Charm City Noms

Fiesta Mexicana

2011-05-09T16:42:00.000-04:00

We stumbled across this little place when we moved to our new neighborhood. It was just too interesting to pass up. So we headed there for our anniversary.

Upon walking in, it feels as if you're sitting in someone's kitchen. The ladies behind the counter were so friendly. We quickly placed our orders, starting with a nacho app and the sampler platter for dinner.

They cook the food right in front of you. You actually get to watch them make everything, right there, in front of you! It was so great. The food arrives as soon as it is plated, so it's piping hot, fresh and ohmygodyoucan'thandleit delicious. Hands down the best BEST Mexican food I've EVER had.

Look at those nachos. The sampler had enchiladas (chef's surprise as to what they were stuffed with but we figured pork and chicken. We were adventurous and let them pick), tacos, tostadas and something else I can't remember but it was gooooooooooooooooooooooooooood.

The meat was very tender and melted in your mouth. Everything was seasoned perfectly.

Nothing was too spicy and all the flavors blended so well together. We were completely stuffed halfway through the sampler and ended up taking the rest home. I am pleased to say that it also reheated well the next day, and was just as delicious.

This place is small, there's limited seating but that seems to make it that much more awesome. It's also really inexpensive. You get your sodas or beverage from the case, you can BYOBeer and you get to watch them cook your food (but not in the showy Japanese steakhouse way, more in the Mexican mom/sister/grandma cooking for you sort of way)

Zack's Hotdogs

2011-05-02T12:40:00.000-04:00

While exploring our new neighborhood in White Marsh (and making a side trip to Ulta and Omaha Steaks) we stumbled into a hot dog joint.

This is a tiny place tucked into the strip of White Marsh town center and offers a wide variety of hot dog goodness. The biggest bonus for this place however was the condiments table. BACON IS A CONDIMENT.

The dogs were fantastic. Dave got his usual regular with relish and mustard (and BACON) and I got a chili cheese (death for Crohn's ugh, I was so sick but it was kinda worth it) and the dogs were FAB.

Dave also got some mac and cheese for a side, which was kinda gross I'm sorry to say. It was goopy, thick and tasteless.

The staff working was incredibly friendly and the dogs were fresh and hot and very good. This place is a good pit stop for a long day of shopping. (it's also near a cold stone, so dessert isn't far away...nomnomnom)

Overall, 3 noms!

The Corner Stable

2011-05-02T12:24:00.000-04:00

This place isn't shy about advertising their greatest asset. BALTIMORE'S BEST RIBS! brazenly screams at you from the side of the building. Dave's pretty big on anything involving BBQ or pork, and well, I just love to eat.

The parking lot was completely full. We had to venture over to the "Overfill Lot" by the Battery Warehouse. The restaurant itself was jammed with people. Walking through all we saw were piles of bones and baskets of ribs.

What we didn't realize was that Monday is Rib Night. Their Monday special is a full rack of ribs and fries for only $13.99. So of course, that's what we ordered. We spent about 6 seconds looking at the menu. The waitress, was very sweet. She was busy but we were well taken care of. She got our drinks fast and then about a minute later the food arrived. We were stunned. It took about 5 minutes to get our dinners. "How?" we asked. She told us that on Mondays they have someone whose sole job is ribs. So they keep the ribs coming because the customers keep coming. We noticed the turnover was amazing. We finished our dinners in less than 20 minutes and cleared out for the next round of hungry rib lovers.

Now let me tell you about these ribs. This is a very casual place, our dinner arrived in a basket with the rack cut in half and stacked, fries next to it. They were drenched in this sweet, tangy, smoky sauce. I've never tasted a sauce like that before. It wasn't too sweet as some BBQ can get, but it was just the perfect amount of tang plus smoke. The meat fell off the bone. I took my fork and picked out each bone and piled it on a plate then was able to eat the rib meat with my fork (thus saving myself from the inevitable Sauce Face or the more detrimental Sauce Pants or Sauce Shirt). It was definitely enough food to fill us up. They don't serve you those skimpy wussy lean type ribs; these were plenty meaty. Melt-in-your-mouth, finger-lickin-good as they say.

The fries, if you can even get that far, were perfect. Natural cut, fried til golden and crisp but still soft and fluffy they were the perfect texture. The left over sauce from the ribs made for excellent dipping.

Not that we need to say this, but 5 Noms, two sauce-covered thumbs up and smiles all around. This place is definitely a well kept secret by the locals.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder...

2011-04-28T11:56:00.003-04:00

After four long months of house hunting, then another two crazy months of closing on the house, THEN another THREE months of unpacking, home improvements and settling...

WE'RE BACK! A tasty BBQ review will be headed your way soon.

We're planning a trip to Blue Hill Tavern this weekend, with a visit to Elliott's Pour House to follow in May.

Check out our latest addition to the Featured By Section.

Also, since we're back in full force, we need some more suggestions to keep us busy in the next few months. We will be expanding our reviews outside of Baltimore even more now. There are some seriously NOMtastic places in the 'burbs.

We are excited (and hungry!).

An Loi

2011-01-06T14:25:00.001-05:00

We made a trip out to Columbia because I had a Groupon from last year for an awesome 90 Minute Massage (If I were reviewing massage places on this blog, Awaken Wellness Spa would have gotten 5 stars, two thumbs up, or whatever, because it was awesome).

While I was relaxing on a table, Dave drove around browsing and stumbled across this cute little Vietnamese place. Neither of us have ever had this type of food, and we haven't reviewed anything in a long time because of the house hunt, so we stepped in.

It's small and cozy--your typical Asian-Restaurant-in-a-strip-mall-looking kinda place but the menu is amazing. Once you get over not being able to pronounce anything, the descriptions of every dish is so mouth watering that it was difficult to make a decision.

We started with apps, Spring and Summer rolls. Stuffed full of crisp veggies, they were fresh hot and very very good. The cabbage was absolutely perfect. Everything was so fresh it wasn't hard to imagine them being rolled by hand and steamed mere moments before they hit the table. They came with two dipping sauces, one was peanut, mildly sweet and a little tangy salty flavor, and the other was kind of sweet, chilled, and almost more of a broth. They amplified the flavors of the rolls. Perfect start to a great meal.

Dave went with a traditional soup dish, Pho (An Loi flavor, had everything in it). When it arrived it was a giant white bowl of steaming goodness with big chunks of beef and tons of noodles and a plate of vegetables (bean sprouts, seaweed and other greens) that he dumped in. Portion size? Let's put it this way: I've never seen Dave not finish a bowl of soup. I'd say he managed to get a third of the way through it before he had to surrender. It was tough putting down the chopsticks though because it was fabulous. The meat was really tender and melted in your mouth, noodles cooked perfectly and everything so nicely seasoned. I did have to tease him a bit for ordering something that contained "tripe" and when he looked at me confused I whispered "Intestines". It didn't shy him away though, I'm proud to say.

I went with Mieng Xiao, which is a noodle dish that had rice noodles, egg, chicken and all blended with a delicious sauce. It was a heaping portion and I ended up taking half of it home (and I'm happy to say it reheats well, tasted just as delicious a day and a half later as it did fresh at the restaurant). The dish was savory, just shy of sweet and mild but not bland.

The service was impeccable. Our glasses never went empty, everyone was welcoming, courteous and easy to understand (which is a bonus because when you go into one of these very traditional type places often the English isn't so good, which is fine, just makes ordering a little more difficult)

This place definitely gets 5 Noms. Not only for their amazing food and great service, but their menu offers such a variety that anyone would be able to eat here. They have several vegetarian options, I was able to find several Crohn's Friendly options myself and they do have some vegan options as well. Also, it's cheap! It's so inexpensive and you get so much food. They also offer carry-out. Now hurry! Expand your horizons and get some An Loi.

More about G&A Restaurant because we love them so

2010-12-02T13:15:00.003-05:00

In lieu of a real review, I'm going to share with you all the magic that is G&A Restaurant. We reviewed them awhile back and you should remember how fabulous we thought their sliders and dogs were, well we have a few more things to add to that list of "Fabulous Eats".

Their hot turkey platter is to die for. Seriously. It's good. DownhomestraightfromMichigan type good. Their gravy is homemade, much like most everything on their menu and you can really tell. Their gravy fries are even more swoon-worthy. Soft and salty, dripping in warm gravy. Unbelievable. I have to go to Hopkins every 4-6 weeks for treatment for the Crohn's and hitting this place after has become a bit of a tradition for us. One that I'm happy to continue doing. I'm limited on what I can order, however I do know that no matter what I order it will be delicious, fresh, and served with a side-visit from the always-pleasant Andy.

Now I would like to demand you all run out there and immediately purchase, then NOM, their crabcake. Go. Now. Stop reading. I'll wait.

Back? It was good, wasn't it? Salty...mmm, big huge chunks of crab, perfect seasoning blend. Couldn't finish it all? No worries, I promise you that when you microwave it, not only will it NOT putrefy your kitchen (or work area in my case) but will taste just as good. Just make sure you finish it all this time. I wouldn't recommend re-microwaving any food, ever.

Hodge-podge "Review"

2010-11-17T13:32:00.004-05:00

We know, we know. It's been too long, we've neglected you. We are truly sorry. We've been doing some house-hunting the past couple months which has sucked up every spare minute of our time and left us with only enough time and financial resources for drive-thru visits. Which is lame. We know.

To satisfy the masses (I'm assuming there are thousands of anxious readers out there on the edge of their seats staring at their RSS feeds screaming "Where are my Charm City Noms updates?!?! WHERE??" so humor me) I'm posting an almost-review. I can't count this as a real review because Dave wasn't with me and I like to have his 2-cents on here, but working where I do awards me certain abilities in lunching that he is not privy to.

Vino Rosina

A few weeks ago for my boss's birthday a group of us decided to try out Vino Rosina, which just opened up recently and I've been dying to try. It's a quaint little wine bar that happens to serve food elegantly and deliciously.

I should take this opportunity to mention that my dietary needs have once again changed, and now my list of non-edible foods has expanded from "spicy" and "citrus" to: celery, onion, cabbage, asparagus, vinegar, citrus, spicy, dairy (sob!), seeds, nuts, and basically anything "crunchy" or "fibrous".

So, with that revelation, I'm staring at a menu of grilled panini type sammiches that all have cheese, or some other forbidden food on it and I'm about to be devastated because I dislike having t order something, then deconstruct it. For example "Yes, I would like to try the grilled chicken panini with pesto. But with no pesto, mayo, cheese, sprouts, onion or lettuce" "So you'd like a piece of bread with grilled chicken on it?" "Basically, but I'd like it sound appetizing" "I'm not a magician, I'm a waiter" "I understand. I'll take my spit on the side please".*

Then, do my eyes deceive me? Oh my gosh, a foods I can eat! I went with the Tuscan Chicken and just pulled off the stuff I couldn't eat (onion which there wasn't much of anyway). Everything else wasn't too much of a red flag. This sandwich was really good. The bread was crispy and buttery, the chicken tender, the mayo was herby and a perfect complement to it.

This place ended up working out really well. It is close to work, wasn't busy at all and had a great menu. The portions were pretty sizable too. I didn't leave hungry. I apologize for the lack of photo, but when we "officially" review this place, we'll upload extra photos.

Harbor East Delicatessen and Pizzeria

I tried this place out for the first time on my birthday when a few coworkers joined me for lunch. It being my birthday, birthday food rules applied which meant that for one day, I had no restrictions and happily gorged myself with a bacon cheeseburger and fries, then thought about cheesecake but then ate more fries.

Burger: fab. Fries: fab. Their fries are very similar to Five Guys, same texture and flavor, fresh and soft. It was great.

I've also had The Godfather JP, which is a jumbo lump crabcake sandwich with a side of fries. This was delicious. Big huge chunks of crab, broiled, seasoned wonderfully and placed upon a toasted bun with lettuce (tossed that aside) and tomato (ate one small sliver) and they give you tartar sauce and cocktail sauce to go with it. I assure you though, the sauces aren't needed. It was great.

I highly recommend either. Harbor East offers a vast menu and quick paced service and Vino Rosina is a great place if you have time to sit down and really enjoy lunch, like when you want to catch up with an old friend or just drink a bottle of wine.

*Not an actual conversation

Update

2010-10-18T11:35:00.001-04:00

Hey everyone,

Just wanted to let you all know we haven't forgotten about you. Currently life has taken over a bit and we've been just a tad too busy to dine out much lately. We will have some great new reviews for you very soon, so hang in there! As always, thanks for reading.

The Melting Pot and My Birthday

2010-09-30T16:48:00.004-04:00

This is not a review. I want to talk about my birthday. It was yesterday, September 29th and I turned 20something years old. We started planning a dinner about a week and a half ago and invited some awesome friends and I insisted we do Fondue.

See, my first Fondue experience was...well it sucked. I drove two hours to see a guy I didn't like very much then I had to pretend I liked him and it was painful, then we went to the Fondue place and he informed me I had to pay and I said "I'm broke" and he said "Oh well" and then ordered $90 worth of food. So...I didn't get to eat for the rest of that week. Not knowing about my Crohn's I also had to suffer the worst stomach ache of all time on the two hour drive back to my apartment.

So, I expressed to my loving husband that I want to have a fun Fondue time. Sharp sticks, molten cheese, chocolate covered everything, I mean, how could that NOT be awesome?

So we made reservations for up to 14 people (then like, 8 people couldn't come so we ended up with a tidy party of 6) at The Melting Pot in Towson.

This place is gorgeous and immaculate. Our waitress was SO AMAZING. She was informative, she told us about everything, explained it all so well and kept us blissfully happy. We had two kinds of cheese on our table the Wisconsin flavor and the French flavor and both were delicious. We got two kinds of cooking broths, Coq au Vin and Mojo and those were delicious and we had two kinds of chocolate Turtle and S'More and THOSE were delicious.

When we arrived there were balloons on the table and a little gift and card signed by the staff. It was beautiful.

I was thrilled to pieces with the whole event and if I were rating this place It would get well over 5 noms.

I do recommend that you, my lovely readers, go here for special events. They go above and beyond making everything perfect for you.

Gorgeous.

Field House

2010-09-30T16:35:00.004-04:00

Another tavern another review. After a long day of work and house-hunting we ended up at the Field House armed with a restaurant.com certificate. Since it was a Monday night, the place wasn't busy whatsoever. We ordered cokes and began looking over the menu.

The directions weren't very clear on the certificate so I'll tell you what we learned over about a half hour of menu-staring: You must spend $50 OR purchase two entrees and the cheapest entree is $18 so you're probably better off just accumulating a table full of crap.

Some apps are half off. Some are not. The ones that are, aren't very good. (Monday night happy hour special)

Burgers are half off and delicious. (Monday night happy hour special)

We ended up ordering the crab cake platter for moi, and Dave got the Field House Burger with swiss and bacon on it. Then we ordered mozz sticks, texas corn dogs, and blackberry bbq wings.

Here's a rundown of how everything tasted:

Dave's burger was amazingly good. His fries were also delicious.

