Chong Qing Hot Pot - Chamblee Georgia

You can find Chong Qing Hot Pot in the China Town Mall at 5385 New Peachtree Rd, Atlanta, GA 30341. China Town Mall is tucked away off of New Peachtree Rd - I've generally heard the area referred to as Chinatown but that may be due to the mall's location - there are other Chinese businesses in about a one mile radius, but I don't know if the local population warrants the name - I think it's more about the businesses. 

China Town Mall is one of Atlanta's best kept secrets - featuring a good ethnic food court that's heavily visited during lunch. On this weekday early evening we were in the area and decided to hit the Chong Qing Hot Pot. The food to my tastes is more towards the traditional Chinese as opposed to the swag Americanized Chinese you get a places like Panda Express.

This is a food court so the dining hall is shared - what you'll find at Chong Qing are hot pots and good inexpensive Chinese dishes. The menu for the most part is handwritten on whiteboards behind the counter - there's also a takeout menu so you can order ahead and pick up or pick up and eat in the mall - you can't get much simpler. The board features vegetables, Fried Rice/Lo Mein, Hot Pots and Noodle Soups. You'll find the prices super cheap but don't let that fool you - the food here is way above average, especially for food court food.

Once you order they call out when it's ready - there's a kettle of tea, sweet-and-sour soup and steamed rice on the counter where you can help yourself. Make sure you get chopsticks and anything else you need while you're up there (don't worry I always forget to grab something).

On this night we went with the string beans and a Szechuan style Chong Qing Spicy Chicken. While some of the ingredients in the beans were a bit light the flavors still pulled through in this classic dish - the portion is very large and good for sharing - as I recall all the veggie portions are generous. 

The Chicken, frankly wasn't on par with Gu's or Peter Chang's Tasty China, but was still very good and filling. I think it's the type of dried peppers used or perhaps it's the whole pepper as presented instead of cut pieces - these don't have the level of intensity or spiciness. For $7.95 I don't have anything to complain about. In fact our entire meal for two people was about $15.

Speaking of costs - make sure you bring cash.

-- John

(also posted to Yelp)

 

Humble House - Great Wall Supermarket - Duluth Atlanta Georgia

You can find Humble House at 2300 Pleasant Hill Rd, Duluth, GA 30096 in the Great Wall Supermarket about a block west of Satellite Blvd where it crosses Pleasant Hill Rd. I've written my last three reviews about three other business in this same food court (Best BBQ Cantonese Cuisine, Yummy Garden and Ping's Place) - you'll find Humble House in the middle of the row on the left along the entire wall Chinese food purveyors.

As mentioned previously, I met with a group of friends for a lunch UYE at the Great Wall Supermarket hosted by Tuong Vi P (https://www.yelp.com/events/duluth-uye-lets-do-saturday-lunch-great-wall-supermarket) - basically about a dozen of us sampled various treats from one of about 5-6 restaurants in the food court. This food court specializes in authentic Chinese cuisine so you'll see variations of dumplings, saucy dishes, pork belly and Chinese BBQ. The Saturday was extremely busy with a full market and full food court - it took some time to gather together the many tables we needed and people kept coming to join our group.

Humble House also has a detailed and huge menu of Sichuan options and much like the other places in this exceptional food court, is a counter-order business as you would expect from a food court. I did not order the food from Humble House, focusing on Best BBQ towards the end. I did manage to sample a few dishes from their menu (photos of items all along the back wall - actually all of these restaurants used this method to communicate). I liked the food from Humble House the best from all the options I tired, maybe because I was able to sample the largest number of dishes:

Sesame Chicken - this seemed a bit out-of-place for this mall, more like what you would get at Panda Express than an authentic Chinese mall. It was less sickly sweet so maybe that's the lure - not something I normally would have ordered.

Pork Belly - this was the star the show,  accompanied with diced onion, garlic, leafy greens and rice. I'm not quite sure how this was cooked - it was fork tender and seemed sous vide? In any case, one of the best versions of pork in any fashion I've ever had. You can do much worse than order this dish. It's also more than enough to split between two people and at about $10-11 a sweet, sweet deal.

Spicy Chicken - this was similar to the Chicken with Sichuan Pepper you find at other restaurants specializing in Sichuan food. It's always a good fallback if you're not sure what to order. They do a good job her (I've had better at Gu's) but for food court food it's good and very cheap.

Cumin Beef - I don't know what it is about this dish but I really like it. The cumin provides a level of mouth-watering depth that makes you keep eating it even when your full. Delicious.

