Jeff "It's A Cookbook!" H.'s Profile

Get pickup or delivery but don't eat in.

Really, I love the pizza. I generally get it on Monday nights when they do the pay when you pick up special (5pm, it's $5 for a large plain... plus a $1 rise in cost of flour charge which is whatever). Ate in once last winter and the service was bad but not intolerable.

Went last night with a friend. We stood in the doorway for a while. The waitress (the, because they seem to only have one) eventually sort-of greeted us and cleaned off a table. Disappeared. We seated ourselves, which is fine, but there was a period of... what do we do, is this a seat yourself? Waitress walked past us a few times, eventually said she'd be right back to take our order. Came in and out of the dining room a few more times, making eye contact with us, and ignoring us.

We walked out.

This woman must be family because no reasonable restaurant would keep a person like this on. This is nothing new, friends of mine who introduced me to the place warned me about "the waitress". I guess some of the blame has to rest on the management for only having one waitperson and for allowing this to continue.

What donuts should be! (Haven't moved on to their other wares yet.)

One of my housemates brought Eiselen's donuts home a week or two ago. I've been thinking about them ever since. As far as their donuts go I think they're mostly the yeast type. However, they have a substance a lot of places' yeast donuts lack.

What really does it for me is the cream filling (giggity). That's definitely real butter in there. Much more rich than but similar to what DD's filling used to be like (ages ago).

Looking forward to a flimsy excuse to try a cake!

(Four stars only because I've only been once, so far...)

Baker Street is where I usually go when I need nice bread for dinner, or because I can't find challah at the grocery store. I'm no bread connoisseur but I've never been disappointed.

However, I do have to agree that this place really stings the wallet. I understand the prices of basic things like flour have been on the rise but $4.25 for a baguette seems excessive even if it does have Parmesan cheese on it. What Would The French Do? Well, first they'd probably be disgusted at the thought of a cheese adulterated baguette... but past that.. what?

Good bread, just not suited to the thrifty twenty-something's wallet. Something to look forward to.

(And as always, remember, three stars isn't a bad review.. it's A-OK!)

You know, it's not fancy but it does the trick.

My thing lately has been shallots. Some stores don't have them at all, the grocery store I usually goes to has them for the equivalent of $16/lb prepackaged in 3 oz packages. Granted, you can't choose your own stuff at produce junction but right now the going rate for shallots at PJ is $1.50 for a 1 lb bag. I'm sure there'll be a dud or three but I saved plenty of money and I can plant or compost the rest.

I do avoid the loose greens and the more perishable things. I usually go for lemons or potatoes and generally they've been fine. They've got good prices on seasonal things like $5 carving pumpkins (basketball-ish size) at Halloween, cheap mums.. that sort of thing. The flowers look ok to me and I like to think that my departed relatives don't find them offensive.

I'd say if you're fussy skip PJ but even at that if it's convenient for you and you're making something where the final product is going to be relatively indistinguishable like fruit salad, apple sauce, mashed potatoes, etc. you could save yourself some money.

Just to add to my original review, Penzey's can be (and in my experience is almost always) significantly cheaper than the grocery store.

I'd gone to Penzey's yesterday to get a few things for a recipe I wanted to make only to get home and find out I'd forgotten cloves. It was a nice day outside so I figured I'd just walk to the Acme which is much closer. Wrong! For a .9 oz jar of cloves Acme wanted $9.39 (Pathmark wants $10 something for the same product). Drove back up to Penzey's where I got a 1.2 oz jar for $3.09.

What's more, at Penzey's the tiny jars of things are generally more expensive ounce for ounce than the plastic bagged spices they offer and it was still ~1/3 the price of Acme.

Same thing happened to me this summer when I tried to buy cream of tartar at the grocery store and it was twice as expensive as Penzey's.

I don't know if all this is just due to Penzey's buying power or something dark and sinister, and I don't want to. I've learned my lesson... Penzey's it is.

They had a decent selection but I was under the impression that the point of Atlantic Books was that they discounted well.

I stopped in and was looking at a book when I asked an employee if it was missing the price tag and she responded that everything was 10% off list price. I'm supposed to get excited about 10% off list price? Even the big box places which tend to have crummy prices can usually match or outdo that to say nothing of used or even new books on Amazon. A disappointment, I'll pass.

The food here is great, something I really can't stress enough. To me many of the dishes seem a tad expensive but oh well. What I can't believe no one else has experienced is the service. I've been to Shundeez probably five times now and every single time there's been no more than two other tables occupied yet the service was glacial.

Truly great food and a friendly owner, but slow service ruins it for me. Would love to see them hold on to some more attentive and personable servers. A more visible location would probably do them a world of good, it's tucked back in a little strip mall sort of thing next to the Borders and off one of the shoppers lots.

In the market across from the restaurant you can find some things for making Persian food at home that can be difficult to find other places such as barberries.

I don't think there's a whole lot left to be said about Dalessandros, with almost 80 reviews I think the reputation is solid.

The cheesesteak is fantastic and they've got a fairly extensive beer selection. What I really enjoy about Dalessandros is the service. It's been the same pair of women behind the register and counter every time I've gone and they've been pleasant. Took a friend for lunch one day when it was packed and they still asked at least two or three times if we needed anything.

I don't really dig the attitude/abuse sold to tourists at some other places and appreciate Dalessandros not playing that game.

Don't know how long its going on but as of my most recent visit yesterday they're running a $7.99 cheesesteak and Stella special Monday-Thurs. Try and beat that.

It closed but someone is in the process of rehabbing/reopening it. There's an application for a liquor license posted in the window.

Have you eaten? What can I make you? You need to eat!

I really wish I didn't live so far away from Mrs. Robino's. I found out about it from my dad who used to take business contacts there for lunch in the days when Mrs. Robino was still with us. It's tasty, affordable, and something about the wood paneling and drop ceiling just says relax... let us feed you something.

Most recently had the cannelloni Florentine which were nice and firm on the outside and came with just enough sauce for there to be some to clean up with bread once the cannelloni were gone. They have a seemingly endless supply of Italian bread, I'm not sure how they find room for all of it.

Modest dinner for two came to about $20. They've got some great lunch specials too but sadly I'm rarely in the area around lunchtime.

I think they accept credit/debit but only begrudgingly. They ask on the check that you pay with cash if possible.