Dossy S.'s Profile

Needed a place to get some work done and have lunch while the wife and kids were at Pairpoint looking at glass blowing.  Spotted Cafe Chew on Yelp and decided to check it out...

...and I'm very glad I did.  From the moment i walked in the door, I knew I'd picked the right place.  It smelled _wonderful_ inside!  Got myself an iced coffee, sat down, got the Wi-Fi password, and got to work.  Wireless connectivity was very good.

When the wife and kids were done with the tour, I went and picked them up and brought them back to Cafe Chew, where we had lunch.  The place was packed, very busy, and while there was a reasonable wait, it was just that: reasonable.  Coming from New Jersey, and used to the NJ/NY "speed" of service, it was refreshing to find someplace that knew how to operate, compared to most places where people move so slowly you wonder if they even realize they're supposed to be working.

The food was delicious.

I'm really questioning why I'm not giving this place 5 stars.  It probably deserves it.  If we go back to the Cape and visit this place again, and I have a similar experience, I'll definitely give it 5 stars the next time around.

I was originally going to give a 3 star rating, but Yelp's description for 2 stars - "Meh. I've experienced better." - convinced me to use that, instead.

Seriously, this place is "meh" - no reservations, seat yourself at our dirty sticky picnic tables after an *hour* wait just to get a seat, plan on dinner taking a long time because there's only ONE person waiting on 40+ people ...

Anyway, we decided to try this place out for dinner last night because some locals said this place had "the best lobster roll and clam chowder, ever."  I'll say this: they lobster roll portion was large, definitely enough for two or three people to share, and the clam chowder was very tasty.  Was the lobster roll worth $25?  Considering that the boat price of lobster continues to decline (it's less than $3/pound) ... the mark-up on those lobster rolls is *huge* ...

Overall, if you really love lobster, save your money and hit an all-you-can-eat lobster buffet and skip this place.  You're not coming for the service, decor or low price ... and the food isn't "best of" anything ... what they lack in quality they try to make up for in quantity, but given the high prices, you aren't actually getting a deal.  So, what's the point?

My wife and I stayed here for our 10th anniversary get-away, for two nights - 9/24 and 9/25.

I won't repeat what other reviewers have said about this place - pretty much accurate in our experience, except the jacuzzi was clean and the water was clear.

One issue we ran into was that when we called and made our reservation, we asked for two nights.  When we arrived, they only had our reservation for one night.  No big deal, we straightened it out the next morning.

We primarily chose this place initially for two reasons: 1) the offer of a jacuzzi tub, and 2) availability of smoking rooms.

The location is incredibly convenient with respect to Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun.

Custy's Restaurant is very close and is a wonderful all-you-can-eat lobster buffet - albeit a bit pricy but worth it if you can eat your weight in lobster like we did.

Overall, we enjoyed our stay and would likely stay there again if we plan to visit Foxwoods or Mohegan Sun again.

My wife and I decided to give Haruki a try tonight based on the reasonably positive reviews by other Yelpers.  Perhaps my expectations for sushi are higher than most, considering that I'm Japanese and I live in the NJ/NY area.

Overall, we had a nice meal - I had the hamachi donburi and she had a regular sashimi, and we shared a tempura soft-shell crab and we each had green tea, totalling $44 not including gratuity.

The sushi here isn't anything to write home about, but it's fine.  The sushi rice was a bit undercooked, a little too firm and dry.

This was my first Cracker Barrel experience and I now understand why people sound so enthusiastic about it - it's like a very reasonably priced but so much higher quality IHOP.  Southern-style breakfast is their niche and they do it well.

My wife and I chose this particular Hampton Inn on price - a fantastic low weekend rate on 9/26 and 9/27, 2009.

As usual, this Hampton Inn meets our high standards for Hilton family hotel brands.  A big plus is as of this writing, this particular location still offers smoking rooms, which is becoming more and more rare.

Everything is fantastic - the hotel is clean, well maintained, all of the usual amenities you'd expect, and the wi-fi signal is strong in our room, #322.

The only downside is there's no refrigerator in the room, but that's a trivial inconvenience given the niceness of the entire offering.

After several weeks of trying to try this place out for lunch and forgetting that they are closed on Mondays (oops), my wife and I were finally able to have lunch there today.

The lunch combo special for $6.99 is a great deal, which comes with two dishes and a choice of white rice or noodles.  If you are already familiar with Filipino cuisine, you will truly enjoy the savory and delicious offerings available.

