Monthly Archives: June 2016

4-nice!, dine in, food, take out

Angie’s Place

Address: 6007 Memorial Dr, Stone Mountain, GA 30083
Phone:(404) 549-3428
Hours:  6AM–9PM
Menu: angiesplaceatl.com
click on photos for larger view

My cooking is so bad my kids thought Thanksgiving was to commemorate Pearl Harbor. Phyllis Diller

angie menueAngie’s Place, Homestyle Chicken and Fixins (no decorative apostrophe) is located at one of the least friendly driving locations along Memorial Drive. It is at the corner of Memorial and Hairston within the Exxon gas station.  Relatively easy to get in from Hairston but difficult (note: difficult as in first world IMG_4570difficult) to get  out and back to Hairston.    We fast food (and slow food) consumers want to slip in and slip out of our  food joints without hassle but Memorial Drive OTP makes the easy in and easy out challenging. You gotta work a little harder on Memorial Drive to take care of  your business. But I meander.

A good fried chicken should be crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside,  and tasty all over, right?  And guess what? Angie’s chicken is crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside and IMG_4576tasty all over. I ordered 2 pieces, dark, with potato wedges and  cole slaw (2 pieces dark, 2 sides, $6.99).  Horror of horrors they were out  of slaw.  Crestfallen, I reluctantly ordered the green beans.  I say reluctantly  because  I’m not a big fan of the  green bean. The only other choice was mashed potatoes and I wasn’t going to do wedges and mashed potatoes.  I had to wait a minute because Angie’s did not pre cook the chicken when I was there.   I took the  time to read the bulletin board that was in the dining area. There was a review from a  newspaper that was good. There was the latest food inspection report–a 96 score! I have never seen a food inspection report so IMG_4567prominently displayed. Also displayed was a document certifying that the chicken served was halal or permissable.   I also noted the accent paint was pleasantly purple and was coordinated  with the colors on their web site.

Once my take out was ready I took it home.  What else was I going to do with it?  The chicken  smelled very good and it was good!  When I opened the container I had three pieces of chicken instead of two.  The two piece order contained a thigh, a leg, and a wing. It also had a good portion of potato wedges, the green beans, and a biscuit.  This fried chicken was like your favorite Aunt Eudora’s (or Aunt Flannery’s) best chicken ever.  Basic good fried chicken.  The potato wedges were fried but not greasy and lightly browned and a little crunchy on the outside. I just loved them taters.  The biscuit was quite tasty although I suspect it was not home made.    The green beans were overcooked.  Again I had wanted the cole slaw but Angie was  sold out of slaw. I will go back for the full chicken/slaw treatment and do an addendum to this review.  But for the record, go there, get the chicken.  I give Angie’s Chicken and Fixins a 4-nice!   Rating system explained.   So live a little and take the extra time  getting in and  out of there. Try the slaw and let me know what you think. Cheers!

3-better than meh, breakfast, eggs, food, pancakes

The Original House of Pancakes

Part of the secret of a success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside. Mark Twain

The Original House of Pancakes

5099 Memorial Dr, Stone Mountain, GA 30083
(404) 292-6914
7AM–2:30PM

(click photos for a larger view)

click photos for larger look

Is it really the original house of pancakes? Was its original name “The Original House of Pancakes”?  How could they know?  Was it House of Pancakes until competitors came on the scene and then the name was changed to “Original”?  A burning question which Wikipedia does not address: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Original_Pancake_House

But I digress!  We went to breakfast on a day off whim. Originally I was going to review Angie’s Chicken but she will have to wait.

IMG_4410A decent crowd was on hand at the mid century modern restaurant for 8am on a workday. We ordered their classic Apple Pancake and eggs benedict with potato pancakes and coffee. The coffee is good basic stuff with  a bit of a kick. We were told (and it was on the menu as well) that the Apple pancake takes longer to prepare. It was the truth.  So it was about 30 minutes before food arrived. Don’t be in a hurry for the apple pancake. IMG_4413

The pancake was worth the wait. Yummy. Oven baked with fresh granny smith apples and pure Sinkiang cinnamon glaze according to the OHOP website.  Fresh granny smith? Not sure about that  but the cake from a pan sure was good. No wonder this place is so popular. Sweet and soft and a little puffy with apples on top? How could you go wrong.

