Burger King Bacon Sundae

I love bacon and would love it in a sundae. I admire Burger King for trying to win over customers, but this could have been executed better.

First, it wasn't even on any menu that I could find. How are you supposed to sell it? I asked if they were doing it, ordered two, and then got looks from the other customers once they saw it. They were probably thinking, wha, what, where's that on the menu?

Second, nobody knew how to make one except one person. It's vanilla ice cream, chocolate and caramel sauce, some crumbled bacon, and a strip of bacon on top. The crumbles were only towards the top of the sundae and needed a few more to evenly distribute them throughout. After I ate the strip of bacon and got through the top few bites, I was left with nothing but a normal sundae. Big whoop. Just a little more crumbles to evenly distribute it throughout would have satisfied me.

I'm also going to leave a note here on two other things. Their advertisement talks about crispy sweet potato fries. They were soggy (what I expected, because I recall some other fast food place having the same fries). The other thing is the Coke Freestyle Machine. It has over 100 flavors of soda/water/juice/etc in one little machine. The cool thing is you can mix whatever flavors you want. The uncool thing is the ice button must sense what size cup you have. What if I only wanted a little ice? It kept coming out and all over the floor.

Ferri's Potato Pizza - Moscow, PA

Today I went to Moscow..... Moscow, Pennsylvania that is. It's just over a 2 hour drive for me (one way), but I've been dying to try this special pizza they only make during Lent. Potato Pizza!

The building is kind of weird. You enter the building through a little coal mining museum. Lots of little old pieces to see. After that you're in a little store that sells handbags, lotions, soaps, and other girlie things. After that you're in the pizza place. Their potato pizza is so popular they have a map on the wall to pin where you came from. There's also a place you can write your town down.

This pizza was fantastical!! Totally worth the drive!! Did I just make up that word? It's fantastic and magical in one. It's like you're eating a pierogi on top of pizza dough. Very cheesy. The potatoes had a nice velvety texture, but still had some chunks in it. Looks like they had some egg yellow in it, because that picture is accurate. It's not the camera making it look yellow. There was lots of onion and garlic flavor. I read online somewhere that they use white, red, and green onion, but I'm not sure.

The pies were full tray of 12 slices for $16.50 or a half tray of 6 slices for $8.25. It was very filling. Between the two of us we couldn't finish a full tray. I was stuffed, but glad I didn't over eat like I normally do, because that makes driving home much harder.

You can bet this will be on my list of places to visit next year during lent. In fact, I'm going to see about sending some pizzas to my Mom in Hawaii.

Mikonos Restaurant - Ewing, NJ

I needed some place to go for Valentine's Day. I've had Greek food before, but I wanted some place I'd never been to. This place has been on my list for quite some time, so it's nice to be able to finally mark it done. The restaurant is on Scotch Road in Ewing, NJ. You can find their website here. They're open every day of the week until 9 or 10 PM.

The dress is casual and the decor inside is pretty simple. They have plenty of seating, some tables and some booth's. There's a really big sunroom that's really nice. I think the prices are very reasonable.

Sitting at our table we were promptly greeted by our waitress. Recently I was at an Indian restaurant where the guy would walk back and fourth and look at you every fifteen seconds. How annoying. The waitress we had was attentive to all the tables she was working, but not annoyingly so. She was very nice, friendly and chatty. Perhaps the best waitress I've had in a long time. My only complaint would be that she should have known what the specials were without going out to read the sign at the door. No big deal, though.

We started off with Greek Coffee. This took a little bit to make, which the waitress apologized for, but really it wasn't that long. I think it was worth it. It's like some really good espresso, with a nice earthy tone. You have to let it sit for a few minutes, not only because it's hot, but because whatever is in it (just coffee grinds?) needs to settle down. If you drink it too early it'll have a gritty texture to it. All of that settles to the bottom and when your done you flip over the cup and they'll read your fortune. I was joking that I should have turned my cup over when the waitress wasn't looking and quickly try to make an image of the Virgin Mary with my fork for when they came back to read our fortune. That would have been funny, but I'm not that artistic. I don't think a stick figure would have been as believable.

That's not theirs or my picture. I just thought I'd show what Greek Coffee looks like. Now that I'm thinking about it I think it had a slightly chocolaty and smokey flavor in addition to what I mentioned above. Next time I'm definitely having more than one!

