Hot Dish Review

A serious lack of sophistication coupled with a serious lack of education describes my hometown. Adventurous dining is ordering anything not fried. Some might call it quaint, but having lived in the city for many years now, I simply find it sad.

So, on my recent (and sad) visit for a funeral, I was surprised when my Mom suggested we go to a Japanese restaurant for an early dinner. She said my Dad loved it. Huh? Tako Yaki is in a strip shopping center 5 minutes from my parents’ house, serving hibachi grilled steaks and seafood, and sushi, of course.

Booths lined the wall on the left opposite a beautifully appointed sushi bar. Inexpensive meal specials are a big draw for locals like my Dad. He likes the grilled shrimp teriyaki, a simple combo of fried rice, stir fried carrots, zucchini, onions and cabbage and a pile of small shrimp….a healthy alternative to most massive restaurant meals. We ordered two, one for him and one for me and Mom to share.

Bowls of salty miso soup and crispy iceberg salads with standard, yet delicious miso dressing started us off.

Mom was excited to have me there as her sushi menu interpreter. She’s always afraid to order it, not sure if the fish is raw or cooked. On American sushi menus there are many steamed or smoked options like smoked salmon, eel, shrimp (ebi), and crab. Although I didn’t think she would be thrilled with the fatty skin of the eel, I ordered a dragon roll for us to split. Crab stick and cucumber on the inside, topped with avocado and eel, the roll was playfully presented. To demonstrate the difference between nigiri and sushi, I added on one order (2 pieces) of smoked salmon nigiri. All was satisfactory. But having dined at MF Buckhead with its robata grill and Chris Kinjo’s fancy finger work, I’m completely spoiled. Mom felt adventurous.

We paid and drove to the funeral home where my extended family was in the dining area eating fried chicken, mashed taters, baked beans, and yellow cake.

Maybe John Cougar Mellencamp wants to die in a small town, but I’ll take the big city any day, where I can get sashimi flown in daily from the Tsukiji market in Tokyo….and people know what the f*ck sashimi is.

5910 Reagan Lane, Collegedale, TN

There was a period when I spent a considerable amount of time shopping at Lenox with my friend LC. We made a habit of drinking martinis and eating a little sushi at Prime.

Part of Tom Catherall’s Here to Serve Restaurants, Prime is primarily a steakhouse, but they also have a sushi bar. You may have noticed that Catherall puts sushi on the menu at almost every one of his restaurants, no matter what type of cuisine is offered. Remember Tom Tom at Lenox? That was a great little bistro…..until he added the sushi bar. Noche and Cantina are the only two that do not have sushi. What, no tuna taco rolls?

Nevertheless, Prime is a cool little spot, tucked away in a corner upstairs by Anthropologie. We always enjoyed sitting at the bar. I would have a Bombay Sapphire, dry, straight up, with three olives. LC would have the same, but with vodka, and then we’d share edamame to start.

Old habits die hard. Last night, while attempting to shop for Christmas gifts, LC (a different one) and I stopped by Prime for a cocktail and some sushi. I ordered my usual martini and he got a double espresso. And edamame, of course.

Then I got crazy and decided to try the yellowtail sashimi appetizer with cilantro, jalapenos, and yuzu soy for us to share. It was a great choice! Really fresh, clean, and simple.

We also split a spicy tuna roll, a lobster roll, and six pieces of nigiri, two each of shrimp, eel, and smoked salmon….my usual not-really-raw sushi selections.

The lobster roll, called langosta, was a tempura fried tail with asparagus, topped with avocado, mango, and red tobiko. It was certainly colorful, but the dominant flavor was “fried”. That is why I never order any rolls with fried ingredients. The somewhat slimy mango didn’t help matters.

Spicy tuna was better with a generous dose of wasabi. My standard nigiri pieces were good as always.

Here’s the thing about me and martinis. One is not quite enough, two is too much. Prime allows me to order a half martini, so that is what I did. Just right.

Now we were ready to shop….for ourselves.

TC is so sweet but it’s already time for her to go back to TX. On the eve of her departure, along with her sis E, the three of us chicks were treated to a great lunch by her Dad LC.

We were going to go to Robek’s but LC veared off to Chequers Seafood Grill on the way, despite TC’s aversion to seafood of every kind. LC was wound up so he got a vodka martini, which in turn influenced me to also drink at 1:30pm during my workday (yes, I am that easily influenced). A glass of zin for me.

The decor of Chequers reminds me of a French brasserie with checkerboard floors, lots of wood, etched mirrors, and brass accents. The spelling of the name drives me nuts, though….makes me think it’s a cheesy chain when it is, in fact, an upscale seafood restaurant that specializes in fresh fish flown in daily.

