Mali Restaurant

Not a fan, service is beyond slow. Angel wings stink, very over-​rated. Mali just okay. I have had better.

We went here on a Saturday night after making reservations via Open Table earlier in the day. The place was super crowded and there were a good amount of people waiting to be seated. We were seated quickly at one of the low tables but then promptly forgotten for at least 10 minutes.
The low tables were fine but I think it’d make more sense to just have guests sit on the floor instead of in the awkward chairs. We ended up just taking our shoes off and stretching our legs out. There were only two of us so I don’t know how they get more than a couple of people to sit comfortably there.
When the servers would remember to check on us they were nice and apologetic. It was annoying seeing people who arrived well after us getting their food before we did.
The food was pretty good especially considering how cheap it all was. The calamari was tasty but too rubbery. The sushi rolls were super tiny and overpriced in comparison to other sushi joints I’ve been to. Their cocktails were cute and tasted good. I tried the Monkey Island and my friend got the Lychee Martini. Unfortunately I spent the night and next morning vomiting profusely so I’m thinking the sushi wasn’t a good idea.

Great service !!! Good food … love the ambiance! For starters… the Angel Wings is a MUST try … it’s so good… I forgot to take a picture! Cost is reasonable! !! Not over priced at all… I had Mali’s Own Grilled Chicken… it was delicious! !!

My co-​workers and I wanted something different for lunch and after searching endlessly on Unilocal,we decided upon Mali and must say we all had a very good experience. Now this review is based on to-​go service but I was super pleased with everything.
Ordering was really easy and even though there were six different orders, the checks were split properly, and all orders were labeled to make it easy for everyone to get their food. The prices are pretty reasonable for decent sized portions. I opted for the Pad Thai which included chicken and shrimp. Full of flavor, not drenched in sauce or anything, and it just tastes really good.
I’ll be back soon!

Food is delicious! (Unfortunately their wine is over-​priced and not quality selection)

Beyond the food, the overall feel and ambiance is what we like about this place the most. The food was incredibly good — the tom yum soup was outstanding and the sushi was actually really good considering where we are! Soft crab was also well above the average. On the fence? Go!

Service was prompt and all staff were polite. The food wasn’t the best nor was it the worst. I had tom ka soup which was excellent but not made spicy per my order. The Flavors were excellent and this was the best part of my meal. The chicken satay was strange. It was marinated in what seemingly was a Indian tandoori type of play on the satay. The meat was tough and didn’t remind me of traditional satay. This was my least favorite part of the meal. For my entrée I ordered spicy basil leaves with chicken and again it wasn’t made to order in terms of spiciness. The flavor was there and subtle but nothing that would make me come back and dine again. At the very best this place was a great location and environment but the food won’t bring me back.

Decent thai food. Has a decent selection of items that may not be at your normal neighborhood Thai restaurant. I bitched out and got the pad kee mao instead of something more exciting, mostly because I was in the mood for noodles. Was served with pad thai noodles instead of the usual wide rice noodles at 99.9% of other Thai places. Wasn’t anything special, but was good. Don’t come here looking for some Thai experience you can’t find anywhere else. What you will find is just solid Thai food that is reasonably priced.

Being pretty new to Atlanta, Mali has quickly become our go-​to Thai place. The food is average price but I feel that their food is more flavorful and they put more effort in presentation (if that matters to you) than most Thai restaurants in that price range.
My favorite dish is the fried catfish but I also really like their curries and noodles. The only thing I wish they had were the wide-​rice noodles.
Service is kind of unorganized and parking can be a pain. Even so,
I will probably keep coming!

This restaurant has three sections heaven, purgatory and hell. Last night we were seated in the lower level hell section. We were surrounded by noisy kids, greasy chairs and dark non-​renovated surroundings. Purgatory is the slightly renovated but awfully drafty section of the restaurant. If you sit at the sushi bar on that level be prepared for no service. Heaven is upstairs and beautifully renovated with the bar you can also sit at and folks actually take your order. So next time if there’s no room in heaven I’ll wait

My girlfriend and I enjoy going to Mali because it is delicious each and every time we go there. Start off with one of their awesome apps. We prefer the Nam Sod and/​or fresh spring rolls. The curries are amazing as well as the pad Thai. We have yet to try everything on the menu but we are slowly but surely getting there.

I have been to Mali for years both in large groups and with a smaller sized party setting. Went most recently last week with many co-​workers. I haven’t not been back in awhile and was impressed with their expansion of the restaurant.
I have frequently ordered the panang curry and ordered it this last time, too. Though I have always enjoyed the food there, not sure what it was about this last time, but I thought it was just «ok». Service was very good, especially considering they had to accommodate our large group. However, the panang curry just didn’t stand out for me, and I really wish they had larger portions for the price. I will likely go back and will give the other dishes a try– perhaps the massaman curry.

