie dishes: beans, potatoes, rice, slaw, and a delicious coconut-flavored cornmeal dish, to name but a few. The meats included three kinds of chicken: a jerk chicken, a barbecue-like chicken, and a curried chicken. Everything was really really great! My only complaint is that the jerk chicken was simply too spicy for me. Pretty much everything on the buffet had a bite to it, which was great - but that jerk chicken was like a five-alarm fire. I couldn't handle it, but Ryan said it was his favorite dish.
If you order the buffet, don't miss the homemade salsas that are on top of the buffet bar. And also, help yourself to the roti (a tortilla-like bread, much like Indian chapati) located in a small cooler right next to the buffet. After eating here, I was struck by just how similar the food was to Indian cuisine - lots of curries, Indian spices, etc. Most Caribbean food that I've had before is more like full of plantains, mangoes, etc. This restaurant wasn't quite like that (although who knows - maybe they have those types of dishes on the menu), so I really enjoyed having a different kind of Caribbean food.
If you'd like a drink (and your mouth will likely need one!), they are located in a refridgerator case behind the register - just ask someone working there to get you one. We each had a Caribbean soda, and I believe they were $1 each.
Overall rating: Yum! If you like Caribbean food or Indian flavors, I can't see how you'd be disappointed.
Located in a small house right near the intersection of Powers Ferry and the South 120 Loop, just off of I-75.
Tassa Roti Shop
224 Powers Ferry Road, Marietta
(770) 977-3163
Thursday, June 11, 2009
La Suprema Panaderia
Yumyumyumyumyum. This bakery is fantastic!! It seems that La Suprema Panaderia has several locations throughout town, but we visited the one on Windy Hill in Smyrna/Marietta. This Mexican bakery is just full of deliciousness. We somewhat randomly chose four different things, including a huge, cream-filled donut and a piece of pineapple cake soaked in milk. SO GOOD. Our order was around $10.
Overall rating: Love! 'Nuff said. Need to go back to try their churros.
Located on Windy Hill Road, near the intersection with South Cobb Parkway.
La Suprema Panaderia
461-C Windy Hill Road, Marietta
(770) 435-2488
Overall rating: Love! 'Nuff said. Need to go back to try their churros.
Located on Windy Hill Road, near the intersection with South Cobb Parkway.
La Suprema Panaderia
461-C Windy Hill Road, Marietta
(770) 435-2488
Yakitori Jinbei
It occurred to me recently that I know next to nothing about Japanese food, aside from sushi and those big hibachi grill tables (which, I suspect, are about as authentically Japanese as me - which is to say, not at all). So after hearing rave reviews about Yakitori Jinbei, we were anxious to give it a try.
Yakitori is small pieces of chicken threaded onto a wooden stick and grilled - you choose if you want yours covered in a dark teriyaki or sea salt. There are several different varieties of yakitori - some just chicken, some chicken and veggies, some just veggies. Each order comes with two or three skewers and costs between about $6 and $10. We ordered three different kinds, two with teriyaki and one with sea salt. We agreed we liked the sea salt topping better. Overall, though, we didn't love yakitori as much as we hoped we would. For me, I think it's just because I'm not a huge fan of chicken. I cook it at home all the time, but I almost never order it at restaurants. Also, we thought the price was just a smidge too high, considering you don't get that much food with each order.
We also ordered a tempura appetizer that included several big chunks of veggies and huge shrimp. This was very, very good - I'm usually not a huge tempura fan, but this was probably one of the best I've had.
And finally, we also got a bowl of ramen noodles with pork, called tonkotsu. This was very rich, VERY filling, and VERY delicious!
Overall rating: Not sure we'd get the yakitori again. Maybe we'd order just a little to try some new varieties, but I wouldn't make a dinner out of it. Everything else was very good, but the yakitori left us feeling just lukewarm towards this restaurant. We'll probably go back eventually because we'd like to try some of their rice bowls, but we won't rush back.
Also, the price was a bit higher than we expected - including a glass of sake, our total was about $50.
Located on Cobb Parkway in Smyrna, across from Best Buy.
Yakitori Jinbei
2421 Cobb Parkway, Smyrna
(770) 818-9215
Yakitori is small pieces of chicken threaded onto a wooden stick and grilled - you choose if you want yours covered in a dark teriyaki or sea salt. There are several different varieties of yakitori - some just chicken, some chicken and veggies, some just veggies. Each order comes with two or three skewers and costs between about $6 and $10. We ordered three different kinds, two with teriyaki and one with sea salt. We agreed we liked the sea salt topping better. Overall, though, we didn't love yakitori as much as we hoped we would. For me, I think it's just because I'm not a huge fan of chicken. I cook it at home all the time, but I almost never order it at restaurants. Also, we thought the price was just a smidge too high, considering you don't get that much food with each order.
We also ordered a tempura appetizer that included several big chunks of veggies and huge shrimp. This was very, very good - I'm usually not a huge tempura fan, but this was probably one of the best I've had.
