Pinkberry Goes Green... Tea

I'm surprised at Pinkberry's introduction of their green tea flavor. Green tea seems like an unpopular flavor to many people. Maybe Pinkberry has been hearing about how I was meowing for some green tea froyo. Yeah right, I like to think I'm that special. But whatever their reason was for introducing the green tea flavor, it feels like a big win for me. 

I consider Pinkberry as one of the big three frozen yogurt places in Atlanta along with Yogurberry and Yoforia. I have not tried Red Mango yet though. So right now, it feels like a 3 franchise race to me.

Does Pinkberry Only Give You 3 Toppings Per Cup?

They are not self serve like most Yoforia locations. The employees at Pinkberry create the yogurt for you. They also offer only 3 toppings per cup. At least that's what it looks like. They stop asking you for toppings once you picked 3.  It kinda goes like this when I'm picking toppings:

I look at my choices and start choosing, "I want strawberries... and I want some mangos... and I want some chocolate chips... and ...."

"Here's your yogurt!" She says as she hands it to me.

I hang my head in sadness. "Okay..." 

They do that every time, so I guess they limit you to 3 toppings. Maybe I'm not observant, but I haven't seen a sign that says Pinkberry limits you to 3 toppings. I should look for that sign next time. Or it could be because I order the small size all the time. I should try ordering a bigger size and see what happens. 

Speaking of toppings, they do offer mochi and other toppings not shown to the outside world. They do have a tiny sign that says something like, "we have mochi too."

Fruity toppings.

Non fruity, more unhealthy, sugary, and good toppings.

Their Excellent Frozen Yogurt

Their quality of yogurt seems high. Their froyo appears and tastes creamier than Yoforia's. And I think Pinkberry has the best original flavor of froyo. If it wasn't for the green tea flavor they introduced, I would've gotten the original flavor.

Unfortunately, their other flavors suck. Well, "suck" might be a harsh word for it. I mean, I guess their chocolate tastes good, but I'm not a big fan of chocolate flavored froyo. But their other flavors just doesn't taste good compared to the other franchises–other than their green tea flavor. I think this is one of the best green tea flavored froyo I've had. It certainly beats Yoforia's. I can't remember Yogurberry's since I haven't had it recently.

Yoforia's green tea froyo isn't tarty, which is fine. Yogurberry's is a bit too tart, which is also fine. Pinkberry is just right. Pinkberry's green tea froyo also tastes very light and refreshing. Also, combined with Pinkberry's high quality, creamy yogurt, I prefer it to Yoforia's.

Sure Yoforia is the original gangster green tea froyo. They had it first, and it's what I'm familiar with. But Pinkberry's just tastes better.  However, when I feel like I want some non-tarty green tea, I'll still go to Yoforia.

One of the best green tea froyo.

Two of my favorite flavors at Pinkberry: original and green tea.

My Final Thoughts


I never liked Pinkberry when they first opened. They only offered 4 flavors back then, and I didn't think too highly of them. But they offer more flavors now and they still kept up their high quality of yogurt.

Pinkberry seems more expensive than the other places though. They're also stingy with their toppings. It's okay, as long as they have green tea, they'll see me more often. Oh yeah, their jingle on their website is funny and cute, but annoying. Reminds me of a girl I knew. Anyway, Mr. Kitty gives this place 4.5 paws up.

Pinkberry

2937 Cobb Pkwy SE

Ste 102

Atlanta, GA 30339

http://www.pinkberry.com/

Best Ramen in Atlanta at Yakitori Jinbei

The Noodles

Yakitori Jinbei has the best Tonkotsu ramen in Atlanta. Heck, I'll even say they have the best ramen in Atlanta period, not Umaido, not Shoya Izakaya, not Taka Sushi, nor any other places. They have consistently made their ramen to the highest quality for dinner. 

I have to specifically mention dinner. I have been to Yakitori Jinbei for lunch and tried their ramen. It didn't have the same type of quality the dinner ramen had. I don't know why. I wonder if they have a different chef preparing the lunch ramen. Or I wonder if they use leftover ingredients from the day before. Nevertheless, I recommend you guys to go in for dinner and eat the ramen. 

Recently, they've added carrots and cabbage in their ramen. At first, I was like, WTF? I hate carrots in Asian noodle soups. Carrots always reminded me of the terrible noodles I had at Doc Chey's. Luckily, I didn't have to worry one bit with Yakitori Jinbei. Even with carrots, it still tasted perfect.

