Category Archives: Blogger Meetup

Last night, I met Tina for dinner at Ceviche.

The restaurant was located in Downtown Roswell, which is sort of in between my office and Tina’s house. I’d never really been to the Downtown area before (it’s like one street, basically) but it was really cute, with lots of restaurants and shops and stuff. Kind of what Downtown Tucker should be like, but probably never will.  Anyway.

Aside from the location, we decided to come here after spotting it on Scoutmob.  Here’s the thing with Scoutmob – it’s really great but it’s kind of a known thing that most of the restaurants who are on there are kind of looking for more patrons.  Sure, there will be an occasional popular place (and they do these hand-picked deals which is something totally different) but for the most part, it’s generally restaurants that aren’t that great.  At least, that’s what my most recent experiences have lead me to believe.

Ceviche was really small inside.  We were able to get a table right away but we were very, very close to the table next to us.  Also, I don’t know if you can tell from the picture above, but there were no blinds on the windows and the sun was streaming in – into my eyes.  I had to have Tina position her head in such a way that I could actually see.

There is no filter on that picture.  It’s the sun!  The chips and salsa were good.  Tina said she thought a good salsa was an indicator of a good meal.  Little did she know her theory wasn’t always correct!  Since the place was called Ceviche and offered several different types, I went with the ceviche sampler platter.  The menu was sort of hard to understand.  They had two sampler platters, one that said it was three bites and the other that said it was for sharing.  Our server said the bigger one was what I should get if I wanted it for my meal.  I chose scallop, tilapia and mahi.

I don’t think I’ve ever judged a restaurant on it’s food presentation before, but seriously?  A plate with some saltines?  At least put it in a pretty glass or something!  I know that ceviche is “cooked” in lime juice, but this tasted very, very heavily of lime.  It masked the flavor of the fish, which I didn’t like.  Lighter on the lime, guys.

Tina got the fish tacos in a lettuce wrap.  They offer all of their tacos in lettuce wraps, which I thought was pretty cool.  She said this was good, but all she could really taste was the chipotle sauce.

Ceviche, I wanted to like you, but I was just kind of underwhelmed.  Sorry.  It was a nice evening with Tina, though.

Last night, I went to dinner with some of my blogger friends.  We decided that we want to try an Ethiopian restaurant and I suggested Desta.  My friends Andrew and Katharine took me a couple years ago and I remembered it being good.  That said, I was a little nervous that no one else would like it and I would be forever scorned as “the one who picked the bad restaurant.”  This has happened before, though not with blogger friends (ahem, 5 Napkin Burger).

One thing that I really love about Atlanta is that though it’s full of trendy farm-to-table restaurants, it’s also full of authentic ethnic cuisine.  For whatever reason, I’ve found myself craving the latter lately.  I’m actually going to a Korean restaurant tomorrow night, but that’s another post.  Obviously, since I haven’t gone yet.  Also, I tend to forget which is the former and which is the latter.  The second is the latter, right?

I digress.

I called ahead and made reservations since there was a large group of us.  At first, they sat us at a table that was too small, but were able to move us to a bigger one.  In attendance were myself, Laura, Laura’s friend and regular guest blogger Kat, Heather, Alayna, Stacy and Heather and her boyfriend, who are visiting for the weekend from Tennessee.  And with that many bloggers in the place, no one remembered to get a group picture.  Fail.  I did get some pictures of the food however.

If you’ve never had Ethiopian food, the main thing to know is that traditionally you don’t use utensils.  Instead, you scoop up your food with a bread made of teff flour called Injera.  It kind of looks like towels, but tastes delicious.  (They will give you a fork if you ask though.)

Laura was looking up reviews while we were ordering and the Vegetarian Platter was mentioned several times.  I didn’t really know which of the dishes I’d like more than others, so I figured why not try them all?

I have no idea what any of this really is.  I think it’s something with chickpeas on the left, something with lentils next to it, and then a bunch of delicious tasting mysteries.  And a huge half jalapeno hiding in the back.  Several people ended up with this platter, Laura and Heather got the fish tibs and Alayna got the lamb tibs.  Everything was delicious, save for the Ethiopian wine that Laura and Kat ordered.  I didn’t taste it, but the consensus was that it tasted like vinegar.  Oh well, food made up for it, I hope.

Have you ever had Ethiopian food?