Diner's Tour Stop Two...

Blue Moon Café

1621 Aliceanna Street

Baltimore, MD 21231

bluemoonbaltimore.com/ 

Probably the best meal of my entire trip to Baltimore was at Blue Moon Café. My girlfriend and I went there on Saturday morning for breakfast. My cousin had been there once and he raved about it… after eating there, I can really see why. In the episode of Diners that Blue Moon was on, they were known for their signature dish, the Cap’n Crunch French toast. It looked incredible in the episode, so we of course had to order it. We also ordered the G G’s country scramble which came with a homemade biscuit, topped with bacon, eggs, cheddar cheese and smothered with sausage gravy and served with hash browns. 

I have to say the Cap’n Crunch French toast was out of this world! The cereal on the outside crisped up and caramelized to perfection. Due to this happening, it sealed in the moisture to the bread, and it kept it incredible moist and fluffy on the inside. Each bite melted with perfectly sugary perfection. The fruit and homemade whipped cream on top were the perfect additions to each and every sweet and savory bite.

G G’s country breakfast was almost as good as the Cap’n Crunch French toast. Everything was cooked perfectly. The biscuit was light and fluffy. The eggs were amazing, and the sausage gravy really kicked it up to another level. It was creamy, peppery, and scrumptious. The hash browns were easily the best I have ever had. They were incredibly crunchy on the outside, yet velvety and soft on the inside. They were buttery, salty, and everything I look for in the perfect bites.

Blue Moon Café is an absolute must go to restaurant in my opinion. It was by far the best breakfast I have ever had. I would drive down there just for breakfast and come home that is how good it is. If you don’t believe me go try it yourself, and you will thank me later! Cheers!

A Diner's Drive-Ins and Dives Tour of Baltimore...

Brick Oven Pizza

800 S. Broadway

Baltimore, MD 21231

www.boppizza.com/ 

A few months ago my girlfriend and I were at a charity event, and she happened to win a one night stay at a hotel in downtown Baltimore, so we decided to use that for a fun filled weekend getaway recently. I had a great idea while planning it out based on my knowledge from watching Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. Guy has gone there to do shows many times, so we planned out all of the places that we would be eating our meals as places that he visited on the show. I was really excited about the whole trip, so when we got down there on Friday after we finished work, we headed right to Brick Oven Pizza in the Fells Point area of Baltimore.

As soon as we walked in we noticed that it was a total dive. It wasn’t completely a dive, but it definitely wouldn’t be a place I would just walk into off the street based on looks. They had an awesome mural on the wall, and a huge poster signed by Guy from his visit with the show. We ordered the just about everything pizza, which came topped with onions, mushrooms, green peppers, olives, artichoke hearts, cherry peppers, pepperoni, sausage, Canadian bacon, salami, and mozzarella cheese, and then we sat down and enjoyed the cream soda we decided to split while we waited for our pizza to come out. The cream soda was scrumptious! I had never seen it before, but it was really sweet and creamy, and it had the perfect amount of carbonation. 

The pizza came out nice and hot, and I thought it was really fantastic. Although I did think there was a little bit too much going on with all of the toppings on it, I still thought the flavor was really good. I do agree with my girlfriend who mentioned that there wasn’t enough cheese on it for her taste. I think that might have something to do with the fact that there were so many toppings on it that there really wasn’t enough room for the cheese, but that doesn’t really matter at this point. The best part of the pizza was the crust. It was really phenomenal. I believe that they had rolled it in some cornmeal before they baked it, because it cracked and crunched in an incredible fashion with each and every bite.

Overall I thought the pizza was very good at Brick Oven Pizza. It was a very different style. A kind of hybrid between a New York-style thin crust and a traditional, fluffier dough. The sauce was great, zesty and tangy, but the cheese situation could definitely have been improved. Check it out if you get the chance to go down to Baltimore! Cheers!

Bring on the Fish...

Devon Seafood

225 South 18^th Street

Philadelphia, PA 19103

http://www.devonseafood.com/ 

My aunt’s birthday was a few weeks ago, and she made a reservation for six of us to go out to Devon Seafood Grill in Philadelphia to celebrate. Unbeknownst to me, I had been to Devon once before when I interviewed with PWC a few years ago, but I was excited to eat at Devon nonetheless. I had heard nothing but good things about it, and I can always be won over by a restaurant that serves great seafood.

