Buffalo Burger & sweet potato with cinnamon butter
I can’t tell you why. But, I really really want to like this place. Maybe it has something to do with the incredibly friendly staff and charming surroundings. For me, stepping into Ted’s Montana Grill feels like stepping onto a movie set. The set design? …Steakhouse circa early 1900’s (1920? maybe). From the intimate booths to the more casual wooden chairs there are touches of simple elegance. And, a trip into the bathroom completes the journey back in time. Marble, brass and a powdered hand soap that leaves no doubt of the experience they are trying to create for us.
Sadly, the food is the weak link. Maybe that’s too harsh. The burgers are the weak link. (We saw a number of gorgeous-looking steaks on other tables.) We’ve both ordered burgers on three separate occasions. That’s six burgers in all. And, somehow they managed to overcook each and every one of those burgers. Given this fact, it speaks to the quality of the meat that they were still full of flavor. But, an overcooked burger is a very sad thing.
Buffalo Burger with tomato slices
Under normal circumstances, if we’re given two bad meals in a row, you don’t get a third chance with us. Why did we give this place a third chance? I just don’t know. Even more bizarre… I still want to like this place. I must be in a very masochistic mood. But, this is it… one more chance. We really mean it this time.
Ted’s Montana Grill
5165 Peachtree Parkway
Suite 205
Norcross, GA 30092
678 405 0305
Camarones Brochettes
How do you make shrimp even more yummy? You stuff it with cheese & jalapeno then wrap it up like a package in bacon. And, just to be sure you don’t mistake this for a healthy food, they brush each bacon-wrapped shrimp with melted butter. These gigantic shrimp were delicious. I know we’ll be craving them again… soon.
Matamoros
Mesquite grilled frog legs, tender skirt steak and chicken were brushed with butter on the grill. And, more melted butter (Why? We just ignored it.) was presented with this nicely grilled trio. Clearly, this wasn’t a light meal. But, we loved it. Mesquite grilled frog legs… brilliant.
Roasted Tomato Salsa
Dark roasted tomatoes and onions add a ton of flavor to this salsa. Cilantro is used wisely. Personally, I’d enjoy a bit more heat. But, this is shaping up to be one of our favorite salsas.
Uncle Julio’s
1140 Hammond Drive NE
Sandy Springs, GA 30328
678 736 8261
Bread Basket
Foccacia dusted with a nice blend of herbs and generously covered in coarsely grated cheese that was roasted to a nice nutty crispy brown. What’s not to like?
Gratinato with bacon
Super-rich and buttery cream sauce covers this dish of roasted potatoes, mushrooms, onions and sun-dried tomatoes. Two eggs are added before the dish is covered in cheese and golden brown bacon is added to reach an even more delicious state of deep brown under the broiler. This decadent meal was perfect fuel for a crazy day of demolition in my kitchen.
Lombarda Pizza
And, the Lombarda pizza rounded out the meal. Tasty. Clearly the theme of this meal is — cheese, it does a body good. (Or, is that milk?)
Osteria 832
832 North Highland Avenue
Atlanta, GA 30306
404 897 1414
Pulled Pork Sandwich with sweet potato fries
The Pork
The tender, succulent interior is perfectly crusted with a nicely charred shell of smoky deliciousness.
The Sweet Potato Fries
Close to perfection — I think these are the best sweet potato fries in Atlanta right now. The salt, pepper and spice mix sprinkled on top of these perfectly browned fries push them to to top for us.
Carolina Spare Ribs & Chicken with creamed corn
This picture really speaks for itself. The ribs were perfectly luscious and tender with gorgeous smoky char. The chicken was melt-in-our-mouths tender. And, yet, it is still infused with a perfect amount of smoke. It’s just about perfect. And, the spicy BBQ sauce was pleasantly well-rounded. It had a bit of tang, a bit of sweet, and a bit of spice. (A bit more spice & heat might be better. But, it was enjoyable.)
The one thing they could fix… the sweet BBQ sauce. We weren’t loving it.
Bacon Bourbon Manhattan with maple syrup
We were pleasantly surprised that this works in the real world as well as it does on paper. Thankfully, the maple syrup is used frugally. A heavy hand with the sweet element could have easily ruined this. Instead, the high alcohol content cuts the heavier notes.
For us, right now, DBA Barbecue is proving to be Fox Brothers’ biggest competition.