We didn't ask for it, but I'm guessing every table receives some pita bread with olive oil and Greek spices as a starter while you wait. The pita could have been a bit done more, so it would have been slightly toasty, but either way it was tasty and warm. Maybe that toasty thing is just me. I'm not sure how it would be served in another Greek restaurant. Careful not to fill up, because some meals come with a salad, which we didn't know. With an appetizer, salad, side dish, and a meal we left this place absolutely full.

For our appetizer we tried the Melitzanosalata. No need to pronounce it. Just point to the menu or say the eggplant appetizer. This is eggplant made with (I think) olive oil, lemon juice, tomato, and a ton of garlic. I'm not sure what else was in it, but it was excellent. I wasn't kidding about the ton of garlic either. I'd definitely order this again.

Next up came some salad. Had I known they came with our dinner I'd probably have skipped them. I'm not usually a salad eater. Lettuce, red onions, grape tomatoes, pretty simple. It was too light on the dressing, though. Had there been more dressing I'd probably have ate it all. The tomatoes were very tasty.

We both ordered the same entree. It was a Valentine's Special. They might have it on other days, but this was my first time there so I'm not sure. I can't pronounce the name, but it was meatballs in a red wine tomato sauce and a side of rice for $10. The meatballs were a good size. They seemed to have a more dense texture than I'm use to. I liked it. I'm not sure what they put in the rice. Maybe just butter. It was done perfectly. What I really enjoyed was the red wine sauce. It was very tasty, but didn't seem over acidic, and my stomach thanked them. I wasn't having heartburn later on that night.

We also had two sides of potatoes. First up are the lemon potatoes. They're boiled potatoes and sauteed in olive oil, lemon juice Greek spices. Very tasty. You get some really tangy bites in there. One order was enough for two people. Really good and highly recommended. Second up was an order of Greek Fries just to see what they were. Don't waste your time with these. They're frozen fries with a tiny bit of spice thrown on top. With all the other freshly prepared food available it would have been nice to see fresh cut fries instead.

The bottom line? Just about everything was really good and I can't say enough good things about the service from our waitress. I'm sure the desserts would have been good too, but we were too stuffed to even think about them. We'll be back again soon. I've actually got a craving for that coffee, so will probably be back very soon.

Hot Diggity - Philadelphia, PA

Why does it seem like every hot dog place is an hour away from me.. Rutt's Hutt, Charlie's Pool Room, with traffic lights and such even getting to my favorite Texas Weiner spots are even an hour. Hot Diggity is no exception. I've been meaning to go here for awhile, but it took one Hawk Krall to get me out there on a cold Friday night. He was showing some of his amazing hot dog artwork. I bought one of his prints already and have spoken to him many times through email. He's just as nice in person, but this review is about Hot Diggity, isn't it?!

PS - By the way, if you've only looked at Hawk's artwork online, you'll really like the quality if you see them in person. Awhile ago I ordered the Texas Weiner print as a Christmas present for my Grandmother. I loved it online and I love it even more in person.

I'm from New Jersey, so to me Philadelphia is a pain in the butt to drive. Narrow streets, every other street is one way, and free parking is hard to find especially for someone who doesn't know how to parallel park. If you can't find any parking, don't settle for some $20 parking lot. If you're willing to walk a few blocks from South Street you can probably find free parking and some other cool stores on the way. There's a bunch of shopping on the same street as Hot Diggity.

When I got there Hot Diggity was packed. There were no spots to sit down, but a few if I wanted to stand. They have 3 or 4 tables, and a few stand only. The guy behind the counter said they're usually pretty busy, but tonight especially.

I believe it was a Sabrett dog, which is fine with me, but maybe I heard wrong, because elsewhere suggests they use an all-beef Best's. They also offer a veggie dog on any of their menu choices. The dogs were nicely griddled on the outside.

They come on an Italian style roll, which is bigger than your American style bun. The rolls are locally made and very fresh. Even though they were bigger I didn't find them to be too much bread. I got a nice amount of dog, topping, and bun. But still, bread being bread, I was pretty full after one dog and fries. Had they been any thicker, though, I'd have not liked them.

