dzoey's Profile
Schaumburg recs?
Thanks to all for the replies. We did try Chef Ping last week and enjoyed it.
A great selection of dishes, well prepared. I had the spicy seafood stew and it was the right level of spiciness - they didn't try and tone it down. It arrived in an iron pot (too big to be a bowl) filled with picked vegetables and fish with a nice, spicy sauce. My companions had cashew chicken, which was good but boring, but that's the nature of the dish, and a vegetarian pad Thai which was very good, with just the right amount of sweetness and good crunch from the veggies.
I am very happy with the selection and quality of the restaurants in Schaumburg. We've eaten Indian, American Grill, Malaysian, and Chinese/Asian.
Indian: Chopsticks by India House has great Indian food and good Chinese food with Indian influences. This is some of the best Indian food I've had. All dishes were good, but one dish I hadn't had before was a carrot curry (I forget the type) which was superb. The portions are large, the standard Indian food is well prepared and there are opportunities to explore outside the typical curries and tandoor meats. One of the dishes was a goat curry and the goat was prepared perfectly - it's hard to do without the meat getting tough and stringy. We also tried a fusion of Indian and Chinese from the Chinese menu called Jade Pillows which were fried paneer balls in a soy based sauce - an interesting combination.
We've been to Wildfire grill which was better than I expected. The meats were good, the fish was cooked correctly, and the bread was delicious. One of my companions was vegetarian and he was disappointed with the veggie sandwich, so vegetables are not the focus of this restaurant.
I tried Penang on Algonquin and liked it enough to bring others to investigate. I haven't had Malay food much, so I'm quite curious how it differs from Thai or Chinese. They had a roti with curry dipping sauce appetizer that was worth returning for. I tried the beef ribs they had on special, but it wasn't what I was expecting. The sauce was good, but the meat was sliced 1/2" blades and was tough and stringy. The sauce was good enough to make we want to return to experiment with other dishes.
Finally, we've been to Big Bowl a couple of times, and while it's a chain, the food it produces is reliably delicious and the service has been attentive and kind.
Schaumburg recs?
I'll be staying in Schaumburg for a few weeks for work and am looking for recommendations for something in the area. There are many, many restaurants in the area, so which ones are worth checking out?
Best Annapolis area weekend lunch picks?
Sad to hear that the quality of Joss has slid. It's been a while since I've been now that our office moved from near Church Circle to out by the mall.
Best Annapolis area weekend lunch picks?
I work near the hospital, so if you're by the mall, I suggest the following
Mama Lucia's near the Trader Joe's off of Jennifer or Bella Italia next to Naval Bagels off of Rowe
Mexican Cafe off of Ridgely Rd is good food and comfortable with decent prices.
The new Whole Foods has a good food bar with lots of choices, but you have to be disciplined in order to keep costs reasonable.
Paul's Homewood Cafe is nice for a sit down lunch. Their steak salad is excellent.
For dessert, try Bruster's Ice Cream off of Forest Drive It's outside of Annapolis, but very good.
In downtown Annapolis, Joss Suishi has some good lunch specials - their sushi salad is a spicy favorite and the California roll special is a good deal. Luna Blu on West St is good upscale Italian and 49 West is a good place to sit, eat, and talk.
I have not found any good Chinese or Indian around Annapolis, but Viet-Thai Paradise off of Riva is good for both Thai and Pho.
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Paul's Homewood Cafe
919 West St, Annapolis, MD 21401
Joss Cafe & Sushi Bar
195 Main St, Annapolis, MD 21401
49 West Coffeehouse Wine Bar Gallery
49 West St, Annapolis, MD 21401
Luna Blu
36 West St, Annapolis, MD 21401
Bruster's Real Ice Cream
1409 Forest Dr, Annapolis, MD 21403
Bella Italian
609 Taylor Ave, Annapolis, MD 21401
Naval Bagels
609 Taylor Ave, Annapolis, MD 21401
White pizza
The pizza at Geppeto's is good, but I especially like their version of white pizza. Yum.
