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The short of it: Come here. LOCATION: Located in Niles, right next to the ever-so-popular ice cream shop. Easy parking everywhere. INTERIOR/AMBIANCE: Quaint and small with a darker visual vibe, yet a lighter musical one. The front dining area is VERY cozy, but luckily for us since the place is new we weren’t jammed up next to anyone. They do have a large back patio area that will be opening shortly which should help once they become really popular. SERVICE: The lady who helped us was the co-owner (it’s her and her husband’s eatery). She was 100% the sweetest, nicest, easy-to-talk-to server. I didn’t even feel like she was a server, she was just nice, attentive, and really seemed like she wanted us to be having the best time possible. This may change in the future as the staffing increases but I hope it stays just as friendly. FOOD: The menu is small, yet there’s so much flavor with each dish you don’t really wish it was any larger. The chef also rotates entrees and appetizers on a short basis, so I imagine the next time we come it won’t look 100% the same. That said, we ordered 3 items: The Capicola (appetizer), Pork Shoulder, and Prime Bavette. The summary is that everything was perfect, flavorful, and not overpowering. The longer review of the food: The Capicola was crazy–The meat itself has a hint of spice and goes perfectly with the arugula, house-made mustard (which was really darn good and I wish there was more of it), and the bread (OH THE BREAD). My only comment would be that there was six sliced of capicola, but only 4 pieces of bread to go with it. We also ran out of mix-ins after the 3rd slice…probably because it was so darned good. Personally, I would take a bit more of the greens, mustard, and 2 more pieces of bread and gladly pay a few more dollars. The Pork Shoulder looked crazy…it was covered with a benign amount of ‘toppings’, such as fruits, spices, etc, and I was worried it was going to be overpowered by them. However, everything hit your taste buds so smoothly…the flavors were present, but the pork was the real star: Succulent, juicy, and mouth watering. The Prime Bavette (bah-vet) was equally as delicious. Seasoned perfectly, along with the asparagus and *whipped* potatoes that went with it. Do you ever get worried when you order a steak dish that something is going to be wrong? Either the potatoes will taste off, the asparagus will be rubbery and nasty, or the steak will be under seasoned? Well, they nailed everything. Now, I’m not a trained chef nor did I possess a meat thermometer, but I ordered medium rare and it appeared to me that the meat was still quite rare in the center of it…at least compared to other medium rares I’ve had. No complaints afterwards though because I didn’t die. DESSERTS: Forthcoming. PRICING: I’d say it’s a $$$ place. Great date-night spot. Check out the menu prices. But I’d also say that this was one of the first places I’ve payed $30 for an entree where I was like: “Whoa, okay, this was worth it. Can I have another?” OVERALL: Really pleasant place and I really hope they do well. I’ll be back sometime later this week to try the Duck. It’s really cool that they make everything from scratch, by hand (including the jams, cheeses, mustard, etc). Great for quality control as well. Loved it.

LeGrand Kitchen – Menu with Prices – 4515 Colley Ave, Norfolk

I’ve been meaning to try this place for years now; it holds the title of best burger with a lot of people in this area. My husband and I stopped in on a Thursday night, the place was pretty full and we were seated immediately. The restaurant is on Colley near ODU, near a bunch of student housing. We parked behind the building where the hair salon is. Anyway, they have a small, nice selection of beer and wines. Nothing on tap, I believe. We got a big bottle of tap water (love that!) and placed our order. By the way, the tables are about 6-8″ apart so you will hear your neighbors’ conversation. Our neighbors were businessmen discussing patents, which was a bit annoying, but not the worst I suppose. We started with the deviled egg schmear. It’s the “best part of the deviled egg” with Ritz crackers. It was not the most appealing dish… looked just like yellow mustard. Oh and it tasted more like golden mustard than egg yolk! We expected a little more pizzazz to this dish, it was very plain. I think it was just egg yolk, mayonnaise, yellow mustard, with paprika and chives on top. Would have appreciated a more interesting mustard like stoneground, and some different spices or herbs… just something. For entrees my husband of course had to try the burger at $10. It came out… without fries. He was super disappointed! Not that the price didn’t include it, as $10 isn’t bad at a fancy place, but the server didn’t mention the lack of a side or ask if he wanted to add something. Come on, art or the upsell! Anyway, the burger? It tastes good. But it’s a smashburger, no chance for medium rare or however you prefer your burger. It is very reminiscent of someone’s favorite diner burger, classed up a bit. We both felt that Nouvelle and 80/20 have much better burgers though, especially Nouvelle has a legitimately unique burger. LeGrand just didn’t. I had the smoked pork hash. This was seriously probably 2 pounds of food! It was large chunks of pork shoulder, with roasted vegetables such as leeks, sweet potato, and I believe turnip. It was… okay. It didn’t have a lot of flavor besides the pork. The pork was also in pretty unwieldy chunks, so my husband and I spent about 5 minutes shredding all the meat. That made the dish a lot better, but then the meat was a little dry. It also tastes braised as opposed to smoked. It didn’t have much of a flavor profile to it. The whole dish was very salty… but lacked any kind of spice/herb profile. I kept thinking that I couldn’t wait to take the leftovers home and make my own hash with it… cook some garlic, onion, then add the ingredients and some thyme/basil/oregano. Obviously if you spent your time at dinner imaging how you could cook the food better… that’s a problem! Our server was nice and prompt with everything, we were in and out within 40 minutes actually, which was nice because we had a show to get to. LeGrand, I’m sorry but you were forgettable. I love farm to table restaurants but I’ve noticed some of those places (looking at you Codex) just relying on high-quality ingredients and not preparing them in interesting/unique ways. Dear Yelper, try Clementine’s or Nouvelle instead. Both are incredible.

