Marmalade on Wry

Open for almost a year now, I have eaten at Renata’s many times.  The location doesn’t have great parking, and it can be quite crowded, but the food is awesome.  There are several good vegetarian choices as well as carnivore options.  The salads are good, but really the crepes pretty well fill you up so I’ve ordered only one in all these months.  The dessert crepes are excellent as well, although again you’ll want to share because you’ll be too full.

The names of the dishes are a bit on the odd side, so be prepared to ask your server for a ‘Blessed Heart’ or ‘Sweet Sappho’.  Also be prepared to go without a decent iced tea, because for some ungodly reason they don’t have it.  The offer a prepackaged tea drink with high fructose corn syrup, but that’s it.

Other than the absence of iced tea this restaurant provides a fantastic menu with reasonable prices.  If you are coming through Humboldt County, definitely stop and eat at Renata’s Creperie.

Three things brought me to the Hard Rock Cafe in Baltimore.

1.Hunger

2.Novelty (I live in a small town)

3.Blogography

I’ve been reading Dave at Blogography talk about the great veggie burger at Hard Rock for so long, I half expected the burger to come with a side of crack. I’ve never eaten at a Hard Rock Cafe, but I had pretty high expectations to say the least. Being pretty hungry our table decdided to get an appetizer of onion rings, they sounded good at the time and I can’t think of the last time I ate some really good onion rings.

Twenty-four hours after eating at Hard Rock Cafe, I still can’t.

We ended up being at Hard Rock for more than on hour. Five minutes to order, 45 minutes waiting for the food, 1 minute to be disappointed by the food, ten minutes of chasing down a manager for the check, and 2 minutes to pay and run out the door. I will never go back.

The onion rings were icky and greasy. The veggie burger was a pile of brown rice & veggie bits pressed into a patty, a tepid pile of carbohydrate that no sauce could save.

The accompanying salad was topped with a piece of rotten black drippy lettuce.

Really, ’nuff said.

There are many things to enjoy in Baltimore’s Little Italy, and La Scala is definitely one of them.  It was not the only restaurant in Little Italy that I tried, but it was the best.

I should have known when we they couldn’t accomodate our group on short notice the first night.  Several nights later, with only a party of two, we did get a table, and it was excellent.  I didn’t see one empty table.  Servers were busy, but accomodating; if you are staying nearby they will even send a shuttle to pick you up.

The menu had a large variety of options, meaty and vegetarian.  The Penne All’ Arrabiata was spicy and wonderful. The pesto tasted of the essence of basil itself, green and fragrant, it was exquisite.  The Pane Gorgonzola was a delightful dish and not something you see everyday, although I certainly plan to replicate it myself at home.  All of the bread I tried was crusty, good, and fresh.

I always enjoy a surprise at a restaurant, and at La Scala it was definitely the green beans.  Before even bread was brought to the table the server delivered a little plate without saying a word.  There were two small pieces of red potato and a heap of garlicky green beans.  It was a delightful little dish, spicy and refreshing, a great snack to sort of whet your appetite before a fantastic meal.

• La Scala of Little Italy
• 1012 Eastern Ave.
  
• Baltimore, MD 21202
  
• (410) 783-9209

I love a good vegetarian restaurant. What is better than that? A great vegetarian restaurant with reasonable prices and nice folks running the place.

Being in a strange city and needing a meal, I usually start with Google maps and search for vegetarian restaurants. Liquid Earth came up on the first page for Baltimore, but with a broken menu link. At first I thought about trying the local Indian joint, but really I wanted options. I asked at the front desk of my hotel, they recommended Liquid Earth and handed me a menu.

