LEON'S FULL SERVICE

She says:
Poultry is boring.

This is a lesson I’ve learned the hard way over and over again, and yet it never seems to stick. My mistake is usually born out of boredom with the single uninspired vegetarian option on a menu, and so I begin eyeing the poultry dishes, fantasizing about crispy skin, succulent meat, some new and bold sauce it will be paired with. Somehow this is never the case. The poultry is inevitably safe and boring, the option for people who’d rather be at Applebees. You’d think I’d have learned this by now.

Nope, I did it again.

Leon’s turkey sandwich is the exactly what you’d slap together at home – slices of turkey, cheddar, lettuce, mayo. The bread is better than your typical sandwich bread, but otherwise, there is absolutely NOTHING interesting about this sandwich. What was I expecting? Maybe something warm?

Perhaps my expectations of Leon’s were too high. The first time I went, I had the most creative and delicious cocktail of my life (the specialty cocktail that day) and an incredible bowl of roasted red pepper soup, showstoppers that made their cold roasted-veggie sandwich a pleasant distant memory. My last visit boasted a good, but far less zany, cocktail, some decent Pub Frites with a dipping sauce (the goat cheese fondue) that couldn’t be tasted over the salt of the fries, and the aforementioned turkey sandwich. Perhaps the “mains” are more amazing, but for a gastropub, the cheaper options are underwhelming.

He says:
Underwhelming, indeed. Leon’s is a latecomer to Atlanta’s burgeoning gastropub scene, and it falls short of the standard set by the Porter and Bookhouse Pub. On our waiter’s recommendation I ordered the “excellent” grass-fed burger with Tillamook cheddar, and found it less than stellar. The patty was mushy and tasteless.

More surprising was the soup of the day: a potato-leek soup with crumbled bacon bits. The soup I received was bright orange and tasted strongly of curry. It was only after I inquired that the waiter realized the soup of the day was, in fact, a carrot curry soup. Thanks for the heads up, dude.

She says:
Despite the mediocre food and service, Leon’s does succeed as an inviting, attractive bar with a killer location and fantastic patio. This restaurant serves central Decatur much better than the former antique shop it replaced. Now if they only got into the spirit of things and served their food on hubcap plates and poured their drinks from gas cans.

We say:
Better than it once was and not as good as it should be.




Leon's Full Service
131 East Ponce De Leon Avenue, Decatur, 30030
http://www.leonsfullservice.com/

ANTICO PIZZA NAPOLETANA

He says:
How does a city with such a terrible pizza scene end up with the best pizza parlor on the planet? Atlanta never ceases to amaze me.

After years of Johnny’s, Little 5 Points, and Cameli’s, I had all but given up on pizza in this city. Everywhere I went the slices were too cheesy or too saucy or too mealy. Topping overload was rampant. I’d given up -- better, I thought, to cure my pizza fix on my annual jaunts to New York City. But now Antico Pizza Napoletana has arrived in the grungy West Side like a thunderbolt, and pizza in Atlanta will never be the same again.

If this sounds like hyperbole, then you haven’t tried the pizza at Antico. It is revolutionary: worlds better than anything else I’ve tried in Atlanta – and NYC for that matter. For those who have never eaten a true Neapolitan pizza before, the crust is baked thin but remains softer and chewier than a standard New York pie. It’s blistered and puffy and sublime. The Margarita pizza (pictured above) comes with San Marzano tomato sauce, fresh basil, and buffalo mozzarella so silky and buttery it’s like tasting mozzarella again for the first time. Even better is the lasagna pizza, which comes adorned with gobs of creamy, homemade ricotta and meatball chunks. I don’t recommend the Pomodorini as highly because the extra cherry tomatoes bleed too much water into the crust. In general you have to eat Antico’s pizza very quickly, or else that wonderful crust will get soggy. But that’s a small price to pay for a slice of perfection.

She says:
Dishing out great pies is Antico’s singular focus. The place is like a well-oiled machine, with a battery of dark-haired men tossing dough into shape, applying toppings, and shoving the pizzas into wood fire ovens as opera music blasts through the kitchen. None of this is a mystery, since you can sit at a foldout table in the kitchen and watch them work. Your pizza is delivered by one of these men on a huge jellyroll pan, and then you eat. No plates, no forks, no knives, it’s just you and the pizza.

We say:
Pizza perfection.




Antico Pizza Napoletana
1093 Hemphill Ave NW Atlanta, GA 30318
www.anticopizza.it

CHENNAI GARDEN

He says:

I’ve been given all sorts of advice about dining in New York City, but this one is probably the best: When eating Indian food, trust the Indians. My mother heard from an Indian friend (who heard from her Indian friends) that Chennai Garden has the best dosas in the city. You know what? They’re right.

I’ve often found the dosas in other Indian restaurants dry and tasteless. Not so at Chennai Garden. Their golden-brown dosas are crispy and delicate, like thin, oversized crepes. Folded inside is an excellent filling of potatoes, fried onions, and spices. My potato filling came mashed together with mushrooms and was utterly sublime. I haven’t had an Indian dish this remarkable in years. The curry soup on the side is terrific for dipping. Even better is the coconut chutney, which provides a sweet, creamy counterpoint to the potato filling’s spiciness.