Nevelandia Ice Cream Parlor – Menu with Prices – 908 N 18th St, Kansas City

This is the 2nd time I’ve went and I should learned my lesson the 1st time!! Their RUDE especially the little lady with curly blondish hair! I order a hamburger which comes with NO DRINK OR AVACADO! for $12 not only that! The meat was as thin as paper!! More bread than what!! I asked for no onions or mustard! They put mustard,& instead of giving me new bread & lettuce they wiped off the mustard! They are stingy ass hell!! NOT WORTH IT AT ALL!! Especially that rude little lady!!! She acts as if she was the owner of the place! BAD BAD BAD very DISAPPOINTED & WILL NEVER GO BACK!

Pyrenees French Bakery Menu with Prices 717 E 21st St, Bakersfield

“Oh So Tender” I am a major breadaholic…no really! My family and I love love love Pyrenees Bakery and have been buying their bread for thirty plus years. Most local Restaurants serve Pyrenees Bread if they are of any stature in town. I am a big time BBQ’er / Pellet Smoker and often smoke Pork Butt (shoulder) and when I do my pulled pork I ALWAYS call up Pyrenees the day before and order my special “Large Hamburger Rolls With Sesame Seeds” OMG!! We also, because so affordable order Soft Sandwich Rolls, a loaf of Sourdough and a loaf of French bread as well. The bread is ALWAYS fresh and the Gal’s behind the counter are all sweethearts. Take cash or your checkbook because they do not accept credit cards. Please don’t change a thing!!

Sherwood Supermarket – Menu with Prices – 111 Sherwood Dr, Ottawa

So I heard that this place has sandwiches that rival DiRienzo’s (on Beech, really close by) so I had to check it out. In terms of cleanliness, this place has DiRienzo’s beat in my opinion. Only the staff handle the bread, unlike DiRienzo’s where the bread is in open baskets and customers stick their hands in and grab the bun they want and place it on the counter and the staff take it to make the sandwich. I also didn’t see any flies at Sherwood Supermarket. You get your choice of bread (egg bread, rye, whole wheat, white, 12-grain or 7-grain). I had the egg bread. It’s sandwich slices style not bun style. I had the ham sandwich special ($3.99). It came with cheese, tomato, lettuce and your choice of mayo, regular mustard, Dijon mustard, honey mustard, or “Sherwood Sauce” which is apparently mayo, mustard and black pepper. I had the Dijon mustard and let me tell you, it is potent. My sinuses cleared up immediately! The bread was very fresh and soft. The ham was tasty and the toppings were fresh and generous. The sandwiches range in price from $3.99 to $4.99. The DiRienzo sandwiches are larger (but they are all $5, so Sherwood Supermarket is cheaper depending on what you get), but not necessarily tastier. I still really like the DiRienzo (Hot) Roast Beef Sandwich – it’s real roast beef, not deli meat, but I think for cold cut sandwiches, I will be going to Sherwood Supermarket instead. I’d say that the sandwiches at Sherwood Supermarket are similar to the sandwiches at Continental Delicatessen (in the Byward Market). They have a small parking lot in front.

Lt. C.A. Robert Carlson, American Legion Post #1207 – Menu with Prices – 1011 S Alpine Rd, Rockford

I’ve been in twice for Chef Daddys BBq, and the man is a master of the smoked meats. Pulled pork is amazing full of flavor and cooked to perfection. The ribs are some of the best I’ve ever had. And last weeks smoked prime rib was absolutely melt in your mouth spectacular. If you’re a fan of BBQ like me, this is a must stop.