A funky little place in the Fell’s Point neighborhood, Liquid Earth has been around awhile. After two visits the tofu salad & tofu salad sandwich became my personal favorites, but I sampled a half dozen menu items and was never disappointed. I tried two different daily soups during our stay, both were fantastic. Philly Cheese and Rueben sandwiches are done well. Liquid Earth doesn’t stop with the sandwiches and soup.They have a great juice selection and some raw food options. Unlike many healthy restaurants, they understand that desserts are important as well. The vegan chocolate cake would be at home in any great bakery. In fact, the breads served with every sandwich and soup were superb, clearly Liquid Earth respects baking for the art that it is.

The current website for Liquid Earth is lacking, but the owner reports that it is in the process of being updated. Quite possibly the best news is the planned expansion of the Liquid Earth empire. Look for a cookbook, products on your grocery store shelves, etc. If they maintain their quality standards for product lines, sales will not be a problem.

Liquid Earth is family owned & operated, close by 7 p.m., and you are missing out if you have never been.

• Liquid Earth (liquidearth.com)
• 1626 Aliceanna St
• Baltimore, Maryland 21231
• (410) 276-6606

We went to Luigino because we wanted good pizza. Wood-fired, the real kind. Our hotel had a recommended restaurant list, and Luigino looked like a good fit: moderate price, casual clothing. While waiting for the Metro I looked it up in the AAA guide. AAA seemed to think it was pretty good, two diamonds, they did note the occasional rude service during lunch. I’m paraphrasing of course. So the bad news, Luigino’s rude service doesn’t end at 2 p.m. because we were brusquely seated at 8 p.m. between the exit door and the restroom. Our amazingly rude waitress hardly looked at our table, and we practically begged for someone to take our money so we could leave. The busboy cleared our table in a timely manner and bagged up our leftovers for us in record time. The waitress however had to be cajoled into even bringing us wine, and practically rolled her eyes at us when we inquired about vegetarian options. My husband made a substitution on his order and must have repeated it three times. The waitress seemed indignant that he would prefer a spicy tomato sauce on his ravioli. She seemed pained to have to return to our table to tell me that the kitchen was out of the sun-dried tomatoes I had requested on my pizza.

All that being said, the house merlot ($15.00 a half carafe) was delightful, and the food was superb. The pizza ($10.50) was excellent, the crust thin and crisp. Although billed as a serving for one, I could only finish half, and I noticed at least one other diner with the same problem (if you want to call breakfast for the next day a problem). The cheese was excellent, pine nuts fresh and rich. My husband’s Ravioli Magro ($15.25) was also excellent. The spicy tomato sauce he chose to substitute, oh my goodness, if that wasn’t some of the best marinara I have had in a long, long time. The breadsticks were adequate, and the loaf bread was put to work sopping up the delightful leftover marinara. I’m not sure I could do the sauce justice, it was a beautiful, beautiful thing. Full and vibrant, rich and savory, it had to have been made by someone who has a great palate.
But by the end of the night I felt guilty that I was somehow responsible for ruining this waitresses night, and my husband felt burdened by having to tip this woman. Food so lovely, tasty and poetic, with service like a 14 year old who has been dragged to a distant cousin’s bar mitzvah–perhaps that could be Luigino’s new motto.

• Luigino (Luigino.com)
• 1100 New York Ave NW
  Washington, DC 20005
  (202) 371-0595

Visiting New York City brings many surprises. Most of the time we just let the mystery unfold and ate at whatever restaurant was nearby. The best surprise food-wise was definitely Brooklyn Diner USA. We went twice in one week, both times for breakfast. I could not recommend it enough for breakfast, easily the best I had in NYC.

If you love a frittata, the spinach & mushroom frittata was excellent. I am not a mushroom person, and normally I avoid them, but this was soooooo good. It was accompanied by a lovely serving of polenta rounds. The polenta melts in your mouth with a fabulous corn sweetness that I could not get over.

Also superb is the Tony Bennett’s French Toast. It is a raisin challah base, topped with strawberries, toasted pecans and a bit of fresh whipped cream. This is quite possibly the best french toast I’ve ever had. It was sweet, but not cloyingly so, and warm and rich without being too filling.

