Review: Hai Ky

Austin is weird in many ways.  One of those ways is the abundance of Vietnamese eatery choices.  I had a Vietnamese roommate that informed me that there was a huge migration of Vietnamese years back but for what reason he didn’t say.  Either way, I’m thankful for all the wonderful Vietnamese choices I have in this city.

One of my favorite places is Hai Ky in South Austin.  Tucked in a small shopping center off Oltorf, the most crime ridden street in Austin.  Despite that, the neighborhood isn’t as bad as the reputation declares it to be.  In fact, the street is relatively nice.  However, I wouldn’t visit Hai Ky past 11 PM you dig?

Hai Ky is a small operation.  I would guess it could seat 30 people or so comfortably.  Many local honors are proudly displayed on the large, store front windows.  Inside, the walls are decorated with many works from local artists.  The decor is simple but effective.  The only problem I have is that, every time I walk in, my shoes feel sticky to the floor.  It’s not like they don’t clean their floors but there is always that sticky sensation every time you walk through.  It’s more of a kitschy quirk than an annoyance.  As for the service, it’s always been fast and friendly.  Although laid back, the staff seems knowledgeable and professional.

The first dish I wanted to highlight is their Spicy Hai Chicken.  This lovely dish is a stir fry with flat rice noodles, various veggies, tender chicken, seasoned with a peppery yet sweet house sauce, and topped with fresh cilantro and chopped peanuts.  Hai Ky is best known for their fresh taste and this dish doesn’t disappoint.  There were multiple layers of flavor from salty, sweet, sour, peppery, herby, etc.  Flavors partied well together and my tongue and nose were in heaven.  As a plus, the portion was generous.  YUM.

Aside from pho, the Vietnamese are also known for their vermicelli bowls, thin rice noodles topped with meat and veggies and served at room temperature with fish sauce.  YUM.  I can safely say that Hai Ky has one of the best vermicelli bowls in the city.  I mean…check out that pic!   Trust me, it tastes just as good as it looks.  As usual, the taste was super fresh thanks to the super fresh veggies.  The egg rolls were crunchy and made a good addition to the bowl.  The grilled pork was good and tender; however, it did lack that grilled flavor I love in these bowls.  The flavor profile was fresh, herby, slightly sweet, and salty.  I had a smile on face the entire time I was eating. 

Hai Ky is the complete package.  It has great food, great prices, and great portions.  If you want something Asian, fresh, and relatively healthy, Hai Ky is a great choice.  I bet you’re wondering why I’m only giving it a 4/5 if I’m so glowing about this place.  The reason is that there are times when the food isn’t as good as it could be.  Recently, Hai Ky has been hitting the spot right on.  I hope it can be consistent in the future.  For now, it gets a well deserved 4/5.

-jj

Hai Ky

1931 East Oltorf Street
Austin, TX 78741-4031
(512) 693-2464

Review: Marcelino Pan y Vino

Interesting fact: Marcelino’s doesn’t actually sell bread or wine.  In fact, the title simply comes from an old movie according to the cashier.

Marcelino is a taqueria, pure and simple.  It’s a typical mom and pop taco place that are spread all across Austin.  I love these type of eateries.  Most of the time, the cooks are old Mexican ladies who don’t speak a lick of English.  If you find yourself at an ethnic place where there are no English speaking Americans, chances are that the place is serving serious, authentic eats.  This is the case with Marcelino…for the most part.

As you walk into the very small eatery, you’ll notice only a few tables here and there.  When you walk up to the counter to order, you’ll notice immediate that there are several busy Mexican ladies making some tasty tacos.  One other thing I noticed was that the tortillas were not homemade.  If you live in Texas, you’ll appreciate the quality of a homemade tortilla.  I compare it to freshly baked bread as opposed to bread that is prepackaged and made into a factory.  After looking at the copious amounts of toppings available, it became immediately apparent that Marcelino paid more attention to the what goes into the taco than outside.  It’s like the great sandwich debate; what’s more important: the filling or the bread?  Marcelino leans towards the former in this debate and I can’t blame them. 

