August 2011
1 post
4 tags
Rocket Pizza - Los Angeles, CA
I am a huge lover of pizza, and while I try to discern good pizza from bad pizza, I like pizza in all formats. No matter how disgusting the pizza looks or is, I will likely consume it. Even if I have already eaten a meal, if a pizza is placed in front of me, I will probably take a slice. With all due respect to the late Johnny Cash, pizza is my cocaine. That being said, California is known for...
July 2011
5 posts
6 tags
Ruen Pair - Los Angeles, CA
I told Aaron and Kara that I love Thai food, and they recommended checking out Thai City (or Little Thailand, I can’t remember what they called it). Basically, it’s an open strip mall that has 7 or 8 Thai restaurants in it, and mandatory valet parking (even though parking is ample). It definitely had fewer brothels than I expected for being a US-version of Thailand, but it was definitely...
6 tags
Adventures in Eating: Donut Crawl II: LA Edition
After my first donut crawl, I promised myself that I would never repeat the foolishness and do another donut crawl. However, I discovered that there are several great donut establishments in Los Angeles, and I couldn’t help but try them out. Consider me a glutton for punishment, or at least, a glutton.
My first stop on the donut crawl was Donut King in Culver City, which was a 30 minute...
5 tags
Plaza Café - Los Angeles, CA
Every once in a while, you get stranded in a place where there is nothing to eat but whatever is available. I went to the LaBrea tarpits and the LA County Museum of Art (LACMA) to do the usual touristy things that you do there, and it was about 2 pm and I was famished. However, in that area there’s not anything really good within walking distance. I parked my car in the parking lot...
5 tags
Mozza2go - Los Angeles, CA
When I told my friends who live on the west coast that I was going to go to California, they warned me that the pizza on the west coast is awful. I knew from previous experience that the ethos of west coast pizza is putting a bunch of ridiculous toppings (like baby corn, eggplant, and pickles) that make the pizzas awful. However, Aaron and Kara suggested that we try Mozza2go, the takeaway...
7 tags
Real Food Daily - West Hollywood, CA
When I told my vegan buddy Stromile that I was going to come out to LA for a trip, he said “We should grab some vegan food sometime.” However, by the time that I did go out there, he was observing some religious holiday, so he couldn’t eat out (I won’t say what holiday, because it’ll date when I actually went to LA). While he couldn’t eat with me, he did give...
June 2011
6 posts
8 tags
Sprinkles - Beverly Hills, CA
If there’s one thing that Los Angeles is famous for it is hype. Some would argue that LA is famous for movies, but really, what is a movie other than a hyped up play? So, I figured I would explore the hype propaganda that exists in LA to try a few places that I wouldn’t normally (because I listed to Chuck D as a child). What is the pinnacle of hype in the food industry? Cupcakes. ...
9 tags
Hugo's Tacos - Studio City, CA
If there’s one thing the southwest is known for, it is Mexican food. And yes, I am including LA in the “Southwest” (it is surrounded by desert, people!). Aaron and his girlfriend, Kara, were unsure about where to take me (being fans of the blog and fearful of my iconoclasm towards their favorite restaurants). They asked me where I wanted to go, and I said “I want Mexican...
4 tags
In n' Out Burger - Sherman Oaks, CA
If there’s anything that I try to do by writing this blog, it is to bust hype. For years, west coasters have always gone on and on about how great In n’ Out Burger is, and how nothing can match the quality of In n’ Out Burger. I went through the same experience with Five Guys from DC people. Aaron, my friend that I was staying with in the Valley lived just down the street from...
8 tags
Griddle Cafe - Hollywood, CA
Despite many of my previous protestations, I finally decided to make a trip out to sunny Southern California and check out Los Angeles. I have some friends that live here that I haven’t seen in a while, and I found a really cheap JetBlue flight, so I thought I would take the plunge and visit LA before it fell into the Pacific Ocean (I seriously believe this is going to happen in my...
