Restaurant Review: Pittypat's Porch

So I realized I haven't been doing restaurant reviews, which may be a disservice to people randomly searching on google, but not really to most people who read this blog but are from out of town.  But if you ever come to Atlanta and want "Southern" food, I have a recommendation: Pittypan's Porch.

This week is downtown restaurant week.  After going over the menus several times, a friend and I decided to go to Pittypat's Porch for dinner, which is good Southern food.  I'm often not aware of the fact that I'm in the south except for the accents and people calling me "ma'am" or strangers calling me "honey" or "sweetheart."  But we walked into Pittypat's Porch and I knew I was in the south.  And it felt like the old south (or all this northern girl's images of the old south), the glasses were pewter, the service was beyond friendly, it was big and welcoming.  And the restaurant week entitles us to an appetizer, main course and dessert.  Also, the entrees came with the salad bar (and unlimited muffins/biscuits/cornbread).  This was a nice start with lots of southern favorites (pickled watermelon rind, my friend identified for me, hoppin' john, pickled okra, etc).  There were only two appetizer options: gumbo and black eyed pea cakes.  We decided to split both.  The gumbo was probably the most disappointing part of the meal, but still okay.  It was salty, but spicy.  The seafood in it was limited, which I appreciate, but I also only got one piece of sausage, so that was pretty limited too.  The black eyed pea cakes, however, were delicious and made me want to go home and try to make them.  I haven't yet, but maybe next week, when I'm home studying.  They were served in a nice peach and tomato sauce.

Somewhere around this point the server came by with a basket of muffins, cornbread, and biscuits.  He encouraged us to take at least one of each.  I stuck to one of each, all of which were very good.  The cornbread was a little dry but soaked up the gumbo broth well.  It's also worth noting that I do not think we were ever without food on the table.  The appetizers were there before we got back from the salad bar.  As soon as we finished the appetizers and munched on biscuits a little, our entrees arrived.  We both ordered ribs, which were steaming and coated in pretty amazing barbecue sauce.  They came with some zucchini and squash cut thin which were very bland but kind of mixed into the barbecue sauce.  They weren't anything special, but they weren't really designed to be.  The ribs also came with mashed sweet potatoes, which tasted good (exceptionally sweet) and had a almost candy like consistency.  I couldn't place what gave them that texture, but had to stop eating them after a few very small bites due to their richness.  A snuck a bite later and realized they were made with cream cheese, which explained why I just couldn't eat them.  But the ribs were so good and satisfying (though at this point I had already had quite a bit of food) that they didn't really need good sides.  And of course the cornbread went to good use again, mopping up leftover barbecue sauce.  The waiter brought us boxes (one without even asking, but we requested another) and then a little cup of gumbo to take home as well as more bread to take home.  Yes, at this point we had consumed a ton of food, and were being given MORE to take home.

Then it was time for dessert.  We ordered key lime pie, which was more like key lime cheesecake, so I wasn't a huge fan, and peach cobbler with cinnamon ice cream, which was of course, very good, but nothing earth changing.  Then again, we were very full at this point and so nothing tasted quite as good as it would have if we had been hungrier.

Altogether, it was great experience (and a great deal).  We consumed tons of food and brought a lot more home.  And the service was exceptionally friendly.   Definitely verified this concept of "Southern Hospitality" I've heard of but never have really been in a position to experience.  Like I said, this is a good place to eat southern food in Atlanta.