The fries were nice and thick. They weren't wide like a steak fry, but they were thicker than say a McDonald's fry. Skin on. I thought they were done perfectly, but my Girlfriend thinks they could have been cooked a touch longer. I think I tasted peanut oil (correct me if I am wrong), which gave them a nice flavor. They weren't greasy at all. They need to be eaten quick, as they taste much better fresh. As mentioned on another website, they're a tad salty.. maybe not if you ate them alone but we paired them up with one of their dipping sauces.

They have about ten or twelve different sauces and occasionally rotate them. We tried the Curry Mayo. If I'd have seen Spicy Ginger before hand I'd probably have got that also. A large cone of fries was a good amount for two people and two to three sauces is plenty, unless you have to try them all then get a few more. Since this was my first time to Hot Diggity, I don't know what sauces they have in regular rotation, but I'd like to see some stuff that Pommes Frites in New York City has (they have over thirty sauces), so I don't have to go as far. They make a great Smoked Eggplant and the Irish Curry is the best I've ever had. Hot Diggity's fries were as good if not better than Pommes Frites.

Philly Surf & Turf

Seattle Grunge

Saigon Fusion

You can see everything Hot Diggity has on their website here, but I'll describe what we tried. My Girlfriend had a Philly Surf & Turf. It's a dog, wrapped with a homemade fish cake, topped with pepper hash, and mustard. She liked it. The fish cake tasted fresh and was nicely wrapped around the dog. It wasn't over fried, didn't seem overly greasy, and wasn't all mashed up into bits. It was one cohesive wrap.

I first had the Seattle Grunge. This has garlic cream cheese, red onion straws, scallions, and tomato. The onions were sliced extremely thin and were great to munch on by themselves with their strong flavor. There was a good amount of everything, except I couldn't notice the garlic flavor in the cream cheese. It tasted just like normal cream cheese to me.

Next up I had a Saigon Fusion. This comes with a house pickled cucumber, cilantro, red onion, carrots, jalapeno, thai chili vinaigrette, and hot sriacha. I skipped the carrots. Nice heat, but nothing you'll find on an episode of Man Vs. Food or anything, so it's good for just about any stomach to handle. The pickled cucumber and vinaigrette gave it a nice sweetness to balance the spicy. If you don't like soggy buns, eat this one quickly as the vinaigrette will soak in. I kind of liked it that way, though. Out of the two dogs I had this was my favorite.

They have a bunch of craft made sodas as well, but we didn't try anything. The wall display was nicely done. Off hand I noticed cucumber soda and, shit, on their website I see Moxie. I've always wanted to try that.

Most of the dogs are priced around $5 or $6. Hot Diggity does fill a niche and with that I'll be back again to sample one of each dog (except fish which I don't eat). Judging by the amount of people I saw inside, they all seemed pretty happy with that they were eating. When I've got a craving for a unique and tasty dog I know where to go.

The British Chip Shop - Haddonfield, NJ

I've been eyeballing this place as something to visit for awhile now. It's about an hour from me. Yesterday was my birthday and someone told me to go out to dinner and give them the bill. Perfect time to try something different.

The town of Haddonfield looked very nice. A bunch of little shops, including a British shop across the street, and down the road a bit there is a bunch of huge, expensive houses to see. Looks nice all lit up for Christmas.

The restaurant was pretty full when I arrived. Usually a sign of good food. There were a few opens tables and we were seated quickly. It's cold outside, but the temperature inside was good. Not too hot or cold. I warmed up pretty quick. Haddonfield is a "dry" town, but you can bring your own beer.

Their website lists a roasted butternut squash soup I'd have liked to try. They actually had potato leek and the soup of the day looked like chicken. My potato leek was very tasty. It was creamy with some nice big pieces of potato and a little carrot in it. I finished it all. My Girlfriend had the other soup. It was full of vegetables and a ton of chicken. Looking in the bowl I saw mostly chicken and good sized pieces too.

As an appetizer we had curried cheese chips. These are french fries with cheese and a curry sauce. I liked the sauce.. it wasn't too sweet. My favorite curry sauce comes from Pommes Frites in New York, but this was pretty good too and a lot closer to home.

Next time I think we're going to try the scotch egg. It's a hard boiled egg wrapped in sausage served hot or cold. Maybe desert too. I was too full from all the other food to have dessert, though.

When ordering dinner I didn't realize that everything we ordered had potato and I was kind of overloaded by starchy food, but that's nothing to do with the dinner. Everything was very good.

