Last week Creative Loafing unveiled the winners of the voting for Best of Atlanta 2008. I really only pay attention to the Best of Food lists (which they cleverly refer to as “Oral Pleasures”), and I thought it’d be fun to list the results and go over them, disagreeing with “boos” and confirming fine selections with “huzzahs”. There are two seperate lists – the critics’ picks and the readers’ picks. Which of my comments do you agree with? Do you think I’m an arrogant moron? Either way, leave a comment and let me know.
P.S. – Creative Loafing filed for bankrupcy protection today. So, there’s that.
Let’s get into it (my markup is in italics):
critics’ picks
DARK HORSE: Best Restaurant of the Year Holeman and Finch I wish I could agree – but the one time I went, it was a 2+ hour wait. Now I really can’t wait to eat there.
FAVORITE SON: Best Overall Restaurant Bacchanalia I haven’t been in two years, but it ruled
Best Restaurant Worth The Long Trip Five and Ten Athens? Booooo. P.S. LOL @ UGA losing to Bama
Best Restaurant For Late-Night Dining Top Flr Just heard about this place two weeks ago – on the list
Best Restaurant For A First Date Spoon Nothing says first date like curry
Best Restaurant To Bring The Kids O K Cafe No kids, that I know of
Best Restaurant Trend Farm-to-table cooking I want to check out The Feed Store
Best Patio Dining Shaun’s Read about it here
Best Cheap Eats Your Dekalb Farmers Market The best! I wish it wasn’t so far away.
Best Breakfast West Egg - Nope, that would be Goldberg’s Deli, as I’ve said
Best Sunday Brunch Pura Vida
Best Waitstaff The National
Best Best-Looking Waitstaff Nam Obviously they haven’t been to The Tavern on Candy Striper (aka hey waitress, I can see your ass) night
Best Coffee Batdorf & Bronson
Best Bar Food The Glenwood Oh, didn’t I JUST SAY THIS?
Best Desserts Southern Sweets Bakery I’m gonna go with Alon’s
Best Chinese CAFE 101 No sir, Little Szechuan is it
Best Cuban Palomilla’s Cuban Grill House Never heard of it – Havana Sandwich Shop is the way to go
Best Ethiopian Desta They got me there, no idea
Best French Atmosphère Restaurant Freedom fries? No? Forget it.
Best Indian Udipi Cafe
Best Italian Sotto Sotto In major agreement here, with Allegro coming on strong
Best Japanese Nakato Japanese Restaurant
Best Korean Hanil Kwan I’ve only really been to Hae Woon Dae
Best Mexican Taqueria La Oaxaqueña Been on the list for years, I guess I’m lazy!
Best Middle Eastern Rumi’s Kitchen
Best Southern Restaurant Eugene Also on the list! I can’t wait and really want to check out their Sunday brunch
Best Soul Food and Best Fried Chicken Busy Bee Cafe Never heard of it, but I’m sure they can’t touch Carver’s
Best Steaks Bone’s Restaurant Agreed. Runner-up award to Rathbun Steak
Best Sushi Taka Never been but I loved MF Sushi
Best Spanish Cuerno
Best Thai Tamarind Seed I haven’t been since they reopened, but I agree
Best Vegetarian Dynamic Dish Cafe Sunflower. You’re welcome, Katie.
Best Vietnamese Pho Dai Loi Restaurant
Best Barbecue Fox Bros. Bar-B-Q Hrmmm, this is tough. I really liked it last time but not the time before that.
Best Tacos El Rey del Taco Willy’s. Sorry.
Best Cookies Cookie Studio
Best Cupcakes Sweet Pockets Gotta find this place.
Best Ice Cream Morelli’s Gourmet Ice Cream
Best Pizza Pizzeria Fortunato How have I not heard of this with my love of pizza?
Best Sandwiches Parish Food and Goods
Best Veggie Burgers Burger Joe’s Can’t vote. Never eaten one.
