Cypress Street Pint and Plate, you let me down. I’m the go to person in my group for restaurant / bar recommendations and without giving it a second thought recommended Cypress Street Pint and Plate in Midtown for a recent group outing. I had been to Cypress Street Pint and Plate before, and thought the food, service and atmosphere were all decent. Did I mention we were taking an out-of-towner here?

I’m guessing this must be an after work crowd that frequents Cypress Street Pint and Plate, because for a Saturday night, it wasn’t nearly as crowded as I would have expected it to be. It was by no means deserted, just not very crowded for a midtown pub.

If you’ve not been to Cypress Street Pint and Plate, there is the centrally located bar which is surrounded by booths that would accommodate groups of 4 to 6. There is another room off to the side that accommodates large groups, which we were seated in. It was absolutely FREEZING in here the entire evening. Most of us kept our coats on the entire time as it was too cold to take them off. Not exactly how you want to spend the evening. And I don’t know what was going on with the smell but there was a highly offensive smell on one side of the room (like a baby’s diaper). And there weren’t any babies or kids in the restaurant.

Cypress Street Pint and Plate’s beer selection is ok, but by no means the quality of say a Taco Mac or Porter Bar, but not bad I suppose. Along with about 9 beers regularly on tap and a selection of beers by the bottle, Cypress Street also offers 5 beers on tap that change out weekly. They have a menu of these on their website, but it is not updated regularly, and neither is the food menu. Of the 5 beers that were on the list, they were out of the one and only that I and several others in the group had our eye on – the Tommyknocker Imerpial Nut Brown Ale, made with chocolate and maple syrup. I settled on the Left Hand Stout, a dark, milky beer which I’d had before. Good choice if you want something with a slightly coffee finish to it.

We started out with some appetizers – french fries, onions rings and hummus. The price is small and so are the portions. Five bucks each for both of these options. Don’t worry about filling up on these if you are in a group, it’s just not gonna happen. You are really better off saving your $ and ordering sandwiches or entrees rather than apps. Sandwiches come with your choice of a side and are plenty filling.

The food seems to be reasonable, except for their highly touted meatball sliders. These were awful! I forced myself to eat 2 but just couldn’t eat the third, it was disgusting. The description sounds so good – meatballs (how do you screw those up?), caesar dressing, arugula, parmasean cheese. The taste (which I find difficult to articulate) was terrible and at 9 bucks for 3, hardly a bargain.

Really none of the sliders are are bargain. I’ve also had the buffalo chicken sliders and although these were tasty, I just don’t feel justified the $3 a piece. It would be nice if you could mix and match as they have cod, shrimp and chicken as well, but unfortunately you must order 3 of the same for $9.

Others had burgers and sandwiches which I sampled and thought were quite good. The Philly Cheesesteak, Maytag Burger, and Chicken Picatta Sandwich were the highlights of the evening. At about $9 a piece these are a better value as the sandwiches alone offer more in terms of meat / filling than a slider and sandwiches include a side.

So, it wasn’t all bad. The service was actually pretty good. When we arrived for our 8 PM reservation and our table was all set up. They don’t take reservations unless you have 8 or more in your party. We had 10. Now, here’s one thing I have to give Cypress Street props for. Although it clearly states they don’t do separate checks for large parties, our server gladly volunteered to do that without us even having to ask. I don’t know about you, but it is a pain in the arse to separate out what your share is from a large check, especially after you’ve been drinking all night. Kudos to them for doing this.

817 W Peachtree St
Atlanta, GA 30308
404 815 9243
Website

But I had a meeting and my dining partner suggested we dine at the newly opened 5 Seasons Westside location and enjoy their rooftop deck with the beautiful views of the Atlanta Skyline. Great choice, or so I thought.

I arrived early and not being exactly sure about which beer I wanted (the offerings differ from the Prado location) I started questioning our server. I can’t quote verbatim what she said to me but it was something to the effect of she wasn’t really a beer drinker, so she wasn’t really good at recommending beers. Ok, so I understand beer isn’t everybody’s thing, but if you are gonna work at a restaurant that brews beers, shouldn’t ya at least know a little about the beers?

She did offer to bring me some samples, the first a Belgian white beer named Venus that was a little too bitter for me, and the second, was a sweeter beer, GA Peach Wheat, with peach bits in it. Although it sounds strange, it was actually quite good and not overly sweet as one might suspect.

5 Seasons Aligator Eggrolls

Next we were ready to order food. I knew I wanted the alligator egg rolls immediately. What is it with me and these strange egg rolls lately? The egg rolls were perfect with a good amount of alligator meat and cabbage, complete with a crispy shell. And the special soy dipping sauce was an excellent compliment. However, these were like 2 large egg rolls sliced in half. Not sure if I would want to pay the $8 price tag again.

5 Seasons Fish N Chips

For mains, I struggled to pick something out. I truly love the Granny Serrano pizza (pizza with apples, ham and onions). But thought I should order something different. My dining companion went with the fish and chips- cod and fries. I asked a couple questions about the menu but again, our server seemed clueless. My eyes came across a rabbit entree that said “rabbit chilaquiles” which I hadn’t heard of. I asked our server who had no idea and didn’t look like she cared to find out either.

5 Seasons Rabbit

So, I took my chances with this rabbit dish. I looked up the dish online later and found that chilaqulies are actually a quite common Mexican dish, though not often served with rabbit. The traditional dish would be tortillas cut into pieces a fried, which would then be served topped with a red or green salsa, with shredded chicken or pork on top and some sour cream.

