Casa Vieja is one of metro Atlanta's oldest and most well-known Colombian restaurants. Having opened in the 1980s, it's perhaps the oldest authentic Colombian restaurant in town. You can find it on Shallowford Rd in Doraville, very close to Buford Highway and not far from I-285. Casa Vieja's storefront stands out in a dumpy strip mall that's also home to Batavia (Indonesian market and restaurant).
Casa Vieja is similar to La Casona and Las Delicias de La Abuela. All three are Colombian restaurants that are located within a mile of one another. Each has good food and service in a casual and festive atmosphere. I can't say I prefer one place over another. To differentiate, here are three things that make Casa Vieja different:
1. Casa Vieja is the oldest and most established.
2. Casa Vieja closes the earliest: 7pm (Sunday-Thursday), 9pm (Friday-Saturday).
3. Casa Vieja has the best service (though I should reiterate I think all three restaurants have good service; Casa Vieja just has the best).
The restaurant is showing its age. The interior is painted with the colors of the Colombian flag (yellow, blue, red). It's got an outdoor "cowboy" sort of theme with horse-riding equipment mounted on the walls (written above the entrance to the restrooms is "pesebreras" which is Spanish for stables) and facades and awnings designed to look like homes or storefronts you might typically see in Colombia. The place is dark and dingy in some spots and there are old-school ceiling tiles, some of which have mold and/or water stains.
There's a bar, TVs (they host soccer match viewings), a disco mirror ball, and a ceiling-mounted projector which leads one to believe they've hosted a party or two. The dining room has about a half-dozen booths and a bunch of four-top tables. I guesstimate seating capacity to be about 90 people. Tables can easily be combined for large groups. The dining room connects to the market next door, Mi Tienda.
The menu features Colombian appetizers and snacks like patacones con hogao (fried green plantains with Colombian Creole sauce, $4.50) and arepas (Colombian corn cakes with steak or chicken, $6.75 each). They offer over a dozen meat-filled entrees from higado encebollado (grilled liver with sauteed onions, $10.50) to costilla de cerdo frita (fried pork ribs, $10.50). They've got seafood (e.g. shrimp cocktail, fried mojarra; $9.95-13.99 each) and a couple Mexican dishes as well (tacos, fajitas), plus weekend specials. Examples of weekend specials include sancocho de costilla (beef rib soup, $11.25; Saturday only) and mondongo Colombiano (beef tripe soup, $9.50; Sunday only). Desserts include items such as postre de natas (Colombian-style milk pudding, $3.95) and postre de maracuya (passion fruit dessert, $3.75).
They also have a respectable non-alcoholic beverage selection that includes a decent variety of juices (mango, blackberry, guava, soursop, etc.) for only $2.50 each, an assortment of Colombian-brand sodas for only $1.50 each, and aguapanela ($1.50), a drink made from hardened sugarcane juice. Generally, I think the prices are reasonable.
I tried a few dishes and enjoyed everything. Overall, I thought the food was comforting and filling. The portion sizes were generous.
My favorite dish, which is one of Casa Vieja's most popular, was the bandeja paisa ($11.95). It's popular in Colombian cuisine because it comes with a nice mix of food. It's meat and carb heavy -- rice, beans, grilled steak (carne asada), deep-fried pork skin (chicharron), pork sausage, a fried egg, a corn cake (arepa), plantains, and avocado. For the price paid, the platter is a good value. While the quality of the ingredients wasn't the best (both the carne asada and the chicharron were a little tough and the plantains could have been a bit sweeter), ultimately, I found the platter to be tasty and satisfying enough. The rice and beans hit the spot.
A "mini" bandeja paisa is available for $9.75. The menu doesn't specify what the difference between the mini and the regular bandeja paisa is. The mini is portioned smaller and doesn't include sausage.
Two other dishes I tried and would recommend are the pollo a la criolla (chicken thigh in Colombian Creole sauce, $10.50) and the sobrebarriga a la criolla con papa y yuca (flank steak in Colombian Creole sauce with potato and cassava, $11.95). The Colombian Creole sauce is known as hogao and it's made with a slow-cooked tomato and green onion base plus other spices and ingredients. The pollo a la criolla and the sobrebarriga a la criolla are almost the same. They're served in identical black iron bowls and the meat, chopped potatoes, and cassava root are served as sort of a stew made with the hogao. These are hot, hearty, and substantial entrees; the kind that stick to your ribs. The chicken thigh is served bone-in. The chicken was quite tender and I preferred it to the slices of flank steak which were somewhat chewy. Both come with rice, a side salad, and avocado. read more