Category — Restaurants

Friedmans lunch

Chelsea Market

75 Ninth Avenue

New York, NY 10011

212 929 7100

www.friednmanslunch.com

Hanger Steak at Friedmans Lunch

Although the name clearly suggests otherwise, Friedmans Lunch is open for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and brunch.  There are many delightful places to eat in Chelsea Market, and it wasn’t easy to make up my mind where to go.   Most seem to be serving fresh, homemade, natural good food.  Best of all, the big chains are not here.

But I was really pleased that I picked Friedmans Lunch.  Good simple food at reasonable prices!  I had the best streak sandwich ($12.00) I have ever had in my life.  I ordered it very rare and the hanger steak came with crispy shallots, wilted arugula on toasted ciabatta bread.  I also had beautifully made herbed french fries ($4.00) on the side.

Other tempting options on the menu included a good range of soup (two bean turkey chili, matzo ball, hearty chicken noodle, and potato leek, salads, fish tacos ($12.00), and burgers.  They also offer Lasagna ($13.00), turkey meatloaf ($13.00), and a range of loaded baked potatoes.

For dessert, you could have ricotta fritters with cherry compote ($5.00), Bourbon bread pudding, ot a flourless chocolate chunk brownie.

They have interesting reasonably priced wine, and I had an excellent Union Jack Pale Ale beer on draft.  The service was personal and attentive without someone bugging you every two minutes asking if you are happy!

Great place for lunch!  I will certainly be back.

UNION JACK’S COLUMBIA
10400 LITTLE PATUXENT PARKWAY
COLUMBIA, MD 21044

PHONE: 410.740.5225
FAX: 410.740.5226

For a Google map, click here

I have to admit it.  It was partly the apostrophe that brought me in the door.  Would I find a person called Union Jack dressed up in red, white, and blue behind the bar?  Or would there be hundreds of Union Jack’s around the place and the apostrophe was being used to denote the plural.  People, who enjoy such musings, may like the “blog” of “unnecessary” quotation marks.  (Click here to access it.)

Union Jack's favorite place to sit or just another of the Union Jack's?

I usually praise restaurants generously and extravagantly because I like to memorialize the food I enjoy and simply prefer to forget the rest.  But we went to a restaurant today that was so bad that I felt that I would be doing no favors either to its management or its future customers unless I recorded my shock on this blog.

Union Jack’s (what a ridiculous name!) is supposed to be a British pub.  It has all sorts of British tack, ranging from Union Jacks (or Jack’s?), football memorabilia, items from the London tube, street signs, and, worst of all, an empty telephone box that is not even the real thing.

Phone box at Union Jack's

Here is what I expected for this place.  I thought that the food would be adequate, and I would have a lot of fun poking fun at the artless decor.  I imagined writing how I would report that I felt that I has arrived home after noticing all the comforts that made me feel I was in a real English pub — complete with all the essential items always found in every English pub, such as the telephone box.  I should confess that I hate those awful things.  They remind me of miserable times in seventies before the advent of the mobile phone when you’d wander around looking for one with a phone that actually worked and without an overwhelming smell of stale tobacco, urine, and vomit!  I thought I would point to the essential piece of furniture covered with an enormous Union Jack and report how at home I felt here.

Fish and Chips at Union Jack's British Pub

But I am afraid I was simply appalled.  I was appalled by the dreadful food, and I cannot believe that this place will survive in Columbia.  Iran ordered a fish and chips, which arrived on a copy of The London Royal Times.  (If you don’t believe this, trust the photo!)  The first try was virtually inedible.  It tasted as if the little nuggets of cod had simply gone from freezer to microwave and they were not crispy at all.  We sent them back and the things returned somewhat improved.  But, the worst was  the bangers and mash.  (Actually I ordered this with french fries rather than mash.)  I really do not complain easily, but I simply had to tell them as plainly and as clearly as I could that the food was totally inedible, and I could not even contemplate how these dreadful things could be improved.  Besides, I added, I am English, eat bangers all the time, andI know what they are supposed to taste like!

Now I must admit that the manager was gracious and apologetic and substituted an acceptable very generous portion of ribs without complaint or argument, but if the food doesn’t improve, Union Jack’s will close down in Columbia.  I just wonder how long this place will last.

Prices are hardly cheap here, and if you consider the quality of the food they are downright expensive. My baby back ribs were $22; I would have paid $14 for the bangers and chips, and the fish and chips were also $14.  I had a pints of (delicious) Arrogant Bastard beer, which was on tap for $8, and Iran had a smaller glass of Blue Moon for $5.