Best Veggie Meal at a Nonvegetarian Restaurant JCT Kitchen I am guessing it is the goat cheese agnolotti. Correct. It rules.
Best Wine List JoelOne day…..
Best Wine Bar Krog Bar
Best Locally Brewed Beer 5 Season’s Brewing Great place! But Sweetwater is localled brewed and it is better, though not a restaurant, unless you count drinking your dinner, which I do.
Best Cocktails Beleza
readers’ picks
Best Overall Restaurant Rathbun’s I don’t see this at all. It’s good. Not great. Sorry.
Best Chef Kevin Rathbun
Best New Restaurant Home Restaurant and Bar I wonder if this changes now that Blais left?
Best Restaurant Worth the Long Trip Five and Ten
Best Restaurant to Take Visitors Watershed
Best Restaurant to Take Visitors Two Urban Licks Still haven’t been!
Best Restaurant When Someone Else is Paying Bacchanalia Word up. Best restaurant experience in Atlanta. Do the wine pairings if you’re gonna do it.
Best Restaurant for Late-Night Dining Majestic Diner
Best Restaurant For a First Date The Real Chow Baby Yeah, I can see that. Interactive, fresh, and I bet you learn a lot from your date’s choices of sauces and vegetables. You don’t like carrots? I think we might as well part ways now.
Best Restaurant to Bring the Kids Osteria 832 Pasta and Pizza
Best Patio Dining Wahoo! Grill It does have a nice patio, with misters for when it’s hot as hell
Best Cheap Eats Eats Also a cop hangout.
Best Buffet Golden Corral For serious?
Best Breakfast Flying Biscuit Cafe OVERRATED. REALLY, I DON’T GET IT.
Best Brunch Flying Biscuit Cafe
Best Waitstaff Brick Store Pub
Best-Looking Waitstaff The Tavern at Phipps Ha, I was right (above).
Best Appetizers Ecco
Best Bakery Alon’s Bakery and Market Man, again I am right without looking at the list ahead of time. I should write about food or something.
Best Coffeehouse Joe’s East Atlanta Coffee Shop
Best Coffee Aurora Coffee
Best Bar Food The Earl Two words: Tater tots.
Best Desserts Cafe Intermezzo
Best Cajun Depeaux
Best Cajun Redfish Overrated.
Best Caribbean Bahama Breeze Cheesy.
Best Chinese Chin Chin Chinese Restaurant Who votes for this stuff?
Best Cuban Havana Sandwich Shop Finally.
Best Deli Bagel Palace Deli and Bakery Goldberg’s Goldberg’s Goldberg’s
Best Dim Sum Canton House Chinese Restaurant
Best Ethiopian Queen of Sheba
Best French Cafe Alsace
Best Indian Bhojanic
Best Italian Sotto Sotto See above
Best Japanese Nakato
Best Korean Hae Woon Dae See above
Best Mexican Nuevo Laredo Cantina 100%, yes. To all you haters (Meredith Ford, that means you), please step off.
Best Middle Eastern Mediterranean Grill Hellz yes, I wish I still lived right there!
Best Seafood Six Feet Under Really?
Best Southern Mary Mac’s Tea Room Overrated.
Best Soul Food Soul Vegetarian
Best Southwestern Agave Agreed.
Best Steaks Kevin Rathbun Steak Great indeed, but Bone’s gets the edge
Best Sushi Ru-San’s I’ve thrown up twice after eating there. TWICE.
Best Tapas Pura Vida
Best Thai Nan Thai Fine Dining Overpriced, but good. Choose Tamarind instead. Same Chef.
Best Vegetarian Cafe Sunflower There ya go
Best Vietnamese Nam Been on the list forever!
Best Barbecue Fox Bros. Bar-B-Q OK, fine. Fox Bros.
Best Biscuits Flying Biscuit Café I’d vote for Chik-fil-A before this place.
