Cafe Gecko

Walked in and immediately got blasted with second hand smoke. Turned on my heel and left. Disgusting.

Loved the original Cafe Gecko on Beltline. No idea they had one in The Colony, so had to stop in for lunch when we spotted it while we were on a long bike ride.

Ordered my long-time favorite Blackened Chicken Nachos.

So, SO disappointed.

1) This version doesn't have chopped chicken - each individual chip has a HUGE CUBE of chicken on it - most pieces were literally an inch long, an inch thick, two inches wide and practically covered the entire chip.  This dish only works with chopped chicken, not these weirdly massive chunks. I've eaten a lot of nachos in my life and I have never seen this kind of "presentation." There's a reason  no one else does it this way, folks.

2) The chicken isn't real chicken breasts anymore - it's those nasty processed chicken breasts that come already shaped into a rectangle. Yuk.

3) The original nachos had the perfect balance of chicken, chip, blackened spices, melted cheese and creamy sauce, plus the pico with jalapeno to add on top.  Here, every chip was drowning in sauce and the "blackened" part was faint at best.

The whole thing was a mess. Never again, and I won't take a chance on the one on Beltline either.

PS It has the same smoke-permeated divey feel that the one on Beltline has always had - so eat outside if you don't smoke. That's what we did.

First impression: smoking dive-like bar.

Older gentleman was our bartender and seemed as if his dog died and I held the gun. Asked if they had any drink specials & his response wasn't only condescending towards me but he also bad-mouthed the bar across the street in the process. Couldn't finish our first round without tabbing out & leaving for that exact bar he just criticized, and had a much better time there.