6 tags
Pazzo - Boston, MA
One of the great perks of having family is a family funded meal at a fancy restaurant. My uncle notoriously takes his family to really nice restaurants, and every once in a while I get to tag along. My mother was in town, and she loves Italian food, so my uncle took all of us out to Pazzo, an Italian restaurant in Back Bay.
You are not dining at an Italian restaurant unless you get some...
6 tags
Nick Varano's Famous Deli - Boston, MA
One of the great cliches of the sandwich industry is naming sandwiches after someone famous. I don’t really know a better way of operating, but you definitely get a sense of a restaurant based upon how they name their sandwiches. A place that has a “portobello wrap”, “grilled cheese”, and “eggplant parmesan” will usually be a straight-forward no-frills...
May 2011
4 posts
6 tags
Candleworks Restaurant - New Bedford, MA
My uncle in New Bedford invited me down for the weekend as his sister-in-law’s family was coming down as well, and he thought it would be a good idea to flood New Bedford with Indians. Ironically that was the way Moby Dick started… Anyway, as most of the places we went to I’ve already been, we finally ended up trying a new place called the Candleworks in downtown New Bedford. The...
5 tags
Thinking Cup - Boston, MA
For years, Starbucks been promoting the concept that a company can run a “great coffee shop” without serving good food. Kenny informed me that a new coffee shop opened on Tremont street by the Common called Thinking Cup Coffee Shop. When I first arrived at Thinking Cup, I thought “Thievery Corporation at 9:30 AM? I can get into that.” I am a big fan of Thievery...
9 tags
Upstairs in the Square - Cambridge, MA
My mother came into town for her spring break, so I’ve been on a temporary hiatus from reviewing restaurants as I have been eating loads of home cooking (and home-cooked leftovers). I thought I’d pay her back (as best I could with my meagre salary) and take her out someplace nice. We ended up going to Upstairs in the Square in Harvard Square, which is one of the most convoluted restaurants I’ve...
7 tags
Masa - Boston, MA
With the improved weather, comes more trips down to the South End for lunch. I really enjoy walking in the South End because I love pretending that I live in wealthy neighborhoods. Sam, Vernon and I decided one day to go to Masa (actually we wanted to go to Picco, but it was packed). Since Sam’s girlfriend has been in town for a while, they’ve been trying to eat at nice restaurants once a week,...
April 2011
10 posts
6 tags
Ba Da Wings - Carrboro, NC
It’s pretty common for vegetarians to be asked by non-vegetarians, “What do you miss most about eating meat?” Usually my glib response to such questions is, “Murdering and torturing innocent animals?” I think this is why I don’t have many friends. But the actual answer to such a question is I miss meat sauces (such as BBQ sauce and chicken wing sauce). I...
5 tags
Noodles and Company - Chapel Hill, NC
Hey, Franchisee! Are you interested in catching on the next hot trend in fast food? Well, let me tell you about Noodles and Company! Noodles you say? That sounds too ethnic for middle America! Well, let me tell you about the Noodles and Co that I went to in Chapel Hill, North Carolina! Ok, that’s enough exclamation marks for this review. I was getting tired of eating down home southern food,...
4 tags
Jim's Famous BBQ - Chapel Hill, NC
North Carolina is fairly well known for having good barbecue. It’s not as good as Memphis (in my opinion), and it is unique with its mustard-based barbecue (instead of ketchup-based). As a result, my friends wanted to go try out Jim’s Famous BBQ in Chapel Hill. According to Yelp!, Jim’s is very highly rated for having good BBQ. On the outset, I was concerned as Jim’s has obviously filled in a...
6 tags
Vimalas Curryblossom Cafe - Chapel Hill, NC
There’s nothing like a good home-cooked meal, and when it comes to Indian food, I can’t help but compare any food I eat to what I would get at home cooked by my mother or previously my grandmother. One problem with most Indian restaurants is that they try too hard to maximize profits at the expense of putting out good food (which is part of the reason most Indian restaurants serve buffets). In...
