Forget the Yellow Brick Road...This is the Redstone Grill

Redstone American Grill

500 Rt. 73 South

Marlton, NJ 08053

I had to work this Saturday because it is tax season, so I was not really expecting to be going out to dinner. However when I got home, my aunt informed me that my family was going out to Redstone American Grill in Marlton. Immediately I was filled with excitement.

Redstone is a restaurant that has locations spread throughout the country. They offer American grill type food and make everything really well. I have been a couple times before and I have yet to have a bad meal there.

When you walk in the front door, you immediately walk into the bar area. The rest of the restaurant is circled around the bar which I always find to be a good set-up for a restaurant/bar. They also have an outdoor bar, but obviously since it was 20 degrees on a Saturday night in January, was not open. Redstone is also cool because it has an open kitchen and a large open fire with spits of chicken, steak and ribs rotating throughout. 

It took us an hour to get seated (I wouldn’t recommend going on a Saturday night without reservations), but once we got seated the experience was great as per usual. They had added a few things to the menu since the last time I was there. I happened to order one of them and the table ordered another. I ordered a Caesar salad to start and my main course was an apple cider glazed pork chop with maple glazed vegetables and mac and cheese that was recently added to the menu. For the table we ordered the original flatbread, and the new buffalo shrimp flatbread.

The Caesar salad came out first and it was very delicious. The dressing was creamy and flavorful, and the lettuce was very crisp. The croutons that were served with it were not crunch enough for my liking; I really could have done without them completely. Something I did love however was the pamesan crisp that was served with the salad. It was a great bit of crunchy, salty goodness that I enjoyed with as many bites of my salad as I could.

I was very excited to try the flatbread. As I have said before, I love buffalo style anything, and knowing how good the flatbreads are at Redstone, I was very intrigued to try their newest one. Luckily I was not disappointed. The original flatbread was delicious. It had basil pesto, oven roasted tomatoes, mozzarella and fresh basil on it. It was a truly fantastic flatbread; better than most pizzas that I have had. The buffalo shrimp flatbread was exactly the same except that they added shrimp covered in buffalo sauce to the top. The sauce added the perfect amount of acid to the flatbread and the shrimp was tender as well as flavorful.

I was really looking forward to my main course because apple and pork is a match made in heaven. I am always reminded of a line from a Brady Bunch episode when I have dishes with pork and apples together; “Pork chops and applesauce,” said with a lisp. When our entrees came out, I was so very happy. The pork chop was huge! It was bigger than many steaks I have had in my day. It looked astonishing. The grill marks on the outside were perfectly formed and the apple cider reduction that it was smothered in was to die for. The crispiness of the outside crust on the pork was incredible and the pork was melt in my mouth delicious. I sopped up every bit of the apple cider reduction with my pork because they complemented each other so very well.

The maple glazed vegetables were very delicious as well. I did not know that maple would pair so well with roasted vegetables, but they were perfect. Finally, I tried the mac and cheese. It was creamy, rich, and tasty. It was served in a small cast iron serving dish, and the top layer was crispy, while the layers underneath were still melted and soft.

Redstone leaves me feeling satisfied every time that I go there. I did not order dessert this time, but their key lime pie is huge and extremely delicious, and their cookie sundae is even better. Redstone does everything right and the atmosphere is really my kind of place. The bar is great, the food is better, and the service is always pretty good. If you like good food, get to Redstone as soon as you can. There are not too many places that do things better than Redstone. 

Medford's Hidden Gem

Izzie’s Eatery

679 Stokes Road

Medford, NJ 08055

Izzie’s is one of my family’s favorite eating out destinations because it is really only one of 3 or 4 viable restaurants in Medford. There are a few others, but Izzie’s is by far the best cuisine in our town. They feature a menu that changes almost daily. Many items stay on the menu everyday, but a significant part of the menu changes day to day or week to week depending on what the chef can get his hands on at the time.

Izzie’s is famous for their rivalry with Bobby Chez because both of them are famous for their crab cakes. I heard that the man that opened up Izzie’s is related to the man that runs Bobby Chez and that they got into a disagreement. Supposedly, as a result of the argument Izzie’s was opened. I have no idea if that is true or not, but it seems like the typical story of two places that have similar signature items. Both offer the best crab cakes in the area, but this particular Friday night experience at Izzie’s had nothing to do with crab cakes.

