Lee's Bakery

Lee's Bakery is one of the many Vietnamese restaurants in Buford Hwy. Like the name implies, it is a bakery. It's also a decent Vietnamese restaurant. Lee's Bakery is known for their cheap bahn mi. They do serve other Vietnamese foods though.

As an appetizer, I tried the crepes. I thought it tasted weird. I had no idea what mystery meat they put on top of the crepe. Of course, this isn't your traditional French crepe. It has that Vietnamese flavor and style to it.

The crepe seemed to be made out of rice. It tasted a lot like the rice noodles from Chinese dim sum places. I don't know, this wasn't one of my favorite dishes. The texture felt weird, and I didn't get the taste. I guess I was expecting something more of a traditional French Crepe when I ordered it.

Crepes

Lee's Bakery offers several types of Bahn Mi. They all cost $3.00, which I find cheap for a decent sandwich.  I opted to go for the standard grill pork bahn mi. It comes in a french roll with lots of butter, cilantro, peppers, and grilled pork. The pork is the standard grilled pork that comes in your Coms and Buns at Vietnamese places.


The Banh Mi's cost only $3.00, and for only $6.50, you can get half a bahn mi and a bowl of pho. That is a great deal.

My half a sandwich.

I like Lee's pho. The broth had a nice beefy taste. They did skimp on the tendon though. Overall, it was a decent tasting pho.

Pho

Lee's Bakery is pretty cool. You can get cheap, good foods. I would like to come back and try more of their sandwiches. They all sounded good.

Lee's Bakery also sells smoothies. But I have lactose intolerance so I couldn't try them. Maybe next time, armed with my lactaid pills, I can get to try their famous avocado smoothie. Mr. Kitty gives this place 4 paws up.

Lee's Bakery
4005 Buford Hwy NE
Atlanta, GA 30345
(404) 728-1008

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