Lunacy Black Market

Great food, tiny portions (except the garbanzo beans – a cereal bowl full)

Cozier than any other tapas lounge I’ve ever been to. The food was amazing, and the chef came out to our table to personally welcome us (as it was our first time).
5 stars!!! Can’t wait to return

I think Lunacy has either closed OR moved as of 10÷1÷2014.

We were in Atlanta from Birmingham for an art opening at the Mammal Gallery and noticed this place was close. To me it is in a kind of weird part of town; it is somewhat empty/​sketchy but there was plenty of parking. We pressed on despite not being able to make reservations.
Upon entering the décor was definitely eclectic and homey. The place probably could seat about 35 – 40 people. Some of the seating was a group of couches around a coffee table which intrigued me. We waited to be seated for probably 5 – 7 minutes and the whole time there was no sign of a server or hostess anywhere. Finally the server/​hostess came to us. When we told her we had a party of six she preceded to tell us that she had to turn down another party of six before us because she didn’t have enough food. Umm, ok. But she was going to go check with the chef and let us know.
Well, she never came back after we waited another 7 – 10 minutes and we left.
We didn’t get to eat but I would try it again just out of pure curiosity. There seems to only be two employees which I’m hoping means good authentic homemade food.

This was my most looked forward to restaurant during my wife and I’s trip to Atlanta.
We went right when it opened on a Friday night at 6pm. While we walked up to the restaurant, a lady was standing at the door. She asked if we were coming for dinner, and we replied «Yes!» She told us she was the owner and was sad to inform us that the restaurant was going to be closed that night, because they were shooting a scene from the new Fast and Furious movie. BUT she said it would be open tomorrow. She was very apologetic and told us she would have a bottle of wine for us the next night.
The next night came, and we again got there at 6pm right when it opened. We walked in and were immediately seated (there was only one other couple there at that time). The place was decorated, well, quaintly would be the best way I could describe. Nothing matched perfectly, but I think that added to the style and ambience of the restaurant.
Here are the dishes we ordered:
Asian Style Beef Rib
Balsamic Mint Beef Rib
Fried Cauliflower
Fried Green Beans
Roasted Mushrooms
Braised Beef
All the dishes were awesome. They didn’t come all at once. I made the comment to my wife that maybe they didn’t come all at once, so that you could savor each dish individually. She said or maybe that’s just how they serve things, I think she was implying I was looking too far into it.
I liked how the bowls and plates weren’t anything fancy. They were from Ikea actually. I know this because we use the same exact ones at home: P. I think the simple dishes with simple food presentations, say that their main focus was on the quality of the food. It was about quality, good tasting food, and that’s what you get.
Oh and about the owner and the bottle of wine. The owner actually remembered us from the night before, came out and offered us a bottle of wine. We declined, so instead she gave us one of the dishes I listed above for free. That was really nice of her.
Definitely some place I will come back to when I’m back in Atlanta!

This place is pretty good, but definitely eclectic. Its located in a slightly less than nice neighborhood and the street is made up of closed stores, barber shops, and DUI lawyers. Me and my boyfriend walked in at around 6:30 and the place was empty, but it did get busier as the dinner went on. The room is decorated with a mix of styles from old farm house tables, old waiting room chairs, plaid couches, and kimonos/​samurai swords on the walls. While it was a different set up, it made the restaurant special and made us feel at home.
The menus were hand written on cardboard and separated by appetizer tapas and dinner tapas. For the most part all of the food is priced from $ 4.50-$ 6.75 which are great prices for tapas in Atlanta. We decided to get the Zolo red blend wine which was pretty good and we were served bottle water (which no one asks for they just get). Before we left though we found out this place is BYOB which I recommend if you come here.
We had about 5 different dishes:
Cabbage salad: delicious and light, one of their most popular dishes
Roasted Mushrooms: served in a red sauce and you get a pretty good portion
Sautéed shrimp: served in a butter sauce with pieces of garlic toast… Really tasty
Braised beef: my favorite dish of the evening. Served with cheese and tomatoes– absolutely amazing
Vinaigrette and mind pork ribs: pretty good but not my favorite tapa of the night
All in all a good date spot and something more relaxed than the other tapa spots in Atlanta.

