Foodtekie's Profile
Brunch in Boston - J.P.Licks, Boston's secret restaruant
Thanks so much for the tip. It is nice to see a useful tip on Chowhound!
ISO Reasonable Kosher Caterer for Bar Mitzvah Brunch In Northern NJ
Thanks. I know she used them once. Exactly as you described but their strength is pizza and pasta and her party is too early for that.
ISO Reasonable Kosher Caterer for Bar Mitzvah Brunch In Northern NJ
Thanks I will tell her.
ISO Reasonable Kosher Caterer for Bar Mitzvah Brunch In Northern NJ
Mrogovin: Thanks. I will forward what you wrote but she is doing it in a shul and will need to be under supervision.
ISO Reasonable Kosher Caterer for Bar Mitzvah Brunch In Northern NJ
I know cost is relative so let me qualify by saying that with the food, mashgiach and service staff, they are around $50.00 per person which my friend says is beyond her budget.
ISO Reasonable Kosher Caterer for Bar Mitzvah Brunch In Northern NJ
Their food is really good and Daniel Schreiber, one of the partners, goes the extra mile to please the customer and guests. However, their prices are way up there.
ISO Reasonable Kosher Caterer for Bar Mitzvah Brunch In Northern NJ
Can anyone help a friend of mine find a diamond in the rough? She is searching for a reasonably priced caterer to do a bar mitzvah brunch in northern NJ. Someone who can do more than smoked fish and bagles. She has eaten at affairs done by the usual caterers in Bergen County. Thanks.
Ariel's in Englewood NJ is indeed worth your business
My family ate here tonight thanks to a coupon from Kosher Koupon and we enjoyed food. First the bad: No bread plate for any of us and a missing napkin here and there. This was rectified immediately by the waiter upon notifying him of this oversight. Secon- I had the wild mushroom risotto poppers and although they were tasty and salty enough to kasher a cow, they were presented poorly i.e., in a basket with a small dipping sauce six poppers for $8! And now the good: The bread was outstanding. A bit salty but seasoned nicely. I had the pizza with carmelized onions and raosted garlic and it was delicious. Thin and crusty it was terrific. However, the waiter forgot to tell me that it does not have pizza sauce. However, he rectified that by bringing me warm pizza sauce. My son had a grilled vegetable pizza which he liked despite being on a dairy free diet. My daughter had the Caesar salad, which she liked. My wife, a food scientist and wonderful cook tasted it and felt that it was the best she had ever had but for My Most Favorite Dessert Co. in NYC. My wife had the sesame salmon which she enjoyed. My other daughter had the mushroom pasta dish which she enjoyed but was not used to home made pasta. We skipped dessert because several member of the family were dieting and not eating dairy but they looked innovative and tempting- not the typical slice of Cake Stylist cake on a plate with a shpritz of food colored syrup. The best comment came from my son who proclaimed that we need to come back when he can eat dairy. We all agreed. The food was very tasty. The waiter tried very hard to please and although he was not a seasoned waiter, he made every effort to please us. As for the cleanliness, the bathrooms were spotless and very nice. I must say that although I am a carnivore I would return here. I hope people give it the chance that it deserves. After the meal, the owner asked me how was the meal and I told him everything that I have written here. He seemed receptive and I hope he makes the subtle tweaks that the place needs.
Positive Experience at ETC. steakhouse in Teaneck
Cap: Thanks for the review. We have an important birthday in the family coming up and your review was right up our alley.
Review of Ariels of Englewood
Morris: Many people clamored to get into Bernie Madoff's funds and look how they were duped. Rule number one: never follow the masses!
Review of Ariels of Englewood
Morris and Capp: I am not from Chicago but I remember years ago eating at Slice of Life in Skokie and the food tasted like ambrosia ( and I am a carnivore). Then, on another visit to the Chicago area, my wife and I went to a restaurant in Skokie across from Ken's because there was a line extending out the door. The meal and service was awful. The line extending out the door was due to the fact that there was a singles function being held in the restaurant. Never judge a book by its cover!
