Ah, the holidays. Time to eat, reflect on the past year, and then eat some more. And eat we did in 2016, publishing 34 reviews of restaurants all over Atlanta. From north to south, we traveled the city to bring you what we like to call “the best restaurant blog that nobody reads”. Actually, someone reads this blog as we had over 8500 visitors who read 18,000 reviews this year. In case you were wondering, our most-read post was our review of The Real Fix in January.

Since it’s the time of year where everyone likes to write about the past twelve months, indulge us as we present our studs and duds of 2016. Can we get a drum roll please…

Hit: Pork, the other white meat. The pork chops at Porch Light Latin Kitchen and Peach and the Porkchop were two of the best we have ever had.

Hit: Reformation Brewery in Woodstock. Such good beer. And so close to our house.

Miss: Gose beers and sour beers. Yuck. Has anybody actually tasted these things or is it so trendy you don’t notice how awful they are? Let’s get back to basics, brewers, and give us no-gimmick beers like these:

Miss: Food trucks. They have become overpriced, and the quality is not there. Throw in sometimes-long lines and no place to sit, and the result does not justify the dining experience. If you own stock in a food truck, it might be time to sell it.

Hit: Downtown Woodstock, the place to be in Cherokee County. Too bad we live in Marietta. Our square is serviceable, but we seem to have enjoyed Woodstock more in 2016..

Miss: Overly loud restaurants. Lusca was so loud that they closed. The jury is still out on Pizzeria Lucca, who claims to have done something about their noise problem. Our ears are afraid to go back and hear for themselves.

Hit: We wait four years for the Holman and Finch burger and it’s everything we expected. Best burger in Atlanta? Perhaps.

Miss: Hoof and Ale, our favorite gastropub near our house, closed after three years. I guess we didn’t eat there enough. Fortunately, it was replaced by the always-excellent Mezza Luna. Our new favorite place for a burger and a beer is now Moxie Burger in Roswell, which we probably should review in 2017.

Hit: Chef Doug Turbush and the Drift Fish House and Oyster Bar. It was one of the best meals we had all year, and we only had to drive two miles to eat it.

Miss: Food bloggers who sell advertising on their sites. We recently surfed across one site (who will remain nameless) that had so many ads, you couldn’t find the text to read the blog entries. Date Night is proud to say we have always been 100% ad-free. We do this for the fun, not for the money.

Miss: “You Know My Name, Look Up The Number”. Worst Beatles song ever. Just put that in there to see if you were paying attention. You can see a good cover it here, although we are not sure why you would want to..

Hit: Our Date Night readers. We have been at this for 5+ years and we really appreciate the people who read this blog, especially those of you who have subscribed. We hope you have a Happy New Year and a calorie-filled 2017. We’ll probably be on hiatus in March and April (more on that later), but count on us to bring you many more restaurant reviews in the year to come.