Chicken fajita taco was calling my name and I had to oblige.   Fajita doesn’t mean grilled with onions and peppers on a skillet.  Fajita can also mean just cooked with onions and peppers.  The chicken was stewed and was super tender.  There was a wonderful savory flavor from the onions and peppers with a slight pepperiness in the background.  Delish.

Picadillo is essentially ground beef.  Marcelino does it with onions, tomato, and potato for a nice savory touch.  The beef was nicely spiced and flavorful.  Much like the chicken fajita, the picadillo had a nice, stewed quality to it.  You can tell it took some time for the flavors to marry and work so well in a tortilla.  Another nice touch was the fact that it wasn’t too greasy.  I’ve had picadillo where the taco was dripping with grease.  Not good eats.

Puerco en salsa verde or pork in green salsa looked too good to pass up.  The sauce was slightly fruity and spicey.  There was a nice garlicy flavor in the background that played well with richness of the sauce.  My only complaint was that the pork was little tough for me.  I’ve had this before and it was much more tender than it was this time.  However, all in all, it was quite a tasty treat. 

Did I mention that all the tacos were hefty?  Each taco was about $2.25, a steal when you compare it other places and by the fact that each taco is like a billion pounds.  Marcelino’s isn’t a classy joint.  However, that shouldn’t be a reason to not give it a shot.  The friendly old ladies making some serious tacos make it worth a trip.  A good meal will set you back $8.  A home style, Mexican meal for that price is a no brainer for me.  A foresee a return trip very soon.

-jj

Marcelino Pan y Vino

901 Tillery Street
Austin, TX 78702-3744
(512) 926-1709

Blue Restaurant—Castro, SF

During one of my recent trips to the San Francisco area, I was fortunate enough to have a chance to visit a restaurant named simply “Blue”. My friends Noel and Tracy had told me about it prior to my trip to the area and they raved about their “Gourmet Mac & Cheese” so I went in with very high expectations… let me tell you they did not disappoint.

We were greeted as we walked in the door, which was a nice touch. We were seated quickly and the server was very friendly and attentive, something I feel is really important to a good dining experience. Once seated, we poured over a menu that was filled with mostly American fare such as steaks, meatloaf and tuna casserole. We opted for the Osso Bucco, the Tri-Tip Steak, a Monte Cristo sandwich and of course, the Gourmet Mac & Cheese.

Let me just say, the Mac & Cheese was amazing. It certainly lived up to the hype delivered by my friends. It was prepared with elbow pasta, fresh mozzarella, sharp cheddar and parmesan cheeses. In addition, it was topped with Panko (Japanese bread crumbs), which in my opinion was a really nice addition as the The Panko added a wonderful crunch to the already well executed Mac & Cheese. The Osso Bucco was also a treat. It was cooked perfectly, tender, well seasoned and paired with some wonderful mashed potatoes and a lightly stir fried spinach tossed with garlic. The steak was also done well. It was cooked to the temperature we requested and topped off with a sage infused butter that was fantastic. Last but not least, the Monte Cristo sandwich which was served with french fries and a strawberry dipping sauce which was tasty.

If the food was the winner that evening, the ambiance and decor of the place was the loser. My only real complaint about the place was that the interior of the restaurant was too dark and the ambiance and decor did not stand up to the amazing food they served. Perhaps it’s time for a remodel?

Despite that, I really enjoyed Blue. The food was delicious and very reasonably priced, their menu was large, but not overwhelming and I would certainly return to try out some more dishes on my next trip to San Francisco. If you are in the area and in the mood for some great American food with an oomph, give Blue a try.

Review: TaKorea

Austin is fast becoming the place for al fresco dining.  Or it could be that it already has but is fast evolving in many interesting ways.  The trailer food concept has taken off in Austin as I have said before.  More and more of these types are popping all over the city, and it feels that a new trailer makes its debut every week. 

I was driving in central Austin and found a trailer marked, “TaKorea.”  My shock  almost got me into an accident.  As the name suggests, it is a Korean taco trailer.  I never thought I would put the words, “Korean” and “taco,” in the same sentece.  I’m happy that I get to now. 