5 tags
Ye Olde Waffle Shoppe - Chapel Hill, NC
My last excursion to North Carolina was so great that I decided to return another year later to see how much has changed (not much) and see if I can try out the other great restaurants in the Chapel Hill area. One place that looked really interesting that I didn’t have a chance to try was Ye Olde Waffle Shoppe (think Waffle House, if Waffle House was founded in 1832). Ye Olde Waffle House...
6 tags
Carrburritos - Carrboro, NC
Regular readers of this blog know that I am a big fan of burritoriums, so much so that I invented a name to define said genre of restaurant. When analyzing a burritorium there are three main factors that I look for if I’m going to give a five cheese sandwich rating: 1) wealth of vegetarian options, you can’t just have a beans and rice burrito, you should have a grilled veggie, or a...
5 tags
Adventures in Eating: Hare Krishna Temple -...
Considering the wealth of Indians living in the Boston area, you’d expect there to be at least one decent Indian restaurant. So far in my travels, I have been to every “great” Indian restaurant as deemed by such established food reviewers as the Boston Phoenix, Weekly Dig, and Improper Bostonian (based upon their yearly “Best of” issues). However, not one restaurant...
4 tags
Olecito - Cambridge, MA
Burritoriums are Boston’s equivalent to New York Pizzerias, as there is a burrito shop within three blocks of any location in Boston (I haven’t proven this empirically, but I think this statement holds up for the most part). One of my favorite Mexican restaurants in general (in Boston especially) is Olé Mexican Grill, which has a cheaper cousin across the street in Inman Square called...
4 tags
Four Burgers - Cambridge, MA
People always ask me, “Hey Cheese Sandwich Guy! What’s you’re favorite veggie burger?” That’s actually a difficult question, as different veggie burgers are good for different reasons. For instance, you may like a veggie burger because it has a texture similar to a real burger. I don’t personally, as I think those “fake” burgers taste like eating...
4 tags
Tavern on Jane - New York City, NY
While I am a blogger, I really cannot stand the concept of “social media”, and it infuriates me that there are people whose job it is to maintain Facebook pages and twitter feeds. I consider these jobs more non-jobs as they really don’t provide any useful good or service to better humanity (the inventors of the SlapChop have contributed more than these people). I was invited to...
March 2011
8 posts
7 tags
DB Bistro Moderne - New York City, NY
If you’re looking for dating advice, don’t read this blog for dating advice. That being said, it’s very difficult to try and impress women with fine dining. On one hand, she might be amazed at your taste, but on the other, she might think you’re just a pretentious snob. Anyway, I met this girl named Nykesha in New York who I was seeing a few weekends in a row (hanging...
5 tags
Manhattan Chili Company - New York, NY
I believe I have iterated this several times before, but there are not a lot of food options around the UN. It’s not uncommon for Hakeem and I to disagree on what we want to eat for lunch, and the food court affords us both whatever we want. Hakeem decided to go to Two Boots Pizza, and I decided to try out the Manhattan Chili Company.
I decided to get the four bean and butternut squash,...
4 tags
Cafe Select - New York City, NY
I always am amazed at the ridiculous ethnic cuisine in New York. For instance, La Petite Abeille is a chain of Belgian restaurants (because we all know how great Belgian cuisine is, right?), and I was recently introduced to a Swiss restaurant in SoHo, Cafe Select.
What meal are the Swiss best known for? Brunch. Just kidding, but I went with Hakeem and Chamique to Cafe Select for brunch, as is...
5 tags
Keste - New York City, NY
New York is well known for being the home of the greatest pizza in the world. This is true to the point that many people actually believe pizza was invented in New York. This is completely false, as pizza originated in Naples through many forms until it reached the form of the “tomato pie”, which was vastly improved with the addition of cheese around the late 19th century. In the...
