First Impression

John: Now that texting and driving is illegal, I don’t drive. I’m pretty sure I text message more than most high school girls. Why do I bring this up? Because I got lost on the way to 52 Bistro, which is almost impossible to do because it’s right on Main Street in Alpharetta. My solution was going to be “text Tim and he’ll text back the directions.” That was out the window though, because I didn’t want to break Georgia’s newest law. Yes, I could have called Tim, but I was about to talk to him for two hours at dinner, so I didn’t want to do any more talking than I usually do. When I finally found the place, I was impressed; there’s a water fountain just outside the front door that’s filled with giant fish. I love giant fish, they put me in a good mood. Once you’re inside the restaurant, you’ll notice that it’s not that big, which means there’s not a ton of seating and things never get to loud. It’s the perfect atmosphere for eating a nice dinner.

Tim: Let’s make one thing clear. 52 Bistro’s address is on Main Street, but you can’t access it from Main Street. You have to go down Church Street to find the entrance to the parking lot. Which is like me saying my flight leaves from Hartsfield, but I have to get on the plane at Peachtree-Dekalb. It makes no sense. Also, if you’re not familiar with how Main Street is numbered get out your graphing calculators and your protractors. I came in on Main Street (Highway 9) from Roswell. As I’m coming in I see a building numbered 53 on my left. Naturally I think that 52 is right across the street. No. There’s just a dilapidated old house that probably has squatters living in it. It turns out that Main Street has two sets of numbers. Once you cross Milton Avenue/Academy Street, the numbers reset so that not only are they now re-ascending but they’ve flipped. The evens are on the left and the odds are on the right. I’m convinced that no one really wants anyone to get anywhere in the metro Atlanta area. They just want us to drive around in our cars until we beat our heads on the steering wheel and knock ourselves unconscious. But the restaurant is nice though.

John: 8.5
Tim: 7

Appetizers

John: I don’t know if Tim has a complex or if his parents deprived him as a child, but if there is something on the menu with the word “cake” in it, Altork orders it. It could be cheesecake, carrot cake, crab cake or in today’s case: smoky salmon cake. I’m not usually a big fan of salmon, but I did like the salmon cake. Because there are other ingredients in “cake” the salmon flavor didn’t dominate the dish. It was subtle, and after the review, I decided I like subtle salmon flavor. We also ordered the seafood risotto fritters which consisted of shrimp, scallops, blue crab and a chili glaze that might be the tastiest thing I’ve eaten in three months.

Tim: Mmmmm. Cake. After eating the salmon cakes, the only cakes left on my list of “cakes I don’t like” are beefcakes and urinal cakes. But the seafood risotto fritters were actually the better of the two dishes that we ordered. The avocado relish and chili glaze make for a tasty complement to the light mixture of seafood. Very tasty.

Fritter: John 8, Tim 9
Salmon: John 7.5, Tim 7

Entrées

John: For the main course, we ordered three dishes that were nothing alike: beef tenderloin flatbread (think of this as pizza’s classier, richer and more sophisticated cousin), yellowtail snapper and a turkey Reuben. That’s right, we put the chef to the test and I have to say, he passed with flying colors, I loved everything. The flatbread was light and crispy which meant it wasn’t to filling – meaning it will fill you up, but not make you feel full. It was covered with juicy tenderloin and enough mushrooms to build a Smurf village with. The highlight of the night for me though was the yellowtail snapper. When you eat a good piece of fish, you know it. The fish was so soft, a baby could have bitten into it. And I should add that the Reuben was pretty good too, but I’ll let Altork talk about that.

Tim: The turkey Reuben was the highlight of the course. And no we weren’t eating lunch. We just wanted to have a sandwich with our dinner. Or more accurately, I wanted to have a sandwich with our dinner. Any time I see a Reuben on the menu, it’s hard for me to resist ordering it, even though I know it’s going to be exactly like every other Reuben I’ve had. But 52 Bistro’s version is a Reuben in name only. First of all it’s turkey instead of corned beef. It has a spicy remoulade sauce instead of Russian dressing, it uses Gouda cheese instead of Swiss, and cole slaw instead of sauerkraut.  So, thematically it’s the same, but really everything is different. Breech and I usually try to split everything so that we can get a good taste of what we’re writing about, but I ate 90 percent of the Reuben because I just couldn’t put it down. And I win because Breech bet me I couldn’t write 10 consecutive sentences about the Reuben. Also, you’re going to see a low grade from me for the flatbread, just because 52 managed to douse one of my favorite things on earth (beef tenderloin) with the holy trinity of my least favorite ingredients – bleu cheese, mushrooms and balsamic vinegar.

Snapper: John 9, Tim 8
Flatbread: John 8.5, Tim 3
Reuben: John 8, Tim 9.5

Dessert

John: For dessert we had something called the Double Chocolate cake. It came highly recommended by our server Kris. I’m still not sure if it was called the Double Chocolate because of its size (it was seriously the third biggest piece of cake I have ever seen) or because of how much chocolate was on it (the chocolate frosting was covered in more chocolate which was covered in Heath Bar crumbles). It was absolutely fantastic and fantastic is not a word I use a lot. The Heath bar gave it a tasty crunchiness that I couldn’t get enough of. We also had cheesecake, which has the word “cake” in it, so Tim was in heaven, he got to order two desserts with the word “cake” in them.

Tim: One day I’ll figure out how to incorporate some sort of cake into every course, but two out of three isn’t bad. And both of these were absolutely delicious. I’ve made complaining about dessert something of an art form in the past, but there is absolutely nothing to complain about here.

Chocolate Cake: John 9.5, Tim 9
Cheesecake: John 7, Tim 9

Final Impression

John: 52 Bistro is a relatively new restaurant. The first time I tasted their food was back in May at the Taste of Alpharetta, when I ate their Cuban. I loved the Cuban so much that I wrote nice things about it in our Taste of Alpharetta review. My second tasting of 52 Bistro’s food didn’t disappoint. If you’re looking for a new place to eat this week, or next week or the week after that, I highly recommend 52. On the other hand, if you hate going out to dinner because of the giant production it can turn into, you can always visit 52 Bistro for brunch on Saturday and Sundays.

Tim: Definitely eat at 52 Bistro at some point in the near future. It’s a cozy atmosphere with impeccably friendly service inside. They have a koi pond outside, and you can’t do better with your outdoor decor than a pond with giant goldfish. And you’ll definitely get a good meal out of the experience. Just make sure you leave your house 30 minutes early so you have time to find the place.

John: 8.5
Tim: 8