Kosher Food and Drink

Real life has been a bear, and work has been sending me to not-such-exotic locales which don’t have kosher restaurants. Thus, my restaurant review output lately has been anemic.

However, I did have the chance to go to Atlanta recently and sample several of their kosher offerings. My first review is of Formaggio Mio (2157 Briarcliff Rd NE, Atlanta, GA 30329; phone (678) 973-0360; formaggiomio.com; under Atlanta Kosher Commission (AKC) supervision; dairy), which is located in the Toco Hills neighborhood near a couple of other kosher establishments.

Formaggio Mio’s location is convenient for the Jewish community (even if you’re out in Dunwoody or one of the other neighborhoods), and parking is readily available. The parking is on a giant hill, which was somewhat uncomfortable, but this is the choice of the shopping center, not the restaurant. The outside of the restaurant is appealing, and makes it easy to find.

Inside is something of a mixed bag. There’s a lot of seating, and the tables are surprisingly well-decorated. However, the floor is unfinished and somewhat atrocious in my opinion. I’m not sure why I keep running into restaurants that ignore this detail (see my review of Genesis from back in the days when it was kosher), but I personally hate it. The ceiling is open industrial style, which I also don’t love, but don’t feel as viscerally about.

Service style is sit-down, and it felt rather chaotic. Our party of five was seated quickly, but it took longer than I’d like to actually make our orders. The cups were all chintzy small plastic affairs, which I thought was somewhat surprising for the service style. Water was served in pitchers, which suited me.

Of course, food is what really makes or breaks a restaurant most of the time, and we tried a relatively wide selection. For an appetizer, we tried the mozarella sticks. These are the store bought ones you know and love, but they did a fine job on the prep, with good crunch and minimal escaped cheese.

For the mains, we went with a personal pizza, khachapuri, eggplant spaghetti, baked ziti, and pasta primavera, along with a side of cheesy fries.

I ordered the khachapuri, and here’s what I got:

Let me be very upfront: this is not khachapuri, because it’s not a boat format. It’s a sauceless pizza with egg, tomatoes, and olives on top. The funny thing is, for what it was, it was pretty good. They got the poached eggs spot on, the vegetables were fresh, and the crust was possibly some of the better crust I’ve had at any kosher pizzeria. But calling this khachapuri is simply wrong, and they either need to put the effort in to do it right, or maybe call it something else.

Enough of that nitpicking. Here’s the other food items:

I tried some of the rest, and it was tasty! I didn’t find the pasta dishes to be any particular revelation, but they were competently executed. Notice that there is actually some attention given to presentation and plating, which was appreciated.

Pricing is reasonable, but not cheap. That is the reality of kosher dining these days. We wound up having to go the cash register to pay up due to no one hitting our table for the check – not sure if that was the intent or not.

If I were going to sum Formaggio Mio up, I’d say the food was good, but I wasn’t wow’d by much else. If you’re in Atlanta and want to go out for dairy food, it’s a decent enough choice for family and friends, especially if it’s for a pizza run.