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Post by ganews on Nov 27, 2017 20:36:40 GMT -5
You'd think we would have this thread already.
Taylor Gourmet
The Wharf, Washington DC
When 3/4 of your menu is hoagies, you will inevitably be compared to Subway, Potbelly, etc. So: twice the price of Subway and twice the wait for a fixed sandwich construction. The only customization was choosing the bread. The hoagie was wrapped in paper, and upon unwrapping the non-meat non-cheese ingredients spilled right out. (Wifemate's too.) Also the 6 inch, $8 sandwich was cut in half. Pretty sure even with these tiny hands I can handle a 6" sandwich, guys, stop trying to make it look bigger. There was also artisanal soda and no seating. The cheese in my sanwich was the only notably tasty thing; for Wifemate it was the opposite. Pretty weak, but still a better option when we're trying to eat before the concert next door and don't want to stand in line forever at Shake Shack.
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Post by Roy Batty's Pet Dove on Nov 27, 2017 21:09:15 GMT -5
You'd think we would have this thread already. Taylor Gourmet The Wharf, Washington DC When 3/4 of your menu is hoagies, you will inevitably be compared to Subway, Potbelly, etc. So: twice the price of Subway and twice the wait for a fixed sandwich construction. The only customization was choosing the bread. The hoagie was wrapped in paper, and upon unwrapping the non-meat non-cheese ingredients spilled right out. (Wifemate's too.) Also the 6 inch, $8 sandwich was cut in half. Pretty sure even with these tiny hands I can handle a 6" sandwich, guys, stop trying to make it look bigger. There was also artisanal soda and no seating. The cheese in my sanwich was the only notably tasty thing; for Wifemate it was the opposite. Pretty weak, but still a better option when we're trying to eat before the concert next door and don't want to stand in line forever at Shake Shack. Define "artisanal" soda. |
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Post by The Spice Weasel on Nov 27, 2017 21:11:58 GMT -5
You'd think we would have this thread already. Taylor Gourmet The Wharf, Washington DC When 3/4 of your menu is hoagies, you will inevitably be compared to Subway, Potbelly, etc. So: twice the price of Subway and twice the wait for a fixed sandwich construction. The only customization was choosing the bread. The hoagie was wrapped in paper, and upon unwrapping the non-meat non-cheese ingredients spilled right out. (Wifemate's too.) Also the 6 inch, $8 sandwich was cut in half. Pretty sure even with these tiny hands I can handle a 6" sandwich, guys, stop trying to make it look bigger. There was also artisanal soda and no seating. The cheese in my sanwich was the only notably tasty thing; for Wifemate it was the opposite. Pretty weak, but still a better option when we're trying to eat before the concert next door and don't want to stand in line forever at Shake Shack. Define "artisanal" soda. Usually small batch syrups made with all natural ingredients. |
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Gumbercules
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Post by Gumbercules on Nov 28, 2017 7:33:37 GMT -5
You'd think we would have this thread already. Taylor Gourmet The Wharf, Washington DC When 3/4 of your menu is hoagies, you will inevitably be compared to Subway, Potbelly, etc. So: twice the price of Subway and twice the wait for a fixed sandwich construction. The only customization was choosing the bread. The hoagie was wrapped in paper, and upon unwrapping the non-meat non-cheese ingredients spilled right out. (Wifemate's too.) Also the 6 inch, $8 sandwich was cut in half. Pretty sure even with these tiny hands I can handle a 6" sandwich, guys, stop trying to make it look bigger. There was also artisanal soda and no seating. The cheese in my sanwich was the only notably tasty thing; for Wifemate it was the opposite. Pretty weak, but still a better option when we're trying to eat before the concert next door and don't want to stand in line forever at Shake Shack. Define "artisanal" soda. The soda jerk provides tableside carbonation by blowing into your beverage with his own glass-blown straw. |
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Post by ganews on Dec 9, 2017 20:12:33 GMT -5
Five Guys, College Park
Still the best cheap burger, plus a generous helping of decent very salty fries, and free peanuts. Every restaurant should have peanuts. We're going to a keg party tonight, and this is the optimal meal to eat first.