TaKorea is a fairly new establishment, about 2 weeks old.  It might seem unfair to review the place now, but I thought I’d give my initial impressions at least.  The establishment is simply the trailer, a small table for napkins and condiments, and a few chairs.  This is a small operation for sure. 

The staff was super friendly.  Paul, the proprietor, was on site to answer all my questions.  Furthermore, the cook, Alden, was just was helpful and very approachable.  Paul admits that he got the inspiration from the famous Gogi trucks in LA.  Why not bring the concept to Austin, a city with a rich history of taquerias?  With so many taco places, why not bring a new concept to spice things up a bit.  The answer is TaKorea. 

TaKorea seeks to blend the most popular parts of Korean cuisine, the BBQ, and mix with it with the taco concept.  The menu offers tacos with Korean style BBQ pork marinated in sweet chili paste, skirt steak marinated “bulgogi” style, and of course tofu.  They also offer an interesting Korean style hot dog.  I decided to try that and a pork taco. 

The pork taco was tasty.  It featured pork butt with a light chili paste flavor.  It was topped with crunchy, shredded cabbage (a very nice touch), black sesame seeds, and chopped green onions.  The red sauce is a modified “gochujang,” sweet red chili paste.  Modified in the sense that it was lighter and more tangy.  There was a tenderness and crunchiness of the taco which I really enjoyed.  If I were to improve it, I would have used a more traditional pork BBQ.  Traditionally, the pork used in Korean pork BBQ is almost bacon like with the fat attached to the meat.  Also, the meat is sauted in the sauce and served “wet.”  A more traditional BBQ would have made this a spectacular taco in my eyes.

The hot dog was really interesting.  It was your standard Hebrew National hot dog and bun with a twist.  The same topping were present in the hot dog but also with a relish with cilantro, a slice of pickle, and your choice of BBQ meat.  I decided to try their beef with my dog.  The combination of flavors and textures were really great with the hot dog.  I initially thought it would be too much, but surprisingly, it was pretty tasty.  To be honest, I liked the hot dog more than I did the taco.  The toppings seemed to work better with the dog than it did the taco.  Does this mean the taco was bad?  No, it was tasty but lacked some punch. 

TaKorea shows a lot of promise.  It has the potential to be truly special in a market full of taqueria choices.  I feel that TaKorea could be more adventurous in their food.  They have taken a brave step in combining two styles of ethnic cuisine, but they can do more.  For instance, I feel that the truly Korean part of the food is the gochujang sauce topped on the hot dog and taco.  The marinade didn’t really pop or make an impression as it probably should have.  A kimchee relish would have made it truly Korean and have given the food the pop it really needed.  In fact, a kimchee relish would have been totally awesome on that hot dog; think of it like sauerkraut but spicy. 

TaKorea is great idea and worth a try.  I can’t wait to see how it grows and evolves in the next couple of months.  It’s existence is a sure sign that Austin is becoming the place for new, creative, and inspired eats.  I thought about giving TaKorea a 3.5 pans; however, upon further thought, I decided to give it some extra credit for trying something new and taking a risk.  Give TaKorea a try; you might be pleasantly surprised. 

TaKorea

(512) 970-8256

Review: Don Quixote

In Korea, there are really three types of places to eat.  You have your typical sit down restaurants, street foods, or small eateries called “shik dangs.”  I love shik dangs.  They usually offer home made fare you would find in your Korean mother’s kitchen.  The food itself is called “bun shik.”  Bun shik are Korean fast foods.  This type of fare is popular with the younger Korean crowd who need something fast for their busy day of being super cool and studious. 

I visited my family in Duluth, GA recently and decided to go back and try one of my favorite shik dangs.  Duluth has become a new Korean town with lots of shops and restaurants to patronage.  One of the older ones is Don Quixote.

The name is odd.  No one really knows why they chose this fictional character as their namesake.  However, they do take it seriously.  Take a peek at the entrance way on the right.