4 tags
Olé Mexican Grill - Somerville, MA
It was my aunt/cousin’s birthday the other day, and my family all decided to take her out for dinner. Fortunately, instead of the usual excursion to Tamarind Bay, we finally went to Olé Mexican Grill in Inman Square. Olé has actually been one of my favorite Mexican restaurants not only in Boston, but probably in all of the USA (sorry Southwest). I have not been to Mexico, outside of a...
6 tags
Uburger - Boston, MA
Boston, unlike New York, does not have a wealth of indigenous burger chains that serve mass-produced veggie burgers (see NYC Veggie Burger META Review). There are a few, such as B. Good and Uburger, but that is it. This is sad for perhaps the 3% of my readers that are really keen on getting a veggie burger fast (chime up if you think there are more people that want good fast veggie burgers not...
7 tags
Sofra Bakery and Cafe - Cambridge, MA
Every once in a while when I visit my family in Belmont, my aunt or uncle have brought home food from Sofra Bakery and Cafe, the Mediterranean cafe wing of Ana Sortun’s empire. As I always enjoyed the mezze from there, I looked forward to trying a full meal in Sofra’s comfortable dining area. Unfortunately, upon my arrival, there was no space to sit, as almost all of Belmont had the...
5 tags
Cuchi Cuchi - Cambridge, MA
My uncle was in town from New Bedford, which is always a good opportunity to get a free meal at a fancy restaurant. So, he took me, my cousin/roommate, and an friend of his out to dinner at Cuchi Cuchi, co-owned by Fernanda da Silva, a old friend of his (and potential former flame???).*
If you’ve never been to Cuchi Cuchi, it is an experience to have, as the atmosphere is straight out of...
February 2011
5 posts
5 tags
Darwin's Ltd. - Cambridge, MA
If I had to describe what kind of culinary tradition Boston has, it would be a sandwich city. While Philadelphia may be more noted for its sandwich, Bostonians pride themselves on the sandwich, as evidenced by the sheer number of sandwich eateries in the area, and the many different types of sandwiches created. Darwin’s Ltd. is one of the most famous sandwich makers in Harvard Square (I...
4 tags
Rustic Kitchen Happy Hour - Boston, MA
You may remember our previous excursion to have a happy hour (read - excuse to leave work early) at McCormick and Schmick’s. I was told that Rustic Kitchen also had a happy hour which was worth trying, so Kenny, Charles, Vernon and I decided to go check it out.
I expected a slightly higher class of happy hour at Rustic Kitchen compared to McCormick and Schmick’s, as Rustic Kitchen...
6 tags
The Good Life - Boston, MA
Bar development is cyclical: A bar starts out as a dive, becomes popular because of the cheapness of the food/drinks, then gets modified into a douchebag lounge and/or tapas bar that only pretentious people go to. Once this happens, nobody can go there except for the exclusively rich, and it no longer becomes fun. Nobody comes to it anymore, you change ownership, and it converts to an Irish...
7 tags
Johnny D's - Somerville, MA
If you’re a regular reader of the blog, you are likely aware of my trivia team’s hegemony of the Boston pub trivia circuit. Unlike that greedy Michael Jordan commandeering 6 NBA championships, we decide to give other people the opportunity to win trivia by competing in different locations (think of it like that two-year baseball hiatus). An added benefit of doing this is the opportunity to try...
6 tags
Noodle Stix - Belmont, MA
It’s not often that I eat Chinese food at home, being that I work near Chinatown and have constant access/exposure to Chinese food on a daily basis. However, one night I went home and found this flyer for Noodle Stix on Belmont St. in Belmont. I was intrigued as they had a whole section devoted to “fake meat”, which would suggest that unlike the restaurants in Chinatown, Noodle...
