What to eat for three weeks in Alpharetta

I am Alpharetta for three weeks for work...down from NYC...and needs lots of recs...

lunch spots
dinner on an expense account
dinner for people dining alone

I particularly like Southern food and seafood...ethnic eats are also appreciated...

thanks!

Today I finally had a chance to stop at Midway Meal House, about five miles south of the Cumming city limits on Alpharetta Hwy. My lunch meal was even better than my dreams. I had baked chicken with wild rice and mushroom gravy along with two vegetables (I chose black eyed peas and sweet pickled beets) a cornbread muffin and a yeast roll for $6.50 - fantastic. We will be back!

You are in luck. Many mentioned by others:

The best:

Ruchi—Best Indian in the metro area
Dick and Harry’s—Not bad crab cakes for these parts, but a lot better in NYC
Oba!—Those who think buffet means sacrificing quality have never been here—Brazilian
Swallow at the Hallow—When in Rome, eat like southerners do or something like that
Pumpernick & Rye—Good Baltimore style deli—boule bread sandwiches
Zola—Good pizza
Philly Pizza, Pasta and Such—NY pizza, Philly steaks and hoagies
Rasa Sayang—Great Chinese and Malaysian
Byblos—Some love, some hate. I am not sure what the latter are eating
Angan—Good northern Indian, but southern Indian at Ruchi above is better
Greenwoods—Top notch southern
Mr. John B’s—Good southern newcomer

Also good:

Thai Diner—Cheaper than Rice
Rice—Good Thai but overpriced
El Mexica—Close to authentic

Frankly of suggestions that I have seen Alphasoda is okay, but worth skipping. Atlantic Seafood is decent, but not for the money, Taco Mac is fine if you want wings,

Sorry to say Mr. John B's closed about 6 months ago; they lost their lease. It is missed.

I stand corrected, apparently Mr. John B's reopened last month in a new location, with a new chef.

http://www.accessatlanta.com/restaura... has information about the new John B's.

Some great places in Alpharetta:

Zola, on Hwy 9, the best pizza by far in the Atlanta area, great salads too.

Ruchi: Southern Indian food, excellent, amongst the best I've had anywhere

Portabellas: Great sandwiches at lunch, nice dinner service.

Xian China Bistro: Above average suburban Chinese

Shiraz: Middle eastern food, buffet with wonderful kebabs, really good (Byblos mentioned by others also very good).

Sia's: Absolutely fantastic, upscale dining (but expensive). Really great.

Places to be wary of, even though others may recommend:

Rainwater: Overpriced, not so good.
Atlantic Seafood Company: Service not great, though good basic seafood.

Many excellent suggestions have already been made. I second the recommendations of Dick & Harry's, Swallow at the Hollow and Alpha Soda, in particular.

Additionally, I would like to suggest Van Gogh's on Crossville Road near Crabapple Road, on the west side of Roswell. It is a superb high end restaurant. Byblos, a Lebanese restaurant, on Alpharetta Hwy. just north of Holcomb Bridge Road (west side)is also very good. Another small excellent choice would be Silos Grille on Crabapple Road at Hwy 140.

Milt
Have you gone to Van Gogh's lately. It's really gone downhill. If you look on the Access Atlanta board you'll see where many people have said the same. Also Byblos is awful. We only went once but the food was inedible. I looked at the people around me and noone was eating their food. The best place for mid eastern food is Nicola's but that's by Emory. I'agree with Silos Grille, it's in Alpharetta but kind of far from the other restaurants.

Van Gogh's may have changed recently. Our last meal there was last August 1, for my wife's birthday. Each of the four in our party thoroughly enjoyed our dinner. At that time, expensive - and worth every penny of it.

We ate at Byblos a couple of months ago and had a wonderful meal. It was enjoyed enough that we will probably return within the next month. We were prompted to visit by reviews in AJC or Creative Loafing, I don't remember which.

This is what I love about Chowhound. Our experiences aren't all the same, nor are our tastes. Chef's change, everyone has a bad day occasionally. Collectively, I have been having much better dinners out - both in the Atlanta area and on trips - because of the input of Chowhounders around the country.

When this three weeks in Alpharetta has concluded, I hope we receive a blow by blow account of the various dining experiences.

