Review: Ooka

A few weekends ago while visiting my dad I had a craving for some Japanese food. He’s not one for Japanese food so I had to hit up the internet to find a nearby place. I was worried because you never really know what you’re gonna get. What level of food? A rush job, a fancy place, a fusion place or a very authentic experience. I saw Ooka and noticed it got some good reviews. I asked my dad if he knew where it was… and he said he thought it was that “big place up the road”. Lucky for me I speak “dad” and realized it was that big place up that I noticed more than a few times and had always wanted to try. How lucky is that?

Turns out it was very lucky. We arrived at Ooka at dusk. The outside of the restaurant is really nicely decorated, fairly upscale and a bit out of place near a big mall and across from a strip mall.

Once we entered the restaurant, I noticed that the very upscale look of the outside continued inside as well. The left side of the place is a standard dining room and the right side was a very nice Sake bar. We of course sat in the dining room as we were there for dinner. It was large with good sized tables and a sushi bar at the rear.

We sat down and took a look through the rather large menu. I knew of course that I wanted some maki sushi, my partner decided he’d join me so we could get a good sampling of Ooka’s sushi choices. My dad, not a big sushi fan was on the prowl for something cooked. For appetizers everyone seem to want to sample the Seaweed Salad, I decided to also get some edamame and the pork gyoza, dad chose the Blue Shrimp Cocktail.

All of our appetizers were delicious. The edamame was crisp and salty, the seaweed salad was fresh and the dressing, just tangy enough. The shrimp was fantastic especially with the wasabi cocktail sauce. Even the gyoza were good which has been a bit of a challenge for me these days since every where I seem to go they seem frozen!

We also had some cocktails with our apps. I opted for the pineapple yasumi which is a pineapple infused iichiko shochu. I loved shochu when I was in Japan but I did not care for this drink at all. Dad and my boyfriend had the two different variations of sake sangria Ooka offered. Dad went with the shiro
which was star anise, white wine, sake, Bacardi “O”, mango and pineapple. My boyfriend had gosai made with red wine, sake, Bacardi Limon, asian pear, fuji apple and lychee. The gosai was much more my taste although both were pretty good!

Next up was our main dishes. Dad (who is not a fan of sushi) found quite a few things on the menu that he wanted. He decided on the Duck Breast which was served with a balsamic-teriyaki reduction, asian pear compote and glazed sweet potato fries arranged in a little log cabin.

This dish was amazing. The duck (which as I found out at Chuti’s is just about the best thing in the world), was cooked perfectly and seasoned so well I couldn’t help but stealing a few pieces. The sweet potato fries once again made a liar out of me. “I don’t care for sweet potatoes” I said, but when one was rather rudely shoved in my mouth… it was like a bit of heaven. Just excellent.

Next up was the massive amount of maki I ordered. As always I start off with my “standards” Spicy Tuna, Philadelphia and California rolls. Boring yes but, they serve two purposes. They are available everywhere so they’re a good measure of how good the sushi is and, if the specialty rolls aren’t so great, I have something that’s usually pretty tasty to fall back on. They were all very good. Fresh and not too skimpy.

At Ooka I went big with three specialty rolls. First up the “309″ Roll. Named for the street “Route 309″ that Ooka Montgomeryville sits on, it was spicy tuna, scallion, avocado, eel sauce and a unknown spicy sauce. ABSOLUTELY amazing. I could have eaten way more than one of these rolls. Next up was the Creamy King Crab Roll: cucumber, avocado, albacore, creamy sesame sauce and masago. Almost as delicious as the 309 Roll, the creaminess of the sesame sauce combined with the crab and the avocado was just decadent. Last but certainly not least was the Montgomeryville Roll:tuna, yellowtail, salmon, shrimp, crab, avocado and masago. Also another great roll. I think sadly that the lack of a sauce on this one when I was loving the sauce on the other two made me sad but it was still great. The fish was fresh and the preparation was first class. Just delicious and soooo filling.

