Kitchen Six

The Oak Grove area is pretty much a quite neighborhood but they do have a few local joints around there... There's the townie favorite, The Grove, with beer and pretty decent wings but the crowd is older. Then there's Napoleon's which is a mixed crowd but mainly family oriented with a decent pub menu. And on the other side of the strip is Sprig which is a little bit more upscale in their menu and crowd. These townie joints are all acceptable in their own way... I'm ok with them every once in awhile. There's nothing really that special that warrants repeated visits.
There's other junky grub joints around like pizza and Mexican't but nothing you really want to ingest consciously, maybe when pissed drunk it's ok. Does this hood really need another local casual bar/resto that the others can't do in this area? Well, you're gonna get it no matter what you say... Kitchen Six took over the old Mezza space which supposedly had authentic Lebanese/Mediterranean cuisine... According to Yelpers. Well, I think we can figure out why they closed... 3 words- boiled chicken shawarma. But I'm still kinda curious about this new joint. They claim that "Kitchen Six was created for the community by the community... The mission was to offer an intentionally limited menu." And I'm ok with that... I prefer new restos to have limited menus so they can execute each dish consistently over and over again. But who knows with restos these days... They say one thing and do another. Let's go take an initial look and see what the first impression will hold for their future...
The inside is more spacious than it looks on the outside. The bar is decent size, can fit maybe 8-10 people depending on how fat you are... I took almost 2 seats but I sucked in the pouch and got into 1 seat, my muffin top was barely peeking out. It was a packed crowd and there were a bunch of high school children running around... I guess it was a safe space, didn't see any trophies, though. Hostess tells me that it will be like a 30 minzies wait for a table. Fuck that noise, I went straight to the bar and luckily there were 2 seats at the end. Ok, less talky, more drinky time...

I love getting double fisted... Wait, that didn't come out right... Y'all know what I mean, not that there is anything wrong with being double fisted, just don't forget the lube... Wait, this beer and whiskey duo is also known as the lesbian lubricant. Don't ask me how I know that. I really do like the absinthe fountain, it's a nice touch... Too bad not one customer in the entire joint touched it or even knew what it was or used for. The fucking millennials prolly think it's used to clean the bar tools. I would use it as a Chinese water torture on those lil useless snowflakes.

Pickled Veggie Salad- Pickled Golden Beets and Red Beets, Goat Cheese, Basil Oil. Decent looking small bowl of beets... But they didn't taste pickled at all, just plain old sweet beets. It's such a simple dish that it's hard to bust their balls about it, even though they were supposed to be pickled. If they were, they weren't bathe in the brine for long.

Fried Brussels- Crispy Brussel Sprout Hearts, Pine Street Market Bacon, Apple Mustard. This B.S. fad has been on every menu in every resto as long as the pork belly has... But did it taste like bullshit? Fuck no, just like the pork belly the brussels sprouts will still be a fan favorite for years to come. The apple mustard was interesting and worked pretty well with the overall dish.

Braised Beef Short Rib- Butternut Squash Gratin, French Beans, Red Wine Cherries. Jesus, unless you thicken that jus/sauce, it's just gonna swirl around the plate and make it look it was that time of the month for that short rib. They say you can use a tampon to plug up a bloody bullet gash with one, I just need to find the hole in this flesh rib. But instead, I'll just stick in my facehole... And that shit was tender as fuck. Tasted pretty damn decent and seasoned well. The nut squash 'gratin' was barely warmed through but it was acceptable and haricots verts were vibrant and fresh. It was a tasty dish, minus that useless cherry jus/sauce.

Grilled Bone-In Pork Chop- Braised Butter Cabbage, Baby Carrots, Kale, Apple Mustard Compote.

Their protein dishes were pretty much standard issue, you got the chicken, the steak, the short rib, salmon and pork... So, since I already had a beef dish and I usually never order chicken or salmon, it looks like it's the pork chop... Make sure to ask for it pink or medium minus or else you will get some leathery pig snout to gnaw on. This came out spot on, I was pleasantly surprised... Ok, I couldn't fucking believe it on the first try. They were keeping their streak going on my orders... You are so friggin lucky and don't even know it. The chop was tender and seasoned well. The cabbage, carrots and kale is just filler on there so the oinker wouldn't look so alone. Another simple dish that was executed nicely. Can't bash it too much.

The place, obviously, will be packed in the beginning because there just isn't that many options for the townies around here parts to nosh at... Looking at the crowd in here, these local yokels aren't the type to be driving around for the destination types of restos. They want close, convenient, easy, hip, new and affordable... This place has everything they want. My first impression was good with the generic/standard issue menu, but I will expect more from them going forward in the future and push the cocktail menu and dinner menu a lot more. They are off to a good start so far, I hope they don't get lazy and complacent... That's how it gets destroyed by the pouch.  

2751 Lavista Rd
Decatur, GA 30033
http://www.kitchensixoakgrove.com/