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Post by MrsLangdonAlger on Dec 10, 2017 21:31:23 GMT -5
BopNGrill, Chicago (either location)
If you're in Chicago and want a burger, don't go to Kuma's. That shit is overrated and you'll wait two hours for it. Others may tell you to go to Small Cheval. That place is good too. But can you get a kimchi burger there? NO YOU CANNOT. You can at BopNGrill, though, and you can also get kimchi fries and a damn good bibimbap. Also the burgers are fantastic! The meat itself is seasoned deliciously, they actually cook to your specifications (and when you say rare they actually give you rare), and their fries are amazing. There may not be fancy seating, and you may not be able to buy beer there, but if you want the best burger in Chicago, this is where you'll go.
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Post by Pastafarian on Dec 10, 2017 22:19:16 GMT -5
Five Guys, College Park Still the best cheap burger, plus a generous helping of decent very salty fries, and free peanuts. Every restaurant should have peanuts. We're going to a keg party tonight, and this is the optimal meal to eat first. A friend of mine is allergic to peanuts, the one time she walked into a Five Guys, it was like Abe Simpson going into the house of ill repute, she turned right back around and never looked back. I pity her the absence of a pretty great burger and fries (not to mention all the good peanut stuff she's missing) and can only hope that science will soon cure her of her affliction. |
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Post by Pedantic Editor Type on Dec 11, 2017 21:54:09 GMT -5
BopNGrill, Chicago (either location) If you're in Chicago and want a burger, don't go to Kuma's. That shit is overrated and you'll wait two hours for it. Others may tell you to go to Small Cheval. That place is good too. But can you get a kimchi burger there? NO YOU CANNOT. You can at BopNGrill, though, and you can also get kimchi fries and a damn good bibimbap. Also the burgers are fantastic! The meat itself is seasoned deliciously, they actually cook to your specifications (and when you say rare they actually give you rare), and their fries are amazing. There may not be fancy seating, and you may not be able to buy beer there, but if you want the best burger in Chicago, this is where you'll go. It’s true, they also have cheesesteak rolls but learn from me and don’t try to eat those, kimchi fries and a kimchi burger all at once or you will regret it. |
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Post by ganews on Dec 17, 2017 15:47:48 GMT -5
Ikea, College Park
You read that right. Ikea does a holiday party around Christmas, and it's kind of a big deal to a lot of Scandinavian expats like our Finnish-Swedish friend. They put on a pretty good buffet spread: meatballs, salmon, herring, beans, potatoes, other herring, ham, cheese, saffron bread, and some desserts I'm not too fond of. Too bad the mulled wine is just warmed fruit juice. Still, it is literally the best experience one could hope for from an Ikea.
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Post by Albert Fish Taco on Dec 17, 2017 17:57:03 GMT -5
Ikea, College Park You read that right. Ikea does a holiday party around Christmas, and it's kind of a big deal to a lot of Scandinavian expats like our Finnish-Swedish friend. They put on a pretty good buffet spread: meatballs, salmon, herring, beans, potatoes, other herring, ham, cheese, saffron bread, and some desserts I'm not too fond of. Too bad the mulled wine is just warmed fruit juice. Still, it is literally the best experience one could hope for from an Ikea. Based on other times I've eaten at Ikeas, the dessert was probably lingonberry-based. Growing up those Anna cookies they sell seemed rare and fancy. But they are everywhere now. |
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Post by ganews on Dec 17, 2017 19:15:26 GMT -5
Ikea, College Park You read that right. Ikea does a holiday party around Christmas, and it's kind of a big deal to a lot of Scandinavian expats like our Finnish-Swedish friend. They put on a pretty good buffet spread: meatballs, salmon, herring, beans, potatoes, other herring, ham, cheese, saffron bread, and some desserts I'm not too fond of. Too bad the mulled wine is just warmed fruit juice. Still, it is literally the best experience one could hope for from an Ikea. Based on other times I've eaten at Ikeas, the dessert was probably lingonberry-based. Growing up those Anna cookies they sell seemed rare and fancy. But they are everywhere now. No, the lingonberry stuff is good. There are two chocolate things that are really terrible though, one mound-shaped and sort of coffee-flavored, and the the other brown and green and maybe made with gross liquor? I suppose they would both be better than the nasty things I've heard from our Finnish-Swedish friend's husband, like chocolate-dipped licorice. |
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Post by ganews on Dec 26, 2017 21:37:59 GMT -5
Bandido's, Chapel Hill
I generally take Wifemate to this place every year to eat El Gigante, the burrito so big that if you can finish it alone you get a t-shirt. We share it, and it's quite a generous meal for two, containing all ingredients, and quite tasty. I actually took the challenge once in grad school along with a friend. My friend finished everything but the massive, sopping tortilla. I got maybe 2/3 of the way before deciding that maybe I should not do this to myself. Bandido's was a regular choice for Friday group lunch for my lab. They have a nice lunch special (free sweet tea with a combo), a loyalty punchcard, fresh tortilla chips, a salsa bar, and colorful walls.