We also tried a plain cheese omelette, served with any excellent bagel, and again the heavenly polenta. It was well cooked and quite good, but with so many house specialties it seems a shame to order so simple a dish.

The one dish at Brooklyn Diner USA that I could not live without would have to be the blueberry pancakes. They were bursting with fresh lemon peel. I cannot imagine how many lemons gave their lives for my pancakes, but I could not possibly thank them enough. I generally don’t order pancakes in restaurants because I like more than just carbs for a meal, and also, my own are so good. These pancakes are definitely the exception. The pancake batter itself is merely a vehicle for holding together the blueberries and lemon peel. They are tasty and fruity and smooth like velvet. I could eat them everyday.

Brooklyn Diner USA
212 W 57TH St
New York, NY 10019-3200
(212) 581-8900

Between 7th & 8th Avenue on 57th Street, near Carnegie Hall

For lunch this afternoon I went to a shopping center at the corner of Scottsdale Road and East Mayo Blvd. in Phoenix, AZ. Considering the size of the complex, I knew there would be several eating options. Neither of us had breakfast, and we were famished. We drove past several eateries and finally decided on Frankie’s Little Italy. We pulled in to park and look at the menu posted outside, only to notice that this too was a Mancuso’s restaurant. Now we had to eat there, having just reviewed another Mancuso’s restaurant earlier this week.

We were excited to see several of the salad options repeated from the Bobby’s location we had visited. Instead of cozy and upscale, this location is more of a pizza joint nestled next to a busy movie theatre. The décor was casual, it looked like a nice pizza place. The menu included pizza and pasta entrees, calzone, a handful of sandwich selections, appetizers, and salads.

Salad
For kicks, we ordered the same Bufala Mozzarella Salad we had at Bobby’s. There was a slight difference in the artistic interpretation at this location, with considerably more lettuce beneath the tomatoes and cheese. The same lovely basil dressing was there, but again the tomatoes were pale and flavorless. Roma tomatoes would probably be a better option for this dish, pink tomatoes aren’t good for much.

Bread
Our server brought bread to the table without being asked, and we were quite excited to see if it would be on par with Bobby’s. The breadbasket consisted of several round rolls, the kind you might find in your grocery store bakery in a big bag of two dozen. My guest was the first to try the rolls and laughingly warned me that I should “put in my good teeth.” Good Lord! What does Mancuso’s do to its bread? I could barely tear it with my teeth, and trying to pull off a mouthful took effort using my hands. I nearly knocked my drink over trying to rip the roll in half. I was tired of chewing after some time and neither of us finished our little roll — too much effort.

Entrees
I tried two main dishes, the Vegetable Pizza and the Gnocchi. The Gnocchi was nearly flavorless: as soon as I swallowed I couldn’t remember if I ate. My lunch date thought he could detect garlic and tomato, but the marinara looked more like a broth. Around the edges of the dish the sauce was a clear light brown with oily droplets and the faintest hint of a pink tinge.

The pizza was sad. A 9″ individual pie, the two of us were unwilling to finish it — and we had skipped breakfast. The Vegetable Pizza featured artichoke hearts, green bell pepper, red onion, kalamata olives and mushrooms. My first impression was that this was really good—for hospital food.

Other Notes
The Iced Tea at this location was brewed and refilled adequately. There was a bar with two televisions tuned to different channels. The volume was a little loud, and I really don’t want to learn about celebrity pre-nups while I eat sad pizza. It makes me feel even more like I’m in a hospital. I would not eat here again.

Today for lunch I headed to Kierland Commons in Scottsdale, AZ. A year or so ago we enjoyed a nice Mexican meal there at a beautiful location and hoped to repeat the experience. Instead we found “Bobby’s A Mancuso’s Restaurant”, and lucky for us it was their first lunch service after a few weeks of dinner service only.

