Stick a fork in my hand: I'm back.
My most recent report on Mamak , a new Malaysian restaurant on Buford Highway appears today online and tomorrow in the print edition of the AJC. Some readers may notice something that hasn't appeared with one of my restaurant articles since 2012: a star rating.
Beginning today, I am back in the saddle as a restaurant critic for this paper and will join Jenny Turknett in writing starred reviews. My various roundups, first looks and discursive ramblings with be largely replaced with straight-up reviews. That means I will be making multiple visits to each restaurant I write about and base my rating within our new four-star system on a thorough assessment of food, service, design and creature comforts.
Back in 2012 I stopped reviewing for these three reasons:
- I needed a break, and it was either time to take a vow of bacon chastity or back away from the constant rich meals.
- It seemed like the rules were changing, and so much opinion writing about dining was a process of discourse, consensus and dissension. I wanted to jump into the discussion rather than stay in my own old-school critic's ecosystem.
- So many people -- bloggers, writers, Yelpers and professional critics who should know better -- began jumping on restaurants as soon as they opened. I can't tell you how often people sidle up to me to say a restaurant barely open a week is "meh." I began to feel like it was my duty to go on an anti-meh crusade and at least get the story out there about what a restaurant is trying to accomplish before passing judgment on how well it hits its mark.
So why go back to starred reviews now? Here's why:
- For starters, we have the new star rating system, and we're working on am ambitious project to get as many important restaurants as we can into a critical framework. We're not only talking new places but also oldtimers that were great 5 years ago but aren't much discussed these days. How are they holding up? We'll find out.
- The city is growing fast, and there's a lot happening on the high end in new developments like Buckhead Atlanta, Avalon and Ponce City Market. We're entering a period once again when we need to distinguish big-budget B.S. from serious new destinations.
- We need to get more, better exploration in our dining coverage and give the full critical treatment to those little places run by an immigrant family as well as those with an army of publicists.
To wit, I am happy to award two stars (very good) to Mamak, which offers Malaysian street food in a brightly painted Buford Highway dining room. The 60 or so items on the menu seem almost like a survey of the various Indian, Chinese and native Malay flavors and preparations that make up the complex patois of the national cuisine. You will find satays, curries, rice plates, vegetables cooked in alluringly stinky sambals amped up with shrimp paste, and so many kinds of noodles you won't know where to start.
If you’re the kind of person who falls for international restaurants that proffer a new dining experience, prepare to crush hard on this place. I’ve been three times, and I want to return again and again, if only for the purposes of noodle taxonomy. But the food is reliably honest and soulful, generous in portion and seasoning. It can taste unfamiliar but never unfriendly.
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