Rumi's Kitchen

The first thing you'll notice at Rumi's is the valet service. Screw that. Just park your car behind KC Pit BBQ. Sure if you want the ultimate comfort, do the valet. But I just self park and walk a few more feet. 

When you walk in, it looks like Rumi's Bedroom than her kitchen. I kinda liked it. The space was large but arranged in a cramped, intimate style. The atmosphere also felt high class with their folded napkins, silverware, and glasses-not to mention the fancy cars parked outside parked by the valet. But don't let that intimidate you. I slummed it in here before just wearing my shorts and t-shirt. 

Like the other Persian restaurants, before the start of the meal, they give their traditional platter of flat bread, radish, mint, cheese, walnuts, olives, and other Persian-y food pieces. One time I ate at Rumi's, a Persian lady sitting to the table next to me showed me the proper way to eat it. But I forgot how to eat it since I haven't been to Rumi's for so long. I think you wrap the bread in the raw pieces of nuts, mint leaves, radish, etc. But I don't know. I should've asked the waitress.

The bread you eat with the raw veggies, herbs, and nuts. 

For the appetizer, we ordered the dolmeh—rice and meat wrapped in grape leaves with special sauce on top of it. It was a bit messy, but it had a good flavor.

Dolmeh

You can choose among 4 types of meat for the main entrees: beef, chicken, veal, and lamb. The beef dishes are usually good and is usually a safe choice. It's no frills, just seasoned beef with rice. You can't go wrong with that. They season the meat well, the meat is tender, and they also use decent cuts of meat.

Koobideh–I call those beef noodles. 

The lamb shank is a gigantic portion of rice combined with a gigantic bowl of lamb. I thought the lamb was cooked well, and and it tasted good. I like lamb in general, so you can't mess it up too much for me.

Lamb Shank. You can feed at least two people with this.

Close up of the lamb shank's lamb.

Close up of the lamb shank's rice.

Feeling adventurous, we also ordered the Ghormeh Sabzi. Despite its name, it definitely didn't look gourmet. Like the lamb shank, it also came with 2 ginormous plates: rice and veal stew. We didn't like this dish. The veal stew tasted sour. I think that was unexpected. Even Mrs. Kitty didn't like this dish. And she loves sour stuff. She would suck on lemons all day if she could.

It was hard to finish because of the sourness of the veal stew. If you like sour foods, I guess you can try this. I'll just avoid it.

Ghormeh Sabzi—another huge entree.

That lemon does not show how sour this dish is.

I never had dinner at Rumi's; I only had lunch. But it looks like it'll be the same experience. If you like Persian food or want to try it, you should try Rumi's. I've been to a couple of Persian places in the same area, and they're all decent but not spectacular. Rumi's is probably the best out of all the Persian places. Still, however, I don't consider it amazing. It's just decent food. I guess if you want an exotic—yet pricey—lunch, you can try Rumi's. Mr. Kitty gives Rumi's Kitchen 3.5 paws up.

Rumi's Kitchen

6152 Roswell Rd NE

Atlanta, GA 30328

(404) 477-2100

http://www.rumiskitchen.com

Double Zero Napoletana, A Solid Addition for Pizza

Wow, Double Zero Napoletana is a huge place. When you walk in, you feel like you're walking into a stadium. 

Just half of the restaurant.

Even the men's bathroom is like a stadium's. In case a mass rush of men need to go to the bathroom, fear not, there are plenty of urinals to use.

Just half of the men's bathroom.

It's funny though. Even though they have this gigantic space, they still arranged the tables close together. For such a huge space, I didn't like listening to the couple behind us argue about stupid stuff.

Enough of their Size, Let's Talk About Their Food

I mainly went to Double Zero to try their pizza. I love pizza, especially the Neapolitan style. So I couldn't wait to try Double Zero's.

They have 2 wood burning ovens that burns at near 1000 degrees. They also seem to use a lot of high quality, fresh ingredients for their pizza.

One of their ovens

I ordered their Margherita Pizza, which is my standard on how good a Neapolitan Pizza can be. I think they make a solid pizza. The crust was near perfect. The sauce was a bit too tangy for me, but I think that's fine. The cheese was fine. But they only had a few basil pieces sprinkled.

I don't like it when pizza places don't sprinkle the basil evenly on the pizza. I love tasting the combination of the perfectly cooked crust, basil, mozzarella di bufala, and sauce at once. If the basil isn't spread evenly, I can't enjoy that with every slice. Oh well. I think if Double Zero spread the basil around evenly, their Margherita could be even be better.