The mozz sticks were chewy old and gross

Texas corn dogs were greasy, but good. I'm not sure where the "corn" part of the dog came in since they were just crispy deepfried, similar to a piece of fried fish, but the dipping sauce was mostly horseradish so if you like that kind of thing go for it.

The blackberry wings were interesting and perfect. The sauce was tangy and sweet, wings meaty and juicy.

Crabcake was mostly crab, just the way you want it. It was properly cooked, tasted great and was filling as hell. However, I hate sweet potatoes. I thought I would like deep fried sweet potatoes (it came with sweet potato fries and rather than sub out I decided to give them a shot), but no, I still hate sweet potatoes. Vile, disgusting dirt food. Blech. However, if you LIKE sweet potatoes, you will LOVE these fries. They were perfectly fried and sprinkled with cinnamon.

Now that we got the pesky food part out of the way, let's talk about service.

It was our waitress's first night on the job and apparently she had the entire restaurant to take care of. Where the rest of the waitresses were, we had no idea. We only saw one other girl, when she brought out Dave's burger immediately after we got our apps and then he scolded her and she took the burger back. So, now on her first day she had like, 6 tables of people so her attention was divided which explains why we were there for an hour and a half. We were indecisive and took a long time to order. We had like, a thousand questions about the happy hour specials, and the certificate and the food, and she was helpful and informative the whole time. She was incredibly nice and did a great job.

Manager of Field House: never put new girl on the floor by herself. It causes customers to wait 20 minutes to get refills, put in orders and get ketchup (which I'm still waiting for by the way)

The most hilarious part of the evening was when she asked Dave if he wanted another Coke and he said "Yes" and then she asked me if I needed anything and I said "Can I get a lemon?" and she said "sure" and then came back with a coke with a lemon wedge stuck to it. I just stared it, then took the lemon wedge off and squeezed it onto my crab cakes.

Overall, we give you 3 noms.

Luckie's Fabulous Tavern

2010-09-17T11:20:00.001-04:00

Oh Luckie's...

Located just a few blocks from our house under the giant Power Plant Live sign, Luckie's features an expansive bar, huge area of outdoor seating and no toilet paper.

Seriously. The first thing I did was hit the restroom when we got here. Ladies, you know how when you walk into a restroom and you first check to make sure that there isn't anything disgusting looming in the bowl, then you check to make sure the door will shut, then you check to make sure it's not covered in pee...etc?...well, I walked down four or five stalls before finding one that didn't have human soup but still had interesting reading material on the walls (it's a bar, you can't expect much) and then to my dismay found no toilet paper. Running down several more stalls finally locating some, I washed my hands thoroughly and then laughed and the silverware setting sitting on a chair by the paper towels.

Dave had already ordered our Cokes, and we looked over the menu. We were just minutes into the dinner menu and were relieved to find out we could use our Groupon. We made up about half of their business at 5 p.m. yesterday. TV's blared the Navy v. Terps game and we set about ordering a chicken sandwich with cheddar cheese, side salads with ranch and Dave took the plunge on the hot turkey platter.

The waiter walked away with our menus and we looked forlornly at our empty glasses.

Our busy waiter set about fetching beverage for all the other patrons in the bar and as the minutes went by the annoyed tweets mounted. Had this guy not been so nice, I probably would have snapped. However, every time we interacted with him he was just so nice. By this point I was fully expecting burnt/or undercooked food, sucking ice to stay hydrated, and possibly contracting an infection from whatever was gluing my flip flops to the floor.

Here's where restaurant reviewing gets tricky. We can't rate this place the same way we would rate a place like La Tavola, or Prime. We have to rate this place on the level of other pub/bar type places. We expect simple pub style menus, we expect casual service, and we expect a certain amount of "eeeew, what is that on the floor?" It's a bar.

For being a bar, this place was pretty clean. It was sparsely staffed and likewise sparsely populated. Apparently not a lot of people eat at 5 p.m. when there's a big game going on in town. Meh.

So, finally after several tweets two full glasses of Coke show up and I was like "Yay! Thank you!" and he said "I read your mind" and then I muttered "you're apparently on mountain time" and then I wasn't mad anymore.

When the food arrived, the waiter brought over two more full glasses so he totally redeemed himself.

The food arrived. The salads looked wonderful. They were fresh, crisp and very very good. My sandwich was wonderful. Juicy chicken, fresh toppings, crisp fries. I would have been willing to eat my hat if I were the type of person to wear hats. Then the greatest shocker. . .

The hot turkey platter was delicious.

Seriously. It was Michigan good. Chunks of turkey breast, plain jane slices of bread, soaked in gravy, mounds of mashed potatoes. Stunning.

For the turkey platter alone, Luckie's you get 4 noms.

Martha and Mary's

2010-09-07T11:09:00.002-04:00

Armed with another Groupon, we set out from Towson (did you know that AMC theaters has $5 movies if you get moving before noon? How awesome is that?) to hit up Martha and Mary's Bistro.

Pulling into the parking lot we saw a newly built restaurant complete with umbrella-ed outdoor seating. There were quite a few customers enjoying the fabulous weather outdoors munching away happily on fries, salads and sandwiches. Hopeful, we walked in.

To a disaster.

The huge LCD tv screens meant for their menu was frozen, locked on breakfast at 1:30 in the afternoon. Kids were screaming and stampeding about. The tables were jam-packed with families and we stood there hopelessly looking for any sort of lunch related menu. Finally we spotted a stack up by the cash register. We spent a few minutes looking over an expansive menu (they have everything from fried clams to pizza and sandwiches, soups, salads and tons of delicious looking desserts). Then we stepped up to the register to order.

After about 10 minutes of standing there one of the teenagers came up to take our order. Presenting her with two Groupons, we needed to divide our check. We placed our order and she asked for assistance from the manager on inputting everything to allow us the use of both Groupons. She was pleasant and friendly the whole time. We paid, she stood there. We asked for cups, she gave them to us. We got our drinks and I pointed out the obvious problem of "How will they know what food is ours and how will we know what food is ours?" So we asked, she handed us a table marker with "66" on it and the manager quipped "You're number one!". We immediately took sanctuary outside, away from all the tiny people.

Once we were in a calmer, quieter environment we started to remark on the place. It was clean (plus) the food looked really good (plus plus) the staff was friendly (plus plus plus). We also noticed that this place was in total chaos. I have to ask, how long has Martha and Mary's been open? It appeared they were on day 2 and the staff was in total disarray (also completely staffed by what appeared to be 14 year-olds except for the manager and some cooks). It did not appear that anyone really knew what they were supposed to be doing, and then add to that that the place was packed. Really packed. (In fact, we waited until after we ate and it had thinned out a little to take the pictures)

Despite all of this, our food came out very quickly and was hot and delicious. The menu is simple so you won't find elegant elaborate meals here, but it's all really good. It's inexpensive (which is probably the appeal to all of those families we saw) and it's fun. Decorated in bright colors and kid friendly-chalk menu, you can see the appeal to people with kids.

My cheeseburger sliders were wonderful. Topped with american cheese, grilled onions, pickles and ketchup and mustard on a toasted bun, the flavors went really well together. Dave got the Chicken Caesar wrap and an order of fried clams with fries. The clams were fabulous (not chewy but tender and crispy) and his wrap was excellent. Crisp lettuce, juicy chicken and tangy dressing.

I do recommend trying this place out. The menu is really good, the food is good, the staff is nice. However, go at a time where you won't be interfering with family lunch time. Like, 2:30 -4 in the afternoon. Or any day where school is happening and the kids will be there. Unless you have kids, then by all means go at any time and enjoy.

3 Noms

Dave's 2 Cents:

Infested with children, this place is. Did I step into Chuck E. Cheese by accident? Nope, no pool of plastic balls. Were the patrons annoying? yes. Was the front of the house staffed by just-turned teenagers? YES. Is the food good though? Hells Yes!

After selling over 1000++ groupons a few weeks ago, I am sure this place has been inundated with new customers and swarms of penny pinchers. With that being said, this is the only negative. The food was Fast, hot, delicious. I got a Fried Clam appetizer, piping hot, not chewy at all (chewy=freezer burn). I also ordered a Chicken Caeser wrap, which was very nicely seasoned, and not too much dressing.

All in all, this place really is great. We will be retuning again for Breakfast. Evidently this place has signature breakfast pizzas that bring people from all over. NOM NOM!!!

Stewart's Rootbeer

2010-08-27T13:15:00.004-04:00

We are reviewing this place for these reasons:

This old-time drive in type place is incredibly hard to find
It's been owned by the same family for 60 years
the same guy has been working there for over 40 years
it's only open during the summer
they has root beerz on tap!!!

Dave loves several things: me, dogs, Halo, naps and most importantly: hot dogs and root beer. In that order. When we drove by this place one day and saw it was open we nearly drove through the cement highway divider to get in there. Dave was so excited. They pour their root beer (or cream ale) into frosted mugs and everything is made fresh, by hand in the kitchen.

And everything is delicious. Dave devoured several corn dogs, while I face-planted into a double cheeseburger hot mess. It was heaven. The burger fell apart in my hands leaving me with mayo covered mitts and a clown-style smile of mustard and ketchup.

We highly recommend, nay, COMMAND you visit this place when they open next spring. Say hi to the friendly staff, sit back and enjoy several frosty mugs of rootbeer then raid the fridge on your way out and take home a few 4 packs of Stewarts fine beverages. Honestly, a must.

5 NOMS!

Dave's 2 Cents:

Many years ago, before I-95 came along, Route 40 used to be a booming highway. As you exit downtown Baltimore and drive East on 40, you can just imagine how grand a roadway this area was. Hotel shells line the street, which were once booming with people, after all this was the only way to Delaware and Atlantic City before 95 came along.

Out from the rubble though, stands a classic gem that has stood the test of time. Stewart's root beer. Once a prevalent franchise spread up and down the east coast, this is the last Stewart's store front in Maryland. As a matter of fact, it's the last of its kind in the Mid- Atlantic. If you want to travel inland, the Midwest has a few in northern Ohio, and the next closest one is in Camden County, New Jersey. I know that spot well, as i spent the first 10 years of my life right down the road from the "Drive in" version of Stewart's in West NJ.

The only 2 things that could make this place perfect is: 1. being open all year, and 2. being a true drive in (parking your car outside and a girl on skates rolls up to your car and takes your order).

When you walk into this place, you can just get hit with a huge feeling of nostalgia. Whether your 30, 40, 50 or 60 years old, there is a good chance you've been to a place like this during your childhood.

As you order from the front counter, you can watch through the doors, your food getting freshly made and another person reaching into the deep freeze to grab your mugs for your root beer. The root beer and diet are on tap, and the other 4-5 flavors are vended through the normal fast food dispensers.

There are also pallets of bottled flavors for you to take home with you, in all the flavors. They even allow you to mix and match flavors whether you buy a 4 pack or a crate of 6- 4packs. You can even get root beer 1 gallon barrels, filled with your favorite flavor!!!

If this diner has touched your childhood like it has mine, you definitely need to share the experience with friends and your own children. This place is worth the drive, you truly need to visit.

Diablita

2010-08-27T13:02:00.005-04:00

The first time I visited this place was for a coworker's birthday last year, right after they opened.

As you can see from the photos, it is pretty dimly lit on the inside for happy hours. This was a "hang out with coworkers" type event again for me, and it turned out to be way better than the coworker birthday event was. The first time I was here the food was too greasy and the service was really slow.

However, this time around everything was pretty good. I ordered the red sangria (delicious and whoa did it pack a punch!) and the chicken fajitas. I don't know what Dave got because he placed his order after I'd had one glass of sangria so my memory retention wasn't all that great.

Anyway, the only complaint I have about the food is not enough tortillas. You never get enough with fajitas no matter where you go, just like when you order mooshu anything at any Chinese restaurant. They had you this wonderful pile of fillings and then like, 3 pancakes.

So, am I supposed to fill-to-spilling these tortillas? How do they eat these in their native country? I'm confused.

Anyway, the chicken was grilled, wonderfully seasoned and moist. The toppings were fab. House sour cream (I think it had cilantro in it) pico de gallo, rice, spicy black beans, lettuce. YUM.

I give it 4 noms. They didn't skimp on the booze, and my food was hot, fresh and not greasy!

Dave's 2Cents:

As always, I am a big fan of the exposed brick and rustic flooring and timbers. I was surprised that with just 2 people working the front they were able to take care of a group of 40 of us.

I had nachos and salsa as an app, and some tasty beef sandwich on a flat bread. (No idea what is was called, sorry.)

It was overall a nice place inside, unfortunately, it resides on the border of Little Italy and a ghetto. (quite literally, the next block is projects).

Max's Empanadas

2010-08-25T12:45:00.001-04:00

I have to admit that I was hesitant to try this place out at first. It cropped out virtually from nowhere after an Italian Deli shut down last year. Then I thought "Empanadas? In Little Italy? That's crazy talk" Crazy delicious!

Dear Max, whomever had the idea to pass out menus Friday evening should get a raise. That's what brought us in there. Something so simple. Dave brought home the menu and since I'd already had my heart set on seeing The Switch at Landmark that evening (and avoiding the Movie-on-the-Wall crowd to boot) I suggested we just make it a dinner and a movie night.

Now, the empanadas are pre-made then baked when you order them so they're gooey-hot. This means that if you have an aversion to olives (like Dave) then you will stand there and pout and not order anything until your dinner date shoves a forkful of cheese covered tender falling apart chicken in your mouth and you give in and order a whole plate of food for yourself. At least, that's how it happened for us.

I ordered the two empanada combo which gave me one chicken and one ham and cheese empanada and a side salad. The presentation of the food was gorgeous. The empanadas were golden brown, soft and warm. The salad was beautiful. So many colors and so fresh. I totally cleaned my plate. Both empanadas came with cheese and olives stuffed in with the ham and chicken. The flavors really worked so well together and everything was so good. They didn't taste premade (I can only assume these are all prepped like the night before then baked when you order them. They do sell frozen ones, but I doubt any that land on your plate in the restaurant have ever been frozen).

Dave ended up getting the chicken empanada with the black bean hummus. The hummus came with sliced fresh veggies and warm pita bread for dipping. I personally hate all hummus as a general rule, but Dave totally loved it. I was biased, but the pita bread and veggies were totally fresh and awesome. Totally.

This is a little row-home style restaurant so you can't have too many people looking into the glass case or milling about by the wine or cash register. There will definitely be some crowding if you find yourself in any of those places (Oh, did we mention this place sells booze? It does.) but there is ample seating and it has a funky contemporary feel to it. There's art for sale lining the walls and other non-for-sale art that ties the decor together nicely.

To appease the Italian crowd this place also offers paninis and wine. Oh, and also, it's cheap. Two people can leave incredibly full for not a lot of cash. Does it get any more Italian than that?

4 noms

Dave's 2Cents:

To be honest, after looking at the menu, nothing really jumped out at me. Not saying its bad, I just wasn't in the mood for this style of food, or so i thought.

I sat down and didn't order anything, watching my wife eat. She then, after some arm twisting, made me try some of her Empanada. Needless to say before the food got in my stomach, I was up at the counter ordering my own plate full.

I went with 1 Emp and hummus. I got the pulled chicken Emp' and black bean hummus.