Don Quixote has a rep with the Korean community as being one of the best bun shik places in town.  They are also know for their radish kimchee which they make from scratch.  Rumor has it that they use 7 Up as an ingredient.  However, they are best known for their Donkatsu or Katsu Don, pork cutlet dish.  Donkatsu is a tenderized pork cutlet, breaded, deep fried, topped with a tangy orange sauce, and served with rice.  Of course, this is why I came.

The inside of DQ is nicely homey.  There’s even a TV, showing Korean programming for those young ones with small attentions spans.  It’s the type of environment that screams home cooking.  I love it.

As for the food, I decided on their special omrice-donkatsu combo.  For the uninitiated, omrice is an omlette but with fried rice in the middle.  It’s a popular dish in Korean and Japan.  It’s a favorite of mine and so is Donkatsu, so this is a win-win for me.

Once I ordered, the side dishes came out soon after.  This is a normal thing for most Korean eateries.  Usually, there is a meat side dish of some sort and there is always kimchi.  The famous DQ radish kimchee, of course, was present.

The radish kimchee has a peppery taste as you might expect.  It’s sweet with a nice fizzy tingle on your tongue as most good kimchees do.  Oh and most dishes you order at a shik dang come with a small bowl of broth, usually of some fish or seafood.  Hmmmm good.

The main even came in soon after.  I had a big smile on my face.  It’s like your mom coming in from the kitchen and placing a hot plate of goodness right in front of you.  Like most donkatsu dishes, it came with a small salad of shredded cabbage and thousand island dressing.  Don’t ask why.  I have no idea what the obsession with thousand island is with the Koreans.

The omrice was salty and sweet.  It was topped with ketchup which is typical.  I did like that they added some beef to the fried rice.  The donkatsu was a little dark but still nice and crispy.  The pork was super tender and juicy.  To top it off, they put “home made” donkatsu sauce.  This sauce is a thick, tangy, orange sauce that makes the dish super tasty.  They claim it’s home  made but I think it comes from a bottle.  Either way, it’s good.

What makes DQ even better is the fact that it’s super affordable.  My dish was only $7.95.  Most of the fare at DQ is well under $10.  It’s popular with the young ones for a good reason.  Home style cooking at an cheap price?  Yes, please.

If you are ever in town, check them out.  It’s highly recommended.

Don Quixote

3751 Satellite Boulevard
Duluth, GA 30096-8834
(678) 584-1129

Review: Diane’s Sidewalk Deli

Years ago, while searching for an place near work to get a quick sandwich for lunch, I discovered a little deli that has become one of my most favorite places to eat… Diane’s Sidewalk Deli. It might not be much to look at on the outside, it’s truly a delight inside with great specials, a large selection and almost Carnegie Deli sized sandwiches.

This particular trip was before I headed to the airport to catch my flight to Boston, a quick lunch on the way. We stopped in and our favorite waitress, an older lady who no matter how busy the place is takes a moment to laugh and say hello and make sure you know she remembers you and boy is she funny and friendly. Some of my more favorite items on the menu include their Corned Beef or Roast Beef on Rye. An enormous amount of beef in either sandwich, at least enough for two to three sandwiches. Add a little Russian dressing on the side and boy what a meal!

On my last trip I went with my other absolute favorite lunch, the Chicken Salad. Now this is not your normal chicken salad, it’s hands down the best chicken salad I’ve ever had. It’s served on a sandwich or a platter, but go for the platter. you not only get a HUGE helping of the chicken salad but also their delicious egg-potato salad and their coleslaw. I don’t like coleslaw usually but Diane’s is so sweet and not too runny… it’s the only one I like!

Not the best laid plan for a restaurant review… my lunchmate ordred the same meal as I! But we decided to split half a corned beef sandwich and fries, because it’s just sooooo good!

I love to eat there, and Diane’s never fails to disappoint in it’s quality, portions and price. I highly recommend it. 4 pans!