I might go back here to drink some beer, but certainly won’t eat here again.

What fun to have a British pub in Columbia.  But what a shame that it serves food that would have been unacceptable as a school dinner in the sixties in Britain!

Okada

Wildewood Shoppping Center

23415 Three Notch Road #2015

California, MD 20619
View Larger Map

301 866 9595

Let’s face it!  This is not a seriously sophisticated restaurant, but it is a lot better than many of the places in the surrounding area.  For the last six years, I have had at least one child at St. Mary’s College of Maryland.  It is fun to take them out when we visit, but many of the places we have gone to have been disappointing, and others seem to have closed as soon as we started liking them.

The bar at Okada, a Japanese restaurant in California, Maryland

But it was a lot of fun to eat here.  On Sunday, you can order only off the dinner menu, and like a lot of Japanese steakhouses, the deal is fixed price based on your main course.  Two of us had a filet mignon and scallops ($22.95), and one of us had the New York strip steak ($19.95).  A bowl of soup, a nicely dressed salad, and a small appetizer are also included.  Choices for appetizer are chicken liver, mushrooms, or shrimp.  We all picked the shrimp.  I had a club soda ($1.95) and we also had two green teas ($1.95).  The total including tax (but not tip) was $82.36 for three people.

Our chef making a volcano out of an onion

Cooking dinner was quite a performance as it usually is in Japanese steakhouses with the food cooked in front of you by a chef willing to perform all sorts of tricks to make you laugh and occasionally feel quite frightened.  This particular chef took more risks than most of them and that made his show all the more entertaining although quite a few bits of food wound up on the floor, including an egg that he was trying to toss into his pocket!  He also performed another trick of flicking pieces of shrimp into our open mouths, and this, of course, resulted in quite a few morsels on the floor.

It was a lot of fun to go out to lunch here, and we’ll definitely be back — possibly to party with Hannah, her friends, and their parents when she graduates on May 15th.  Recommended.

Vino

905 South Ann Street

Fells Point

Baltimore, MD 21231

410 342 8466

www.v-nowinebar.com
Click here for a Google map

After doing a day’s work in Fells Point, I decided to have a little walk before driving home, which I found absolutely lovely.  This area is known all over the world to followers of the television series, Homicide, and it is delightful to walk around.  It is less full of tourists than the main part of the inner harbor, but you still get lovely views of the water, the boats, and ships.

View of Fells Point on March 27, 2010

Although I used to know this area really well from when I used to work here, many of the restaurants have come and gone.  But I was surprised and delighted on my walk to stumble across a wine bar that I never knew existed!  Well, it was Friday evening, and I was in an especially good mood having done an interesting and long day’s work.  So rewarding myself with a glass of wine seemed to be a very good idea.

Inside Vino, a wine bar in Fells Point

Vino is definitely focused on wine, but they do offer things to eat while you are drinking, including pâté ($7.50), which is served with bread, butter, pickles, and bread from the (excellent) Bonaparte bakery, which is conveniently located next door.  Other  offerings include toasted nuts ($5.00), a cheese sampler ($12.50), chicken terrine ($9.00), and a “rustic” plate of meats, cheeses and pâté ($12.50).

Vino has a very friendly corkage policy.  You can either drink wine by the glass, as I did, or you can pay $7.00 above the retail price and pick a bottle off the shelves.

The bottle of Cepa 21, 2006 at Vino's wine bar in Fells Point, Baltimore

There is not an enormous selection of wine, but obviously  a lot of thought has been put into what they do offer.  I picked out Cepa 21 2006, a Ribera del Duero, which is made of 100% Tinto Fino, the term used for Tempranillo in Ribera del Duero ($11.00 for the glass).  What a treat this wine was!  It was dark, bordering on purple in color with a beautiful cherry/blackberry bouquet that also suggested its relatively high alcohol content (15%).  The wine is well structured with firm tannins from the 14 months spent in predominantly French oak that I imagine will soften nicely by about 2012, which might be the optimal year to drink it.  This is a very interesting wine from the area with a modern style and big fruit suggesting a new world rather than an old world wine.

This was such a good wine that I bought a bottle ($25) to take to a party on Saturday night!  I was so pleased to have discovered a very nice new wine bar and an excellent wine that I had never tried before.