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Post by dＬᵒ on Dec 28, 2017 16:18:54 GMT -5
Five Guys, College Park Still the best cheap burger, plus a generous helping of decent very salty fries, and free peanuts. Every restaurant should have peanuts. We're going to a keg party tonight, and this is the optimal meal to eat first. A friend of mine is allergic to peanuts, the one time she walked into a Five Guys, it was like Abe Simpson going into the house of ill repute, she turned right back around and never looked back. I pity her the absence of a pretty great burger and fries (not to mention all the good peanut stuff she's missing) and can only hope that science will soon cure her of her affliction. Well, atleast she doesn't have to ask if the fries are cooked in peanut oil. |
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Post by ganews on Jan 13, 2018 15:32:51 GMT -5
Gus's World Famous Fried Chicken, Greenbelt
Apparently the Memphis restaurant has built up a modestly sized franchise. According to the plastic cup, which in retrospect seems like it was supposed to come home with me as a souvenir, their locations are entirely in the south with a few weird deviations like Detroit, Burbank, and Greenbelt, MD. This location used to be a pretty classy Thai restaurant called Siri Thai, which in Japanese sounds like "butt Thai". Now that Gus's has taken over they have completely redone the place to place to look like it's been there for 40 years: blues concert flyers, folk art murals of famous blues and country musicians done by a local artist, bare cement floors, and a dining room where literally every chair is different and old (the chain must have raided junk shops from across several states for these things). Kind of funny considering what it used to look like. Classic rock was playing while we were there.
I had the two-piece dark meat plate, Wifemate had the three-piece special. Both came with white bread, baked beans, and slaw on a paper plate. The slaw was damn good, I say as not particularly a fan of coleslaw. The fried chicken was good, thick batter...it's fried chicken. Always go for dark meat, it's cheaper and tastier. Actually I'm a bit disappointed because I thought I was getting some Memphis hot chicken, and while this was kinda spicy you could get hotter chicken out of a Burger King crispy chik. The price is a bit high for soul food when you don't get to choose sides (there were other sides on the menu but those were extra). Frankly it still doesn't touch Sardi's Peruvian Rotisserie (the Best Goddamn Chicken) where you get a half bird and choice of two heaping sides for not much more money.
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Post by Floyd D Barber on Jan 31, 2018 16:49:10 GMT -5
Fast Eddie's Bon Air, Alton Il. I am, as I type this, eating a Big Elwood Steak on a Stick, and some peel and eat shrimp, and it is amazing. More about this later, I have to get back on the road. OK, it's later. Alton IL may not be famous for it's fine dining, but Fast Eddie's has been a delight every time I've eaten there. I usually get the Big Elwood, which is a delicious steak kabob, and is only $3.99. Fast Eddie's is a bar and grill with live music every night, but their menu is what makes it stand out. 1/2 pound burgers for $1.99. basket of fries for 99 cents, jumbo peel and eat shrimp for 39 cents to snack on while your meal cooks. They also have homemade bratwurst, Cajun chick-on-a-stick, and pork kabobs, each also very reasonably priced. There's no take out, and you have to buy a drink, but it's still an amazing bargain. Today I was there at 3PM on a Wednesday, and I was able to order right away, and had my food in about 10 minutes, but most of the time, expect to wait at least 20 or 30 minutes, due to the huge volume of food they prepare. Everything is cooked fresh to order, right where you can see it. I have been there several times over the last few years, and I have noticed some of the same cooks from time to time. Watching them work is pretty interesting in itself. They obviously have been doing this long enough that they seem to be a model of efficiency, without a wasted motion. yet, even with all the controlled chaos, the place has always had a relaxing, friendly vibe. None of that would matter if the food wasn't good, but every time I've been there it has been fantastic. I've usually been there around lunch time, but once or twice I got there late enough to hear their band for the night play for a few minutes, and everybody there seemed to be having a great time. It's located a few minutes from the Alton Belle casino, if you're into gambling, and I saw that Fast Eddie's had added some video slots of their own. It's maybe 1/2 hour from St Louis, and if you're ever in the area, it's worth a short detour to experience it. Their food is really good, the price is right, and the place is fun.
