Big Bob Gibson's Barbecue

I was skeptical at first. What kind of a barbecue restaurant has its own mini-documentary on its website? But my skepticism was misplaced. Big Bob's is no pretender; it is genuinely good barbecue. The restaurant even has the Memphis in May trophies to prove it, having won for barbecue and sauces several times.

Even without any sauce, the barbecue is good. It has a complex taste with a delicate smokiness, and is very tender, although a touch dry. As soon as you touch the meat with your fork you can tell that it was carefully slow-cooked for hours.

Their barbecued chicken converted a non-believer. I am usually not a fan of barbecued chicken, and would much prefer barbecue (i.e., pork barbecue). Big Bob's barbecued chicken is an exception to my rule. The meat is juicy, tender, and flavorful. It is the farthest thing from the dry, tasteless result that is typical of chicken. While the meat is tender, the skin is crispy and perfectly spiced.

Two sauces are provided for the meats: a red and a white sauce. The red sauce is tomato based and is sweet, but not overly sweet, with rich tomato and caramelized sugar flavors. It is excellent over the barbecue. The white sauce is best described as a mayonnaise-vinegar barbecue sauce. It has a mayonnaise base with a strong vinegar component, a strong black pepper taste, and a dash of spices. It is runny like a regular barbecue sauce rather than being thick like other mayonnaise based sauces (i.e., remoulade, etc.). While decent on the barbecue, the white sauce shines on the barbecued chicken. The crispy skin, the tender, juicy meat, and the creaminess and vinegar pop from the white sauce all sing in harmony to your tastebuds.

The meat at Big Bob's is hard to beat, however, I am a firm believer in the importance of sides to a barbecue establishment. For me, the sides are almost as important as the meat. Apparently Big Bob's does not share this philosophy, and the variety and quality of the sides leave much to be desired. Over the history of the establishment, sides have been overlooked. Until the 1950s, the only sides were coleslaw and potato chips. In the 1950s potato salad was added as an option. After several more decades, baked beans were added.

Perhaps North Alabama coleslaw is something you are raised to like. I am not a fan. It is devoid of mayonnaise, and consists solely of minced cabbage and vinegar. The potato salad is creamy, thick, and highly recommended. The baked beans are decent, but they have a slightly odd aftertaste of perhaps bellpeppers.

Finally, don't forget about dessert at Big Bob's. Among their choices of homemade pies, they serve an amazing lemon meringue pie. All of the pies are made early each morning by a team of pie-making ladies. I'm not sure what they put in their pies to make them so good, but they rank right up there with the best.

I recommend a trip to Big Bob Gibson's. It was not the best barbecue I have ever had, but it was quite good. Operating since 1925, they have to be doing something right to be cooking the same food for satisfied customers for nearly 100 years. The place serves delicious food, oozes barbecue history, and the staff is friendly and attentive. However, be aware that the restaurant receives mixed reviews. While I was quite pleased with my visit, some were sorely disappointed (see http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/168/968121/restaurant/Huntsville/Big-Bob-Gibson-Bar-B-Q-Decatur and http://3rddegreebbq.blogspot.com/2009/09/big-bob-gibson-bar-b-q-310-1715-6th-ave.html) and others left elated (see http://restaurantblog.spoonsaga.com/2010/04/08/bib-bob-gibsons-bbq--decatur-al.aspx?ref=rss).

For more information on the history of the restaurant, including the aforementioned video, check out the restaurant's website at www.bigbobgibson.com.

Big Bob Gibson's
2520 Danville Road SW OR 1715 6th Avenue SE
Decatur, AL
256-350-6969
www.bigbobgibson.com

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

Sawicki's

We had sandwhiches at Sawicki's for lunch last weekend. Scoutmob got me in the door, but the sandwiches may bring me back. While I was not blown away, the sandwiches were fairly good.

I had the Italian sandwich.

The Italian runs $7.25 and, per the menu, contains "Genoa salami, hot soppressata, finocchiona, fontina cheese, field greens, tomato, hot giardiniera (a vegetable relish) and salsa verde on ciabtta." Soppressata is a form of salami, a dried cured pork sausage. Finocchiona is another variety of salami. The soppressata was quite hot and gave the sandwich a nice spiceness. The sandwich was spicy, salty, sour, and sweet. The giardiniera gave it sourness and saltiness. Giardiniera consists of pickled vegetables. The meats were salty, and the soppressata was spicy as mentioned before. The tomatoes were juicy and slightly sweet. Overall, a very tasty sandwich. My only complaint was that the bread was a little too chewy.