Along side of the plate was hot and toasty flat bread, carrots and zucchinni. The best part was that it was lightly seasoned with salt and oregano.

Great food. Great prices. Great atmosphere! Thanks Max!

Hibachi & Sushi Supreme Buffet

2010-08-25T12:44:00.000-04:00

I was unaware we were reviewing this place. Hm. Ok. I thought we were just being fatties after we dropped our foster kittens off at their adoption event. From the outside this place looks like your typical strip mall Asian Buffet. On the inside, it was a wonderland of tasty delights. Yes, tasty delights.

This restaurant is huge. Several buffet stands full of food (everything from your expected sesame chicken to RIBS and mashed potatoes with gravy, oh yeah, and sushi). We were a little overwhelmed at first.

I asked Dave what our criteria would be for rating this place, and this is what we decided on.

Quality of food (like did the chicken wings have chicken hair on them)
Taste of food
Age of food
Americana buffet (do they have it just to have or does someone back there know how to make ribs)

In the end, everything was so delicious that our rating system was pretty much moot (by the way, someone back there DOES know how to make ribs and they are fall off the bone goooooood). The only thing that I tasted and did not like was the crabcake. Sesame chicken: good. Stuffed Scallops on a half shell: delicious. Lo Mein: soooo good and so on and so on.

It was all pretty fresh. Nothing had been sitting out for too long. It was all flavored wonderfully and was just great. The staff was friendly and quick. We had a great time. In fact, this will probably be a Drop Off The Foster Cats and Eat at the Buffet ritual.

5 noms

Dave's 2Cents:

As my wife had mentioned, this place looked like every other buffet around the country. A big sign promising greatness, in a strip mall with a at least a dry cleaner and possibly a nail salon.

Walking out of the pet store, I pointed the buffet out to Jenn. She looked at me in question as I said, "...but the sign says Supreme Buffet. We've never been to one of those before."

So she agreed and we went in.

This place is very nice inside. I am unsure if it used to be a steakhouse, but it had that feel. Lots of wood, lots of light. (I didn't see any burnt out bulbs either).

The 1st food item i saw was the seafood section. Crawfish, Clams on the shell, full sized crab... GOOD LORD SUPREME GOODNESS!

I then looked for the sushi. In the back was a 20+foot bar of about 15-18 different styles of sushi and shashimi. Next to the sushi bar was the hibachi grill. Definitely a lot smaller than Columbia's Mongolian buffet, they still had a lot of the basics there. I would also like to note that the raw meat was beautiful. The Beef was steak, still in steak shape, as were the chicken breasts. The scallops were huge as well. I enjoy seeing what my food looks like before chopped up into little bits.

Walking to the salad bar i noted on the back wall jugs of soup. On further inspection, it was a soup buffet! NOM!

For the non Asian loving eaters in the family, there is also an American buffet. Beef roast, pork ribs, mac'n'cheese, mash taters, etc...

Someone in the back knows how to do ribs. They were fall off the bone, luscious.

I defiantly give this place 5 noms. If I had to say something negative about 1 thing, it would be the seating. It looks like someone came in and slashed almost all the booth bench seat. Weird.

Bagby Pizza Co.

2010-08-24T15:38:00.003-04:00

"Best Pizza in Harbor East"!

Bagby Pizza opened earlier this year to the delight of all my coworkers. Everyone had been dying for a quick lunch pizza joint near work for so long that it seemed Bagby answered the call, just for us.

I will admit right off that the reason it took me months and months to set foot in that place was because a couple of coworkers complained that they were too expensive and "wtf is up with no pizza by the slice?". However, we got wind that pizza by the slice was now being offered, and then Dave bought a Groupon, so one day we found ourselves there for lunch.

My first impression of the place is that it's absolutely wonderful inside. It definitely reflects the area on the inside with the exposed brick and duct work as well as the old timey Baltimore photos lining the walls. They have ample outdoor seating which is a great option when it's not a thousand degrees outside and isn't raining (it was raining). Their outdoor seating looks on at a gorgeous flower/garden shop so the view is truly lovely.

We looked over an ample menu (everything from pizza to salads to sandwiches) and decided on a large pepperoni and bacon. We got our sodas and sat down to wait for the pie to show up.

It came out pretty quickly. They were incredibly busy but it only took about 10 minutes or so for the pizza to arrive. I dug in immediately having not had breakfast that day and practically starving.

It was delicious. The sauce is just a little sweet and so good and you can tell the crust is homemade. The pepperoni and bacon was plentiful (both were chopped and under the cheese so you couldn't really see it, but you could definitely taste it). We tore through that pizza in no time. I was eyeballing some various pies at tables around me and I did not see a single unappetizing one. I'm thinking we need to keep going back to try different ones.

The crust is New York style so it's thin, but not cracker-crisp. The slices are big and fold-able, the cheese fresh and stringy. Basically, it's exactly what you want with a pizza. They have some fabulous combinations on their menu or you can create your own.

Now, as for the price of this place I guess you could say it is a tad pricey for lunch, but if you go with a friend, get a larger pizza and split the cost, you're going to spend about $10-12 on lunch, which isn't that bad at all. Especially not for Baltimore. We loved this place.

We fully, totally without hesitation give this place 5 Noms.

DAVE'S 2cents:

This will be short and sweet.

For the last 2 years, if I wanted great pizza from the harbor east/little Italy area, I went to Isabella's. They are even on our "Best of the Best" page. However, after eating here I think Isabella's now has some REAL COMPETITION.

Bagby's Pizza is just delish. As you can see from this picture, there is barely any oil dripping off a bacon and pepperoni pizza (2 of the most greasy meats you can have on a pizza).

Price wise though, it's just a few more dollars. (Isabella's 2 topping pizza $14ish, Bagby's $20)

The inside of this place is amazing too, if you're into wood, brick, and metal.

Since this place is on the border block of Little Italy and Harbor East, I will award this place "Best Pizza in Harbor East"!

Bill Bateman's Bistro

2010-08-19T17:07:00.001-04:00

We were intrigued by the claim that Bill Bateman's Bistro had the "best wings in town". Dave and I both love some really good wings. It reminds us of Trivia Night in Florida when we'd hang out with his friends and eat pile after pile of various flavored wings while playing a ridiculous trivia game.

We tried out the White Marsh location (Gold Ring). We were greeted warmly and seated quickly. We ordered our beverages (I started off with a Cherry Bomb type thing, it was cherry bacardi, pineapple and cranberry juices and man oh man was it delicious), then started deciding on our meals.

We started off with an order of mozzarella sticks. It's definitely a passion of both of ours. I've loved mozzarella sticks ever since one almost killed me as a child. I swallowed a piece and started to choke on the giant string of cheese, frantically attempting to pull it out of my throat but the cheese just kept stretching. My mom, naturally, flipped out and I was banned from mozz sticks until adulthood.

So we ordered the mozz sticks and nearly a half an hour later they showed up. Room temp, cold enough that the cheese wasn't dangerously stretchy. In fact, it was like eating a cheese stick wrapped in breading. The sauce was piping hot, so you could make a case that it evened out.

A little while later our entrees showed up. Dave opted to try these famous wings of theirs so he ordered one plate of 20 wings teriyaki flavor and one plate of 10 wings bourbon flavored. Here, they don't let you mix flavors and they offer their wings in plates of ten. So you can't get a plate of 20 and split the flavors. If you order 20, you need to order them all the same. Which we both hated. When you're a "wing place" you need some flexibility.

Now, I've eaten my fair share of wings. I was really optimistic by the friendly comfortable atmosphere, the claim of "best wings in town" the delicious sounding flavors listed, and the personal message from Bill Bateman on the back of his menu telling us that they use only the best, freshest produce and meat around.

Dave's wings did not reflect any of those claims. It was all crispy tough skin and bland seasoning. There was hardly any meat on them at all. They were tiny and chewy.

I went for the seafood platter that had a lobster cake, fried shrimp, fried fish, coleslaw and fries. This being a seafood area of the country, I'm always curious to taste a new place's take on seafood. When my plate arrived the first thing I noticed was the golf-ball sized burnt lobster cake. The whole top was torched black. I started sampling everything. The fries were lukewarm and rubbery, the lobster cake was burnt and salty, the fish was cold and rubbery, the shrimp was actually pretty good, but not fresh (it was definitely frozen at some point) and the cocktail sauce to go with it was mostly horseradish so I had to "ketchup" it down a bit, and then the coleslaw was warm. Five bites in and I was done.

Our waitress came to check on us and asked if I needed a box. I declined and she asked if it was good and I said no. She asked what wasn't good and I said "Everything". She immediately jumped to help. She offered a conversation with a manager which at first I refused then changed my mind. I read an article recently encouraging people to complain when something is terribly wrong at a restaurant. Most people don't, and then business drops off because most people would just rather not come back than complain about something. So I decided to inform the manager that there was a problem and what the problem was.

She listened with intent, and then offered us some compensation which was wonderful. We didn't mentioned Dave's chicken, just focusing on my dinner. The waitress was incredibly sweet and kept apologizing.

My recommendation is if you decide to patron this establishment, stick to alcohol. Their alcoholic drinks are marvelous. Skip the food.

1 nom.

Dave's 2 Cents:

I almost called Groupon and demanded my money back. How dare they promote themselves as the "best wings in town", what town? where? Baltimore?! hell F%#$ no!

I would have had a better experience if i dipped my leather wallet in BBQ sauce and tried to eat that.

I can't wrap my mind around the fact that they force you to only take 1 flavor per order, wither its 10-20 or 50. 1 sauce only. If you want 20, with 2 sauces, you have to order 2x 10 pieces, which rings up another $4-5.

Bill, If you advertise yourself as the best, #1 your food better live up to the name, and #2 offer some customer service and give us wiggle room.

Unless however your meat comes off a truck in frozen bags that includes the toss sauce, hmmm.

Folks, do not go here for wings. Your better off buying a frozen bag @ Sam's club and microwaving it for 30 mins.

Blue Agave

2010-08-02T14:01:00.002-04:00

At some point we were going to have to review a Mexican restaurant. We'd been avoiding it because of my newly diagnosed stomach issues which included such orders from the doctors as "no spicy foods" and "for the love of GOD no spicy foods" and "You should probably stay away from spicy foods" and then there was "Oh yeah, and no tomato, lime, lemon or orange. Also, no spicy foods"

So it had sorta ruled out a lot of my favorite Mexican dishes like...anything Mexican. We had a Groupon for Blue Agave Restaurante and Tequileria which is next to Dangerously Delicious Pies so we thought we'd have dinner there, carefully, and then hit up DDP for dessert.

I scoured the menu to locate all of the dishes that I knew wouldn't be good for me and immediately avoided them. This narrowed my selection to pretty much any vegetarian dish, the dos Burros and the enchiladas. I opted for the enchiladas and Dave got dos Burros. We also got a sampler of salsa and some homemade tortilla chips (which the first round is free, any additional you pay for).

The enchiladas came on a platter with three, stuffed with cheese, shredded chicken and covered in the red enchilada sauce topped with cheese, a side of rice and black beans. It was fantastic. These were probably the best enchiladas I've ever had. I ate one whole one and then Dave at my last two (they were probably just a notch above the spice level I'm allowed to have so to avoid a stomach ache, I gave him my final two in exchange for the rest of his chicken burrito). The rice was perfect the beans were perfect, it was great. There was a slight hint of something sweet like cinnamon or something in the tortillas that really added an excellent flavor to the whole dish.

Dave's entree was two burritos, one steak and the other chicken, stuff with beans, rice, tomatoes. They were huge. Absolutely gigantic and unbelievably good. The meat wasn't dry or overcooked, the tortilla soft and warm. Best burrito I've ever had.

The chips and salsa was also incredible. Everything was so fresh and tasted like it was just prepared. I only wish they had told us what kinds of salsa we were eating (one was all green, one clearly regular salsa and one a dark red/brown color and almost completely liquid)

4 Noms.

This place was great. They have an excellent happy hour on Tuesdays where you get 2 apps for $20. This seems like it would be a great place to meet friends or go to after work.

Dangerously Delicious Pies

2010-08-02T13:55:00.002-04:00

Ahh, the elusive Dangerously Delicious Pies. Dave, Heather, Sami and I had attempted to go here on July 5 only to (sadly) discovered they were closed that day. We tried again another time and Sami got stuck in VA. So, Dave and I decided to get dessert here after our dinner at Blue Agave.

This is another of those Baltimore places that's been on TV. Apparently the Food Network loves Baltimore. We gazed over the chalkboard menu and looked into the lit up glass case and finally decided on 3 kinds of pie: Baltimore Bomb, Chocolate Chess and Apple Crumb (which was a mini-pie).

We took our order to go, promising to come back and dine in for the Savory Pie experience (they make chicken pot pies, and some other delicious sounding pies that I can't wait to sink my face into).

Once at home Dave poured us a glass of milk, divvied up the pie slices and we dug in. The Baltimore Bomb was a custardy pie with chunks of Berger cookies baked into it. It gives you a little bit of that chocolately goodness that I love so much but isn't as overwhelming as some have described the Berger cookie to be (if you're unfamiliar, it's a shortbread cookie caked with a GOB of fudgey frosting that includes ingredients I don't want to mention and a calorie count that is simply sinful). The Chocolate Chess was something between an undercooked brownie, chocolate mousse and cake. It was fabulous. This one was by far my favorite. The crust was perfect, the filling gooey. It was good. The final one, the mini-pie of Apple Crumb had to be my least favorite of the three. It was a little on the bland side (I think it needed more cinnamon or apple spice or something) but the crumb topping was crunchy sweet and perfectly baked.

We'll be giving them a more complete review when we go back for their savory pies. So far they've got 3.5 noms.

The guy working the counter was super helpful and patient and offered great suggestions. It's clean and comfy on the inside and it's in a great location.

Mt. Washington Tavern

2010-08-02T13:49:00.001-04:00

The Mt. Washington Tavern

5700 Newbury Street

Baltimore, Maryland 21209

410.367.6903

We'd heard good things about this place so we decided to hit it up over the weekend. It's located in a really cute part of the city. Since we were eating pretty late at night (it was around 9:30 when we went) I'd really like to try to get back there during the daytime.

When we arrived, we walked in through the front which is the bar area. Music was playing really loud and we were a little nervous. We asked for a "quiet" table and the hostess gave us this little smirk then led us through a hallway and opened a door to a gorgeous cabana themed restaurant that was softly lit by candles and white string lights wrapped around fake palm trees. It was really lovely.

We were greeted really quickly and given our drinks. We ordered an appetizer, crab wantons, jumbo lump crab meat, cream cheese and scallions served with a Ponzu dipping sauce. When the app came we put in the order for our entrees, Dave choosing the Parmesan Crusted Rockfish and me choosing the Shelburne Chicken. It took a little longer than we expected for the food to come out. Dave's fish was a "Wild caught Parmesan rockfish filet topped with Jumbo Lump and beurre blanc and sauteed green beans". They must have been out of green beans because he got a vegetable medley instead. His fish was amazing. Perfectly cooked, and the beurre blanc sauce was unbelievably creamy and delicious. I was jealous.