However, this meal was a twist on that because it tasted like there wasn’t a sauce per se, but a spicy sweet potato mash atop the chips, which was then topped with the rabbit. I liked the first few bites, but the soggy chips on the bottom of the plate just weren’t appealing after more than a couple bites. I later found that this dish is especially great for the use of stale chips – good to know!

But the cod that my companion had was thoroughly enjoyable. And the fries were tasty too – albeit a tad less crispy than I would have preferred. At this point, we knew better than to ask for a recommendation on dessert. We ordered the fried ice cream. It turned out to be very good, even if it did take them about 15 minutes to get it to us.

5 Seasons Fried Ice Cream Dessert

I think the food could be better and they definitely need to work on educating their servers. But, I’m not ready to dismiss 5 Seasons yet, I think there’s still hope for them.

1000 Marietta St.
Atlanta, GA 30318
404 875 3232
Website

As far as the crowd, Keegan’s seems to be a mix of young and older, very different from the crowd at Bailey’s up the street which is mostly young and rowdy college kids. This is surprising, given the fact that Kennesaw State University is not far away.

Now the first time I visited Keegan’s I just had a couple beers myself and found the service to be prompt and courteous. My friend had a cup of soup, and thought the quality of was good, the portion was pretty small for the price tag.

On this most recent visit, food seemed promising but ultimately was somewhat of a disappointment. Two of us out of our party of three began with a cup of the Mulligan’s stew. This stew is a mixture of lamb, onions, potatoes and carrots. It is pretty hearty and a cup offers a generous portion of lamb. And at $3.95 per cup it is a great value. You can also get a bowl for $6. If you visit, don’t miss this.

So far so good. I wanted to go with something small as the stew was pretty filling, so I ordered the Irish Egg rolls. Unlike traditional egg rolls, these are wontons filled with cabbage, swiss cheese and corned beef. They also come with thousand island dipping dressing on the side. Very reubenesque.

What a mistake it was to get these! I would tell you how the corned beef tasted but I can’t because the tiny specs they put in there were dwarfed by the cabbage and swiss cheese. I wish I had been able to take a pictures, as no one would believe how pathetic the offering of corned beef was. Although the wonton was crispy, the lack of corned beef left the eggroll unbalanced and was a huge letdown. It is too bad because the idea is a good one- but the actual execution is a failure. As I sit here writing this post, my stomach is punishing me for this meal selection.

Glen ordered the fish tacos for his entree. I’m puzzled as to why Keegan’s lists this an an appetizer, as it is clearly an entree. The portion is large with 3 overstuffed fish tacos. And when I think of appetizers I think of sharing, and these aren’t for sharing. But I digress, the cod was cooked well and there was plenty in each taco. It also comes with a side of tomatoes and onions. Glen went for mouthful and promptly spit them back out – they were rancid. How disgusting.

We also had Glen’s daughter with us and she ordered Shepherd’s pie. Well, actually I’m getting ahead of myself. She really wanted to order the corned beef and cabbage, but was told it was only offered on Sundays, even though it is on the main menu. Ok, so an Irish pub that only has corned beef and cabbage one day of the week, that’s interesting.

So, she settled for the Shepherd’s pie in stead. She only had a couple bites and was not overly impressed. I tasted it as well and thought it was solid, except for the swiss cheese on top. I wasn’t expecting that.

Overall, there are some winners in the mix on this menu, but there are some clear losers as well. However, the service is friendly and reliable. So, although some of the offerings were less than stellar, I would still visit Keegan’s Irish Pub again.

1625 Ridenour Pky NW
Kennesaw, GA 30152
678-213-2460
Website

Me and my friend Ted visited Melton’s late afternoon on a Saturday, when it was like 100 degrees outside. You know those days, when its so hot and humid and you’re running around here and there. And all of a sudden you realize you are starving.

So, we pulled into Melton’s App and Tap and nothing sounded better than getting a beer. I have to love any place that has my most favorite beer ever – Chimay. So we ordered that and ordered the fried ravioli. I don’t know if it was really that good or if I was just that hungry. But I remember it being the best fried ravioli I’ve ever had.

Judging be the crowd that was staring to get there as we were leaving, the place does a pretty good business. Service was attentive and prices are very reasonable.

They have a couple specials – Tuesday nights kids eat free and on Thursday nights there are 25% off appetizers after 9 pm.

MELTON’S APP & TAP
2500 N. Decatur Road
Decatur, GA 30033
404-634-9112
Website

I wish they had all the bars like Twisted Taco that they do now when I was in college 10 years ago. Of course, I think I would have enjoyed them a lot more than I do now too. Don’t get me wrong, I have a good time hanging out at Twisted Taco once in a blue moon. I just get annoyed with the fact that they never seem to have servers for the tables, so while you are sitting on the deck relaxing, you are forced to get up and go to the bar if you want a drink. Speaking of drinks, the beer selection at Twisted Taco is really good, they even give Taco Mac up the street a run for their money.

I’ve never tried the food, but it does look pretty enticing with names like The Wyatt Earp and The Treasure of Sierra Madre – Crispy fried chicken, jack cheese, lettuce, salsa and jalapeno mayo. Looking forward to trying that one next time I visit.

2606 George Busbee Pkwy N
Kennesaw, GA 30144
(678) 324-5040
Twisted Taco