My wife had the Mediterranean sandwich.

Again, per the menu, the Mediterannean consists of "chicken, hummus, tomato, field greens and salsa verde on ciabatta" and runs $8.00. Both my wife and I thought that the chicken was juicy and flavorful. I liked the mix of all the flavors and liked the sandwich. It tasted very fresh. My wife liked it but thought that it was a little dry and could use more hummus. Again, the bread was a little too chewy which made it hard to eat.

A funny sidenote, Sawicki's is a tight space. It is especially tight when filled to the brim with people. While we were there, two, not one but two, nimrod fathers thought it would be a good idea to wheel their baby stroller all the way through the restaurant. I am talking about a double wide running stroller. People had to move and tables were moved just so he could get in line. Fortunately, we had left before he finished ordering and had to conduct his exit manuvers. While I understand that you can't leave your children outside unattended, both fathers were accompanied by their wives. The father or mother should order while the other waits outside or at a table. If you are going to bring a stroller then sit near the window and watch it outside or buy a bike lock for the thing. Don't be that obnoxious guy trying to push it through the restaurant. You look stupid and you annoy everyone else. End of rant.

Sawicki's gets my usual, "good, but not amazing." The prices are a little high for a sandwich, but the ingredients are top quality and the taste is fresh and satisfying. If you are in the area, need lunch, and have been to Farmburger and Taqueria del Sol on numerous occasions, then stop in at Sawicki's and give it a try.

Sawicki's also has a wide selection of local, sustainable produce, meats, and cheeses. As you may know from previous posts, I am a strong supporter of local and sustainable. However, I am not quite sure when I will be able to afford tenderloin for $37 per pound.

Sawicki's Meat Seafood and More
250 West Ponce De Leon Ave.
Decatur, GA 30030
404-377-0992
http://www.sawickisfoods.com/

Taqueria Del Sol

Taqueria Del Sol is another spot in our usual rotation. The Decatur location is directly across the street from Farm Burger, and Taqueria Del Sol is in our usual rotation for the same reason Farm Burger is: it is quick, cheap, easy, and tasty.

Taqueira Del Sol ("Taqueria") is a Mexican-American restaurant specializing in tacos but also serving enchiladas and other items. The food is not necessarily authentic Mexican but instead blends and features authentic Mexican fare combined with the California taco style, some Tex-Mex elements, a dash of Southern fusion, and plenty of style all its own.

My go-to taco is the fish taco.

The fish taco consists of egg washed, masa and bread crumbed breaded, and fried tilapia with pickled jalapenos and a poblano tartar sauce. The fish comes out perfectly with a light breading exterior despite being deep fried. While the fish tacos alone are good, they are amazing when jazzed up with some of the jalapeno coleslaw available as a side.

The fish tacos are light years better with the coleslaw. So much better that I can't believe the restaurant doesn't put them on the menu that way. Each taco costs approximately $3. That is a great deal for a taco this good.

The other regular tacos are the Memphis with "chopped smoked pork with a spicy jalapeno coleslaw and tequila BBQ sauce." The brisket consists of "shredded beef brisket with pico de gallo." I have ordered the brisket on several occasions. The amount of flavor packed into the meat is amazing. The first bite serves up a sucker punch to your taste buds. The fried chicken consists of "strips of fried chicken breast, lime jalapeno mayonnaise, lettuce and tomato." The carnita consists of "twice cooked tender pork with salsa frita, cilantro, and onions. The veggie contains "veggie jalapeno refried beans, queso blanco, and roasted tomatillo salsa." Don't be scared off by the regular mention of jalapenos. I have yet to try anything that made my mouth burn.

Taqueria also has at least one taco special every day as well as one or two other specials. On this trip there were two special tacos. The first consisted of fried shrimp with lettuce, jalapenos, and a sauce which I know was a mayonnaise based sauce and I believe was a spicy tartar sauce. While my memory is fuzzy, I do remember that it was delicious.

