I like the idea of a giant food hall inside the PCM. I like the idea of a mini Chelsea Market for the south. I like the idea they got some big names to sign on in here. And I love the renovated space but sometimes the stars just don't align correctly and we get middling and sometimes mystifying food coming out from some of these joints. I have visited almost every place at least once and nothing has given me a blood flow... Not even the fwied cheekan from Hop's which was suppose to be so fucking good according to the masses of nitwits. Every time I suckered back in, it was a let down, until recently where a friend just got a bucket of $1 wings for shits and giggles... And they were actually very very decent. Just stick to the wings and you'll be alright.
And then there's the fanciest resto in the entire building at the end of the hall, an Eyetalian joint called Brezza Cucina by a celeb chef... Which was easily one of the worst meals I have had in the entire city. I mean they got the talent in there but the execution sucked so much donkey sauced balls it was baffling. Seriously, how fucking hard is it to make Americanized ginzo grub... And that is the reason why I stayed away from this other Eyetalian takeout/market spot for so long... Until now. The menu is full of simple and classic dishes with a lot of fancy Italian verbage... Where the fuck is Giada when you need that slut... Oh, that's right, she's out sucking off other women's husband's beefy mor-TA-del-LAH. But anyways, I'm not gonna get too excited about this place but it may surprise the pouch when it least expects it... Let's mangia some shit.
Porchetta, succulent boneless Riverview Farms pork and salsa verde. Why does this remind me of a freshly laid diaper... And why am I eating it. The mook at the register kept saying it wrong, which kinda bothered me... It sounded like how he would impress chicks and tells them that he has a 1982 Porsche 924. The ingredients tasted decent separated individually but when construction it looked visually unappealing. Kept asking myself, do I want to put my mouth on that? Why is it on a cutting board? It wasn't even cut down the middle. After a couple bites, I don't know the fuck why but the pork tasted like chicken. Weird as shit. The giardiniera was bland as fuck, I think they soaked it in club soda instead. It's pretty much a boring pricey sando.
Butternut Squash Soup, winter pesto, mascarpone. Does this look like bacteria growing in a petri dish? It also kinda looks like the vomit my dog purged this morning all over the floor. This is just absurd looking. You can see how they just threw the pesto and mascarpone in there with reckless abandon... No finesse at all. The soup tasty fine, just only triple the price of Trade Joe's soup in a box. What a deal... This was pretty much a snoozer.
Pappardelle, beef and pork sauce. Looked decent when it came out but on further inspection it looked too dry, almost sauceless. It was a decently executed dish but it needed more sauce... Pasta ribbons with tidbits of meat sprinkled around it like what you would find on a frozen pizza. Not the best and not the worst but not again on my list.
Bucatini, spicy tomato and pancetta sauce. Spicy my ass... It had the spice level of Gummi worms. Bucatini is one of my favs and it was cooked spot on, al dente with the slightest crunch which was nice. But the sauce once again failed to deliver and pull the entire dish together. It had the color and taste of the sauce you would find in a can of Spaghetti-O's. Besides the bucatini, it was just average at best.
While this visit may not have hit it out of the park... I can say the execution here was far better than the fancier and pricier Brezza down the hall. The prices here were a bit cheaper than Brezza but let's not forget it's still pasta and a bit over priced for a food hall, they gotta pay the lofty rent for this spacious unit somehow and it's not from selling pasta sauce in a jar. If this joint didn't have the mini market attached to it, the restaurant side wouldn't be as attractive. Sometimes people get distracted by the merchandise surrounding them and forget about how mediocre the food was. They did say that they would cook up the black squid ink pasta if I bought it first... Which was pretty cool of them but not for $20 a bag. While this experience wasn't as bad as the other places in the food hall, I'm still on the fence on this one.
Ponce City Market
675 Ponce De Leon Ave NE #131
Atlanta, GA 30308
404-330-9933
http://bellina-alimentari.com/
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