Tin Drum Asiacafé

This Tin Drum location has gone downhill. Orders are wrong far too frequently, and the food itself is very inconsistent from day to day or even from dish to dish. You never know what to expect.
Today, I went in to place a to go order and had to wait a long while. This I understand because they were slammed, but when I did get my food my spring roll was overcooked (still edible, but not great) and I was given Panang Curry instead of the Masaman I ordered. I went back later to get the order corrected. This time I did get Masaman but it was missing avocado and had cilantro which is not listed on Tin Drum’s menu and is a new addition to the Masaman recipe, despite the manager telling me otherwise.
I actually worked at this location years ago under different management, and these days the food leaves much to be desired in consistency and quality, if your order is even correct. it’s a shame.

I love Tin Drum, first time at the GA Tech location. Service was good, but food wasn’t what I expected. Rice was gummy and my shrimp wasn’t hot. I usually stop by the Atlantic Station location and I think they may have spoiled me. Hope they pick it up soon.

Sing chow mien with curry is my favorite… It’s a hearty portion enough for two meals. On Mondays they have coupons for $ 2.00 off…

Reasonably okay food for a reasonably okay price. When it comes to on campus Georgia Tech dining, Tin Drum is not a bad option. Their take out portion for the Panang curry is pretty pathetic. The Atlantic Station location is not as nice, but they have a two entrée + spring roll option for $ 16 if I remember correctly. Wish the GT location had that deal!
I like Tin Drum’s fast causal serve yourself style, mostly because I hate having to wait to get a water refill. They don’t clean tables very fast– I ended up cleaning the table I wanted to sit at when I got there and was meeting some friends. Staff aren’t mean but aren’t particularly nice either.

I have had a Unilocal account for more than 2 years now and never wrote a single review. I feel like losing my Unilocal virginity to a place that has a special place in my heart. Tin drum is a pretty non descript restaurant that is tucked aways in the midst of the Georgia Tech-​Tech square. It’s not even the only tin drum, with 4 such places strewn across the town. One might walk down that square a dozen times and never once notice the place. It is usually filled with students trying to grab a quick lunch before rushing off to their classes and is hardly the place anyone would feel emotional about. To me it is one of the places that defined my grad school life, a sweet little place suspended in time filled with good memories I tap into every once a while. I have been there with my friends, my brother, my crush and even random strangers. I have had tin drum for breakfast, lunch, dinner, before classes, after classes, before interviews, after interviews occasionally raving to the person in front of me about how tofu is a good source of lean protein. I wouldn’t have done justice to this page if I didn’t talk about the food. Well I have almost always had just one item here: the basil fried rice with tofu and it is divine. It is just a simple combination of shallow fried rice with soy sauce and basil but I feel like I haven’t had any Asian food in the US that comes even close to it.
Most recently, I visited it last January, a year after my graduation. I was there walking in the Tech Square, a stranger in a familiar territory, with no known faces in sight. I knew where my legs were taking me and what happened after I entered tin drum was something that had happened a proverbial zillion times. I recognized the waitress at the counter and I saw what I thought was a sign of recognition in her eyes. Maybe I was imagining things, maybe I was heavily nostalgic, I know not.
«Welcome to Tin Drum. What can I get you today?»
«I will have a…(Short pause to simulate thinking even though I had known it for 2 weeks, ever since I booked my flight tickets to Atlanta) basil fried rice with tofu and no meat «
“Would you like a drink with that?»
«No Thanks»
«That would be 8.95, do you need your receipt?»
«Nah, I am good!»
I move to a empty table and finish the food which rarely takes more than 4 min to arrive. It tasted as good as the first, and every single time I have had it. That was the last thing I did in Atlanta. I got out and took the shuttle to the airport leaving behind a tiny part of me in an equally tiny place.
All in all I would give this place a 5 stars, for all the food I ate, all the laughs I shared, all the assignments I obsessed over and all the feelings I felt.

Service is very fast here. It’s a great option if you want to grab a quick lunch when running in between classes. I got the Teriyaki stir-​fry. It came with miso soup. It really does taste like Americanized asian food. The white rice was also not soft to chew as if it had been sitting in the rice cooker for too long. The veggies tastes fresh though. Nothing spectacular to write about, just a fast food lunch option.