My Girlfriend had fish & chips. Market fresh haddock in a flaky breading. It comes in three sizes jack, queen, and king. We were told unless you're very hungry go for the queen, so she did. It was pretty big.. I'd say about six to eight inches. The house-made tartar sauce was excellent. I'd order a side of that next time just to eat with fries it was so tasty.

I had the cottage pie. A large ramekin filled with ground beef, vegetables (celery, carrot, more?), and topped with mashed potatoes. When it came out it was really hot. The only thing out of the whole night I would knock them for is that the carrots in the cottage pie were too hard.

The waitress was friendly, quick and attentive. The people who cleaned off the tables were nice and talkative too. Asked how we liked our food, if it was our first time there, etc. We'll definitely be back.. in fact I'm taking my Grandmother there next weekend!

Perhaps the best cheese steak I've ever had...

This place serves up Afghan and Indian cuisine. I've been there a few times now and the food was great. I've never eaten there, so I can't comment on the table service, but the inside is clean and bright and the take out was fast and delicious. I am writing this post to talk about my dinner tonight:

PERHAPS THE BEST CHEESE STEAK I'VE EVER HAD! 

I don't normally bold things or make it in big text that often, but this deserved it. I've eaten cheese steaks at a lot of places with a lot of different toppings. This ranks up there among the best of them. I didn't take a picture, but there's one on their website that I'll link later on.

First off, let's start with the meat. It was tender and moist, but not super greasy like something from Philly. The meat was not overcooked and dried out like some places. Let's not start a war.. I love my Philly cheese steak and my Whiz Wit, but I think I may have found a new love in my life and she's less than 10 minutes away, not an hour.

The bread was soft and seemed fresh. The sandwich is 12 inches for $5.99, which I thought was a very good price. I think most of their stuff is reasonably priced.

Sometimes you get a place that makes a sandwich with too little cheese and the sandwich is dry and has no flavor. The cheese here was just the right amount and nicely melted throughout my sandwich. I would prefer an extra sharp provolone or Cheese Whiz, but this was more than fine.

I had onions and peppers on mine. The unexpected twist is that they're hot peppers. Now, I don't know if they also sprinkle some seasoning on the sandwich too, but it was amazing. Super flavorful throughout every bite. Like fireworks in my mouth.

My Girlfriend had ketchup and mayo on hers, but I opted for their white sauce. This was part of my amazing flavor. I don't know if it's exactly tzatziki sauce or what, but it's my favorite. It's thinner than most of the other white sauces I've had. Maybe it has dill in it. I get some extra every time I go, because I put a lot on.

The only let down is that we got one of the cheese steaks with french fries. They were nothing special. No salt, no flavor, and dry. I ate a few fries in the car and didn't really care for them. I live less than 10 minutes away and by the time I got home the fries were even worse. We didn't finish them.

Last time I was there I had lamb gyros and they were awesome as well. I can't remember what we had the time before that. There's some other stuff on the menu I've been wanting to try, but honestly I'm going back for the cheese steak every time now. It's THAT good if you ask me.

You can find Afghan Kabob and Grill on Route 33 in Trenton, New Jersey. You can see their website (and pictures of the cheese steak) HERE. They're open late. They're Halal friendly. They're also on FACEBOOK, although I wish they gave a coupon every now and then on there.

Maoz Vegetarian

They only serve one main item on the menu: falafels. They also serve belgian frites, sweet potato fries, and drinks.

First off let's start with their signature item: the falafels. They come three different ways: the regular sandwich (full pita), junior (half pita), or in a plastic container (no pita). They come with lettuce, hummus, and eggplant. You have your choice of about 18 different toppings for free. I don't remember them all, but I saw diced tomatoes, baby beets, cilantro sauce, spicy sauce, tabouleh, salsa, and more. For sauces they had tahini, tzatziki, and some kind of garlic sauce. For an additional fee you can get avacado, hard boiled egg, more eggplant, more hummus, babaganoush, or feta cheese. You can choose white or wheat pita bread.

I had a full sized sandwich and it was packed. Very filling. It had about 5 or 6 falafels in it, a bunch of lettuce, and one slice of eggplant. There might have been onions in it too, I forget. I added avacado. There wasn't much room to add additional toppings, but I did.. cilantro sauce, salsa, and baby beets. I also put a lot of tzatziki sauce on top.

