Background on Atlanta Restaurants

As part of my trip to Atlanta, I did much research on Chowhound, Yahoo travel, and numerous guide books for recommendations on good restaurants nearby. I knew I wanted to eat at places serving food I couldn't get back home. That meant I was going to avoid sophisticated restaurants serving contemporary food -those are pretty much the same everywhere-. That also meant I'd avoid most cuisines from particular countries like Mexico, Thailand, India, Japan, etc. -- I couldn't imagine Atlanta having better renditions of those cuisines than I can find in the bay area. (My research, although it pointed out good restaurants of each of those types, generally seemed to support this conclusion.) Thus, Southern cooking was the main style of food left on my list. Thus, I was seeking comfort/soul food like fried chicken and barbecue.

 

I occasionally found myself violating my policies by heading to some non-Southern restaurants, mostly because I can get sick of eating fried food.

 

Context for this Particular Restaurant

I was in the mood for some more interesting, ethnic dining. I went to Surin of Thailand because it received the greatest number of positive reviews from chowhounds.

http://www.surinofthailand.com/

 

Surin of Thailand Review

 

Surin of Thailand served me disappointing not really Thai food, made better by an attentive and generous bartender.

 

I ordered a snapper. Judging from the menu description, I expected something pan-seared. Instead, I got several heavily breaded chunks of snapper, pan-fried like fried chicken. It was a very Southern presentation. I'd normally appreciate the not-too-sweet lemongrass sauce but in this context made the breading soggy and thus made the snapper worse.

 

With dinner, I tried two glasses of wine:

• Rosemount Estate Traminer/Riesling: sweet, light, fruity. No aroma. Cool aftertaste.
• Ventana Gewurztraminer: tart. No aroma.

 

As I sat at the bar, the bartender served me drinks and acted as my waiter. He was generous in allowing me to taste sips of other wines by the glass on the menu before deciding what I wanted to order. Further, he was generous in topping off my glass of wine at no extra charge. He was also astute, noticing me taking notes and requested I make a note of how attentive he is.

  

Surin of Thailand definitely has a young, hip vibe. It's the place cool people go.

 

From the exterior, however, one wouldn't have guessed its stylishness.

 

My entree cost $16.