Like many restaurants, their menu lacks focus to a degree, offering sushi rolls, lobster tamales, and Vietnamese crab spring rolls…..18 starters! Soups, entree salads, sandwiches, and 12 entrees ranging from the benign blackened chicken penne to the more daring San Francisco style cioppino. And this is a lunch menu! So many options had me and LC pondering our choice for quite some time, as we chatted with the girls.

E chose the panko fried shrimp with French fries. Holy shrimp Batman! TC ordered a side salad with carrots, cheese, and a chicken breast. Not on the menu. Our server was very accommodating.

LC and I split a bowl of Creole gumbo to start. Described as spicy, I found the base a bit too thick, and of course, not spicy enough. My spoonfuls contained more sausage than seafood, along with bits of okra, tomato, and white rice.

Once I spotted the green curry mussels I couldn’t be swayed otherwise. Plus a side of lobster mac ‘n’ cheese, it made for a bizarre pairing. Just as strange was LC’s combo of the roasted duck breast flatbread and a tuna sushi roll.

A smattering of cilantro and sweet potato hay added enough interest to the coconut milk and curry broth to make the mussels quite good. My lobster mac ‘n’ cheese, its thick pasta corkscrews great for holding onto sauces, found little to hold onto. What promised decadence was instead dry and only contained a few tiny bits of lobster…..somewhat disappointing. I like my mac baked and bubbling with cheeses. The truffled bread crumbs on top were a nice touch, however.

LC seemed to like his tuna roll. Roasted duck flatbread, another name for mini pizza, was topped with fig barbecue sauce, fontina, gorgonzola, provolone, red onion, and julienned apple. Sounds gooey and delicious, right? But it suffered the same fate as the mac, with little cheese to be found. The absense of gorgonzola’s pungent bite was particularly evident, although the sweet and salty flavors presented did work well together.

E loved her crispy shrimp and fries, sticking her last shrimp on TC’s leftover salad, “contaminating” it before it was boxed up to go. Funny.

Verdict? If variety is the spice of life, this place is over-seasoned! What’s better….to do 10 things perfectly or 50 things just OK?

Nevertheless, I would order the mussels again and certainly try a grilled fish dish or entree salad like the lobster cobb in the future.

236 Perimeter Center Pkwy NE 770-391-9383

Sun, sand, beer, boys. A perfect day at the beach! After numerous Corona Lights with lime the topic of dinner came up. JS and KS own the fantastic house where we all stayed so they know the local deals….half price sushi from 5-7 on Fridays at Destin Chops. We all agreed, it sounded like a brilliant plan!

I accompanied ST to Rosemary Beach for a reunion with some of his college buddies last weekend…..five guys, four with wife/girlfriend in attendance. We had a blast!

JS was a great hostess, with a whole turkey and ham in the oven Thursday night when we arrived. Buffet style dining was the rule, our dinner leftovers making awesome sandwiches for the beach the next day, with plenty of chips and peanut M & M’s. SS (BW’s girlfriend) picked up some dill pickle Pringles which were yummy, although no one was wild about the ketchup flavor (OK, I ate them after 6 beers).

We set up camp on the beach and as I mentioned, proceeded to inhale beer. ST’s new passion for IPA’s in evidence with Sierra Nevada and Long Hammer in the cooler, along with our old stand-by, Miller Lite, and, of course, the Corona Lights.

A sticky day in the sand called for a lengthy afternoon shower, after which ST and I had worked up an appetite for sushi! I wisely decided to put on a pair of 5″ platform shoes to walk the 2 miles to Destin Chops on 30A.

As the name implies, Destin Chops specializes in steaks, however, in keeping with our half price theme we ordered five rolls to share. I only remember the 30A with salmon, avocado, green onion, and spicy crab salad on top. There was another with eel, perhaps the crunchy eel, and I believe the spicy tuna was among the assortment. The rolls were enormous and at half price, ran about $6.50 each.

When BW and SS arrived we ordered three starters for everyone to share….crab cakes, calamari, and seared diver scallops. BW ordered a steamed lobster which he clearly was not planning to share (see photo).

Our group carried on multiple (and from what I understand) boisterous conversations much to the delight of other diners. Sushi was quite good as were the appetizers we sampled. One glass of red wine was my only beverage and most folks were limiting their alcoholic consumption at this point.

But it was only day 1.5 so a little more eating and drinking would surely be in order….immediately following JS’s delicious egg casserole the next morning!

