Here’s the breakdown of pricing:
At Lunch try 6 wines for $10
At Dinner try 8 wines for $18 or 14 wines for $20
14 wines? I don’t think I’d be tasting much of anything after the first 3 or 4!!

Your better option is to have a meal along with your wine tastings. A 3 course lunch is available for 25 bucks AND it includes 6 wines. This is only available at Trois, Murphy’s Lobby at Twelve and Room at Twelve.

Four course meals with 8 wines are availabe at the above listed restaurants as well as One Midtown Kitchen, Two Urban Licks and Parish. And you can feel good about eating at these restaurants as a portion will get donated to the Atlanta Food Bank.

The lunch deal is by far the better deal. You get 1 less course (can you say small salad?) and 2 less wines for about half the price. Look at Room at Twelve: the only difference in their menu offering for this event is an Arugula salad.

Click the link below for menus:
Wine Week

Living It Up on a Budget: 23 Wines That Deliver Outstanding Quality for $10 or Less

The service and pace were great. Walking in the door we had servers with h’ourderves and drinks. And we had time to enjoy some drinks and mingle with other wedding guests before our lunch. The organization here was right on the money. They had 4 different food stations – 2 vegetarian, a carving station, and a pasta / potato station. The wait staff organized for a couple tables at a time to be at each station that way the lines weren’t ridiculously long.

As far as a wedding reception venue, the City Grill is a top notch venue. You can have great food but poor service and execution or vice versa. But everything here went extremely smoothly. I loved that we had service as soon as we walked in and never felt rushed at any point during our afternoon.

Here’s what the NY Times said about The City Grill:
“One of the grandest restaurant settings in Atlanta is the City Grill, on several levels of a former Federal Reserve Bank downtown….The space is stately, spacious, and serene…City Grill’s interpretation of new Southern cooking is equally refined.”

50 Hurt Plz SE # 200
Atlanta, GA 30303
(404) 524-2489
City Grill

Other Wedding Resources:
Ultimate Wedding Planning Guide
The Wedding Day Diet
Bridal Show Planner

My friend had a birthday which was on a Thursday and asked me where she thought we should go. I’ve been getting emails from this place about this great salsa music and drink specials they have on Thursday nights. So, I suggested we check it out.

Thank god she made reservations. With a party of 14 people like we had we would have never gotten seated. The place was really packed. I guess that is why it is so hard to find parking, well that and the fact that they reserve about half the parking lot for valet.

They supposedly have drinks specials but I guess you have to remind them because when my boyfriend ordered me a Dos Equis, they charged him the regular price not the $3 special it was supposed to be. Long Island Teas are supposed to be $5 on thursday nights too. See the promotion page.

We ordered about four tapas – Ribs in Balslamic sauce, Hanger steak, Shrimp and Scallop cerviche, and 2 different types of empanadas (duck with cilantro cream sauce and black bean with bananas and caramel sauce). The ribs and Hanger Steak (both my choices) were just average. Glen chose the cerviche which had a great spiciness to it and I was pleased they didn’t skimp on the scallops and shrimp. The black bean emapanadas although they sound a little strange were actually quite good.

If there is a next time I will try the calamari. Not only did it look really good, but the portion is a good size versus some of the other menu options. That’s one recommendation I have for them. They should have a cart that shows their various menu portions or pictures on their menu as some are very small (ie duck empanada) and some are very large (calamari).

At this point, I decided to switch from beer to mojitos. Not usually what I would go for, but they are a specialty there. There were very tasty, which I guess they should be for $7.50 a pop. Be forewarned while they are good, you will go through them fast as your glass is mostly ice and mint leaves and very little liquid.

By this time everyone had finished eating, and about half of our group settled their tab and headed out. Fast forward half and hour when I ask for our check which comes to $230. Of course, they helped themselves to a 20 percent gratuity. The entire table’s tab was $300, so I found it really hard to believe that we owed as much as it said. We all kicked in more than our fair share, I still can’t help but wonder if the 20% gratuity we paid was in addition to what our other dining companions paid.

Pros: Really cool atmosphere, good music, great tasting drinks
Cons: Parking, Expensive Drinks

What are your thoughts? Should restaurants be allowed to add on a gratuity to your bill when you may feel they really don’t deserve it?

The study took into account the number of singes vs. the entire city population, bars, restaurants, number of concert venues, how many registered users there were on match.com, among other factors.

I’m so proud that Atlanta has grown into such a vibrant city with a great singles scene. To read the entire click the link below.

Forbes Article

We went here with a group of 6 to celebrate a birthday on a Saturday night. Located in a strip mall off of Windy Hill Road, you wouldn’t expect this place to be so nicely decorated on the inside. I love the stained concrete floors . They really add a nice touch. Candle lit tables make for a romantic evening, but it also works for groups too.

The Food: I always try to read any reviews of restaurants before I go there, so I know if there are any special dishes I should try OR avoid. Almost every one mentioned the cucumber flavored water. If there was supposed to be a cucumber flavor in the water, I didn’t taste it. We had basil rolls as an appetizer and the portion was just right for our size group. It also came with a tasty dipping sauce.

