Revival

Well, the wait is over for the pouch's one reader on it's take on the new southern vittles by the red bearded beast of the popular dim sum house known as Gunshow. I'm not a big fan of Gunshow because everything that came out wasn't really Chinese food... I was bamboozled, I'm still baffled why they call it dim sum. I guess it's the same thing with the chicken in waffles at My Parents' Basement, anything the fuck goes to make it sound cooler than it is...
So, the old Harbor House Pub has been given an interior make over for Revival's future survival into the southern grub arena. One woulda thought they were gonna do a meat and three style concept but they decided to do a la carte with the option to upgrade to family style which I think it's a bit of a ripoff (it's like $45 per person or something outrageous like that for an entree and trimmings). They want to make you feel like you're having supper at his Gam-Gam's house if you choose the family style dinner. I rather just get a few cocktails and sample some of the grub, you just don't need to eat everything in one visit even though the menu is kinda limited. Alrighty then, let's see how much shit the pouch can stuff in it's fat facehole a la carte style.

Cornbread. A different take on the classic cornbread found everywhere else which was nice to see. It almost reminded me of a hand held french toast when it came out... That's because I'm a retard and think like one when it comes to food. This was a pretty tasty skillet cornbread... I don't know if you really need anymore butter on this because that cornbread was like 48% butter already. 

Hickory Smoked Local Greens, Fatback Fried Silver Queen Corn, Revival Mac n Cheese. The sides looked more interesting than the mains. This trio would be a good sampling on what they can do with the sides. The local greens were smoky which was nice but needed a bit more seasoning, it just tasted like soggy smoke. The corn was too pureed for me, it needed more texture because the silver queen has pretty good size kernels which I was expecting... It was more creamed style which I guess that's what they were aiming for since it's a la Gam-Gam style or is that Gum-Gum for the dentally challenged. The mac was pretty decent, smaller twisty pasta versus the common corkscrew mac everyone else uses. The cheese was thicker and less gooey which was acceptable but it coulda been browned a little more on top. The line cook making the mac looked like he was about to go postal any minute, like his father didn't give him enough love as a child... Spooning the mac n cheez mixture aimlessly into the ramekin like how an inmate cook slop the gruel on your tray at a prison cafeteria. It was quite amusing... Let it go, pal, your father can't hurt you anymore.

Wood Grilled Georgia Quail. My mind is always in the gutter so y'all know what I'm going to say before I even say it... These two dirty birds need to stop eating each other out, there's children in here. I have seen 70's porn cleaner than this. For a dish like this, I wouldn't use a flat plate, instead use a shallow bowl/dish thinger to keep all the sauce in one spot. This is just ugly plating, the brown juice swashing all over the place like they had the Hershey's squirts... Shit, it's almost like two birds and one plate. That's a porn I would watch. The quail is more tender than I thought it would be. It's seasoned well maybe a tad too salty for the more refined palate but shit, mofo, this is southern grub it's suppose to be salty, greasy and bad for you. For $18, I don't know if two little solo quails on a plate will do the trick as an entree... Those fuckers on Naked and Afraid would go apeshit over this on day 13, though.  But I wouldn't get this again...Even on day 20.

Revival Fried Chicken. I lurv fried cheekan but I heard it was just so-so in the beginning, that's the main reason why I waited until now to come here. Hoping the chicken got worked out for the better... Shit, 3 pieces for $13, mofo better be good. Maybe I should have waited longer to come here after it was put in front of my snout... It came out with a thick hard dark crust, no way Gam-Gam would be able to bite into this. The mix seemed to have a little tempura style in there based on the pattern the batter fried up. It's more a wet than dry batter. The crust is dark, too dark, almost knocking on burnt's door... Also, real salty. The brine is salty enough, so you don't need to season the the batter or the chicken after it comes out of the fryer. This was a borderline acceptable fried chicken (definitely not on any top 10 list as it stands) but when you tack on that $13 price tag, it makes it real difficult for me to order it again when I know how much incredible Popeyes I can get for that same amount. With limited entree selections to choose from on this menu, this fried chicken needs to be way better than it is now since it's really the star of the show. At this point I would not recommend this fwied cheekan... Even with hot sauce.

I'm happy that someone opened something in this dead space (Revival, get it? har har), it makes Decatur an even more of a destination town to hangout for food and drinks... But southern grub is dime a dozen in this town and you really have to do something special to edge out the competition. Especially, with the name behind this place... People expect more. It seems like the side options are better than the limited entrees. I sampled the chocolate cake which was a hefty slice but it was kinda dry and fell flat after a couple of bites. The cocktails (toasted old fashioned was a fav) are respectable but that's only half of the equation. Southern food isn't rocket science, but you have to make it look visually appealing as well as the taste of it. This joint could be a lot better, no, it needs to be a lot better... So, hopefully a newer version 2.0 of the menu in the future will tickle the pouch a lot more than it does now with the pretty mediocre offerings I have sampled so far... Especially, the fried chicken. Anyone who thinks this is the best they can do is only kidding themselves or just buying into the hype. Hero worship can only trick your palate for so long. I expect more if I'm going to pay more... So does everyone else with taste. There's just too many other options.  

129 Church St.
Decatur, GA 30030
470-225-6770
http://www.revivaldecatur.com/