The Halal Guys - Chamblee - Atlanta Georgia

You can find The Halal Guys at 4929 Buford Hwy NE, Chamblee, GA 30341 right at the northeastern quadrant of the intersection of Chamblee Tucker Rd and Buford Highway. The bright-yellow mansard-style roof is hard to miss - it was the former location of some Latino chicken-joint. Parking is towards the back and the northern side, and it basically sucks - they really need 30-50% more space - I usually drive past and park at the lot in front of the Family Dollar and walk back but sometimes get lucky. If I see a lot of cars I don't bother pulling in.

This is the first Atlanta location of the very famous New York food-stand The Halal Guys - I'm not sure if they've opened any other restaurants in the Atlanta area but I haven't heard of any. This is a fast-casual restaurant that specializes in beef and chicken served Mediterranean style - they also have some pretty decent falafels. The interior is very diner-ish with a line that extends to double doors and a very simple menu. You can either get a chicken or beef gyro sandwich (your basic pita wrap) or a Platter with Chicken, Beef, Combo or Falafel (the platter comes with rice and a pile of lettuce and tomatoes, with pita wedges). You can get extra protein ($2) extra falefal ($1) or extra sauce ($0.50) - all the entry prices are super cheap so you can get our of here easily for under $10. They also have a couple of side-options including hummus, baba ghanouj, falafel or fries ($1-3 depending on what it is) and a chunck of Baklava ($2.50) as their only dessert. I actually like this very simple menu - makes things easy and super fast for those queuing up to be served.

I've now eaten here about a half-dozen times. My preference is the combo platter with chicken and beef, the creamy white sauce and extra hot sauce. They will warn yo about how hot this stuff is but I find I can handle quite a bit - if you like heat don't pass it up - it's yummy. The portions here are huge - you will get filled up - as for the sides and the rest, nothing really spectacular and it's dead-on what you would expect from a New York street vendor. Honestly I think there's better food not too far distant (Mediterranean Grocery comes to mind with their delicious shawarma about a mile away). I do like the patio here at Halal Guys - nice place to watch the idiots driving by (of course in the heat it sucks but it's surprisingly pleasant during the cold months). The experience would be vastly improved with several pints of beer, but hey, you can't have everything.

The staff here are for the most part efficient and now that the crowds have died down a bit (fighting for parking and queuing up in long lines was a bitch), the experience isn't bad - you might actually find someplace to sit. My wife doesn't care for the place but I'll sometimes come by myself and indulge in the fiery hot sauce covering a combo platter - so worth it.

(also posted to Yelp)

Oriental Pearl Seafood Restaurant - Chamblee - Atlanta Georgia

You can find Oriental Pearl "Seafood" Restaurant at 5399 New Peachtree Rd, Chamblee, GA 30341- this is a section of New Peachtree that's between Chamblee Dunwoody and Chamblee Tucker Roads and at the northern end of the historic Atlanta Chinatown (unfortunately most of the Chinese locals have moved further north but many businesses are still centered on this shopping center). There's tons of parking out front.

I met several friends at Oriental Pearl as part of our regular Buford Highway Clawr group - we decided this time to include some businesses that are on the periphery of Buford Highway as they need love too, right? It's been many years since I visited this restaurant and as I recall I came her only once prior for weekend dim sum. This end of the shopping center features a porte-a-cochere style entry with two concrete Chinese lions before a well-lit sign. As you might expect, this is what I normally call a swag-Chinese restaurant with classic dishes adjusted to American ingredients and palate. The interior is a bit dated - call it "comfortable" with real white tablecloths and high backed chairs. We were seated in a large round table with spinning lazy-susan which made things very easy for us.

We ordered an assortment of meat, tofu and vegetarian dishes (several veg or vegan in the group) and shared, starting with egg rolls. My favorite was a shrimp-and-scallop dish served in a birds-nest of fried noodles. There may be some specialty dishes here that we weren't aware of to order - these old school Chinese restaurants frequently have some hidden gems. I'd say that the food in general was good but not great and my expectations were about dead-on. Service was good for the most part however we did need to flag someone down for a water refill. This may be one of those spots that's better for lunch - I'm not sure. As a specific destination I think I'd rather hit one of the other Chinese spots close by, but as a meeting place for a largish group they have plenty of space and parking, so it would be good for that purpose.

(also posted to Yelp)

Js Mini Hotpot Deluxe - Chamblee Atlanta Georgia

You can find J's Mini Hotpot Deluxe at 4897 Buford Hwy Ste 160, Atlanta, 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. The shopping center also contains a handful of restaurants worth trying, including Pho Bac and Harmony Vegetarian Chinese. There's a lot of available parking, but these restaurants (and the market) do get quite busy - J's is located right across from Pho Bac and there's usually plenty of parking on that side, even at prime times.

I had eaten at a hot pot restaurant either in the same location or nearby many years ago - as I recall it was a bit mediocre - you sat at tables with built-in hot pots where they would load in bullion cubes and you went from there - I don't remember the name of the place (it wasn't much worth remembering). I wasn't sure if J's Mini Hotpot Deluxe was the same place or not - I'm very happy to say it's not. J's by contrast is a super clean, modernist, well-lit and new establishment with individual induction plates built before each seat - this is nice as you can control the amount of heat and cook for each pot, important to produce good cooking results. On this occasion I attended with a group of my regular Buford Highway Restaurant Crawl group.

The menu has a page of lunch items and then a description of the various available broths. You select the broth you want and then the entree which features: chicken, lamb, pork, beef sirloin, pork belly, Angus brisket, Matsuzaka pork, Angus ribeye, fish fillet, seafood, snow crab leg or vegetarian.  There are also combos where you pick two meats from one of two categories or a Specialty Combo featuring Surf & Turf (assorted seafood with choice of sliced meat (beef/pork/chicken/lamb) - they cover pretty much everything.

After selecting you're given a few apps including a nice seaweed salad and some edamame along with a metal pot that has your broth selection - you're also given a bowl of veggies with a  few pieces of tofu and a whole prawn, to start things off. You add your meats or vegetarian selection to the broth along with an egg if you want the rich tastes - as the food is ready you can remove and enjoy as a soup. There are also optional seasonings you can add to spice things up, conveniently located in something like a seasoning bar. The food here is quite filling and very good. We all tried something different and everything was quite good - this is a great option but especially welcoming during chilly fall or winter evenings.

The service here was also quite good with plenty of attendance and helpful suggestions. I've since eaten here again and everything was quite consistent with my first time. I think this is probably the best hot pot restaurant I've experienced in Atlanta (of course I haven't been to them all) - if you like this style of cooking and food I highly recommend you try J's Mini Hotpot Deluxe.

(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)