She says:

It’s true, the dosas are delicious, and you really can’t go wrong with the filling. Mine had spinach and was great, but even better was Downtown Boy’s mother’s selection, the Mysore Dosa, which had an extra kick of spice. We finished off with an order of kulfi (excellent) and rasmalai (decent).

We say:

If you don’t believe us, believe the Indians: these dosas are dynamite.

Chennai Garden

129 E 27th St, New York 10016

(212) 689-1999

IPPUDO

He says:

I love ramen.

I love its simplicity. I love how it fills you up, makes you warm inside. I love slurping up the last bits of soggy noodle from the bottom of the bowl. I ate the instant kind several times a week growing up, and not the tepid Cup-O-Noodles that everyone else eats, but the good Japanese stuff, Sapporo Ichiban. Later on I found ramen houses where the udon and miso broth arrived fresh instead of inside a plastic wrapper. I was in heaven. For the past several years though, I’ve suffered a ramen drought. Part of the problem is living in places where ramen houses are scarce. The other part is finding the good ones because excellent ramen is hard to come by.

But now there is Ippudo, and I am a happy man.

Earlier this year the New York Times’ Frank Bruni declared it the best ramen house in the city and ever since it’s been at the top of my NYC hit list. Fortunately, it’s just as good as advertised.

The Shiromaru classic features a translucent white broth that is salty, creamy, rich, and clean. There are hints of miso, pork, and chicken stock in there, but I cannot tell for sure – it’s like culinary black magic. I do know the noodles are springy, neither too limp nor too chewy. Thin slices of pork belly, “elephant ear” mushrooms, soy-sauce flavored hard-boiled eggs, and scallions make up the rest of this mysterious concoction. The only certainty with this dish is that I slurped up the last remnants of noodle from the bottom of the bowl. It’s the best ramen I’ve ever had.

She says:

Being declared the best anything in NYC guarantees one thing: there will be an excruciatingly long wait to get in. On a Monday afternoon, we waited an hour for a table at lunch (granted, it was during the holidays). At least we received a warm welcome when we were finally seated. As each new guest enters the dining room, the entire staff yells out hello in Japanese.

Our waitress was very helpful. When I tried to order ramen without the pork (they all contain pork), she suggested I try the vegetarian ramen, an off-menu item. The veggie ramen noodles are slightly thicker than the classic ramen, and the broth is a clear, non-creamy broth filled with mushrooms, greens, scallions, and tofu. The complex flavors of Ippudo’s broth is what differentiates this soup from other Asian noodle soups. Like Downtown Boy said, it’s a bit of mystery what makes it so delicious, but delicious it is.

We say:

On cold winter afternoons, nothing can beat ramen at Ippudo.

Ippudo

65 Fourth Avenue, New York, NY 10003

http://www.ippudo.com/ny/

LUPE TAQUERIA

He says:
It was a sad day in Atlanta when the U Restaurants Group closed Cuerno earlier this year. It was a vibrant Spanish restaurant with delicious tapas and a warm, handsome interior. In fact, it might have been the best eatery in Midtown. Unfortunately it didn’t survive the economic downturn. U Restaurants recently opened Lupe in its place, and while it’s not as good as Cuerno, I can see it being more successful. Why? It’s pretty simple, really. Lupe is much cheaper. And it serves tacos. In times like these, that’s as sure a bet as you can ask for.

She says:
One thing that hasn’t changed is that it’s still a gorgeous restaurant. Sadly, Cuerno’s remarkable life-size bull sculpture, which was pieced together from colorful scraps of metal, has been removed. But otherwise, the small interior is the same: dimly lit, with smooth lines and rich dark colors. A surfeit of candles gives the place a romantic feel. Aside from the considerable noise level, Lupe is a great date spot.

A testament to this is their menu for two. For $25, you get an order of queso dip, 6 tacos (3 per person), and dessert. You might be able to find cheaper tacos at Tacqueria del Sol, but you’re not going to get this kind of ambiance or quality of food. Poblano peppers give the queso a bit of a kick, and the dip comes with freshly made (and still warm!) tortilla chips. The tacos also come wrapped in homemade corn tortillas. Of the three I tried – chicken, portabella mushroom, and shrimp – my favorite was the mushroom, which also included corn, poblano peppers, and cotija cheese. The flavors of all three tacos were far more complex than what you usually find at a taqueria, and the ingredients were noticeably fresh.

He says:
Uptown Girl had better luck with her choices. Of my three tacos, the lengua was the most disappointing; a well-prepared beef tongue should have a soft, silky texture, and Lupe’s definitely did not. The barbacoa de chivo taco was only slightly better. I expected the slow-braised goat meat to fall in the tender, slide-off-the-bone category, and once again it was tougher than it should have been. It also tasted more like bland beef than goat. The slow-cooked pork of the cochinita pivil was the best by default. Sadly the tomatillo salsa and jalapenos on all three of these tacos masked the meats’ flavors instead of heightening them. In the future I need to pay more attention to the sauces since they tend to dominate the platters.

She says:
The only disappointing thing for me was the dessert, an orange soda float, which I felt was a total throwaway. But for just $25 for a filling dinner for two, I wasn’t complaining.

We say:
Judging from the lively crowds since its opening, Lupe has a better chance at survival than Cuerno ever did. Considering that it’s cheap, close to our house, and serves above average tacos, we’ll be back.




Lupe Taqueria
905 Juniper, Atlanta, GA 30309
http://www.sottosottorestaurant.com/