Holy smokes! Nicolas is still there? I went there right after it opened. I went with a bunch of Lebanese people and we had the meza. Most excellent middle eastern food. I think Nicolas gave us some not on the menu stuff too.

It's still there and it's still great. He still dances every night and he gets the whole restaurant up and dancing. He has belly dancers on Monday nights. He has lots of regulars and sits and talks to every table and makes you feel at home. We have been going there for years and we have never had a bad meal.

I also forgot to mention chardonnay at Holcomb bridge and spalding(heinz is the owner) and Janusecks(spelled that wrong for eastern european food. Both worth a visit.

Janousek's on Holcomb Bridge at Old Alabama (southeast side)is an excellent suggestion. It had slipped my mind, also.

For Thai food, I recommend Thai Thai, a small and unlovely looking storefront at 11525 Haynes Bridge Rd. Good food reasonably priced with friendly service.

I've been enjoying the Monday/Tuesday specials at Fuji Hana Japanese and Thai food on Holcomb Bridge Rd just east of Old Roswell. On those nights, their sushi is discounted (but still very tasty and fresh), as are their tempura, yakitori and other appetizers. For someone like me, who likes to taste a little bit of everything, this is a great place and a bargain. They also do stir fries where you choose the ingredients yourself.

I've also enjoyed some of the Indian dishes at Santoor, on Mansell Road about 1/2 mile east of 400. I'd love to hear about any other good Indian suggestions nearby.

For huge portions of tasty Italian/Mediterranean dishes, I've enjoyed Roasted Garlic on South Main. Sorry, can't remember the name of the shopping center.

Chris -- another displaced NY-er (Long Island) who's spending waaay too much time in the Alpharetta/Roswell area!

Link: http://www.eatthaithai.com

When my daughter lived in Alpharetta we often ate at a place called Taco-Mac. A good variety of casual menu items in a lively atmosphere.

there is a "meat & three" type place in Alpharetta called AlphaSoda that is a must for breakfast or lunch. There is also a place in Roswell on Atl Highway (note: Alph takes over where Roswell ceases & vice-versa. They might as well be called Rospheretta or Alphawell but do not tell that to them!) that does a great job for breakfast called something Skillet. It is on the left if heading South.
Swallow in the Hollow & Green's are both in Roswell off of Atlanta Highway & deserve a look see. There are so many fine dining places that have opened up there recently it is hard to keep up w/ everything. Sia's has gotten some great press but I can not recommend it personally. However I know the chef & owner and it should be good; I have just never had a chance to get over there for dinner. Rainwater on Haynes Bridge Rd is very good and I enjoyed everything there. Horseradish Grill has an outpost there but I have heard it is not the same as the Horseradish in Atl.
You are about a half hour fr/ Buckhead (traffic willing) on GA 400 so if things do not work for you there then head South.
Good luck.

I can recommend Sia's having eaten there on a business expense account. Try the house chocolate dessert (I forget what it's called), if you're into chocolate. I've included the link for you.

Also, the Skillet place is the Southern Skillet. It is on Hwy 9, go south from Alpharetta and it's on the left. I think there is also a Salvation Army store near there. If you can't find it, stop anywhere and ask. I think most locals know where it is.

Around the Northpoint Mall area (take GA 400 to either Haynes Bridge Rd or Mansell Rd and head east) there's lots of variety, although most of these restaurants are chains and pretty predictable. Of these I liked Bahama Breeze the best (haven't been to Atlantic Seafood Co yet but I hear it's good).

Link: http://www.siasrestaurant.com/

From the chowhound main page, try the search box in the upper right corner.

Try searches for:
--Alpharetta
--Roswell

or, try the below link:

Link: http://www.chowhound.com/topics/show/...

I searched the archives here. I'm glad to see I am not the only one who loves Mi Pilon. I am guessing by your name that you are not Latin-American. It's very popular among the natives, but still a big secret among us Gringos.

yo soy un gringo, verdad; complete with abysmal spanglish reflective of my lazy ways. That said, there were a great many Dominicans and Puerto Ricans in NYC when I was growing up, so neither the people, the food nor the language feel alien to me.

Other:
Ubiquitous "Where do I..." queries from so many board visitors these days, my current campaign is to get everyone to at least try the Chowhound search engine.