The second was a, I believe, slow-cooked pork taco with a salsa. I waited too long to write this review and cannot remember the exact contents. I do remember that it was messy, a little greasy, and super tasty. The meat was extremely tender and the grease and juices from its cooking combined with the tender meat and the cool salsa made an excellent combination.

Three tacos will suffice as a meal for an average person. If you are less hungry two may do. A growing boy (or girl) may want four, but that is pushing it. As mentioned above, Taqueria also serves enchiladas and other items. I have never actually made it past the tacos to order anything else off the menu, with one exception. However, dining companions and friends have assured me that the enchiladas are tasty. The one exception is when I ordered the chile poblanos. The chile poblanos are apparently only offered for a short period each year when the restaurant gets fresh chiles from out West. Of course this is just a rumor I heard. I actually have no idea why they make a brief appearance on the menu each year and then fade away. I do know that if they are on the menu you should scramle to order them. They are delicious.

In summary, the food at Taqueria Del Sol is finger-licking good. The only problem is that everyone in Atlanta, their relatives from out-of-town (including my mom who insists we go when she is in town), and the tourists from Japan all seem to know how good it is. There is always a line at Taqueria Del Sol. While the long line could at first scare you, don't let it. The line always moves fast. While the seeming lack of open tables could scare you, don't let it. By the time you have ordered a table will have opened up. I have no idea how the staff works their magic but the line, the kitchen, and the tables all work in near perfect harmony.

Wait in line and you will approach the register and place your order. If it is a hot day, order a Sol or a Corona to wash those tacos down. There is nothing better than fresh, delicious tacos and cold beer on a hot afternoon. Or, while I prefer the beer, the margaritas (on the rocks or frozen) are also excellent and refreshing.

Taqueria also has a nice bar area where you can sit and eat even if you don't order drinks.

The bar is sometimes a great way to skip the line if seats are open. Or if the bar is full there is usually a wait list for the bar that may still be faster than the line.

Usually we head out to the outdoor seating area. It is actually a covered area with plastic walls that are taken up in good weather and let down in cold or wet weather.

On those hot afternoons with the tacos and beer this is the place to sit.

Taqueria Del Sol serves up amazingly delicious food in a fun, relaxed atmosphere with good service and decent prices. I highly recommend it. Its only downside is the ever-present line. While I bemoan the long line and sometimes skip Taqueria for Farm Burger or another restaurant when the line is exceptionally long, I still find myself back at Taqueria on a regular basis. If you want delicous tacos you should too.

Taqueria Del Sol

359 West Ponce De Leon Ave.

Decatur, GA
404-377-7668

Taqueira Del Sol has three other locations: Cheshire Bridge, Westside, and Athens. For the address of other locations, the menu, and any other information you could desire check out http://www.taqueriadelsol.com/.

Farmburger

Ah, Farm Burger, how I love thee. Farm Burger is in our standard restaurant rotation. Why? Because it is quick, easy, and delicious. Farmburger serves up the tastiest burgers around, in my opinion. Although, I have yet to try Flip. The place is simple and the food seems simple, but the menu offers up a dizzying array of combinations all centered around the prototypical American food, the hamburger.

The entire burger portion of the menu starts with a $6 grassfed beef burger or a veggie quinoa burger for the vegetarians. I have yet to try the quinoa burger, but I have heard from two friends that it is at least decent. From there the burger portion of the menu revolves around deciding what you want added to it.

Farmburger's menu offers up six different pre-arranged burger combinations. These combinations range from "The Farm Burger" with grafton smoked white cheddar, caramelized onions, and FB sauce for $8 to the "No 5" with braised pork belly, beer-battered onion ring, pickled jalapenos, and BBQ sauce for $9.50 to the "No 6" with a pork burger, bacon, sunny side up egg, pepper jack cheese, and salsa verde. Both The Farm Burger and the No 5 are excellent.

