Dekalb Farmers Market
3000 E. Ponce De Leon AveDecatur, GA 30030
(404) 377-6400
http://www.dekalbfarmersmarket.com/
Pros: A variety of food for a low price, yummy samosas
Cons: No credit cards, often crowded
It should be crime to live in the Atlanta metro area and not visit the Dekalb Farmers Market. If you haven't already been here, be prepared to spend the better part of an afternoon picking out fresh produce, meats, and pastries. A description of the farmers market itself, deserves its own web page, so this review will focus on the restaurant portion.
The restaurant follows a cafeteria-style salad/buffet line. This line boasts a huge variety of cuisines. Although the actual dishes will vary from day to day, you can usually expect to see some American dishes, some Indian dishes, a few with an Asian flavor, and some with a bit of an Italian flavor. The amount you pay is based on the weight of your dish, save for a few exceptions. One of those notable exceptions is the samosa selection. These are not your standard samosas, but have a variety of fillings, including lentil, beef, lamb, and your standard potatoes and vegetable. Be sure to save room for at least one of those samosas. For a place that charges by weight, you can easily fill yourself up for a fairly low price.
Although the restaurant section does not serve desserts, you can always venture towards the pastry section of the Farmers Market and grab something sweet. To tell you the truth, this portion of the market is always crowded, and we have not yet had a chance to really try out the pastry section. But if it's anything like restaurant portion, we could stuff ourselves silly then need one of the shopping carts simply to wheel ourselves out of the market.
The only real downside to eating at the restaurant is that it operates much like the rest of the Market...no credit cards are accepted. Also, given that everybody visits the market, expect to deal with some serious crowds.
