Roy's Cheesesteaks... Philly Connection Version 2.0?

Roy Brostrand seems to know his cheesesteaks. First of all, Roy owns Roy's Cheesesteaks. He also founded Philly Connection. Now he has another cheesesteak gig called  Champion Cheesesteaks. Champion Cheesesteaks is Roy just jumping on the food truck bandwagon. Anyway, this post is about Roy's second cheesesteak venture: Roy's Cheesesteaks. 

Roy's cheesesteaks all come on Italian rolls. The cheesesteaks are suppose to be authentic, but I never been to Philly so I don't know if it does cheesesteaks justice. They look pretty boring, but they do taste good. Then again, I like hot sandwiches in general, and Roy's satisfies my cravings. 

For your cheeses, you can choose from mozzarella, provolone, or cheese whiz. Cheese whiz is suppose to be the more authentic version. But I didn't like it. It tasted too salty to me. Instead, I prefer the provolone version. I like my cheesesteaks with mushrooms and onions also. 

Roy's also has birch beer at his soda fountain. I like that. I'm a fan of different types of sodas and welcome any place that provides sodas other than plain, old, boring Coke, Sprite, Diet Coke, etc.

There's nothing else that can be said about Roy's. It seems like a decent sandwich shop in Smyrna. They are closed Sundays though. Mr. Kitty gives it 3.5 paws up.

Roy's Cheesesteaks
2900 Highlands Pky SE
Smyrna, GA 30082
(404) 799-7939

Tacos La Villa

There are two Tacos La Villas in the same shopping center. One is in a Mercado, and I think that one is closed. This one is where Quizno's used to be, next to Yakitori Jinbei. This is probably one of my favorite, authentic taquerias in this area. 

One of my favorite parts of this restaurant is their sauce bar. They give you healthy amount of sauces and vegetables. The green, hot, avocado sauce is the best thing I've tasted. It has a nice bite to it and goes great with everything.

See that light green sauce in between the onions and the red sauce? Muy delicioso.

Even though they are a taqueria, they have a lot of other stuff as well such as quesadillas, burritos, tamales, tortas, and bunch of Mexican dishes. I haven't tried everything on their menu, but I have tried their tacos, tamales, and tacos.

Their quesadillas taste very delicious. I don't know how they do it. They use pre-made tortillas from a package and just put meat and cheese in it. It must be their grilling technique or something because this is one of my favorite quesadillas. Also, it is very filling. It doesn't look big, but it is stuffed full of good stuff.

Yummy quesadilla

The tamale is your standard tamale. It was good and well made. I wouldn't consider it special, but Mrs. Kitty says all tamales are special because they are difficult to make.

Ok tamale.

The tacos here are cheap. They're all $1 a piece. They have interesting fillings like cabeza (cow head), which I haven't seen anywhere else. The cabeza is pretty good. Actually, I think all their tacos taste good. They are small, however. So you need to eat about 6-7 to feel full.

The tacos come "naked" too. But you can put all the onions, cilantro, and other junk you want at the sauce bar I described at the top.

4 tacos are not enough!

They also have many different Mexican drinks available like horchatas, Mexican Coke, and jarritos. This  place has good food, is cheap, and satisfies. Mr. Kitty gives it 4 paws up.


Tacos La Villa
2415 Cobb Parkway
Smyrna, GA 30080
(770) 951-0415

Jang Su Jang Su Jang Su Jang...

Jang Su Jang is a solid Korean restaurant. It used to be not like this. When this place first opened, they were pretty pathetic. They only had 3 pieces of crappy banchans and only served tofu stew. After many years, I decided to come back. What a pleasant surprise they have improved.

First of all, they give you a lot more banchans. They don't give you some lame, piddling amounts of pickled vegetables. They give you good stuff like mook, potato salad, some meat, kimchees, and others. It isn't So Kong Dong quality, but it looks like a big improvement from what they served before.

Yay for banchans. 

Also, I think their food quality improved. We ordered the galbi (braised short ribs), "yetnal" (old style) bulgogi (marinated beef), and naengmyun (cold noodle soup).

The galbi tasted decent. It seemed well marinated. But I bit into tiny bones too often. I guess it's difficult to remove all the tiny bones inside the meat. But it wasn't bad. 

Galbi, grilled marinated short ribs

I never had Yetnal bulgogi before. This is suppose to be old style bulgogi. Normally, bulgogi is grilled. I guess back then, they didn't have grills or something, and they ate it as stew. I don't know if that is accurate, but I liked the dish. The stew was flavorful but fatty. It came in a huge pot. I liked this dish too.

Old school bulgogi

Finally, we had some naengmyun. They're cold noodle soup. It came with black noodles. I actually liked that. I think it gave a better taste to me. It tasted cold and refreshing. I also liked it.