The flavors were awesome. They were the best falafel I've ever had! The only problem was my sauce didn't get to the bottom of the pita, so the bottom ones were dry, but it's not their fault. Falafel is normally dry. Very flavorful and still tasty, though. Next time I'm going to skip the pita and sauce the fuck up!

Next up: the frites. The belgian frites were kind of a let down. They were just crispy, but not as crispy as I think a frite would be. They weren't as thin as a McDonald's fry and I liked that. Holds more sauce and gives you more potato. There was no frite sauce.. only ketchup. I'd say since having frite sauce of some sort I hardly ever use plain ketchup anymore. The sweet potato fries were a little burnt, but still not bad. My Girlfriend liked them better that way. Both could have used a pinch or two of salt. Still good fries, though.

The drinks were good too. They looked store made. I had an Arnold Palmer, which is half iced tea and half lemonade. They also have some pre-packaged sodas and other stuff.

Visit their website here.

Moe's Taco Stack

I've been going to Moe's for years, before they even were in my state. I love their food. Their latest item is called "Taco Stack" which comes in either Beef, Pork, or Chicken. I'll get right to the point. They're basically a Crunch Wrap Supreme from Taco Bell that's way over priced. These were $7.99 each and come with chips and salsa. Taco Bell might cost $3.79 or so and is just as flavorful.

Here's a description of the flavors:

Steak Taco Stack – marinated steak, shredded cheese, grilled onions and mushrooms, fresh pico de gallo, sour cream and Moe’s famous Queso stacked between two crunchy corn shells and wrapped in a crisped flour tortilla.

Pork Taco Stack – pulled pork, grilled onions, seasoned pinto beans, fresh pico de gallo, shredded cheese and Moe’s famous Queso stacked between two crunchy corn shells and wrapped in a crisped flour tortilla.

Chicken Taco Stack – grilled chicken, seasoned pinto beans, fresh pico de gallo, shredded cheese, black olives, pickled jalapenos and Moe’s famous Queso stacked between two crunchy corn shells and wrapped in a crisped flour tortilla.

As you can see they're pretty much all the same ingredients, just a few changes. There's no lettuce in there like you'd get a Taco Bell, but I am fine with that since I don't like lettuce anyway.

The pictures look delicious and mouth watering. The stuff I received was average. It says grilled onions and mushrooms. They did not give me any mushrooms. Fine with me, because I don't like mushrooms, but my Girlfriend would have liked them. I was standing right there and saw them, so I know they had mushrooms. It also says Moe's famous Queso. I don't think there was any in ours. I love their queso (and have been known to go there quite often for just that), so I think I would be able to tell if there was any. I figure it would be oozing out onto my hands, but looking inside my food I saw none.

If Moe's corporate reads this (I'm sending them a link), I have no other complaints about the location I frequent. They're always friendly and fast. The food is great. I just think this menu item in particular is a fail. It's like the chips and salsa aren't free because the price of this is too high for what you get. I'll still frequent your location more than Taco Bell, but if I ever get the craving for this item I'm definitely not going to get it from you.

Five Guys - Burgers and Fries

The reason I kept putting off going here for so long is that this place doesn't look like anything special. Their food is packaged in brown paper bags and their menu includes basic stuff.. hamburgers, cheeseburgers, hot dogs, grilled cheese, french fries, veggie sandwiches, and drinks. Their toppings aren't that inspiring. There's about 15 or 20 toppings all of which can be included on your items free. Despite others telling me they make really good food I still didn't go. In fact, I think I vowed to never go there! Today that changed when I saw Grilled Cheese with any toppings I wanted for only $2.99!

I looked on their website for the closest location to me. About 8.5 miles. Grilled Cheese was $3.89 though! The other location is about a mile further in the other direction, but the price difference made it worth the drive.

Upon entering the location I was immediately hit with the smell of cajun fries. They smelled amazing. They have free peanuts to eat while you wait.

We tried a Grilled Cheese "All The Way". This means you get mustard, mayo, ketchup, lettuce, tomato, grilled onions, pickles, and grilled mushrooms. I added extra cheese. I got mine without mushrooms. The sandwiches were a good size. The bread had a nice texture to it. It was round. It wasn't soft like a loaf of white bread and it was cooked perfectly. I was worried it might be too small, but it was actually pretty filling. Great value for the price.

