Reviews for King + Duke, Umi, Ben's Brown Bag

Also at Creative Loafing, Jennifer Zyman's first look at King + Duke. Both the food and the service have been inconsistent since the restaurant opened in May, Zyman says, but her piece ends:

King + Duke feels like Houston's with a little more edge. You could take your grandmother here and you could also impress food-loving friends with the massive fires, craftsmanship behind certain dishes, and cocktails. There's a little something for everyone, the price points are relatively reasonable, and it's a scene. Is this the equation for longevity in Buckhead? If the crowds are any indication, Fry and Co. might have one successful long "con" on their hands.

For Creative Loafing, Brad Kaplan looks at Ben's Brown Bag. "Just about everything has been good in the way you imagine old-school fast food must have been — real flavor, real ingredients, real grease permeating the eponymous brown bags. A meal from Ben's is like a warm, fuzzy bear hug of fast-food nostalgia, one that leaves you glowing with greasy satisfaction," he says, and adds,

With a nostalgic bent and an eye for good ingredients, Ben's Brown Bag puts the feel good back into fast food — even if there aren't any McSalads or packs of sliced apples to relieve parents of their fast-food guilt. I for one am rooting for Ben. We need more fun-loving, food-caring upstarts to shake up the world of fast food. One Brasstown Beef Sloppy Joe dripping with Cheez Whiz at a time.

Bob Townsend takes a first look at Hugo's Oyster Bar; Cliff Bostock checks in with Grant Central Pizza, Carroll Street Cafe, Cowtippers, the Shed at Glenwood, and Grant Park Coffeehouse; and John Kessler takes in Umi, where he praises many dishes and recommends ordering anything chef Ito suggests.
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