Cold, refreshing naengmyun.

Jang Su Jang became one of my favorite Korean restaurants. Of course, they probably had to improve because they are located in Duluth. A crappy Korean restaurant can't last there.

They have a lot of menu items, and all their dishes seem solid. Also, like other Korean restaurants, it's a great value. You get a ton of great food for a reasonable price.  Mr. Kitty gives it 4 paws up.

Jang Su Jang
3645 Satellite Blvd
Duluth, GA 30096
(678) 475-9170

Fil-Am Star Cafe and Bakery

I know Chinese food, Japanese food, Vietnamese food, Korean food, Thai food, Taiwanese food, Indian food, and other Asian foods. I pretty much have Asia covered. Except I never had Filipino food. The only thing I know about Filipino food is that they make their spaghettis with hot dogs and eat duck embryos. 

Fil-Am is one of the few Filipino restaurants in Atlanta. My Filipino friends go nuts over this place. It's probably because they grew up with this type of food and feels comforting to them. Who knows? But since I never grew up with this food, how do all these dishes taste to an outsider? Let's find out. 

First of all, some of the names look like they're in Spanish. They can get quite confusing because they are not same as the Mexican dishes you know of. For example, menudo is completely different in the Philippines. It's not tripes.  And the enchiladas doesn't look like it has any tortilla at all.

Unfortunately, they didn't have balut. It's okay. I got to try many different dishes here. 

The Lumpia looked like your standard eggrolls with pork. There was nothing too crazy or special about these; it was just eggrolls. But they tasted good. I liked the chili sauce it came with. They would make a nice snack or appetizer. 

Lumpia

Pancit Guicido was your standard pan fried noodles. It kind of reminded me of Yakisoba. It was no different than your standard pan fried egg noodles. I liked it because you can't go wrong with pan fried noodles.

Pancit Guisado

The Bistek was interesting. It was marinated in some sauce. It had a sweet flavor to it. The meat was chewy and tough, however. Overall, I liked the flavor that it had. They needed to not overcook the meat so much though.

Bistek

Daing Na Bangus isn't some old porn site. It's milkfish. I like fish so I thought it tasted fine. Although I did think it was a little dry. Also, milkfish has more bones than usual, so watch out.

Daing Na Bangus

The sisig came topped with a little chili pepper. It looked cute. You put raw egg and mix it in. It's mainly made of pork I didn't like the texture of the pork and the raw egg mixed in. It also had a flavor that I wasn't a fan of. It wasn't one of my favorite dishes.

Sisig

The menudo wasn't tripe soup. It was something better—marinated pork. It tasted good. I liked it a lot, and I found it better than Mexico's version of menudo. The tomato broth/sauce it came in tasted interesting.

Menudo

The food was plentiful and cheap. The owners there seemed very nice and friendly. It wasn't a bad place. If you aren't Filipino and want to try it out, I think it's a good place to experience a new type of cuisine.

The meats do come out overcooked. But I think they have unique flavor, and you can definitely afford a nice, cheap meal here.  Mr. Kitty gives this place 3.5 paws up.

Fil-Am Star Cafe and Bakery
5150 Buford Highway NE., Suite A-170
Doraville, GA 30340
(678) 580-1209
www.filamstarcafe.com

Agave Restaurant

Agave is a tight, cramped, yet hip place located in Cabbagetown. Inside, it looks like a date spot. It is a Tex-Mex place, and it's probably one of the more expensive Tex-Mex place I've been to.

Like every other Tex-Mex place, they brought out the chips and salsa.The salsa tasted pretty good. The flavored mixed well and had a nice spice to it. The chips didn't seem special. But the salsa made the whole thing enjoyable.

I ordered the ceviche martini as my appetizer. It had good flavor. But it was full of vegetables and not much seafood. It had about 2 pieces of shrimp and 4 small pieces of tuna. I felt gypped. I was expecting some protein, not a salad with tiny pieces of fish and shrimp.

Ceviche: where's the beef? Errr.. fish?

For my entree, I ordered the Slow Cooked Short Ribs. They seemed to have cooked the ribs perfectly. The meat broke apart easily and felt tender. But I needed more sauce. The sauce had a sweet taste and gave the ribs good flavor. However, I felt only 1/4 of the short ribs were covered in sauce. Therefore, majority of the ribs tasted dry and flavorless. It is a tough balance because you don't want too much sauce and overpower everything. At the same time, it needs enough sauce so it'll flavor the ribs. I think my dish needed a bit more sauce.

It's strange because the menu said it was braised in the sauce. But it tasted like it wasn't braised in any sauce because of its dryness and lack of flavor.

