Dan Moo Ji is Cute

I can't believe it took me this long to go to Dan Moo Ji. Dan Moo Ji is a small Korean restaurant in Duluth. It has a cute decor and serves food—a lot of food. 

Everything in here is cute, the dishes, the waitresses, the walls, and one of my friends even said the owner was cute. I guess the cute theme is part of their gimmick. 

I like their food. I consider it one of the best values in Atlanta. For a few bucks, you can stuff yourself. The prices are so cheap, you might underestimate how much food they'll give you. 

Bunch of cute drawings drawn by someone. 

Before they bring their food out, they give you a complimentary bowl of broth and 2 pickled vegetables. The amount of Korean side dishes they give you is pretty pathetic, but they make it up for it with their dishes. The soup taste pretty good though. It seems like udon broth. It is not meant to be eaten as an appetizer; it's meant to compliment your dishes.

Pretty good broth.

We ordered the Ddeokbokki with chewy noodles, which is actually called jjorbokki (쫄볶이). All of their ddeokbokki variations are cooked in front of you by one of the waitresses. They give you tons of rice cakes, oden, cabbage, and chewy noodles.

They warned us that spicy was very hot and recommended us to get the regular version. So we did. I'm not afraid of spice, but they were right. The regular version was pretty hot. I don't know how hot the very hot version would be.

Preparing the ddeokbokki.

We also got Korean's version of rolls, gimbap. They had a few variations of gimbap as well. There were some I haven't seen before like squid gimbap. That sounded good so we ordered that and the traditional beef gimbap. Just like their ddeokbokki, a huge plate of gimbap came out.

I loved the squid gimbap. They rolled up the Korean, stir-fried squid parts covered in traditional, fermented pepper paste in the rice and seaweed. Their beef gimbap tasted good too. But if you like squid, you should try the squid gimbap.

Looks like they chopped up a big snake and served it to us. It tasted pretty delicious though. 

The gimbap and the ddeokbokki could feed 2 people well, but underestimating the size of the dishes, we also ordered the don cutlet (donkatsu). I was shocked at the size of the pork. I'm used to the pork being the size of my hand. But Dan Moo Ji's donkatsu was the size of my chest. It was huge.

The picture below does not do it justice on what the actual size was. Not only it had a huge piece of meat on the plate, it also had tons of rice and salad squeezed on top of the giant saucer. It tasted pretty good too. But we were too full from the other 2 dishes to enjoy this.

The biggest donkatsu I've ever seen. 

Dan Moo Ji just became one of my favorite Korean restaurants in Atlanta. Sure, they don't serve fancy food, but they serve good, Korean, cheap eats. If you're unemployed, this is a great place to come to stuff yourself for cheap. Gigantic portions, low prices, great tastes, and cute girls; what more can you ask for? Mr. Kitty gives this place 4.5 paws up.

Dan Moo Ji
3230 Steve Reynolds Blvd
Duluth, GA 30096

Hot Dogs At Brandi's World Famous Hot Dogs

Brandi's is a little shack up in Marietta, GA. They are open lunch only on the weekdays. So you would need to find the time to make the trek up here during your work hours.

It's a tiny place that serves 3 things: hotdogs, burgers, and fries. Because of their name, I had their "world famous" hot dogs. I don't know if they're world famous or not though.

All of their dogs come with chili, even their slaw dog. Their dogs aren't fancy. It's just boiled, pink sausage on a plain, store-bought bun. They don't even toast the bun. It doesn't look like a fancy hot dog. It's no different from what you would get at your school's cafeteria. However, their chili makes the difference with these dogs. 

Their chili is very spicy. They have a ton of garlic in it. It does make the dogs taste good though. Although I wished the sausage was a bit bigger. And I would prefer them to be grilled, not boiled. But that's okay though. You know why? Because they're cheap. 2 hotdogs and 1 drink cost $5, tax included. That's an awesome deal. 

Chili Dog and Slaw Dog

Is it the best hot dog in the world? Nope. I think the main attraction of this place is the atmosphere, price and their chili. I must admit that chili does make everything taste better. I would also recommend getting 2-3 hotdogs if you want to get full. Those dogs are on the small side. Mr. Kitty gives this place 4 paws up. 

Brandi's World Famous Hot Dogs

1377 Church St Ext NE

Marietta, GA 30060

(770) 422-3681

Five Guys "Famous" Burgers and Fries (and Hotdogs)

Their Famous, but Mediocre Burgers

We all know what Five Guys is. It's the fast food place that serves below-average burgers, gives a tub full of fries that can feed a family of four, and offers free peanuts when you go in.

Just by watching them make their burgers, you can already tell it won't be good. They mash the burgers when they're cooking, which squeezes out all its juices. They cook it well done, but that's not their fault. With the kind of ground meat they're getting, they probably have to cook it well done to be safe. Their grilling technique makes their burgers dry and burnt.

Although, some people do enjoy their burgers, and I understand why. You can put all sorts of toppings on it. It adds a lot of  flavor that was lost in the grilling. If Five Guys didn't offer mushrooms, peppers, relish, onions, etc to their burgers, I bet most people wouldn't like the burgers as much. Besides, the star of the burger is the meat. Adding a ton of toppings to a crappy burger is just a coverup.

Another thing I don't like about their burgers is that they're expensive. It costs a lot compared to the other fast food burger places. Burger and fries cost around $8. They're pretty much charging "good burger" prices for a fast food style burger.

