Jay M.'s Profile

We stay in Elizabeth whenever we're visiting relatives in the area and we're always looking for good places that deliver. Have been disappointed with the other Chinese places we've ordered from in the past, but NOT Jade Garden. Is it the best Chinese ever? No, not from the limited sample set we've had, however it certainly wasn't bad like a couple of the others we've ordered from!

Ordered a Roast Pork Egg Roll, Egg Drop Soup, Crab Rangoon, and Roast Port Fried Rice and couple of cans of Coca Cola. All tasted great to me. The food was hot, the drinks were cold. Nothing was greasy at all. Nothing was salty at all.

They delivery for free for orders over $10. They say they'll do Low Fat/Low Calorie/Low Cholesterol upon request (though, see the not greasy comment above).

Found this place on a quick trip to Home Depot. WOW. I was pretty amazed at such an awesome Chinese lunch place. Now can't wait to go back... again and again and again.

Had the Hunan Beef lunch special for $8.95. The special starts with a soup which with my choice was some of the best Hot & Sour soup I've ever had. The lunch platter comes with the entree, a salad, and an egg roll. The egg roll was clearly house made and was stuffed with excellent fresh ingredients. The Hunan Beef was excellent, and the salad was an unexpected surprise.

Speaking of unexpected surprises at the end there was a puff pastry filled with red bean paste... Mmmmmm.

You should go!

A couple of years, and a completely different experience. Skip Los Toltecos and instead check out Ranchero which is across from the shopping strip hell area of Winchester.

Lost Toltecos used to be so very good, but then they decided to cater to the college kid crowd and everything went down hill from there. Stupid juke box with too loud non-mexican music. Waaay too much grease in the food. Bar area that is "the scene" for who knows what reason. And to top it all off, they raised their prices for no good reason.

The food is just no where near as good as it used to be. Is ok, but it is much worse than it used to be.

Wow! Awesome Sushi in Winchester?!? It is about time. We have decent Sushi at a couple of different places in town, see the other reviews. However, this was actually REALLY GOOD Sushi. Now, since he's only been open for a day, it could just be that everything is super fresh from that. However after talking to the owner/chef during our lunch today, I'm pretty sure he's going to keep quality at the highest levels.

We had: Seaweed Salad, Miso, Shumai, Spicy California Roll, Cucumber Roll, Shitake (Marinate Mushroom) Roll, Hamaci (Yellowtail) Hand Roll, Uni (Sea Urchin),  Maguro (Tuna), Tobiko (Flying Fish Roe), Shrimp Tempura Udon, Geisha Roll (Shrimp Tempura, spicy, etc), Vegas Roll (Deep Fried Eel & cream cheese roll), and Red Bean Mochi. We're not eating dinner tonight... :)

Seaweed Salad was the average fare, it was fresh which is the most important thing. The Miso was awesome and not just microwaved real quick, didn't have tofu or seaweed in it, but that made it much easier to just drink with the Sushi as I like to. The Shumai while again, standard fare shipped in, was actually steamed as it should be instead of microwaved like everyone else does around here; some Japanese spicy mustard with the Shumai would have made it perfect, but they had Tempura sauce which was pretty good.

The California/Cucumber/Shitake rolls were all excellently prepared. Very happy to be able to get Shitake roll here in Winchester, I've been missing that. The Hamachi was fresh and excellent and the hand roll was very well prepared as well. The Uni was from California (avoid Maine Uni, might as well drink a bottle of Iodine) and as good as everything else. Frankly all the Sushi was excellently prepared and some of the best I've had anywhere outside of San Fran, Los Angeles, and New York. Easily on par with Blue Ocean and Arigato/JRIII in Fairfax and almost as good as the place in McLean I can never remember the name of (big house looking place in the middle of a neighborhood like area) and Kaz Sushi Bistro downdown. Of course, I've lived in Winchester for 5 years now, maybe all those places suck these days. :)

The Udon was simply the BEST I HAVE EVER HAD. The flavor was incredible, the noodles were cooked perfectly, the poached egg was perfectly runny and blended with the soup to make it incredible. Wow, just wow!

