Food Terminal

I know my one reader has been waiting ages and ages for this post...
The famous line, "If you build it they will come", did not get lost in translation up in this piece, not one goddamn bit, with the Sweet Hut crew and their newest hippest trending food hall spot... The Food Terminal. They know Engrish very well and this joint is evidence of it... Every motherfucker has been fudge packing this spot since it opened... You can't even get through the front door without someone bumping and grinding your ass cheeks with their junk. The excitement over this new spot just increased the Asian population by another 5 million... Who needs the little blue pill when you have FT. There's a lot of pumping and squirting up in this piece. Jesus, these slopes hit pay dirt with this concept... Why didn't I fucking invest? But there's always FT2 in the future...
The location can't be any better, the visibility from Bufo Hwy is right in your face. The space inside has an industrial look and feel... It's cavernous and spacious. The open kitchen out front is for show and there's also another kitchen in the back to handle the massive volume this place has been doing since day one. They ain't fucking around here... It's a goddamn slaughterhouse in here. They get you through the front door as quick as they can, sit your fat ass down and you consume and consume until you're bloated like a puffer fish.
 The menu book is ridiculous, it's like a Restoration Hardware catalog with a lot of pretty pictures and the prices are psychologically planned in advance and strategically sized and placed to look cheaper than it is... Like dim sum with those carts that you vaguely have an idea of how much it will cost you in the end. Having you order a ton of dishes is their goal and the shit adds up fast and furious... But giving you time to realize that you did gone done fucked your wallet up is not in their plans because the food comes out just as fast and furious to distract you and refocus your attention to eating the tasty morsels that just arrived at your table... And I fucking fell for it all like a portly sucka... Hook, line and sinker.
The hype is real, unlike the Halal Guys... Anyone noticed how the lines at that joint has died down considerably after only a few weeks. Don't waste your time and money on that has been... Waste it here, instead, on the new and shiny toy that just opened. Will the lines and long wait time continue to dominate your existence or will it all be worth the wait... Let's go check out the hype on this new Malaysian street food joint and see if the pouch will swipe left or right on the grub if it's hot or not... I didn't want to use "authentic" because that word doesn't apply anywhere anymore. It has all been millennialized... Speaking of which, there are a fuck ton of them in here. Just fucking feed me already, Seymore...

Unagi Bao. I love unagi... But inside a bao may not be the best delivery vehicle for it to your facehole. It gets real messy to eat it and you kinda get distracted from the overall experience and taste trying to best maneuver it into your mouth.

Bulgogi Bao. And I thought the unagi bao was messy to eat.. This bulgogi bao was falling out everywhere. You will end up eating it with a spoon like a bowl of Lucky Chans. It wasn't very bulgogi tasting, more like a smashed up burger patty. Skip the baos, just spend the money on the real dishes.

5 Spice Pork Belly. Now, here's something I can get aboard on... The pork belly smelled and tasted flavorful with the 5 spice rub. The soy braised tofu gave it the saltiness this rice dish needed. The egg was supposed to be soy braised too but it wasn't. The pickled mustard was not pickled enough to stand out from the other flavors in this bowl. It's a decent bowl but it wasn't as craveworthy as I had hoped for.

XO Sauce Cheong Fun. One of my all time favorite "dim sum" dish... And top it off with XO sauce? Get the fuck outta here, bro... Too bad the rice noodle was over steamed and came out soggy and a bit gummy. The overall flavor was pretty good but the noodle has got to be right with the perfect texture and bounce.

Shiitake Ground Pork Cheong Fun. Luckily, for them, all that sauce and toppings masked the soggy and gummy rice noodle. If the cheong fun was executed properly this woulda been a killer dish.

Szechuan Steam Wonton. The wontons were average and the chili sauce was weak as shit... Not spicy at all, just oily wontons. You will have to dress it up yourself with the other hot chili sauces they have if you truly want this to be a "Szechuan" dish.

Crispy Pig Ears. So far, this dish was the leader... The pig ears were ultra crispy and seasoned well, the weird sweet n sour sauce tasted a bit funky but after awhile it gets kinda addictive... Like you keep dipping the ears into it to see if that sauce was for real or just a imaginary.

Roti Canai, Curry Chicken. The roti was good, but not as good as the one at Penang. The curry chicken was pretty decent... But the roti keeps you busy with tearing it up and dipping it in the curry sauce and somehow that keeps me satisfied.

Thai Chili Eggplant. This was a good dish, simple and safe.. The "Thai chili" wasn't spicy, it was more like a flavor enhancer... Kinda like a red MSG.

Hainanese Chicken. The one dish that needs to be done right in order to be called a Hainanese cheekan... They were half way there with this dish. The chicken was tender and juicy but it didn't capture that genuine taste of a proper Hainanese cheekan. Close but still a work in progress.

