Updated: 20th Jan 2015; This restaurant is closed according to Urbanspoon.com.

Tonight I had to eat alone. Rob wanted to hit the mall for some Christmas shopping and I really did not want to go shopping. Moreover, I wanted to just have a quick dinner and for once get back to the hotel early and relax.

So for dinner, I decided to take a longer walk a block away. I came up to this place called the Olde Mill Steakhouse. The place looked like a good old fashion steakhouse and the car park was full of cars. I figured that I won’t go wrong with this place.

Walking in, I saw some signs that says that they serve aged and handcut beef. They are supposed to be better and more flavourful right? I still can’t taste the difference between these gourmet beef and normal beef.

For a change, I decided to order an appetizer even though I know it’s probably too much food for me. Anyway, I got their Seafood Sampler which costs $12.99. The Seafood Sampler consists of Fried Shrimp, Crab Cake and Fried Calamari.

The Fried Shrimp was awesome. The shrimp flesh was plump and was lightly battered.

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I know Suanne would have gone into a frenzy if she was here with me today. With place that looked like a Las Vegas upscale restaurant and a name like Cheesecake Factory, she would have been absolutely delighted — she adores cheesecakes.

Mark, my counterpart in Atlanta, hosted this dinner for Rob and I. This restaurant is popular judging by the crowd milling outside waiting for a table. We had to wait over 30 minutes too for our table. The decor in this place is lavish and really upscale. They had high ornate ceilings, decorative columns, marble floors.

Of course, their centre-piece is their cheesecake bar. They made us mill around this area before showing us to our tables! Although I was never much of a cheesecake fan, all the cheesecakes they had were very tempting and mouthwatering. Some of the cakes were 10 inches tall!

For drinks I ordered that most southerners would — Iced Tea … and sweetened. I found out that Iced Tea is really popular in hot weather of the southern USA. It is also known as the Southern Table Wine.

The Cheesecake Factory has an extensive menu. Sometimes, it’s mind boggling deciding what to order. Wished that these menus had pictures, makes the ordering much simpler right? Anyway, these days I will just scan for dishes that were highlighted, is a combination or a sampler.

I found what I wanted from their Factory Combination menu — the Steak Diane and herb Crusted Salmon. This is served with three scoops of mashed potatoes, flavoured but not sure with what. I just know it tasted good. Costs $19.95 … not bad.

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Landed in Atlanta at about 4pm and was beginning to feel hungry. I only had a snackbox in the plane the entire day. I will be in Atlanta for the rest of the week. This time, I told myself that as much as there are work to be done, I really need to also enjoy myself. No more room service, nor any more walking across the street to the nearby mall’s food court.

The Cumberland Mall, just behind my hotel, had just underwent a complete makeover. The Mall had included a stretch of more upscale dining options along one side of the mall. This is so timely as I only have a short walk from the hotel to these places.

Stoney River Legendary sounded like a great place to start my culinary adventure in Atlanta. I have never heard of Stoney River before but looking in from the outside, I can see that this place is a tad bit upscale. Looks like a great place and the ambiance terrific … so Rob and I decided to give this place a try.

We did not have to wait long for a table and the service were prompt and attentive. The waitress recommended their Coffee-Cured Filet. I liked the description and ordered that — more of it later.

The meal started with an excellent basket of hot bread just off the stove. The butter just melted in the bread as it was spread. It was so good, I could just have my fill of bread alone.

Despite the name, the Coffee-Cured had only a very slight hint of coffee. This steak is found on their Specialty Steaks section. The meat is supposed to have been only grain-fed, aged in the restaurant and trimmed by hand — in other words, expensive. This plate costs $29.99.

While the food was great, the presentation could have been more creative. For that price, I would have expected a prettier arrangement.

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Day 3 in Atlanta. Have been putting long hours going to one meeting to another. I really hate doing this because it does not give me time to plan for the meeting and not having a proper time to recap what the take-aways were. I figure that out tonight in the hotel. By 6:00 pm my mind was so saturated that I just don’t want to think about work anymore!

Like Mark promised, he brought Paul and I to a Southern Cooking place. It was a really nice restaurant called South City Kitchen Vinings. The service was excellent — one of the places that stands out as genuine service, not waiters who fake it for a bigger tip.

Thanks to Maritza who recommended that I order “sweet tea”, I chose this. It is basically iced tea and was pretty sweet. Free refills, that’s what I like.

We were served muffins with butter. The muffins were soft and buttery. Just took only one coz I know the main dish will be large.

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Take the bull by the horns.
~ Russian Proverb

In my last night in Atlanta before I return to Vancouver, a few of my project team members finally told ourselves that we should just go out for a nice meal in a restaurants a block away from our hotel. Shahdad wanted Mexican while Rob fancies steak. I was the vote breaker … I chose steak.

I heard so much about the Longhorn Steakhouse this entire week here and was told that there is a long line up most of the nights. So, we decided to give that place a try. We went at a right time because although there were five parties ahead of us, we were seated in just 10 minutes. Hmmm … good start.

The Longhorn Steakhouse has a string of restaurants in the 24 east coast states from Maine to Florida. There are 14 Longhorns just around Atlanta itself. The interior is very western with longhorns, horse shoes, cowboy stuff and whatnots adorning the walls. The service was very prompt and very friendly.

The night started with sourdough bread (or at least I think it is sourdough!) and butter. The bread was warm and felt like it’s just fresh out of the oven. It was served on a wooden platter with a sunken cup for the butter. It was a great start.

Next came the salad. Nothing fancy except that the plate was huge. We agreed that this salad alone is good enough for dinner. I like this.

I ordered the Flo’s Filet and Grilled Shrimp. The waitress recommended the Flo’s Filet saying it’s their most asked for selection. The Filet/Shrimp was served with rice and chipotle range sauce. That dish costs $20.49. I also order a side of Fresh Asparagus at $3.49.

The prawns were really nice with the chipotle sauce. I took that and the asparagus first — yummy! The Flo filet is a 7oz fresh tenderloin cooked to medium rare. I did not touch the rice much because I was really full.

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