Best ramen in Atlanta

They also have other noodle dishes such as udon and soba. Their curry udon tastes like soupy, Japanese curry rice. I liked it, but it felt too heavy for me. In terms of noodles, their tonkotsu ramen reigns supreme. They do have solid shoyu ramen though. But if you can get their vastly superior tonkotsu ramen, why would you get any other type of ramen? 

Curry udon, it tastes like good Japanese curry rice, except without the rice and add the noodles. 

Protein Does a Body Good

Their other claim to fame seems to be the yakinikus. They use fresh young chicken from the local farm, they make their sauces in house, and they use some special coal imported from Japan to grill them. They grill the yakitoris (grilled chicken) perfectly. They even include a bit of char for texture and taste. It also falls off the bone and the homemade sauce adds a lot to the tender, chicken taste. I love eating these birds.

Grilled chicken and peppers. Mmmmm

They have other stuff on their yakiniku menu such as squid.  The squid tastes delicious. It has great smoky, squidy flavor.  It also looks pretty. 

Grilled squid. So yummy and pretty.

Other Stuff To Eat

They also have several appetizers such as edamame, dumplings, and onigiri. They taste good, but I would just skip those and get more yakinikus.

Onigiri. It's just a rice ball. They still make it as fancy as possible. 

They also offer donburis. I love their donburis such as the oyakodon, minced chicken don and so on. It also tastes authentic and good. The chicken they use seems to be the same chicken they use for their yakitori.

Yakitori Jinbei makes things hard for me. I love their donburis. But I love their ramen more. Even though I feel like I might want a donburi, I just get the ramen anyway. I should come to Yakitori Jinbei every day so I can get a chance to eat the other good stuff.

Even Their Atmosphere is Authentic, it's Cramped Inside

Their spaces feels small, and they only have 1 server for the whole restaurant. Even with a few costumers, the server gets busy; and the service tends to slow down. When they suddenly have a packed house, it gets even slower.

Lately, they look like they're hurting business wise. They stopped giving complimentary edamame (perhaps she forgot to give it to us) and their prices have risen. Also, I heard the owners had an unfortunate tragedy. I'm surprised they have the willpower to stay open.

But I suggest to all of you to make a trek down to Cobb county and support this place. Yakitori Jinbei seems like one of the most authentic and best Japanese, non-sushi restaurants in Atlanta. Mr. Kitty gives this place 5 paws up.

Yakitori Jinbei
2421 Cobb Pkwy SE
Smyrna, GA 30080
(770) 818-9215

http://www.yakitorirestaurant.com/fuutou/ie.html

Heirloom Market BBQ With Secret Korean Power!

Before I became like the 5 billionth Atlanta restaurant blogger, I went into Heirloom Market BBQ when they first opened. I noticed some Korean stuff in their place, and Chef Cody remarked that he used a couple of Korean ingredients as his secret ingredient.

Too bad I didn't have a blog at that time to break that story. But I guess the cat's out of the bag now on Heirloom's Korean influence. Chef Jiyeon is their Korean co-chef, and you can tell Chef Jiyeon brought her Korean flavor into Heirloom Market BBQ. 

Although, I don't know if I should consider Heirloom an American-Korean fusion place. You can definitely tell the Korean influence in there. But I still consider it a traditional, good old-fashioned, Southern BBQ place with a touch of Korean. 

Heirloom BBQ definitely cares about their food. You can tell they put a lot of thought into every piece of edible item the have. For example, they have Mexican Coke, which I consider to be superior to the corn syrup filled American Coke. They have sausages from Patak's, one of the more authentic European meat places in Georgia. They smoke the meat for many hours using one of their two huge smokers (each smoker has different types of wood in it). They make their sweet and un-sweet tea from good quality green and jasmin tea. And they have other examples of their attention to detail on their food quality, but it's too numerous to mention. 

Mexican Coke: me gusta.

Great homemade unsweet tea and lemonade. They have great homemade sweet tea too.

Even their  complementary tap water bottles are unique.

Sausages from Pataks.

I tried almost everything at Heirloom. And I'm confident to say all of their smoked meats such as pulled pork, brisket, chicken, turkey, ribs, etc., all taste very good. Their chicken and turkey seem underrated. Most people go for the fatty goodness of pork or brisket, and who can blame them? But their smoked birds taste equally as good.

They offer 3 types of American styled BBQ sauces: table, kitchen, and settler sauce. But I pick KB sauce–AKA Korean BBQ sauce–as my favorite. The KB sauce tastes sweet and spicy. Although I noticed some of my non-adventurous American friends think it tastes a bit weird. If you feel adventurous, however, you should try it.