I also got a large order of fries. The fries looked fresh cut and came in a big paper cup. I think they were salted nicely. Not too much, not too little. They weren't crispy, but very tasty. They were shared between two people and the size was alright. I might have preferred a few more, but that's because I enjoyed them so much. I wish they offered cheese fries. They do offer malt vinegar or ketchup at the counter.

Final verdict? I'm sorry I didn't go here sooner. I'm not so sure I want to try a burger because they're over $5 and I'm really into the Grilled Cheese, but my Girlfriend will try it and we'll report back on that next time. I'll definitely be back. I'm glad they have locations all over, unlike White Castle which closest location is 45 mins to an hour away.

Longhorn Steakhouse - DO NOT EAT HERE!

A few years ago I went to the location in Hamilton, New Jersey on Route 130. I kept seeing commercials for stuffed filets. They were filet mignon steak stuffed with things. I forget what, but one was cheese. They looked awesome in the commercials.

I've actually been going to Longhorn since they first came into New Jersey. I don't want to say I go there often, but they were someone I liked and would go back to every now and then. We had just moved into the area and my Grandmother helped me, so I figured we'd all go out for dinner.

So, we order drinks and appetizers. We order dinner. As we're waiting for dinner we realize that EVERYONE around us was getting bread! We didn't even get offered any! I totally forgot about the wonderfully warm bread  (pumpernickle?) with butter.

So, we get our dinners. Everyone's dinner is fine except my stuffed filet. It tasted like rotten fish! I hate seafood. It even smelled like fish! I didn't want to say anything at first, because I didn't want to ruin anyone's meal.

So finally I had everyone at the table taste my food and they all agreed it tasted like rotten fish! I kept quiet about it, though. I don't dare upset the staff or they will do something to everyone else at the table's food, put boogers in it, or use a baked potato as a soccer ball in the back.

After everyone was done I said something about it. The manager came over and she had the cook taste it. He found nothing wrong with it. How can 4 people say it tastes like fish and he doesn't find anything wrong? 

The manager told me she knows the cheese they use is kind of strong. I told her are you kidding me? I love cheese. You telling me I can't tell the difference between cheese and smelly fish? That is ridiculous!

They offered me another meal. I won't eat there ever again! I mentioned the bread we never got. They offered to give us some bread to go. There was no way I wanted that bread. Who knows what they did to it.

Whoever that waitress was that day, maybe I should forgive you if you were new to the job. NOT! Any idiot learns to bring out bread in a few seconds and if you were new to the job then you should have had another idiot training you!

Whoever the manager was that day, I hope you got fired. You're old and your taste buds are totally shot.  You have no customer service skills at all. You really insulted me by implying I can't tell the difference between cheese and fish. I grew up fishing almost every weekend of my life. My Dad loves seafood and fishing. I've tried seafood a few times but don't like it. Cheese on the other hand I love just about every kind.

I stuck to my word. I don't eat at Longhorn anymore and never will. I urge you to do the same. I didn't have a blog back then or I'd have posted then. I did complain to corporate. I believe they wanted to talk to me on the phone. No way! What were they going to do? I don't want to get a free meal or something because then everyone in the restaurant knows I'm the guy who complained and then my food will really be fucked with.

Zinburger - Clifton, NJ

Last Friday night my Girlfriend and I went to Zinburger in Clifton, NJ. The menu on their website makes your mouth drool! Onions braised in zinfindel wine, BACON BLOODY MARY and DOUBLE TRUFFLE FRIES! The drive is about an hour for me, but bacon has some sort of stronghold over me.

When I got there they had a thirty minute wait. Not too bad. You'd wait that (or more) at most other places. The place inside was packed and very noisy. Very noisy. They give you one of those paging things that will go up to 100 feet away, so you're free to go outside at least. I think I waited what they quoted me or less.

I like that their website has prices on it, so I knew what to expect before going. The burgers range from around $8 - $14 and they're all 8 ounce. The roll was big and thick. In addition to what's on the menu they have weekly burger specials, I believe those were the pricier ones. They also have monthly milkshake specials.

The waiter was extremely nice and thus I gave him a 40% tip! I never leave tips that big! I wish I'd have got his name to leave him good feedback with the restaurant. Both of us didn't finish our burger and he seemed very genuine and sincere with his concern. We were just full and couldn't eat any more. The food was AWESOME! If you're reading this Zinburger, we sat close to the window, against the wall, under one of the cows, which was a few tables away from the order entry machine by the window. We were there on April 1st around 8 or 8:30pm.