Lunacy Black Market is so interesting! I came here for dinner on a Wednesday night with my friend. It was pretty empty, which made me doubt its fame at first… But the inside is so home-​y and cute.
The dishes were great! We had 8 dishes altogether. They’re very small share plates, and they take awhile to come out 1 or 2 at a time. I’ll go over some memorable ones.
The Asian style pork was really good. I loved the sauce. The balsamic one was very chewy compared to the former…
The rice cakes were fresh (saw them tweet a picture of them that day) and delicious! Crispy rice on the outside with softer, flavorful, herby rice on the inside.
Shrimp was my favorite! 5 small pieces and they come with slices of garlic bread. I would have ordered 2 if I knew how good they were…
Everything put us just above $ 40. Not bad at all! The highest prices dish was $ 5.75 so it was easy to try almost everything on the menu.
You have to experience this place. It’s pretty unique!

I visited this place during a visit to Atlanta after seeing the high ratings on Unilocal.Food: cabbage salad: a subtle peppery vinaigrette on shredded cabbages. Quite excellent. Balsamic — mint pork ribs. Excellent again with tender spare ribs and a fantastic sauce. It is the best use of balsamic I can remember. The mint leaves didn’t really seem to add much except visually. Finally I had the rice cake. This was not as good. It’s a fried patty of risotto — like cheesy rice. It tasted ok but could easily have been something from a frozen appetizer box.
After taking my order I was essentially abandoned. The salad came 5 minutes later. I waited about 5 minutes after finishing it for the rice cakes. Then another 10 for the ribs. After finishing my glass of water I had to track the one hostess down to ask for another glass. Note that there were literally only 4 customers in the place, all of whom were just sitting and talking.
Meal: the prices are quite cheap but that is deceiving. Yes this is a tapas restaurant so you expect small portions. But typically there is enough to share a little. Not so. I was alone here and with the three dishes to myself was still hungry. I asked for dessert but was informed that they don’t have any tonight (a thursday)
Location. Terrible. Do not underestimate the comments about this being in a shady area of town. I walked here from a nearby hotel and that was a terrible mistake. I have no idea why they would put this restaurant here. Perhaps they are going for the «diamond in the rough» motif. Well, success.
Ambiance. Very unique and cozy. Like sitting in an antique store. I love how the bill was delivered to me as a bookmark in a CS Lewis paperback.
Overall, the food was quite exceptional but too small to share, the service was poor, and the location dangerous. I struggled with the rating because I think the food quality was a 5 star. But I lowered the overall to 3 because people need to realize the other issues.

After reading all the great reviews about this place, my honey and I decided to check it out. Parking was free right across the street, but I have to admit I felt a little uncomfortable leaving my car unattended late at night in this neighborhood. I was prepared for the off-​beat décor. Normally I love that stuff, but I found it tacky rather than endearing. And I normally enjoy unique seating arrangements but the table and chairs we got were very awkward and not at all conducive to graceful date-​night eating. But rather than walk out and go to one of our regular spots, I insisted that we stay and try it. We were really disappointed and won’t eat here again.
First off, bottled water charge? Seriously? I’ll happily spring for sparking water at an upscale restaurant, but this is not an upscale restaurant. The wine selection was limited and not particularly appealing to me. They were out of the wine that we ordered (and apparently didn’t bother to cross it off the handwritten cardboard menu).
The food was mediocre. I guess you get what you pay for. My date and I ordered:
Braised beef — Texture was right but it was way too salty.
Tomato mozzarella — Decent. A Unilocaler below has alleged that these are Hunt’s canned tomatoes, and it’s quite possible. The mozzarella was fresh, though.
Balsamic and mint short ribs — Sounded great on the menu, but they were tough and a little bland.
Dessert — My date and I went back and forth on what dessert to get. The waiter mentioned a crème brulee something-​or-​other and it sounded good, so we ordered it. We were served a teeny tiny blonde brownie type thing. What this had to do with crème brulee, I could not figure out. The waiter also brought us a second dessert «on the house» (I assume that meant, it’s almost closing time and we’re not going to sell all of these) — a lemon cupcake with pink icing. It was too tart for my liking.
The service was slow and not particularly friendly. I may have been more forgiving if our server wasn’t wearing a dirty old sweatshirt — if this is how they present themselves, I don’t want to know what the kitchen must look like.