I had Dinuguan (meat with pork's blood) and Calderetang Kambing (goat stew with vegetables) with white rice.  My wife had Kare-Kare (ox-tail stew cooked with peanut sauce and vegetables) and Menudo (meat stew) with Pancit Bihon (rice noodles).  We took home a Leche Flan for dessert.

The Dinuguan was a lovely dark black, salted just right and savory.  They prepare it without tripe, which was a pity, as other customers apparently dislike tripe.  I can't imagine how delicious it would be with nicely simmered tripe.  Mmm!

All goat dishes are special as the preparation involved is a labor of love.  The Calderetang Kambing certainly reflects this, as the meat was quite tender but still maintained its shape on the bone.  The sauce it is prepared in was a delicious combination of pineapple, green olive and potato with what appeared to be a bit of tomato for color.

The Kare-Kare was served with a small bit of Bagoong Alamang (shrimp paste) on the side, which gives this meaty dish a nice contrast, as the paste has a strong shrimp flavor and salty zest.  The peanut sauce is very subtle, mostly providing support to the meat flavor.

I'm not a big fan of Menudo -- sorry, Ricky Martin -- but GeePee's version is quite tasty.  Still, given the variety of other choices, I don't think I'd order this more than once.  Let me be clear: there was nothing wrong with the dish, it's just that the others are so much more exotic.

We took the Leche Flan home for dessert and I'm sitting here, eating it now.  At $5, it might seem expensive, but make no mistake: eating this one $5 Flan is SO much better than eating three $2 flans made elsewhere.  If you're a lover of good custard, I would say it's worth a trip to GeePee's for the Flan alone.  I'm not kidding.

I am so very glad that I was finally able to try their food and I am certain I will be going back there many times in the future.  If you enjoy Filipino food, your mouth and stomach will be thoroughly pleased with this place.

I rarely rate something with full 5 stars - I have no problems giving 4, but 5, rarely.  This place's food has earned 5 full stars in my opinion.

We  had dinner at Pandan tonight at 4 PM.  On-street parking for a Sunday afternoon wasn't unreasonable.  The area of Broad Street where the restaurant is located is pleasant.

We had the Pandan special tea to drink: a delicious green colored drink with slices of soft young coconut and green jello. A very tasty drink and a lively green color to go with the Pandan theme.

We started with an order of Som Tom salad.  It was mildly spicy--more like zippy--and the carrot, mango and papaya were fresh and crunchy. Just the right amount of lime juice to add sour flavor to sweet salad.

For entrees, we shared a Crispy Pata and Fried Bangus.  The pata was seasoned evenly and fried so that the meat was tender but the skin was crispy.  The fried bangus was fresh and deboned masterfully - the fish's own oil was delicious and it had not been affected at all by the deep-frying.

We finished what seemed like an already unbeatable meal with a Sans Rival for dessert.  Trying to describe its wonder would cheapen its awesomeness.  Let me simply quote my wife's response to having experienced this dessert: "Food should not taste this good" and "I feel naughty eating this."  As its name implies, this dessert is without rival.  You have not lived until you've experienced it.  My wife ended up ordering an entire Sans Rival cake to take home--we'll be going back for more, I can already tell.

If your food tastes are diverse, you owe it to yourself to try Pandan Asian Cuisine.  But I warn you: it may spoil you and ruin all other inferior meals that you will have elsewhere, once you know how good it can possibly be.  You've been warned.

This place looks small from the outside, but it is HUGE on the inside! The dance floor is large and the sound is loud. The drinks are on the pricy side - $4 for a cup of beer (yes, a plastic cup! wtf?) ...

Still, it's nice to have a nice nightclub like Dexter's so close to home. I hope they continue to grow and draw more customers. If you're in the area, do check them out.

(Note: The venue is now "Piccolo's Restaurant" and not "Lotsa Pasta".)

Piccolo's is located just outside the East Gate of Smoke Rise in Kinnelon, NJ.

Went for dinner on July 3rd and chose to sit outdoors.  Our waiter was knowledgeable and superb, answered our questions, and was attentive.

I ordered the veal osso buco ($29) which was on the specials menu. The portion size was large but not overwhelming - I was able to finish it all without overeating, but I was very full.  The mushroom risotto was on the salty side which balanced out the osso buco which wasn't salty enough.  The veal was served separated from the bone on the plate, but the marrow was still intact inside the shank.  It was tender and just slightly dry - I prefer it a bit more moist.

I ended the meal with a single shot of espresso which was dark and creamy.

A fine Italian restaurant, a bit on the pricy side, but the food is fine.