My Shelburne Chicken was "chicken breast wrapped around country ham and brie cheese with wholegrain mustard, pan-gravy and wild mushroom risotto". I was hopeful and excited because it sounded so delicious. It tasted like a pile of garbage. The mustard was entirely too strong, the risotto was more of a "wild mushroom pilaf". I got through one piece of this dish and had to push it away. I will say that the ham, chicken and brie combination was quite good. The mustard totally killed it though.

Thankfully the staff there was so wonderful as to let me choose another dish to try and delivered it on the quick. I exchanged my chicken for the Prime Rib, Queen's cut. It was "slow roasted boneless rib of Hereford Beef with crispy onions, Horseradish Creme, and Wild Mushroom risotto". I asked for no horseradish as it's one of those foods I can't eat.

The steak was fabulous. It was cooked perfectly, just fatty enough and soooo juicy. It was truly delicious. I did not eat much of the onions but they did add a good bit of flavor to the meat. They were crispy and salty and really good. I poked at the "risotto" and took a bite. I'm pretty sure it had been sitting out and was microwaved as it was oddly hot in certain spots and had that rubbery texture.

As mentioned before, this place is GORGEOUS on the inside. It gives you a sense that you're on vacation at a resort on the beach. The Rockfish was amazing and the steak delicious. So, I recommend you go and try those dishes. We had excellent service as well, which has helped to give this place the score of 3 noms.

Yuki Sushi

2010-07-19T16:13:00.020-04:00

We spent Saturday in Owings Mills because our foster kittens were at the PetCo at an adoption event. Remembering the Restaurant.com certificate we bought for a sushi place there, we headed to Yuki Sushi for lunch.

On a side note, our Westie's name is Yuki which translates to "snow" in Japanese, or "snowflake" if you want to tease Dave about 1. buying a tiny white dog and 2. naming said tiny white dog officially "Hana tusu yuki" which means "snow that is like flowers". So, we bought the certificate because the place was named after our dog.

We always have such high hopes for sushi. It so easy to make, and so easy to screw up. Well, ok it's not easy to make exactly, actually it's pretty effing hard. It's easy to throw together the flavors in it to make it taste GOOD I should say. Unless you're using rotten fish or something, in which case your sushi will taste like rotten fish.

It took us awhile to figure out what we wanted because we didn't get a check off sushi menu so we had to remember what we wanted. The prices here were pretty standard for the Baltimore area, the more "plain" rolls were actually pretty inexpensive (ranging from $5-$7) and then the specialty rolls racking up to $15 which is the norm. I went with a Raven Roll (shrimp, mayo, cucumber and topped with avocado) and a Boston Roll (shrimp, mayo, lettuce). Dave ordered a Dynamite roll (salmon, asparagus, crab mix, deep fried) and hibachi steak and shrimp.

Dave started to pick up on some "abruptness" from our waitress early on, but it took me a bit longer to notice it. Then when I asked if they happened to have shrimp sauce or "yum yum" sauce (not every place in this area has it, but a few rare gems have so I always ask) she gave me this look that was like "WTF are you talking about?" said "HUH?!" then stared at me until I said "I was just checking. Nevermind." and then she shook her head and walked away. Then she started slamming cokes onto our table and I'm actually quite surprised Dave was able to finish his meal. He was really disappointed that she said he couldn't use the certificate towards the lunch boxes (bento box lunch specials) even though it didn't say any such thing on the certificate according to him, but he relented and chose the hibachi meal instead.

As for the food, it was good. The sushi was really tasty, fresh seafood, it was made really well so the insides weren't coming out (I really hate that when it's rolled too loosely and all the goodness flops out onto the plate). The flavors of the Raven roll especially worked really well together. The Boston roll was alright, definitely get this as a starter roll to share. It's really kind of bland to just eat the whole thing. Dave hibachi meal was really good. Plump shrimp, tender pieces of beef wrapped up in warm noodles. I was satisfied with the food portion of our experience.

I give it 3 noms.

Dave Says: It's amazing how much the service influences the whole dining experience. I wish I could contact the owner and let them know, but I doubt they care. She's probably their daughter/niece, anyway.

Mongolian Grill

2010-07-19T16:11:00.077-04:00

The Mongolian Grill Of Columbia

8865 Stanford Boulevard, Suite 107 Columbia, MD 21045-5420

Call: (410)290-0690 for reservations of six or more people.

Click here for FREE COUPONS!

http://www.mongoliangrillcolumbia.com/
Lunch Hours: Monday – Friday, 11:30am-2:30pm

Dinner Hours: Monday – Thursday, 5:00pm-9:00pm Friday, 5:00pm-10:00pm

Weekend Hours: Saturday, 12:00pm-10:00pm Sunday, 12:00pm-9:00pm

Now, if it's one thing Dave likes other than hotdogs, it's Mongolian BBQ. He's always seeking out

Mongolian places. While living in Fernandina Beach, Florida there was one that he would go to every year for his birthday and on our most recent trip he found out it closed. Sad face.

As far as we know, this is the only Mongolian place in a 45 minute radius (possibly more than that we haven't looked any further than 45 minutes away). As a bonus, they have coupons on their website that gives you $5 a $25 purchase and $10 off a $50 purchase. (coupon available at the top of this blog post)

It's set in a little strip mall tucked away as everything in Columbia is. Walking in we noticed a well stocked bar and then a little nook of knick-knacks for sale. We were there for dinner, early dinner but dinner, so we had full access to the Mongolian bar and the salad bar. While everything on the salad bar certainly looked appealing, fresh and delicious, I spent all my food space at the Mongolian bar.

Their options vary depending on what they have in stock but their staples are pork, chicken, beef, fish, shrimp, scallops, rice, noodles, eggs, and cabbage. They usually have zucchini, carrots, bean sprouts and water chestnuts as well. You start by grabbing a bowl, a bowl tray, your token with your number on it, then you fill your bowl with the rice or noodle, veg. and then meat of your choice. You can season it however you want, they put out tons of spices, garlic, green onion for you, then you dump on your sauces.

They make it really easy for first timers suggesting you create your own and then offering handy little menus for the gun-shy that teach you how to make certain ones. I went with the Child's sauce which was peanut, sesame oil, teriyaki, and mongolian sauce. I sprinkled on some garlic and took my bowl up to the grill then sat down to await what sorts of lovely flavors I'd end up with. In my bowl was also some noodles, an egg, beef, shrimp, water chestnuts, zucchini, carrots, onion, and green onion.

I wasn't disappointed. Everything blended together so well and it was soooo good that I ended up having another heaping bowl of it. My 2nd time up I changed my sauce a bit and just splashed some stuff together. I went with sesame oil, teriyaki, a touch of lemon water, peanut sauce, house sauce, mongolian sauce, and garlic. This time my sauce was just a big more tangy than it was previously. The first time up it was a tad sweet and nutty.

Mmmm mmmm mmmm.

5 noms.

Dave's 2 Cents:

Even though this place is a little out of Baltimore's city limits, it definitly is a place to mention. It's a perfect place to take the family or a large group of friends, and GO HUNGRY! With over 6 meats and 25 sauces to mix and match, the only thing that can go wrong is you getting full before trying everything. I know this is a place I will be taking friends and family for years to come.

Just remember to take your token up to the cook with your food, and remember what number you are, or you'll end up eating someone else's creation!

G&A Restaurant

2010-07-14T11:00:00.004-04:00

G & A Restaurant
3802 Eastern Avenue
Baltimore, MD 21224
(410) 276-9422
http://www.gandarestaurant.com/
Mon - Sat: 7 am - 7 pm ~ Sun: Closed
BEST HOTDOGS IN BALTIMORE

This came to us by way of the suggestion box once it was learned that Dave loves hotdogs. LOVES hotdogs. Apparently this place is said to have the best hotdogs around.

Apparently that is correct. They also have the best everythingwetasted around.

This place has been around since 1927 and has remained family owned the entire time. You walk into to this narrow little, easy to miss place and you're greeted by a friendly staff. Once seated, we began to pour over the laminated menus (ah, true diner style) that never leave the booths. We ordered a couple of cokes, and got down to business with the food.

I ordered a G&A club which came with turkey, ham, cheese, lettuce, tomato, mayo on three crispy toasted slices of white bread with a side of coleslaw. Dave ordered two dogs, mustard and relish, and a slider platter which had three cheeseburger sliders with ketchup and mustard and pickle and a side of fries.

The sliders hit the table first and we dug in. Holy delicious. You can tell right away these were made FRESH mere minutes before we started shoving them into our mouths. The bun was soft and the fries were fresh cut. We got a side of gravy for dippin' (something Dave was skeptical about but being from one of the fattest states in this great U.S. of A. I knew was delicious and after some coaxing from myself and our waitress he agreed to try it). I am happy to report that the gravy was salty, gooey and perfect. The combo of fry and gravy was unbelievable. Dave is now a convert.

So, now for the club sandwich. I went with an easy dish I suppose, but it looked good. It's really really hard to mess up a club sandwich. This one was great. The bread toasty and perfect (except for the one burnt slice but it was hardly noticeable and I only took note of it when the club fell apart in my hands and I saw it, then had a good laugh). The coleslaw was also pretty good, definitely carrying that "homey" taste with it.

Dave LOVED the dogs. He loved them. The look on his face when he bit into them was priceless. It was like he'd never tasted a hotdog before.

Now, I will say that this diner isn't pretty, but it's clean, and it's well broken in and that is exactly how diners should be. It's been standing for about 90 years so it has stood the test of time.

The owner himself, Andy was working the register, cooking, greeting people which was amazing to see. He took so much pride in this place you could just feel it. Our waitress apologized several times and thanked us for being "patient", even though the wait for the food was under 15 minutes and everything was so incredibly good we would have waited longer for it.

This place TOTALLY gets 5 noms. The food was amazing, the service was amazing, and we were completely and totally happy with the entire experience.

Dave's 2cents:

So as you heard, after a reader saw my bad review of Stuggys, he/she suggested G&A. When I google mapped it, I wasn't impressed with the area, the southeast area past Patterson Park, aka Little Havana.

But as I have been told MANY TIMES, if I want to live in Baltimore I got to get over these bad areas.

Walking into this place was nostalgic. I grew up in West NJ, with a diner names Geets, and my wife in Michigan named Tony's. We both sat down and looked around and felt like we were home.

The customer service was outstanding, from the BOSS, Andy greeting us at the door, to the waitress making sure we were ok every few minutes.

The food was heavenly. Yes the sliders were good, but the hotdogs were perfect. (I realize that I cannot tell you about this without you pervs giggling because I sound phallic, so here it goes...)

The hotdog's crisp skin just pops as you bit into it, as the warm hotdog innards explode in your mouth. Leaving its eater with closed eyes and a wide smile. nommmmmmmmm

ok, seriously. stop giggling.

Talara

2010-07-13T16:07:00.004-04:00

Another Groupon, another review. Today we visited Talara, a little tapas/bar place right by Little Italy. We opted to go during a non-busy time of day (read: when we woke up from our nap at 3 p.m. 45 minutes before we had to pick up the foster kittens from their surgery) in hopes of quick service.

I walk by this place pretty frequently as it is near to both work and home, and I have never seen it busy. I noticed that this particular groupon had a little over 1,200 purchases so I do hope that changes. However, before we get to the reviewing of the food part, I do have to say one thing: their website is goddamn annoying. Dear Talara, go easy on the flash, mmkay? You kinda froze up my computation machine and I don't even run into that problem toggling between facebook and hulu Wednesday nights when I'm desperately trying to catch up with Amy and the gang on Secret Life of the American Teenager (we all have demons, go with me on this one). So, in conclusion, your website is confusing, too flashy, and it needs to be stopped. The end.

Now, the food/restaurant experience itself.

It took us a few minutes to decide on what to order, despite it being their lunch menu and pretty concise. Finally we settled on the Pork Empanadas for an appetizer, and Dave got the Bento box lunch which came with a salad, Asian salmon tar-tare, tempura shrimp over grilled pineapple, and two small slices of tres leches cake, I went with the green chile burger which came with queso blanco, bacon, green chile salsa and bbq sauce and a side of fries.

It took almost 15 minutes for our app to hit our table and before we were even done eating it our entrees were there, so I think there's a bit of a timing problem in the kitchen (which happened to be located about a foot to our left). The empanadas were pretty good. The pork wasn't dry at all, the pastry outside was crispy and then soft. It came drizzled with a sauce that tasted like a spicy mayo.

As for my burger, it was in interesting combo of flavors, definitely had that "southwestern" flavor going for it. It was cooked properly, and the fries were delicious. I must warn you this burger has a tiny kick to it, so I was unable to eat much thanks to my stomach. What I did eat was pretty good.

I tried Dave's salad and his shrimp, avoiding his salmon tartare at all costs, then giving his cake a try (I hate cake as a general rule. If you put cake in front of me and I have more than one or two bites, it's damn good cake). His salad was very crisp, the shrimp had a good flavor and I really liked the grilled pineapple. The cake was "eh". It wasn't dry and it was drizzled with a coconutty creamy sauce (which I liked) but it's cake.

The restaurant itself is really lovely. It's covered in all these latin-looking paintings, and the decor is funky and cool. I really like that they do the cooking basically right in front of you (sometimes I wonder what really does go on in kitchens, then I remember that I'd rather not know) but here they're right there and you can watch them make your food.

As far as the service goes, when we walked in we had to wait for someone to come up to the stand to seat us, watching the cooks shout and gesture to someone in the background. Our waitress was really really nice but I think that because it was so slow, it was easy to forget about us. She brought our food as soon as it was ready and our glasses didn't go empty but it did take her awhile to settle the bill. The last time I was in there I waited about 15 minutes to have my glass refilled then by the time she refilled it, we had to go back to work. So the service was better than it was that time.

I do think this place is more suited for a happy hour or business lunch place. I didn't get to try any of their alcohol drinks but I have heard good things. The food is pretty tasty but I just don't see this as a go-out-to-dinner kind of place. This is more of a meet-your-group-there-for-cocktails place. Its relatively inexpensive (at least their lunch menu is, I'm not sure about their dinner menu) and you do get enough food for what you pay for.

Overall, I give it 3 noms.

Dave's 2 Cents:
I really don't have anything to good or bad to say about this place. Nothing was bad, but for the location, something should have had stuck out as great.

Stuggy's

2010-07-09T12:20:00.005-04:00

Stuggy's

809 South Broadway

Baltimore, MD 21231

Phone: 410-327-0228

http://www.stuggys.com/

Thursday - Saturday: 11am - 3am

Sunday: 11am-5pm

Knowing my husband's all-consuming love for hot dogs, when I heard about this place I figured we'd have to go sooner or later. We chose sooner. As for me, hot dogs aren't a holy grail food, but I can appreciate a good dog now and again.

First of all, I love this location. Fell's Point is one of my favorite areas of the city. I love how close and intimate all the shops are with each other, the proximity to the water, the fact that you can have a great meal and then five feet later have a great dessert/beer/drink/whatever. It rocks.

