BAY LEAVES

She says:

I don’t think the future is bright for Bay Leaves. We visited on a Thursday evening with a Creative Loafing coupon in hand and ended up being the only ones there during our entire meal. This doesn’t bode well for the Little Five eatery, which only opened in May. I can’t say that I will feel any great loss if the restaurant ends up closing, but there may be some disappointed vegetarians out there, if only because their options are few and far between in this meat-loving town.

Bay Leaves’ menu focuses largely on vegetarian items and meat that comes from local, organic animals. (There’s also quite a few fish choices, but I forgot to see if they were sustainable options.) As for the cuisine itself… I’m not sure what’s going on. The menu is supposedly “international fusion” but seems to be primarily a mélange of Thai and American – an odd combination, particularly in a city so laden with good Thai food. Downtown Boy and I agree that a chef should pick one cuisine and do it well, rather than try to please the masses with multiple cuisines.

Our meal started off well, with the Bay Leaves’ Volcano appetizer, which consisted of pita bread topped with sautéed mushrooms, basil, spinach, tomatoes, and fake meat. A drizzle of creamy, chipotle dressing brought it all together. It’s not rocket-science but it tasted good.

He says:
The fish sandwich I ordered was one of the sadder things I’ve seen in Atlanta. The grilled tilapia was passable, but what happened to the “pesto dressing” the menu mentioned? My sandwich only came with lettuce and tomatoes. And where was the “fresh ciabatta bread”? The tiny fillet of tilapia came between 2 slices of supermarket brown bread – and not the nice Pepperidge Farm 7-Grain bread, but the cheap, Home Pride 99-cent stuff.

Seriously, if I want to eat a sandwich like this I’d rather stay home and throw a can of sardines on Wonder Bread. The dish’s saving grace was the sweet potato fries, which were nice and crunchy.

She says:
On our very sweet waitress’s recommendation, I got the ginger chicken. I was eager to back Bay Leaves’ support of all-natural, wholesome, happy chickens, but the chunks of chicken didn’t taste very happy. In fact, they were a little dry. The chicken had been sautéed in soy sauce with bell peppers and LOTS of shredded ginger. The ginger was everywhere and could have used a lot more dicing. Overall, the dish was overwhelmingly gingery and easily something I could make at home.

He says:
For dessert we tried the fried ice cream, two large scoops of vanilla with a thick, doughy crust. The fried exterior was far thicker than I’ve seen in other restaurants, but I didn’t mind since deep-fried anything tends to be A-OK in my book.

She says:
I thought it was terrible. The fried dough on the outside was too thick and tasted slightly of rancid oil.

We say:
While we support Bay Leaves’ use of natural ingredients, we definitely do not support their mediocre cooking.





Bay Leaves
1138 Euclid Avenue, Atlanta GA 30307
http://www.rewardsnetwork.com/details.htm?merchantId=91891