The sides used to be their weak point when they opened, but they have improved. Now their sides taste awesome. Some of the sides have that blatant Korean influence such as Korean sweet potatoes, tempura sweet potatoes, kimchi cole slaw, and others. 

I think Chef Jiyeon has a secret plan to convert all traditional, Southern Americans to eat Korean food. I think it's working.

Half a rack of ribs with kimchi cole slaw.

Pulled pork with tempura sweet potatoes.

Chopped brisket with tempura sweet potatoes. Tempura sweet potatoes seem quite popular.

Pulled pork, bratwurst, and Korean sweet potatoes.

One of the few weakness I find for this place is the small space. They have a moderate-sized comunal table in the middle and some bars to sit on. I think they can sit about 12-15 people. That's about it. Lunch time can be killer. You will not have a place to sit during lunch unless you come at 11 AM or come past 2 PM. They need to figure something out for the space issue. It may turn into another Antico with people eating standing up and the parking lot filling up. Heck, it's already like that. The good thing is, I don't think they'll get obnoxious as Antico since Chef Cody and Jiyeon (and Jackie) are very cool people. 

Another weakness is their burgers. They taste mediocre. I think they tried to be fancy with their burgers adding all sorts of flavorings to it. I like my burgers juicy, simple, and with a great meaty taste. Although I have talked to some customers there who think they have the best burgers in the world. I think they're smoking crack, but hey, it's their opinion. 

You can definitely tell the passion of Chef Cody and Chef Jiyeon for BBQ, cooking, and food. I feel the food is a great value too. One entree can definitely stuff you silly with protein. This is probably one of my favorite restaurants in Atlanta. Mr. Kitty gives this place 5 paws up.

Heirloom Market BBQ

2243 Akers Mill Rd Ste 110

Atlanta, GA 30339

http://www.heirloommarketbbq.com/

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/

Bocado or Bocadon't?

I forgot to take pictures again, so I'm going use pictures from Foodspotting.

The Burger

I tried their famous burger they copied from Holeman and Finch. They even used the same Holeman and Finch bun and the cuts of meat. Holeman and Finch's burgers taste awesome, does Bocado's compare? Kinda. Bocado's version seemed like a poor man's version of Holeman and Finch's burger. 

First, the burger wasn't very juicy; it seemed a bit dry. Also, they didn't have the red onions. I think the onions are essential since they add a lot of texture and flavor to the burger. So I felt like the burger was missing something. Their ketchup wasn't homemade like H&F's either. The patties seemed smaller too, perhaps about 3 oz each instead of 4 oz.

I dunno, I didn't get the OMG WTF, THIS IS AWESOME!!!11! feeling as when I first bit into a H&F burger. Maybe since I had the H&F so much I became jaded. They meat did taste decent and they seasoned it well with salt. It's not a bad burger, but not H&F quality in my opinion.

I also didn't care much about the fries either. They just felt too greasy to eat. 

A poor man's version of H&F burger

The Famous Lobster Roll

I also tried the lobster roll. It came with a small bowl of tomato bisque. This dish seemed special since they only serve it on Saturdays. The lobster rolls didn't live up to expectations to me. It tasted good, but not mind-blowingly good.

I think my problem was the lemon zest that I wasn't expecting. I was expecting more of a buttery lobster instead of a cold, lemony lobster. I never had lobster roll, so I didn't know what to expect. A lot of people I know loved it though. So maybe I'm just weird.

I did like the tomato bisque that it came with. It didn't seem heavy like regular tomato bisques. It tasted very light and refreshing. I don't think Bocado used heavy cream in the tomato bisque. I heard they used wine instead.

Overrated Lobster roll, underrated tomato bisque

The Real Star of Bocado

The highlight of my meal wasn't the famous burger or the lobster roll, it was the roasted pablano, pimento cheese, fried green tomato, and bacon sandwich. The combination of those ingredients made this sandwich into pure, Southern style magic. I would go back to Bocado just for that sandwich.

Forget the burger, just get this.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I wasn't too impressed with Bocado. I guess I got caught up with the hype of the burger and the lobster roll. I should come back and try their other stuff, maybe there's some hidden gem in their menu–like their pimento cheese sandwich.

I did learn that H&F makes good bread. The lobster rolls and the burgers used H&F bread. And the bread seemed high quality and had a good taste to it. I need to find some of these H&F breads for my own burgers and sandwiches. Mr. Kitty gives this place 3 paws up.

Bocado Atlanta
887 Howell Mill Road
Atlanta, GA 30318
http://www.bocadoatlanta.com/