The menu made it very difficult for me to choose anything, because everything looked fantastic to me. I decided on a bowl of the lobster bisque and my girlfriend got the beet salad, so we decided to share them both. I ordered the seared Opah, which came with polenta and grilled artichoke, and for dessert I ordered the banana crepe with peanut butter sauce.

The lobster bisque was fantastic. The soup was creamy, and unlike many other restaurant lobster bisques that I’ve had, it had a lot of chunks of lobster in it. The texture was velvety and succulent, and it was delicious through each and every bite. The beet salad was also quite tasty. It came with caramelized walnuts, pears, gorgonzola, watercress, and a walnut vinaigrette. I don’t usually like fruity salads, but this one was pretty delicious.

The main course was both amazing and disappointing. The opah was a really nice piece of fish. It was seared perfectly, and seasoned simply, but to perfection. It was like a mix between a flaky white fish, and a steak like cut of fish. It was really wonderful. The rest of my main course was a bit of a letdown. The polenta was pretty bad. It wasn’t very creamy, and it lacked seasoning. I was expecting a lot more from it, but I guess I should have stuck with something a bit simpler and I might have been more satisfied. The grilled artichoke was just a mistake on my part. I thought I was getting grilled artichoke hearts, but instead I got a half of a grilled artichoke, that was very difficult to eat. 

The dessert was a nice ending to the meal. My girlfriend and I decided to split the banana crepe with peanut butter sauce, passion fruit puree, and root beer sorbet. It was a very good crepe. The peanut butter sauce was delicious, and I was obsessed with the root beer sorbet. It reminded me of the root beer popsicles I used to have as a kid. The dessert could have been helped by a few more slices of banana, but overall it was pretty tasty. 

Devon Seafood Grill is a pretty cool place to eat in the city. It’s a great place to get seafood in the city, far away from the water of the Jersey shore, which depending on where you are from is either a good thing or a bad thing. I would definitely recommend Devon to anyone looking for a good seafood meal in the city as they are definitely one of the best around. Cheers!

Hidden Little Diner...

Little Pete’s Diner

219 S. 17^th Street

Philadelphia, PA 19103

www.facebook.com/pages/Little-Petes/248883498489989

On a Saturday morning after spending the night in Philly, my girlfriend and I were hungry when we woke up, so we set out to find a place to eat breakfast. We stumbled upon Little Pete’s Diner not too far from her apartment. She didn’t even know it was there, and neither did I, but it’s a legitimate diner in the middle of the city that you might just walk by without noticing if you didn’t know it was there.

We were seated right away, and our waitress took our order. I ordered the Spanish omelet and my girlfriend ordered the eggs Benedict. We both enjoyed a cup of coffee as we sat and talked while waiting for our food. The food came out quick, as it usually does in a diner setting, and we both dug into our meals. My omelet was good, but I didn’t like that the peppers and onions inside of it had not been cut very small. They were large chunks, and it made it pretty difficult to eat as a whole. The flavor was good however once I got the vegetables cut down a little bit, and I demolished the entire thing rather quickly. The hash browns were also very good. They were cooked perfectly, crispy on the outside and piping hot in the middle. 

My girlfriend’s eggs Benedict was a little untraditional, but it was really tasty nonetheless. It was served as more of a casserole then a regular eggs Benedict, but the flavors were fantastic. It was rich and creamy, a really delicious bit of breakfast.

Little Pete’s is a really cool little place in the city. You would never expect to find a place like that in the city, and it is definitely a pretty interesting place to visit and break from the norm. Check it out if you get the chance. You know you can never go wrong with a diner in my opinion. Cheers!

Cuban Sloppiness...

Casona

563 Haddon Avenue

Collingswood, NJ 08108

www.mycasona.com/ 

For being a member of American Express I was offered some free gift certificates to some restaurants of my choosing, and one of the restaurants that I wound up choosing was Casona restaurant in Collingswood. I was really looking forward to it because I really gained an appreciation for Cuban food from my frequent visits to Miami over the past few years. Unfortunately though, the experience was not as good as I was hoping it would be.