Chicken Rice. There's not fucking way they can do this rice properly... There's just too much volume up in this piece... There's gotta be a compromise and short cuts... And you can taste it in this rice. Most people don't know but the main component of the Hainanese chicken is the rice like in sushi... It ain't about the fish, it's all about the rice. The rice here is fine but the chicken broth used did not have that true cheekan essence. You'll know when you eat it... It will make your legs buckle and pee your underpants.

Garlic Bone Marrow Noodle Soup with Pork. Sounded really good on paper... Bone Marrow? C'mon, dude, that sounds awesome. Then this little boner came out. The broth lacked collagen but it was flavorful... I don't expect them to make a proper bone marrow broth, it's way too time consuming and the amount of people and volume going through here every day is just insane to think this will be made properly. But it was not a bad bowl of bone noodle soup. I will wait awhile before I get this again... Maybe with time they will get this worked out properly. I think they will.

On another visit, I sat at the counter to observe their work in progress. The show kitchen was humming along efficiently but you can see the servers are overwhelmed at times and forget orders and drinks and everything else they just did a minute ago. But let's sample some more stuff to get a feel of the joint and see if this trendy concept will last.

 The show kitchen performing their act. Pretty efficient, even though the servers are not.

Nuomiji (sticky rice chicken). It was cold as shit but for what it was, I kinda liked it... Wait for it to come back to room temp and it will taste a lot better. You gotta rest this sticky rice like a good piece of steak just off the grill. Yeah, I know what y'all are saying... WTF, pouch? Trust me...

Curry Fish Ball Cheong Fun. I gave the cheong fun another try and yep, it was still over steamed and soggy. The fishball is the supermarket varietal... Not bad but the curry sauce coulda been a bit spicier. I think I had it with the cheong fun here, stick with the real dim sum joints for dim sum grub.

Pan Mee. It's a bowl of crap that needs to be mixed up properly to release the full effect of the flavors within... I like the noodles but once everything was mixed in, it kinda tasted indifferent and dry. Added some sambal belacan into in and gave it that kick it needed. You have to let the flavors sit a bit to marry it.  The pork and shiitake mix is the flavor punch in this bowl. I liked this noodle bowl enough to order it again.

Sambal Belacan. It was more just a sambal oelek vs. belacan style because it lacked the shrimp paste, citrus acidity and balance of salt and sugar. But it was fine for what it was for the pan mee noodle dish.

Grandma Wonton BBQ Pork. I don't know where this dish came from but it's obviously something they created... Because no slant would ever deep fry a wonton like that. Not that it was bad but it's kinda a gwailo thing to do. It gave it that crunch factor to a pretty average bowl of noodles. It ain't bad but I wouldn't order it again.. That's why I hesitated to order this on the first visit. It needed something else to complete it... Perhaps a sauce.

Sea Salt Beef Tongue. These little cubes of offal were great. It had the wonderful tongue texture but they weren't chewy. They had a great bite to them and were seasoned and grilled just right. Good stuff.

Teriyaki Chicken Wings. I like that it comes with 2 wings per skewer and an order is 2 skewers. Teriyaki is usually so sweet and gringorized but they don't drown those fuckers in the sugary sauce, just a few squirts on top with some sesame seeds. They were hot and tender right off the grill, pretty tasty wings.

Mango and Coconut Sticky Rice. The mango had nice color but they were not rip enough so it was bit crunchy and bitter. The sticky rice was pretty good when you pour the sweetened coconut milk on it. I can only imagine how much sticky rice they go through in just one day.

HK Style Milk Tea. They usually make it pretty well at Sweet Hut but the version here was just ok, it was way too sweet and tasted almost artificial. I still think Quickly has the better version and their cheekan nuggets are still fucking insane.

They got a huge staff to run this place... It's going through some growing pains with the front of the house staff but I tell ya what, the kitchen is slaying the fuck out of this ginormous menu in execution and timing... Only Asians would take on a giant menu like this on the first day and run with it. The kitchen is pumping out the food like a machine but the servers are still overwhelmed most of the time and they seem to lack leadership. I saw a few of them doing the Asian squat behind the counter and a gaggle of them huddling around a menu stand gossiping. The servers are basically all kids, so what do you expect from them? They may be FOBs but they're still millennials and we all know how hard they will work for that trophy at the end of the day. The kitchen is doing a good job with the volume but dishes are coming out inconsistent which is understandable so early into the game. Once they work out the inconsistency, they will absolutely slay it even more and will have a lasting business model... It ain't the best street food but shit, I'll take it for what it's worth... Plus, you don't have to drive to upstate GA, they're ITP, so that gives them extra brownie points. 

#B201, 5000 Buford Hwy NE
Chamblee, GA 30341
https://www.foodterminal.com/