Enough Venting About Their Burgers, How are Their Hotdogs?

Besides their "famous" burgers, they serve hotdogs as well. I have heard that their dogs are pretty good. So I had to try them. But are they just overhyped like the burgers?

The Hot Dog

The dog tasted and looked like your average hotdog. They cut it down the middle and grill it on their griddle. They also toast the bun on their griddle.

I'm not sure why they cut the sausage down the middle. Maybe it makes it cook faster? Although I have heard that this makes the meat taste better. I don't know if it does though.

I do like some things about their hotdogs. I like how they grill the franks. That's my preferred way of cooking hotdogs—not boiling them. I also like how the franks are bigger than normal franks. Finally, you can add the same ingredients that you can get with the burger.  And those toppings can improve the taste.

The hotdog at Five Guys wasn't the best I've tasted, but it tasted decent. You also need to eat about 2 of these hotdogs to get nice and full.

I give Five Guys 2 paws up for their burger and 3.5 paws up for their hot dogs. So taking the average, Mr. Kitty gives Five Guys Burger and Fries 3 paws up.

Five Guys Famous Burgers and Fries
www.fiveguys.com

Jim And Nick's BBQ in Smyrna

Jim and Nick's is your standard chain restaurant. It's large, gives you tons of food, the food is average, and are reasonably priced.

First, let's talk about their best item: their cheese biscuits. They are sweet and delicious. I don't like to go to Jim and Nicks, especially when there's 2 other superior BBQ places in the same area, but if I had to go, I look forward to their cheese biscuits. The best part is that they're free. They're probably made with everything people deem unhealthy: cheese, corn, butter, and crack.

Cheese Biscuits laced with crack.

Their fried green tomatoes also get rave reviews. I'm not a big fan of fried green tomatoes to begin with so I didn't care for these. But everyone goes nuts about them. I guess they're good if you like fried green tomatoes. They just taste okay to me.

Fried Green Tomatoes

They sure give you a ton of food for their entrees.  My pulled pork didn't have much flavor. It was also tough and dry. My sides were also on the tasteless side. I wasn't too impressed with my pulled pork plate.

Pulled Pork Plate

Their ribs are the same story. They're drenched in sauce but it still felt tasteless. It also tasted Dry and tough.

Ribs

Even though those two entrees were mediocre, I would like to write about their Pig in the Potato Patch. It comes with a ginormous potato. It was the size of my head. It comes with a mutated, giant potato with tons of bacon, cheese, sour cream, pulled pork, butter, and whatever else you can think of that might give you a heart attack. I like this dish. It was much better than the pulled pork or rack of ribs platters.

Pig in the Potato Patch.

Jim and Nick's is pretty mediocre BBQ place, especially for this area. Like I wrote, you have other better options nearby. I guess you would come here if you crave the cheese biscuits. But that's the only reason to come here.

I would give this place 2 paws up, but I guess the cheese biscuits and the Potato Patch dish might make me want to raise more paws a bit. So Mr. Kitty gives it 2.5 paws up.

Jim 'n Nick's Bar-B-Q
4574 S Cobb Dr SE
Smyrna, GA 30080
www.jimnnicks.com

Australian Bakery Cafe in Marietta Square

Do you guys remember the Foster's Beer commercials? I can imagine that commercial: They show a nice looking pie on the windowsill, cooling. Then some rough looking character takes his bowie knife and cuts it open. We zoom in a see the pie is filled with meat. Then the voice over comes in with a thick Australian accent, "Apple Pie." Then the can of Fosters slams down, "Beer. Fosters, Australian for beer."

Well, if you come here, you get to experience Australian version of pies.  Besides wrestling crocodiles and dodging dangerous spiders size of their heads, it looks like Australians fill their pies with meat instead of fruits. 

Australian Bakery Cafe, like the name implies, is a bakery specializing in Australian baked goods— particularly their famous meat pies. It's one of the few places that I know that serves authentic Australian meat pies. It seems like there's two locations in Atlanta: East Atlanta and Marietta Square. I went to the Marietta Square location. 

The Pies

Their Original Australian Meat pie is just pie crust with ground beef and gravy. It was nothing special. It was just some salty, juicy ground beef in a pie crust. I don't know what the big deal was. 

The Ned Kelly Pie was more interesting since it was an open faced meat pie with a cracked egg, cheese, and bacon baked on top of it. I think it would've been better if the egg was a little bit runny. I thought the extra stuff would add more depth to the pies, but it didn't. I preferred the original Australian Meat Pie. 

Meat Pie and Ned Kelly Pie

Their sausage roll was the same deal. I don't know if it was just me, but it tasted same as the meat pie, except it was shaped differently. Maybe I'm not sophisticated enough to be a Australian meat pie connoisseur.

Meat pie and Australian Sausage Roll

I think this place is okay. I do like the idea of having pies with meat in them. But my experience wasn't extraordinary. If you want something unique for lunch at the Marietta Square, you can try this place. I must warn you, 1 pie won't fill you up. They are small. I suggest you to order something extra whether it be salad or another meat pie if you want to be full. Mr. Kitty gives it 3 paws up.

Australian Bakery Cafe

48 S Park Sq NE

Marietta, GA 30060

(678) 797-6222

www.australianbakery.com/