We went on a Friday evening, and unfortunately they didn’t have any tables outside on the veranda, but they sat us as close to outside as they could. The table was very small, as we came to realize as our table kept running out of room every time more food came out. We started with a pitcher of Mojitos, to which we added the rum we brought with us. It was a pretty good mojito. The dark rum really made it taste authentic. We needed to spend $100 in order to get $50 off, so we ordered the yucca fries, the ceviche sampler, plaintain chips, lechon asado, ropa vieja, and the cheesecake burrito. 

The yucca fries came out first, and they were a bit disappointing. The yucca wasn’t cooked crispy enough for me, and the sauce that it was served with had a weird after bite to it. The guacamole however was pretty fantastic. I used some of the plantain chips that we had on our table to eat up all of the guacamole. It was so incredible. The plantain chips were super crunchy, and they had just enough salt on them to enhance their flavor.

The ceviche sampler was really well done; well two of them were anyway. The tuna and watermelon ceviche with basil and lemon oil was out of this world. The fish was so fresh, and the flavors it was combined with brightened up the whole dish in terms of color and flavor. The snapper ceviche with tangerine and jalapenos was really a work of art. It was acidic, spicy, smooth, and packed to the gills with flavor. The shrimp ceviche was really lackluster. It tasted like semi cooked shrimp in a bad tomato broth. The tomato juice really wasn’t good, and the shrimp was lacking in texture and flavor. 

The main course was what I was really looking forward to. I’d heard so many good things about ropa vieja and lechon asado, because they are supposed to be two of the best Cuban dishes available. I thought both were pretty flavorful, but I wasn’t exactly wowed by either. My girlfriend has much more experience with Cuban food, and she said that they were good, but nothing outstanding. I agree that the flavors weren’t really as robust and at the forefront as I have come to expect them to be with Cuban cooking.  

The main problem I had besides the food being a little lacking was the service. It was pretty bad, and I hate to say it, but it makes me not want to go back again. I probably will to give it another shot, but the service was pretty damn bad. 5 minutes after receiving our appetizers, our server brought out our main courses. When I told her we weren’t ready for them she gave me a bit of an attitude and reluctantly took the dishes back to the kitchen. When they brought them out again, they were lukewarm, which I knew they would be. They also took over a half an hour to bring out one dessert and two coffees after that. There should be a bit more consistency at Casona if they hope to be a better restaurant. Go ahead and give it a try if you want, but you would be better served to go to Philly to find good Cuban food. Cheers!

Not Your Traditional Cheesesteak...

Donkey’s Too

7 Tomlinson Mill Road

Medford, NJ 08055

donkeystoo.com/ 

My cousin’s fiancé and I were coming back from playing a round of golf and were looking for something quick to eat. I decided to take him to Donkey’s Too in Medford for a nontraditional cheese steak and some fries. I find it a little difficult to call the sandwiches at Donkey’s cheese steaks because they are served on round poppy seed Kaiser rolls, so I don’t refer to them as that, but that’s what they are called at Donkey’s.

That being said, that little name dispute doesn’t prevent the sandwiches they serve from tasting delicious. The cheese steak flavor is there completely through and through. The whiz is just as good as a cheesesteak that you get in Philly, as is the meat. I love the caramelized onions that they added on top as well. The poppyseed roll is a really nice addition to the sandwich, but it definitely prevents it from being a cheese steak in my opinion. The fries that they have there are super duper crunchy, and they have a really nice seasoning on them. They stay really hot the entire time that you are enjoying your meal.

Donkey’s is a really cool little shop on the Medford/Marlton border. You should definitely check it out if you are looking for a quick meal that is really delicious. Get out there and give it a try! Cheers!

Zicke, Zacke, Zicke, Zacke, Hoi, Hoi, Hoi...

Oktoberfest celebration

718 South Street

Philadelphia, PA 19147 

http://www.brauhausschmitz.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/BS_Oktbrfst_PCfrnt_LO44.pdf

www.brauhausschmitz.com/

   

During September, my girlfriend and I went down to South Street on a Saturday to meet up with some friends from college that we had not seen in a while. She had been looking for an Oktoberfest celebration somewhere in the city because she had not been to Oktoberfest in quite some time because she had not lived in Munich since she was 6. We went down to the best known German restaurant in the city called Brauhaus Schmitz for their 3^rd annual Oktoberfest celebration. They shut down the entire block from 8^th to 7^th on South Street. They had tents set up like they do at the real Oktoberfest celebration. There were people in lederhosen everywhere. There were German beers everywhere; Spaten, Hofbrau, and Franziskaner. 

