by Anna Mefford and Maxine Smith
When it comes to Valentine’s Day, it’s important to find just the right restaurant to celebrate your relationship. While we may not be experts on relationships (neither of us is dating anyone right now), we are experts on consuming food, so over the past few weekends, we have taken it upon ourselves to visit a number of restaurants and rate them for their “date suitability.” We mainly looked at lighting, food, cost, service, bathroom lighting for hair and makeup checks, of course, and the crowd.
Our picks aren’t too fancy. Based on the Valentine’s Day survey, yours aren’t either. Fellini’s got a bunch of nods, as did Jalisco’s, TacoMac, Taqueria Del Sol, and Chick-fil-a. Someone suggested Cracker Barrel, which has the added benefit of allowing you to shop together before or after the meal, and another person suggested Andretti’s, which gives you a chance to throw up after the meal. Others went a little fancier with their picks, like Bones, Rumi’s, and South City Kitchen. The person who suggested La Grotta called it a “really lovely restaurant,” adding that “it would be the place to go for a one-year anniversary.” Here’s hoping!
Some of you interpreted the question as asking you what FOOD you should eat at a restaurant on a date, and suggested everything from gluten-free extra sauce wings, to garlic knots, to Twizzlers. that would make quite a three-course meal.
OK. Here we go!
Starting off strong we went to Fellini’s pizza on Rosewell Road. This is just such a classic and never fails to disappoint. They had great food at a reasonable price. We both got a slice of cheese pizza well done, the only way to go, and a salad to share. There were plenty of booths which is always a plus. We prefer booths any day over tables. There was very good dad music in the background, some Eric Clapton and The Beatles, and there also happened to be a live music act! The family sitting across from us decided to start acapella-ing to an unknown song and it was truly one for the books.
Some minor issue we had was that the lighting was too bright. It is a very neon and colorful place, but not the best for a date. Fellini’s does get pretty crowded over the weekends, so you do run the risk of seeing people you know, which is not ideal. Luckily enough we did not run into that problem. Some more positives were the bathroom had very good lighting with a solid mirror, and the location is perfect.
As we were walking out I (Anna) told Maxine we should get a picture of her in front of the sign. I did not think she would fall for it, because I turned on my flash and all the people in the restaurant saw her posing in the Fellini’s parking lot.
Overall, this was our favorite. We rated it a 9.5 out of 10. Great service, food, and a solid bathroom! We would totally recommend it, it is super casual and is such a classic.
The next stop we made was Antico’s Pizza at the Battery. Yes, another pizza place, but with a completely different vibe.
To start off, the lighting is a lot better than at Fellini’s. It was just a little darker but not too dark. The pizza was much better in our opinion. It had more of that woodfired taste, like it came straight from Italy. Which did have its downside. It lead Anna to talk about her trip to Italy for the tenth time, and I (Maxine) had to pull the bathroom card to get out of that situation.
One of the downsides is that it is very packed. You stand and wait for a while, then you have to search for a long time to find a seat. Unfortunately, we got stuck at the high bars outside so it was really cold and we had no back support, sitting on the stools. Finally, the location is out of the way for most people. The Battery is pretty fun but mainly when the braves are playing, otherwise it gets kind of boring.
We can not drive, so getting picked up was extremely awkward. You have to find an accessible pick-up location, while your parents are calling you non-stop angry that they could be in bed by now. Also, when your date gets picked up and you are left that opens a door of a whole bunch of issues. For instance the awkward wave, and telling your date’s parents that your parents are on the way. Basically, reassuring that your parents love you and that you won’t have to sleep on a bench. Thankfully, I (Anna Mefford) got picked up first, so I made sure my mom did not offer to give her a ride and leave her as soon as possible.
There is not too much to do after because stores start to close, and Jeni’s ice cream tends to be packed.
Overall, we rated it a 6/10. Great food, a little pricy, and takes a long time. We would not go back unless we were going to watch the Braves which is a very good date idea by the way.
Our third excursion was Menchi’s frozen yogurt, also on Roswell road. We thought it would be fun to incorporate a desert place seeing how Jeni’s was packed.
It had good “fro-yo.” We personally thought Yogurtland was better but Menchi’s will do. It also has super cute tables outside to sit in and talk. Another plus was the location, it is very accessible seeing how it is fairly close to Fellini’s. It was not packed and barely had anyone in it, which was very fun for us. Maxine almost had a disastrous spill with her (most likely) 10th taste tester. She thought it was fitting to try every single flavor. As you can imagine we probably weren’t loved by the workers, although they were pretty nice at the checkout. The price was super reasonable, seeing how we probably had enough toppings to feed the whole high school. Let me tell you those cookie dough bites are amazing.
Honestly, you can tell a lot about people on their fro-yo toppings. If they put fruit on their yogurt we suggest running away as fast as possible. It is a desert stop trying to be Bella Hadid. One major issue is toppings add a lot of weight to your fro-yo, so you run the risk of having your fro-yo weigh more than your date’s. As girls, we find that not ideal… Green flag toppings are sprinkles, chocolate chips, Reeses, cookie dough, basically anything OTHER than fruit.
Finally, the lighting was good. I mean it’s a self-serve Fro-yo bar so it would be pretty dangerous with darker lighting. Maxine had a hard enough time on her own with the light lighting, imagine the average person with darker. Yikes…
Overall we gave it a 9/10. Perfect for a quick treat and it had good food. Unfortunately, we forgot to check out the bathroom, our apologies, but we trust it should be fairly good.
Finally, we decided to go to Goldberg’s, the famous breakfast restaurant. As you can already guess we chose the Roswell location, mainly because we did not want to run the risk of anyone seeing Maxine at that hour of the day (let me tell you it isn’t pretty).
Starting off with the pros. The food was great, as always. The lighting is perfect, mainly natural which is always preferred. Also their best factor: the booths are amazing. We did not want to leave because we were so comfy. We ordered a Nova Lox bagel, a bacon egg, and a cheese bagel. Both were delicious and hit the spot in the morning.
There weren’t too many cons, although the main one would have to be the wait. It’s pretty crowded and it does take a minute to get seated, then get your order taken and all. If you are with someone you do not feel super comfortable with, it could be quite awkward. You also run the risk of running out of things to talk about, luckily enough Maxine talks enough for both of us. Also, we found that the bathroom floors were extremely slippery, so another injury-prone situation there. I made sure that Maxine would not use the bathroom there because Lord knows what would happen.
Overall, we rated it a 7/10. It is a breakfast place so you do have to get up relatively early to beat the crowd, but in the end it is worth it for those bagels.
Those are all the restaurants we visited, and our winner would have to be Fellini’s. Not fancy. Just the perfect spot for a date. We hope everyone has a great Valentine’s day and we hope you try one of our restaurants. They won’t disappoint.
Then again, you could always head to CVS together for a pack of Twizzlers.