I don’t know how this place is still in business. Not because the food is bad but because it is located in Atlantic Station which seems to be suffering a slow, agonizing death. It’s a shame, really. The place is dark (as in almost no lights), decorated in rich reds with a cool Japanese mural on the far wall. Owned by the Dolce Group based in Los Angeles, Geisha House is part of their lounge and restaurant empire, known for high profile investors like Ashton Kutcher.

My colleagues and I visited Geisha House for an early dinner last Thursday night and found ourselves practically alone in the vast space. The six of us shared several dishes, starting with the ubiquitous edamame. CM and TB ordered a bottle of white wine and I had a small bottle of cold unfiltered sake. SC got a Sapporo.

For starters we decided to get two orders of the sauteed calamari and shrimp and one order of the fried calamari. Guess which one everyone preferred.

The sauteed seafood dish came with rice. Our server, although polite, didn’t bring any utensils other than the chopsticks. Since we were all sharing it became clear that serving spoons would be appropriate, otherwise we’d be sticking our chopsticks in the rice and calamari after they had been in our mouths. Now, granted, I don’t mind that if I’m with my man, but this was a group of co-workers. We don’t kiss each other and I don’t think we want to double dip with each other either. So I asked for serving spoons which seemed to baffle our server. She said they only had small ones. OK then, bring the small ones! I didn’t ask for a freakin’ ladle. Whatever, we need serving utensils so we don’t contaminate the rice with dirty chopsticks, get it chick?

Neither calamari dish was terribly exciting. Standard fare. We decided on some sushi rolls for four of us while KMA and GGP both ordered the salmon entree. TB ordered the chicken skewers under the “Robata Yaki” section. Don’t even get me started on Robata grilling. All I can say is MF Sushi in Buckhead has the only one in Atlanta. I can guarantee that Geisha House cooks and staff don’t even know what robata means.

Two Ocean Dragon rolls were made with shrimp tempura, crab salad, avocado and eel, topped with eel sauce and tobigo. Not bad. CM and I wanted to try the lobster roll listed under “Light Rolls” (as in low calorie or low carb). Lobster, lettuce and spicy sauce were wrapped with rice paper. So it was sorta like a basil roll, without basil. And the spicy sauce wasn’t very. But it was creative, in that California-reinvents-sushi sort of way. I believe the other roll was Over the Rainbow. Again, a standard compilation of yellowtail, tuna, shrimp, avocado, blah, blah, blah. The food was thankfully secondary to the socializing….we were having a good time!

TB’s chicken skewers were pretty tasty. They came with three sauces, one of which was simply sriracha.

JW, a rather sexy bigwig investor, showed up and shared a drink with us. The spiciest part of our evening, he let us in on some juicy details of Atlantic Station’s financial woes which will, eventually, put many of the businesses there out on their asses. Only the strong will survive and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that Geisha House will not be one of them.

Want sushi? Go to MF.

First of all, my feelings about eating inferior sushi are about the same as drinking an O’Douls (alcohol free) beer….why bother? Diners that like the sushi at Ra probably think Trader Joe’s wine is pretty good too. Sad.

MF Buckhead is truly the only sushi in Atlanta worth eating. Check out my interview with Chris Kinjo in Atlanta’s Finest Dining last year. After dining there, all other sushi pales in comparison. So, I was not too excited to go to Ra last night, but it was with my friend AD and a fun group of girls and I thought I would give it a try.

Having read Cliff Bostock’s review in Creative Loafing recently, I already had a preconceived notion that it would probably suck. Oh, and it’s a chain. Even less impressive.

Taking advantage of an evening without rain, our group of 8 sat on the large patio. We started with edamame and I ordered a cold nigori sake from their extensive list. So far, so good. But Ra is more about fun than food. The atmosphere is festive, the location is close to midtown’s clubs and bars, so the crowd was young and trendy. I saw a lot of familiar faces.

Some of the girls ordered salads, others tried rolls. There are plenty of creative, Americanized sushi-esque appetizers and entrees. AD ordered the Tunacado which we thought was a roll but was simply thin sliced sub-par tuna and avocado with a creamy ponzu dipping sauce. The website claims the fish is flown in fresh daily….really? Ironically, I did not order anything raw at Ra but rather opted for smoked salmon and unagi (eel) nigiri. Both passable. I also tried the pork potstickers. The frozen ones at Whole Foods are better.

Service was a little off but, again, passable. The girls seemed to enjoy their food. Perhaps they are not sushi snobs like me, and that’s OK. The menu is extensive and this was just one visit but chances are the next time I crave sushi I will be ordering the amazing melt-in-your-mouth kampachi and the kickass duck or seabass from the robata grill at MF Buckhead.