Toco Hills Shopping Center — Attraction in Decatur

This is an interesting shopping center because it's big and has many unique businesses. I would called it pocketed because it has areas of shops that go well together, and depending on where you are it feels like different shopping centers. There's a Kroger side and a Publix side.

This is a good shopping center if you want to be waxed and shined. There's a tanning salon, a waxing business and two nail salons in the same small area near Publix. After some type of service you can then go into the bagel shop for a coffee, wander into Publix for cheese samples, visit the pool store to learn new things about pool chemicals, and onto the hardware store to buy a fancy looking key with colorful stripes on it. There you go...a mini vacation for cheap without walking very far. If you need a different type of vacation go to the other end, tour Pike's plant nursery and then browse the bookstore. Try Bruster's ice cream and remember you are far away from the other side of the complex. If you drive/walk across the street, there are quite a few massage businesses, natural food stores and holistic health services in this area along North Druid Hills Road. Also near the Steak'n Shake is a great vitamin store, they have everything, even things that are hard to find and have to be kept refrigerated.

Sometimes people just need a place to park and catch up on texting- this is not really a parking lot with shady trees, or much shade at all. If you're thinking about driving around the back of the shopping center buildings to look for shade or to avoid parking lot traffic, I wouldn't recommend it. It's busy back there, loading docks with a narrow bumpy road and construction scraps near multiple dumpsters. This is a work area.

Something to keep in mind if you're driving at night is Atlanta's growth- lots of large machines are grinding everything organic into tiny bits, so animals are learning to live closer to urban areas. I've had a coyote and a huge buck (male deer) run in front of the car in this area around 4am. Just drive carefully, don't speed, and pay attention. If you're sleepy at 4am then the Dunkin' Donuts (they have wi-fi) and Steak'n Shake are both open 24 hours. Also the CVS is open 24 hours here so it's a good night...

Ha! Where to start, where to start!!! The "girl" who sat us was actually our waitress! So let's begin, we had just arrived in Atlanta and got settled in our hotel! It was my fiance's birthday so instead of staying in we decided to grab something to eat and maybe a few drinks since it was a little late and we had just got off the road we didnt feel like doing to much! Anywho, we decided on Chilli's since we dont get to eat there much with us not having one in our hometown. So boom, we arrived and we were greeted by the bar tender! The hostess/waitress walked up. First impression was not the best ! Nobody explained that we had to scan a barcode to view the whole menu so I ended up having to ask(no biggie, even though I shouldnt have had to) anyway she brings us our drinks and we order ... our food comes and I can't lie my food was delicious but we did have to send my fiance's food back because they were pork ribs and they were just nasty... in between all of this the waitress never asked if we needed anything else, never refilled our drinks and then it took at least another 30 minutes to get my fiance's new order out by then we were completely fed up and let the waitress know we just needed the check... YALL,,, THE MANAGER STUCK HIS HEAD OUT FROM THE KITCHEN AND WENT BACK IN... NEVER CAME TO ASK AND CHECK TO SEE WHAT REALLY MAY HAVE HAPPENED!!!! IT WAS ALL BAD I WOULDN'T TAKE MY WORST ENEMY TO THIS PLACE... OH AND THE WAITRESS WAS DEFINITELY NOT PROFESSIONAL LOOKING AND I COULD SENSE HER VIBE OF NOT WANTING TO BE AT WORK !!...

It's a large shopping center. It has many nice things but they jacked the rents up and drove almost all of the original businesses out of the shopping center. Parking lot is not great. They have tons of spaces but the area in front of Publix/Ace and all those businesses is pretty limited especially during peak times. Toco Giant is one of the best package stores in all of Atlanta and luckily it is still there. Spiller Park coffee has really good coffee but you'll need a 2nd mortgage to go there with any frequency and Atlanta Coffee Roasters around the corner also has great coffee for a much more reasonable price, but minus the pretentiousness or cool-factor. I hear. They are throwing a Hudson Grill in where the Famous Pub used to be...so that will be...