The Buckhead Life group is minting money at the Atlanta Fish Market in Buckhead. From the time you pull into the parking lot (three lines of valet parking and cars still waiting on Pharr Road) until the time you leave, all you can think about is the number of people that are enjoying themselves here. Tonight, Date Night celebrates our 33rd wedding anniversary with hundreds of our closest friends.

It’s hard to miss this building. Just look for the giant fish and the large flashing sign. You can also look for the limos and hotel courtesy vans dropping off lots of tourists. Thank you, lovely travelers, for spending your money in Atlanta.

We arrive on time for our 6:30 dinner reservation. Date Night tip: don’t even think about going here without a reserved table. Unless you like to wait, of course. With all of these people, they are behind and we get seated after about a fifteen-minute wait. While we wait, we study the seafood refrigerator.

It’s right there in the front when you walk in and is hard to miss. How do you choose from such a great assortment?

This is just part of the restaurant. There’s a sushi bar, a room in the front, a room in the back, and a party room. All are being utilized tonight.

We finally get seated and peruse the beer list. It’s not as impressive as the restaurant. With so many local breweries in Atlanta, nothing from our city is on tap and only one selection is offered in bottles. It’s mostly convenience-store beer like Michelob and Bud Light. (Note to new Buckhead Life COO David Abes: we are available for free beer list consulting.) This must not be a beer-drinking clientele. Our fellow diners look like they are drinking martinis and many bottles of wine. It’s starting to warm up a bit and we go for something a bit lighter for spring.

We do find two very similar beers, the Weihenstephan Hefe and a Sam Adams Cold Snap. Both look and taste very similar. The German beer is the better of the two.

The warm bread is a nice touch.

The butter melts immediately and I wonder if I could make an entire meal from this basket. Perhaps, but we are here for seafood. Let’s jump right into the water.

The jumbo lump crab fritters are the first thing we share. It always happens that you get an odd number of fritters (3) when there are only two people. That’s OK–we know how to cut one in half. These are excellent fritters and taste a lot like some of the stuffing that we get in our shared entree.

Don’t go here and order anything except seafood. From cod to tuna, they have it all. I don’t know how you could make a wrong choice. The combo platters look good, but we decide to share the special, which is a lobster stuffed with shrimp, crab, and scallops.

They are nice enough to split the order in the kitchen, so the lobster you see is only half of the order. Everything is broiled and we feel so healthy eating it. (Don’t worry, we’ll ruin that once dessert is ordered.) As mentioned the crab is close to what we had for an appetizer. The seafood is nicely seasoned and we both really enjoy this dish.

Since it’s our anniversary, we splurge and wind up with two desserts. So much for that healthy entree. If you tell them you are celebrating a special occasion (and many around us are), they bring you a strawberry shortcake.

The cake is hidden beneath berries and strawberry. Since it’s our anniversary, we can lick the chocolate writing from the bowl without getting scornful looks from our fellow diners. We don’t, resorting to wiping it with our fingers and then licking them.

I am a sucker for bread pudding and in the interests of good blogging, I must try some.

I’m glad I do. It’s got rum in it and it’s covered in a creme anglaise. Some of this comes home for dessert the next day. It’s a sweet way to end the meal with my sweetie.

The bottom line on the Atlanta Fish Market: It’s the place to see and be seen on the weekends. Go for the people watching, and go for the food. Get a table near Pharr Road and watch all of the nice cars come into the parking lot. There’s lots to see here, and there’s even more to eat. We think you will enjoy yourself.