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Post by ganews on Feb 16, 2018 22:25:27 GMT -5
Kangnam BBQ, College Park
This place opened up a bit over three years ago in the old space for Seven Seas Chinese, which was disappointing at the time because the latter had a great dim sum. They did sort of a soft opening that we went to, and it looked like it was doomed to failure. The new owners had obviously made a huge investment with remodeling, grills and hoods, and TVs everywhere (they bill themselves as a sports bar & grill). The prices were relatively steep and there were hardly any customers. It was much the same when we went again a year later.
By now they seem to be having great success. It's consistently packed, and the place has a fleet of servers. The Korean barbeque is good. We've never done their BBQ buffet; it's completely unnecessary because the portions at this place are huge for all their dishes. Wifemate likes the spicy stew. I used to like the spicy ramen, but they took that off the menu and started up a ramen bar in the front of the restaurant that we'll have to try out sometime. So now my preferred dish is the seafood pancake appetizer, an smash of every piece of seafood there is mostly bound together. The restaurant style is unabashedly Korean too, a bit surprising for College Park, with wallpaper of pop stars and Korean singing competitions on the TVs (I have yet to see any sports there, except of course for the Olympics).
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Post by ganews on Mar 3, 2018 21:26:36 GMT -5
Blaze, College Park
There is quite a trend of build-your-own pizza places in the metro DC area (on top of the trend of wood-fired individual pizza places), and we are lucky to have the very best right here in town. Like the others, you can add whatever toppings you like for a flat price or choose one of the menu arrangements. Blaze serves a 10" thin crust pie, with options of 4 sauces, 6 cheeses, 9 meats, and 15 veggies. All for $9! Unlike some more expensive places, Blaze does not limit the number of toppings and serves a round pie - seriously, get that crap out of here, & Pizza on U Street. It's darn good, and eating that whole thing will really fill you up. Blaze also features a loyalty punch system, something that was once common in college towns and now seems practically extinct. Of course it's an app now instead of a little paper card for your wallet, but anyway 10 punches for a free pizza is pretty solid; they also have double-punch days reasonably often (like today, hence the review). There are other promotions too, like $3.14 pizzas on Pi Day.
We basically never go anywhere else around here for pizza anymore. There are a few other, more conventional options that aren't particularly cheaper or better, plus your Pizza Huts and whatnot. We also have a Ledo's Pizza, the most locally beloved and highly over-rated pizza anywhere in Maryland. Ledo's has amazing ingredients that could be used to make the world's best calzone but are instead slopped onto the world's worst pizza construction: square cut, which is an abomination unto the Lord. Whereas Blaze has the best music mix I have ever heard in a restaurant; I don't know who their DJ is but they know what's up.
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Post by ganews on Mar 16, 2018 20:54:55 GMT -5
Food Factory, College Park
Despite its rather awful name, this place is one of the gems of this town. It's been around in some form for at least twenty years, according to other locals. They serve various kebabs and other central Asian foods, but I only ever get the buffet. It's $10 and features a shifting lineup of options, but there are always a few fixtures like Tandoori chicken, chickpeas, lentils, spinach, and saffron rice. My god, the saffron rice; it is bright orange and I have never had it anywhere else and it is awesome. This evening one of the offerings was some sort of ground meat patty and potato deal. I don't know what the patty was but it was heavenly, light and puffy in such a way that I can't compare to much besides a Japanese hamburg [sic]. The buffet also comes with a fresh naan the size of the paper plate it is served on. Unexpectedly, paying in cash now gets you a free can of soda.
