Coming soon... Good eats in Las Vegas

Dairy Queen is at a conference in Vegas and is taking advantage of the good dining. She'll have photos and reviews when she returns!!

Pomodoro

Location: Pomodoro, Washington St, Brookline, MA
Meal: Sunday Brunch

Pomodoro is a small space in Brookline, 2 doors up from Matt Murphy's. I've been there for dinner before, and yesterday, I met the family for brunch. There were 3 adults and 2 kids (one in need of a high chair). Without reservations, we waited about 20 minutes for a table. The place was very busy and noisy as there was a jazz band playing, but it wasn't too noisy to talk without yelling.

The brunch menu offers more than 10 choices, each $10. Choices ranged from a yogurt, granola and fruit bowl to shrimp and asparagus bake. Two of us went for the Pork Confit with Roasted Vegetables and Scrambled Eggs. The pork was a confit because it was slow-cooked in duck fat. This made it quite savory and delicious. The pork was shredded, then mixed with vegs like potatoes, onions, green peppers, etc. and stacked, with scrambled eggs on top of the stack. We both loved this and ate the entire serving.

My brother ordered the Petite Steak with Poached Egg and Hollandaise. I tried a piece of steak and it was very flavorful. Lots of seasoning on the steak, and a really good hollandaise.

One of the kids ordered tortellini with butter. We could smell the butter from the other side of the table but this kid wasn't sharing. The other kid brought his own graham crackers.

I'm telling this out of order, but that's because I wanted to get right to the entrees. While I was waiting at the bar for the rest of my party, I snacked on some bread and olive oil. There was foccaccia and thick toasted italian bread, and a large plate of olive oil with green and black olives. Some of the olives were tiny, like the size of a pea. Pretty tasty. This was awesome.

The coffee was okay. Not awesome.

They also serve fresh-squeezed OJ, which was downed very quickly by my sister-in-law and nephew, and mimosas and bloody marys.

I'm definitely planning a return trip.

Haiku

Location: Haiku, Park Ave, Worcester, MA (formerly On the Rocks, next to El Basha West)
Meal: Dinner

It's been a couple of years since I've had sushi and I was pleased to find out a new restaurant had opened up nearby. Haiku features the sushi stylings of Kenzo, who used to work at Zipango on Shrewsbury Street. I was excited to see that he brought the Tiger Eye roll to Haiku.

I met a friend for dinner on Monday night. It was busier than expected for a Monday but it was a holiday. We were able to get a table right away. They have a full bar and an extensive wine list but I was in the mood for a beer. I ordered a Stella; my friend ordered a Coors Light. After at least 10 minutes, the waitress returned, beerless, to tell me that they were out of Stella. I chose a Sam Adams. She returned after another 10 minutes, still empty-handed, to tell me they were out of Sam Adams, but they had Sam Light. I went for it. Mere moments went by before we both received our beers. Finally. I wonder why there was the wait for the Coors Light, though, since they had that.

We ordered four rolls: Philadelphia Roll (wrapped in smoked salmon), avocado roll, Tiger Eye, and The Worcester Roll. The Tiger Eye is delicious, fully cooked, light tempura on the outside, with a flavorful sauce. I love this roll. The Worcester Roll is rice, beef, sweet potato, and some green sprouty things. This was also good but I liked the Tiger Eye better. My friend really enjoys the avocado and philly rolls. Overall, we were both very happy with the meal.

One thing - there was a piece of hair on the tablecloth. Clearly not one of ours. We were at a four-person table, and it was on the side that we weren't sitting at, so it wasn't that bad, but if we'd been sitting there, I might have been skeeved out. The place is nicely decorated and other than the hair, it seems very clean. I would not let that put me off from going again.

The sushi, beautifully displayed on the plate, from front to back: Avocado roll, Tiger Eye, Philadelphia Roll, Worcester Roll.