Diane’s Sidewalk Deli
500 Chesterbrook Boulevard
Chesterbrook, PA 19087-5603
(610) 296-9955

Review: Brickside Grille – Brunch

A little while ago, I wrote about one of my favorite restaurants… the Drafting Room. In that review I mentioned the Drafting Room’s sister restaurant, the Brickside Grille. The Brickside Grille is one of my other favorite restaurants in the Exton, PA area. We frequent the Brickside for dinner quite often but I’ve never been there for brunch so I decided a few weekends ago to go and write a review.

The Brickside is a large restaurant, with a wood burning stove and raw bar in the center separating the dining room and bar area. It’s cozy and warm with lots of windows so it gets nice natural light. As we were seated I noticed that most of the bar tables were removed to accommodate the three tables of food for brunch. We looked over the menu and decided to have the all you could eat buffet. One interesting thing to me was that even with the all you could eat buffet, there were a number of egg choices you could order from the kitchen which were included in the price. We ordered the Crab and Spinach Eggs Benedict, a few mimosas and headed up to the buffet.

The buffet was organized in three different tables, breakfast to the right, breads, pastries and fruit in the center, and seafood to the left. There was also a frittata station, pancake bar and a carving table. The carving station offered Prime Rib, Baked Ham and Salmon. The pancake bar was custom made pancakes and the frittata station offered a large selection of choices.

The breakfast area offered a nice selection of bacon, home fries, sausage, sausage gravy, buttermilk biscuits, cheese blintzes etc. The seafood area had chesapeake oysters, topneck clams, peel and eat shrimp, black mussels in red sauce, house smoked salmon, whole whitefish, white fish salad. Fresh fruit, brownies, muffins, cookies and cream puffs rounded out the selections.

I can’t lie. I had three plates! All of the food was excellent and well prepared. Buffets are never as good as cooked to order in my mind since the food has to sit out so long and is made in big batches, but the food was good. The crab and spinach eggs benedict were especially good, the eggs perfectly poached and the presentation was perfect.

My first plate contained was more breakfast oriented with muffins, potatoes and bacon.

My second plate was more lunch, loaded with all sorts of food, prime rib, ham, oysters and asparagus wrapped in prosciutto yum!

My third plate was dessert. So many little treats to eat. Brownies, Creme Puffs and even Peanut Butter and Jelly pockets!

All in all, the brunch was very good, while I still prefer dinner at the Brickside, I’d go back for brunch anytime! 4 pans.

Brickside Grille
Eagleview Town Center
540 Wellington Square
Exton, PA 19341
610-321-1600
http://www.bricksidegrille.com

Review: Cafe 2 at MoMA

This weekend, I was lucky enough to have one of my very best friends in the world, who happens to live in Japan here in the States visiting with me. He’s been a few times and usually our routine is the same… he comes to visit, we avoid touristy things and just hang out and just act as if we don’t live a 7,000 miles from each other and finally, we go to NYC for one day and one night. The goal of going to NYC is to have one big adventure, in a somewhat familiar place before he starts his 14 some hour trek back home.

This time around we decided our big adventure would be to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). We left Philadelphia and travelled by train (my preferred mode of transportation to NYC) and arrived at about 1130am. We were both quite hungry but decided to head off in the near zero wind chill temperatures and walk from the hotel to the MoMA, stopping along the way to see the Christmas Tree at Rockefeller Center and to look for some Italian food. When my friend from Japan is here in the States, we try to sample all different kinds of cuisine, especially ones he cannot easily get back home. While we looked and looked out on the street for a nice Italian place, we could find none. I then remembered that the MoMA had quite a few places to eat inside and one of them served Italian food so we decided to just go there.

The MoMA does in fact have three places to eat… the Modern, a rather pricey, rather fancy restaurant located on the first floor, Terrace 5, a full service Cafe on the 5th floor and the restaurant we chose Cafe 2… a lovely cafe on the 2nd floor.

Cafe 2 is a rather unique from the other sort of places I’ve eaten in while at a museum. Not only does it offer excellent Italian fare, it’s a very interesting place to eat. It’s always very busy and you stand in line for a quite a bit waiting to place your order. While in line, there are some laminated menus that float from person to person as well as a huge wall with the menu printed on it. The menu is very large and quite diverse. From Antipasta, to Cheese Plates, Pasta to Espresso, there is something for everyone and choosing what to eat is no easy task.

