MURPHY'S

He says:
For Uptown Girl and me, Murphy’s always seems to be Plan B. For example, we might have coupons to eat at American Roadhouse just up the street, but it happens to be closed. What do we do? We go to Murphy’s. Or we’re excited for tapas at Noche, but the Friday night crowd is piled out into the street. What do we do? We go to Murphy’s. You get the idea.

According to their website, Murphy’s "fuses fresh local and international ingredients to create a new genre of American cuisine," but it's really just a generically competent eatery with a prime location in Virginia Highlands. Frankly, it’s hard to get excited about a restaurant where fried calamari and meatloaf are the most daring items on the menu. To their credit, the staff at Murphy’s always seems happy to see you, and they can often find you a great seat right away.

This restaurant also happens to serve some of the best pre-meal bread around. The sourdough slices have a hot, soft interior with a wonderfully crunchy crust, and they come with a robust olive oil for dipping. I’m a total sucker for details like this.

She says:
For appetizers, we tried the cod croquets and the crabcakes, neither of which I thought were very impressive. The croquets – delicately fried chunks of cod and potato – were on the bland side, although others in our party seemed to like them quite a bit (including Downtown Boy). In my opinion, the only saving grace was the zingy tomatillo-avocado sauce that came with the croquets. As for the crabcakes, they tasted fresh, but the celery flavor unfortunately overwhelmed the crab.

He says:
The rainbow trout I ordered was a genuine surprise, mostly because I got two seriously huge fillets of it – you’ve got to love Southern portions! Better still was that it was delicious. The trout’s skin had been wisely left on and seared, giving this white fish both crispiness and a bold flavor. Even if the accompanying wild rice is completely flavorless, at $17 this is one of the true bargains on Murphy’s overpriced menu.

She says:
On the other hand, the all natural herb-roasted chicken wasn’t much of a surprise. It’s rare to find really good chicken in a restaurant. As with most places, Murphy’s “free bird” had juicy dark meat and dried-out breast meat. The roasted autumn root vegetables that came with it tasted great, although they made the entire dish feel out of season (autumn vegetables in March?). The exception was the potatoes, which were the blandest, starchiest things I’ve ever had. Thank god for the sweet potatoes and new carrots.

The one thing that Murphy’s does right is dessert, and specifically, the Tollhouse Pie. With an Oreo cookie and walnut crust, chewy chocolate filling, and a big scoop of vanilla ice cream on top, this pie is part chocolate chip cookie, part brownie, and totally delicious. It’s good enough to make Murphy’s Plan A.

We say:
Murphy’s is boring food done right!



Murphy’s
997 Virginia Avenue NE, Atlanta GA 30306
http://www.murphysvh.com/home.html