We had high hopes for this place, but it is all hype. I cannot understand how it has gotten good reviews on Unilocal.The tagline for this restaurant is «uninspired cuisine,» and that is truly an understatement. Prepare to be completely underwhelmed. You could probably get better food out of a can or the frozen dinners isle in your grocery store’s natural foods section. Here’s why you should avoid this place:
1) The food is mediocre AT BEST. The bread (its own menu item) could have come from Kroger. The chicken curry is okay but nothing special. The mozzarella on the tomato mozzarella was rubbery. Nothing was even remotely remarkable. After about five of the small plates arrived, we were so disappointed that we decided to cancel the remaining order and go get a pizza.
2) The service is unprofessional. One server delivered a small plate to us and I asked what it was. He said «ummmm» and stalled. I looked closer and guessed «chicken?» He replied, «yeah chicken.» Asking for water will cost you, since water is a menu item and they don’t mention that they will be bringing you a bottle. Our server tried to sell us expensive wine by pretending she had knowledge about it, instead of admitting she was unable to describe the different varietals.
3) The food takes a long time to arrive. Given that these are small plates and, in their words, «uninspired cuisine,» there is no reason that the plates should arrive so slowly. There is nothing special about the recipes or presentation.
4) It may seem like a good value, since each small plate is only a few dollars. However, given the quality and quantity of each, the restaurant as a whole is severely overpriced. We cut our losses before our final small plates had arrived, and yet we still payed more than we would for better food elsewhere.
Overall, save yourself the time and money and go somewhere else. There are SO many good restaurants on the west side these days. This is unfortunately not one of them.

This place is just completely weird, but don’t let that stop you from coming. Or do, because if you don’t like being seen in a less-​than-​hip part of town, eating on couches and ordering off cardboard menus, this may not be your place. And don’t bring your kids. They are expressly forbidden.
But if you enjoy non-​standard ambience and fantastic food then pull up a thrift-​store chair underneath the boobs painting (take your pick) and chow down. Get the cabbage salad, it is the best thing here. And then eat everything else, too. Our party of five last night ordered one of everything and a $ 29 bottle of wine and just barely cleared a hundred bucks. Our only mistake: we should have skipped the fries (sweet and white potato) and gotten a couple more cabbage salads instead.