This place is tiny. There are only four stools in it and when we walked in, all four were covered in teenager. We stared hungrily at the chalkboard menu for a few minutes, I had already decided on the Motor City Coney (1/4 all beef dog covered in chili, shredded cheddar cheese and diced raw onion...just like they make 'em back home) and Dave settled on a #3, two dogs, fries and a drink.

I will apologize for not having taken pictures of our actual foods, we both had inhaled our dogs and then realized "Oh crap, the blog" so we found some photos online of their food. I will testify that what you see in these photos is what you will get at Stuggy's.

The food came fast. We requested that the Teens working boot their loitering friends and they did. We sat down to eat. I loved my dog. It was fabulous. Crohn's be damned. I ate that chili like...a person who can eat chili and not end up in blinding pain an hour later. Usually I dislike raw onion but it was excellent on this dog. The chili was plentiful, the cheese was fresh and gooey and the onions crunchy and...pungent, as onions tend to be. The stomach ache I eventually suffered through was worth it.

I ate all of Dave's fries too. These fries were very different than any others I've ever had. They were fresh cut, no doubt about it, covered in sea salt, but they tasted almost like they'd been refired as they were slightly chewy. Still a really good flavor, just odd texture.

The soda they have here is like no soda anywhere else. Boylan Soda Co. It's some fancy pants odd flavored soda (think if Jones had a fountain machine, but not as delicious). With flavors like Black Cherry, Orange Creme, and an odd tasting Root Beer, the soda selection was a tad disappointing for me. I liked the idea of the unique variety, I'm just not a fan of the "creme" variety of anything.

Overall, I give it 3 out of 5 noms.

Dave's 2 Cents:"I'm not even supposed to be here today!"

This place pissed me the F#*k off.

It was as if an Oscar Mayer hotdog and "Clerks" the movie had a baby and gave it up for adoption in Baltimore.

On entering this establishment with no A/C in 100 degree weather, teens behind the counter not greeting us, and the only places to sit and eat were occupied by the employee's loitering friends, my temper grew fast.

At the point where our "to go" food was handed to us in "eat in" fashion, is when i started getting snarky.

As I tried to communicate with one of the employees over the blaring Death Metal music playing overhead, I asked if all these kids were their friends. When he said yes, I requested he tell them that they need to make room for paying customers.

On the flip side: The hot dogs were awesome, some of the best I have ever had. Surprisingly they were 100% beef, which I prefer Chicken/Pork.

I would suggest that the owner possibly think about doing some random walk ins or secret shoppers, but its really not worth it for what it is, a glorified hot dog stand in a popular bar district.

I just wouldn't be surprised if you caught the employees playing roof hockey at some point during the day...

REVISITED Sorso Cafe

2010-07-08T12:36:00.003-04:00

As promised in our Sorso Cafe blog post, we revisited this place to try out the rest of the menu.

After the big dog dinner at Stuggy's we used up our final Sorso Cafe Groupon on some gelato. Their gelato is a treat for the eye I must say. In the cooler, it's all decorated (the strawberry is covered in fresh cut strawberries, chocolate covered in Hershey's kisses, lemon in lemons, etc) and delicious looking. I ordered half chocolate, half chocolate chip (which is actually a flavor I can neither pronounce nor spell) and Dave got half coffee half caramel. To tip our total over the $10 value of the Groupon, we tacked on a fruit cup.

I loved their gelato. It was creamy, rich in flavor and even though the little cups look small to the eye, you're definitely given enough to satisfy you. The fruit cup was big, fresh and ripe. In fact, it's my lunchtime dessert today (after sampling a few pieces with breakfast this morning)

Our rating stands. 4 out of 5 noms. Way to go Sorso!

EPIC 80% off Restaurant.com gift certificates!!

2010-07-07T12:52:00.003-04:00

There’s a promo going on right now @ restaurant.com. 80% off restaurant gift certificates.

http://www.restaurant.com/consumer-promotion/lp_1_c.asp?prti=4252&raid=1150&s_kwcid=TC|7304|restaurant.com||S||5283403007\

Fill your shopping cart full of places you love or want to try then Enter Promo Code: FUN

Sale lasts until the 12th, but it is defiantly worth it if you’re looking to save some money. Every certificate has rules, so please pay attention to the restrictions. (can’t spend at bar, etc…)

We just bought 27 gift certificates today equaling almost $600 for $45!!
Just thought I’d share, if you have questions let me know.

-enjoy!

P.S. This code also works on Dinner of the month club subscriptions for Baltimore. $24 for 12 months worth of gift certificates!

Luna Del Sea

2010-07-06T17:26:00.007-04:00

Luna Del Sea Bistro
www.lunadelsea.com

300 West Pratt Street
Baltimore, MD 21201-6504
(410) 752-8383

BEST SEAFOOD: INNER HARBOR
Click Here for Menu

Today's post was supposed to be about Dangerously Delicious Pies, but since it was closed, we headed over to Luna Del Sea to review this little seafood bistro. Our good friend Sami, whom you may remember from our Sorso Cafe post suggested we try it out, as he knows the owner. We headed over there with him and our friend Heather in tow to help us sample a wider range of the menu.

I must say first off that this place is very cute. It's set up elegantly, comfortable seating, the ballroom has a gorgeous mural on the wall. Right away we felt at home there. We were one of two tables in the place so it was nice and quiet.

We started the meal off by ordering fried soft shell clams and mussels in a garlic butter sauce. Dave sure does love his fried clams, and he wasn't disappointed here. They were perfectly crispy on the outside, soft on the inside and the dipping sauce was a phenomenal complement. I was a little biased about the mussels and so were Dave and Heather.

The last time I had mussels they were chewy and rubbery and not having a basis of comparison, thought that was how they were supposed to be. Now that I've tried these, I know otherwise. These were tender and nearly melted in your mouth. The garlic butter sauce was so good that we all used up the rolls to soak it up and polish the plate. Sami sure knows his food, he did an excellent job picking out that dish. Even Dave and Heather liked them. Luna Del Sea, you have 3 new mussel converts.

For the entrees Heather ordered the crab cake sandwich with fries, Sami got the seafood trio, broiled, Dave ordered the fried seafood platter and I ordered the shrimp salad sandwich.

Everything came out very quickly, which was probably due in part to us being 50% of their business at that time. July 5 was weird because so many people were considering it a holiday (Dave and I had off work) but it kind of wasn't so the business flow was off. We were eating lunch at 2 p.m. for example.

My sandwich came out just a little later than everyone else's because I mumbled my order and the waiter didn't catch it. We each took turns sampling everyone's food. Dave's platter came with fried fish, fried clams, fried scallops, and fried crabcake. Sami had broiled shrimp, scallops, and crabcake. Heather's was a crabcake on a bun, and mine was shrimp salad (shrimp, goodness and mayo) on a bun.

I must say, everything was incredibly delicious. Sami's seafood trio was especially good. Everything was cooked perfectly. I never thought I'd like crab cake, but this place really has it down. There wasn't a single thing that we ordered that we all weren't completely satisfied with. Sami's scallops and shrimp were buttery, tender and very very fresh. The crab cake from his platter was flaky and so good.

Dave's fried crab cake had a similar flavor but you could definitely tell the difference between fried and broiled. Dave's was a tad crispier on the outside, but soft, warm and good on the inside. Dave's scallops were also cooked perfectly, with the crispy outside a great complement to the flaky inside. Heather had the same crabcake the guys had so nothing new there, but still delicious. My sandwich while although my least favorite thing on the table was still delicious. The shrimp was very fresh, it wasn't bland whatsoever and the kaiser roll was soft. The fries were the highlight however. Whatever they are cooked/battered in is just wonderful.

I give it 5 noms.

Best seafood place in Baltimore I've been to so far. The staff is friendly and fast, service was great and it's in a good location. Parking might be a bit of a problem, since it's located on Pratt street but it's definitely worth it.

Dave's 2Cents:

I am completely amazed that I've never seen or heard of this place (I drive by it everyday coming home from work). From outside, it looks like a little place/rowhome with outside eating. What you get when you walk in is amazing. Huge sports bar, big fluffy pillow outside lounge area, massive ballroom for private events, 20 foot ceilings, famous people all over the walls... just GREAT.

Another thing that impressed me is the smell, which is what I look for when going to a seafood joint. Smelled fresh and clean! The owner came and sat with us for a few moments to check on us, he seemed like a very nice down to earth fellow, the waiter made sure all out glasses were full and our mouths were smiling, between running outside and blowing off the sidewalk (poor kid).

I honestly can't find one bad thing about this place. Its located across the street from the convention center and there are many places to park and walk. One suggestion would be parking at the Gallery Mall and walking a block over, but there's many blue "P" signs around.

I tried many new things and revised things I've never liked, and loved them all. Mussels... Crabcake... Scallops... Om Nom Nom!

Cheers!

Trinacria

2010-07-06T09:05:00.004-04:00

Trinacria Foods
406 Paca St Baltimore, MD 21201-1880
(410) 685-7285

Saturday was Groupon Day for Dave and I. We each had one for this Italian Deli/Grocery, Trinacria, as well as one for a used bookstore in Columbia so we decided on lunch first, then books.

Josh the Groupawn mentioned he'd tried this place when he was in town last weekend and said that the food was amazing. We had to GPS the location as it was in a part of town we weren't familiar with and upon our arrival, we realized why.

This little Italian Gem is located in a rather unpolished neighborhood, which judging by the buildings most likely was a rich and elegant part of the city at one time. Now many of the storefronts are boarded up or of the Value variety. Dave double-checked to make sure we still wanted to try it, and I said "Of course!" so we went in.

Walking in to this shop is like walking into a whole other world. To your left is the cash register, bulk items, deli counter/sandwich making area, and to your right is shelf after shelf of Italian pastas, sauces, ingredients, wines, etc. We wandered around taking it all in for a few moments before checking out the menu.

Dave decided on what he was having pretty quickly, and it took me a few minutes before I settled on the Prosciutto Panini which came with sliced prosciutto, fresh mozzarella, and roasted red pepper on grilled bread. Our Groupons we worth $10 so we each grabbed a can of soda, I ordered a Black Bottom Cupcake for dessert and in addition to his Tuna Sandwich Dave got a Caesar salad.

The one drawback to this place is that it is small. Their customer flow is too heavy for such a small shop, so you're constantly shuffling by people, squeezing between shelves and other customers and trying to make yourself as small as possible. However, the staff is phenomenal, incredibly friendly, patient, helpful and knowledgeable.

Dave and I rang up separately since we each had our own Groupon and his total came to just over $4 with the $10 discount, mine ended up coming up short so I had to tack on one of their 99 cent homemade brownies to bump me over the $10 mark. It was worth it.

We took our loot to the car and decided we couldn't wait to get home or get to a place where we could eat properly, so we unwrapped everything there in the front seat. The first bite of my sandwich was heaven. I'll admit I've never really tasted prosciutto before but it's like if bacon and ham got together and had a gorgeous bastard child like Brad and Angelina did, that child would be named Prosciutto. The cheese was soft and warm, the peppers sweet and flavorful and the mound of prosciutto offered the perfect meaty saltiness to tie it all together so nicely.

Dave's sandwich was pretty good as well, I thought. It was a little strange eating Italian tuna, but I thought it worked quite well. We're both certain the tuna was flavored with basil as well as some other Italian spices, and the bread was so good. It was buttery, soft and just so good I could have just eaten that.

There's not much to say about the salad. It was a typical Caesar salad, crisp romaine, homemade croutons (fabulous), Parmesan cheese (fresh!), and a little packet of Caesar dressing. It was good though, really fresh, nothing was limp or rotting (always a good sign) and the croutons were amazing. On second thought, there's a lot you could say about this salad. The fact the the Parmesan and the croutons were both fresh speaks volumes to this place.

For the desserts, the Black Bottom cupcake was a wonderful little concoction that tasted more like a cream cheese topped brownie than cake, which is how I like my cake. It was moist, chocolatey and delicious. The brownie was a little dry, but you could definitely tell it was homemade so it earned some bonus points there.

My only regret is not buying some of their house pasta sauce, which we will be doing very soon as well as some of their pasta and fresh mozz and parm. I feel an Italian night coming on. Just don't tell Isabella's that we cheated on them.

4 out of 5 noms!

CHARM CITY NOMS WARNING:

STORE LOCATION IS CLOSE TO SKETCHY AREAS, VISIT AT OWN RISK.

Dave's 2cents:

So, the only thing this place going against them is the location. Its about 2-3 blocks north of the Lexington market. To locals, I should be hearing a, "ewwww" from you, for visitors, I will explain.

I'm 6 Foot, 280lbs and built like a wall. There are certain places I feel comfortable out of my car in Baltimore, this place is not one of them. I circled the block to survey the area, and to make Jenn comfortable. We parked a block south of the location, it seemed parking close to this store is impossible, there was even a lot of double parking.

As you can see by the 1st picture of this post, this place looks like a hole. It TRULY is a gem in the rough though. Once walking through the door, I had what I can only describe as a Narnia / Wardrobe experience.

Inside was this cute, GREAT SMELLING, deli/bakery/grocery store! Fresh store made jars of sauce lined the walls, along with bags of fresh pasta, oils, etc. They have an Olive bar with i believe 8-14 different types of olives. The back area have bakers racks full of baguettes, Italian loafs and other breads I didn't recognize.

This place belongs in Little Italy, seriously.

My food was great, the staff was super helpful and kind.

And another tip, when you walk in, TAKE A NUMBER! It is not well labeled and we pissed people off by skipping them. OOPS! (numbers located immediately to the left of the door)

Tavern 101

2010-07-02T15:29:00.004-04:00

Tavern 101
101 President Street

Baltimore, MD 21202
P: 410-837-9900
F: 410-837-9901
BEST WINGS: Inner Harbor.
CLICK HERE FOR COUPONS!!!

Tavern 101 stuck in our mind from when Dave's mom visited us in February and she stayed at the Fairfield hotel attached to it. We had such great service and the people working there were so friendly that when we decided to start this blog, that this place would definitely be on the list. It's never busy in there so we're guessing a lot of people are unaware of how awesome it is. We're trying to fix that.

Every day they do happy hours from 3:30 - 7:30 p.m. where you can get great deals on beer and liquor. There's always a sports game on their many flat screen TVs, and the waitstaff is always friendly.

One thing we discovered here are their house specialty Honey and Old Bay wings. They used to have an amazing deal on wings on Thursday for happy hour but it has since been discontinued (go ahead, complain about it, maybe it will be reinstated if enough people speak up). Their wings aren't the wussy little meatless variety either, they are big, juicy meaty delicious pieces served with plenty of dipping sauce (ranch or bleu cheese) and celery sticks.

There are two other flavors, mild (which isn't all that mild, offers a slight kick) and hot (which I'm guess are fire-in-the-hole-crap-your-pants hot, but I'm unable to try them so I'm only guessing). But really, the Honey & Old Bay is where it's at. It's a tangy-sweet-makes-you-want-to-suck-the-bone kinda flavor.

Another fabulous specialty of theirs that we tried out for the first time last night is the Loaded Fries. These bad boys are covered in cheese, ranch dressing, bacon (real bacon too not that fake shakin' bacon stuff) and baked to perfection. The flavor is smoky-salty rich and before you realize what's happening, you'll eat half the platter. I promise you.