Really busy but made reservations on OpenTable so it wasn’t a long wait. Food was full of flavor, from the coconut soup to the stir-​fried noodles. The «Naughty List”(alcoholic drink) was excellent and strong! The server was pretty friendly.

My dad has been really interested in trying out Thai in Atlanta. Since I had a really good experience the first time I came here, so I recommended Mali. I tried out something this go around. I started off with a sushi roll. That was pretty good. For my main meal, I decided to not pick my regular pad thai and went instead for the Pad Kee Mao — $ 12 (chicken, beef or pork)/ $ 15(shrimp) /​$ 15 (combination). This dish is rice noodles sautéed with your choice of meat, tomato, broccoli, carrot, mushroom, onion, basil and pepper in a Thai basil sauce. I didn’t enjoy this very much. I should stuck with my standard order. Funny enough, my parents didn’t like the dishes they ordered and instead swapped with each other as the liked the dish the other ordered better. I ended the meal with a crème brûlée. It was terrible and the top had been burnt to death. I don’t know why I would have thought this was the place to order such a dish anyway. Never again. Since I had such a good experience the first round, I am scoring 3 stars instead of 2.

LOVED Mali Restaurant!
My friend and I were only in ATL for a few hours and were looking for a great place for dinner… boy did we hit the jackpot!
Good location (drove through a cute neighborhood to get there, which is always a plus).
Quick & efficient service.
We ordered the mu shoo appetizer — YUM!
Entrees:
— Yellow curry (I ordered that day’s special which came with seafood and added veggies. The curry itself is great and I highly recommend it! The brown rice was delicious as well.)
— Pad Thai — also an excellent choice!
Large portions, very reasonable pricing, and overall fantastic value! Would definitely go back!

I am writing this review solely based upon one visit for take out food. It was a simple and easy process for take out, arrived and waited a little bit for the food. I was impressed with the interior and the scene, definitely an Asian modern/​urban feel with lots of dates there for dinner. I liked the restaurant inside. As far as the food it was one of the best Thai restaurants I’ve tried in Atlanta.
We ordered:
Tom yum soup: delicious! Very similar to the Tom yum soup I had in thailand. More on the sour side compared to a lot of other Thai restaurants in the U.S. I loved it
Massaman curry: creamy, rich curry with robust flavor. The chicken was tender. It was really good
Pad Thai: we usually don’t get this but we’re in the mood for some pad Thai. We loved it! Best pad Thai I’ve had in Atlanta!

WHOA. Mali blew me away, y’all. I have been driving by this place for years wondering if it was good. The exterior of the restaurant is nothing special, so I never stopped until recently. It just goes to show: don’t judge a restaurant by their curb appeal.
The food was awesome. I’m a huge sucker for Thai food, and this may be the best I’ve had in Atlanta. I had the green curry with grilled salmon and it was rich, spicy, succulent, and flavorful. The veggies were all perfectly cooked. The dish looked elegant. I went with my mom and she had the Pik King pork, which was also really delicious. I appreciate that their food was ACTUALLY spicy when they said it would be.
The service was a little poky, but dude, I didn’t even care once I started enjoying the food. The interior was nicely decorated, and they have a cool little patio too. I will definitely return!

We’re sushi lovers, so we’re always excited to check out a new place to get our fix. Not sure if this is going to become a regular spot for us…
We knew the crowd would be crazy on a Friday night, but the service we received wasn’t all that great. After waiting 10 minutes at our table, someone hurriedly poured water into our glasses. I didn’t think that guy was our server because he didn’t say a thing – just filled our glasses and ran off.
After all the time we spent waiting, we had already gone through the menu so we just placed our orders before we lost the server again.
The moo shoo was okay, and the spring rolls were fresh just how I like ‘em. And my Forbidden Mai Tai was good and potent… just how I like ‘em.
We ordered a few rolls: Rainbow, Dragon, and a Shrimp Tempura something – I can’t remember. Along with a few nigiri pieces.
As soon as we began digging into our shared plate of sushi, I spotted a bug crawl out from one of the rolls! It was a bug of the flying variety, but it crawled around on our plate a bit. The server explained that it happens because of the doors being open or something, and quickly replaced our food. We hesitated a bit, but it was late at this point and we were starving so we dived in. The sushi was pretty good.
I ended up ordering the Mali’s Own Grilled Chicken to take home, which was a tad bit dry but good.
Ordering a second Forbidden Mai Tai saved the evening for me…

The place was super packed on a Saturday night at 8pm (prime Atlanta weekend dinner time). We waited for about 20 minutes for our seat after being told we would be seated second in line but then we watching several tables seated before we were. Strange! The lady working the door who told us our wait time was an abrasive woman and made us feel uncomfortable a few times by the way she communicated with her coworkers. We sat at the bar while we waited.
The sushi menu was not very extensive and very basic. It lacked creativity and flavor. The sushi is only six pieces per roll where most places I’ve been to are 8 per roll, plus the price point was just about the same. My husband always order a spicy tuna roll wherever we go and he did say this one had a strong pepper taste.
I ordered the special… pineapple fried rice. The presentation was perfect, served in a pineapple. It was full of flavor served with pineapple, chicken, shrimp, carrots, raisins, cashews and of course rice.
The service was pretty good considering how busy they were and all in all it wasn’t BAD just basic.