A haiku

A winter dinner
Appetite sated by fish
Rice, seaweed, and more

Finder's Pub (again)

Location: Finder's Pub, West Boylston, MA
Meal: Dinner, Friday night

This was another good Finder's experience. I ordered the Waldorf Chicken Salad, which was chicken salad with cranberries and walnuts, on top of salad with green grapes and green apple slices. I substituted romaine/iceberg blend for the spring greens because I wanted the crunch. The waitress suggested the balsamic vinaigrette and it was a hit.

Buffalo Girl had the buffalo chicken salad, which was delicious. And large.

Steak and Potatoes had the baked haddock with rice pilaf and baby carrots and loved it. I've raved about the baked haddock at Finder's before and Steak and Potatoes seconds my review.

Uno Chicago Grille

Last night I met some friends to do some returns at the Blackstone Shoppes in Millbury. The mall was packed. It took 3 left turn light cycles for me to enter the mall road. This was around 6:15 pm. We put our names in at two restaurants because the waits were equally as long at both. We figured, we'd take the first page. Uno's won over Red Robin and boy, am I glad. I had the best meal. I ordered the Uno Firecracker Pasta. It's penne pasta with a spicy alfredo sauce, cheddar cheese, jalapenos, and sauteed chicken. When they say spicy, they really mean spicy. This was not that fake spicy that other places say, like when you order the "extra hot" buffalo wings and still need a tub of Frank's Red Hot to get some heat on those wings. The portion size was great, as I had leftovers for dinner tonight. The breadstick was also ideal. Buttery, with shaved parmesan cheese crisped on top. The side house salad with italian dressing was also good, but in a "salad is good for you so eat it" kind of way.

My dining companions were also quite happy with their meals. They shared the sausage flatbread pizza and a honey crisp chicken salad. This salad looked great. Tons of bacon and cheddar cheese. The dressing was given the thumbs up. The only comment I heard was that there could have been a little more lettuce. The pizza disappeared pretty quickly as well. Oh, and the 2 year old with us ate almost 2 whole pieces of cheese pizza so I'm going to say it was a success.

Sweetness alert: The BBQ sauce they use on the BBQ pizza is citrusy. We found this out because the staff puts out flatbread pizzas for the hordes of waiting patrons.

Question: There was a big bowl of red delicious apples by the door, right next to the tray of individually wrapped toothpicks (handy). Were these Uno's version of the after dinner mint? Should we have taken some?

Tostitos Scoops - Disappointing

I've had Tostitos Scoops several times, always from a big bag, and I've liked them. But yesterday at work, I bought a $.99 big grab to go with my sandwich and I was very disappointed. They were flavorless. There wasn't enough salt and they tasted like baked tortilla chips. Wasted calories. Of course, I saved about 1/3 of the bag and ate them today, with today's sandwich, hoping that they'd improved overnight. They hadn't.

The Flying Rhino

Location: The Flying Rhino, Shrewsbury St, Worcester, MA
Meal: Lunch, Friday afternoon

Three of us went for lunch one Friday afternoon last month. It was around 1, and it was still really busy in there, but we were seated right away.

We started with an appetizer of goat cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, and pesto, formed into a terrine. This was really tasty. The pesto had a lot of flavor. I don't like goat cheese but the others do, and found it delicious. The toasts that it came with were also good. Still warm and not too hard.

We each ordered a sandwich: Veggie Wrap, Cuban Panini, and Chicken Wrap. Two out of these 3 were good. The cuban panini was not really good. There was something in it that had a funny taste, sort of metallic. The sauce on the chicken wrap was yummy and creamy. The veggie wrap was chock full of good veggies, with quite a variety. All came with fries. They were good. I ate every one.

Here are some pictures of the food!

Drinks and Dessert at Bertucci's

Location: Bertucci's, Atrium Mall, MA
Meal: Dessert, Friday night

One of my friends, a frequent dining companion, and I were looking for some dessert at the Atrium Mall. We had eaten dinner a few hours earlier at the Cheesecake Factory but had been too full for dessert so thought we'd window shop and then head back later. Well, at 8pm there was a 45 minute wait so we quickly turned around. There's not a large selection of eateries in this mall, so we headed over to Bertucci's to see if they had dessert. They did, and the bar was empty (there are only about 5 stools at the bar).