I have to come here every time I visit Atlanta. Fast service and great food! Egg rolls and tacos are delicious!

The taste was good, but, it just seemed a bit pricey for me to get 6 pieces of chicken in my entrée. I ordered the «Sesame Chicken «and it was about ²⁄₃ white rice, with about ¹⁄₆ broccoli & ¹⁄₆ chicken. Service was good. I am not certain that I would visit again.

Idk what they are doing at this place but beware of random pieces of metal in your food. I work really close by and will not return or recommend to anyone

The food and service are good but there have been three times they failed to finish the food I ordered online by the estimate time that was given by the system. They have also misspelled my name for seven times.

Pretty good food very close to campus. My favorite dishes are the pad thai and basil fried rice. There are many Asian fusion restaurants that are much better then this in Atlanta but for the location with respect to Georgia Tech you can’t beat it.

Fast-​casual Asian fusion place that clearly caters to college students. Big bowls of cheap food served fast and hot.
You order at the counter, take a number and the food is delivered to your table. I got chicken pad Thai and found it to be utterly bland and the thin noodles aren’t what I expected. You can add your own spice by grabbing a bottle of Siracha, which I highly recommend, because otherwise, the food seems to be rather without taste.
Unless your only criteria are price and quantity, I’d probably skip this place.

This is a great lunch spot if you’re not in a rush. Every time I come here, my order takes 10 – 15 minutes to come out. I typically order the Pad Woon Sen, and it’s more than enough to fill me up. It’s the type of dish that you keep eating, even after you’re full, then food coma afterward. Today I ordered the Spinach Ginger Salad (bathing suit season = dieting :(). The dressing was delicious, and I could taste the ginger, but there was nothing special about the salad itself. Overall, it’s a trendy place with most of its diners being college students or people who work on campus. If you’re driving, expect to pay a couple dollars for the meter.

The food is good, but this location has the same issue as the other one I have been — the acoustics are just terrible. Maybe that’s why they call is The Tin DRUM?
I took my Dad and he had his hearing aids on but it was still tough since you’re in a big reverberating box.
However, a shout out to the staff who was VERY accommodating and welcoming to my son, Dad and I — really made a difference.

This is the original Tin Drum. At least, I think it is. This was my go-​to restaurant when I was a student at Tech. It had and still has inexpensive, quick Asian eats, delicious enough for a college student. Tin Drum is one of the debut restaurants to open with Tech Square in 2003 and it’s one of the only businesses to remain open since that time. They’ve succeeded and have opened up nearly a dozen locations in Georgia over the past decade.
This location is naturally very popular with Tech students. It’s filled mostly with undergrads, though at lunchtime, the office crowd mingles in. The restaurant isn’t very big and lines can sometimes go out the door during peak hours. Tin Drum is a fast casual eatery, not a sit-​down restaurant with table service. You order at a counter upfront and grab things such as drinks (from the fountain machine) yourself.
Indoor and outdoor seating is available. The trendy, contemporary restaurant design’s acoustics can make the interior space quite loud. When the weather is good, the patio is a nice place to sit. The sidewalks at Tech Square are very wide and it’s decent for people watching. Not that you can’t people watch from inside — the restaurant has very tall windows and is located on the corner of 5^th St. and Williams St.
Tin Drum serves a variety of somewhat Americanized pan-​Asian cuisine. Entrees are affordable, generally less than $ 10 each. Lo mein noodles, Kung Pao chicken, teriyaki chicken, pad Thai, etc. In most cases, this place is a step up from one of those generic Chinese takeout joints or mall food court restaurants. The ingredients are better (e.g. all-​natural meats and organic tofu).
One of my favorite dishes here, which has stood the test of time, is the basil fried rice. It’s a tasty and comforting bowl of fried rice with egg, sauteed chicken, basil, onion, scallions, jalapenos, and carrots. Another recommendation I have is the Singapore-​style noodles. Narrow rice noodles are stir-​fried with a yellow curry sauce and cooked with mushrooms, cabbage, carrots, onions, scallions, jalapeño, egg, and chicken. It sounds like the noodle version of the basil fried rice, but it tastes completely different. It’s flavorful and sometimes addicting.
The fresh Thai basil rolls and the vegetable spring rolls aren’t bad either. I don’t recommend the Tin Drum curry chicken. The Tin Drum curry chicken comes with crispy jumbo chicken nuggets covered in a red curry sauce topped with crushed peanuts and served atop a small bed of raw baby spinach leaves. It comes with steamed white rice. Overall, it’s relatively bland and dry.
Condiments such as Sriracha are available in the dining area. I like to ask for dried chili flakes/​powder from the kitchen to add to my dishes.
Unless you go to Tech, happen to be at Tech, or live or work in the immediate vicinity, there’s no real reason to go out of your way to come here. Parking in this area is pay only, including on the street (enforced by PARKatlanta) and in the Centergy and Georgia Tech hotel parking decks. If I want Tin Drum these days, I go to the one nearby in Atlantic Station. It has free parking.