We don't go there too often because it is too easy to eat until you burst. We took our friends there to eat after they helped us move years ago, and it was universally agreed that it beat the hell out of the usual pizza-and-beer recompense for helping people move.
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Post by Pedantic Editor Type on Mar 17, 2018 20:44:57 GMT -5
Should you ever find yourself in Lombard, Illinois — west of Chicago on the UP West train line — Babcock’s Grove is a delightful restaurant and possibly the best in town. It is steps from the train stop and full of town history, including being in the oldest building in town. The food is inexpensive, delicious and just varied enough, both seasonally and for dietary needs, with vegan and gluten free options outside the norm. They also serve locally made soda, local craft beer and wine. Big fan.
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Post by ganews on Mar 28, 2018 21:56:05 GMT -5
Ruby Tuesday, Greenbelt
Look, sometimes this is just the way life goes. It's not what anybody wanted, nobody had any illusions going in, it's just what happened.
So we got the "two for $25" thing, figuring to get two burgers and salads, because a salad bar is hard to mess up too much, and while the burgers are just going to be frozen patties thrown on a grill, at least it's not a microwaved rubber chicken breast. Well the salad was pretty crummy. The mushrooms were stale somehow and the bell peppers sweet somehow. The burger was not terrible, pretty equivalent to whatever might come from a backyard grill party. The fries were decently potato-y. The desert was a microwaved brownie with vanilla ice cream: fine. John Cougar Mellencamp, Oasis, Journey, Dave Mathews Band, "Mmmbop" playing on the speakers. It was all what you'd expect. Just the sort of thoroughly mediocre thing that somehow happens for some reason once or twice a decade.
In a moment of great potential hilarity, Wifemate spied on on the red "hop on hop off" tour buses that mill around DC all day pulling into the parking lot. I mused that it would be pretty great if a bunch of cornpone American tourists filed out into this crummy little chain restaurant way out in the suburbs off the belt way. Sure enough, at least 50 people came in a giant group, but it was a bunch relatively young black folks instead of white Kansans in their 50s. Also they came out of some other tour bus in the parking lot instead of the Hop On, but still pretty funny. Tourists.
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Post by Nudeviking on Mar 29, 2018 2:33:13 GMT -5
Haecho Kalguksu, Seoul Geumcheon-gu
I ate LUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNCH!!!! here today. It's across the street from my office so I've eaten there many times in my years of working in this office. They've got random noodles and stuff like that. Today we got budaejjigae ("Army stew") which is basically a bunch of random stuff thrown into a stew pot and cooked. There's ham and random pork chunks and noodles and kimchi and the kind of beans British people think are good to eat at breakfast time and rice cakes and other assorted things. They also gave me rice and generic side dishes. It was fine for a meal my company paid for but not the sort of place I would eat if I had to open my own wallet since budaejjigae seems like kind of a waste of money to get at a restaurant since it's super easy and cheap to make at home anyway. [***]
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Post by ganews on Sept 1, 2018 15:18:30 GMT -5
Buffalo Wild Wings, College Park
Ugh I hate this place.
We hung Wifemate's show late this morning, or rather 5/8 of it (three of the frames she ordered did not arrive, as I discovered while putting them together last night, now because of the holiday weekend they won't arrive until late next week). So after a lot of late nights this week, because no artist finishes things ahead of time, she wanted wings and beer.
Sadly B-Dubs as they infuriatingly call themselves is one of the few options around here for wings that isn't just a carry-out. I have never much cared about chicken wings, so I get a burger. It's a bad sign when they don't ask how you'd like it cooked, and it's a really bad sign when the menu talks about how it's squeezed[?] to seal in the flavor. I'm no great cook, but whatever word they used it sounded like pressing the burger with the spatula to squeeze out all the fat/flavor. So my burger came out looking like it began life as a frozen quarter-pounder, no tomato/lettuce, a slice of un-melted Monterey Jack on top. It tasted like beef at least, and the shoestring fries were not awful.
As for the rest of the place, wings are wings, differentiated only by greasiness and sauce. The bathrooms are dirty. The TV monitors and screens are all over the same as any modern sports bar, so I don't know how they manage to seat us in a booth with really terrible views of most of them.
