Penang Malaysian and Thai - Chamblee Atlanta Georgia

You can find Penang at 4897 Buford Hwy Ste 113, Chamblee, GA 30341 in the shopping center just south of the crux of Buford Highway and Chamblee Tucker Rd, Southeastern quadrant. This shopping center is anchored by the venerable Hoa Binh Supermarket - Penang is on the end close to the market. The shopping center also contains a handful of restaurants worth trying, including Pho Bac, Harmony Vegetarian Chinese and J's Mini Hot Pot. There's a lot of available parking, but these restaurants (and the market) do get quite busy so you may have to park around the corner.

I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with Penang. This is one of the first Malaysian/Thai restaurants that I discovered in Atlanta - it's been around for a very long time. I first tried the food here while still in the restaurant business - we used to make periodic stops at Hoa Binh as it was the first Asian market close to the restaurant in town and one of the only places around where you could find authentic ingredients for (at the time) little known Asian dishes - stuff like fresh lemongrass, jars of sambal and shrimp paste come to mind. The food here is of good quality and to my tastes fairly authentic. The problem I've had here in the past is with the service. I've sat forever waiting for someone to take my order, experienced long wait times for food and once had to hunt someone down to fill our water glasses. I had eaten here many times and basically called it quits as there are many more options available now with better service.

On this occasion my regular Buford Highway Restaurant Crawl group had Penang as the location - this was on a Wednesday night at 8:00 PM. So I decided to give Penang another try as it had been several years. The restaurant only had a handful of tables so we were immediately seated. I'm happy to report that things seemed to have changed in regards to service as it was quite good. Our orders were taken quickly and our server quite attentive. But how about the food?

There were only three of of on this night so we ordered three entrees and an appetizer. Instead of getting the classic Roti Canai we opted for the Shrimp Puff - this is minced shrimp in puff pastry wrapped with bacon - tasty but slightly greasy. Someone ordered a very competent Chicken Pad Thai which was good but slighty sweet. Another dish we ordered was a Beef Rendang - I thought it a bit heavy on the cinnamon and cloves and slightly greasy but otherwise good - I think the others liked it quite a bit. I ordered a vegetable curry that I thought quite good - spicy and very savory (it was my favorite dish).

So in all we had a very good time with good service and I look forward to coming to Penang again - next time I'll focus more on the traditional Malaysian dishes as they looked quite unusual and very tasty - especially the seafood options.

(also posted to Yelp)
 

Harmony Vegetarian Restaurant - Chamblee Atlanta Georgia

You can find Harmony Vegetarian Restaurant at 4897 Buford Hwy Ste 109, Atlanta, GA 30341 in a shopping center just south of the crux of Buford Highway and Chamblee Tucker Rd, Southeastern quadrant. This shopping center is anchored by the venerable Hoa Binh Supermarket that contains a handful of restaurants worth trying, including Pho Bac, Penang and J's Mini Hot Pot. There's quite a bit of available parking, but these restaurants (and the market) do get quite busy so you may have to walk a bit.

Harmony is a vegan Chinese restaurant that features flavors that are a bit more authentic than you typical swag Amer-Chinese Panda Express - what makes it interesting is that most of the dishes are made using flavored tofu with beef, chicken and fish options. The food here is pretty good and offers up an alternative to eating meat-filled dishes so you don't feel so bad bringing your vegan friends and finding out there's not much on the menu they can eat. At Harmony it's all at least vegetarian and mostly vegan.

As for why your vegan friends would want dishes that taste like meat, that's more a question around why they are vegan. For instance, I have many friends that are culturally vegetarian where meat just isn't part of their diet - these meat-flavored tofu dishes for the most part just don't taste good to them. I always find it interesting when I come here with American vegans who just rave about the flavors and wolf down Harmony's dishes - seems a bit hypocritical, but who am I to judge? Eat what you like, I say.