Once you decide what you will order, you approach a cashier where you give your order and in return you are given a “number” to take with you to the table. The seating is family style. Long tables with chairs on either side adorn the small dining room and you just pick an empty spot and have a seat. Your meal is prepared for you and delivered to your table by the wait staff.

My friend and I were quite hungry at this point and we decided to order quite a bit of food. I’m always surprised by my friend’s insistence on having a balance to our meals. No matter where we go and what type of cuisine we might be having, we always order some sort of vegetables, be it a salad or actual veggies and today was no exception. We decided to share the “Hearts of Romaine” salad, and he ordred the Cavatelli and I ordered the Rigatoni. We got our “number” and found a nice table near the window and waited.

The salad and pasta came fairly quickly. First we sampled the salad. It was an enormous plate of romaine hearts topped with sun-dried tomatoes, toasted pine nuts, shaved parmigiano cheese and finished with a creamy parmigiano vinaigrette. It was divine. The pine nuts and roasted red peppers were perfect together.

Next up were our pasta dishes. My friend chose the Cavatelli. It was a very generous bowl of pasta with chicken, mushrooms, and white beans served in a chicken broth with a strong flavor of parmigiano cheese. A perfect selection on a cold winter day… the soup was warm, delicious and hearty.

My entree selection was the Rigatoni. The Rigatoni was quite a bit smaller than usual, almost like it had been cut into thirds while being made. It was tossed with a light tomato and parmigiano cream sauce and ground italian sausage. Topped with a generous helping of cheeese, it was delicious and not as heavy as I had expected.

All in all our lunch was amazing and I enjoyed Cafe 2. That being said, there were some negatives to the experience that will subtract from it’s rating. First of all… the place was really, really busy and there were way to many waiters and waitresses. They moved very inefficiently and twice we were almost covered in someone’s lunch. Also, I’m not really a fan of family style seating. It was quite difficult to hear my very soft spoken, nervous to speak English friend over the patrons to our left arguing in Hebrew and the couple out on a date speaking in Italian to our right . I suppose with a different luncheon partner I might not have noticed those things but it was loud and crowded none the less.

What I could not look past was the price. I’ve never really spoken on price before in a review but Cafe 2 at MoMA was absurd. Our lunch cost us $56.00. That was for two people at a museum. I realize it is New York and we were paying for convenience but it was really too expensive.

All that aside, the food was wonderful and the experience was unique so I’m going to give Cafe 2 at MoMA four pans. I’d love to hear if anyone else has eaten at Cafe 2 and what your thoughts are. Feel free to leave some comments below!

Cafe 2 at MoMA
MoMA
9 W 53 Street
2nd floor
New York, NY 10055
http://www.momacafes.com/c2/c2.html

Review: King Street Grille

While searching high and low for places to eat and review around work, I stumbled upon a memory I had of going out with some coworkers to a place where most of us ate a delicious diner style breakfast but one of my party had a enormous bowl of noodle soup that I would have sworn was listed on the menu as Vietnamese. I was fairly sure that I did not dream of this magical place and after some asking around to the folks in my department, it was revealed to me that the place I was thinking of was the King Street Grille.

An unassuming little diner that has been around for what seems like forever, tho not in it’s current location. Originally located on King Street in Malvern, PA (hence the name), it moved at some point to it’s current location on Route 30. Inside it’s a typical diner with booths and tables and some interesting stained glass work.

Now at first glance, it looks like a typical diner menu as well. Appetizers, Breakfast any time of the day and standard entrees all the usual suspects, but hidden on one page is a section, very unfortunately titled “Asian Persuasions”. And in this section are a few noodle soup dishes. I’d never tried any of the soups but that day for the sake of the review and my curiosity, I was there to eat the noodle soup.

We stared the meal with an appetizer of Quick and Dirty Nachos, which were just that. Quick and dirty… tortillas, canned chili, jalapenos and cheese, lots of shredded cheese. Just like mom used to make!