Also, I love how they give scissors to cut the pizza. I hate cutting pizzas with a knife. It is hard to do. Scissors make it easier.

Pretty good pizza, but why only a few basil pieces on one side of the pizza?

Besides their pizza, they had an extensive menu of tapas style dishes. I tried two of their appetizers: Arancini and the Cotica di Maiale.

I let Mrs. Kitty order the Arancini, and I didn't know what it was. She should've known that I don't like lemony foods—unless it's lemonade. Arancini is a croquette stuffed with lemon saffron risotto, peas, red pepper, and Scamorza cheese. It also had some lemon sauce drizzled on it.

Mrs. Kitty loved the dish, but I didn't. Again, it's because of the strong lemony taste. If I actually read the menu and saw it had lemon, I wouldn't have ordered this dish. So I'm not the best judge for this. But if you don't like lemony flavors, don't order this.

Arancini—too lemony for me.

The Cotica Di Maiale had so much potential. If you look at the picture below, it looks awesome. Heck, when it came out, it smelled great, and it gave off a delicious sizzle. My mouth started drooling when I saw the entire plate.

Unfortunately, it was only so-so. Each individual piece tasted decent, but the ingredients didn't seem to mesh together. In fact, I didn't know how to eat it. Did I have to eat all the layers at once? Do I turn it over and mix the ingredients together? How do I eat this thing? I asked the waiter, and he didn't know either. But he asked the chef, and the chef said you should eat it one layer at a time. That didn't really make sense, but okay.

One problem with eating it a layer at a time is that the bottom most layer is the bread. The bread soaks up all the grease, broth, and other liquidy stuff from the layers above. So it becomes inedible. The bread turns soggy and inedible. won't order this dish again.

Cotica di Maiale—Awesome Pork Belly dish? Nope. 

Double Zero also has sampler of cheeses and meats. They are pricey, but they are good. I do commend them of their cheeses. I'm not a huge cheese fan, but Double Zero's cheese plates turned me into one.  Along with the pizza, I think their meats and cheeses are their strongest dish.

Deliciousness.

Now for the grand fanale: their dessert. I think I had the best dessert at a restaurant. If you want to try something exotic and different, you must try their Formaggio Tasting dessert.

The Formaggio Tasting is 4 different kinds of cheese flavored gelato—yes, cheese flavored—paired with something solid like figs, chocolate truffle, etc.

They give you Goat Cheese gelato, Parmesan gelato, Gorganzola gelato, and red wine gelato. I would've thought Gorganzola gelato would be disgusting, but it was heavenly. That was my favorite. I do have to caution, it might be too strange for some people because Mrs. Kitty thought it was too weird. But I loved it. On the other hand, Mrs. Kitty loved the Goat Cheese gelato and the Parmesan gelato, and so did I.

Best dessert ever. I would come here just for this.

Double Zero is new, and they're working out their kinks. Their pizza and their cheeses are already top notch. But once they get into their groove, I think this will be a solid addition for Pizza and Italian cuisine in Atlanta. Mr. Kitty gives this place 4 paws up.

Double Zero Napoletana
5825 Roswell Road
Atlanta, GA 30328
www.doublezeroatl.com/home/

A Sweet, Little Place of Douceur De France at Roswell

We stopped by at this small French cafe hidden in Roswell. Douceur De France didn't look like a restaurant; it looked more like place where I can get my taxes done.

Luckily, they did have a big sign to let people know how to find them from the street. Just look for the sign shown in the photo below. If you look carefully at the photo, you can even see a small Eiffel Tower.

Their sign, look for it or you'll miss it.

The place felt small but cozy. It definitely felt like a French bistro. I felt like there could be mimes outside, violins playing in the background, and romance in the air. Okay, I'm just exaggerating. The only thing outside was a busy Roswell street. The only Eiffel Tower you'll see is their dinky miniature version, and the only French you'll hear is the owner's strong French accent. Other than that, it still felt like a small, cozy, European place. 

Although since it had that French atmosphere, Douceur De France did seem popular with women. I don't know why, but French crap seems draw girls in, like catnip to cats. 

La Bonne Nourriture

When I got the menu, I noticed how many choices they offered. I could not decide on what I wanted. I wanted to try so many things on the menu, but I didn't know if my budget and stomach could take it.

Mrs. Kitty ordered a small side salad to start off. It looked quite boring. The salad came with golden Italian dressing. The dressing made the salad tasty. Even though the salad looked boring, the dressing made it not that boring.