Royal Taj

8874 McGaw Road

Columbia 21045

www.indiadelightcolumbia.com

We’ve just had such a delightful evening going out for dinner at the Royal Taj, a relatively new Indian restaurant in Columbia, MD!  I always find it hard to decide where to go in Columbia.  Some places are just parts of a chain, and, quite often you find yourself waiting for ages before you can get a table in some of the more popular restaurants.  Everybody agreed when I suggested giving Royal Taj (formerly India Delight) a try.  I’d been there before for their buffet lunch ($9.95 or weekdays and $10.95 on weekends).

Royal Taj is nicely decorated.  (I didn’t have my camera, but I will try to go back to get pictures of the restaurant and the food.)  But what was so very different was the warm and genuine welcome as soon as we arrived.  We were seated immediately and ordered our food and a bottle of Château St. Jean Chardonnay, 2008 ($28).  I ordered Onion Bhajia ($4.95) to start with and Lamb Vindaloo ($15.95) for my main course.  Iran had the Chicken Makhani ($14.95) and our friend had the Chicken Tikka Masala.

I especially enjoyed the Lamb Vindaloo.  I ordered it very hot, but the heat did not drown the very tasty lamb in the tangy sauce.

The food arrived quite quickly.  It was freshly cooked with nice fresh herbs sprinkled over the spicy food.  This is certainly the best India restaurant in Columbia!

The bit that really made the difference was the kindness and friendliness of the owners.  They sat around and talked to us, and also brought us a complimentary dessert.  As we chatted and laughed they kept on offering to bring us drinks — whatever we wanted.  I don’t think I have been to such a nice friendly restaurant for a very long time!

Highly recommended!

P F Chang’s China Bistro

10300 Little Patuxent Parkway, Suite 302

Columbia, MD 21044

Click here for a Google map

Strong branding, fresh tasty Asian-influenced food, moderate prices, and a stylish look combine to make sure that these “Chinese” restaurants are always full.  They are found all over the United States usually in upscale malls like the one in Columbia, Maryland, where we went.  P F Chang’s also has an imaginatively compiled wine list with interesting wine that you would not expect to find in a chain.  Offerings include Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc (2008), Cakebread Chardonnay (2007), Seghesio “Old Vine” Zinfandel (2007), and Dry Creek Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon (2005).

More recently they have gone international with branches in Kuwait and Mexico City.

We decided to go today to check out their happy hour, which is from 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm every day.  They offer a short menu with some of their favorite dishes at the bar with reduced prices for both drinks and food.

We had crispy green beans ($4.00), Sichuan Chicken Flatbread, a quesadilla with an Asian accent ($4.00), Shrimp Dumplings ($5.00), and Seared Ahi Tuna ($6.00).  For drinks, I had a soda water ($2.25), and my wife had a Stella Artois draft beer ($3.00).

We didn’t have their chicken lettuce wraps ($4.00), which I always enjoy, but they are on the “happy hour” menu too.  If you have not tried these before, make sure you do!

The food was delicious except that the beans were really greasy.  I especially liked the dumplings, which were stuffed with good fat succulent shrimps.  The Ahi Tuna was tasty, juicy, and nicely seasoned.  We were both completely full after the meal.

The service was excellent, and my soda water was refilled all the time.  The total including tax was $25.71.  A real bargain for good food in a stylish place.  Highly recommended.

My only complaint about P F Chang’s is that there always seems to be a long wait if you want to eat at a table.  The happy hour at the bar where we were seated immediately is a great solution.

15 Gerrard St
Soho,
London,
W1D 6

(020) 7434 2888

I had an enjoyable meal at the Golden Pagoda in Chinatown. I went for half of a set meal for 2, which came to £13.50 per person.

The menu for 2 was:

Won Ton soup
——————————
Crispy duck and pancakes with Hoi-Sin sauce
———————————
Chicken and black bean sauce
Hot and sour king prawns with peppers and onions
Mixed stir-fried vegetables
Egg fried rice

The meal got off to a bad start for me with the won ton soup- the won tons that were an unpleasant combination of pork and prawn (why anyone would want to eat slightly fishy tasting pork is beyond me). There was nothing wrong with the soup itself or the vegetable that were in the soup along with the wontons, but neither was either of them particularly pleasant. I finished the soup as I was pretty hungry, but couldn’t bring myself to finish the wontons.

I was glad that I had not eaten all of the wontons when the next course came out however, as the duck was very enjoyable- not too crisp, not too moist, and a fair amount of skin left on for those who enjoy it. I was very happy with the hoi sin sauce too- not too aniseedy as I often find it is, and not too sweet either. We were served 6 pancakes between the two of us, and we happily managed 3 each.