But say you think you can create a better burger or you don't like having people make decisions for you, Farm Burger's menu lets you go wild with crazy toppings. The toppings come in three categories: free, $1, and $2. You can get all of your standard toppings like ketchup, mayo, mustard, lettuce, and onions for free. Plus you can also get slightly more unusual items like pickled jalapenos, fresh jalapenos, roasted garlic, or FB sauce for free. The FB sauce is a delicious mayonnaise concoction. My best guess is that the FB sauce has some paprika and maybe some ketchup in it. It has a slightly smoky, sweet taste. For $1 you can get toppings ranging from a fried egg to arugula to blue cheese to cured lardo and more. For $2 you can get toppings ranging from house-cured bacon to oxtail marmalade to pork belly to pimento 'n cheese. The $2 category also includes a delicious blue cheese from Georgia's own Sweet Grass dairy.

My personal favorite is a burger, medium rare, with fresh jalapenos, house-cured bacon, and the Sweet Grass blue cheese.

These burgers are so good my wife thinks they should rename the place "Crack Burger." She usually orders The Farm Burger which is shown below.

My only complaint is that sometimes the burgers come out overcooked. I like my meat rare, but regardless of how you order the meat, about 20% of the time cooks cook it one level more done than you asked for. If I had one wish it would be for consistency in the level of "doneness." When they get my burger properly medium-rare with a cool red center, I am in heaven.

Farm Burger has much more than burgers to offer. The fried chicken liver "snack" is excellent.
They are some of the best chicken livers I have had. They are fried in a near tempura style with just slightly thicker than tempura batter and served with a whole grain mustard sauce.

The "rings n' fries" basket is also excellent. The fries are nicely salted and spiced and the onion rings are fried perfectly. Even better they are served with FB sauce which makes the perfect accompaniment.

We were so eager to dive into the basket of rings n' fries that we ate most of the fries and part of the onion rings before I remembered to take the picture.

As I said, the menu offers an array of choices, but the restaurant is pretty simple. You walk in and get in line.

At the end of the line you order your food and then find a table. The servers bring your food to your table and you consume away. It always seems that the line is too long and there will not be enough tables for everyone to take a seat, but somehow it always seems to work out. The staff have a nice system of ensuring that people do not attempt to claim seats prior to ordering.

The dining room, if you can call it that, is no frills.

Most of the seats are picnic tables. The napkins are paper towels. The food comes out in a basket with a paper bottom. The ketchup and mustard are in squirt bottles on the table. But come on, it is a burger place. This is how it should be! White linen napkins and sparkling water aren't always needed or even wanted. The burgers are messy and the atmosphere is lively, in other words: it's fun.

Finally, not only is the food delicious and the atmosphere fun, Farm Burger is committed to local, sustainable, ethically raised food. I am a huge fun of their practices for environmental, ethical, and health reasons. They try to get as many of their products from local farms as possible. The beef is grassfed which is better for the environment and your health. So not only can you relax over a tasty burger, you can feel good afterwards that you supported your community and yourself.

I did my best to photograph the food side of the menu, but it did not come out well. Sorry. Fortunately, you can check out the menu and more at http://www.farmburger.net/.

Farm Burger

410 B W. Ponce De Leon Ave.

Decatur, GA 30030

404-378-5077
http://www.farmburger.net/

Community Q BBQ

Community Q is a BBQ joint in a small strip mall outside of Decatur and near Emory. They serve a range of barbecued meats and sides.

I ordered a combination meat plate of the brisket and pulled pork. It is worth mentioning that my family has barbecued whole hogs using a family recipe for years. I know pulled pork, especially South Carolina style pulled pork. However, I do not know brisket. From what I understand brisket is popular in Texas. I have never been to Texas, and I have never had brisket before.

Both the brisket and the pulled pork were good, but not amazing.

The brisket was smoky and moist but could be a little more moist. It flaked apart nicely. It did have a tasty crust. The pork was cooked nicely. It also was a little drier than I prefer, but it was cooked the exact right amount of time.

The meats were served with your choice of a sweet sauce or a vinegar sauce. The sweet sauce was too sweet for my taste, very sweet. It was syrupy sweet. I prefer my sauce to have a stronger mustard base or ketchup base with a light touch of sweetness. This sauce was more like a syrup. The vinegar sauce was good, but a little thicker and sweeter than the vinegar sauce I prefer.

All of the meat plates come with the meat between two slices of bread. The bread was tasty toasted bread but totally unnecessary. The bread just got in the way of the meats.