Our Bacon Bloody Mary came out first. It's very spicy. You can definitely taste the bacon throughout. They infuse their vodka with it and garnish with a strip. The drink was blended very well and goes down smooth, The glass a nice size for $8. I want more! If Zinburger wasn't so far from me I'd be there more often. Again, if you're reading this Zinburger, Princeton NJ is a good trendy area for you to open.

Next came the fries. I had double truffle fries, which are shown in the picture. They're fries tossed with truffle oil and served with a truffle aioli. They're very thin and cooked and seasoned perfectly. My Girlfriend had green bean fries. They were very good also, but nothing special. A lot of places serve them now.

A short time later the burgers came. We both had the Zinburger, which has manchego cheese and those wine soaked onions I spoke about earlier. Both of our burgers were cooked perfectly. Mine was medium rare and the inside was perfectly pink. They were juicy and flavorful. I love cheese and I believe this was my first time having manchego. It was so good I'm going out to buy some tonight.

Can't say a bad thing about this place other than I want one closer by and I want more Bacon Bloody Mary.

Hansel n' Griddle - New Brunswick, NJ

I've always wanted to try them out. The name reminds you of that fairytale of similar name and the outside of their original location is very colorful. This is at 53 Mine Street.

For some reason I never gave them a try until a few days ago. I was going to a concert at Court Tavern and they have a second location a few steps away on Church Street. It opened over a year ago.

You can't really see it in the photo above, but the inside is brightly painted and the walls kind of have an old cottage type feel to them. The menu is displayed on a bunch of LCD televisions. One of them shows movies. When I went in there a Tim Burton animation was on, which fit the restaurant theme even more.

The place 5 or 6 stools facing the window, a few tables with 4 chairs, and a few tables with 2 chairs. Some of the chairs are a little close together, but not too bad. They have napkins on the table, which I like, so you don't have to keep asking. They also have free pickles in a large half barrel and free pens on the counter.

If you try 10 of their "Top 20" you get a free shirt. I wish I'd have known this, because I would have marked one off the list.

The menu consists of soups, salads, burgers, wraps, quesadillas (called crisps), chicken sandwiches, and some sides. They have fountain drinks, some bottled stuff like Arizona, and smoothies. They state their grilled chicken is fresh, their tuna is Bumblebee, steak is hand trimmed, mayo is Hellmann's, ketchup is Heinz, and hotsauce is Frank's. They believe in using quality products.

My Girlfriend and I started off with French Onion Soup. Their soups are home made. It came with croutons and cheese in it. The onions were plentiful. It looked flavorful and had a lot of spices in it. Looks are one thing, though. Taste wasn't anything special. It was kind of bland. Good enough to finish the whole bowl, but not good enough that I'd want to order it again. Maybe all it needed was a little salt.

Even though I didn't totally like the French Onion, I'd still like to give some of their other soups a try. In the winter they have as many as 7 homemade soups.

If you're interested, or if the owners ever read this, it's well worth taking a trip to Smithville Inn and trying their soup. It's the best I've ever had. You could probably learn a thing from them. You can see what I had to say about it here. It may be a 2 hour drive for me, but it's well worth it.

I had the Steak Crisp. It's steak, tomatoes, melted cheddar/jack cheese in a flour tortilla. It comes with either sour cream or salsa. I thought the portion was nice.. 4 decent sized pieces. The steak was tender and moist, not over cooked. The menu on the wall didn't have any description of anything and I didn't feel like asking. I probably would have went for the Coco Crisp, which is roast beef, cajun home fries, same cheese as above, and crisp bacon, served with gravy for dipping.

My Girlfriend had a Chicken Cordon Bleu sandwich. The chicken was very dry and the sandwich was not that flavorful. It had sauce on it, which was thin and mostly dripped off the other side of the sandwich.

The prices were fair I thought. My crisp was $6.75 and her sandwich was $6. Soup starts at $3.

My Girlfriend would probably not want to go here again. I did see her chicken was dry and stringy, but as far as what I ate I'd definitely go here again. I am very interested in trying the Coco Crisp mentioned above. They also make one that is like an italian sub in a quesadilla.

Scarlet Ibis – Caribbean Food, Willingboro, NJ

I love Jamaican Patties. Although you can buy a few different brands in the supermarket, I wanted to find something near me that’s authentic, not mass-produced.