We both decided to share each of the main dishes, but I ended up eating most of the prawn dish in the end as it was wonderful. The prawns were tasty, tender, fat and succulent, and the sauce was just the right combination of sweet and sour (and not too thick and gloopy), with a spicy kick towards the end of each mouthful. It was particularly good mixed with the vegetables, as the sauce with the prawns was fairy rich, and the vegetables were quite plain. The vegetables were a mix of bean sprouts, water chestnuts, pak choi, baby sweetcorn and bamboo shoots, and came with a small amount of a very light sauce. Simple but enjoyable- either on their own or mixed with one of the more flavoursome dishes.

The egg-fired rice was pretty bog standard: fairly pleasant rice, and pieces of fried egg. Nothing to complain amount, but nothing to be particularly pleased about. The chicken in black bean sauce came with onions and red and green peppers which were slightly underdone for me personally, but no doubt perfect for some. The chicken was tender and tasty, but I wasn’t terribly keen on the sauce.

We had a pot of jasmine tea between us, which was topped up numerous times as I was chain drinking cups of it throughout the meal.
Service was prompt and efficient, but slightly abrupt and not terribly friendly. The total came to just over £30 for us both, including service.

All in all it was a bit of a hit and miss meal for me- the crispy duck pancakes, hot and sour prawns, and the stir fry vegetables were the hits; the won ton soup and the chicken in black bean sauce were the misses. Fortunately, the quantities were generous for me to focus on the hits rather than the misses, and still be full, so I had an enjoyable and filling meal for £15.

www.fireandstone.com

Threeways House
28-38 George Street
Oxford
OX1 2BJ
Telephone
0844 371 2550
Opening hours
12 midday until late everyday

I experienced the most delightful restaurant on my last visit to Oxford. Fire and Stone, originally established in Covent Garden, was apparently new to Oxford as well to me- it had only opened there in December, and all of my friends were very keen to try this novelty. I therefore agreed, not knowing anything about the restaurant, but happy to follow the general consensus and willfully trusting of my friends’ judgment.

“What sort of food do they do?” I asked various members of our group as we walked the 0.5 miles from New College to Fire and Stone, a distance which could only ever seem significant to me when in Oxford (is it because everything is so close together in Oxford that one’s perspective of distance becomes so totally warped?). No one seemed able to give me a satisfactory answer to this most basic question however. I was vaguely puzzled as to why everyone had settled on this restaurant of completely unknown cuisine as the best place to go for a meal, but felt that I, who was in fact only there as a friend of a friend of the person whose birthday outing it was, wasn’t really in a position to challenge this seemingly completely illogical decision.

We arrived, and I was immediately impressed by the decoration. I appreciated the interesting contrast between the modern metal and marble of the upstairs, and the large hearth and stacked logs which gave the downstairs open kitchen a much more traditional feel. After my initial approval, I did become mildly exasperated however when had to wait about 15 minutes before a table became available for us. Our party had booked a table, but it had turned out that there were now more people than there were originally going to be (probably partly my fault!), so the restaurant was not really to blame on that account.

Once we had eventually been seated, the service was prompt and efficient. In fact, after having seen the range of choice on the menu, I actually had to ask to be given longer before I was ready to order. Fire and Stone is basically a classier and more exciting than average pizza restaurant (I hadn’t been overjoyed when I initially discovered this as pizza is never top of my list when it comes to eating out), but their range of toppings were so diverse and delicious sounding, that trying to decide which one might be marginally more delicious or interesting than the others was no easy task. The idea was that the menu was split up into different sections for different continents, and each section had a selection of pizzas inspired by the foods of different well-known cities in each continent.

To give a few examples, my 3 finalists were: Athens (red pepper sauce, mozzarella, vine ripened tomatoes, spinach, feta cheese, pine nuts, and pesto sauce), Bombay (tandoori chicken, broccoli, sliced red onion, mozzarella, mango chutney, and cucumber & mint yoghurt) and Cairo (peppers, courgettes, aubergines, red onions, goat’s cheese, and pine nuts). Byron Bay (pesto, mushrooms, cumin roasted sweet potato, cherry vine tomatoes, mozzarella, green olives, and crushed macadamia nuts) also came in as a late contender, but I decided on the Cairo in the end, and was absolutely delighted with my choice. The flavours worked wonderfully, it had a generous amount of the toppings, was just moist enough, and the base was thin and crispy to the perfect extent.

Price-wise, it was thoroughly reasonable- I paid £7.95 for my Cairo pizza. The prices for all the pizzas were pretty similar and all within a range of £7.45- £9.45. A reasonable range of starters was also available, mostly around the £5 mark, though none of our group actually tried any. Substantial and pleasant sounding salads were on the menu too for about the same price as the pizzas, but also went unsampled by our group.