DBA Barbecue
1190 North Highland Avenue, NE
Atlanta, GA 30306
404 249 500
Delicious Day-glo colored Sweets from Royal Sweets
While all the sweets were lovely, we particularly enjoyed the figgy pinwheels. Sadly, we don’t know the name of these treats. Royal Sweets doesn’t label all of their treats. We did find the laddu (toasted wheat and butter balls) a bit too buttery, but, that didn’t stop us from eating them.
Some of these sweets didn’t even make it home.
These might not be the prettiest samosas in town, but, they’re quite good. And, the sauces were some of the best we’ve tasted. (No watering down here) One was the perfect blend of fresh green flavor and full of heat. The other had the perfect blend of sweet tamarind tang, a complex blend of spices & plenty of heat, too. I can’t wait to eat these again.
Royal Sweets
1766 Lawrenceville Highway
Decatur, GA 30033
404 327 5799
Guest Coffee:
Zurikana, Rwanda Bufcafe
$4.25 a cup
wonderfully rich, intricate layers of flavor… love it
Octane Coffee Bar & Lounge
Emory Village
North Decatur Road & Oxford
Alice in Wonderland opens — March 5, 2010!
Down the rabbit-hole
Shortrib & Lamb Pizza
This pizza is full of flavor. Tender, braised shortrib is one of my all-time favorite things. It has a luxurious buttery quality that underlines all the positive attributes of beef. The tender shreds on this pizza illustrate that point beautifully. Coupled with red pepper, crumbled goat cheese and roasted garlic, this pizza is a very good thing. We didn’t notice the lamb… at all. I’m not even sure there was lamb. But, honestly, I’d rather have an extra bite or two of short rib anyway. We can overlook the sogginess issues as they work to perfect this dish.
Seafood Stew
This seafood stew was less successful. The tomato saffron broth was excessively fishy… in a bad way. The scallop were teeny tiny. I’ve never seen scallop this small before. And, most of the protein in the “seafood stew” was actually chicken. Not a fan of this dish. At all. The soft flatbread was on the very far side of soft & doughy.
Nutella Mezzaluna
This looks pretty good…right?
This dough (possibly the same dough used for the pizza?) is stuffed with nutella and drizzled with what I believe is hershey’s syrup. Well, I’m using the term dough deliberately because it is still raw. And, I do mean raw. So raw that when a fork was used to poke at the center, raw dough oozed between the fork tines. When we mentioned this to our server, we were told, “Well, it’s supposed to be doughy.” As a budding bread baker, I’ve never seen raw dough in a finished product… ever. I still have unpleasant memories of biting into the raw dough and the unfortunate gag-reflex it induced.
This restaurant (opened just over a week) is very clearly a work in progress.
Hobnob Tavern Atlanta
1551 Piedmont Avenue NE
Atlanta, GA 30324
404 968 2288
S’more Tart
The giant torched coconut marshmallow is the highlight of this tart for me. I’d love it even more if it was torched to order. Rich chocolate is tasty, but, the excessively buttery (greasy) tart crust is too much. This tart is crazy rich. It needs a significantly more delicate crust.
Ham & Cheese Croissant
The croissant is pleasantly light. But, the ham has an odd “meat of unknown origin” feel to it. The odd splat of ham, cheese and mustard on the top is a bit of turn-off, too.
Almond Croissant
I really like the almond topped croissant itself. But, the almond schmear applied after baking doesn’t work texturally for me. It’s too sweet and gummy. It wipes away all the pleasure I could have gotten from the light and fluffy croissant.
We also purchased a giant brioche loaf. It was extremely light and fluffy. So light, in fact, I almost forgot it was brioche. But, it was fine.
Bakeshop
903 Peachtree Street NE
Suite C
Atlanta, GA 30308
404 892 9322
Stocking the Pantry:
Toscano & Sons has a wide assortment of goods. Parmigiano Reggiano butter, a great selection of Italian deli meats & cheeses, coffees, Italian vegetable seeds for planting, chilled Italian sodas for sale individually, chinotto & san bitter by the pack, and too many pantry items to name… I love this charming little shop. And, it’s a good excuse to eat panini.
Panini #1:
The Viola
A tasty blend of mortadella, speck, salami, provolone & olive tapenade. In a word… yum.
Panini #2:
The Porchetta
Tender, succulent pork slices with melty fontina… I can’t think of a better way to stuff a panini. Perfectly simple & perfectly delicious.
Oh yeah, by the way, these panini cost less than $5 each.
Toscano & Sons
1000 Marietta Street
Suite 106
Atlanta, GA 30318
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