We were immediately struck by the decor, which one member of my party thought was reminiscent of a Bob Mackie dress. It was sparkly and stark and visually interesting. The upstairs bar area featured a textured wall with color-changing LED lights. The chrome and modern style tends to look a little disco and dated, but they did a pretty good job of implementing it tastefully.

The menu offered several selections of appetizers, soups & salads. Soups of the day were Chicken Tortilla and Carrot. Regular salads included a Mixed Grill, Buffala Mozzarella, a House Salad described as ‘field greens with a mustard vinegarette’, a Fresh Salmon Salad, and more. Entrees included Chicken or Eggplant Parmesean Sandwiches, Vegetarian or Traditional Paella, Cappellini Pomodoro, Oyster Po’ Boy, and a myriad of others — all with an Italian flair. Being the first day, we didn’t mind the service being slightly confused. It would be expected of any restaurant.

Salads
Our table shared two of the salads to start, a small portion of the House Greens and the Buffala Mozzarella. My first impression of the Buffala Mozzarella was the color of the tomatoes: they were pale and wan, and the taste was absent. The cheese, however, was smooth and tasty, striped with a pesto dressing. The pesto was so yummy, neither too strong nor too bland. I don’t know if they feature the pesto in any other dishes, but if so I would try them based on the salad alone.

The small House Salad also provided a surprise as it was covered in mushrooms (mentioned nowhere on the menu). A few tomato and English cucumbers slices were placed along the edges along with some tasty kalamata olives. This was topped by a small mass of stringy carrots on a bed of red onion slices. If you don’t like mushrooms, this salad would be an unwelcome surprise. Overall the House Salad was quite tasty, although if that was the small portion, I can’t imagine the larger portion. The four of us didn’t finish the small size–and we liked it.

We also ordered the Fresh Salmon Salad, although the menu didn’t specify wild-caught or farmed, which to my mind means it is farmed and inferior (not to mention a disgusting practice.) This salad was nearly identical to the House Salad, except this featured several large pieces of lightly pink salmon on top. There was an $11.00 price difference between the House & Salmon Salads, a little much considering they were nearly identical.

Entrees
The Vegetable Paella must go first as it was a complete disappointment. It was bland and boring, tasting like rice and sautéed veggies. I was so happy to see the option on the menu, and yet completely saddened by the poor execution. I could not detect the faintest hint of any spice or herb.

The Cappellini Pomodoro was nice, everyone liked it. The noodles were served hot and tasty, a very good simple dish.

The Eggplant Parmesan was a mixed bag. It was a sandwich only in theory — there was a piece of toasted bread under the eggplant, but I had to search for it. It was well cooked, not too oily. The marinara was nice, overall I would eat it again. The disturbing part to me was the side of–get this–Batter Dipped French Fries. To me, French Fries are an anathema to Italian food and did not belong on the plate. Or the table. If it had been on the menu, I would have asked for no fries. That being said, the fries were quite good. I only ate two because:
A. Fries NEVER belong with Eggplant Parm.
and
B. The person who ordered the Paella was starving for decent food.

Other Notes
The iced tea was constantly being refilled and was good, but not fantastic. It didn’t taste like instant, but didn’t pack a punch either. Water was refilled appropriately. I was craving some chocolate after my meal, but no dessert was offered. Service was nice, not to meddling. Our server was Sam: he was able to accommodate our request for a half portion on the pasta, and charged us accordingly. Bread was brought only by request, which he stated was the policy for lunch service. The bread, however, was inedible, crunchy to the point of discomfort, sort of like a giant crouton with a soft center. Some of us could barely get our teeth around it. Total was $54 before tax & tip. I checked the company website before writing this review to see if I could possibly glean any additional insight. Apparently it hasn’t been updated in a while since the Kierland Commons location was listed as opening soon. The website also gave no insight on the restaurant’s cumbersome — okay, downright weird — name.

All that being said, I would eat there again. You couldn’t pay me to eat the Paella mind you, but it was a fair meal in a nice location.