Dave also ordered the Shredded Pork sliders which came with 2 mini sandwiches which were topped with purple cabbage coleslaw (I've always resisted calling it "red cabbage as it is not red), and a side of kettle chips. I can attest the chips were delicious but the slaw was kind of vinegary.

I ordered a good ole American Cheeseburger topped with lettuce, tomato, ketchup, mustard and mayo with a side of onion rings. The burger was big and juicy, the cheese plentiful, the toppings crisp and fresh and the onion rings were absolutely perfect. No mushy spots (man I hate mushy spots) and BIG.

We went home with enough leftovers for dinner again tonight, and using a Restaurant.com gift certificate meant our bill was way cheap. It was a win-win.

Since this place caters to the beer and munchies kind of crowd, you won't find any upscale fare here, and you also won't really find anything catering to the vegan/and or special dietary needs people. It's your classic pub style menu, burgers, sandwiches, fries, pizza. The food is plentiful and inexpensive (you can eat for around $10 per person if you skip the drinks).

The service was phenomenal. Our waiter Mike brought over a few extra glasses of soda for us because of all the food we ordered he figured we'd be "extra thirsty" and I know Dave and one thing he hates is an empty soda glass when he's eating. The only very tiny tiny complaint that I have is that Dave's stuff came out first, and mine didn't come out until almost 10 minutes later. Which was actually fine because it gave me plenty of time to eat most of those loaded fries.

5 NOMS!!

Dave's 2 cents:

Like Jenn said, my mom came to visit us from Florida in February and stayed in the hotel this pub resides in. From the moment I saw it I was in love, and haven't stopped thinking about the place since.

I love the look of this place: steel, wood, brick. Flat screens in EVERY direction, booths, benches, stools and tables fill this area nicely along with these retro fans that are belt powered, spinning above you.

It's also a tragedy how empty we always see this place every time we visit. Not saying its dead all the time, but we have just had the luck of being there when it was.

This pub has an awesome location, on the boarder of Little Italy and the Inner Harbor, you can walk to this place from any harbor hotel, or a short cab ride from across the water in Federal Hill.

The service has never been bad, and they do everything in their power to make you comfortable. The presentation of the food is awesome as well. Rather than food slopped on a plate like in normal pubs, they take some time plating the food, as you can see in all these pictures.

My favorite wings in this place are Old bay & Honey. These are so good, I can honestly say that on ANY OTHER FOOD... I HATE OLD BAY, but on these it's the exact opposite. When I eat these, I go into a little frenzy, snorting a little and trying to BREATHE the chicken into me. OM NOM NOM.

Jenn and I have decided that since we know or no other wings places in Baltimore that are this good, we are deeming Tavern 101, BEST WINGS: Inner Harbor.

If you want great service with a smile, ask for Mike, tell him Charm City Noms sent you!

Chaps Pit Beef

2010-07-01T17:21:00.005-04:00

http://www.chapspitbeef.com/

5801 Pulaski Highway
Baltimore, MD 21205-3046

(410) 483-2379

BEST BBQ IN BALTIMORE

Featured on the Food Network & Travel Channel

It was about time we officially reviewed Chap's for the blog. We've been here plenty of times and are well aware of how good it is, but now it's time to share with everyone else.

If you're a Baltimore resident and you have not gone here yet, I ask, why? Sure, it's in the parking lot of a strip club, of course it looks like a homeless person's shanty and yes it is in a rather...colorful part of town, but that is what makes so damn good. That, and barbecue.

We stopped here before grocery shopping yesterday (which we hadn't done in over a month which is why we've been using so many Groupons and reviewing so many places, we had NO FOOD in our house) because to grocery shop on an empty tummy is to ask the gods for a $600 grocery bill.

When Dave suggested that we stop there first, my first response was "Ok, but you can't order your special burger". Dave usually gets a Double D burger which is a 1/2 lb burger topped with about 1/2 lb of ham, then cheese, then mayo, mustard or whatever else you desire. Since these patties are 1/2 lb, and since they are about 4 inches thick, they take about 30-40 minutes to cook, and they cook theirs well done.

Dave likes his meat just a tad pink in the middle (except for chicken, natch) so they have to special make his pattie which takes a half hour, which was time we didn't have. This forced him to order something new. He ended up with the chicken breast sandwich with lettuce and bbq sauce on a kaiser roll. I got the fish platter (four chunks of fried cod, fries, tartar sauce, and coleslaw) and a bigass root beer.

My fish was awesome. It was so fresh it neither smelled nor tasted of fish. It was just crispy, flaky and good. All of their fried foods are cooked in peanut oil, so the fries are similar to what you get at 5 guys, except when they give you a side of fries, they give you about a pound of fries. We didn't even make a dent in the pile by the time we were done eating. The fries are soft, brown, and delicious. I also liked the coleslaw which is different for me because I'm really picky when it comes to my 'slaws. It's seasoned properly, not overdone whatsoever and provides a cool subtlety to the dish that works really well with everything.

Dave's sandwich was wonderful. The chicken was tender and juicy, the sauce sweet and tangy and the roll it all rested upon was soft and fluffy.

This place is great for a few reasons: the food is always good, the staff is always nice, it's cheap, and you will never leave hungry.

Dave didn't even have to order a side for his sandwich because we knew the fries coming with my platter would be plentiful and we were right. This is one of the places that is a Must Visit, which is why it's rated in our Best of the Best category. 5 Noms all the way.

Dave's 2cents:

There's not a lot I can say about this place that isn't positive. Great food, Ok prices, big portions. Customer service is always a delight, the lady handing out the order window will always give you an ear. As a matter of fact, this guy in the picture wouldn't stop yappin'.

Jenn and I have come here on our own dozens of times, and we will keep returning.

Even though it's not close to downtown at all, and you have to drive through sketchy areas to get to it (unless you pay a tunnel toll and go 95 to 695 and get off @ Pulaski). This is a true Baltimore treasure.

If you Love BBQ Pit Beef and want a taste of Baltimore, your neglecting yourself if you don't go here. Done and Done.

Silver Moon II

2010-06-25T13:06:00.009-04:00

This place came to us via the suggestion page from one of our fabulous readers and it being so close to our house, we ran right over there to check it out. Now, I will warn you right off, my emotions are interfering with my ability to properly review this place and so, we will be revisiting it at a later date when I am less emotional.

Here's some background. I'm originally from Mid-Michigan and back home we have a diner chain called Tony's (not to be confused with that brand who makes frozen pizzas and such) where the food is huge, insanely cheap, bad for you, and delicious. One of their specialties is the Hot Turkey Sandwich, which is something I must eat whenever I visit my hometown. Theirs is made with a thick slice of Italian white bread, huge pile of instant potatoes, generous portion of chunks of turkey breast, and then all smothered with yellowish poultry gravy.

Since moving away from Michigan in 2006, I've always kept an eye out for things that are "like home", like this turkey sandwich. When we first visited Baltimore when we were still living in Florida, my husband and I found a diner called TT's that has a sandwich that comes pretty close to what I'm looking for, however I think they use real potatoes which alters the flavor just enough to act as a band-aid when I get homesick, but doesn't quite satisfy the hunger.

I've been especially homesick recently having just been diagnosed with a digestive disorder which is likely to alter my eating lifestyle for the rest of my life and has caused two family members of mine to require surgery. I'm still pretty much like a little kid when I get sick, I just want to lay on my parents couch and eat this sandwich. Dave's been doing a great job taking care of me and taking me to all of my doctor's appointments but that little kid in me still wants my mom, and therefore, home.

So we headed to Silver Moon II and on their menu is a Hot Turkey Sandwich and I got really excited and hopeful. They definitely had that short order diner thing going on, and once we learned they don't use deli turkey they use real turkey I ordered it. Dave got the Blackened Chicken Sandwich and then we learned they are a cash only restaurant. Fail.

I sat down at one of the tables and Dave headed out to find an ATM. I snapped a few pictures and waited for him to come back. He finally did, we paid the bill and waited about another 10 minutes for the food to be done. I was watching them box it up and then, to my horror, helplessly watched as my Hot Turkey Sandwich, my personal Holy Grail was smothered in BROWN GRAVY. The big Styrofoam box was slid sideways into the bag and Dave's sandwich placed on top and we were set to go. Dave picked up the bag and we headed back to the car where he set the bag on my lap causing gravy and potato to explode onto me. He'd tipped it right side up, causing my box to be sitting on its side. The box not being airtight started to leak gravy and potato all over me. Devastation deepens.

It was going to be a couple hours before we could eat as we were taking the foster kittens to get their booster shots in Reisterstown. Dave let me have a bite of his sandwich and I must say, it was pretty tasty. It was a little spicy so I could only have a tiny bite, but it was quite good. Good enough to leave a sauce splatter on my face. I didn't eat my dinner.

Two days later it is lunchtime on Friday and I'm staring a bowl of brown gravy covered turkey sandwich. I had expressed my emotional reaction to the whole gravy thing to Dave, knowing how childish and petty I sound when I say it, but he understood. I'm sick, I wanted a piece of home and I didn't get it. So I had what I did get for lunch today.

I will say, despite it not being what I'd hoped for, it's still pretty good. I think it would be better if it had the right gravy on it. The turkey used is deli turkey but it's good deli turkey and not lunch meat style turkey. The bread is good ole American white sandwich bread (two slices) and the potatoes are instant, just like I like them. I did not dislike this sandwich, and Dave's sandwich was really good. The next time we go I'm going to order one of their specialties like the seafood salad or something like that so that I can give this place a proper review.

I will say the restaurant is clean, the staff is friendly and your food comes fast. You get nice, generous portions and it's really inexpensive. It's definitely worth a go. We'll be heading back there in a couple weeks, once things settle down.

Dave's 2cents:

So by now, if you've been following us, you can tell I suffer from what I've coined, Food Rage. Which is just me getting so pissed at servers, that I am no longer hungry.

I had high hopes for this place. When I entered I was greeted within moments, when I asked what was good, food selections were suggested to me, and I was happy.

Until they said cash only. I checked my cellphone to make sure it wasn't 1999, and I asked where the closest ATM was. Seeing as I am SURE this question gets asked 100x a day, I was SURE she had an answer. What I got was, "I think its like 2 blocks, somewhere that way."

I left my wife there so the food we ordered would actually get cooked, I went on a hunt. After 15 minutes searching for an ATM, I just went to one that I KNEW in Little Italy, and returned.

Now I'm a little bit angry. Food's still cooking, and I wait. Once finished I was handed a bag and we left.

Once in the car, and as you read above, the box exploded, I then found out from my wife they don't have forks!

What carryout place doesn't provide utensils!?!?

As my wife said, we're dealing with some stuff right now, the food was good enough to give them a 2nd chance. Lets hope they don't blow it this time, and I remember to have cash on me.

Ra Sushi

2010-06-23T10:53:00.009-04:00

Ra Sushi Bar Restaurant
1390 Lancaster Street
Baltimore MD 21231
410-522-3200
Happy Hour 3-7 p.m. daily

"Best Sushi in Baltimore's Harbor Area" - CharmcityNoms

Now, we know that we said that we were going to avoid reviewing chain places, but Ra had to go on the blog because we just love it so much. This place offers a great happy hour with 1/2 off a good selection of sushi rolls, some sashimi and apps, as well as steep discounts on well drinks. This is an excellent place to go after work. We admit, the music is a little loud but the waitstaff is always accommodating when you ask for a "quiet" booth or table.

Our favorite rolls here are the Viva Las Vegas roll, Tootsy Maki, California, Spicy Tuna and the Shrimp Tempura roll. These also happen to be on the 1/2 off list for happy hour.

I'm also a huge fan of the Lobster Spring Rolls, which are crispy on the outside, gooey melty and flavorful on the inside with just a hint of sweet. Stuffed with hunks of lobster, cream cheese, red pepper and mango, the flavors all blend together so well, and the mango dipping sauce is a wonderful complement as its somehow very bland on its own but when paired with the spring rolls just brings out the best flavors of both.

The food is always so effing pretty. It comes to your table with fanfare and flourish, and at first there is a pang of guilt for disrupting the perfect harmony of the plate. It's easy to get over that, though, and then you're face deep in sushi and really, is there anything better?

The Viva Las Vegas roll has a tiny kick to it, so if you can't do spicy then stay away. The Spicy Tuna roll is the same (obvs, it has "spicy" in the title). If you're mild tummy-ed like me, stick to the California, Tootsy Maki and Shrimp Tempura, they'll be gentle. These have milder flavors to them, but a calm creaminess as well.

Here, the waitresses have always been great. Of the several times we've been we've never gotten bad service. The sushi comes out quick, and rarely all at the same time, it arrives as it's finished so if you're really polite and want to wait, it can be difficult.

As with most sushi places the kitchen and the sushi bar run independently of each other so kitchen food and sushi will not arrive simultaneously. This can bother some people but we're the laid back type.

Also for dessert you have to try their fried ice cream. It's like baby Jesus on a plate. Cinnamony sweet, creamy and crunchy and drizzled with all sorts of sugary goodness.

Just look at the pictures. How can you not want to go?

5 NOMS

Dave's 2 Cents:

yea yea, I know. No chain restaurants. But here's the thing, I couldn't tell it was a chain! I was super surprised when I found out yesterday. Well, not a typical chain (100s-1000s of stores), but it does one store per major city.

I am not going to bore you with semantics. All I will say is, if you love sushi and are in the Inner harbor area, go here. Period.

Houlinan's

2010-06-21T13:01:00.005-04:00

We met up with our friends Jeff and his wife Marsha for dinner and drinks at Houlihan's using our Groupon. The restaurant has a casual contemporary feel to it. After a round of musical chairs in an attempt to find a comfortable and large enough table, we finally settled in the bar because of the happy hour specials.

We ordered two boozy teas, pitcher size (which was really just a bigass mug) and then ordered the regular order of spinach dip for an appetizer while we waited for our friends.

The menu here is pretty decent in size. It had a metal cover and page after page of food and drink options. The last two pages were...weird. There was a list of songs they play and hilarious horoscopes.

The appetizer came pretty quickly. It was 8 triangle slices of crispy flat bread sprinkled with cheese and seasonings and then drizzled with sour cream. Beside that was a small ramekin of steaming spinach dip. This stuff was wonderful. The dip was creamy and smooth, the toppings on the flatbread was just a hint of spicy and was complemented well with the dip.

Upon the arrival of our friends we squeaked in a couple more drink orders and then settled on some food. I ordered the stuffed chicken breast, Dave got the almond crusted tilapia, Jeff ordered the wedge salad with sirloin, and Marsha got the pan seared scallops. The food arrived beautifully. It was truly a lovely presentation...except for Dave's which was just...weird.

My dish was fantastic. It was a breaded chicken breast, butterflied and stuffed with cream cheese and herbs, then baked to perfection. It came with a side of mashed potatoes and crisp green beans. The cheesy insides ooozed out when I cut into it, which is just what you want whenever something is "stuffed" with something else. Delicious. The only complaint I have is that the green beans could have been cooked for about another minute, however they were very fresh and seasoned very well so it's a tiny complaint. The potatoes were homestyle, just enough lumps to feel homemade and slightly cheesy, garlicky and buttery. It was a perfect match. My dinner was big enough to have again the next night, which was fine by me.