In summary, the food and the atmosphere at Ooka combined to make a memorable food experience. If I had any complaints it was the waiter. He was very loud and very forgetful. We had to ask for things a few times and when he delivered things, he always seemed to be at the next table before he left ours. However, even that could not darken the bright experience that I had at Ooka, not only will I go back but I will even try one of their other locations. 4 pans.

Ooka Montgomeryville
764 Bethlehem Pike
Montgomeryville, PA 18936
215-361-1119
http://www.ookasushi.com/new/montgomeryville.html

Review: Seven Stars

Last week was my partner’s birthday. We decided instead of making a big deal out of it that we would just head out for a nice dinner. I decided to use his birthday as an excuse to check out a very well known, old restaurant in our area called “The Seven Stars Inn”. The history of the Inn dates back to 1736, when the then owner of the land petitioned “His Majesty’s Justices” for the right to conduct a public house (inn) to house travelers from Philadelphia out to the Old Iron Works. The Inn was named “The Seven Stars” two hundred years ago in 1809.

Many people have recommended the Seven Stars to us. A steakhouse in Chester County, it’s a very old school place. Quiet, intimate dining rooms, with tables decked out in white linens it was very upscale, if not a little dated. I have to apologize in advance for the photos as the dining room was very, very dark. I did my best to clean them up, but they are what they are.

We walked in and were led thru the bar and lounge into a small, empty dining room. The decor was not my taste (It was very “country”), but the atmosphere was extraordinary.

Our waitress was one of the most enjoyable part of the meal. She was just our waitress. Not waiting on loads of customers, she spent lots of time speaking to us, and it was lovely. She noticed me taking photos and asked me just why I was doing so, I told her I was writing a review for my food blog and she offered to bring us samples of some things to try, even tho we didn’t order them. That was a nice touch.

The menu was very much what I’d expect from a steak house but I was overwhelmed by the size of the entrees. We started off with soup. I had the clam chowder, he had the crab bisque. The clam chowder was just right. Sometimes clam chowder can be kind of “sandy” and I don’t really like when the potatoes are super huge, and this chowder had neither of those problems. The bisque was also much better than I had anticipated. Super creamy and full of crab it was delicious. Our waitress was also nice enough to bring us a sample of the snapper soup as well. It was unlike any other snapper soups I’ve had. Thick and flavorful, it was almost more like a stew than a soup. There was a very strong flavor of nutmeg in it. It was the best snapper soup I ever had.

For our main courses, we chose two classics on their menu. My partner chose the “Seven Star’s” specialty… the 40oz Prime Rib. I went with the King’s Cut of Filet Mignon. An equally huge 20oz filet and I ordred it “oscar style”. I’ve eaten large cuts of meat before in other steakhouses, and in those places everything other than the meat is usually a la carte, but at the Seven Stars.. it wasn’t. Each entree came with a salad, bread, and two side dishes. This yielded entire too much food for both of us. The prime rib was as humongous as it was delicious. I had no idea just how big 40oz of prime rib, served on the bone would be but as you can see below… it’s huge!

My filet in my mind was even more ridiculous than the prime rib. When my plate arrived I could not believe how piled with food it was. The steak, since I ordered it “Oscar Style” was accompanied an enormous amount of lump crab, a huge handfull of asparagus and a lovely hollandaise . Add to that the fresh cut and fried onion rings, the baked potato and broccoli! There was hardly any room on the table! My steak was cooked perfectly and the crab meat was amazing. The hollandaise was great and the onion rings were the best I’d ever eaten!

Even tho I had an enormous amount of food left on my plate, we decided on coffee and dessert… why not right? I ordred the Molten Chocolate Lava Cake. A lovely devil’s food cake with hot chocolate truffle filling inside. It was amazingly delicious. I had it served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, which we were immediately able to identify as “Turkey HIll” brand. Turkey Hill is a local dairy that makes fantastic ice cream and it was nice to see them give the nod to a local place.

In short, the Seven Stars Inn is amazing. Not the best decorated place, but a great atmosphere, fabulous wait staff and unbelievably large portions and just outstanding food make this place a must visit in my book. 5 pans!