We were going to get a nice coffee drink to go with some dessert but it was really warm in the mall. My friend came up with the brilliant idea of White Russians! Yum! Bertucci's made this drink really well. 2% milk, vodka, and Kahlua. There was quite a kick to the drink. We also shared the chocolate mousse cake, which was a multi-layer cake with whipped cream and raspberry coulis. Delicious, really big, too much for us to finish, even while sharing.

Yellow Tail Pinot Noir

I tried the Yellow Tail Pinot Noir at my friends' Christmas Party last week and it was really good. Great flavor, light but not watered down, kind of berry-ish.

The Melting Pot

Location: The Melting Pot, Framingham, MA
Meal: Dinner, a celebration

For those of you who don't know, The Melting Pot is a fondue restaurant, not a place where people of all ethnicities have settled in harmony. Everything on the menu, except the salad, is supposed to be dipped in a hot sauce, whether it's sweet or savory.

Because there were 5 of us, we decided to get two of the "Big Night Out" option. This option is designed to serve 2, and you get 2 salads, 1 cheese fondue, 1 meat selection (there are three options), and a dessert selection. I passed on the salad, since I'd had one for lunch, but rumor has it, they were delicious.

The cheese course was tasty. We got the cheddar and the santa fe cheeses. The neat thing about the Melting Pot is that the waitress creates all of the dips at the table. She brought grated cheese, added the beer base and the cheese to the pot, stirred it up until it was all melted, and then added flavors like garlic and jalapeno. The cheese pot was a hit with the whole table. We mostly ate the tortillas and bread that came with it. I was the first to have a bread castaway in the cheese, and it led to veggie and meat castaways in the following courses.

At this point, we were all pretty much full, but then the meat courses came out. We chose one with mushrooms, potatoes, chicken, steak and ravioli, and another with all that plus shellfish (shrimp and 2 lobster tails). The meat came out raw and we cooked it in pots of almost-boiling broth, flavored with burgundy wine. The broth was really good. The wine added a nice full flavor.

The table pretty much all agreed that the best part of the meat course was the beef rubbed with a portabello paste. The mushrooms and potatoes were also delicious. There was a sour cream based sauce that went very well with the mushrooms.

A couple of years ago, Buffalo Girl and I went to a fondue restaurant in Montreal. We'd never had fondue in a restaurant and did not know what to expect. At that place, the meat was shaved very thin, and it cooked in less than a minute. It was easy to tell when it was cooked. At the Melting Pot, the meat came in chunks, and it made me nervous. Undercooked chicken is not something I want to eat, but overcooked chicken is also unappetizing. It was hard to tell when the chicken was done and the lighting was dim so it wasn't necessarily possible by looking. A few times, the steak was left in for the suggested 3 minutes and came out pretty rare. Some people might like that. I don't love it.

Moving on to dessert. (full yet?! I was.) Plus, we'd already been at the restaurant for almost 2 hours and we were all getting kind of antsy.) We ordered 2 different chocolates, milk chocolate with peanut butter and oreo cookie (dark chocolate, my favorite). The dipping snacks were bite-size versions of cheesecake, brownies, strawberries, bananas, and some other things I can't remember now. All good, but a little sweet, and too much after the first 3 courses.

Prices are pretty high at this place. The Big Night Out ranges from $84 - $92 (approx) and that does not include drinks or choosing specialty broths. I think I would share one Big Night Out with 3 people, depending on how hungry we were. I would also like to go back for just apps and drinks. One note: Beer selection sucked. Pretty much your standard clear beers and Sam Adams.

Linguine's (II)

Location: Linguine's, Marlboro, MA
Meal: Lunch (takeout)

Linguine's has a really good tuna sub. The basics: Tuna, lettuce, tomato, onion, on a sub roll that is kind of chewy and has cornmeal on the crust. The tuna is really fresh, just enough mayo, and delicately seasoned. I did add some pepper and little salt, but it wasn't really necessary. Price: $4.95. The sub is probably about a foot long, and they cut it in half. I actually shared it with a friend because a whole sub is usually too much for me to eat at once. Not that I don't but then I'm really full.