The mashed potatoes that the ribs sat on top of tasted good though. I liked the corn chunks inside it. The asparagus tasted fine as well.  

Braised Short Ribs: needs more sauce

I also tried their  fire roasted tomato and serrano stone ground grits as a side. I liked it. It had good texture and flavor. It didn't look too appetizing though. But how can you plate liquidy, orangey slop?

The serrano stone grits look like puke but tastes good.

I went on a Friday night, and the place looked hopping. So it took forever for anything to happen. The servers and busboys seemed on point by refilling our glasses and removing our dirty dishes. But if you needed anything else, good luck finding the server. It took forever for them to give us our checks. 

Mango Margarita. 

This place feels overpriced to me. I guess you're paying for the ambience and the food. The food had few problems, but it had potential. I enjoyed my time here and wouldn't mind coming back and trying out their other entrees. Mr. Kitty gives this place 3.5 paws up.

Agave Restaurant
242 Boulevard SE
Atlanta, GA 30312
(404) 588-0006
www.agaverestaurant.com

A Wild Pho Place Appears Deep inside Marietta: Pho Hoang Long

If you want pho, you need to go to Duluth, Buford Hwy, or even Riverdale. Okay, I'm just kidding about Riverdale. But this is probably the only pho place that I know of located West of I-75. Since it's the only pho place I know of in Marietta, it's the best pho place you can get in Marietta.

Standard plate of pho garnishes: mung bean sprouts, lime, pepper, basil, and culantro.

The Pho itself.

So with no pho competition within 20 miles from there, they would slacking off? Nah, they're fine. Their pho doesn't taste too bad. They are generous with their garnishes, meats, offal, and sodium. Their broth isn't the best I've tasted, but it has a good beef flavor. It does taste a bit salty though.

They have other standard Vietnamese dishes such as Com and Bun. They taste decent as well. I do think their spring rolls look sloppily made, but they still taste fine to me. However, I do think they are inconsistant sometimes. But I've been satisfied the times I've went.

If you're in Marietta, feel too lazy to drive to Buford Hwy, and want to eat Pho, Pho Hoang Long is a good alternative to satisfy your cravings. Mr. Kitty gives this place 3.5 paws up.

Pho Hoang Long

337 Pat Mell Rd SE

Marietta, GA 30060

(770) 319-6535

Chicken Sausage Hotdogs At Delia's Chicken Sausage Stand

Just like the name implies, this is just a stand. Inside of the stand is a standing room where you can order. There are some tables outside to enjoy your meal. But in this 5 billion degree Atlanta heat, it's difficult to eat outside. But Mr. Kitty runs around outside anyway so I can tough it out. 

Delia's Chicken Sausage Stand is your standard hot-dog stand with a gimmick. All of their sausages are chicken, like their name suggests. Their dogs' names also seem suggestive: The Hot Mess, The Three Way, The Naked Slider, etc. Being in the EAV, they have to try to be cool, unique, and hip. Heck, even their Website looks decent and Web 2.0-ish for a restaurant Website. 

One thing I like about the hotdogs is their size. They look big. The sausages aren't some tiny chicken sausages. They are a good size. 

They also come on Holeman & Finch's hoagie roll. I think Holeman & Finch makes pretty decent bread, especially their hamburger buns, so it provided a nice taste compared to your normal hotdog buns. I like their buns almost more than their sausages. 

Even though they have a hotdog named The Hot Mess, nearly all of them seem messy. They pile on the toppings and you can't eat them without getting the toppings all over your clothes, mouth, hair, eyes, etc.

The Three Way

The Hot Mess

The Naked Slider seems like the the only exception. I like it because it looks simple. They also provide different condiments so you can dress your dog up yourself.

The Naked Slider

The Three Way Again. I guess I like Three Ways.

Their Big Sausage Salad is great for the low carb dieters. It's just their sausage covered in vegetables. It comes with no bun. I think it's a great idea, but there's no way I will not eat a H&F hoagie roll if they offer it. But any way you cut it, it's just a salad with a chicken sausage.

The Big Sausage Salad

For dessert, they offer Cake Shakes. They just dump a whole cupcake into a milkeshake mix. It results in a delicious shake but with a grainy texture. But if you're not lactose intolerant and not on a diet, it's worth a try.

Speaking of lactose intolerance, they don't have public bathrooms. So you better empty your bladder before you come here—or don't get the cake shake if you're lactose intolerant.

Overall, I liked it. But I prefer the beefy sausages better than chicken. It just tastes beefier and better, you know? But I would not mind coming back here again. Mr. Kitty gives it 3.5 paws up.

Delia's Chicken Sausage Stand
489 Moreland Ave
Atlanta, GA 30316
(404) 474-9651
www.thesausagestand.com