Nanbei Gourmet

Over the last year, the Pouch has been on a homestyle Asian comfort grub and street food kick. Every new and existing gringo resto has been such a snoozefest with nothing exciting, just the same old generic items on every menu... It's like they're still stuck in the COVID era and trying to compete for the same demographics with a limited menu but who can charge more for the same slop and what dummy will pay for it. There's no honor in paying more for the same dish pretending to support local businesses... I'm all for supporting local but no one cares about bragging rights anymore except Yelpers. I have mostly passed on American restos because I was tired of being insulted dish after dish as if I was reading the children's menu. Shit, I have ordered from the children's menu on a few occasions because the main menu was full of crap. This fat overlord wants excitement, diversity, quality and value these days.  

The Chinatown food court exemplifies these traits and has been so consistent over the years that it's been on my regular rotation for over 2 decades. I have my go-to's but I have always noticed why there was an unfilled stall in the back corner for such a length of time. Then suddenly a new place popped up and I took a gander at their menu. It was a mixed of Chino cuisines, Sichuan, Cantonese, Lanzhou, Taiwan and Slutty-Chino. But what really got me excited was the prices... They were substantially less than all the other stalls... How and why but long story short, this joint has been on my regular rotation for the last few months and if I can't find anything else new and interesting to eat, this will be my back up plan. I have been waiting to review this newcomer because I didn't want any Yelpers to flash mob this joint and ruin it like they ruin everything else that they touch. Since, the cat is out of the bag... Let's take a look at all the dishes I have tried so far and some over and over again... 

 

This is their new menu, cut down by half from the original menu which was pretty extensive. Since, they have been getting more popular and sometimes even a line to order, they have raised their prices from 10-30% which is pretty high but still worth the price of admission. 

First snack visit, test run on a few items.

Shanghai Juicy Steamed Pork Bun (8), $8. They were so juicy that they shat all over themselves, all the soup leaked out. The skin was too thick and the pork mixture was too chunky and unseasoned. This was such a bad start that I pretty much gave up on them on the first dish... Until the next dish.

Dry-Fried French Beans with Minced Pork and Preserved Vegetables, $9 (now $10). This dry fried green beans was so good and the portion was generous. This won me back instantly. It's pretty hard not to order this on every visit.

Beef Chowfun, $9 (now $10). There is no place in da ATL that you can get a quality beef chowfun for $10. The $1 increase is nothing for the huge portion size. The flavor and seasoning and correct ingredients make this one of my favorites. I have ordered this pretty much on every visit.

Second visit, I wanted to try a mix of dishes which turned out very satisfying.

Beef Tendon & Tripe in Chili Sauce, $9 (now $11). I can't say this enough, their portions are very generous to the price ratio. Look at this beast, it was awesome and spicy enough even for my volcano mouth. The balance of both cuts was perfect and the seasoning was spot on. You get a bit of both in each bite.

Beef Noodle Soup, $9 (now $11). They used to have a lamb noodle soup on the menu but was never available on my visits. So, I settled for the beef noodz. This was a giant bowl of soup and tons of big chunks of meat. Fresh egg noodles are usually used in this dish, but I was curious of what type of noodles were under there, so I mixed it up a bit... 

Holy shit, they were using the knife sliced wide noodles... Albeit not fresh made but still I was so psyched for this. Wide sliced noodles just grabs onto the soup better than thinner noodles. I loved the texture of everything in this bowl... The big chunks of meat paired perfectly with the wide noodles. The soup was rich and complex and full of flavor that will satisfy the pouch during a cold wet day. For $11, it's still worth it.

Fish & Eggplant with Plum Sauce, $12 (now $13). This was an interesting combo, lightly fried fish fillets stir fried with garlicky Japanese eggplant with a light sweet "Plum" sauce. This was very tasty. I loved the crisp crunch of the flaky fish and then the soft savory eggplant with a hint of sweetness. I wished they made this portion as large as all the other dishes, still a very respectable portion.

Wait, did I forget to order the beef chowfun? Oh, that's right, I switched it for the beef noodle soup... Which was a nice trade off.

