Date Night has lived in East Cobb since 1985, and one constant throughout our years here is the lack of a good “foodie” restaurant. You can get good bagels, pizza, and frozen yogurt in East Cobb, but besides La Strada, there are not a lot of places that get lovers of food excited. This all changed about a year ago when Seed opened up in the Merchant’s Walk area. We have eaten here before, but not on Date Night. Can Seed put sprouts of flavor in our taste buds on the last Date Night of 2012?

We are joined tonight by our solo offspring, who is home during winter break from college. He likes a good meal as much as we do, and he likes it even more when mom and dad pick up the tab.

It’s a rainy night in Georgia, and the place is packed when we arrive for our 7:00 reservation. We are shown to our table, right in the middle of the Scandanavian-themed dining room. From my seat, I get a good view of the kitchen, which is a constant hub of activity.

Our server takes our drink orders, and on a cold night like this, you want a nice, dark, high-alcohol beer. We both order browns of completely different styles.

I go big and Belgian and order the St. Feuillien Brune. Eve goes for the local (Decatur) Wild Heaven Ode to Mercy. Both are good, but the Belgian is better. It’s a smooth brown with a sweet finish, unlike the heavy coffee flavoring in the Ode to Mercy.

We are hungry, and here’s a great appetizer to split three ways.

The iron skillet cornbread has hints of red and jalapeno pepper and comes in a hot skillet. The butter melts as soon as it touches the soft, crumbly bread.

As we eat the cornbread, we notice how crowded the restaurant is. It’s a Friday night and the tables are turning quickly. The place is abuzz with conversation and server activity. Evidently, the East Cobb economy is not having any problems.

It’s time to order the main attraction. You can go go light with a salad, get a burger, or go heavy with a steak or a chop. I saw the pork chop as we were being seated, and it must have made an impression as that’s my entree choice.

As you can see, it’s gorgeous on the plate, but it comes severely undercooked. I ordered it medium and it comes almost raw. It’s hard to believe that a restaurant that’s supposed to be this good would let this out of the kitchen. I send it back at the first possible chance.

While the pork chop cooks, let’s move to our solo offspring’s meal. He goes for the fish and chips, made with beer-battered blue cod.

The child feels that the batter is too thick and a little greasy. The fish is cooked correctly, but he says that the fries were better. We all had a few fries and they were hot, crispy, and tasty.

Eve orders the North Carolina Flounder, which turns out to be the best dish of the night.

It comes with Brussels sprouts and roasted cauliflower. The fish is flavorful and flaky. It’s crunchy on the outside and moist on the inside. The vegetables are cooked to perfection.

Speaking of cooking, my pork chop returns along with a manager who apologizes for the first version of my meal. It almost looks like I get an entirely new chop. Although it is now cooked much better, it’s still a little on the medium rare side. The chop has a smoky flavor and it’s way too salty. It lays on a bed of pimento cheese polenta and collard greens. The sides are better than the chop, which pales in comparison to the wonderful chop we had a few weeks ago at One Eared Stag on Date Night #52.

After all that food, we still have room for dessert.

Wanting something light, we go with the nightly special, the egg nog creme brulee, which comes with a fresh and crispy gingersnap cookie. What a great dessert to celebrate the holiday season. It does not last long in the bowl.

As we leave at 8:30, there are still people coming in for dinner. We’ve had some hits tonight and we have had some misses. Perhaps we just got a bad chef on a busy night. Seed must be doing something right because it’s packed almost every night and this area would not support this type of restaurant at these prices.

Date Night #55 is our last date of the year. Happy New Year to all of our loyal readers and we’ll see you in 2013.

According to Urbanspoon, we are the 44th most popular food blog in Atlanta, so keep reading and watch us soar! We’ve got a long list of places to go and we look forward to the culinary treats in the weeks to come.