The Seven Stars Inn
Rte 23 & Hoffecker Road
Phoenixville, PA 19460
610.495.5205
http://www.sevenstarsinn.com

Review: Landmark Americana

After a very rough first day back to work after a very long, restful vacation, I decided that I surely needed a drink and a good meal and so I hit my trusty Yelp! to search for a new place to visit for dinner. I decided to look in another nearby area which usually has plenty of great restaurants, West Chester, PA. West Chester is a small college town, full of unique and fun places. We decided on a place called the High Street Cafe. A Cajun restaurant on the the main drag, we were disappointed when we arrived at 4:30pm and found out that it doesn’t open until 5:30pm. I asked my partner if he had any suggestions and he said there was a nice place across from our favorite Sushi place in West Chester but he could not recall the name so we took a quick drive over to Gay Street, parked near that favorite sushi place and found it… the Landmark Americana.

Nestled on the corner of Gay and S. Darlington Street Landmark America has a nice clean exterior which fit very well into the surrounding area.

We were seated almost immediately and I was impressed with the decor of the place. Though it was billed as a tap room first and a restaurant second, it was well thought out and the bar was far enough away from the dining room that it did not disturb our dinner.

Once we were seated, I ordered a Guinness as we perused the menu, I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of selections.

The menu, aside from being gilded, was full of lots of delicious looking and sounding food. We had a hard time deciding amongst appetizers and main courses. The one thing that caught my eye straight away was one of the appetizers called the Triple Dip. It was a platter with three different dips… a crab dip, a spinach and artichoke dip and a roasted garlic hummus. It was served with flat bread, crostini, veggies and nachos.

Each of the dips were fantastic. The hummus was particularly delish. We of course ran out of veggies and such long before we ran out of dip and just as I was going to ask for more, our salads arrived. Right on schedule. The waitress was obviously keeping a close eye on us as she was never late on a drink and all our food came our right on time.

For our main dishes, we ordered the braised short ribs and the steak and crab combo. The braised short ribs were definitely the better of the two dishes. The rib were perfectly cooked and seasoned, braised in a Guinness au jus, the flavors were deep and intense. My steak was no slouch, it was a flat iron steak that was cooked perfectly. The crab was delicious and served with a very interesting cocktail sauce that seemed to have a hint of mango or peach in it…YUM!

I really enjoyed the Landmark Americana. I found out while looking for the site online that it’s a small local “chain” of restaurants, two so far and a third opening soon. I am giving the Landmark Americana 5 pans. I loved the food, and I’m definitely heading back nit just because it was so good, but because there are so many things on the menu that I still want to try!

Landmark Americana – West Chester
158 West Gay Street
West Chester, PA 19380
610.701.9900
http://www.landmarkamericana.com/wc-home.htm

Recipe: Hot Crab and Artichoke Dip

Well it’s the holidays and that means parties and that means yummy snacky foody things! Here is one of my favorite things to bring to or make for a party. Easy to find ingredients and a quick and simple prep makes this one a winner.

Hot Crab and Artichoke Dip

Ingredients
½ lb fresh jumbo lump crabmeat
1 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 cup mayonnaise
8 oz. of canned quartered artichoke hearts
¼ cup chopped green onions

Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 400F.
2. Thoroughly drain the artichoke hearts and if desired, give a rough chop.

3. Drain, rinse and squeeze the crab meat to get as much moisture out of it as possible.

4. Roughly chop the crab so that you will have big chunks of crab in the dip.
5. In a bowl combine the mayonaise, cheese, artichoke hearts, crab and onions. Mix until all ingredients are incorporated.

6. Bake at 400F for 20 minutes.

Serve with bread or Triscut crackers.

Enjoy!

Review: The Drafting Room

I have been meaning to write this review from the very first time I was invited to blog on Dammit Let’s Eat. It’s just about my favorite restaurant in my area and a place I frequent at least once a week. This won’t be a review of a specific visit to the place but rather an overall review of The Drafting Room.