For sides we tried the macaroni and cheese and the baked beans.

The mac and cheese was the best part of the meal. The large noodles are covered in a sauce made of three cheeses. It is super cheesy and greasy. So greasy that there was a puddle of grease at the bottom when I finished it. Cardiologists everywhere are protesting this dish.
The baked beans were so-so.

They had an odd taste that neither my wife nor I particularly preferred. We couldn't exactly place what the weird taste is. Part of the odd taste was the strong helping of pepper, but they also had an odd sweet taste.

Orders are placed at the counter up front.

The waiters then bring your food to you when it is ready. The service wasn't bad but didn't impress either. We visited the restaurant on a Sunday afternoon at 1:30. The wait was rather long for that time of day and food that is so easily put together. Hopefully the delay signals that the food is being freshly prepared, but I'm not quite sure that is the case.

The interior is cozy for a strip mall. The families and diners reading newspapers or engaged in conversation give the place a neighborhood feel.

In conclusion, Community Q is good, but not amazing. I had heard excellent things about Community Q through the grapevine but it did not live up to the hype. It is not a bad barbecue joint but a decent barbecue joint. I will probably go back at some point, but it won't make it onto my list of regular joints and I won't catch myself daydreaming about it.



Commuity Q BBQ

1361 Clairmont Road

Decatur, GA

404-633-2080

The Iberian Pig

The Iberian Pig was phenomenal. The waiter informed us that it is a "modern Spanish restaurant." The majority of the menu is tapas and we made our meal tapas.

First, make a reservation. Second, go to The Iberian Pig. We arrived around 8:15 and had to wait an hour to an hour and a half for a table. It was well worth the wait and congratulations to the restaurant for doing that volume of business. The place was packed with people eating, people drinking and eating at the bar, and people standing waiting. The interior of the place and the energy of all the people gave the restaurant a great ambiance.

But the ambiance was not what made the restaurant amazing. It was the food! The restaurant is named after jamon Iberico, the famous Spanish ham. The pigs according to the waiter have an acorn diet. According to wikipedia though jamon Iberico just refers to the black breed of pig and when only labeled jamon Iberico it is from grain fed pigs. We started with some jamon Iberico, serrano ham, and manchego. The jamon Iberico and serrano ham are both cured ham.

I am glad we ordered both. The jamon Iberico is up top. There was about twice as much but we ate some before I remembered to take the picture. The serrano was delicious but it was amazing how much better the jamon Iberico was than the serrano. The Iberico is slightly sweet with a nice fatiness. It almost but not quite melts in your mouth. The jamon Iberico is pricy at fourteen dollars a plate. But I would recommend spending the money to try it once in your life. Manchego is a famous Spanish cheese. It is made from Manchega sheep. It is a firm cheese, firmer than your regular cheddar but softer than a parmesan. It has a delicious creaminess to it. The sauce below it is a pomegranate caramel. The sweetness of the sauce paired perfectly with the salty creaminess of the cheese. The olives were also excellent with the cheese or the meat. The sauce was an aioli that was great on the bread. It was great to combine the bread, the aioli, the manchego, and the serrano for a decadent bite, but it seemed a waste because everything was so good by itself.

Next we had pork cheek tacos.

The pork cheek meat was incredibly tender. It had a delightful sweet aftertaste. The restaurant needs to check their limes though. I have never had a lime so hard and dry before.

Next was asparagus with serrano ham, Manchego cheese, olive oil, and a Moscatel wine reduction.

The asparagus had a pleasant grilled taste, the smokiness from the grill, which paired excellently with the sweetness of the asparagus, the saltiness of the cheese and meat, and the umami of the meat.

Then we had eggplant fries with a spicy red pepper aioli dip.

The fries had a hard exterior which gave a nice crunch and a smooth interior. The flavors were a contrast of the sweet eggplant and the spicy aioli.

Then we had albondigas which were wild boar meatballs. The meatballs were stuffed with piquillo peppers, dates, and roasted tomatoes. They came in a pimenton cream sauce with oyster mushrooms.

These were the best meatballs I have ever eaten. They were amazing. They had a spice blend that gave a kick to them. The spices were similar to the taste of a peperoni. Almost indescribably good.

