"Once you mention the spacious, upbeat dining room and the spice-packed shareable Mexican dishes, Decatur’s Casa Balam becomes an agreeable solution when your friends are spending more time debating where to eat than it would take to actually eat. It’s not your average margarita night with the gang. This restaurant processes their own corn in-house for tortilla dishes, excels at fish, like tacos de pescado with crackly breading over flaky flounder, and makes really great cocktails (like the sweet, electric blue El Azul mezcal cocktail). You can also order family-style with half or whole portions of beef birria." - nina reeder, juli horsford, jacinta howard