This is a short trip from Castleberry Hill. I never would have found it without Unilocal.
The place looks vacant on a Saturday night downtown. The only hint that they are in business is a sign that says «we’re open» because the restaurant is pitch black inside.
Walking in, were it not for the Unilocal recommendation, I would have worried that I wandered into some old lady’s house because that’s what the place feels like when you stare at the antique table in the middle of the room and mistake some of the artwork on the walls for old tapestries.
This place is an experience. It’s a great snapshot of Atlanta. We asked for a couch and were seated in a back corner near a French piece of a furniture, the name of which I probably cannot pronounce.
As others have mentioned, the menus are on pieces of cardboard. My date had a slightly different menu than I did because they are handwritten.
We ordered a quartino of bubbly, the shrimp, cornbread, tomato mozzarella (salad), bbq short ribs, asian short ribs, and two of their desserts, the sweet potato pie and the cookie sandwich.
The brut rose was sweet, but not overly sweet. Definitely a step up from Andre. But I don’t really know anything about champagnes.
We probably held on to our wine menus 5 minutes too long before a server came to take our orders. The servers seemed a little bit flustered this evening.
I put in the order for the 6 or so tapas we planned to eat. I would have figured the tomato mozzarella would come out first, but we were given the shrimp instead. The order came with an individual piece of bread for each shrimp in the dish. I elected to dip my bread into the buttery scampi sauce. The bread was a little on the stale side, but toasted bread tastes pretty good no matter how stale.
Next came the tomato mozzarella. It doesn’t say that it is a salad on the menu, but it is a salad. The order comes with two generous slices of mild, fresh mozzarella atop a bed of chopped tomatoes swimming in balsamic vinegar. This is a great start to a meal.
Next came our short ribs and cornbread. I order both the asian style and the bbq style. They almost served us the balsamic mint style, which I might have ordered had I known it was an option.
I have the same complaint for both short rib versions: the ribs weren’t properly basted in the sauce. Each sauce was very good on its own, but we wished there was more sauce. We were sitting in a very tiny table so it was difficult to arrange everything we ordered or to try to tip the ribs into their respective sauces. Each sauce was very good. I just wish there was more or perhaps an additional side for dipping.
The cornbread was crumbly and barely sweet. I much prefer this northern style of cornbread to the extremely crumbly and dry version made at the Colonnade and Mary Mac’s.
We finished with two dessert selections: the sweet potato pie and a chocolate chip cookie sandwich dipped in chocolate. The sweet potato pie was incredibly rich. The filling was almost like ice cream, and the chilled graham cracker crust took some force to cut into bite-​sized pieces. But it was well worth the effort. The cookie sandwich was very good too. It’s appearance is deceiving because the cookies look fairly typical. They were well made, chewy and whatever the filling in the middle was paired well with the buttery cookies.
Wine: great deal for $ 13, in fact everything is a deal here
Tomato Mozzarella: Two generous slices of cheese
Shrimp: Garlicky, buttery, comes with lots of bread
Cornbread: Crumbly and sweet
BBQ Short Ribs: Sweet
Asian Short Ribs: Barely spicy but aromatic
Cookie Sandwich: Moist and chocolaty
Sweet Potato Pie: Rich, fluffy deliciousness

Lunacy Black Market has got to be set in one of the sketchiest neighborhoods I’ve ever been to in downtown Atlanta, but my goodness, what a gem of a restaurant it is!
I was getting together to have dinner with a friend I haven’t seem in ages, and since we are both wine lovers and looking to do something outside the norm, he suggested Lunacy Black Market, and I, always up to try something new, readily agreed.
So imagine my surprise, when on the way to the restaurant we passed: the courthouse downtown, a deserted bus stop filled with graffiti, the IRS building, a group of homeless people standing around a parking lot, and a floral couch left out by someone near a storefront. Off in the distance, I could see the curve of the Georgia Dome. I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore.
We stopped along the most unassuming street with many closed up shops that looked almost entirely deserted, then he led me over to Lunacy which has it’s name painted on the windows and almost nothing else to distinguish it to those unaware of where to look.
Once inside, I was again, struck with how different this ‘restaurant’ is. Kimonos, Chinese paper lanterns, bottles of wine with melted candle wax, shooting range targets, nude paintings, katanas, and more adorned the walls and ceiling, heavy curtains of different fabrics decorated the front windows and doorways, small tables, couches, easy chairs and a giant dining room table half obscured by bottles and bottles of wine made up the seating. At capacity, this restaurant could probably hold 30 people at one time. Max.
Although there’s far less than 26 tables in the whole place, that’s where we were seated (it turned out to be the giant dining room table loaded with wine bottles in the center), and the waitress handed us cardboard. Each piece of cardboard contained the white and red wines available and the tapas for the night. She also told us the specials which weren’t on the menus.
I have to say, the novelty of everything just grew on me throughout the night, and service was excellent. The people rotating in to serve us were probably some of the friendliest servers I’ve ever had. They were just great, nice people.
In the end, we ended up ordering two half-​bottle servings of wine: one riesling, one tempranillo, the fried cauliflower, balsamic-​mint glazed short ribs, and tomato and mozzarella. And I need to mention that the prices are ridiculously reasonable, no bottle of wine was over $ 25, and no tapas was over $ 5.
Everything, in our opinions, was great. The mozzarella and tomato was fresh and creamy and the balsamic olive oil dressing was a perfect flavor kick, the cauliflower had good flavor (and I’d never have guessed it was fried), and the ribs were very tender and flavorful. And the wine was perfect — I normally am not a big white wine fan, but the riesling we had was just the right combo of sweet and dry, and the tempranillo was rich and flavorful.
Overall, it was an excellent first adventure to Black Lunacy Market, and although Chef Paul did not come out to greet the diners that night, I will definitely come back in the future, and hopefully he’ll appear then. This place certainly isn’t for everyone, but if you’re adventurous, up for something different, and looking to go off the beaten path, you won’t be disappointed here.