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Crash Test Dumbass
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Post by Crash Test Dumbass on Sept 16, 2018 15:58:54 GMT -5
The Hot Spot, Somerville NJ
This place used to be a The Melting Pot, but it went under and a hot pot place opened up in the space. Being fans of hot pot in general, we went to try it out. TL;DR it was terrible.
PROS: + The potatoes are fingerlings, and the skins help them stay together instead of dissolving like potato slices. + The chicken is sliced thin and cooks quickly. + The water glasses were pretty.
CONS: - The waiter assured us the pink meat was beef. I've never seen beef that color. Veal, maybe. - The broth was cilantro-based. Maybe there were other spices in there (we saw a couple of mushrooms, a few pieces of garlic, and a basil leaf), but the pot was covered in cilantro leaves and that's all it tasted of. - We went for all you can eat on a Sunday lunch. The meat portions were ridiculously tiny (maybe 5 thin slices each), and the dishes had to be ordered as individuals (that is, one of us ordered beef, chicken, and spinach, and instead of enough for our party, the waiter brought out a plate with 5 thin slices of "beef", 5 thin slices of chicken, and a cup of spinach). - The "spicy Szechuan" side tasted almost exactly the same as the "original" side, with maybe half a dozen Thai chilis in the pot. No scallions, no Szechuan peppercorns, no pungency at all. - The sauce bar was out of pretty much everything, and most of the sauces were pre-made (so there was no, for example, soy sauce or vinegar) - The menu items were also randomly out; about 1/3 of what we tried to order, they didn't have. - We got there at 1230, an hour after they were supposedly open, and the door was still locked. Someone eventually came and opened the door. - We were there over 2 hours. It was more than half an hour before the soup even came out, and we only got two rounds of all you can eat in that time. The restaurant is huge, and there was one other group in the entire place. The food is all raw, so it's not like we were waiting on the line being backed up. |
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Post by ganews on Sept 16, 2018 19:50:33 GMT -5
Sushinado & Teriyaki, Hyattsville MD
When was the last time you went to a restaurant and just knew that it was absolutely destined for failure? ...is what I was going to write before I double-checked their name online and found that they have inexplicably solid reviews. Was there actually a sushi burrito craze? What an incredibly terrible idea. The great thing about sushi is the ability to sample multiple rolls instead of sticking to just one. Rolls wrapped in nori seaweed don't properly cover the bottom the way a wrapped tortilla does. This also just limits the potential profit, as no one will ever buy more than one roll per person. Ours were served for dine-in in styrofoam containers (now illegal in this county) with a lump of wasabi, pickled ginger, and a small cup of soy sauce. How do you assemble this? There's no utensil to spread on the wasabi. Do you just pour the soy sauce over, because the cup is too small for dipping? You can't really dip a burrito after you've bitten into it either. No atmosphere, few seats, seemingly no A/C, only drinks come from the take-out cooler; the roll was okay but for $11 a pop we'll never go back when we could do way better for not much more money.
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Post by ganews on Jun 29, 2019 9:33:25 GMT -5
Boston Pizza, Mississauga, Ontario
By the time our delayed flight got in, plus getting vouchers from the desk, plus shuttle to the voucher hotel from the Toronto airport, it was 10:30. The vouchered hotel restairant was closed. Two steakhouse/burger places across the street closed at 11 on a Friday night, wtf, and they both recommended Boston Pizza which was a 10 minute walk away. Exactly 10 minutes, they knew, so it must be decent.
It was not decent. "It's not delivery, it's Digiorno" is ridiculous as a slogan, but this would have made it believable. The company is not from Boston, which I've never been to, but from Alberta, which I have. I've had better pizza at Disneyworld. Wifemate had a 21 oz Keith's which was not bad as random beers go, reminded me of Grain Belt from Minneapolis. I never should have broken my travel rule of "when food is uncertain, look for an immigrant community" (there was a kabob place farther up), but locals recommended it.
