I honestly feel like King Midas! EVERY RESTAURANT I've visited lately has been gold, but this may be the jackpot!
Something may seriously be wrong with me, because I'm never this easy to please! But dish after dish, and restaurant after restaurant has just been knocking it out of the park! Of course, that does have something to do with finding them on this fabulous website I know of called Yelp! Heard of it? They can not only get you to the right restaurant, but they can get you to the right people that write the right reviews for the right restaurant, telling you everything you want to know about what to order! So let me do my part:
THE EXPERIENCE
The inside reminds me of a communal dining area of a really cool airport. Airport Schiphol in Amsterdam, Netherlands to be exact. It has both a vastness to it and a cozy intimacy. Seating is cleverly broken up with carefully places dividers while the bar area sits facing the open kitchen. On crowded days, bar seating will reduce or eliminate your wait time. On this day, the hostess that greeted me also became my server. Vanessa took good care of me! Being that it was my first time, she carefully explained to me how to fill out the ordering form and walked me through the menu, which looks like a magazine.
The front of the magazine introduces you to the chef/owner while each page thereafter has full page pictures of the menu items and descriptions. Each menu item also has a number that corresponds with the numbers on the ordering sheet. Simply locate what you want and write down the quantity. It was a fairly busy evening, with a wait time of 15 minutes, but my food came out faster than I expected.
A copy of the magazine is located online. Check out what I'm talking about. It is a very cool way to present a menu: https://www.foodterminal.com/menu/
THE FOOD
~ NS01 - SZECHUAN GARLIC BONE MARROW SOUP (4 stars) | $12.95
Although there is a pepper next to the number indicating it is spicy, I didn't think it was spicy at all (and I'm not a spicy food eater). Two bones with fragments of meat and loaded with bone marrow sit in the rich white broth that looks and tastes like ramen. Not sure what the difference is, but for all practical purposes it was ramen to me. Also included were thin noodles, seaweed, spring onions, a soft-boiled egg and 5-spice pork belly. The pork belly is sooooo friggin' good! Totally took an already good soup up another level. I wasn't expecting it to be that flavorful and meaty. [recommended]
~ RP02 - BEEF RENDANG (5 stars) | $6.95
I don't know what I was expecting, but I did not expect it to be this good! Undeniably savory flavor and my favorite menu item so far. [HIGHLY recommended]
~ TN02 - KARI CHICKEN w/noodles (4.5 stars) | $9.25
It came down to a choice between the Kari Chicken noodles and the Kari Chicken soup. I decided on the noodles so as to try the Garlic Bone Marrow soup instead. A deliciously seasoned curry boneless chicken thigh, thin noodles, springer onions, bean sprouts, fried shallot and a fried egg dance inside your mouth like they are at a Prince concert rocking to the song 1999. First bit will easily make you a believer! I certainly felt motivated, almost delighted enough to get up and sing Purple Rain right there from my bar stool. But I restrained myself! [recommended]
~ STICKY RICE w/vanilla ice cream (4 stars) @ $5
One of my favorite treats, except I abandoned the mango's in favor of the ice cream. On my second visit I chose the mango & coconut milk, which I would give 5 stars! [recommended]
THE ATMOSPHERE/AMBIANCE
Lively and big enough to host a group or large party, yet intimate enough to have a conversation without screaming. I love the openness of the kitchen and how the staff resembles worker ants in a colony. In and out of the kitchen area with great efficiency, always carrying something as they strive to serving the queen... which in this case is the customer.
I saw one of the female servers wrap her arms around the waist of one of the males as if she was about to collapse. She held him long enough to get a hug in return and that seemed to be enough to get her moving again. I must say, I like seeing such teamwork and comradery.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I don't know what I did to deserve discovering so many great places to take my family out for a meal or my wife on a date night, but I feel very blessed. There are so many ethnic food options along the Buford Highway corridor that it sometimes seems impossible to decide. There are literally excellent choices within a stone's throw, but for me, Food Terminal will rank as one of my top choices. Do your taste buds a favor and dine here!
SIDE NOTE: Of course could not eat all of what I ordered, so I had substantial leftovers of everything. The Garlic Bone Marrow soup was even better the following day reheated. Typically noodle soups don't reheat well, but this one did. Just remember to heat the noodles and egg separately from the broth.
2018/29 read more