I think I was the only one in the group who enjoys really spicy food, so I ordered the ginger chicken medium spicy which was spiced just right. And I had plenty of leftovers to take home. I would like to go back to try the Green Papaya Salad, Coconut Chicken Soup, and the Siam Square Curry (they all sound pretty tasty to me).

The Service: Our server was excellent! He was always around if we needed something but not pushy. Most of the group didn’t want spicy food. He was very attentive about accomodating everyone’s special requests.

I also hear it’s a great lunch spot. So, if you work around the area definitely check it out.

1995 Windy Hill Rd SE
Smyrna, GA 30080
(770) 333-1700

Read my review of Red Elephant Thai Restaurant

Of course, as the name suggests there will be lots of food to try. There are over 35 vendors with food samples. Tastes range from $1 to $3 each. There are lots of other activities with bands, children’s activities, etc. So, there’s something for the whole family.

The event will last until 8 pm tonight, September 6. Admission is free and free parking is available.

I don’t know what the place was before it became this restaurant but obviously a lot of money went into decorating the place. Lots of curtains (more for decoration than privacy) and low seating with comfy cushions. Very colorful setting. This would be great if you have a group of people to go. And I bet they would draw a bigger crowd if they had belly dancing.

Appetizers to try? Stuffed grape leaves and Falafel. I always thought Falafel was like a wrap but apparently its some sort of meat and spices that are fried and resemble a small doughnut. It was exquisite. We each had the beef wraps (I had the ground beef and Brandon had the beef tips). It was good but a little salty. Next time I’ll try the gyro.

Prices are like $7 for the wrap which comes with a side of fries. So, it is definitely reasonably priced. Hookahs are like 15 bucks if I am remembering correctly. I can’t wait to try these next time. Didn’t have enough time as I was on my lunch hour.

Casablanca Restaurant & Hookah Lounge
3490 Cherokee Street #303
Kennesaw, GA 30144
678-797-9373

Read my Sahara Restaurant Review

All items on the menu are 475 calories or less. I’m not understanding that with the flatbread pizza type thing which is served on a plate that must be 2 feet long. It must be low carbs, but that is just too tasty to be that low in calories. And the stuffed mushrooms are too die for.

I think the fish is a better bet than the meat on this menu. My dining companions both had fish and it was delicious. I had the pork medallions which is supposedly the most popular item on the menu, but I bet no one orders it more than once after they taste the fish – especially the curried snapper. If you are dieting but are still looking for an upscale place where you don’t have to feel guilty about what you’re eating or count calories, this is definitely the place to go.

On Peachtree at W Paces
3050 Peachtree Rd., NW
Atlanta, GA 30305
Phone: (404) 846-1552
Seasons 52

We decided to stick with sushi although they have many, many options in their diverse menu (Japanese, Teriyaki, Fried Rice and Noodle entrees, etc). We opted to stay with
sushi. One of our choices was La Rhumba (spicy tuna, crunches, top white tuna, avocado, spicy sauce). Sounded amazing to me. The other pick which I don’t remember the name of, had eel in it.

Our food arrived and although the presentation was lovely, as
sushi usually is, the taste was disappointing. It didn’t have that fresh taste I’m used to with sushi. And the texture of the fish was strange too. It was as if it had been squeezed through a cake frosting tool. . So, although the service was good and the place has a pretty interior the food left something to be desired.

Visit #2:
Fast forward eight months – gas is $4 a gallon and as much as I love going ITP, my wallet doesn’t always agree. And after reading all the great reviews about the place, I had to give it another chance. So, on a rainy Wednesday, me and my coworker Brandon, headed out to try them again.

We both decided that we wanted entrees but Brandon wanted some
sushi so he ordered some of their dollar sushi (3 pieces for a buck). For entrees, we both had the Spicy Lemongrass Beef. They should call it Unspicy Lemongrass Onions with a side of Beef.

As far as the service, I don’t know if our waitress was having and off day or what, but the service was incredibly slow. Our office is 3 mins away from the restaurant and our lunch hour turned out to be a lunch hour and a half. She didn’t seem very familiar with anything on the menu, and we had to ask a couple times for the hot sauce to spice up the unspicy lemongrass.

I really do want to like this place, I’m just finding it hard to. I’ll be back….just give me another couple months….

840 Ernest Barrett Parkway Suite 500
Kennesaw, GA 30144
Tel: (770) 499-7160
Fax: (770) 499-7361

Hours:
Monday – Thursday 11:30am – 10:00pm
Friday – Saturday 11:30am – 11:00pm
Sunday 2:00pm – 10:00pm
Kuroshio Sushi

Complete Book Of Sushi

10-pc. Sushi Chef Sushi-Making Kit

So, needless to say, I was pretty disappointed. But I made the best of the evening – I was with a good group of friends and the bar does have like 30 different types of Martinis to choose from at $5 each. My suggestion is the Nutty Martini made with Frangelico – soooooo yummy! So, I guess the evening wasn’t a complete loss.

The crowd is slightly and older one – 40s and 50s. The music is a mix of mostly 70s and 80s with some 90s thrown in occassionally, which you can tell the crowd doesn’t like as they all scatter from the dance floor when Will Smith starts singing.

6450 Powers Ferry Road
Atlanta, GA 30339
Phone: 770.226.0201
Olives Waterside

Riedel Vitis Martini Glasses (Set of 2)