As for the eating habits of the Teaneck/Bergenfield/New Milford community, I have given up trying to figure it out. For years, an Israeli restaurant in town would offer no menus, bring you your soup while you were already eating your main course, bring three pita breads to a table of ten patrons and have the nerve not to serve Israeli pickles with their grilled food because they said they, "couldn't get any." Yet, the restaurant flourished. I can't speak for Mocha Bleu as I have not eaten there. It benefits from its location and it is very pretty inside. Unfortunately, I do not enjoy a restaurant that I walk out of hungry and I have been warned about Mocha Bleu. Anyway, I appreciate the openness of CRMS99 and I will give Ariel's a shot.
Review of Ariels of Englewood
Capp: The sad thing about all of these restaurants is that the owner(s) put so much effort into negotiating a lease, hiring staff and ordering food but they never put themselves in the shoes of the customers. In an economy where many families do not have the disposable income to eat out as they did before, the owners of these new establishments just don't get it. They feel that they just have to open their doors and the world will come beating down to eat by them.
Imah Restaurant -- New Place in Teaneck
The menu is Kurdish-Iraqi influenced. The food is not a copy of Sababa or Maabat. The owner is from Israel where her family has run Ima Restaurant for many years. They are now under the OK Laboratory supervision.
Five Star Caterers at Keter Torah
Cheesecake, you hit the nail on the head. "You get what you pay for" also means to me if you give your caterer a budget of $75.00 per couple for example, you will get plenty of starches at the smorgasbord and other low cost items. Forget about quality beef at the main course- you will most likely get dark meat chicken that needs a shave. Now I don't need a waiter/waitress folding my dinner napkin every time I get up but, at least give me a bartender that can mix a drink correctly and a meat carver that knows to cut meat against the grain. Some caterers give members of their staff a a mixing cup, ice and a carving knife and want you to think that they are bartenders and meat carvers.
Five Star Caterers at Keter Torah
I attended a bar mitzvah at Keter Torah this past Sunday which Five Star catered. The food was excellent. The smorgasbord was a wide variety and tasty. They did something that I thought was very smart. They had an adult bar outside of the ball room in the atrium with cocktail tables, that allowed adults to have a drink and talk without having to yell over the music. The maitre D was extremely friendly and you could see his desire to make everything go smoothly. As with any caterer, the host/hostess has to be rational. You get what you pay for. If you go in with irrational expectations, no caterer will satisfy your needs or wants.
Kutscher's Hotel Food
Has anyone tried Kutsher's Hotel recently and give feedback on the food and the amenities?
Is Rabica in Teaneck worth its salt (or gnocchi to be specific)?
cappuchino: Thanks for the honest, rational review; it got me hungry just reading it.
Pesach in a hotel - worth it?
Marty B:
The people who do Pesach programs are in the business for one reason: to make money. They go through all the preparation and scheduling and logistics many months beforehand, to endeavor to assure you that you will have a kosher, pleasant experience. If you feel that the prices are too high, you have the choice not to go. By focusing only on the cost of food and not taking into account that there are sundry other expenses like the kashering, mashgichim, chefs, dishwashers etc., you realize that it is more than just the cost of food. Also, what makes you think that the food suppliers are reducing their prices to the tour operator for food? Ever hear of the kosher monopoly? If you want a stripped down version of Pesach hotel, you are not going to find it. Just because you would not mind eating on plastic plates and cutlery does not mean that others are so inclined. There is no incentive for the proprietor to strip their product down when it will take him/her the same amount of effort to put out a lavish spread versus a budget spread. There is not enough volume that can make up the lost profit. Ferret and Avitrek make salient, concise points in their posts. The Lakehouse and Washington Hotels are not around because they could make more money selling off the real estate than running a kosher hotel. It happened in the Borscht Belt and it happened in Miami Beach.
My suggestion is take all of the money that you saved by shopping at Pic- N-Pay and go to Israel or pay someone to shop, clean and cook for you. It may end being cheaper than going to a local hotel.
Pesach in a hotel - worth it?