I agree. This place is great.
I was in town on business, and hiked from downtown. It’d be a very short cab ride from the CNN Center or Olympic Park.
I didn’t have a reservation, but was seated solo right away on a couch. The waitress recommended a Malbec (no beer here), and said I needed 5 – 7 dishes. That was a bit much, but I ate it all because it was sooooo good. The server said the wine was what they had for staff meal every day, so that was cool.
The cabbage salad is amazing. So good I’ve attempted it at home and got pretty close. Shredded red and green cabbage, walnuts, gorgonzola. I had a shank or something, very tender, and the rice cakes. The braised collards were very good, but came 15 minutes after everything else. That was ok, but I was getting full.
I had a brownie type dessert which was not good, but hey, 7 for 8 is pretty awesome.
To top it off, my whole bill, with a good tip, was less than $ 60. I think it was less than $ 50, but the Malbec…
Great place. What a find. Thanks, Unilocal and thanks Lunacy.

I love this place, and I cannot wait to go back again.
My supervisor and I started out with the purple cabbage salad with gonzola cheese and walnuts. It reminded me of Vietnamese salads. Instant love!
We loved the sauteed shrimp too. My supervisor found it a bit spicy (she is super sensitive to spice), but I was fine. I liked it a lot.
The Mediterranean styled chicken was also good – It tasted almost like Indian curry. Yum!
The braised beef w/​Ricotta cheese and peppers was yummy! The beef was so tender and so soft and so juicy. It was really good.
The Lunacy Black Market has quickly turned into one of my favorite restaurants in Atlanta. Everything was so delicious, and it was cheap too! The salad was $ 2.95; the sauteed shrimp was $ 3.95; and the chicken and the braised beef costed us $ 3.15 each. My supervisor and I even ordered and finished off a carton of Y+B Merlot. Very good wine, by the way. We had a ton of fun talking to other customers.
Next time, I want to order everything on their menu.

A really creative restaurant! Their menus consist of handwritten items on cardboard, the interior and atmosphere is excellent, and I love that they serve reasonably-​priced small plates. Small plates is probably my favorite way to eat, because it gives you a chance to sample a little of everything off the menu without spending too much money.
Lunacy’s mozzarella tomato (house-​made) and cabbage salad are fantastic. The place also has a nice selection of wines. We also ordered pork ribs and sauteed shrimp, which were alright. The ribs were a bit fatty, but the had a perfect crispy texture on the outside and were marinated in a balsamic vinegar/​olive oil mix that was absolutely delicious. As for the shrimp, it was pretty good, but nothing extraordinary.
I love that this place seems to experiment with different dishes and cuisines all the time, so I will probably come back again. Items on the menu can either be absolutely amazing (like the cabbage salad & mozzarella) or just average, so how you like the food will really depend on what you order. Definitely will come back with friends though, because of the atmosphere, experience of sharing small plates, and the interesting menu!

Ok I can’t rant and rave about the food in this place as everything is below a $ 5 price tag and appropriately so. The space, however is a sight to see with service that treats you as if you’re family. You can literally try everything on the menu in one sitting without breaking the bank and that includes wine free flowing from your glass.
The food is all about comfort and simplicity. The flavors scream the same. I wish it had a little more finesse but that would probably drive the prices up and no one wants that since it is Luancy’s driving force fro patronage.
Venture out of your neck of the woods for an easy going night out. You’ll be pleasantly surprised.