Best Tacos Taqueria del Sol Not traditional, but yeah, I can’t argue that they are very good
Best Cookies Alon’s Bakery and Market
Best Cupcakes The Atlanta Cupcake Factory
Best Fried Chicken Watershed
Best Grits The Flying Biscuit
Best Hamburger The Vortex Bar and Grill Tough one. That burger at the Glenwood ruled.
Best Ice Cream Jake’s
Best Pizza Fellini’s Pizza I like it, but can’t go there on principal. They’ve served me white pizza with sauce before.
Best Sandwiches Alon’s Bakery and Market
Best Veggie Burgers The Vortex Bar and Grill
Best Veggie Meal at a Nonvegetarian Restaurant R. Thomas
Best Veggie Meal at a Nonvegetarian Restaurant Watershed
Best Wine List Ecco
Best Wine Bar Krog Bar Confirmed. I must go there.
Best Brew Pub Twain’s Billiards and Tap
Best Locally Brewed Beer Sweetwater Brewery Agreed, but ABC on Friday afternoons is more fun, less crowded, and you get more beer.
Best Signature Cocktail Mistrial Mimosa at Shaun’s
Best Beer Selection Brick Store Pub Overrated (GASP!)
September 29th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
It’s official. Atlanta’s full of idiots. Flying Biscuit? Rusan’s? Fellini’s? Are you kidding.
Got to disagree with you on a couple things Jimmy. Tesoro in Decatur has the best Tacos. Dusty’s has the best BBBQ. I’m impartial because I was on TV dining there.
Other than that, we’re on the same page. Mainly because we’ve been to the same places. Hae Woon Dae what what!
September 29th, 2008 at 10:30 pm
Mary Mac’s Tea Room is great if you’re a true southerner. But I will agree with Aaron, Atlanta is full of idiots. I’ve had plenty, and I mean plenty of better BBQ than Fox’s. Hmm.. this reminds me of the BBQ page I was going to start. Maybe it should just be eatitatlanta.com/bbq what do you think?
September 30th, 2008 at 9:05 am
Agreed on most points; especially Ru-San’s. There are tons of places with better sushi…in fact, on the average weeknight I would rather eat Publix sushi at home than go to Ru-San’s. And I’ll go with the readers on Taqueria del Sol for best tacos – I have never been disappointed there. Rumi’s Kitchen is very good and if you haven’t already, you should try it. It’s barely OTP – near the 5 Seasons in Sandy Springs. Ben and I really enjoyed Ecco as well. Let me know when you’re going to Joel – it’s on my list. :)
As far as Sweet Pockets…check out Katie Longmire’s blog – http://katielongmire.blogspot.com/ – one of the first posts, titled “I am obsessed…”, and also the next one “Just so you know”.
Thanks for posting the lists.
September 30th, 2008 at 9:23 am
ho.ho.ho….Jimmy you have me laughing out loud on this one. Especially the Rusan’s comment…couldn’t agree with you more! =)
October 1st, 2008 at 9:12 am
Does the beer at Twain’s make anyone else have a huge hangover and the taste of socks in your mouth??? They shouldn’t be allowed to brew beer….but throw shuffle board into the mix, and I’ll pay for a bottled beer.
Come on Atlanta!!!! How can Kool Korners not be the best cuban in atlanta??!?!?!?!? Besides my roommate Gus, who is the second best Cuban in Atlanta.
People need to check out Floataway Cafe too……the head chef splits time with Bacc….husband/wife combo
October 1st, 2008 at 11:31 am
Hrm, I don’t recall the beer at Twain’s actually. Shuffle board is all I recall.
Is it confirmed that Kool Korners is still open? I have heard that it is closed.
I liked Floataway. Tempura lemon was neato and the sommelier came over and assisted me with some interesting beer selections. She recommended the most expensive one they had. Funny how that happens.
November 25th, 2008 at 1:05 am
I realize I’m a little late in the game here, but I’m just catching up on my blaughing.
I agree with Fox Bros as best BBQ, and not just because these guys used to host free sweetwater panic night Wednesday at Smith’s.
Honestly, what Q is better? Fat Matt’s? Get the fudge out.