Service is so quick! I think I waited 5 minutes or less for my hot soup bowl!
This is a good place to study or grab a quick lunch or dinner.
Although they don’t have Phở noodles, the menu is still very good!

Tin Drum recently revamped their menu and caught me off guard. I quickly ordered a curry since it was a cold day and a curry sounded good.
The thai nachos were actually super delicious and I would highly recommend it. The only thing that sucks about the dish is how quickly the wonton crisp nachos fall apart. The weight of the chicken, curry and veggies is too much for the fragile chip. You almost need to eat the toppings with a fork and put the chip on top.
Their Tin Drum Curry with brown rice was pretty decent — lots of coconut flavor, and was pretty rich. I was stuffed after finishing the whole bowl.
They also had a dinner deal where you get an appetizer, two entrees, and two mango rice desserts for only $ 20. The mango rice dessert was very meh and I wouldn’t recommend wasting calories on it.
Overall, I think it is a good place for Tech students to stop by for some quick American Thai food, but it’s not the best Thai food you’ll find in Atlanta.

Delicious!
I come here for lunch pretty often. One day and ordered the Teriyaki Chicken Taco and Egg Drop soup. It was absolutely delicious and I savored every bite. My meal also costed less than 5 bucks!
The only reason why this restaurant isn’t rated 4-​stars is because the service requires some improvement. Whenever I dine in, the server will bring my food, promise to bring me a napkin and disappear. S/​he will «forget» to bring my napkin or water and I have to get it myself. While I understand that Tin Drum isn’t that kind of fancy-​shmancy restaurant, I’m sure they can handle giving customers a napkin after eating the drool-​triggering Teriyaki taco. No?

Seoul steak bowl is pretty good. I felt like the portion was adequate, the price was fair as it was a $ 6 special, and the food was flavorful. Really not much to complain about here.
I do wish my food was served at a hotter temperature. It was probably sitting on the counter for a while before it was brought to me. They were pretty busy so overall I think it was good.

I visited the Atlanta location at Tech Square, so there were lots of college kids (Georgia Tech) walking and hanging around having fun with their friends. I like the atmosphere, however; it seems a bit cramped. I don’t know if the actual space is just small, if there is too much furniture in one area or if I’m just used to larger facilities as an American.
The artwork on the walls was a nice added touch. I like the extra large street windows by the aisle seating, so you can sit, eat your food and watch people and traffic go by.
The restroom smelled like someone died in it and there was nowhere for me to hang my purse. I didn’t want to touch anything for fear of catching some kind of disease, but I’m also very germaphobic… VERY! It reminded me of a New York subway station bathroom that had been deserted by the cleaning staff.
I ordered the Teriyaki chicken bowl and it was yummy except the cook put way too much sauce on it, so I only ate about 40% of my actual meal due to the fact that the rest of it was swimming in sauce. The scallions gave it an awesome and intense flavor! My rice was fluffy (the part that escaped the sauce ;) They also give you the choice of choosing regular cutlery or chopsticks to eat with. I chose… *drumroll please*… CHOPSTICKS!
I was on a date here, so we ate our food over good conversation. He enjoyed his food and I mostly just liked the actual experience. If I visit again, I would like to try a different dish and stay a little longer.