So let me start by saying I should have written this review about 3 weeks ago when we went there. I absolutely cannot remember all the dishes we tried so I won’t even attempt to go into detail.
Here some things you should know:
1) This is in kind of an off the beaten path kind of location. Not exactly where you would expect it, but it fits the restaurant perfectly
2) It is somewhat eclectic. There are a mixture of seating options — mismatched chairs and tables, or sofas and coffee tables. The art on the walls is funky/​mismatched/​cool. The other furniture was Goodwill-​ish. This is all part of the experience — enjoy it!
3) Their food & wine menus are written on cardboard. This is also part of the charm. It seems like the menu changes frequently, so I think this makes sense. It is also eco-​friendly. =)
4) Everything we tried was AWESOME. There were some asian flavors, indian flavors, and southern flavors and somehow the whole thing just worked. I know we got garbanzo beans in a curry sauce that were out of this world and several meat dishes that were delicious too. I don’t remember the rest, but I would suggest asking your server for suggestions and just ordering a bunch of things (the dishes are mostly less than $ 4 each so you can try some of everything!).
5) We went on a Friday night right when they opened (about 6:30pm) and it was empty so we didn’t have a problem getting seated or getting our food quickly (we were on our way to a birthday party). It did start to fill up later (7:00/7:30pm) though, so arrive early. I’ve also heard they run out of food so that’s a good reason to get there early-​ish as well.
Overall you need to have an open mind, and be a little adventuresome. The food was great and any foodie will appreciate all the lovely dishes they serve. Enjoy!

Unfortunately Atlanta is not really setup or ready for this kind of cuisine or foodie experience. Unfortunately the restaurant scene doesn’t dig deep to impress us with QUALITY other than burgers. So to make this concept profitable and work for the owner the YOU the customer WILL HAVE TO PAY… with a long wait and possibly some general discomfort. However, if you are lucky to get seated, this place is one of my Atlanta favorites.
Large parties — don’t waste your time. The tables are setup for couples and they don’t have many of them. They really aren’t setup to do large parties. During the hour wait I saw 3 large parties either get turned away or just leave. First there really isn’t a waiting area and there isn’t a bar… so you may end up standing on Mitchell street.
Get there early, get there late… I’m not really sure. They start turning people away around 9 pm if the place is packed. It has odd hours too so make sure to check.
But if you have time (this will be the only event of the night don’t expect to eat here before a show at the Fox) and… are on a date (that you don’t mind spending A LOT of time with) go there and get my
MUST HAVES
Cabbage salad — Delightful and something special
Any and all red meat or pork (He knows how to cook this perfectly. just yummers)
The menu changes an everything I had was awesome
Please support this establishment. Its kind of quirky, family run, warm and cozy and kinda cook yawesome date night place. …and most importantly the food is UMMMM… delicious.

Is it me or are they trying to be different? The décor is very naked African soul meets Asian with topless paintings followed by real kimonos hanging off the walls and paper lanterns off the earthy color-​blocked ceiling. And they hand you your check in a paperback book. «She’s come undone» by Wally Lamb being mine (hey I actually read this one!).
The food itself was very blasé. More like a mix of southern/​spanish influence. Guess that’s appropriate for a tapas place in the ATL.
Mozzarella with tomatoes, button mushrooms, and green olives on a flourish of olive oil and balsalmic vinegar — what’s not to love? My favorite things all together. It came with some soft baguette pieces.
Sweet potato fries are more like oily, large sweet potato cuts with sea salt on them. Sadface!
The ropa vieja was tender but lacked flavor. I enjoyed the side of roasted red pepper but hated the creamy white stuff they put next to it. I have no idea whether it was sour cream or ricotta cuz I generally stay away from creamy white stuff!
Crowd consists of old men in suits to solo working women to a guy with a Mohawk.
Overall the décor trumps the food. Perhaps dinner tapas will be better if I get a chance to come again.