After some heavy craving for authentic Chinese food around Buford Highway, we decided to check out Bo Bo Garden located in the corner of Pinetree Shopping Center. My friends have been going here for years but for some reason, I never got around to check it out until now. If you’re looking for the authentic Chinese family style cuisine and not some bogus P.F. Chang, Bo Bo Garden should be the first spot to check out on your list. With an empty stomach and an appetite of a T-Rex, I was ready to put my game face on!

We were in the mood for some seafood so the best classic choice we picked was the salt & pepper squid. These babies were seasoned perfectly where you get a light crispy coating and still enjoy the tender pieces of the squid.

We can’t really have a feast without some pork thrown into the mix right? Since I honestly have a weak spot for fermented black beans, I decided to get that with spare ribs. We were greeted with the delightful pungent smell that hits our nostrils when we buried our face into that juicy pork. Delish.

Last dish that we ordered was the tofu & minced tofu with spicy sauce. Have a weak spot for spicy food? No worries, so do I and I didn’t feel any heat that made me questioned my judgment on ordering this awesome dish. The tofu is lightly fried with the sauce added in after that. Once the tofu lands in your mouth, you’ll be rewarded with that little sponge of heavenly flavors melting in your mouth instantaneously. I would definitely order this next time without a doubt.

Bo Bo Garden

After stumbling around the streets of East Atlanta at 12 AM, We finally found Octopus Bar that opens inside So Ba Vietnamese restaurant after they close up shop at 10:30 PM. Octopus Bar changes their menu daily to reflect what is available during the season and local market ingredients.

I decided to try out their salt and pepper shrimp with jalapeños, sweet onions and chili. The entire time I was expecting to get the dish with puny shrimps that wouldn’t be enough to satisfy my cravings. Once the plate landed on the table, I pretty much knew that my night was off to a good start. Don’t be fooled by the picture above, I actually ate some shrimps before I took this picture because I was starving. The shrimp was plump and juicy along with the other complementary ingredients that makes the dish even more perfect. I would definitely recommend getting this if you ever drop by.

Next we got ramen with pork and a soft boiled egg. What makes this dish special is that it doesn’t have any broth. It’s a soup-less dish with the ramen being seasoned after it’s cooked. The noodle itself is really salty, but once you combine the fatty pork and the richness of the egg, it makes the overall dish a bit more enjoyable.

Octopus Bar

One of my favorite Mexican restaurants has got to be El Torero. It started out in 1981 and now it has 8 locations in Georgia and Tennessee. El Torero is always packed but finding seats is never a challenge. With a large staff to cover the floors during the lunch rush, getting a speedy service is always guaranteed. You will be handed a giant menu that has every items and combinations you can think of. It’s nearly unthinkable to find a single dish that your taste buds wouldn’t like.

For less than 7 bucks, you can get the Speedy Gonzalez lunch special. The taco includes a generous amount of quality cheese that would knock you into a coma from overdosing. I opted for the rice instead of getting the beans. The rice was flavorful and moist so I didn’t regret my decision whatsoever. The beef enchilada with the sauce was pretty decent too but it tasted even better when you combine the sauce and the rice together in my opinion.

El Torero

Amazing Burger is a tiny Korean owned restaurant that sells sandwiches, wings, fried rices, Philly cheese steaks, and the most important of them all, burgers. Since it’s close to my office and I needed my dosage of grease, I decided to drop by Amazing Burger for lunch. It’s located on Old Norcross Road in front of Kroger so finding it wouldn’t be difficult but finding seats inside is a different story especially around lunch time. The food here are made to order so expect a 5-10 minutes wait.

I decided to try their classic single burger since they did name their restaurant Amazing Burger after all. If you want cheese, you’re going to pay an extra 50 cents since it doesn’t come with it.  The meat was flavorful and juicy but was a tad bit short on size when you’re comparing it to the humongous moist buns. I’ll order double patties next time for the perfect meat to bun ratio. I’m sure my arteries wouldn’t mind at all. Overall, the burger was a step up to McDonald’s.

The wings here are a bit on the tiny side. My go-to flavor for wings has always been lemon peppers. It’s a little disappointing knowing that they just fried the wings and just added a moderate among of dried seasoning and then calling it a day. It just didn’t hit the right spot for me.

Next up is the hot wings. The wings here has a decent amount of umph on the hot scale which does a great job of not putting me into tears like MJ Tacos.

Amazing Burger

There’s probably a good reason why they call this restaurant “Little” Bangkok since finding parking is next to impossible with its tiny parking lot where it sits right by the busy street of Cheshire Bridge. I have even seen a couple of people sitting in their car at the gas station next door waiting for diners to leave in order to take their parking spot. Daaaaang, this place must be that good. Once you’re inside, you’ll find that this place is pretty small and comfy so it’s easy to hear people conversations if you try hard enough (Please don’t). Along with having your obvious Thai dishes, they even have an extensive Chinese menu along with it.

After browsing through the menu, we couldn’t make a decision on what to get for our appetizer. We relied on our waiter for some recommendations and we ended up with some Thai dumplings to start our adventure. Meh. Just meh. My buddy and I weren’t that impress with our waiter choice. The Thai dumplings was rubbery and bland. Instead of using the sauce lightly to complement the flavors of the dumplings, we had to use a good among just to mask the boredom.

Penang curry chicken that I ordered did help me forget about the dumplings just for a little bit. The curry was rich and creamy but I wish they could just add a little bit more of it so I wouldn’t have to keep splashy my curry over the chicken and veggies to enjoy it. Overall, it’s not bad. But it could have been a lot better.

This is probably the only dish that stood out and prevented me from leaving in complete disappointment. The chicken and shrimp pad Thai was beyond good and it’s probably one of the best I had in Atlanta. It’s lightly sweet with the perfect among of sauce added to it. If I were to come back to Little Bangkok next time, this dish would be the first thing I would order.

Little Bangkok