String Beans with Ground Pork - if you guys remember the old Little Szechuan, this dish is the closest I've had to the stir fried string beans from that memorable restaurant (the new location and version of the food basically sucks). This dish with the Pork Belly made my day.

Corn and Peas: now I'm not much a fan of corn so I only tried a bite. I had no real opinion of the dish - just seemed like a random veggie to have on a menu.

In all Humble House was the best of the four food-court restaurants I tired. You could easily bring a family in and come away super-cheap by eating family style - the hard part is finding a table - this place gets packed, at least during a Saturday lunch.


-- John

 (also posted to Yelp)

Pings Place - Great Wall Supermarket - Duluth Atlanta Georgia

You can find Ping's Place at 2300 Pleasant Hill Rd, Duluth, GA 30096 in the Great Wall Supermarket about a block west of Satellite Blvd where it crosses Pleasant Hill Rd. I've written my last two reviews about two other business in this same food court - you'll find it on the left along the entire wall of food businesses.

As mentioned previously, I met with a group of friends for a lunch UYE at the Great Wall Supermarket hosted by Tuong Vi P (https://www.yelp.com/events/duluth-uye-lets-do-saturday-lunch-great-wall-supermarket) - basically about a dozen of us sampled various treats from one of about 5-6 restaurants in the food court. This food court specializes in authentic Chinese cuisine so you'll see variations of dumplings, saucy dishes, pork belly and Chinese BBQ. The Saturday was extremely busy with a full market and full food court - it took some time to gather together the many tables we needed and people kept coming to join our group.

Ping's Place specializes in Taiwanese food and much like the other places in this exceptional food court, is a counter-order business as you would expect from a food court - sort of "fast casual" before that term meant anything. I did not order the food from Ping's Place, focusing on Best BBQ towards the end. I did manage to sample one dish from their menu (photos of items all along the back wall - actually all of these restaurants used this method to communicate):

 Beef Noodle Soup with hand-cut noodles (served on the weekends): This soup had a good beef broth - the noodles were a bit doughy, reminded me of the pull-drop dumpling soup my mom used to make. The beef was thick sliced and very good. I thought the broth could use a bit more kick - maybe there was a subtlety to it that I was missing?

Overall I thought the experience good but not great. The beef soup was very good but could have used a secondary layer of flavor (I have a feeling it was very authentic and true to Taiwanese cooking though, so take my opinion with a grain of salt).

-- John

 (also posted to Yelp)

Yummy Garden - Great Wall Food Court - Duluth Atlanta Georgia

You can find Yummy Garden at 2300 Pleasant Hill Rd, Duluth, GA 30096 in the Great Wall Supermarket about a block west of Satellite Blvd where it crosses Pleasant Hill Rd. I wrote about this during my last review for Best BBQ. When you walk into the supermarket Yummy Garden is the first business along the food court to the left. 

As mentioned previously, I met with a group of friends for a lunch UYE at the Great Wall Supermarket hosted by Tuong Vi P (https://www.yelp.com/events/duluth-uye-lets-do-saturday-lunch-great-wall-supermarket) - basically about a dozen of us sampled various treats from one of about 5-6 restaurants in the food court. This food court specializes in authentic Chinese cuisine so you'll see variations of dumplings, saucy dishes, pork belly and Chinese BBQ. The Saturday was extremely busy with a full market and full food court - it took some time to gather together the many tables we needed and people kept coming to join our group.

At Yummy Garden, much like the other places in this exceptional food court, you order at the very busy counter and after 10-20 minutes you pick up your food. I did not order the food from Yummy Garden, focusing on Best BBQ towards the end. I did manage to sample two dishes:

Xiao Long Bao aka Chinese steamed soup dumplings. I thought these were delicious, with that little burst of liquid as you bite down. These are comparable to Chef Lui's and well worth trying.

Cumin Fish - this Sichuan dish is comparable to what you would get at the old Gu's or at Tasty' China and very delicious. They do a great job hear and it's super cheap.

I'll definitely come back to Yummy Garden - the only thing that's difficult to get past are all the options - the menu is amazing (it makes me wonder if the English version is different from the Chinese though).

-- John

(also posted to Yelp)

Best BBQ Cantonese Cuisine - Great Wall Supermarket - Duluth Atlanta Georgia

You can find Best BBQ Cantonese Cuisine at 2300 Pleasant Hill Rd, Duluth, GA 30096 in the Great Wall Supermarket about a block west of Satellite Blvd where it crosses Pleasant Hill Rd. This is the market directly across from Sweet Hut Bakery. When you walk into the supermarket its along the food court to the left, all the way in back - look for tall black letters "CANTONESE CUISINE."