Fractured Prune Donuts? How Good are they REALLY?
With me it was the opposite. I liked FP, but my kids didn't care for it. I appreciated the variety of toppings available and that the donuts were always fresh. My kids preferred KrispyKreme's sweetness.
Mount Airy/Frederick area suggestions
Heading east, Bistro Blanc in Glenwood is well worth trying. You might also want to check out the Howchow blog for Howard county restaurants.
Solid Korean BBQ, nice atmosphere?
Ellicott City has a number of Korean BBQ places, such as Shin Chon Garden or Honey Pig. It's not local to Silver Spring, but is closer than Annandale, especially since they've been removing the stop lights on US29.
Made in the Baltimore Region
Technically, Herr's is made just across the border in PA. If you get a chance to drive up and see the factory off of US1, the holiday light show is amazing. They've decorated the entire grounds around the front of the factory. Free too.
I don't understand the attraction of Dangerously Delicious Pies
We had yummy dinner at Nacho Mamas and afterward went to the Canton branch of Dangerously Delicious. This time, the pies were really good. The crusts were not too tough and balanced the sweetness of the pies well.
So, I'm going to chalk up my first experience to inconsistency. Unlike Mae West, Dangerously Delicious is very good when they're good and when they're bad, they're not good at all.
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Nacho Mama's
2907 Odonnell St, Baltimore, MD 21224
A Great steak in Ellicott City-Columbia area
I am not big steak eater either, but Greystone Grill near Rt 100 was good when I went for lunch.
You might want to check out the Howchow web site - he has reviews of most restaurants in Howard County and has tried some of the steak places in Ellicott City.
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Greystone Grill 1
8850 Columbia 100 Pkwy., Ellicott City, MD 21045
Crisfield Seafood Restaurant
My parents used to go to Crisfields when they were dating (> 50 years ago) and I've taken my family there periodically over the last 20 years. We love the stuffed flounder and the shoe string fries, and of course, the bisque. They also have great Maryland fried chicken which is getting hard to find these days.
A DC area institution and worth stopping for.
Tino's in Columbia
Went back a week later. Service is still a little uneven. He forgot our soft drinks and was not really paying attention to our table.
The food was good. The fettuccine Alfredo was excellent. We tried a pizza and I was happy with it, it had a good balance between the cheese and the tomato sauce and a decent crust. We also tried plain Penne Marinara, which my son liked, but I found the sauce a little sweet with bitter overtones.
The kids ordered what they thought was mozzarella sticks but turned out to be two wedges of breaded, fried mozzarella. Tasty, well fried, not greasy, though small for the price charged.
I think Tino's is a good replacement for Strapazza and better than the other Italian places in our neighborhood.
Annapolis - Cheap, Good Eats
Ah, that was the name of the Italian I couldn't remember. Excellent pizza, large portions. Homestyle Italian - yum.
Tino's in Columbia
We tried them tonight, on opening night, and enjoyed the meal. The service was a little rough, as to be expected for a new restaurant, but they were very friendly and interested in feedback. They make many things in-house, including a rockfish souffle appetizer which tasted of egg and butter with a hint of fish flavor. The pastas were decent and enjoyable and the salmon I had was perfectly cooked. The house salad dressing was memorable and worth ordering on salads that use a different dressing normally. Our waitress said that they make the olive oil in house that they use for dipping bread.
The desserts are home made, so we couldn't resist trying a couple. They have a chocolate-oreo truffle which come 3 golf-ball sized truffles to a plate. They are ganache+oreo inside a hard chocolate shell + oreo crumbs outside. It was excellent and even though I initially thought the serving size was small, they were so intense that the serving size turned out to be perfect. We also had a chocolate mousse which was just average and served so cold they were semi-frozen.
Las Delicias, Annapolis
Glad to know it's still good. I went when they first opened a few years ago and enjoyed it, but never seemed to get back because of my time constraints during lunch.
Annapolis - Cheap, Good Eats
The shopping center across from the stadium (Taylor Ave) has Naval Bagels which are decent and an Italian place which has a wide variety of good pizzas.