We were already full but the chef owner, Marcus, just forced us to finish the meal off with some Red Bean Mochi... my favorite. :) Basically, the best Sushi meal in Winchester by far, and the best we've had in a very long time. Hopefully there are enough folks in town to support Awabi!

CLOSED AS OF 1/24/09

This place had the absolute worst service I've ever seen in my entire life. I can understand why he recently went out of business. We went there three times, we only ate there once, which was the first time. The food was pretty good that first time, but the next two times we went we waited around for 15-20 minutes awaiting service but never got any. The second time we actually went up to the counter to order and they told us to take a seat and they'd come around (which they never did).

Yeah, understand why they closed doors. Sounds like he is still planning on having a Catering service which might work a lot better as if he is on site, service should be much less of an issue.

BOOOOOOOOOO! -- Closed in January due to the economy the sign on the door said. :( VERY SAD.

BEST DELI OUTSIDE OF NY/NJ AREA! :)

Okay, I don't know that for a fact, but Napoli's is every bit as good as all the various places I've been with my wife in the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island and other parts of the NY/NJ area that's she taken me. We absolutely love Napoli's and the new spot is really nice if a little hard to find.

You have to have their Cannoli for desert as well... mmmmmm.... so very tasty.

The Heart Stopper or Heart Attack or something is the best damn cold sub I think I've ever had as well. The Steak 'n Cheese Special is a little messy, but just wow!

Also, you can load up on cold cuts when you leave and be in heaven for a few days after leaving. :)

Ug, hate that Lucy had a bad experience at OBW. :( Do agree that she should have said something the staff would have been happy to help if given the chance.

As for Stephen M. that was there on NYE, that is really strange. We too were there on NYE 2009/2010 and must say that we had an excellent experience that very same night. We got there earlier, so not sure if the staff got wore down or what. Our food was as impeccable as always as was the service.

Sucks that folks won't just say something as I'm sure the staff and Ed (the owner/head chef) will do everything in their power to make things right.

Quite a pleasant surprise. We have often passed right by Mr. Noodle and chuckled about the name thinking we'd never go there. Last week, we decided to give it a try as our usual Sushi place in town was closed for weekday lunches.  Very glad this opportunity came up for us!

Is it the best Sushi ever? No, not really. Is it pretty dog gone good though? Heck yeah! The flavor was actually fine on everything we had, the construction wasn't the best with a few pieces falling apart. While that was annoying, it was still enjoyable.

The Shrimp Tempura Udon soup I had though was quite excellent. The Pho that I saw delivered to a table beside us looked excellent as well. The Kimchi was incredible too. The seaweed salad was a LOT BETTER than our normal place.

All-in-all, we're very happy and will likely return today. I'll be trying the Pho... and of course having some more Kimchi!

Also, the place was immaculately CLEAN! The CLEANEST restroom I've seen in ANY restaurant ever I do believe. That makes me very happy and believe that the owners really care deeply about hygiene.

Woot! An excellent BBQ join in Winchester. I'm happy! Their meats seem to be cooked mostly unsauced (if not completely) and you add your own choice of sauce. I had the four-choice combo with Ribs, Pulled Pork, Pulled Chicken, and Cajun Catfish. My wife had Pulled Port, Cajun Catfish, and the Beef Brisket.

We asked for a sample of all of the sauces, and they were all delicious. I wasn't crazy about the mustard sauce or the "fire" or whatever the hottest sauce was called, but they were still tasty. The North Carolina sauce was pretty good, but was too much vinegar. Need just a touch of tomato paste (I think) and chili powder to get closer to Lexington, NC style sauce.... well, at least Lexington BBQ. The Lexington style "red" slaw was good very close, but too much vinegar, back off a bit and it would have been perfect actually. Their pork rinds and potato chips are cooked on-site and tasty as well.

Enough about sauce and sides. You go to a BBQ place for the meat!