I met with a group of friends for a lunch UYE at the Great Wall Supermarket hosted by Tuong Vi P (https://www.yelp.com/events/duluth-uye-lets-do-saturday-lunch-great-wall-supermarket) - basically about a dozen of us sampled various treats from one of about 5-6 restaurants in the food court. This food court specializes in authentic Chinese cuisine so you'll see variations of dumplings, saucy dishes, pork belly and Chinese BBQ. The Saturday was extremely busy with a full market and full food court - it took some time to gather together the many tables we needed and people kept coming to join our group.

Best BBQ Cantonese Cuisine focuses on Chinese BBQ with several samples hanging from the display window. The menu offers many items, some I'm not very familiar with but the sections for Congee and Noodle Soup had the most options. I decided to try something a bit different so after studying the menu order the soup dumplings (one of my favorites) alone with the roasted duck. 

I stood in line for about 15 minutes as it was quite busy. Together these two took about 20 minutes to come to me with each dishes being delivered at different times. The woman behind the counter was a bit off-putting as I think she had some difficulty communicating with me - the next time I'll make sure I have someone with me that can translate a bit - not blaming her but anything beyond pointing at menu line items seemed to be a bit beyond what she could accommodate. 

The duck I thought was OK but I prefer the roasted duck you can find at Bo Bo Garden in Buford Hwy - the consistency was similar but the sauces at Bo Bo gives it more flavor - what I received at Best BBQ was just served on rice. The soup dumplings were delicious with a strong shrimp flavor - the broth was also quite good and not overly salty. I'm no expert in Chinese food, unfortunately growing up in the US offered up mostly the schwag Chinese food found in the likes of restaurants with names like "Golden Buddha" - you know what I mean, however I believe the flavors found in this mall are very authentic.

-- John

(also posted to Yelp)




 

Gu's Dumplings - Krog Street Market - Inman Park Atlanta GA

Gu's Dumplings can be found at 99 Krog St NE, Atlanta, GA 30307 in Krog Street Market along the front side opposite where most of the food is located. If you haven't been to Krog Street Market, this place is a location for shops and foodie-positioned townie quick bites in an "adult" food court atmosphere. There are also some good to very good restaurants nearby. Since this is on the Atlanta Beltline, Krog St is receiving a lot of visibility and becoming a destination spot for local hipsters and those wanting new experiences.

Gu's Dumplings is the brainchild of Chef Gu, formerly of Gu's Bistro on Buford Hwy, considered one of the best and most authentic Szechuan restaurants in Atlanta. Gu permanently closed his restaurant to look for a new location to better serve the many fans of his cooking (it was getting to the 1-2 hour wait in the evenings and with the small kitchen in the original location, he began the search). The timing was right to open a new concept and thus Gu's Dumplings was conceived (the intent is still to find a new location for the full restaurant) - the Krog St location provides a way to continue to have a revenue stream and provide a considerably smaller menu of items.

Initially Gu's Dumplings had a very limited menu of about 8-10 items - I'm happy to report that the menu has vastly expanded (still not the variety of the original Bistro but much larger than when the stand opened). You look over the menu and order at the counter - 10 minutes or so later your order is called and you get fantastic Szechuan eats - you can't do much better than this folks.

On this occasion we split a half order (6) of the pork Zhong style dumplings - these are boiled in a sweet-and-spicy Zhong sauce that's pleasantly spicy and garlic-y. Quite delicious.

I also ordered one of my favorite Gu's Bistro dishes, the Spicy Dried Eggplant. My friend Arvin didn't understand why I got this instead of the meat, but was soon converted. This is one of the best vegetarian dishes in Atlanta, in my humble opinion. Crispy sticks of battered eggplant stir-fried with fresh sliced garlic, dried red chilis, fresh cilantro and Szechuan peppercorns (these are the famous flower pepper than numbs your mouth!). I didn't realize how much I missed this dish until the huge container was handed to me.

Service was good and reasonably fast - the people behind the counter are very knowledgeable and can answer your questions quickly. You can look for and may be lucky in finding a table - there's also dispensers for filtered water in the main seating area in front of Hop City - we decided to stand in one of the many bar-height areas along the walls. Go to Hop City and pick up a nice local craft to wash this down - you can thank me later.

-- John

(shorter review also posted to Yelp)