Where Nobody Knows Your Name: Discreet Restaurants in Atlanta
Some of my favorite restaurants around Buford Highway, Doraville, and Duluth
Masterpiece
The restaurant’s cozy intimacy is a welcome alternative to the restaurant-group domination of Atlanta. We arrive famished. We peek around at all of the steaming plates of pork that rush out of the kitchen. We stare longingly as a sizzling platter of beef passes over us and lands at the table behind us. And then all at once, every dish that we ordered appears in front of us – duck and eggplant and beef and mounds of rice. We told our server that we liked spicy food and she gave a look of “you asked for it.” Every steaming bite is spicier than the last and we start sweating a little, but that’s okay because a warm meal is the best defense against the winds we hear whipping outside.
Yet Tuh
Another small, cozy spot with just a handful of tables. The most special meals aren’t always the most expensive. Sitting at a small, wobbly table, we fidget without chopsticks and sip beers that we can’t pronounce the name of until our server silently brings us a scallion pancake. I’m so hungry that I want to inhale it, but we have so much food on the way that I don’t want to spoil my appetite. I take small bites small sips until a steaming bowl of kimchi stew arrives and a plate of noodles and small sides of marinated cucumbers and kimchi and potato salad. We eat silently, but silence means good. Silence means contentment. Silence means that a need is being satisfied in ways that you didn’t know possible.
Snackboxe Bistro
Neither of us have had Laotian food before, but that’s part of the fun. Going in blind. It’s our first date, so it feels fitting. No expectations or pretenses. No context other that what exists right in front of us. With open minds and hearts, we share plates of noodles and beef and fishy. The chef describes Lao food as “funky, aromatic, and herbaceous” and every bite teases our senses. It’s like other kinds of foods we’ve had, but it’s still its own thing. New experiences and new friendships are good for the soul.
Lanzhou Ramen
Hand-pulled noodles. Are there three better words in the English language? We want to try all of them despite the fact that we both only have one stomach. But the dim sum looks so good too. What’re we gonna do? The answer seems to be: a little bit of everything. We ordered too much, but that’s alright. We leave with deli cups filled with soup. I hold them on the ride back and the noodles slosh back and forth in their homes as we shuttle ourselves back to Atlanta. You let me keep the leftovers. Taking care of me even in your absence.