I recommend this restaurant whole-heartedly, and I would certainly visit the Oxford branch again to sample the pizzas that posed significant threats to Cairo in vying for my attention. Or perhaps I shall try the Covent Garden branch when next in London. I would definitely make an effort to get to a Fire and Stone restaurant again.

Melting Pot
418-420 York Road
Towson, MD 21204
(410) 821-6358

Hours of Operation:
Monday-Thursday: 5 pm – 10 pm
Friday: 5 pm – 11 pm
Saturday: 4 pm – 11 pm
Sunday: 4 pm – 10 pm

A few nights ago, we had a very, very special evening.  My friend, Clayton, and I drove over to Towson and we had a delightful evening with our friends, Bill, Roni, and Ryan.  (Ryan is five, and he was very patient with us.)

The Melting Pot is a franchised chain specializing in fondue.  It opened its first restaurant in 1975 in Florida, and there are now about 145 locations.

We’d been here before, and it was a relatively fast decision that we should have the Alpine Big Night out.  This is a set meal and you get a cheese fondue to start with.  The next course is a salad.  Then you get a huge main course consisting of Filet Mignon, Sauerbraten NY Strip, Nueske’s Applewood Smoked Bratwurst, Hefeweizen Marinated Shrimp, Roasted Garlic Crusted Chicken, Sun Dried Tomato Ravioli and Fresh Vegetables!

All the ingredients were well prepared, attractively presented, and of good quality.

There are four options for your pot.  You can cook your meal in oil (Bourguignonne), which we chose, Coq au Vin, Mojo Style, and Court Bouillon.

As if this was not enough to eat, they bring a chocolate fondue at the end!

The food is beautifully presented and the staff are really friendly.  Great basic ingredients, and you can have a lot of fun cooking it yourself.

The Melting Pot in Towson has a long and interesting wine list with reasonably priced and interesting wines.  For example, you can get a 2004 Clerc Milon ($70), a 2006 Stags Leap Cabernet ($70), Caymus Cabernet Sauvignon ($105), or a Dom Perignon Champagne for $200.  These prices are not very much more than retail and certainly a lot less than the usual pricing which doubles or trips the retail price for wine.  Unfortunately, I did not feel like wine on this occasion, and drank sparkling water instead.

I recommend this place particularly as a fun place to be with old friends.  Good food but very informal and friendly.

If you don’t have wine (as we didn’t on this occasion), expect to pay roughly $50 a head before you have added a tip for the very friendly servers!

There are several other Melting Pots in Maryland, including branches in Columbia, Annapolis, and Gaithersburg.

Le Relais De Venise

www.relaisdevenise.com

590 Lexington Avenue
New York, NY 10154-3301
(212) 758-3989
Get directions
About two years ago, a friend of mine took me to the Paris branch of this restaurant, and I loved it.  Many businesses seem to create a good business by standardizing, simplifying, and perfecting.  This seems to have worked for Southwest airlines, which flies only domestically in the United States using Boeing 737s, and for McDonald’s.

Relais de Venise seems to have the same idea.  There is no menu for an appetizer or a main course.  The appetizer is a salad in a very nice dressing with walnuts.  The main course is a steak that is sliced, served in their “secret” sauce (cream, tarragon, and Dijon mustard).  So the choice is bleu, rare, medium or well-done.  (Ask for medium-rare, and they will repeat the options: bleu, rare, medium or well-done).

I chose bleu, and my wife chose medium.  Both were cooked exactly as ordered.  They arrived promptly with a generous portion of frites (french fries).  As we were finishing the dish, the server offered us more.  (The set menu of the salad and the steak frites costs $24.)  Certainly not inferior meat, but don’t let me raise expectations too high.  This was a French steak frites.

For dessert, there was a selection.  We chose to share a cheese, which came with a glass of port for about $9.50.  A nice variety of cheese, including Brie, Camembert, a blue cheese, and a Comte.

We had a house wine — a Merlot-dominated Bordeaux.  $11.50 for the half bottle.  Nothing exceptional but perfectly acceptable.

I thought it was a very nice lunch, and I’ll certainly return to this restaurant.  But I did wonder how much it would suit an American clientele.  We started our meal at about noon, and the place was practically empty.  I also noticed that many of the customers were Europeans.  But within about half an hour the place filled up.  So perhaps it will appeal to New Yorkers after all.

This restaurant does not take reservations.