Third visit, I had to get a traditional spicy dish and the beef chowfun again.

Mapo Tofu, $9 ($10). Wow, look at that vibrant deep red color! This already looked legit. The tofu cube size, the pebbles of pork were spot on. What about the spicy level, Pouch... Did it pass the obeast test? Fuck yeah, it did. When you poured it over rice, the rice instantly absorbed the red chili oil and gave you the full experience with each bite. This was a perfectly executed mapo tofu. 

Dry Fried Green Beans, $10. They shortened the name on the new menu, good... And it still tasty great. Totally worth it for the large portion.

Dry-Fried Beef Rice Noodles, $10. I can't be away from this amazing dish for too long. $10 is still the cheapest around in this town. Even HK BBQ next door is charging like $13+ for this dish. They were tasty but for a few dollars less, I can this incredible beef noodz only a few feet away.

Tientsin Steamed Pork Bun (6), $6. They are pretty fat and the price stayed the same... All their dumps are like $1 each. These were fine, nothing to write home about. The dough is pretty thick and gummy and the meatball inside was smaller than it appears. The flavor was acceptable but I would skip all their dumpling dishes and put the loot into other dishes yet to be tasted.

On the most recent visit, I was surprised by the new smaller menu format and price increases. They kept their most popular and regularly ordered dishes. They removed a lot of scary sounding dishes and a bunch of slutty-Chino Americanized dishes. Which was a good move. Kept the menu doable and quickly executable. There was one classic Sichuan dish that I wanted to wait to try and today was the day.

Sliced Fish in Hot Chili Oil, $13 (previous $12). Look at that crazy deep red color, I'm in wuv already. You just can't get a ginormous bowl of spicy fish anywhere for $13. This bowl would cost you close to $30 anywhere else and they barely give you enough fish to go around with 4 people let alone 1 fat fuck like me. I was scooping up the fish into my rice bowl and more fish was popping up from the bottom. I kept eating more fish and more fish was floating to the top like my dead goldfishes in my aquarium when I was a young Augustus Gloop. The fish was endless, it was amazing. I have never seen this much fish in this dish anywhere else, ever. This is a fucking keeper. I ate this dish for 3 days.

Fatty Pork (Belly) with Pickled Cabbage, $12 (previous $11). This is one of those dishes that got lost in translation. The real Chino version is ridiculously tasty and pleasant to look at. This dish was a sad sack of hamster vomit. I swear, if I threw up on top of this, it wouldn't show. It would just blend right in and may even make it taste better. We all love pork belly but not fucking boiled slices of gelatinous fatty mush. There was barely any pork, it was all belly fat. The real Chino pickled veg is green and tastes amazing but look at this sow smegma. It was too fermented and it shouldn't be drenched in chili oil... Someone was smoking crack when this order was submitted. Hell, even a FOB wouldn't eat this shit... This would be more torture than being smuggled inside a cargo container in the hull of an oil tanker for 2 months. Just don't fucking do it, ever. They let me down on this dish... Fuck, they should have removed this dish on the menu revamp. 

Bok Choy (Shanghai) with Mushrooms, $10 (previous $9). Naturally, I was going to order the incredible dry fried green beans like usual but I wanted to be adventurous and got the classic bok choy and shrooms. And I'm glad I did. Since, I got the fish in chili oil and that disgusting fatty pork belly, I needed something refreshing and clean and not heavy like the other dishes. This was a perfect balance. Nice big portion, too, naturally.

Beef Chowfun, $10. I just can't get enough of this dish. It is just so goddam satisfying.

This is one of the best Chinatown food court stalls let alone any food court. The prices have increased but the quality and portions have not. I love this place and posting this review is a gamble for my well-feed-being. So, don't fuck this up for me and everybody else... Yeah, I talking about you fucking Yelpers... Go to Panda Expwess, Tin Drum or PF Chang's, mofos. I was gonna say Hawkers, too, but I kinda like them in a slutty kinda way.

5385 New Peachtree Rd

Chamblee, GA 30340