IMG_4418The eggs Michael benedict sitting on top of sausage with mushroom sherry sauce and a nicely toasted english muffin with a side of potato pancakes that came with applesauce and sour cream. I thought it was good, Tina says “very good and unique!” Right on the mark for breakfast. The sour cream  also worked well on the apple pancake.

All in all you can’t go wrong here. The service was friendly and unless they are beating their employees or serving endangered species I don’t see why you wouldn’t want to go there as often as your dietary restrictions allow you!

On the meh scale: 3.5 above meh!
Rating system explained.

3-better than meh, chicken, dine in, food, Jamaican, take out

Sunshine Jamaican Restaurant

Only the pure in heart can make a good soup. Ludwig van Beethoven

Sunshine Jamaican Restaurant
5998 Memorial Drive, Stone Mountain, GA

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There at least 3 Jamaican restaurants on Memorial Drive OTP.  Today I visited Sunshine Jamaican Restaurant. A small biz located at the corner of Hairston and Memorial. It is in the the same area as the Checker Hamburger place.  Sunshine was hopping when I got there at about 1pm on a Friday.  Orders are place at the counter for eat in or to go. The cashier was all smiles and very friendly.  There was a little inefficiency (from my perspective) in the ordering process and so it seemed to take a little longer than it should have. (caveat: I am a tad impatient so… take it with a grain of alcohol) So I ordered (eat in) the curry goat/chicken Friday special combo with IMG_4390cabbage instead of salad and white rice instead of the rice and peas.   I didn’t have to wait long before one of the gentle brought my substantial plated of curry chicken and goat. The first thing I notice is the rice looks perfect. Each grain separate yet sticking together in a nice mound and yummy. Excellent rice. I  don’t know why but well cooked rice makes me happy. The rest is icing on the cake.  Delicious curry  with just the right amount of spiciness. The chicken and goat were tender and moist and as another little bonus, in the middle of the plate was a potato. Perfectly cooked and very tasty. So tasty that when I went to leave I FullSizeRender (1)asked if could get an order of potatoes but alas they said no. It wasn’t on the menu therefore they couldn’t ring it up.  So small order of wings and a healthy plateful of curry chicken/goat with rice, cabbage (cabbage was ok. it was boiled but still crunchy with carrot pieces), w pieces of plantain (plantain was ok), one really good potato, and a jamaican ginger beer–about 14 buckitos. Also note, I asked and  Sunshine does use MSG in their recipes. They also cater and on request would exclude the MSG. They said to place catering orders a week in advance.  Directions

All in all 3.5– better than meh!  Rating system explained.

2-below meh, food, pizza, sandwiches

Gyro Pizza, Mediterranean and Pizza

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Our lives are not in the lap of the gods, but in the lap of our cooks. Lin Yutang

6200 Memorial Dr
Stone Mountain, GA 30083
Get Directions
Phone number(470) 375-7137

Screen Shot 2016-06-07 at 11.42.41 AMLocated in Memorial Center which is the kind of shopping center that is common along Memorial Drive. Hopefully it has bottomed out and is  on the uptick.

 

 

 

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Gyro Pizza is my first review! Tina and I drove into the Memorial Center shopping center that is fronted by a large swath of a  concrete foundation from a  now defunct and destroyed business. Near the corner of the L- shaped  shopping  center is GP.   Gyro Pizza is a very large restaurant and when I entered it was completely empty except for me, the very friendly guy behind the counter, and the cook (or at least a guy who was in the kitchen).  Not a promising start when it is dinner time.  Only slightly fazed I ordered the gyro and fries for me and for  Tina  I order the gyro only. While waiting in the cavernous space a gentleman came in and gave me a very friendly hello. The owner perhaps?  We ordered to go and took the gyros home.  The fries, oh god, the fries! were terrible. Under cooked and greasy.  I have low standards when it comes to fries but the one standard I have is that they be cooked. The sandwich was disappointing but not as bad as the fries! (oh the fries!).  The lamb was disheartenly dry,  the lettuce mostly fresh, the tzatziki sauce was  good, and the bread was fresh. Unfortunately those two could not rescue the too dry lamb and the undercooked french fries (oh, the fries!).  So on a scale of 1-ugh! 2- below meh. 2.67-meh. 3-better than meh. 4-nice!  5-wowzer!  I give it a 2-below meh. Rating system explained.  (for more info about Memorial Drive OTP, click here