On this occasion I showed up with friends from my weekly Buford Highway Crawl group - quite a few who don't normally attend showed up (several vegans in the group) so this was a treat for them. Some of the dishes we tried:

* Curry Pockets - these are fried dumplings that approximate samosas

* Steamed Shanghai Dumplings - these are a veggie version of a soup dumpling

* Beef with Broccoli - we ordered this spiced up which helped a lot

* Sliced Pork Szechuan Style - the flavors were good but the texture didn't quite make it for me.

* Ma Po Tofu - I ordered this dish extra spicy - it was hot but not super hot. I liked it quite a bit.

* Beef with Mixed Veggies - this was one of my favorite dishes and approximated beef the most

* Sesame Chicken - others liked this quite a bit but I thought it too sweet.

 

Service is very good here - it's obvious the restaurant has been open a long time and the owners really care about the dining experience. Everyone for the most part enjoyed the food and had a good time.

(also posted to Yelp)

Asian Supermarket Food Court - Chamblee Georgia

You can find Asian Supermarket at 5150 Buford Hwy NE Ste B199, Atlanta, GA 30340. This is the building at the back of the shopping center that is better known for Sweet Hut and Mamak. I met up with a group right when the supermarket was opened (they were having a celebration including a pair of traditional Chinese dragons performing as a sign of luck). Parking is usually plentiful but when super crowded you may need to walk a bit.

My review is for the food court and not the market itself - I found in general the food to be similar to what you can find at other Asian markets, particularly those that cater to Chinese tastes.

 

I had a hearty ramen-style soup from Red Pepper, duck from Best BBQ and a fried leek dumpling/pie that was quite good.

Service here is marginal - you basically order at the counter and self-serve yourself with chopsticks and napkins. Most of the vendors offer soup, tea and rice with the meal - you just help yourself. Everything is super cheap so go with a group and sample what looks good - it will give you some ideas about how to order when visiting more traditional Chinese cuisine restaurants.

(also posted to Yelp).

International Cafe - Buford Highway in Druid Hills - Atlanta Georgia

You can find the International Cafe at 3066 Buford Highway NE, Atlanta, GA 30329 in the same strip mall as one of my previous reviews for China Feng. Parking is out front and there's plenty so no worries, it was also not very busy during at 8:00 PM when our group paid a visit.

I had heard from friends that the International Cafe was a great place for wings so was eager to try it when John F announced it as the next stop for our Buford Highway Restaurant Crawl group. I arrived a bit early and grabbed a couple of tables and was joined shortly by others. International Cafe is a mom-and-pop place with a very limited menu and lots of beer options. The girl behind the counter took our orders and we waited about 10 minutes  for the food to arrive - since I got there early I ordered a Philly cheese steak because I wanted to try something different and figured I'd share it out. I also ordered a Sweetwater IPA.

Others arrived shortly 8:00 and we took a look at the menu to decide what to order for appetizers and meals. For apps we got the Potato Skins (bacon - Bacos? - and melted cheese) and Onion Rings. The skins were pretty marginal and I wouldn't recommend them. The onion rings were good but probably the pre-breaded frozen type you order from restaurant supply companies, filling but nothing special. The Philly was tasty but not a real Philly but that may just be me being a food-snob. 

For entrees we ordered a grilled cheese sandwich (for the vegetarian), a burger with steak fries (wasn't very good) and an assortment of wings spitting up one order between the teriyaki and lemon pepper and some extra spicy hot wings. The standout here are the wings - these are all deep fried well and remind me a bit of the wings you can get at American Cafe. The extra hot were hot but not terribly so and the texture was good if you like the extra-fried style - which I do. They are on the smallish side, typical of places like Cafe Hot Wing 2 on Chamblee-Tucker.

Our server, who also manned the counter, was very sweet and very accommodating keeping us full of beer and drinks. The owners are very lucky to have her. In general I can see why people like to come here - the beer and food is very cheap, the atmosphere very neutral and the dining room clean. The food is nothing special but I would stick with the wings and forego the appetizers and burgers. 

-- John

(also posted to Yelp)