Atlanta Trip Report: Olde Mill Steakhouse

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.

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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.

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

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Atlanta Trip Report: The Cheesecake Factory

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!

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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.

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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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Atlanta Trip Report: Stoney River Legendary Steaks

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.

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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.

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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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Atlanta Trip Report: United’s Snackbox

A few weeks back I had to make another trip to Atlanta on business. Having just came back from Malaysia just the week after, I really dreaded another change in time zone. Man, I had so many trips this year, I must admit that I am really sick and tired of all these travelling.

I flew United from Vancouver to Atlanta. I had flew the same airline on the same sector before and had blogged about the United Airlines Snackboxes here. Back then I had the one of their four snackboxes called the Mini Meal.

For a change, I ordered their Quick Pick Snack Box. All their snackboxes costs $5 cash. Snackboxes on United Airlines are available only for flights 3 hours or longer. There are four snackboxes to select from: Quick Pick, Mini Meal, Smart Pack and Right Bite. This blog is about the Quick Pick Snackbox.

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The Quick Pick is plainly described as comfort food and had a really wide selection packed into the box. As I opened it, I know that Nanzaro and Arkensen would certainly love to have this box, so would Suanne — it does look that appealing. In the box there are … Tortilla Chips and Salsa, Cheese Snacks, Trail Mix …

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… Smoked Dried Beef Chunks, and Cookies. I normally like cookies crunchy but the Chipper Gourmet Cookies is really something else. This chocolate chip cookie is soft, moist and fresh — very nice.

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Atlanta Trip Report Day 4

I woke up late today and skipped breakfast. There were more meetings today and I also forego lunch until I got to the Atlanta Airport at 3pm. There were lots of choices at the airport.

I would normally get something quick like a sandwich or pizza but decided this time to take the train two concourse away where there is a bigger food court with proper tables. I had the Spaghetti with Meatballs Combo which included a salad and a drink.

The spaghetti is nothing special but I like the big meatballs. That big piece you see down there is not chicken breast — but it sure does look like one, isn’t it? It’s a piece of bread — not sure what you call that type of bread. It reminded me of the Indian naan bread.

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The Combo included a salad and I chose Blue Cheese for dressing. The salad does not look fresh at all. The costs is just above USD $10.

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Atlanta Trip Report Day 3

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.

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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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Atlanta Trip Report Day 1

We thought we will take a break on blogging about recipes and such — and will instead blog for the next two weeks of my business trips to Atlanta and London. There’s going to be a total of 34 hours of flying time in all! However, so not to turn off our blog readers, I will continue to blog about food.

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So, for the next four days, I will be in Atlanta, Georgia. You know what I hate most about going to the States? It’s getting thru US customs and immigration. Those guys have a perpetual scowl on their face. Treats everyone as either potential illegal immigrants or terrorists, if you ask me. Why, while queuing up to clear immigration, there was this young woman with her cute 5-year girl ahead of me. The little was bubbly and tried chatting with the immigration officer. You know what happened? The immigration officer upgraded his scowl to a growl — poor girl.

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I have always been proud to live in best city in the world (OK, the 3rd best city in the world this year but for a long time we were No 1). It’s so beautiful. We have everything within minutes from downtown — the sea, the mountains. The setting is just beautiful. Vancouver is about the only place in the world where you could sail, golf and ski on the same day.

In the foreground is the University of British Columbia. In many other cities, this piece of land would have been prime real estate but no, the forefathers of Vancouver had the foresight to reserve this for an university. Unless you are a Vancouverite, I bet you don’t know that there is a nudist beach right smack in the university. Never been there because they insists on fair-play.

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Longhorn Steakhouse in Atlanta

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.

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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.

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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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