We walked into the celebration and it was incredible. It made me want to visit the real thing as soon as possible. The German folk music was awesome! They also played the famous German drinking song Ein Prosit over and over again with everyone chanting, "Zicke, zacke, zicke, zacke, hoi, hoi, hoi". You have probably heard this song in movies before. 

We enjoyed a few pints of beer and some really incredible German food. They had all the typical Oktoberfest fare; all kinds of homemade sausages, sauerkraut, German potato salad, and pretzels. The pretzels weren’t all that great, which I find very surprising because they had been voted the best in Philly. My girlfriend was very upset about this, but I think we will go back to Brauhaus and I bet they will be much better when they aren’t mass produced for thousands of people. The bratwurst was in another world! The taste and texture was so different than what I have come to know as bratwurst. There were no fat pieces in the meat at all. It was smooth, and the casing had an incredible snap to it in each and every bite! I am not a fan of sauerkraut, but this sauerkraut was delicious. The potato salad was fantastic as well. It was very rich and creamy, and the potatoes were cooked absolutely perfectly. They also had a pig roasting on the fire the entire day, so I am sure that that was delicious as well. 

I cannot wait to go back to the Oktoberfest celebration at Brauhaus Schmitz next year. It was so much fun and the food and beer were incredible. I loved every second of the celebration and I think that anyone would be able to have fun there. There were tons of people there, and yet I do not feel like a whole lot of people knew about it. So next year come on out and celebrate! Cheers!

Stop 2 of Restaurant Week...

Barbuzzo

110 S. 13^th Street

Philadelphia, PA 19103

barbuzzo.com/ 

During the second week of restaurant week, I had my sights set on a place that I had been dying to go to for some time, another place owned by the fabulous Marcie Turney and Valarie Safran…Barbuzzo. Barbuzzo had been named a top 15 place to eat right now in Philadelphia last January and the best new restaurant in the “Best of Philly” edition of Philadelphia magazine in August. It had been getting incredible reviews all over, as well as being featured in Bon Appétit Magazine for their famous Salted Caramel Budino, which won the best dessert in Philly for 2011. I set out with two friends and my girlfriend to try it.

My girlfriend and I arrived at the restaurant a bit earlier than our friends, so we enjoyed a few Dogfish Head Punkin Ales. They are one of my favorite Dogfish beers, but I really like almost all of the Dogfish beers so that isn't saying much. Ha!

Its pretty small inside, but the decoration is pretty cool. It’s very modern, but still has a rustic Mediterranean feel to it. With the restaurant week menu, you were given a choice of an appetizer, a main course, and a dessert, and you were each brought two of the crostinis offered by the chefs as well. 

The crostinis were a nice and light way to start the meal. Both were quite flavorful, but they were very different from each other as well. One was topped with radishes and a balsamic drizzle, while the other was topped with a chickpea puree and tomatoes. 

For my second course I ordered the fresh buffalo mozzarella salad. It was quite refreshing and tasty. It was light, and didn’t take up too much space in my stomach so that I could still enjoy my main course and dessert without any problems of fullness. 

For the main course I was super excited to try the rigatoni with the pork ragu. I have come to realize that when I go to a restaurant that serves a pasta with some sort of ragu, I must order it. The nature of the cooking process is what makes it so good I think; because it is cooked slow, it reduces in such a way that it pairs perfectly with the pasta and it intensifies the flavor quite a bit. This particular pasta with a pork ragu was rich in flavor, and incredibly delicious. My only complaint was that it was a very small portion, but I had heard some of the portions were a bit small at Barbuzzo, so I wasn’t entirely surprised. It was good enough for me to say you must try it if it is on the menu because it is wonderful. I also tasted my girlfriend’s gnocchi, which was pan seared and served with pancetta and a corn sauce. It was light, airy, and the pan sauté added a nice element of crunch to the outside of the gnocchis.