Snack Time!

I'd rather buy a big jar of applesauce and pack it in a reusable Tupperware container, instead of buying single serving snacks. Last week, though, I received a big box of free stuff from Rachael Ray magazine and their advertisers. One of the snacks was Mott's Blueberry Applesauce. This snack was delicious. The blueberry flavor was really prominent and since the ingredience only included apples and blueberries, and a little citric acid, it wasn't overly fake-sweet. I might have to get more of these sometime.

Fun colorful packaging



Wonderful purply color

Bagel Time

Location: Bagel Time, Park Ave, Worcester, MA
Meal: Breakfast (late to work!)

There's a reason Bagel Time wins best bagels each year. They're awesome. The bagels are dense, boiled bagels with a shiny crust. I always get a spinach garlic bagel and last week, I had the scallion bacon cream cheese. Full fat. YUM. It's best when the bagel is still warm from the toaster.

They also have decent coffee but I don't know what kind it is. Only thing is, they use paper cups and the coffee is really hot and they don't have those extra cardboard pieces to slip around. So, remember to grab extra napkins.

Bagel Time is a once in a while place for me because eating that much cream cheese at once can't be good for me, and $5 for breakfast is a little much to make it a daily habit.

Mmm Mangorita

Location: Naked Fish, Westboro, MA (it's a small chain, though)
Meal: Drinks only

When hearing I was heading out to the Naked Fish for drinks, my friend the margarita connoisseur recommended their mango margarita. I went for it and it was delicious. The drink is called a Mangorita and is in the Specialty Drinks section of the drink menu. Ingredients were Sauza Gold, mango puree, lime juice and Grand Marnier. It came in a festive bowl shaped stem glass with a sugared rim, on ice. The mango puree was thick but not too pulpy, and I couldn't even taste the tequila. Though, there was definitely some in there. (I had some food so don't be concerned about that.)

They have lots of other drinks that sound good too. My friend got a mango Mai Tai, and loved it. There was dark rum floating on the top and she didn't realize until she bit into the cherry and realized it had been soaking in rum.

I also like the bar at the Naked Fish. It's sufficiently dark, with nice lighting and sweet leather chairs and couches. Really comfortable. I've eaten dinner there before and the food's really good. Kind of pricey - better to go on the corporate card.

Archer Farms Ginger Beer

Target has an exclusive brand, Archer Farms. I've had some hits and misses with this brand. The ginger beer soda is in the middle. It has some pretty good ginger flavor, but I don't think it's as good as Shweppes ginger ale - not enough crispiness or bubbles or something. I have one bottle left from a 6 pack, so I'm going to try to mix it with some liquor. It will probably hold up, maybe better than ginger ale.

Finder's Pub

Finders Pub is the only place around here that serves their meals on Fiestaware. I think it adds a nice homey feel to an already comfortable and good-eatin' restaurant.

Tonight, I had the Bud Light draft. It's a steal at $1.95/pint. I also ordered the baked haddock dinner. It came with a very large piece of haddock, perfectly cooked, with a light topping of bread crumbs that were appropriately crispy. I chose the mashed potatoes as a side. They were delicious, and had little bits of potato skin in them, so I knew they were real. The pat of butter I added made the experience even more decadent. The vegetable side was mixed vegetables: broccoli, parsnips, carrots, green beans, cauliflower. They were pretty awful - unflavored (I chose not to add the butter provided), and kind of soft and I guess overcooked. But I ate them because they're good for me.

My dining companions, Buffalo Girl and Steak and Potatoes, had the BLT on white with fries and the Sirloin Tips and Tomatoes Salad. The BLT was okay, a little dry. The sirloin salad was very good. It looked good from where I was sitting. Romaine lettuce and spring greens, very red plum tomatoes, onions, gorgonzola cheese, and steak tips. S and P chose blue cheese dressing and was very happy with his meal. His only complaint was the tips were cooked more than he'd like. He ordered medium-rare and they weren't rare enough.

Johnny Rockets

Location: Johnny Rockets, Burlington Mall, MA
Meal: Late night dinner.