Now that its fixed, its fabulous. I use it myself to find stuff I posted in the past to jog my memory and recover my research.

Hope other visitors take a moment to attempt their own research before posting queries. Sigh. I'm an eternal optimist.

My parents live in Marlton, NJ and I did a search to see if I missed any gems when I was there about two weeks ago. I see you make it to Cherry Hill.

I have not been to the sushi place that you mentioned but smack on the Marlton/Cherry Hill border on Route 70 (same shopping center as Bobby Chez) is a newcomer Kyota (I hope that is how it is spelled). My SJ sushi fanatic bud and I enjoyed it very much.

I can't visit mom and dad without going prepared on where to eat! If you are headed up there again, I have a few places that you haven't listed in the Cherry Hill/Marlton area.

South Jersey more than holds it's own when it comes to dining gems.

Of course let me know of any future discoveries up there as well.

Steve,
FYI, I did do a search prior to my post, but there was virtually no information on Alpharetta and what was there was almost a year old...which is a long time in the life of most restaurants.

Searches only work when there have been a lot of posts for exactly what one is looking for. I'm also looking for places in Atlanta, and for that I am using searches.

http://www.atlantacuisine.com/menus/samspl.html

For great sushi and a superb dining menu, do check out this place! It is new and highly touted for fine dining!

Link: http://www.atlantacuisine.com/menus/s...

This is particularly nice, if you are doing some expense account dining: Atlantic Seafood Company, which is off Georgia 400 and right on your right at the exit onto Mansell Road. They have a large, varied menu and our local dining critic has reviewed it recently with good general comments.

At the Holcomb Bridge exit a bit further south on Georgia 400 is yet another favorite: Dick & Harry's. This is highly touted for the fine cuisine and I always enjoy my meals there!

This is especially good for restaurants near Alpharetta:

http://atlantahappenings.creativeloaf...

This is yet another way of locating the types of restaurants you might enjoy when you come into Alpharetta:

http://www.atlantasfinestdining.com/reviews/index.html

Link: http://www.atlantasfinestdining.com/r...

Here is a good place to start: http://www.atlantacuisine.com/localmenus.html

Link: http://www.atlantacuisine.com/localme...

There are many good restaurants in Alpharetta. As one other poster wrote, Dick and Harry's is probably the best one. Sia's which is also very good has a Duluth Address. Next door is Sam's Place which is terrible.Taco Mac is just your run of the mill taco places that I would't rush to. If you want Mexican try Zapata on Peachtree Parkway. Also clost to Zapata is Hi-life, also very good. The only decent restaurant by Northpoint mall is Atlantic Seafood Company. It usually has a long wait. Bahama Breeze is a chain and is just so-so. Another poster recommended Green's but it's actually Greenwood's on Green Street. Swallow in the Hollow(barbacue) is across the street, both owned by Bill Greenwood and both recommended. The Old Horseradish Grill in now called Real Food and is on Windward Parkway. It is more casual the the old restaurant but has the same owners. Sage's on Haynes Bridge isn't bad. A great place for breakfast is called Sunrise Cafe in Roswell located on Holcomb Bridge Road. A new Greek restaurant on Holcomb Bridge is called. Mythos or something like that and is pretty good. I spelled it wrong but it's next to Brookwood grill. Brookwood Grill is ok, used to be better. A good Italian restaurant, also on Holcomb Bridge is called Di Paolo, located in the Stein Mart shopping center. Always very good. As you can tell I never cook. Hope this lists helps.

You definitley know the spots [e-mail]. I have to commend you on your knowledge.

just for the original poster's info:

Higher end than the rest:
Dick and Harry's
Sia's
Atlantic Seafood Company
Di Paolo

Very causal and average prices:
Swallow At The Hollow....my favorite ribs and home made sides in a cool log cabin. Higly rec'd by me!

http://www.theswallowatthehollow.com/

Greenwood's - excellent southern comfort food in a nice setting and just across the small street from the Swallow.

Zapata - inexpensive Mexican but creative entrees....no chips and salsa here but queso fundido will make you forget about them. Their webwsite is just one page.

http://www.zapata-ga.com

thank you freakerdude. I also see you on accessatlanta posts. I only cook once or twice a year. My teenagers don't know that our house has a kitchen.