Jeff's prime steak and wedge salad came with a 5 oz. top sirloin, with an iceberg wedge, smoked bacon, spicy pecans, roasted golden beets, grilled asparagus, creamy gorgonzola cheese, scallions, warm polenta croutons, buttermilk bleu cheese dressing. Jeff said that while everything certainly tasted good, the steak was super tiny, the polenta croutons were small and there were only two and the tiny slice of cheese was wonderful but just simply not enough.

Marsha's dish, the seared Georges Bank scallops, came with lemon-asparagus risotto, baby greens, and basil-infused olive oil. Her dish came with 6 medium-sized scallops which she said were cooked quite well and the risotto was very tasty. Again, as with Jeff's meal, there simply wasn't enough of it.

Dave's meal is too hilarious for me to discuss and you can find his reaction in his 2 cents section below.

Now, we were sort of nervous about our waitress at first because it didn't seem she wanted to pay attention to us, however she became increasingly better as the meal went on and by the end of it, we were very pleased with the service we received.

The drinks we ordered were really great. I got the long island iced tea, and Dave got the Tennesee tea which was peachy and tasted like juice.

Overall I'd say this place is a great place to go for apps and drinks after work, but lousy for dinner. The dinners were overpriced, possibly microwaved and just not worth it for the cost. However, we were all very pleased with the apps and drinks as well as the waitstaff. Overall I give it 2.5 noms.

Dave's 2 Cents

So, I promised myself I'd never review a chain restaurant, and after this experience, I doubt I ever will again.

I ordered the, and i quote, "ALMOND CRUSTED TILAPIA, Amaretto beurre blanc, fresh berries, grilled asparagus."

What I received was this. Microwaved fish, with a scalding hot outside and cool inside, extra almond crust, and STRAWBERRIES!

I feel sorry for the pallet of the guy/gal in the back that thought this was eatable!

I asked the waitress exactly why there were strawberries on my food, and she said, "They ran out of the berry blend, they subbed this out.

First off, restaurant 101, NEVER sub ingredients until you have spoken to the customer. Dislikes, food allergies, or just plain food taste conflict.

Common chef, if you run out of sugar for a receipt do you use conventions sugar or brown sugar instead?! hell no.

Short order chef, YOU FAIL. "86" a dish if you've run out of the ingredients.

And maybe try an oven next time and not a microwave.

Readers: This place is located in the middle of Baltimore's biggest tourist trap, Inner Harbor. They run their business of 85%or more on non-repeat business. Who CARES if they piss off travelers? They wont be back. And who cares about the locals when most of the money is coming from tourists?!

Avoid of you want a nice dinner, if you want some good appetizers and booze, try it out.

Milan

2010-06-18T22:36:00.005-04:00

Let me start this by stating that this is an accidental review. I had no intentions of reviewing Milan until my experience there was just too hilarious not to share with the interwebs.

I'd been following the blog of the Groupawn since he started his gig a few weeks ago in hopes that he'd find his way to Baltimore. Knowing the awesomeness that is Groupon, I felt it would be just as awesome to meet someone who was literally living off of them every day for the next year. Also, he loves food, and we love food, so really how can we NOT hang out? Yeah.

So, the Groupawn had a groupon for Milan and was heading there with another couple and after a day long texting session, I decided to join them and have a dessert. The four of us were seated at the bar and the three of them had already been there for about 45 minutes by the time I arrived and were just finalizing their orders. Josh grabbed a chair for me and I sat down just in time to be completely ignored by the bartender. Seriously, he took their orders, skipped over me and then wandered away. So I waited for my next opportunity to grab a menu and a Coke, and when it finally presented itself (about 10 minutes later) my wishes were fulfilled. Sorta.

See, I got my tiny Coke but it took the guy probably another 10 minutes to find a dessert menu and then it took about another 10 minutes for me to be able to order from said menu. I got the Torte di Fromaggio which was...well, it was unbelievably delicious. A hearty slice of honey ricotta cheese cake infused with a light lemony flavor decorated with fresh cream and a sprig of mint and balsamic strawberry compote. I shared bites with the group so that they too could enjoy the cool creaminess of this cheesecake.

Josh, the Groupawn was kind enough to share a piece of his crabcake with me and I must say that it's one of the better ones I've had. It was well seasoned, presented beautifully and actually had big pieces of crabmeat in it unlike some you get where it's just like a ball of breaded nothing. The tangy orangey sauce that came with it was a very nice complement.

The four of us had such a good time talking and sharing stories that I didn't really notice that it had taken a little over an hour for an incorrect order of raw, rose shaped fish to be delivered to the other three.

I'm sure Josh will write more about the experience in his blog, since the things that happened to him and the couple were just downright hilarious they were so terrible. As we were trying to cash out and go, it seemed there was some confusion about the groupon use, whose bill was whose and then some general douchebaggery from several members of staff. I'd heard that this place was over-priced with an air of snobbery but that the food was delicious if not pretentious and I have to say it's all pretty much correct. The restaurant is gorgeous, elegantly designed and looks somewhat like you're dining in a private mansion. The food is always presented as if it's art, yet it all tasted wonderful. I'm pretty sure that several members of the waitstaff got their start working for Abercrombie and Fitch because they seemed to be pros at ignoring you and looking perfect.

Now, I will not say you should not go to this restaurant because it definitely was a unique experience. However, I will leave you with this thought: it is an Italian restaurant that serves sushi and turns into a nightclub after 10 and their motto is "Where Food Meets Fashion", but they are located about three blocks from the projects in Baltimore.

Milan, I will give you 5 noms because your food was delicious, but -3 noms because your staff is...pretentious. Grand total of 2 noms.

Farmers Markets Around Town

2010-06-13T08:31:00.002-04:00

BALTIMORE CITY

Baltimore Farmers' Market
Downtown: Saratoga Street between Holliday and Gay Streets (under JFX Viaduct)
Sunday: 8:00 a.m. to Noon (or sell out) May 2 - December 19
Contact: Carole Simon 410-752-8632
WIC and Senior FMNP Checks Accepted

Baltimore Museum of Industry (BMI) Farmers' Market
1415 Key Highway
Saturday: 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. June 5 - September 25
Contact: Jill Edmondson 410-727-4808
WIC and Senior FMNP Checks Accepted

Howard Park Community Farmers' Market
4700 Block of Liberty Heights Ave.
Saturday: 7:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. May 22 - December 18
Contact: Howard Park Civic Association 410-448-4257

Highlandtown Farmers' Market
3500 Block of Bank St. at the corner of Bank St. and S. Conkling St.
Saturday: 8:00 a.m. to Noon July 10 - October 9
Contact: Southeast CDC 410-342-3234
WIC and Senior FMNP Checks Accepted

John Hopkins Hospital Farmers' Market
Jefferson Street pathway near Cancer Research Buildings
Thursday: 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. May 6 - November
Contact: Roneet Mallin 410-955-9014

Mt. Washington Whole Foods Market Farmers' Market
5800 Cottonworth Avenue (Parking Lot of Aldersgate Mt. Washington United Methodist Church)
Wednesday: 4:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. June 9 - November 17
Contact: Molly Kushner 410-532-6700

Park Heights Community Farmers' Market
5201 Park Heights Avenue (Pimlico Race Course Parking Lot)
Wednesday: 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. June 2 - November 24
Contact: PHCHA 410-542-8190
WIC and Senior FMNP Checks Accepted

32nd Street/Waverly Farmers' Market
400 block of E. 32nd Street
Saturday: 7:00 a.m. to Noon Open All Year*
Contact: Marc Rey 410-889-6388 or 410-917-1496
Web:http://www.32ndstreetmarket.org/
WIC and Senior FMNP Checks Accepted

State Center Community Farmers' Market
201 West Preston Street
Wednesday: 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. June 2 - October 27
Contact: Debi Celnik 410-767-5781
WIC and Senior FMNP Checks Accepted

University Farmers' Market (New Market)
Plaza Park, Paca Street
Tuesday: 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. May 11 - November 23
Contact: Denise Choiniere 410-328-2009
WIC and Senior FMNP Checks Accepted

Village of Cross Keys Farmers' Market
Parking Lot - Village of Cross Keys
5100 Falls Road
Tuesday: 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. June 1 - October 26
Contact: Beverly Burton 410-592-6095
WIC and Senior FMNP Checks Accepted

BALTIMORE COUNTY

Boordy Vineyards - Good Life Thursdays
12820 Long Green Pike
Thursday: 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. June 10 - September 16
Contact: Dottie Bistransin 410-592-5015
mailto:wine-info@boordy.com
WIC and Senior FMNP Checks Accepted

Catonsville Wednesday Farmers' Market
Bloomsbury Community Center (108 Bloomsbury Ave.)
Wednesday: 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. May 5 - November 24
Contact: wedcatonsvillemkt@gmail.com
WIC and Senior FMNP Checks Accepted

Catonsville Sunday Farmers' Market (new market)
746 Frederick Road (behind Friendly's)
Sunday: 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. May 16 - November 21
Contact: Catonsville Chamber of Commerce 410-719-9609

Dundalk Village Farmers' Market
Shipping Place at Dunmanway (Park in back of Dundalk Post Office)
Saturday: 6:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. July 10 - November 20
Contact: Rev. David Erickson 410-282-2540
WIC and Senior FMNP Checks Accepted

Eastpoint Farmers' Market
Eastpoint Mall, 7839 Eastern Avenue
Wednesday: 10:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. June 30 - October 27
Contact: Jerry E. Fisher 410-562-3464
WIC and Senior FMNP Checks Accepted

Farmers' Market at the Avenue
The Avenue at White Marsh
Parking lot behind Barnes and Noble
Friday: 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. July 2 - October 29
Contact: Janelle Vane 410-931-0411
WIC and Senior FMNP Checks Accepted

Green Spring Station Farmers' Market (New Market)
Falls and Joppa Roads
Saturday: 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. May 22 - November 20
Contact: Marge Wildey 410-828-5447

Kenilworth Farmers' Market (New Market)
798 Kenilworth Drive
Tuesday: 3:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. May 4 - November 23
Contact: Beckie Gurley 410-472-6764 giftcal@aol.com
WIC and Senior FMNP Checks Accepted

Owings Mills Farmers' Market
3506 Gwynnbrook Ave.
Sunday: 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. May 30 - October 24
Contact: Ryan Couto 410-905-8030
WIC and Senior FMNP Checks Accepted

Pikesville Farmers' Market
Walker Avenue (Near Pikesville Library)
Tuesday: 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. July 6 - October 26
Contact: Nick Attias 410-484-2337
WIC and Senior FMNP Checks Accepted

Randallstown Farmers' Market
3525 Resource Drive
Wednesday: 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. June 2 - Sept. 29
Contact: Debbie Risper 410-887-3389

Timonium Fairgrounds Farmers' Market (new market)
2200 York Road
Wednesday: 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. June 2 - October
Contact: Maryland State Fair and Agriculture Society, Inc. 410-252-0200
WIC and Senior FMNP Checks Accepted

Towson Farmers' Market
Allegheny Avenue (between York Rd. and Washington Ave.)
Thursday: 10:45 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. June 10 - November 18
Saturday Location: Parking Lot next to 17 Allegheny Ave.
Saturday: 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. June 12 - November 20
Contact: Nancy Hafford 410-825-1144
WIC and Senior FMNP Checks Accepted

Woodlawn Farmers' Market
Woodlawn Bowling Lanes - 6410 Security Boulevard
Thursday: 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. July 1 - September 30
Contact: Delores Douglas 410-409-9172 or Bill Obriecht 410-944-5239
WIC and Senior FMNP Checks Accepted

*Open All Year markets may have limited local products in winter

Go here for all other MD county Farmers Markets!

Sorso Cafe

2010-05-22T17:50:00.007-04:00

Sorso Cafe
500 Harborview Drive
Baltimore, MD 21230
(443) 682-8720

Today on a whim we decided to go out to lunch with our friend Sami who works at the restaurant next door to us. After handing him a pile of our Groupons and telling him to pick one, we arrived at the conclusion to hit up Sorso Cafe because it's located on the water. Today was another hot one and a casual lunch by the water was too appealing to pass up.

Sorso Cafe is located off Key Highway behind Federal Hill on the water. Parking was a little tricky to figure out but we managed to get a metered spot and then it was a short walk to the Cafe.

This place is pretty casual and inviting with a few outdoor tables and then a small amount of indoor seating. They serve gelato, paninis, wraps, wine and cheese platters. They have a breakfast menu as well. They also have some brownies and cookies wrapped up near the register. Kryptonite.

Sami ordered a Caprese and added prosciutto. Dave got the PLT (prosciutto lettuce and tomato) panini sans T. I ordered the Harborview wrap. The sandwiches came with either chips or an apple (I got chips, they got apples) and we each grabbed a bottle of soda and then I tacked on one of those alluring chocolate chip cookies.

Everyone was sitting outside and there wasn't an open table out there so we sat in the little dining room. As soon as the boys sandwiches arrived, we dug in. (theirs were grilled, mine was cold).

My wrap was delicious. It was grilled marinated chicken with crisp lettuce, pesto, diced tomato, and fresh mozzarella cheese. It was a really great mixture of flavors between the juicy tomato chunks, the mild flavor of the cheese and the sharp taste of the pesto. In mere minutes it was gone. I didn't even offer to share, then again, neither did my husband. The cookie was a bit of a disappointment, with a slight stale taste to it. However, the wrap made up for it.

Sami's had prosciutto, basil leaves, fresh mozzarella, tomato and pesto. The only complaint that he had was that the "prosciutto is a little too thick" which wasn't even really a complaint since it was so good. He said that when he bit into the basil leaf, it took him "to Heaven and back". Excellent.

Dave's was simple with prosciutto and lettuce with a drizzle of some sort of house sauce on it. I would have liked to try it, but when I took a break from mine his was gone. I can only assume he really enjoyed it.

We have another Groupon for this place and I do believe the next time we go back we'll be sampling their gelato.

As far as the non-food aspects go, the girls working the counter were really friendly and helpful. The food is inexpensive (sandwiches ranging between 6 and 8 dollars) and the atmosphere is really casual and fun. They had a few vegetarian options which is always nice to see, and the accommodated special orders without griping. This is a great place to duck into if you're out for a casual walk along the water.

We will definitely be going back. I give it 4 out of 5 noms.

Dave's 2 cents:

Other than having to park 2 blocks away (they have no customer parking, that we could find), pay a meter and walk, the experience was alright. The shop was extremely tight, I had to move out of the way about 8 times while I waited to order, but I am glad they had indoor seating.

The food was great, each dish comes with chips, apple or banana. Jenn got pissed that I didn't let her sample my P.L.T.

Sorry, the only thing in the world better than bacon, is thicker bacon.

I wouldn't put this in our Best of Baltimore (Sandwich Shop Category), but it got close.