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Post by MyNameIsNoneOfYourGoddamnBusin on Jun 29, 2019 21:02:47 GMT -5
FOLK DETROIT, Detroit, Michigan Located in what looks like a nice neighborhood until you realize it abuts a very not nice looking neighborhood, this hotspot could have more easily dropped the pretensions and just called itself "Gentrification: The Restaurant" (next to it is a Golden Girls kitsch themed hair salon and something that looked like a mediation center/cult retreat. Plenty of housing all around too, but somehow I doubt any of their customers live within walking distance. Background: My visit came about due to the local newspaper's recent feature on the top ten new area restaurants of 2019. To celebrate, they sell tickets for a special event at each built around a specialized menu. Not liking to pay for such things, I entered a drawing and won free tickets. I immediately posted an urgent need for a one-plus into the hellscape of online dating and found a taker within a few hours. She seemed tolerable and a date was made. Possibly not the best locale for such an event. The restaurant is incredibly tiny and even though the capacity was my count between thirty to thirty-five, we were cramped pretty close together. I was at a communal table where I found myself continuously bumping my arm into the woman next to me and our table of nine (eight couples plus a woman from the newspaper) were usually having one conversation and there was little room for a get-to-know-you first date. Still, apparently I am charming in group settings and the retirees to our rights absolutely loved us. The food itself was unusual. The place sort of unofficially goes by a mission of brunch served all day. It's a place that doesn't adhere to tipping but still it's hard to fathom how one could put avocado toast on a menu for eleven dollars and justify it to themselves. This evening, which again I paid nothing for, was built around a set five course menu, listed below (minus the wine pairings I didn't partake in: First Course: Little Gem + Buttermilk bisque Second Course: Prawn and pickled strawberry panzanella Third Course: Toast Trio: ricotta+jam // avocado + fermented pickles // chutney micros Fourth Course: Congi: heart greens, seasonal veg, mushrooms, poached egg - pork belly Fifth Course: Chai tea affogato w/ ginger ice-cream The bisque seemed to be the most popular amongst the strangers I was seated with, but I thought the chili sauce probably could have been removed. The second course I quite enjoyed and I had never before found the idea of strawberries on a salad appealing (despite enjoying both separately). The prawn came with the instruction to suck out the "head juice" (I asked for a more appetizing name, but find the juice quite delicious). The third course was three small pieces of bread, which was quite good itself, with the toppings listed above. The pickles over avocado I could have done without (they won't be getting my eleven dollars), but the two others were fine, although I was personally thrown off a bit by the combination of the ricotta and the strawberry jam. The fourth course was good, but nothing I would have considering ordering if this wasn't such a closed menu. For the dessert, we had tea poured over small scoops of ice cream, which I very much enjoyed. The date, a self-appointed expert who told me before in detail her process for making chai, said it was good, but it seemed more to be politeness than a full-on endorsement. Overall, I have to give the food a good rating, although most, if not all of it, was something I would have ordered under normal circumstances. The ambiance rates lower due to the uncomfortable closeness with other diners, but I could see it being a good Sunday afternoon spot if you get a good sized crowd. Terrible for a first date, but I made it work. Not sure I'll be back, but I would recommend it others despite the priciness and the close quarters. EDIT: Some lovely professional photographs: www.freep.com/picture-gallery/entertainment/dining/toptentakeover/2019/06/29/free-press-metro-detroit-chevy-dealers-top-10-takeover-folk/1608936001/
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Post by ganews on Apr 5, 2020 23:22:20 GMT -5
Marco and Polo Hyattsville, MD
The Canadian pizza last summer was so bad I abandoned this thread. Too bad I never talked about the Uighur place nearby that we also went to for the first time lat year. The food was good, and the owner gave us the full tour (we were the only customers). Super cool! He showed us pictures of his travels, pulled a traditional Uighur stringed instrument off the wall and gave us a demonstration, and wasn't shy talking about the genocide against his culture. I felt guilty we hadn't been back, but there's a lot of restaurants around here.
It has been four full weeks before tonight since we had food from a restaurant, the longest I've gone without restaurant food since I was in high school in a town with essentially no sit-down restaurants. And while our home cooking has been pretty darned good, any outside source of fat and salt was primed to be outstanding. I had to call several restaurants of the Asian variety to find one that was open.
Wifemate got the leghmen hand-pulled noodles with lamb, which are terrific: udon-sized noodles, good lamb, flavorful peppers. I had kuruk chuchure, beef-filled mini dumplings with some kind of tomato and sour cream sauce, also excellent. The big surprise was "honey cake" for dessert - not really a cake, more like a cake-sized baklava? But with a creamy filling instead of nut. These represent the majority of the Uighur offerings; the rest is kebabs and other Turkish food that is probably good too but could be had elsewhere.