And finally, we also got a bowl of ramen noodles with pork, called tonkotsu. This was very rich, VERY filling, and VERY delicious!
Overall rating: Not sure we'd get the yakitori again. Maybe we'd order just a little to try some new varieties, but I wouldn't make a dinner out of it. Everything else was very good, but the yakitori left us feeling just lukewarm towards this restaurant. We'll probably go back eventually because we'd like to try some of their rice bowls, but we won't rush back.
Also, the price was a bit higher than we expected - including a glass of sake, our total was about $50.
Located on Cobb Parkway in Smyrna, across from Best Buy.
Yakitori Jinbei
2421 Cobb Parkway, Smyrna
(770) 818-9215
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Lime Taqueria
When Lime Taqueria opened up a while ago, we went for dinner and were a little disappointed. We found the tacos to be very overpriced - they are tapas-sized, which in this case means one bite per taco. Considering each taco costs a few bucks, that adds up pretty fast. The food tasted just OK. We left disappointed, but I chalked it up to our expectations being too high.
Fast-forward to this past weekend, when we found a buy-one-entree-get-one-free coupon and decided to give it another try. Um, never again. We were incredibly disappointed with the food. Most of what we ordered wasn't just bland - it was downright bad.
We started with a simple order of chips and salsa, which comes with four different salsas. Two of the four - a salsa verde and a mild salsa - weren't bad. The other two were. The hottest one, especially, was just disgusting. It tasted like burnt nothing. For dinner, we both had pork dishes. The stuffed poblano pepper with pork was edible, but the roasted pork dish served over spinach and potatoes was not good at all. I have no idea why this is being served at a Mexican restaurant, as I couldn't detect a single ingredient or flavor that was remotely Mexican. The pork tasted like something I could make, if I chose to cook a piece of pork without seasoning it or flavoring it whatsoever.
Overall rating: The atmosphere here is nice, but in our opinion the food is abysmal. And yet it seems to be popular... I don't get it.
Located in Smyrna's West Village.
Lime Taqueria
4600 W. Village Place Suite 3007, Smyrna
(678) 309-1113
Fast-forward to this past weekend, when we found a buy-one-entree-get-one-free coupon and decided to give it another try. Um, never again. We were incredibly disappointed with the food. Most of what we ordered wasn't just bland - it was downright bad.
We started with a simple order of chips and salsa, which comes with four different salsas. Two of the four - a salsa verde and a mild salsa - weren't bad. The other two were. The hottest one, especially, was just disgusting. It tasted like burnt nothing. For dinner, we both had pork dishes. The stuffed poblano pepper with pork was edible, but the roasted pork dish served over spinach and potatoes was not good at all. I have no idea why this is being served at a Mexican restaurant, as I couldn't detect a single ingredient or flavor that was remotely Mexican. The pork tasted like something I could make, if I chose to cook a piece of pork without seasoning it or flavoring it whatsoever.
Overall rating: The atmosphere here is nice, but in our opinion the food is abysmal. And yet it seems to be popular... I don't get it.
Located in Smyrna's West Village.
Lime Taqueria
4600 W. Village Place Suite 3007, Smyrna
(678) 309-1113
LottaFrutta
This past weekend, we had the pleasure of having lunch at LottaFrutta, a fantastic little place near downtown Atlanta. LottaFrutta specializes in fresh fruit - the menu has a long list of fruit cups and smoothies. There are also panini sandwiches and salads. We ordered a "just veggin'" panini (with avocado, tomato, sprouts, and havarti cheese), a "queso quarter" panini (with four kinds of cheese, tomato, avocado, and some other stuff), and a smoothie with guanabana (I'm not even sure what that is), banana, pineapple, and orange juice. Total cost was about $17 or so. They are open for breakfast and lunch, but close at 5 p.m.
Everything was so so so delicious! The paninis were the best I've ever tasted - the bread they come on is described as a "soft, sweet Latin bread" and it is just fab. The smoothie was a thousand times better than anything Planet Smoothie could ever serve up. We didn't try the fruit cups, but I have no doubt that they are great as well.
Overall rating: Fresh, healthy, and delicious - LOVE this place! We will definitely go back whenever we are in the area.
Located in the Old Fourth Ward near downtown.
LottaFrutta
590-A Auburn Ave. NE, Atlanta
(404) 588-0857
Everything was so so so delicious! The paninis were the best I've ever tasted - the bread they come on is described as a "soft, sweet Latin bread" and it is just fab. The smoothie was a thousand times better than anything Planet Smoothie could ever serve up. We didn't try the fruit cups, but I have no doubt that they are great as well.
Overall rating: Fresh, healthy, and delicious - LOVE this place! We will definitely go back whenever we are in the area.
Located in the Old Fourth Ward near downtown.
LottaFrutta
590-A Auburn Ave. NE, Atlanta
(404) 588-0857
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