Photos: John Kessler's 30 restaurants in 30 days

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Photos: John Kessler's 30 restaurants in 30 days

Photos: John Kessler's 30 restaurants in 30 days

"That sandwich of desiccated house-roasted turkey, chopped lettuce and sliced roma tomato came together without any of the pride or handicraft that a good deli guy would summon for Boar’s Head."

"Our family of five decided to go for the full-on beef experience rather than ordering à la carte. It costs $99 and supposedly feeds three-four people, but we found it ample. The meal includes not only wraps, sauces, dips and banchan, but also soup, rice and a big bowl of noodle soup to finish the meal out. So…20 bucks a head. Not bad!"

Hot dogs from HD1 in Atlanta.

"And so HD1 remains a restaurant that puts care and creativity into its cooking, and yet never manages to hit the hot dog button quite right. The kitchen now uses dense, smoky Patak franks, which is an improvement, though the once-boisterous list of sides is gone. You can get waffle fries, half-sour pickles, baked beans and a couple of salads — none of it in funky-weird (chef Richard) Blais territory."

"The po’ boys are classics — dressed with care, easy to assembled and eat. But I do have a couple of complaints. 1) Our oysters were perfectly juiceless. 2) The Leidenheimer bread imported from New Orleans hadn’t been warmed enough to crisp the crust. That crispness makes it for me. Still, I found the sandwich enjoyable, aided by its tasty side of red beans and rice."

"The sushi bar makes a lot of flashy plated appetizers, including this tuna honey-miso caviar sashimi. I found the pieces pretty thick and cumbersome — too much for a bite. Ditto the (not pictured) pieces of kampachi “new-style sashimi” in yuzu-soy with warmed sesame oil and chives. Warm, chewy raw fish doesn’t appeal too much."

"If I may speak freely, here’s what the menu really features: Old guy stoner food. It’s all hilariously off kilter, stuff you’d throw together with ample hunger but little artfulness, with the sole intention of jamming it merrily into your face."

"Watermelon salad with pickled watermelon rind, cukes and ricotta-stuffed squash blossoms is a lively dance of fresh, rich and tangy flavors. "

"I would imagine that preparing the dough and fillings on site and proofing the buns would involve a lot more work than this restaurant could handle if it routinely fills the 100 or so seats in the dining room. But I wonder if that’s precisely what’s needed to make these buns as crave worthy as those I ate at that carryout window in New York."

"We liked the bread basket filled with warm biscuits and cornbread — not the best, not the worst. We heartily enjoyed this kitchen’s Platonic ideal of a BLT, made with smoky bacon, heirloom tomatoes and basil mayo on toasted bread that had the softly yielding consistency of brioche."

"This duck dish was all-around yumstown, with an umami hit of beech mushrooms and a sweet-tart balance to the cherry sauce, so it played well with others. That cornbread puree was a delicious backdrop, and it did a brilliant job of bridging Southern and German flavors. We need more of this kind of cooking in Atlanta."

"The pork-and-kimchi stir fry is a revelation. Fatty slips of pork have a photo-filter mellowing effect on the sharp, salty tang of fermented cabbage, transforming it into a new flavor. It’s like a perfectly made salade frisée aux lardons; every drop of fat goes to good use."

Samad makes the chicken shawarma I’ve long looked for in Atlanta and haven’t found until now. The meat comes crisp and juicy off the spit, and the fresh garnish goes in ice cold for the temperature contract that makes all the difference. Make sure to ask for the house yogurt, garlic and hot sauces.

"I can never leave without a bite of this soft-serve ice milk topped with (left to right) granola, cocoa nibs and candied lemon zest, and olive oil with sea salt. The richness is all in the mouth, not in the way it feels in your stomach."

"Pasta is BoccaLupo’s calling card. Unlike other restaurants that hew to a repertoire of classic recipes and a pantry full of imported ingredients, the cooking here is modern Italian American. The prosciutto is proudly Iowan, while the pastas may contain kimchi or field peas."

"The menu looks much how I remember it, with the welcome addition of gluten-free and lighter summer dishes."

"The food? It also belongs to another generation. The award-winning lamb shank still brings its A game — tender, fatless, with that silky, shreddy texture that shows an experienced hand in the kitchen. Chicken a la beef is kind of a hoot –a multi-animal rice party topped with raw almonds and sided by a vegetable stew made with those “baby” (actually mechanically infantilized) carrots."

"The food made me think of the Italian diner my family always stopped in on the way to Jersey Shore. The acid clarity of that tomato sauce, the cardboardy flavor of breadcrumbs, the fennel zing of sausage, the thin blankets of melted cheese over everything."

"Why not Golden Corral? It was made for this situation. The cost: $11.49 for a weeknight dinner and $12.99 on weekends during the current prime rib promotion. That’s not cheap, cheap, cheap, but it’s what we would spend for a quick taco dinner, or at an Asian noodle quick service restaurant, or for a box of whatever at the Whole Foods hot bar."

"More of a full meal than an appetizer, this huge portion of wings are flavored to the bone with their salty-sweet marinade, crispy, tossed in a sticky and tangy sauce with cooked scallions and red chiles, then showered with crunchy fried shallots."

"I like the easygoing way the menu provides healthier options without hectoring. The “Grüben” subs out grilled turkey for corned beef and replaces the Russian dressing with spicy mustard. Sounds good — better probably than those oddly presented chicken kabobs. Decent flavor, but cold in the center as if they had been precooked and not quite heated to order. I picked at the orzo and Greek salads on the plate, which reminded me of food from a decent hotel buffet."

"My advice would be to go for whatever sounds companionable with the drink in your hand. Bread crisps topped with excellent pimento cheese and pickled cauliflower are easy to like, whether you’re nibbling one slowly or devouring three in quick succession."

"Called the “mixed maza platter,” it is intended as a shareable appetizer, but I’m telling you to skip the (great looking) kebabs and gyros and eat up this plate of vegetarian Turkish yumboliciousness."

"The pappardelle featured a traditional three-meat ragù (pork, beef, veal) and house-made ricotta, but it lacked any depth of flavor and needed more seasoning. Gnocchi were chewy (not a good thing) and their sauce of pancetta, mushrooms and sage added a greasy slick."

"I’ve got no complaints about the chicken; that’s what you do well. You season it better than your competitors and fry it up to a realistic home-cooked crispness in peanut oil. The squiggly edges give the crunch, the fat center reliably beads with juice when you cut it. My beef is with the veggies."

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"That sandwich of desiccated house-roasted turkey, chopped lettuce and sliced roma tomato came together without any of the pride or handicraft that a good deli guy would summon for Boar’s Head."

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