Off The Rez Cafe – Menu with Prices – 4300 15th Avenue Northeast Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, Seattle

I’m glad Off The Rez specializes in fry bread because damn, it was good and there really aren’t many places that do it. But the savory dishes seemed to be amiss. My friend and I spotted this food truck, as it was the truck that was parked outside of Optimism Brewery when we visited. You always need bites with your beer; and when she found out that Off the Rez was here, she was excited to try their fry bread. I had never eaten fry bread before, but was down to try something new. My friend ordered the Powwow Burger, a bacon cheeseburger with fry bread for buns, while I had two Indian tacos, one with pork and the other with chicken. Menu was pretty standard with taco and burger combinations, with sides like kale salad and fries. My Indian tacos were A-OK. Don’t get me wrong – the fry bread was awesome! It was soft and fluffy and had crispy edges. I would’ve happily just eaten it by itself. But getting it as a taco, to sandwich the meat and toppings seemed to distract from the real winner of Off The Rez, the fry bread. Both of my meats, chicken and pork were bland. You’d think that with the toppings it wouldn’t be so, but they were. My chicken taco included shredded cheese and slaw in a crema sauce while the pork one had a BBQ sauce with slaw and was supposed to have jalapenos, but sadly, they must’ve forgot to put it on. The sauces did help to add some flavor to the tacos, but meat just never came through. My friend felt the same way about her Powwow Burger, saying that the beef patty tasted like it wasn’t seasoned. I advise getting a sweet fry bread item instead of a savory dish, in hopes that it fares much better. The fry bread was really good, so the simpler the toppings, the better.

Spanish Grill – Menu with Prices – 704 Main St, Worcester

On the dicey corner of Main and Charlton streets in Worcester is one of the best restaurants I have ever eaten at. I started going there about 10 years ago, moved away, and returned recently. It doesn’t bother me much to go down there but it is unquestionably in one of the tougher parts of the city. The place is very small and very clean. There is probably room for 20 at the few tables. Parking is out front or on the corner. The food is in a large steam table and you can view it, decide what you want, and either sit or get it to go. It is pretty standard, rice accompanied by a meat and essentially sides. I am pretty sure you can get as much food as you want and they will just charge you accordingly. a feast can be had for under $7.50. To the food….Not being Puerto Rican I will do my best to describe each dish they have and compare it to what I know authentic should taste like. Arroz con Gondules, yellow rice with pigeon beans is my favorite. Their yellow rice varies from day to day. Sometimes plain yellow, sometimes with pinto beans. You can get white rice as well and always request a side of beans to eat with your rice. I am not sure if they use alcaparrado (olive caper salad) in their rice but it is very very good. The main dishes change daily but many things they have every day. There is chicken, beef, ribs, pork chops, sometimes pernil (pork shoulder), maybe an ox tail dish?, plantains, salads, etc. I sometimes see Pegao on a plate. Pegao is the crispy tasty treat that comes from the bottom of the rice pot. I have never had it there but I have seen it. They also have spicy and mild Pastelon? which are meat filled pies, similar to an empenada. I like the spicy myself. I also see alcapurrias? which I think are taro or rice balls filled with meat. Make sure that with whatever dish you choose that you request plenty of the sauce. That is where all the love is. You have more than a few options for Puerto Rican Food in Worcester but my choice is Spanish Grill.

Scott’s Sub Co – Menu with Prices – 1408 N Carpenter Rd # 2, Modesto

UPDATE: Last 2 times my pastrami sandwich wasn’t made well. Last time, the pastrami was dry and the bread was chewy. I attributed it to calling it in too early. This time I called it in 10 minutes ahead of time and it was all bad. The pastrami was still good, but the bread was soaked with the juices and it just fell apart all over the place. I couldn’t even eat it. I ate it immediately too so it wasn’t because I let it set. Better luck next time, I guess. ? Dear Lord. Their hot pastrami and cheese is sinful. I’ve gotten the same thing four weeks in a row. I have good intentions of trying something new until I get to the register and then I order this. There is a TON of delicious pastrami w/ the right amount of cheese and mustard. The mustard just makes it POP. I had a bite of the hot roast beef and tri-tip and those were also yummy. They do NOT skimp on the meat. #VeteranOwned Yasss!