The star of the evening was the dessert course as I knew it would be. I had heard people raving about the salted caramel budino, and recently Philly magazine had named it the best dessert in the city. After tasting it for myself, I can tell you it truly is incredible. I have never tasted anything like it before in my life, and I have been dreaming about it ever since. Check out Barbuzzo’s website for the recipe if you like a challenge. It’s pretty complicated to make, but if you want to try it you can. I would eat this dessert every day for the rest of my life if I could, it is truly that good.

Barbuzzo really blew me away. It was my second experience at the wonderful ladies of 13^th Street’s places, and I really look forward to trying the rest of their places. Barbuzzo was incredible and I implore you all to try it as well! Cheers!

Fall 2011 Restaurant Week Part 1...

Union Trust Steakhouse

717 Chestnut Street

Philadelphia, PA 19106

www.uniontruststeakhouse.com/ 

My favorite time of the year came around in September…Center City Restaurant Week! Since it was being offered for two weeks, my girlfriend and I decided on trying two new places and saving the mountains of restaurant gift cards I had stockpiled for later in the fall. While I love restaurant week sometimes, there are always drawbacks. The restaurants are always packed, the servers are always irritable because the restaurants are so packed, and the choices are limited so it really doesn’t give you a full idea of what the restaurant can really do. That being said I think that for the prices that are being offered, it is a great opportunity to try a new place.

During the first week of Restaurant week, my girlfriend and I went to Union Trust Steak House in Olde City. I was really excited to try this place because I had heard good things about it and it is in an awesome location. When we first walked in and sat at the bar we were in awe of the set-up. Union Trust is in a building that used to be a bank, so the ceilings are higher than clouds and the incredible decorations inside made us feel mesmerized. 

The dinner started with an assortment of breads and pretzels served with mustard for dipping. They were all delicious in their own right, but I was pretty partial to the pretzels. I mean can you really find many things better than a soft Philly pretzel? With the restaurant week deal offered, we could order an appetizer, a main dish, and a dessert for $35 and it also came with two sides. My girlfriend and I each ordered different things so that we could share everything, so we ordered the Kobe beef Carpaccio, colossal shrimp cocktail, cod, the coffee crusted filet with truffle butter, fingerling potatoes Lyonnais style, haricot vert, creamed corn, creamsicle cheesecake, and espresso cake. 

The colossal shrimp cocktail was good, but I don’t know that I would have called it colossal. There were only three shrimp on it, and while they were big, I did not feel that it was as colossal as they were advertised to be. The cocktail sauce was the best thing about that appetizer in my opinion. The Kobe beef Carpaccio was good as well, but the salad on top was fumbled and messy and I didn’t really think it was needed at all in the dish to be honest. The beef was incredibly tender though, and the vinaigrette on top of it added a nice bit of citrus finish to it.  

When our main courses came out, I was much happier with the plates that we had in front of us. The steak was very tender, albeit a bit overdone for my taste, but as I have mentioned before my girlfriend likes her meat really dead. Haha. The coffee crust was delicious, but the real star of the show was the truffle butter. It added an element of richness that could not be found in the meat alone. The cod was also really wonderful. It was a little bit salty, but the fish was cooked to perfection and the sauce that it was drizzled with was to die for.

The sides were perfect accompaniments for the most part. I really enjoyed the haricot verts and the lyonnaise style potatoes were delectable. The potatoes were roasted and full of flavor, and the haricot verts were super crunchy.

Dessert was a bit of a let down as well. It wasn’t bad, but it really wasn’t great either. I also felt like the “creamsicle” cheesecake was not really how it was described. It was basically a piece of normal cheesecake with a scoop of blood orange sorbet on the side, which in no way shape or form should be considered creamsicle cheesecake. The espresso cake was very good. It was what saved the dessert portion of the meal for us.

I would definitely like to go back to Union Trust and order off of the full menu because I looked at it and it looked pretty interesting. I just would want to go back on someone else’s dime because man the prices are steep! I think there are better steakhouses in Philly and Jersey for a better value, but I think it is worth the visit for the experience alone. Maybe go for happy hour and appetizers. Cheers!

Coffee Break...