Also, Joss Sushi on main street has reasonably priced lunch specials.
.
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Naval Bagels
609 Taylor Ave, Annapolis, MD 21401
Catering in B-more/Columbia??
We had a small reception of around 50+ last year for which we used Zeffert and Gold. They made everything really easy and talked me down from ordering too much food for the number of people that attended.
You are very fortunate to live in Portland. I used to live there and still miss it. We moved back here when my children were born so they could be near grandparents. We'll be vacationing in Portland at the end of June, so I'd like to take you up on your offer of recommendations. The only thing I remember is conveyor belt sushi at Sushi King(?) and McMinimins for beer and a movie. What's good nowdays?
Best place for udon or ramen in Howard County area?
I haven't been myself, but howchow reports that Fuji restaurant on the west part of Ellicott City on Rt 40 has good, house made ramen.
There's also Noodles Corner for pan-asian noodles. Their Buddha bowl has Udon I think.
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Noodles Corner
8865 Stanford Blvd Ste 103, Columbia, MD 21045
Leelyn's- Columbia/EC
We like Leelyns because the small plates are interesting and not too much food. The kitchen has been improving over the years but can be inconsistent - we had some wings that came out cold - twice - but when fixed, were delicious. I thought the eggplant fries were good. It was a lot of food and needs to be eaten quickly while still warm, but a nice change.
My wife and kids like the cream of crab soup and the burgers and pizza specials are good. They participate with Restaurant.com, so you can try out the place for not too much money.
If I go to Baltimore, MD what kind of foods are the known for other than crabs and crab cakes? Thanks.
I have run into sour beef and dumplings in Columbus, Ohio's German section. I still think of it primarily as a Baltimore food since I never had it growing up around D.C. In the 'burbs, I've only found it at G&M, Dimitri's, and occasionally Timbuktu.
Berger's cookies are common in food stores locally now, but I haven't seen them outside of Maryland.
Coddies I can only find at Mars food stores. I like them for the salty potato with a hint of fish taste. Actually, I think I remember Faidleys having them as well, though they weren't as salty.
Fondue Restaurants?
We've gone to The Melting Pot for years and enjoy it, but I'm used to the menu now. Are there any other restaurants that serve fondue as something other than a queso fundido appetizer?
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Melting Pot Restaurant
1110 N. Glebe Rd, Arlington, VA 22201
I don't understand the attraction of Dangerously Delicious Pies
After our meal at Centro Tapas Bar, we walked a few blocks to Dangerously Delicious Pies for dessert. I had heard of it and thought it would be a good way to end the meal, after a short stroll between restaurants.
We ordered slices of coconut chess pie, apple pie, Baltimore Bomb (Berger cookie pie) , White Trash, and pumpkin pie. The Baltimore Bomb was the favorite of the night.
The fillings were good, not as sweet as I was expecting (and prefer), but rich and creamy. The pie crust was disappointingly tough and hard to eat.
Were we there on an off night or is this a place whose name promises more than the kitchen delivers?
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Dangerously Delicious Pies
1036 Light St, Baltimore, MD
Centro Tapas Bar
1444 Light St, Baltimore, MD 21230
Centro Tapas Bar in Federal Hill
For my birthday, I tend to worry my family by picking restaurants with cuisine they've never tried. This year was tapas and the Baltimore restaurant to try was Centro. It's located in Federal Hill which meant that parking on a Saturday night was challenging. They do offer $6 valet which is what we wound up using.
The menu is divided into "bar food", "cheeses", "cold dishes", and "hot dishes". There is a full bar to match Spanish wines with the dishes. The bar food tends to be small, quick finger food like almonds (two types) or pickled peppers. I had a dish of almonds and it turned out to be a good way to start the meal.
Everyone at the table orders a couple of dishes and shares. It's a good system and we allows the less adventurous to re-order safe items while the more adventurous can explore tapas. And it's not too expensive if you have the discipline to stick to two dishes. We did not. We wound up ordering four dishes each and so spent much more than intended.