I'm really glad these guys are still in business. They must have found a lunch crowd or something. Too bad we couldn't dine in again.
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Post by ganews on Jan 19, 2021 10:52:34 GMT -5
Hip Hop Fish & Chicken Hyattsville, MD
I am often struck by the difficulty of getting good (meaning tasty, salty, and cheap) soul food in PG County, home of the largest black middle class in the country. Immigrant food is easy to come by and delicious, but if you want some place where collards are a side option there is no plate under $15. The small Hip Hop chain comes out of Baltimore, but they have begun to pop up in the strip malls of majority black districts in Maryland. They've been on my list since one opened neat my work where the Mid-Atlantic Seafood used to be. This location opened in the old Hawaiian katsu spot, but they kept the turtle painting.
There is no word but bad-ass. I got two pieces of fish and four fried drumsticks with fries, slaw, and bread for $11 but that's nothing. Wifemate was in the mood for wings which is what led to this choice, except when she ordered 10 wings/drums for $10 what she got was five whole wings (flat plus minidrum) and five full drums. Unbelievable! Like there must be some mistake, but the whole menu is priced like that. I actually wanted to get a half lb. of fried livers for old time's sake but I thought I might end up in a sodium coma. It's the best deal in town after our favorite pupuseria. We will absolutely be going back, there's a lot of options to explore. I have heard of bean pie but I've never seen it on a real menu before. One of the post-pandemic party plans is now to have a fried chicken party where I feed an army in the backyard on $100 and everybody else brings sides and beer.
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LazBro
Prolific Poster
Posts: 10,018
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Post by LazBro on Jan 11, 2022 13:25:00 GMT -5
The Halal Guys
National chain
Office lunch. Pretty disappointed. Honestly expected a little more from such a buzzy chain. Falafel had a nice crispy exterior, but the inside were very dry and lacking in flavor beyond "starch." (Wow is good falafel so hard to find. It's one of the dishes that rarely lives up to expectation.) The real disappointment was the rice, though. Flavorless. Utterly flavorless. How can one of the signature items, which took the mid-2000's by storm and won the original owners any number of "Best of" awards, be so mediocre. Is franchise decay to blame, or were The Halal Guys always all hype? If the New York locations are anything like what I just tried, then I can't believe this is something people line up for hours to try.
I can see why they make a big deal of their "white sauce." Not that's it's revelatory - it's fine - but because it's the only thing in my platter that had any flavor, and indeed I did end up serving it on every bite.
Upsides? The packets for the white sauce and hot sauce were very easy to open and not messy.
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Post by ganews on Jan 25, 2022 16:32:44 GMT -5
Franklins BreweryHyattsville, MD This place is a bit of a local institution, and it's one of the available options for a burger that isn't Five Guys or expensive-and-faceless chain. I've been here many times in the twelve(!) years I've lived in Maryland, though it is basically never my first choice to eat. It's brewpub food, whaddya want? At least the burgers are pretty good, if uninspired, and they don't insult you by coming with potato chips instead of fries or one of the other sides. There are other sandwiches and entrees too, and while not exactly bad they never live up to expectations. I wonder if the buttermilk fried chicken sandwich I had yesterday used a house mix of mayo/ketchup or they were honest with themselves and just bought a bottle of Zaxby's sauce.
The real advantage of Franklins is the beer, though I say this as not much of a connoisseur. They have at least ten regular house brews that are always available, plus a rotation of others as they come. I consider it hands-down the best brewery in the region, and as you can imagine there are quite a few around. But Franklins is absolutely a pub first - you can't buy their beer anywhere else, you can't fill up a growler. (I checked the website, apparently you can inquire about wholesale distribution, but I've never seen their beer anywhere else, ever.) This is very different from Denizens, etc. Maybe that's the result of having a good selection of beers instead of just four IPAs, a stout, and a sour.
Franklins has other things to recommend it: a historic building, a goofy Cracker Barrel-style general store attachment (wait that's not one of the things), a nickle-beer stein night once a year before the pandemic, and an outdoor collection of fenced picnic tables since the pandemic.
Also I can bike there in 15 minutes, which is always nice.
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