We also had barbecued octopus over potatoes, pork, and shallots.

The octopus was good but it was the weakest dish of the night. The octopus is cooked all day and then grilled. The long cooking process made the octopus tender and falling apart rather than chewy. Of course, it was still somewhat chewy. I'm not sure if it is possible to have octopus not be at least a little chewy. The barbecue sauce was very mild, unlike a strong Southern barbecue sauce.

Finally, we had tortoloni. The tortoloni was stuffed with goat cheese, manchego, and paprika. It was topped with a pistachio cream sauce, raisins, pine nuts, and olive oil.

It was incredibly rich. But here the tapas format was a major advantage. Because it was just a small dish, the richness was enjoyable rather than overwhelming or uncomfortable.

I would highly recommend The Iberian Pig. This was one of the best meals both I and my two companions have had in quite a while. I was worried that my never-ending hunger combined with the multitude of delicious sounding options would cause me to over order and spend a small fortune. Even with multiple glasses of wine the meal was still reasonable for the quality of the food and the efficient and friendly service. Just remember to make a reservation when you go.

The Iberian Pig
121 Sycamore Street
Decatur, GA 30030
404-371-8800
http://www.theiberianpigatl.com/

As a bonus, here is the tapas portion of the menu.

Bhojanic

Bhojanic describes itself as "Fusion, Homestyle Indian, Tapas." It is tapas in the sense that there are a series of small, appetizer sized dishes that can be ordered to make a meal. But there are also entree sized dishes and an option called thali.Thali is a plate of several different dishes plus rice with peas and carrots, a yogurt dip, and a small salad. I am not quite sure why it describes itself as "fusion." The dishes all seem to be straight Indian to me.

We started out with an order of samosa chat.

The samosas were warm and filled with a spicy blend of pureed lentils and whole peas. The spice blend gave a warming quality to the dish. Then there was a sauce over top made of yogurt, mint, and cilantro. The sauce was amazing. I could drink the sauce, and I have to admit that I did eat a few spoonfuls of the leftovers. 

For our entree we chose the thali option. Thali means "plate" and is literally a plate full of many small dishes. The menu has three different meat thali options and six different vegetarian thali options. It is really the Indian version of meat and three. You choose a meat and two vegetable dishes to make up your thali or three different vegetable dishes. We each ordered three of the different veggies so that we could try all six.

This is the first thali plate. On the top left is the chili paneer which is the best of all the dishes. It consists of paneer with a spicy tomato sauce. The tomatoes are cooked about two steps above becoming chutney. They are cooked down to the point where they have a concentrated flavor and are sweet. The spiciness is not hot but instead gives the dish a warmth. I feel that I am going to overuse the concept of warmth but many of the dishes did give you a feeling of warmth from either the spices or the heat. Then the other half of the dishes were excellent counterpoints to the warm dishes and provided a cooling sensation. The paneer is a dense cheese with a clean taste. It is like tofu but a little more dense and has a cheesy taste.

The middle dish is potatoes and cauliflower with, of course, a complex blend of spices. My wife thinks that she hates cauliflower, but she loved this dish. This dish was the spiciest of all six.

The dish on the right side is what I would call Indian creamed spinach. I apologize for my limited knowledge of Indian cuisine. For years my wife swore that she hated Indian food based on some experience years before I met her where someone gave her spicy curry. Since then she has resisted the idea of trying Indian food again. A few weeks ago I convinced her to give Bhojanic a try. She was extremely reluctant to try it. After the appetizer she admitted that she loved the food and was already talking about coming back. Back to the creamed spinach. It really was like creamed spinach except with Indian spices.

The rice is on the middle bottom. The yogurt is on the bottom left and the small salad is on the bottom right.



The second plate had a garbanzo bean dish on the top left. The dish was an explosion of spices in your mouth. There were too many spices for my limited palate to comprehend.

On the top middle are onion dumplings with a creamy sauce. On the top right is a lentil dish.

Not only is the food delicious but while not cheap, it is fairly reasonably priced. The appetizer was seven dollars and the thali plates are twelve dollars each.

I would highly recommend Bhojanic for delicious Indian food.

Bhojanic

1363 Clairmont Road

Decatur, GA 30033

404-6339233