The Coffee Bar

1701 Locust Street

Philadelphia, PA 19103

www.intoxicaffeineation.com 

On a Saturday morning after staying at my girlfriend’s apartment, we were hungry when we woke up and decided to find a coffee shop to grab some breakfast. I used my Urban Spoon application on my iPod to find one in the area. (If you haven’t used this application before and you like trying different places to eat you should check it out). We decided on the Coffee Bar on the corner of 17^th and Locust streets. My girlfriend had been there once or twice before because it is so close to her apartment. I ordered a latte and a sausage egg and cheese on brioche, and we grabbed a couple of seats at the counter and waited for our food.

It was an interesting set up for a coffee bar; they also sell beer… weird I know. I enjoyed my latte while I waited for my sandwich, but it wasn’t anything particularly special. I guess I just like certain things when it comes to coffee and this particular latte didn’t have anything in it that wowed me. 

When the sandwich came out it was a bit thinner than I thought it would be. By that I mean that the sandwich wasn’t filled with a whole lot, but I dug in anyway because I was so hungry. The flavor of the sandwich was pretty tasty, but I was expecting more from the bread. I was expecting it be a bit crunchier, but even though it had been grilled and I could see the grill marks, it was still very soft and it was a little off-putting.

I would say you can definitely get a quick bite to eat from the Coffee Bar and be very happy with it. They had some amazing pastries in the case when I was there that I will definitely be trying the next time that I go there, so I think you should try them when you go there and let me know how they are! Cheers!

Belgian Bliss...

Monk’s Café

264 South 16^th Street

Philadelphia, PA 19103

www.monkscafe.com/ 

A few weeks ago my cousin and I ran the McGuire Air Force base 10k mud run. After finishing up and getting showered, we decided to celebrate crossing the finish line by going out to dinner and drinks in the city. I had been waiting a long time for this day…the day that I finally got to try Monk’s Café. My cousin had been raving about it for years, and my girlfriend had been there a few times without me since moving to the city recently and I was dying to try it.

We went on a Saturday evening, and we were lucky enough to get a table in the main eating area without a wait. This is pretty rare because Monk’s is always packed, at all times of day, on every day of the week. They have so many beers to chose from, and although some of the people there are huge beer snobs, it is an awesome place to grab a pint. I started off with the Dogfish Jiahu because I love how complex the flavors are in Dogfish’s beer usually. It was incredibly complex. Flavors ranged from honey to berry to grape, and that was when it ruined it for me. I loved it right until the grape after taste kicked me in the back of the throat. I knew I had to switch beers so I switched the Unibroue Ephemere apple. It tastes of spices and apples, like a beer mixed with apple cider and it had the effervescence of champagne. Incredibly different than almost anything I have ever tasted, this beer was my heaven.

Not to be outdone, the Monk’s Flemish sour ale was also indulged in, and it was as good as ever. It has a stronger sour flavor than the Ephemere, but less of an apple taste. I like it better than the Unibroue because of its sour taste.

My girlfriend and I ordered a small pot of mussels to share called the Red Light Mussels. The order was huge! 30 mussels come in a small bowl with bread and frittes and it could honestly be its own meal! The mussels were cooked in Hoegaarden, fume, chile de arbol, and garlic. The mussels were cooked so perfectly and the broth was incredible to dip the bread that they were served with in. The best part of the dish however was the double fried frittes. They were soft and hot, and the bourbon mayonnaise that they were served with was spicy and creamy, all of the perfect elements to a dish.

By the time my burger came out I was already full, but I could not wait to eat the burger because of how good it had been described by my cousin after every visit he had to Monk’s. I got a different one than he usually gets, but it was incredible just as he described. The Ardennes burger was topped with a sweet Belgian ham and an incredibly creamy and flavorful Belgian cheese. These burgers are so good that you don’t need ketchup and mustard and all of the things that are usually put on burgers. The meat is wonderfully flavorful, the bread is incredibly delicious, and the cheese and ham just put it in another stratosphere.

Monk’s is an amazing place to grab a good and affordable meal. For 4 people with 4 burgers, two orders of mussels, and 16 beers we only paid 35 dollars a person with tip! That is incredible to me, because eating in Center City can get incredible expensive for a lot less food. Go out and try Monk’s ASAP! Cheers!