Gastropub defined in Just 2 Words: Pijiu Belly!

Gastropub-It’s a good thing!

PIJIU BELLY

If you’re looking for fancy plating and food for a quick Asian fix; this might not be your spot. If you’re looking for a fun street food fusion of Korean & Chinese-you’ve found it!

On a recent evening when counting down sheep was not working, I just went with it and got up. Usually when this happens, I try to watch something on TV that will either educate me or help me with the blog.

This means a show on something arty, foodie or traveling. The usual suspects didn’t have much on so I started watching Diners, Drive Ins and Dives with Guy Fieri. I have found more than a few interesting places to go from this show.

The cute colorful outdoor patio at Pijiu Belly is great for a quick lunch

CUTE OUTDOOR PATIO FOR QUICK LUNCH

This time it was about a gastropub in Atlanta (ears perk up) called Pijiu (Pee-zshoo) Belly. Pijiu being Mandarin for Beer-haha! Definitely got my attention with that. Then they said pork belly and it was all over!

Anyone who knows me knows I do love pig in almost all of its various forms. So we decided to jump in there for a quick lunch and check it out. The outdoor patio was cute, colorful and beginning to fill on the pretty day we decided to go.

The inside was fun; done with lots of signs on the wall, games of all types and flat screens in every area showing all kinds of sports. We usually opt for seats at the bar but decided to take a table in the back instead.

On the way I noticed a piece on the wall that was a comic like rendering of Guy’s head which was signed and dated from his trip to the restaurant.

STREET FOOD SMALL PLATES OR BENTO BOXES?

We ordered a liter Asian beer (they have quite a variety of craft as well) and a Chilean glass of Malbec as we perused the menu.

There was a lot to choose from. Small plates of street food that turned out not to be so small ranged in price from $5-14. Everything from different kinds of dumplings to fusion takes on wings, fried pickles, pig ears and oysters was on offer.

A bento box assortment was available for lunch only with a price range that included soup, rice and salad depending on which protein you picked. Many were eating just that.

Big plates ranged from $11-$22 offering everything from soup and noodle bowls to the rotisserie chicken dish the restaurant is best known for (now I understand the chicken in their logo).

FRIED AND SPICED WITH SAUCES PLEASE!

We decided to go with three small plates in order to try more things-sort of our usual MO. A plate of fried Gyoza pork dumplings with ponzu sauce came first. The dumplings were very tasty.

The frying technique made them a little chewy and the ponzu could have used a little more sugar to have the classic sweet and sour thing going on. But a good first dish.

Fried Gyoza pork dumplings with classic ponzu sauce at Pijiu Belly

Next came a dish of Mandarin Wan Zi pork meatballs in garlic sauce. My husband can never resist meatballs probably because I rarely make them at home. They were cooked and then fried and than finished with the sauce.

This was the best dish of the day and also made for the quirky funny moment of chasing the slippery little buggers across the plate and table! The frying made them just hard enough to want to squirt off the plate when trying to cut them; sharing our one knife from the cute little utensil bucket!

Beautiful Mandarin Wan zi pork meatballs in a luscious garlic sauce

WOULD YOU LIKE FRIES WITH THOSE NUGGETS?

The last dish we ordered was Taiwanese Nuggets. Not normally a dish we would have ordered but it was made from dark thigh meat which we thought would be tastier than the usual white meat suspect. The waiter also highly recommended the dish.

You could pick your sauce and and we picked ponzu again and I am not sure why. They did offer a curry somewhat like a massaman sauce the waiter stated and that or a sriracha mayo would have been the better pick for the dish I think.

As I stated earlier-some one has a tad heavy hand with the vinegar in the ponzu. The smaller bits of chicken were tender but the bigger ones were a little tough. On offering the criticism though, one of the owners came out personally to pick it up and apologize. They also took it off the bill.

Taiwanese Nuggets with dark chicken and ponzu sauce

FINAL THOUGHTS ON THE REVIEW OF PIJIU BELLY

All in all we enjoyed our first visit to Pijiu Belly in Atlanta. I want to go back and try the pork belly dishes and the rotisserie chicken they are known for.

While we had a few hiccups on this first visit, every restaurant has them. How they handle it is the better tell of what kind of place it really is.

It isn’t a fancy place. It is a family owned restaurant with a vision to join an english pub style with the street food and hospitality of the Korean-Chinese heritage. It is supposed to be a fun hang out and a great place to come get some bar food and maybe catch a game.

Guess what? It is and apparently others think so to if you take into account how many people were pouring in there for lunch. Go get some chicken or pork belly at Pijiu OK? Hey, don’t be a stranger! Let know what you thought of the place and you might want to read other blogs under Edible Fare too. Until next time…

Cheers,

ArtsyChowRoamer

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