Pretty plain-Jane side salad.

We also ordered the chicken pot pie. I liked this dish a lot. The pastry they put the chicken had a nice, flakey texture. It also tasted delicious. They made the creamy mushroom parmesan sauce near perfectly. I really liked that sauce. The dish had tons of flavor and texture.

They didn't have much chicken in there though. It felt like I just ate croissant in mushroom sauce. But I didn't mind. It tasted good enough that I didn't miss the chicken too much. But they should've put more chicken in there in my opinion.

Chicken pot pie. Yum.

We also ordered the beef bourguinon. It tasted good but not as good as the chicken pot pie. You can order it with rice or french bread. Since I'm Asian,  I ordered it over rice. It had a strong red wine flavor. The beef seemed tender enough. Overall, I liked the dish.

Beef bourguignon, not as yum as the chicken pot pie.

For dessert, we ordered some crepes. Maybe it's a girl thing, but I guess I'm not a huge fan of crepes. Every crepe I ate all seemed just okay.

Mrs. Kitty loved the crepes, however; but I didn't dig it too much. It just looked and tasted too dinky for me. This is probably one reason I don't order desserts at restaurants–I can get a more satisfying dessert when I come back home and eat a tub full of ice cream.

We ordered 2 crepes: one with real strawberries and other with strawberry preserves. The strawberries that came with the crepe tasted fresh, but I preferred the strawberry preserve version. Their whipped cream seemed homemade and that helped to add to the dish. Once again, like all dessert crepes I ate, the crepes tasted decent but not super exciting.

Crepe with strawberry preserve

Crepe with Nutella and real strawberries.

Overall, I liked the food at Douceur De France. I would love to come back and try their omelets, french toast, and other stuff. Many things on the menu looked good.

La Lenteur du Service

The whole atmosphere seemed very mellow and easygoing, and Douceur De France definitely seemed to demonstrate that with their service as well. So don't come here if have to eat fast and leave hurry. It appeared as a place where you sit down and leisurely enjoy your breakfast, brunch, or lunch. I guess they really wanted to give the French charm, down to the leisurely service.

Mr. Kitty gives Douceur De France 4 paws up.

Douceur De France
1173 Alpharetta St
Roswell, GA 30075
http://www.douceurdefrance.com/

Fuego Mundo is on Fire

I'm sorry guys. Like an idiot, I didn't take pictures of the food. I'm still getting used to this whole taking pictures for a food blog thing.

As a back up, I blatantly stole the pictures from their website. Hey, it works. I just hope their lawyers don't sue my tail off.

Anyway, let's get to the actual review:

The Food

First, let me get this out of they way: Their burgers suck. They advertise it as, "The world's best burger." Don't believe them. It tastes like a giant McDonald's burger. The bun, meat, and everything just tastes low quality to me.

Doesn't it look yummy? No way, just go to Evos if you want a burger at the Prado. 

It surprises me on how low quality the burger tastes and looks. I like their meat dishes, but their burgers turns out as a huge disappointment.  Fuego Mundo, you disappoint.

Now for the good parts: their meat dishes. I will give praise for their meat dishes. They offer various combinations of steak, chicken and fish. I usually get the steak combinations, and they always taste  good. They season the meat liberally. It comes with fried plantains and a healthy side combination of your choosing.

Finally, the good stuff.

Fuego Mundo's sides consist mainly of vegetarian or health-conscious style dishes. They offer various vegetables, quinoa, beans, and plantains. If they didn't offer meat, I would say Fuego Mundo seems like a good place for people on the Ornish diet. I'm not a big fan of their sides, however; since being a carnivorous cat,  I rather just have more meat.

Overall, I think Fuego Mundo is going after the health conscious market. I don't know how much salt they sprinkle on the meats, but everything seems healthy. Even the cuts of meat they use taste lean and don't have much fat.

If I ignore the burgers, I think I like everything else here. I like the unique, South American taste. It gives a nice alternative to my regular lunch food I get.

Are Their Prices on Fire too?

If you mean on fire, do you mean kinda expensive? Yes, the food here costs a lot. For lunch, you can expect to pay around $11. However, I do enjoy coming here regularly even though it costs a bit more than the other usual lunch places. And the dishes do taste higher quality to me. So maybe I'm getting the right value.

Mr. Kitty gives this place four paws up.


5590 Roswell Rd
Ste 120
Atlanta, GA 30342
http://fuegomundo.com/