For months now we had planed our trip to Atlanta for Dragon Con 2016, what we didn’t realize was how much there was to see and do in Atlanta outside of the convention. In the time we spent there we ate some of the best food, met some great people, encountered new places and lived it up as much as we could. It was simply a trip worth repeating over and over and I hope you enjoy the next few posts detailing my trip, where you should eat if you are in the area and what you should experience.

Day one was an early flight out of Boston, and though we were exhausted landing in Atlanta mid morning we started living it up the second we landed. We took some pictures of the  “forest” in the airport (yes this airport had themes), had some of the best breakfast I have ever had in my life and then set out to experience the convention along with some other great food choices.

Riding the “Plane Train” at the airport

Walking through the forest themed part of the airport

First up was Thumbs Up Diner, a breakfast place I found online prior to our trip and had bookmarked. Hands down the best breakfast experience we had in Atlanta.

Brick Facade

100% New England Maple Syrup  🙂 🙂 🙂

Relax, its just eggs 🙂

Ready to eat our Southern breakfast!

Standouts:

• Fried Catfish
• French Toast
• Pecan Pancakes
• Biscuits

I ordered the “Southern Breakfast” which came complete with fried catfish, tartar sauce, biscuit, grits, eggs and then ordered a pecan pancake on the side. It was absolutely incredible and stuffed me to the gills. Plus they had awesome coffee and a diner isn’t a diner unless they have awesome diner coffee.

Catfish, eggs with cheddar, multi-grain biscuit and wheat toast

Pecan Pancake – incredible

Everything our friends ordered was also stellar and they raved about their amazing breakfast. Definitely a must if you are in Atlanta and eat as much as you can 🙂

Shrimp Skillet

Italian Omelette

Grits with Butter

Best French Toast  – a must try!

After that incredible breakfast it was time to nap 🙂 so we could then experience Dragon Con on Thursday, which was a bunch a people coming together in costume or not to party, meet people and have fun.

Dragon Con was in its 30th anniversary year this year and it is one of the best conventions I have ever been to. Incredibly large, spanning five large hotels in downtown Atlanta and its a convention in which the whole city gets involved in and participates in. Well organized, incredible fun, tons of people and a wonderful city. So glad was able to make it!

Ready to go in our GiveWave Studios Sims Plumbobs

Welcome to Dragon Con!

Cas from GiveWave Studios & Pikachu!

Looking up, Marriott Hotel

We found Castle Crashers

Some great costumes and builds

Pokemon Go enthused!

Daft Punk cosplay!

Some of the crowds Thursday , pre convention

Someone did a Sharknado cosplay! 🙂 🙂

Battling it out with Aliens

After the festivities we decided to try another spot I had bookmarked prior to the trip. A ramen place located about 10 minutes from downtown Atlanta. Ginya Izakya was mind blowing, and when I say this I mean it. I have tried several different ramen places, all good- this particular one blew those out of the water.

Presentation, decor, ambiance, quality of food were all spectacular. I cannot wait to go back and try this incredible place!

They had authentic Japanese posters everywhere

Chef Bar

Drinks Bar area

Standouts:

• Pork Belly Kushiyaki with sea salt
• Chicken & Scallion Kushiyaki with Teriyaki glaze
• Plum Wine
• Tonkotsu Tan Tan Ramen
• Taiyaki (dessert)

We started off with an incredible Plum Wine that was smoky, rich and sweet and the more you drank the deeper you went into relaxation. Perfection.

Plum wine was soooo good!

We then ordered some Kushiyaki which were meat skewers composed of all different kinds of meats. These were rich and flavorful, a perfect appetizer to our main meal which was the ramen.

Close up

Another close up 🙂

L to R: Chicken & Scallions w/ Teriyaki, Chicken gizzards w/Teriyaki and Pork Belly w/ Sea Salt.

I ordered the Tonkotsu Tan Tan Ramen which was composed of a spicy sesame broth, tan tan pork, boiled egg, scallion, bamboo shoot and bok choy. The flavor of this broth was rich and smooth even creamy. It was like eating velvet every time you took another sip and taste.

Velvety smooth ramen

Close up, look at the sesame! 🙂

I also ordered some Yaki Onigiri which was a rice ball filled with salmon and topped with tamari soy sauce. Very rich, I was only able to eat about a couple bites…but very good.

So good!

Close up

The night ended with an incredible dessert called “Taiyaki”which was a fish shaped donut filled with red bean paste. It came with fruit and I asked for Green tea ice cream to be served along with it. Let me say this, I was wary of trying a dessert with “red bean paste” but it was so so good!

Beautiful plate

Close up! Loved the fish shape 🙂

Our first day in Atlanta was fantastic and filled with some incredible food, as a blogger of all things even in this first day I felt fulfilled. I was able to experience so much while in Atlanta and had such a good time that writing about it makes me relive all the amazing moments.

Hope you enjoyed this post about day one, stay tuned for the rest!

Life As A Maven- doing those Maven things always 🙂