2 tags
5 tags
Tantric India Bistro - Boston, MA
If there’s one thing that vexes me more than anything, it’s the Indian buffet. The only thing I despise more is when somebody on Yelp says “Their buffet is not very good…” as a critique for an Indian restaurant! If someone told me a place has a good buffet, I would tell them that they lack a sense of taste. Nevertheless, there are not many Indian restaurants near...
January 2011
7 posts
6 tags
Lanes and Games - Cambridge, MA
Regular readers of this blog are likely familiar with the fact that I’m on a work basketball team that regularly gets destroyed, as I regularly get smacked around by 6’6” 280 lb monsters. Our season finally finished (2-12 with 2 forfeits! Just win baby!), so we had to organize our end-of-season gala dinner. You may remember that last year we went to Jillian’s in...
4 tags
Potluck Cafe - Boston, MA
One of the perks of working in Chinatown is that it is really easy to get a great quantity of cheap Chinese food. Potluck Cafe is one establishments that provides voluminous quantities of food for very little. Located in a dingy alley in Chinatown, you get what you’d expect from their lunch combination of 3 dishes + rice + soup for $5.50. This works out great for meat eaters, as you can...
7 tags
Picco Restaurant - Boston, MA
There’s a lot of hubbub over what is a “good pizza” or what makes a good pizza. For me there are only a few places that make an outstanding pizza. Before I describe one, I’ll tell you what I require in a solid pizza, as I’ve hinted at it before, but never actually defined my criteria for pizza quality. They are: 1.) Good sauce - the sauce must be tart, slightly garlicky, but not too oily or...
3 tags
Parish Cafe - Boston, MA
I’ve never really understood the whole “celebrity chef” phenomenon. Why people should be regaled just because they make food slightly better than most other people is beyond me. And yes, I am aware that the purpose of this blog is to regale chefs that make food slightly better than other chefs. But after watching Amadeus and toiling in obscurity for most of my life, I find it...
4 tags
The Shop - New York City, NY
My friend Hakeem has been raving for weeks about “Russian Nights” at the Bryant Park Hotel as if it were some orgy of Russian supermodels. And, like any warm-blooded male, I couldn’t turn down the possibility of an “orgy of supermodels”. The downside of going to a place that has supermodel orgies is that I am too ugly and/or dress too poorly to go to such places...
December 2010
11 posts
4 tags
Piada - New York City, NY
I have gone around the world and have sampled almost every variant of the cheese sandwich known to man, but one variant I have never discussed is the Italian cheese sandwich. No… Not, pizza. I refer instead to piadina, the Italian flatbread sandwich which comes from the Romagna region of Italy (also famous for parmesan cheese, basalmic vinegar, and spaghetti bolognese). My friend Hakeem is...
4 tags
Bomboloni - New York City, New York
Anybody that knows me well knows that I cannot say “no” to a donut. And that I spell doughnuts “donuts”. Hakeem told me about a place that he reviewed for a website that he writes for (which I have also guest-contributed) called Nuok.com. If you want to read Hakeem’s novice attempt at restaurant criticism, go here. But if you want the real scoop about the Italian donuttiere - Bomboloni,...
4 tags
Blossom Vegan Restaurant and Cafe - New York City,...
It’s rare that I actually eat at an actual vegetarian restaurant (as in a restaurant that only makes vegetarian dishes). This is primarily because there are so few restaurants that only serve vegetarian food, and most vegetarian restaurants are a little to “granola” for my liking. I try to avoid any place that serves flax and wheat germ-based dishes. Nevertheless, Hakeem and Chamique decided to...
4 tags
La Bonne Soupe - New York City, NY
Brunch in New York is a curious phenomenon, as it appears that city denizens (citizens?) cannot operate over the weekend without having brunch and discussing the stupid drunken tomfoolery they performed the previous night. Because I’m always staying with Hakeem and Chamique as a married couple, the tomfoolery discussions are quite mundane. Although there was one time… Nope… I don’t...