Queenscook: I can not speak for everyone who goes away to a hotel for Pesach, but as someone who only started going away a few years ago, going to a hotel for Pesach has its pluses and minuses. If you ever sat in orchestra seats for a show or in First Class on an airplane, it is hard to go back to the balcony or coach sections. As for the socio-economics of those that attend, all I can say is that if there are 700 guests at a hotel, there are seven hundred stories. Are there hypocritical parasites, that have the audacity to apply for financial aid and go away for Pesach? Yes, there are. Are there many young and not so young couples, who truly believe that it is their g-d given right to milk their parents for a free Pesach hotel vacation? Yes, there are. But there are also families where one spouse or both spouses are baalei teshuva and they do not have family to go to for the chag. How about the family whose marriage is hanging by a thread from falling apart and not having to prepare for Peasach is one way the spouses try to keep things together. How about elderly people who do not have the strength physically and emotionally to make Pesach and do not have children nearby or whose children are ungrateful and do not think of inviting their parents for the chag? If you see a couple or a family at a hotel for Pesach that you know can't afford it, did you know that the wife may be undergoing treatment for breast cancer and this was one way for the family to help her on Yom Tov? Or the couple who lost their child several months back for whatever reason and are dealing with their loss by going away for Pesach instead of allowing depression / Yetzer Horah destroy their Yom Tov? My point is that not every one you meet is a parasite,bent on cheating their local yeshiva while enjoying the luxury of a Pesach hotel vacation. Is it a luxury? You bet.
Subway in Brooklyn has Closed
What a shock! A restaurant that charged you kosher prices for bread, some veggies and very little meat.Another example of a treif franchise that goes kosher but could not find enough suckers to keep it going. Remember Nathans?
dairy desserts/pastries at fairway, paramus
i HAD NOT HAD A BAGEL IN OVER THREE YEARS DUE TO BEING DIABETIC. tHEN, i MADE THE MISTAKE OF TRYING ONE OF THEIR MINI-BAGELS AND i NEVER LOOKED BACK. aT 25 CENTS THEY ARE A TRUE BARGAIN.
MochaBleu in Teaneck
Dear Cappuchino:
My wife took a friend there last week. She said it was very, very noisy and the portions were small and pricey. She said everything tasted very good and was not your typical fare. Her friend, who usually does not even finish her portion in a restaurant, was hungry after a personal pizza. I just don't understand why kosher places have to scrimp on portions? I am embarrassed by the portion sizes when I take a non-jew to eat kosher.
MochaBleu in Teaneck
Cappucino: What do you base your comment "I really wish someone in Teaneck would just serve good food" on? The implication of that statement is that no one does. Boy, I must get my eyeglasses prescriptions changed. The restaurants and shops I go into or visit are pretty crowded. The people coming to Teaneck from Passaic, Livingston, Edison/HP and Monsey must have simple tastes. I have no idea where you reside, but there are plenty of kosher observant communities that would die to have the selection that we have in Teaneck. You don't like Mocha Blue's attitude, that is your choice. As long as they treat the customer with respect and put out a worthwhile product, I could not care any less if the food was served by robots, avatars or eye candy.
Sabra's Cedarhurst
MartyB: I was visiting relatives in Brooklyn yesterday and they all said that Bennies on Ave. J is superb pizza. Pizza Nosh just opened a branch on Ave. J in the old Natanya Pizza location. If it is anything like the one on Nostrand Ave. and Kings Highway, it is pretty good.
New Kosher Restaurants in the Five Towns
Marty B: What happened to Glatt Kosher Kingdom? Please reply offline to Fooodtekie@aol.com
Outrageous treatment at The Pasta Factory
Can you tell me an establishment that does not serve sub-par food and is kosher? The lines at Poppys and Noah's Ark must be my imagination. I for one don't drink cofee but what is wrong with the drinks at Lazy Bean?
Outrageous treatment at The Pasta Factory
Sub-par food at Poppy's and Noah's Ark? What coffee are you drinking cappucino?
The award for most obnoxious goes to our friends at Mabat. They had the chutzpah to tell me they can't get Israeli pickles! An Israeli rest. w/o Israeli pickles. Now they have contempt for their customers. One day, many of us will rejoice in that restaurant's funeral.
New Chinese in Teaneck
I ate two weeks ago at Chosen? in Great Neck and the food was great. The prix fixe dinner was a value. The portions were large and the service was very good. It was nice to pay twice the cost of treif and get a lot for it. I can only wish that the new one in Teaneck will be as good. I am so disappointed by the recent spate of restaurateurs who have opened and forgotten what it is to be the customer. People, especially in this economy want value for the prices you are asking them to pay. Has anyone out there complained of getting too much food or that their meat dish had too much meat? The take out places around Teaneck have raised their prices and reduced their portions. Meat dishes are almost parve by the lack of meat.