For our main course, my lunch companion went with something sort of unique on the menu… Blueberry Muffin French Toast. It was honest to goodness blueberry muffins sliced and cooked French Toast style. They were served with blueberry syrup and cinnamon butter. I had never seen anything like it but apparently this is a King Street Grille “thing”… they even had “Cinnamon Bun” French Toast! I will not lie… they were amazing! Who knew that you could make Blueberry muffins into French Toast?

For my main course I ordered something they called “Korean Celebration Soup”. The dish was described as “…a huge bowl Garlic & Ginger kissed Broth w/ Shredded Beef, Rice Noodles, & Veggies Dumplings. Finished with Dropped Egg Whites, & Smoky Sesame Oil”. First of all, let me be clear… it was a HUGE, HUGE bowl, enough for 2-3 people! The broth was rich and well seasoned loaded and tasty veggie dumplings, but I could not find any trace of noodles but there were these oval shaped somethings. Seriously, I had no clue what they were, my mind reasoned they were some sort of vegetable, like a water chestnut, but my taste buds certainly thought it was some sort of noodle or pasta. It turned out (once I had a chance to do some searching on the iPhone) to be a korean rice cake noodle, something I had never had before, but really enjoyed. It was a very different kind of noodle but it added a lot of texture to the soup. I really enjoyed the soup and was sad when I got thru most of the noodles and dumplings because there was still so much broth left to drink! The soup was served with a small bowl of what I’m pretty sure were pickled vegetables.

In short, the food at the King Street Grille was not only delicious, but impressive in it’s variety. I give it 4 pans and I will be going back again to try the breakfast soon!

King Street Grille
182 East Lancaster Avenue
Malvern, PA 19355
(610) 644-264

Review: Jimmy’s BBQ

Earlier this week, while having one of those days where you just had to get out of the office, I stole away with my partner to a little place that I had driven past dozens and dozens of times and never noticed… Jimmy’s BBQ.

Yelp.com gave it four stars and the reviewers stated that it was some of the best BBQ they’d had in the area. Now my favorite BBQ restaurants (yes two of them) are both in NYC. Virgil’s BBQ and RUB (Righteous Urban BBQ) are both great places and of course they’re on my short list of places to review in NYC as soon as I get back there. I wasn’t expecting much from Jimmy’s BBQ for lunch but boy was I wrong!

We arrived at the place smack in the middle of the lunch rush and to my surprise, Jimmy’s was relatively empty. We were greeted by the owner who explained to us that they do a dry rub BBQ and that everything is smoked over hickory in the giant smoker at the back of the restaurant. We even watched them put some of the meats in, but to be honest, I was too nervous to snap a pic. We decided to do it up Dammit Let’s Eat style so we ordered two of the “Any Two Meats” plates to be sure we could sample each of the four meats they were serving. It certainly didn’t hurt that you also got four side dishes!

The four meats were, pulled chicken, pulled pork, beef brisket and chorizo sausage. Each “Any Two Meat” plates were also served with a slice of white bread (natch!).

The sides we loaded up on were collard greens, potato salad, creamy mac and cheese and cornbread.

Ok so on to the important stuff… was it good? I have to say it was. I tried the meats plain and with each of the three sauces they had on the table, one was mild, one was spicy and the other was vinegar. Each of the sauces was really quite tasty and the hickory smoke really penetrated the meat and made it oh so tender and flavorful. Also I think you got a pretty good serving of meat for your money (15$ for the “Any Two Meat”). The sides however were hit or miss, the mac and cheese while tasty, was a bit run of the mill, the greens were bland and under seasoned, the corn bread was moist and not too sweet and finally the potato salad was on point and I wanted much more that they gave me.

Overall, Jimmy’s BBQ is a hidden little gem of BBQ not too far from work. The BBQ was delicious even if the sides left me a little meh. I would go back in a heart beat. Definitely a solid 4 pans from me.

Jimmy’s BBQ
309 W Lancaster Ave
Paoli, PA 19301
(610) 879-8805
http://www.jimmysbbq.com