It is always a pleasure to visit new restaurants in the Atlanta area that have a bright future ahead of them, especially when those restaurants wont break a college budget and are close enough to school that going out to eat doesn’t become a big chore.
Milk & Honey, a restaurant in West Midtown located at 1082 Huff Road (off of Howell Mill), reopened recently and is now under new management as of about two weeks ago.
Although the location is a bit unusual, as it is near a few industrial zones, the area seems to be building up quickly with new apartments and homes.
The new menu combines Asian and Spanish inspired tapas to create a very unique and eclectic dinner menu. The restaurant’s new chef, Sammy Davis, who has previously been employed at restaurants such as Dupri’s and Rare in the Atlanta area, puts a spicy new spin on tapas.
Milk & Honey has been renovated to include a full bar and now has a wine list along with daily drink specials.
Since tapas are generally bought in multiples and then shared among the entire party, Milk & Honey offers a daily three for $15 tapas special (which is extremely reasonable considering the exceptional food quality).
The dinner menu offers more than twenty different tapas options to choose from, as well as numerous sides (offered at three for $8) and a daily dessert selection. I sampled several different menu items, all of which were fantastic.
First to arrive at the table were the Beef Wontons, filled with cream cheese, beef and cilantro and served with a chilé dipping sauce. These were an obvious fusion of Spanish and Asian cuisine. Not only was the dish display extremely appealing, but they tasted phenomenal.
Next, I sampled the Quesadillas, and while this menu item is traditionally very plain and very simple, they had an obvious, spicy Spanish flair. The chef started with spinach tortillas and filled them with cheese (as is usually done), along with scallions, cilantro, tomatoes, lettuce and shrimp, and they were drizzled with a spicy sauce.
Fried green tomatoes, listed on the menu simply as Green Tomatoes also made it on the list. These are a traditionally southern dish, so naturally I was pleased to get the opportunity to try Davis’s take on them. They were pretty standard, but that same spicy sauce that had been on the Quesadillas made it on the Green Tomatoes as well. Yum!
My favorite dish, by far, was the Fish Tacos. These were served on crunchy wonton shells, rather than being wrapped in a flour tortilla or regular taco shell, and were topped with the usual lettuce and tomatoes. The wonton shell made the dish feel like something that would be served at a party, which gave the tacos a little something extra, almost as though the chef had invited you into his home and served you some wonderful finger-foods. I am quite fond of fish tacos, so it was great to eat them in a new way.
Besides adding a full bar, changes including redecorating and painting have brought new life and personality to Milk & Honey, both perfect when giving a restaurant a second chance. The walls have been painted with original murals by one of Tech’s own students, Industrial Design major and Milk & Honey employee, Victoria Do.
The restaurant’s hours of operation are 11 a.m. – 11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 a.m. – 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday.
After visiting the restaurant and getting a good feel for it, I can certainly foresee Milk & Honey becoming a new “hot spot” in the Midtown area, as it comes complete with a cozy loft that will be used for housing a private party or a DJ at future restaurant events.
Milk & Honey is very close to campus (and parking is free!), so students can easily make the short drive to enjoy the delicious tapas and atmosphere that Milk & Honey has to offer.