My aunt, uncle and I went to Izzie’s after my uncle and I got home from work even though we were worried that it would be crowded and we would have to wait a long time for a table. Luckily we were seated right away and the line built up as we ate.

Izzie’s menu is pretty interesting because they name their sandwiches and pizzas after streets and places in Medford. Hometown references are always a cool addition to a hidden gem in your own neighborhood. As we browsed over the menu for the day, I noticed a few things that I had not seen on there before and I decided to give one of them a try before the menu changed again. I wound up ordering pork loin stuffed with provolone and spinach, topped in an au jus, served with broccolini, and a side of onion rings.

While we waited they brought out fresh made rolls that were scorching hot! I love when bread is fresh baked before they bring it out to the table. It was quite delicious. They serve their rolls with an option of butter or olive oil with balsamic vinegar. The olive oil and balsamic is a wonderful combination and they made me wish we had another basket of rolls to eat.

.Izzie’s stuffed pork loin was up there with the best pork I have tasted from any restaurant. The pork was served in two small loins, both browned perfectly on the outside, stuffed to capacity with provolone cheese and spinach, with a pork au jus drizzled over top of it. I am assuming that the au jus was made from the drippings of the pork, and boy was it flavorful. The pork was nice and seared on the outside, and it was still perfectly cooked in the center. The provolone cheese and spinach were a nice combination. The spinach did not add too much to the dish in my opinion, but it did not really take away from it either, so I guess it was successful. The cheese was great because it wasn’t super melted and it did not run all over the place when I cut into the pork like other cheeses tend to do. The broccolini was probably the best broccolini I have ever had. It was salty, garlicy, tender, and it paired so well with the pork. I kind of wish the pork loin was stuffed with that instead (don’t steal that idea, I am going to make it famous one day. Haha). They also served the meal with a crisp of cheese. It was a salty cheese, either romano or parmigiana. Absolutely fantastic.

The side of onion rings was really amazing too. My uncle said he didn’t like them because they are too big, which is funny because he always says bigger is better, but I had no problem with the size of the rings. They were large rings of onion, covered in bread crumbs and fried to perfection. Izzie’s must either make their own ketchup or season it because I kept getting a slight hint of spice while I dipped my onion rings into it. 

Overall the dish was a great success. I would recommend it to anyone that enjoys pork, but I am not sure how long it will be on the menu for. If it isn’t on the menu you when you get there, you can safely order anything else and it will be good; Izzie’s is a very well run restaurant. Not many people go to Medford to eat a meal because of the limited selection, but Izzie’s is the definition of a hidden gem and you would do well to try it!

A Quick Bite

Mangia Mangia

1617 North Kings Highway

Cherry Hill, NJ 08043

On Wednesday I had to go out to lunch because I had stayed at my cousin’s house in Collingswood, NJ after staying out late at Amada on Tuesday. I went with the guys from work to a local Italian place called Mangia Mangia. They have a great lunch special everyday during the week that is convenient for people trying to save a buck or just looking for a good cheap meal. Everything they have is pretty reasonably priced, but the lunch special of half a sandwich with fries and a drink for 5.99 is a pretty tough bargain to argue against.

I decided to order the half a meatball parmigiana sandwich with fries. I was very satisfied with my choice after I ate it. The bread was super crunchy because the whole sandwich had clearly been put into the oven to toast it up. The sauce and cheese were perfect compliments to the rich and flavorful meatballs that they covered. The fries were pretty good as well. I like fries in almost any fashion, but these fries were very well done. They weren’t extremely crispy, but they were almost to the point of being burnt. However, they were not burnt, and they were cooked to the perfect temperature and doneness.

Anyone looking for cheap, well done Italian food should go to Mangia Mangia and order the lunch special. The pizza there is also very delicious and you can watch them make your whole meal because the kitchen is wide open. If you are ever in the Cherry Hill, NJ neighborhood and looking for a cheap and satisfying meal, give Mangia Mangia a try!