I LOVE the vibe of this spot. It doesn’t look like much from the outside, but as soon as I walked in I was pleasantly surprised. The smell of yummy Thai hit me right in the nose. We were seated quickly on a Sunday evening. The Tom Yum soup with chicken was brought out first, even though I asked for shrimp. I was in a hurry so I just mentioned the mistake and ate the soup. A beautiful dish with great flavors… the chicken breast pieces in the soup didn’t add to the flavor though. My drunken noodles with Tofu were delicious; however, when I mean Thai hot, extra spicy, I mean it. I needed some food to make my nose run. Our server was very energetic and fun to work with. I’ll stop by here again if I’m craving Thai in Atlanta.

We had an excellent experience at Mali tonight.
Here is our order:
Apps
Larb Chicken
Spring Rolls
Basil Rolls
Tom Kha
Entrees
Best of the Boatman
Garlic Chicken
Mali’s Grilled Chicken
Desserts
Fried Banana with Coconut Ice Cream
Homemade Brownie with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream
Overall, everything was excellent. The best of the Boatman was very spicy but still had great flavor. The grilled chicken was healthy and extremely flavorful. There was a piece of tendon in it though, but the dish was good enough to overlook that.
All three apps were excellent, as well as the two deserts. The Tom Kha was good, not excellent but very good. The larb chicken was very flavorful, the mint and lime were both very prominent.
We will definitely be back as our family loves Thai food. Yum.

I’m flummoxed by Mali’s semi-​recent redesign and expansion. I had high hopes, but they were dashed. I went recently with some pals to check it out, and I gotta say, it’s beautiful inside. nicely done atmosphere-​wise. but (you knew that was coming) there are some critical flaws:
* the new seating/​chairs are atrocious. we made a reservation on a Tuesday night and were seated at a high-​top bar table. the chairs at this table were rickety and not comfortable in the slightest. I have long legs and they were falling asleep about halfway through the meal.
* we ordered chicken satay, which was rubbery and uninteresting. the presentation was nice, but other than that very, very meh.
* I found my sushi to be surprisingly lacking. I had a fried salmon roll that tasted bland and went nowhere. I also had a piece of tough, rubbery smoked salmon nigiri that I’ll never order again. the yellowtail was the highlight of the evening: buttery and full of flavor.
I’d like to see the restaurant rethink its seating plan. if you’re going to have a fine-​dining establishment, you need comfortable chairs – full stop. and from what we could see, none of the other chairs made sense, either.
For a joint that’s proud to be nearly double the size, I was less than impressed.

Yummy in my Tummy!
Never been to Mali so wanted to try someone place new and I am glad I did! Surprisingly crowded on a Sunday evening!
We started off with the Yin & Yang which sounds much more interesting on the menu then on the table. They were good but the ricotta cheese was minimal so it felt like we were eating fried wontons. I ordered the Tom Kha Soup with Shrimp. I am a big fan of this soup and it was delicious! The soup had mushrooms, cilantro and two nicely cooked shrimp. Soup was great to have considering it was cold in there. We sat upstairs closer to the back windows and it was cold! Another party had all their coats on as well! So be prepared as it gets colder in Atlanta.
For an entrée I decided to try something new so I got the Massaman Chicken. The flavor was delicious!!! There were several pieces of chicken and on first site I thought the portion was small, but after eating it all it was just enough. My only thing is this whole white meat chicken. Sure it’s cheaper to use but can it be juicy? Sure the dish has sauce and plenty of it but nothing can really help white meat chicken but cooking it correctly. So to make it awesome I would need juicier chicken, otherwise it was a win for me.
We also ordered the Famous Seafood Noodle and it was very good. The portions of shrimp and scallops were great! The only thing is my niece tried to get it with glass noodles and they wanted to upcharge $ 3. For some noodles? That’s like up charging for rice. Oh wait they did that to. I got white rice but my nephew wanted brown and that was an up charged. Really? Upcharge for shrimp sure, but rice and noodles? Errr, not really a fan of that.
Overall the customer service was excellent, the food was good and I would go back. Looking at what others ordered everything is presented really nice and looks good! They have a full bar with draft beers, wine and sake and a sushi bar. I would say this is a nice well rounded Thai restaurant.