Pub Wolf & Workman – Menu with Prices – 139 Saint-Paul St W, Montreal

I really want to love this pub, but I’m not there yet. As others have said, the space is beautiful and the outside patio (heated and with retractable roof if needed) is great and will certainly be very popular this summer. The cocktails I’ve tried have been good to great. I love gin so I was excited to see a lot of gin cocktails on the menu. My standout is the Slow Gin Spring – so fresh and light and sweet but not too too sweet. I also tried the Blueberry Boozy tea (tasty and surprisingly tea-like) and the Pimm’s cup. They have wine and beer on the menu as well, but the cocktails seem like the move. The food was more mixed. We started with the duck heart bolognese because we’re suckers for anything that sounds out of the ordinary. However, it was a pretty standard bolognese. The flavor of the duck hearts was kind of lost and if you didn’t know you might just assume it was a regular ground meat. The stracciatella is a nice touch, but the toast was probably the best thing about this dish for me. The beef tartare was tasty and I would order this again. It wasn’t too out of the ordinary but quite savory, and the cheese crisps on top were a nice and interesting touch. A good amount of toast with this once too (a lot of places give you like 3 crackers worth of toast.) For main dishes we both got the steak special which was a bavette with watercress salad, cheesy cauliflower and fries. The bavette was perfectly cooked, medium rare all the way through. I would think it was sous-vided from how perfect it was. The only downside was that it was criminally under-seasoned. Steak doesn’t need much, but it does need a bit of salt and ours were seemingly missing that. The sauce helped, but we both ended up adding some salt to the dish. The watercress salad could have used a bit of dressing or something to cut some of the bitterness, but mixed in with the steak sauce it was fine. Can’t go wrong with cheesy cauliflower. Kind of like mac and cheese but with cauliflower. The sauce was a bit more liquidy that I would have liked, but all in all a a good dish. Fries were good and came with tiny amounts of ketchup and mayo. Although we were so full we couldn’t finish them all. Our waitress was very friendly and our water glasses were kept full (a low-key thing I appreciate about any restaurant.) Food came out at a reasonable pace. All in all a good experience but as we came here for a special dinner (a birthday) I was hoping for/expecting everything we ate to be great.

Piratas Bakery – Menu with Prices – 3016 Whittier Blvd, Los Angeles

Tamales ($1.50): Order tamale with Monterey jack, spicy sliced jalapenos, and light tomato sauce OR pork tamale with tender chunks of shredded pork shoulder slathered with a mildly spicy salsa

B & M Bar-B-Q & Catering – Menu with Prices – 15116 Lakeshore Blvd, Cleveland

Would you like B.M.? awesome bar-b-que behind bulletproof glass waits. Having passed this joint up in the past, this joint got my curiosity up enough to stop in and fulfill my munchie desires. Big ghetto grills were smoking away in the parking lot. Always a good sign. Not a trace of litter in the parking lot – another good sign. The walk from the car to the takeout window (no eating in) was a walk through an oh-so-heady wood and meat scented fog. Heavenly. It could be made into a men’s cologne. You look straight into the kitchen which appears to be big and super clean. No Ramsey Kitchen Nightmares here folks. Simple menu. RIBS: long, short, half slabs, by-the-bone… RIB TIPS: 4-8-12 oz size, spicy/sweet Yankee style BBQ sauce. SHOULDER: Pork shoulder superbly smoked and pulled with a vinegary southern style BBQ sauce. Sandwich or dinner option. WINGS: with or without sauce. I am not sure if they have regular fried chicken, but I hope so, as these wings were full size, battered and fried to perfection. There were a few sides, and a peach cobbler as well. The pork shoulder dinner $8.75, was out of this world good. Super moist, deep smokey flavor. The fried chicken was superb. By far the best I have had in Cleveland. Rib tips were a tad tough at times, but I’d do it again in a heart beat. Or heart attack. Real homemade coleslaw was a bonus! All in all, clean, cool, and the real deal. -Don’t be in a hurry, service is slow, but I’ll be back B&M! Carry on.

Smoke House Barbecue – Menu with Prices – 432 Harrison Avenue Rockford Illinois 61102, Rockford

Customer service was great, we felt welcomed in this small establishment. I felt like $13 for a plate of shoulder pork that barely had any meat and too much bbQ sauce was kinda expensive. Taste was good kinda too sweet for me, but for the price I would be expecting more meat, bigger portions. I don’t frequent small establishments, but I had never been in the area and options were limited. Probably would’ve got more food at Culver’s,, but I’m pretty sure I won’t be in the area ever again. No AC!!! Bathrooms were not great. Overall the ladies were very nice and communicative with everyone, I still gave them a nice tip.