Years ago when I lived in Exton, PA, I found a very nice restaurant called The Brickside Grille. It’s a great restaurant and I will get a review of it up eventually. One night while eating with some friends one of them mentioned that the Brickside owners had another restaurant in the area called the Drafting Room. More of a tap room/upscale bar and restaurant than The Brickside Grill, they raved about the food and the service and with that my love affair with the place began. It’s an assuming place, again sort of in a strip mall, but once inside you forget that you’re on a very busy road running through the center of town. While it is dark inside, it’s cozy and warm, not too big and not too small. Sadly the place is actually so dark that taking photos of food and decor are tough. It’s one of the reasons it’s taken so long to get this review done, that was until I found out that they opened a SECOND location near my parent’s house. It is MUCH bigger than the original, better lit but still decorated exactly the same!

One of the first things I want to talk about at the Drafting Room is their incredible beer list. Deep and varied, you can find just about anything you want on there from local breweries to domestic microbrews to imports. For me, I love the fact that they have one of my favorite “beers” Framboise. It’s a Raspberry flavored Lambic Ale that I first had at Maison (see Chuti’s review here) and have trouble finding at most places. They get extra credit for having my favorite beer!

Now on to the food. I won’t even pretend like I don’t have favorites but… everything I’ve ever had at the place has been wonderful. I usually try hard to get an app, an entree and dessert. My favorite app is their Tri Color Nachos. I seriously go there just for the nachos! red, blue and corn nachos with refried beans, jack cheese and their own home made salsa and sour cream… they are simple but absolutely amazing!

Now that’s not to say that the other appetizers aren’t just as amazing. The Belgian Cheese Fondue with it’s three cheeses and cubed Rye & Black Bread is just so smooth and tasty and they give you so much bread that I can’t even finish it!

Now if appetizers aren’t your thing they have a daily soup special and this time of year, they have my favorite soup… butter nut squash soup. Their soup is so creamy and decadent, I could eat bowl after bowl until I burst!

So enough about appetizers and on to the entrees! My hands down favorite is the Texas Smoked Brisket. The brisket is slow roasted with molasses BBQ sauce and served with veggies and buttermilk whipped potatoes. To die for! Of course in the past few weeks since I decided to write this post, I’ve been ordering everything but the brisket to make sure I had a good feel for the rest of their menu.

Recently I’ve tried the Irish Bangers and Mash with it’s Dijon mustard demi-glace, beer braised sauerkraut and the intoxicating cheddar & chives whipped potatoes.

And the Crab and Shrimp Fettuccine, a delightful bowl of pasta with fresh crab meat, creole scampi and Roma tomatoes… quite tasty!

My most recent trip to the Drafting Room with my Dad and my partner was to the one near my parents and once again I resisted ordering my favorite brisket to try the decadent and indulgent Southern Fried Pork Chop. A huge pork chop, fried and served smothered in Apple Molasses Syrup, served with collard greens with bacon and three cheese baked Mac & Cheese. Talk about a heart attack on a plate!

Even their lunch menus is packed with some tasty unique sandwiches. Two of my faves are the Crab and Spinach Melt and the Buttermilk Chicken BLT. Both a little taste of nirvana!

And of course no trip to the Drafting Room would be complete for me without one of their scrumptious desserts! There is always something tasty on the menu from Key Lime Pie to Warm Apple Pie to another favorite of mine this time of year… Pumpkin Cheesecake. Oooh so rich and smooth with just the right amount of pumpkin flavor on a plate drizzled with caramel sauce… mmmm!

I’m sure it will come as no surprise at this point that the Drafting Room gets a five skillet rating from me. This is the place that I drag people to when they come to visit, and if any of you ever visit you’ll be in for a fabulous meal!

The Drafting Room
635 N. Pottstown Pike
Exton, Pennsylvania 19341
610-363-0521
or
900 N. Bethlehem Pike
Spring House, Pennsylvania 19477
215-646-6116
http://draftingroom.com