The Abbey

2010-05-10T16:06:00.004-04:00

The Abbey Burger Bistro
1041 Marshall Street

Baltimore, MD 21230
(443) 453-9698
Get Map
http://www.abbeyburgerbistro.com/
Photo Credits: Guest Food Photographer Brooke Borton

The Abbey is tucked away in a little alley next to Cross Street Market. It was during a series of wrong turns and me screaming at my husband that I was starving and pointing out a Subway and then looking for a place to park that we stumbled upon it. The casual bar/pub-style atmosphere and strange menu got our attention. The delicious burgers are what kept it.

Since that day, The Abbey has been a place we like to take friends and family when they visit and want something “Baltimore-ish”. We explain the “sushi-style” menu, the alcoholic milkshakes, and that Ostrich does not in fact, come in chicken breast form.

At the Abbey, you have your choice of several different meat and patty options. They offer everything from Ostrich and Beef, to Wild Boar and vegetarian options like marinated mushroom and veggie patty. The menu itself doesn’t offer substitutions so if you’re feeling compliant, then order there and you’ll get an amazing choice of fabulous flavors that you are sure to love, but if you’d rather pave your own path then build your own. If you’re going to build your own burger, you grab your little golf pencil, peruse the choices of patty, bun style, toppings, toppings, condiments and sides. You’ve also got a choice of a few salads to pick from. We went with the Wedge with bacon, tomatoes, shallots and bleu cheese dressing (one of ours was subbed out with Ranch. We’re a ranch lovin’ kind of people). These wedge salads aren’t diet food. Covered in crispy bacon, fried shallots and then smothered in dressing, it’s an overload of goodness. The tang of the dressing, the cool crispness of the lettuce and then the crispy saltiness of all that is fried just makes this one damn good precursor to a burger meal. I highly recommend you give it a shot. Now, for the burgers.

This particular trip I chose Bison, cooked medium, on a regular bun, with sprouts, nacho cheese, American cheese, lettuce, tomato, bacon, ketchup, mayo and mustard with homemade chips on the side. Dave wanted alligator, but they were out so he opted for a Wild Boar burger, on a classic bun with swiss cheese, bacon and lettuce with tots on the side. Brooke ordered the Ostrich well done on thick toast with provolone cheese, avocado, bacon, ketchup, lettuce and tomato with sweet potato fries on the side. She wanted an alcoholic beverage and when she asked our waiter for “something fruity” he responded with “I gotcha” which is Abbey Talk for Delicious Rum Drink, which is what she got. It was punchy and boozy and a treat to sip on.

As far as the taste of everything: Amazing. We couldn’t keep our hands out of Dave’s tots. I think I ate more of them than he did, but they were fucking awesome. They were the perfect amount of crispy and soft and salty. They did not even need ketchup (which was good because I found the table supply of ketchup to be quite vinegar-y and not tasty). As for his burger, it was hearty, flavorful and cooked to perfection. My burger had a very earthy taste to it. The sprouts really give it a good punch of flavor making it taste salad-like, but with a good dose of meat. I really love a good messy burger, so the fact that my cheese was slopping out onto my chips was not an issue for me at all and gave me liberty to scoop it back up with those chips. Brooke’s burger however, was the true winner out of the three. Hers was a perfect combination of flavors, the sliced avocado complimenting it all wonderfully. The contrast between the crispy smoky bacon and the tender ostrich (which wasn’t crumbly like ground beef can be) was just awesome. The toast was a treat as well, making biting into such a big burger easier, and therefore making it taste better. Her fries were rather tasty as well. I don’t usually like sweet potatoes, but these had a nice crisp to them and then a subtle sweetness that was really good.

Probably the best part of the meal was how fresh everything tasted. Nothing had that processed freezer burned texture to it and everything was crisp and you could really tell it was prepped same day. Nothing sat under a heat lamp.

The one thing about the Abbey that gets a negative point with me is the service. We ordered two Wedge Salads and only got one, and when we finally did get the 2^nd one, it was smothered in bleu cheese which Dave wasn’t happy about as he dislikes the smell of it. This isn’t the type of place you go for a quick burger lunch. Plan on spending at least an hour here as service is rather slow and sporadic. Sometimes you’ll get silverware right away, sometimes you won’t. Sometimes you’ll get a refill quickly, other times not. I do highly recommend trying something new (you can always pick it off, wuss) and DEFINITELY get one of their milkshakes (if you’re old enough) because man, are they worth it.

Overall, I give it a 4 out of 5 noms.

Price Breakdown:
Burgers can range between $10-$15 depending on how much stuffs you pile on
Salads average around $7

Dave's 2 cents:
O my god. Om Nom Nom Nom.
I have been here many times before I actually had to review it, and all I can say is, if you are in the mood for the best Baltimore (custom) burger, THIS is the place to go. As I always play the devils advocate, I truly cannot think of 1 thing to complain about. If i reeeeaaaally need to complain about something, it would be their water. Tastes like tap. Bad Tap. But thats BGE's issue not theirs.

GO THERE... Now...

No seriously.... NOW!

... why are you still here?

Chiapparelli’s

2010-05-10T13:07:00.003-04:00

I’ve wanted to hit up Chiapparelli's for several months. Living down the street from it in Little Italy, I figured it was only fair to try each restaurant so when tourists asked me where they should go, I would be able to give them a more informed opinion. What I have to say about this visit can be summed up in two words: Je regrette.

When we first walked in I was overcome with joy by the cranked a/c. (It was 88 degrees outside and about 107 in our house). The restaurant is beautiful. Clean, quiet, tables all set to perfection. It’s a lovely picture to look at. Then we were handed plastic coated menus. With a wine list on the back. Really? No, really? Taking turns between looking around and looking at the one dimensional menu, I noticed a few things right away. 1. the salads are HUGE. 2. the waiters all workout at the same gym and have the bodies to show it. I was half expecting an all male revue style show halfway through dinner. So, at least you have something pretty to look at while you mindlessly swallow your bland food. Oops, I think I just gave away the ending.

We started with apps, me with fried ravioli and Dave with fried calamari (we like our foods fried, ok?) and then ordered our entrees, Dave with the Gnocchi Bolognese and myself with the Shrimp Nicola and then waited for everything to arrive. Including Dave’s refill, which our waiter promised to deliver after he dropped off water for some other guy, then some plates, then some other stuff, then ran by our table apologizing, then some more running, Yawn, oh there it is, finally. The salads came out with the apps (which was weird and probably should not have happened, right?) So I was alternating between forkful of delicious plate of lettuce, and bland bland ravioli with surprisingly good marinara sauce for dipping. Dave’s calamari was pretty good, even though it was squid. As I ate more of my salad, it felt to me like Chip’s was trying to crack the Olive Garden’s recipe, got pretty close, and then gave up. The salad was good, there was just too much of it.

Now for the entrees. Everything LOOKED really good. My linguine was floating in a sea of buttery sauce, cradling shrimp and steaming hot. Dave’s was the traditional marinara with meat and tomato with little gobs of gnocchi. We each took a bite. Then took a bite of each other’s, then traded. Mine was a little bland and oily for my taste (mine being the Shrimp Nicola) and Dave just found his rather unappetizing with all those chunks of tomato in there. His gnocchi was a little on the hard side (this is where I would like to suggest that IF you are in Little Italy and IF you want to try gnocchi THEN you must go to La Tavola. They have the BEST gnocchi I’ve ever tasted). Luckily I was full after just a few bites. Unluckily I’m now staring a bowl of sub-par gnocchi in the face for lunch today. Dave cleaned his plate so he gets to eat a Whopper for lunch. That bastard.

We opted to skip dessert this time. We would be willing to give this place 3 noms, had our waiter not taken 20 minutes to get us our bill then cash us out. For that, he lost a dollar and a nom. That’s how we roll.

Our rating: 2 out of 5 noms

The good thing is that this place offers easy vegetarian fare. The bad thing is the food is bland. 2 noms.

Price Breakdown:
Apps average $8.64
Pastas average $19
Chicken/Veal average $21.45
Seafood average $24.33
Children's Menu is $8 and includes a beverage

Dave's 2 Cents:
My review starts before we even enter the building. Hey Chiapparelli's! How many Valets do you REALLY NEED!!

Chip's valets are everywhere and stand in the middle of the street like they own the block. Not only that but I was amazed that they left their key kiosk (the place where they store YOUR CAR KEYS) unattended for 12 minutes!! The kiosk isn't even locked, its held but what looks like velcro.
Living a few blocks from this restaurant, we also get to see (on a nightly basis) how the valet treat the cars after they drive off with them.

If you love your car, park it yourself. Your car's tires will thank you.

The restaurant is definitely visually appealing, but that glamor goes away with the horrible wait-staff and sub-par Italian slop. After swapping my dish with something edible that my wife had, I was able to complete a meal. Unfortunately one of those 2 dishes haunted me for the rest of the evening into the night.

Blue Moon Café

2010-05-04T15:37:00.004-04:00

The Blue Moon Café
1621 Aliceanna Street, Baltimore, MD‎
(410) 522-3940‎
Google Map
Hours:
Weekdays-7 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Friday and Saturday nights, they open at 7 p.m. - open all night
Our Rating: 5 out of 5 Noms!
Picture Credits: Guest Food Photographer Brooke Borton

The Blue Moon Café is another place you just have to go to when you’re in Baltimore. This place offers a quirky diner-style atmosphere with big huge buttery food. They do offer several vegan, vegetarian, and “healthy” options (for those watching their waistline) so don’t be daunted by things like you’ll see in the video.

One thing you’ve got to try there is their Captain Crunch French Toast. Seriously. It’s SO GOOD. You wouldn’t think so, but man, those little cereal bits really do make it fantastic. I’m sure that cereal free French Toast would be delicious there as well, but why order that? You’re in Baltimore. Have fun. Order something weird.

When we sat down, we were greeted with menus and a cinnamon roll (which was roughly the size of my face and covered with creamy icing). After staring at the menu lustfully for several minutes, taking breaks only for giant gobs of cinnamon roll we decided on our orders. This visit, Brooke and I both had to order The Toast (the Captain Crunch variety, natch). Dave went with regular pancakes, as he was in a down-home pancakes kind of mood. With a side of sausage and bacon, we hungrily awaited our food.

First of all, their food looks like it should be in a magazine. The French Toast came out with a heaping mound of homemade whipped cream (which I, a whipped cream hater, immediately scraped off and fed to my husband, who loves the goop) and berries. Berries! I never see berries used as a garnish. What a delicious garnish. Everything was warm, soft, melt in your mouth good. The Toast had a bit of a crunch to it from the cereal bits and was gooey to a level of heaven. Dave’s pancakes tasted like they just came out of your grandma’s kitchen. If your Grandma was Paula Deen that is. Sometimes I just watch her show and pretend she’s my grandma. Not that I want to replace one of my grandmas, but I’d just like her to be an extra grandma. Who wouldn’t? I digress.

So, the verdict on the food here: 5 out 5 noms. I’m willing to bet if you just closed your eyes and pointed you’d order something amazingly good every time. Every time. Though, you may want to lay off refills of chocolate milk or orange juice. They run about $3-$4 per glass.

Blue Moon Café does have weird hours, so take note. All weeklong they open at 7 a.m. and close at 3 p.m. Friday and Saturday nights, they open at 7 p.m. and stay open alllll night.

Price Breakdown:
As long as you don't order several chocolate milk or orange juice refills, you can walk out of here under $15 per person.

Dave's 2 Cents:
This is by far my favorite place to eat breakfast food in Baltimore City. However if I were to list any negatives, during busy hours they do not answer phones, the line is a 2 hours wait & out the door into the street, and they only have seating for about 30 people at a time. EXPAND BLUE MOON! EXPAND!

Map

2010-03-26T22:37:00.002-04:00

About Us

2010-03-26T21:55:00.009-04:00

Welcome to Charm City Noms!

What is a Nom you ask?

"Noms", or also known as "Om Nom Nom Nom" is a term, based on the sound made by a person while eating something that is "oh so tasty" . This sort of ravenous eating will often result in an "om nom nom nom" noise being emitted from the eater.

Whether you are visiting Baltimore, just moved here or are a local just looking for a new place to visit; you're at the right food blog!

We are a young couple living in Baltimore, on the hunt for the best food in Baltimore. With a budget in mind, we go on missions to find the best (and cheapest!) food and report back to you, our readers.

We go beyond just reviewing the food by giving you an inside view of everything from the ambiance and service, to special food-related considerations and cost.

We always enjoy feedback and your own stories and experiences at the places we visit, so feel free to comment on any of our reviews.

If you know of a place you would like for us to visit, post your comment here.

Photography by our guest Food & Wedding photographer, Brooke Borton.

Suggestion Box

2010-03-26T14:23:00.013-04:00

Are you a fan of a Restaurant/Pub/Diner and would like for us to check it out? Do you own an establishment and would like to setup a time for us to visit?

You can respond to this post with your suggestion or email us by clicking on the "Email Us" button at the top left of the page.

Here are the suggestions we have so far:

Green Leaf Restaurant in Hunt Valley, MD
~~Silver Moon II on Baltimore street right by Shot Tower~~
Arcos Restaurante http://www.arcosrestaurante.com/ 129 South Broadway Baltimore, MD 21231-1559 (410) 522-4777 WE'RE PLANNING A VISIT SOON!
Elvis Restaurant 410-244-8817 - 1022 Light St., Baltimore, MD 21230 Neighborhood: Federal Hill
Miss Shirley's - http://www.missshirleys.com/ 750 East Pratt Street, Baltimore - (410) 528-5373
Jasa Kabob 2917 Odonnell Street, baltimore, MD‎ - (410) 327-7152‎
Akbar - 823 North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD‎ - (410) 539-0308 WE'RE PLANNING A VISIT SOON!
Pho Dat Thanh, "try the "D9" 9400 Snowden River ParkwayColumbia, MD 21045
Austin Grill - 2400 Boston St. Baltimore, MD 21224 410.534.0606
Rosina Gourmet - Canton: 2819 O'Donnell Street Baltimore MD 21224
Blue Hill Tavern - 938 South Conkling Street, Baltimore, MD‎ - (443) 388-9363 WE'RE PLANNING A VISIT SOON!
Piedigrotta LLC http://www.piedigrottabakery.com/ 1300 Bank St Baltimore, Maryland 21231 (410) 522-6900 WE'RE PLANNING A VISIT SOON!
flying avocado cafe - 10210 South Dolfield Road Owings Mills, MD 21117-3567 (443) 471-2600
Bananitos, 1 W Chestnut Hill Ln Reisterstown

Riptide by the Bay www.riptidebythebay.net 1718 Thames Street Baltimore, MD 21231 (410) 732-3474
Black Olive www.theblackolive.com 814 South Bond Street Baltimore, MD 21231-3346 (410) 276-7141 WE'RE PLANNING A VISIT SOON!
Pazo Restaurant www.pazorestaurant.com 1425 Aliceanna Street Baltimore, MD 21231 (410) 534-7296
Jack's Bistro
http://www.jacksbistro.net/
3123 Elliott Street
Baltimore, MD 21224-4911
(410) 878-6542
The Brewer's Art
1106 N. Charles Street, 410-547-9310
~~G&A, Coney Island hotdogs, eastern ave~~
mari luna mexican grill in pikesville. www.mariluna.com