There’s two places in New Brunswick, NJ where you can get a Jamaican Patty on Coco Bread, but I think both places use the same brand I’d find in the supermarket.

In my search for new places I came across Scarlet Ibis in Willingboro, NJ. 

The restaurant is right off Route 130 behind a mall. Parking was plentiful and the restaurant was very clean. 

I didn’t actually try an entree, as I was really there to just get Jamaican Patties. To my surprise, they had four or five different varieties! Beef, Curry Chicken, Spicy Beef, Vegetable, and Spinach, I think were all of them.

They appeared to be made fresh at the store. I had spinach and vegetable as they were out of beef. My Girlfriend and her Daughter both had Vegetable and liked them a lot. I had spinach and vegetable, found the spinach to be a little sweet. While both of them were good, it’s not something I totally liked because I like beef or spicy beef only. Next time I’ll go back earlier in the day to try them, as I’m sure I’ll love them.

I also tried some banana pudding. It was excellent. I believe it had vanilla wafers in it.

I also had some sort of Beet Carrot juice. It sounded good, but it had cardamom, almonds, and other stuff in it. I took one sip and spit it out of my car window. The brand was Juices International from Brooklyn, New York. Had it been savory, rather than a combination of savory and sweet, I think I would have liked it. Next time before trying one of their juices I’m going to read the ingredients.

Singas Famous Pizza - Est. 1967

Everywhere I go there's three things you see too many of: Banks, Chinese Food Restaurants, and Italian Restaurants. Get it through your head. If you're just "average" then don't bother opening. Come up with
something unique, interesting, or original. For example, in my area there's no place to get a hot dog topped with a nice chili sauce, yet within a few minutes I can name at least ten Italian Restaurants.

Even though I don't need another Italian place, I still awaited the opening of Singas Famous Pizza in East Windsor, New Jersey. I love food and trying new places. I was hoping it was going to be something
better, being that they originally started in New York City. I love New York Pizza. It definitely wasn't as good as a real New York Pizza and is not worth going back.

They don't sell slices here, which is fine with me. They only sell small pies which are 10" round. The pies come in a few prices: $5.50 for plain, $6.50 with topping, $7.35 with special toppings, and $7.95
for the ones with most toppings. Extra toppings are $1 each.

The menu is a waste of ink, paper, their money, and my reading time. For example, the menu is a tri-fold brochure which opens up into three sections. A normal place would list the price for a cheese pie, list the price for toppings, and then if they have any special pies they'd list them separate with a description. For example they might list the Hawaiian Pie with juicy pineapple and thinly sliced ham. This place takes the time to write a description for each topping. Do I really need to see "Freshly Sliced Onions & Shredded Cheese with our Famous Singas Sauce"? If I order a pizza with onions I know what it's going to come with.. onions, cheese, and sauce. I'm surprised they didn't list crust under each description too. Unless you're doing something special, there's no need to describe every topping. For example, in the above sentence you could replace the onion part with one of the following: "Freshly Sliced Green Peppers", "Sliced Mushrooms", "Freshly Chopped Spinach", etc. You get the idea. Like I said, a waste of resources all together.

Some of the more interesting toppings on the menu would be baby shrimp, chicken alfredo, eggplant, bbq chicken, buffalo chicken, and the greek pizza, but none of those are really that interesting. Most every
place does that type of stuff nowadays anyway. There's also a few other items on the menu like spaghetti, salad, wings, sandwiches, and beef patties. I'm not sure if they mean Jamacian Beef or hamburger by
that last one. Had I been in New York City I'd expect Jamacian Beef Patties.. they're everywhere.

But how was the food you ask? Nothing to write home about and the sauce is nothing special. The crust here is better than Domino's. Not as good as one of the real Italian places in my area, and certainly not as good as something from New York. Now, Domino's isn't good pizza by far, but I'd eat them over Singas any day. At least there I'll get a better price.. their Medium pizza is cheaper than here and their crust is thicker, thus filling me up a bit more. This is definitely not a New York Style pizza I would expect from a place that started there in 1967.

I'd stay away from this place because the pizzas aren't that great and a little tiny for the price. Oh, and they come in paper bags. I guess what they waste on menu printing they save by not using cardboard boxes. How crappy is that to have to carry a bunch of pies and you can't stack them on top of each other.