The dishes are fairly small. For instance, the best dish, Canelon, which is a Spanish take on cannelloni is stuffed with meat, fois gras, mushrooms and other things. The serving size was a single tube. It was good, so we ordered a second. - but...all the "that's good, let me get another" can add up.
The cheeses were good, but again, not a lot of food per order. I especially liked the blue cheese which came with some sort of sweet paste (jelly? apple butter?) that complimented the saltiness of the blue cheese shards..
Another hit was the pate, which was actually a fair amount of food. It was smooth and creamy and cool and came with garlic toast rounds.
I don't remember the name of the dish, but it was a mushroom dish that arrived at the table in a cast iron pot filled with boiling oil into which the mushrooms at been placed with garlic. It was very nice and had a lot of flavor for such a simple dish.
Not everything worked. The blackened lamb hops came out very black on one side, and not black on the other. They were also, very small. The rockfish fritters (I forget the Spanish name) were OK, but were a little greasy and did not match up well with the sauce.
But...we enjoyed ourselves, and it was fun tasting all the different dishes. My mom noted that the reason everything tastes so good is that the dishes are either intrinsically high in fat (Lamb Chops,
Cheese) or are fried or boiled in oil.
With some discipline, a good meal at a good price can be had here. Without the discipline a good meal can still be had, but the cost and calorie count will be stay with you.
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Centro Tapas Bar
1444 Light St, Baltimore, MD 21230
Stanford Grill ?
There are several comments about Stanford on the local Howard County food blog, HowChow. http://howchow.blogspot.com/2010/05/stanford-grill-columbia-blog-review.html
My personal experience was that it was well decorated with a nice canopied outdoor area and a good view of the verge down to Rt 175. The food was decent, the menu small, and the service pretty good. The service is new, so there are some glitches, but nothing terrible.
We ordered the rib eye and it tasted good, but that was because the seasonings they put on it were really good. In retrospect, the seasonings overwhelmed the meat, so you got a good mouth-feel but didn't really taste beef. At the time I didn't miss it because I like the seasoning. We tried the mac-n-cheese as well and it was well made but they cooked it so that it had a smoky taste which, to me, was weird in mac-n-cheese. The cornbread was good, the French Dip was too salty.
All in all, pretty much what you expect from a mid-range chain restaurant.
Good restaurant between DC & Baltimore
In the Columbia area, Victoria Gastropub is good, as is Iron Bridge wine company, as is Bistro Blanc in Glenelg. Victoria's is better if you're into beer, Iron Bridge if you prefer wine and small plates. Bistro Blanc is further away from I-95, but the food is good and it contains some interesting art inside. It too, has an extensive wine selection.
For more casual dining, Laurel has Pasta Plus and Red Hot & Blue bar-b-q.
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Pasta Plus Restaurant
209 Gorman Ave, Laurel, MD 20707
Bistro Blanc
3800 Ten Oaks Road, Glenelg, MD 21737
Looking for good late week-night dinners around Bridgewater or Piscataway
I've been working until about 9 pm M-W and was wondering if anyone has recommendations for a good restaurant that is still good around 9:30 or 10 pm M-W.
I've been to the Bridgewater Diner which serves large (too large for that time of night) portions at very good prices, but I haven't spotted much else so far.
I'd prefer something fairly casual as I'm usually pretty tired by that point.
Thanks for any tips,
--Dzoey
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Bridgewater Diner
1244 US Highway 22, Bridgewater, NJ 08807
dinner recommendations for Columbia-Ellicott City for 4/30?
It's a bit farther than 30 min, but if you want seafood with nice views, head to Annapolis. Cantler's, O'Leary's, and Carrol Creek are all good seafood restaurants in nice locations. You could make an evening of it, and walk around Ego Alley (the pier) and Main St.
Sunday Lunch or Brunch Near Goddard?
It's been a few years since I've been, but Jasper's had a good brunch. It's located in the shopping center at 193 & 295, just down the hill from NASA
