W.H. Stiles Fish Camp - Dub's

This joint was the last on my list to visit... Somehow, in my bizarre mind, I wanted to save the best for last. I wanted to wait for the lobster roll to end my culinary tour in the PCM. I mean they are part of the Bacchanalia empire after all, so I expected nothing but quality from them since everything else in this food hall has been lackluster at best so far... Maybe this place will be that one gem in the rough.
The space is laid out alright I guess, the squiggly bar out front and the normal seating in the back. I sat at the bar but one thing really baffled me... Why aren't there hooks under the bar to hang your shit? For seasoned restaurateurs, why wasn't this cheap but important item installed along the entire bar... I've been to shitholes and dive bars that even have hooks under the bar, but not much else.
Billed as a fish camp, the first thing I looked for was the elusive fried clams with bellies... None were to be found. Sometimes, the fried oyster appears on the menu. But it's off the menu more than it is on. It's a pretty much straight forward menu of mostly fried seafood and sandos. But of course, the lofty priced lobster roll was the main attraction here. Let's sample a few items and see if this lives up to all the hype from the tourists.

Sweet Jesus, Skip Jack, Bodie Island, and one other I forgot. Look, it's no Kimball House... I'm like a broken record. No one still has an oyster program like them in this town. Dub's do have a daily rotation of different oysters which was nice. These oysters were decent but they lacked the finesse you would find at KH. Cleaning/prepping, schucking, presentation and taste were adequate but nothing all too exciting. The schucker dude was a trip, a super nice and cool guy. For the price of these bi-valves, I expected a little bit more... Just save your money and head to KH, instead.

Crab Beignets. Puffy doughy gut fillers. They were just ok, nothing really that exciting. After two bites you will be kinda over it. There's not much crab in there, at least make them crab flavored fried dough nuggets.

Chowder. There were more cauliflower and tater cubes than seafood in there. Hell, there were only a few kernels of corn, too... One would think they would overload it with cheap filler to make it more hearty looking. Too bad this was mostly cream and a few chunks of veggies... Weak weak seafood chowder. Those bread ball thingers were stale and hard... Prolly been sitting around since they opened.

Shrimp Po'boy. This was kinda visually appealing because the fried shrimp tricks you into thinking that it's bigger than it is... The bread/roll was small so all that stuff was just piled on top. You can't even fold the bread around it halfway. Shit was falling out everywhere. The shrimp was good if it was just fried shrimp alone but a panko style coating/crust doesn't do it for me in a po'boy vehicle. I prefer a wet batter or a cornmeal crust for a po'boy... But that didn't matter in the end because the bread was not made for a po'boy. Deconstruct it and eat it with a fork, you will be better off. Come to think of it, I was never a fan of their shrimp po'boy at Star Provisions because every time I tried it, it tasted like eating aluminum foil, had this metallic taste to it... Just didn't taste right unless it was sourced from the Chattahoochee's finest.

Lobster Roll. The price of this creasture just keeps inching higher and higher. It was $22, now $24. A friend said it topped $26 one time. It's a tad below an average sized lob roll. The use of the top split bun was spot on but it wasn't really buttered and toasted. The lobster filler were a mix of tail and claw meat which was fine and expected. It looked a bit overdressed but it was bland... Lacked the sweetness of a great lobster roll. You would think it being overdressed would give it some more flavor but this overpriced bottom feeder left me more and more depressed bite after bite. It looked like it had promise but at the end of the day, it was pretty much average at best and I was $24 poorer. Why do I always get suckered in for a lobster roll when I should know better. Shit, if Longhorn's had a lobster roll, I would be dumb enough to try it just for shits and giggles.

The "Today's Catch' sando was a fried cod sandwich... Which seemed to be the "Everyday's Catch" but it was pretty generous overall. They slapped on two size-able individual pieces of fried fish between the large bun. It was crispy and hot but it was pretty much unseasoned. The layer of slaw was overdressed, wet and soggy... Luckily, the thick bun held up to all that smegma. I wasn't that lucky, though, that jizz squirted all over my face when I tried to take a bite. This pic makes the lob roll much larger looking but it wasn't, the cod sando was almost twice the size. It wasn't a bad fish sando, just not as good as you would think coming from their pedigree.

Looks like the new trend to casual dining is all about seafood, you got all the new crab boils opening up on Bufo Hwy recently and fish shacks like Dub's in PCM and BeetleCat in Inman Park... I'm still waiting for someone to open a fish joint in KSM. Some sucka will prolly do it in time. But as for Dub's, I guess it fits the narrative in this food hall. Pricey, showy and perfect for the tourists that come in droves to be part of the big city. I don't love it and I don't hate it, it's just another option for the sheep to graze inside this hall. But if they had fried clams with bellies, that would a total game changer.

675 Ponce De Leon Ave NE
Atlanta, GA 30308
404-900-7900 
http://www.starprovisions.com/fish-camp/