First of all, let me say that going to Johnny Rockets after 10 pm on a Friday night is probably not the best idea. It left the service a little lacking, but overall, it was a decent experience. I think that they were pretty much done for the night and we happened in after a marathon shopping event. There were about 2 other parties there, and the waiter seemed to be pretty new. He was really nice, though, and as attentive as he was able to be.

There were 2 of us, and we both ordered cheeseburgers and cherry Cokes. I got the half onion rings/half fries. My friend got just fries.

The burgers came out separately from the fries. I guess they cook the burgers out back, and the fries are made out front, behind the counter. So there was kind of a lag between when I got my fries/rings and when my friend got her fries. Once we had all the food on the table, we realized that we could have shared a small order of fries and have still been totally full. As it was, we barely made a dent in the sides. I ate the entire burger, though. It was good, and cooked as I requested (medium).

You get these neat little paper dipping bowls that you can put the ketchup in. They also have something called "red red sauce", which is a ketchup-based sauce for fries and burgers. I can't figure out what else is in it. It was okay but I didn't put it on my burger. Burgers come with mustard and mayonnaise. Love it.

It's a good place to go for a table-service meal that is reasonably priced in the mall. The decor is flashy.

Another cool thing is they have straw dispensers on each table, and the waiter pulled up the top so we could each grab a straw when he brought our Cokes.

Muffin

Location: The Bean Counter, Highland Street, Worcester, MA
Meal: Breakfast

I was running late today so I didn't have time to make breakfast. I decided to swing by the Bean Counter and pick up a coffee and hopefully a sinfully delicious pastry. I usually go for the chocolate croissant, and those are always delicious. Today, they were all out of croissants. There was a customer giving the cashier some feedback on that very fact. Nice feedback, but it had probably been going on for quite a while before I got there, and I think the girl working was holding her patience very well.

I settled on a muffin, and while I'd like to give it a thumbs up, today, it was a half-thumb. The muffin was raspberry lemon, and the flavor was very raspberry and lemon, but the muffin was definitely overcooked. The top was hard-ish and chewy, there was melted sugar and other sticky stuff all over the outside of the muffin paper, and the muffin inside the paper had a thick overcooked crust. The center was really good - if only it was all cooked just enough, instead of too much.

The coffee was good- Kenya AA with milk. Smooth, creamy, not bitter, and very hot.

Tony's Pizza

Location: Tony's Pizza, Sutton, Route 146
Meal: Dinner (around 5:30 pm on a Friday)

After a shopping trip in Providence, Buffalo Girl, Mom, and I headed home. We stopped by Tony's Pizza for some dinner. This place was crazy busy. It was dinnertime so we expected it to be a little crowded. It was a madhouse, what with takeout orders being picked up, numbers being called over the loudspeaker, and lots of hungry people waiting for their food by the counter. We ordered pretty quickly, 3 fish and chips, a Greek salad, and 3 small sodas. They also serve beer and wine here. We found a good sized booth by the window. The only downside was that it was right beneath a speaker, and the volume was kind of loud.

Our food came out very quickly - around 10 minutes, which was great. We'd just gotten our sodas.

Each fish and chips order came with 2 large pieces of fish. The batter was thin and pretty tasty. The plate was piled with french fries, way too many to eat. They were not my favorite kind of fries, they were not smooth. But, they were hot and crispy. I ate one piece of fish, and too many fries. Then, Buffalo Girl and I dug into the salad. We were stuffed, though, so couldn't eat as much as we'd like. The salad was very good. You have to be sure to ask for Greek dressing (it's Ken's), otherwise you will get Italian. Lots of feta, tomatoes, I think iceberg lettuce, kalamata olives, purple onions.

I liked it at Tony's. The food was good, the price was right, and it was a good stopping point on the way home from RI.

Crapsto's Part Deux

You know what was really funny though? Mom thought that the greek dressing was soup, but really weird looking soup. Because it came in a ramekin with a spoon!! If they were going to do it that way, it should have come in something like a creamer or a cruet or something. Not a ramekin!