Carver's Country Kitchen

Good food and a unique atmosphere. Carver's Country Kitchen is a unique place that serves up some tasty Southern cooking.

The atmosphere is unique because it is like eating lunch at a convenience store. You walk in, walk back to a small area open to the kitchen. They take your order and make your plate. You then carry your plate and drink to one of the tables in the middle of the room. It is very similar to a barbecue buffet but rather than being a buffet you choose a meat, two vegetables, and your choice of bread. The clientele ranges from college students, to construction workers, to well-dressed office workers. Don't be scared by the clientele or the odd location. It is all part of the experience.

The food is not the best example of Southern cooking I have ever had, but it is good. I ordered the fried chicken with collard greens, macaroni and cheese, and jalapeno cornbread.

The chicken was moist and flavorful on the interior with a crunch, greasy fried exterior. The chicken was a little greasier and heavier than the perfect fried chicken that I remember my granny making when I visited my grandparents as a child. But I can't really fault them for failing to meet the standard of my granny. The fried chicken is good and worth ordering. The macaroni and cheese was creamy and tasty. The collards were fairly good but lacking a little bit of flavor. The jalapeno cornbread was excellent, but by the time I got around to it I could barely do more than take a tiny nibble.

My friend ordered the same plate except he had the hashbrown casserole instead of the macaroni and cheese.

The jalapenos on top of his chicken are from the free offering of pickled peppers.

The plate of food is enormous. The amount of food you get for your money, plus the quality of the food, makes this a real value. I recommend going to Carver's for the experience alone, the fact that the food is rather good is a nice bonus. Be sure to bring a big appetite.

Carver's is only open for lunch from 11 to 3 on weekdays.

Carver's Country Kitchen
1118 W. Marietta Street NW
Atlanta, GA 30318
404-794-4410

Cafe Lily

Horrible. Utterly disappointing.

I went to Cafe Lily for brunch. I ordered the lamb with potatoes and eggs. I thought the $14 was a little high, but not ridiculous, for a lamb brunch item. I asked for my eggs over easy. No dice. The chef is busy and can only do the eggs scrambled. While refusing requests is no reason to hate a restaurant, a brunch place should be able to accommodate eggs however you like them. But that was only the beginning of the disaster.

I received my food. I was shocked.

Five tiny nuggets of lamb. Where does a lamb nugget come from? No cut of lamb I can think of yields lamb nuggets. Was I being served the trimmings from someone else's piece of lamb? The potatoes had way too much garlic. I put heaping spoonfulls of minced garlic in nearly everything I cook. I love garlic. The garlic on the potatoes made them unappetizing. The eggs were just "blah." They had no distinctive taste and no redeeming qualities. They reminded me of the eggs served at a cheap hotel's breakfast buffet: poured out of a container rather than made fresh. The tomato slices were from the tiniest, most unripe tomato. Not only that but one of the four slices was the end of the tomato with the hard stem portion intact.

I would not pay a penny for this food when I can go elsewhere and receive much better. Much less would I pay $14 for this plate. To top it all off, the service was lackluster at best.

My wife ordered the french toast.

It is hard to screw up french toast. She said it was decent but not amazing.

She also ordered a side of sausage.

I have never seen sausage served this way before. It is a large sausage link cut several times so that it would lay flat. It wasn't bad with some syrup over top. However, the additional charge of, I believe, $4 for this one piece of sausage was excessive.

Overall, avoid Cafe Lily. It is a waste of money and time.

Cafe Lily
308 W. Ponce De Leon Ave.
Decatur, GA 30030
404-371-9119