Livingston

Located in the Historical Georgian Terrace Hotel on Peachtree Rd, Livingston restaurant was elegant and suprisingly delicious. While we dined in the main room, we were seated facing the entrance to the Fox Theatre which highlighted the schedule of events for the next 4 months including Lady GaGa and Jason Derulo on December 28th and 29th. Too bad i will be in Hong Kong stuffing myself with more food.

My mom ordered the theatre menu, a 3 course meal for $29. She ordered the african squash soup, beef short ribs and praline chocolate mouse tart. Once again the soup, which i also ordered was the star, smooth in texture sprinkled with candied pumpkin seeds. A close second was my main course (actually an appetizer) of peekytoe crab salad, tossed with fresh mint, granny smith apples, lemon, watercress and crispy apple chips. Livingston was recently voted best new restaurant by Atlanta Magazine and i can understand why as it's refreshing flavors complements the historical hotel in which it is found.

Plate score: 9

Woodfire grill

Now that the semester has ended, i am back in atlanta for a couple more days and eating my way through the holidays! First stop after my flight landed last saturday was Woodfire grill in Midtown. The chef Kevin Gillespie was the runner up on Bravo's Top Chef Season 6. The food was solid with emphasis on grilled meat entrees. I must say the highlight was the actually the roasted root vegetable soup, perfectly diced celery root, potato, carrots swimming in a light and flavorful broth with braised kale and the bread basket with herb butter. Perfect starter. My mom had the roasted quail and pork belly entree while i had the roasted duck breast. Though i ordered it medium rare, it was closer to medium well :( Nevertheless the quality was still fantastic on both of our dishes. Dessert was 2 mini chocolate crepes filled with a mocha cream with a latte "broth" and streusel topping :)

Plate Score: 8