The ribs aren't like any I've had before. Not bad, just different. I got them dry and was expecting Memphis style. Instead they were very much like the ribs I'd have at a home cooked pig picken' in North Carolina. The meet was basically the pulled pork that hadn't been pulled yet. Again, not bad, just never had ribs like that before. If I ever get the ribs again, I'll just get them wet (which even as dry, they were pretty wet already).

The pulled pork was damn good. I wish it was chopped (did I mention I spent the first 23 years of my life in North Carolina?) but it was good as pulled pork. I used the North Carolina vinegar sauce on it, and was happy.

The pulled chicken I think was probably the best. I used the bourbon sauce (NC style with bourbon?) and was quite happy with it.

Had a bite of the beef brisket, was great with the Texas Mesquite sauce on it.

The Cajun Fried Catfish was ok. Needed more hot pepper in the breading. I won't get it again unless they make it spicier or have some Tony Chechere's Cajun Seasoning on the table for it. Was kinda bland as is.

The carrot cake was awesome. :)

Overall it was damn good BBQ. Wasn't great, but frankly if you're not going to Lexington BBQ in Lexington, NC or Country Kitchen in Greensboro, NC... can you even get great BBQ? I think not.

It seems I start some of my reviews off the same way... I really, really, really wanted to love this place, but in the end it just didn't deliver for me.

As awesome as the hush puppies and corn bread were at first, the place definitely has potential and I hope someone else comes along if they have a different opinion and gives their take on the restaurant. It is a very clean and very nice looking restaurant down by a marina. It has tons of promise.

Our food though wasn't exactly to our liking. Seafood seems to be a hard thing to review. The same restaurant (heck the same meal) can be one man's bait is another man's ambrosia. For myself, Captain Tom's in Kernersville, NC is by far my favorite seafood. It is North/South Carolina Calabash Style and I only wish I could recreate it outside of the Carolina's, but I don't think I ever will be able to.

I went to Slightly Up The Creek with my mom and step-dad. We drove past it before we went to a museum to check it out and make sure it looked like some place we'd like to go. Of course, I should clarify that one can't merely "drive past" this place. :) It is at the end of a very long residential street. Several times we thought about turning around and giving up, but we kept trudging along, then at the very last moment of patience you come around a very sharp curve, and BOOM there it is!

There is also a marina next door and boat docks. Very nice atmosphere and from the looks of you just want to believe you're going to find that perfect Seafood you're looking for!

When you walk up, there is outdoor seating available, and a sign proclaiming the 2009 People's Choice award for the local paper. That also inspired confidence in us! We walked in and the restaurant looks really clean and neat on the inside. Definitely nothing scary and made the place appealing. We went there on a lazy Sunday afternoon well before dinner time at 3:30pm. There was another couple that had just sat down before us, but other than that, empty.

We had excellent service from the host, server, and another server making sure water was full. Everyone was very friendly, attentive, and professional.

After ordering we were brought corn bread and hush puppies as bread service. Wow. Just wow, wow, wow. :) Talk about tasty! Mmmmm. Sweet corn bread that tasted almost like cake. Hush puppies were awesome, though I generally like a little minced onion, but they were great as they were. We were already talking about coming back on Wednesday when my sister is flying in to Newport News.

My mom ordered the broiled flounder with rice pilaf and cole slaw. My step-dad ordered the Captain's Platter (Fried Flounder, Shrimp, and Scallops) with mashed potatoes and cole slaw. I ordered the Admiral's Platter (Fried Flounder, Shrimp, Scallops, Oysters, and Crab Cake) and rice pilaf and cole slaw.

Everything seemed to be going great. The waitress stopped by and let my step-dad know that the mashed potatoes weren't going to be ready for about 20 minutes, would he like to change to something else. He decided to just get the mashed potatoes late. The food came and the plates looked awesome. Appropriately portioned... while normally I think I might complain about what seemed to be light on the portion size, let's face it, we are WAAAAAY too used to portions that are MUCH LARGER than they should be. When you see proper portions sizes, it looks smaller than you are expecting, but it is a proper portion.

My step dad gave me his scallops as he doesn't like them, so I took them and had the first bite of food. The scallop was awesome! It was everything I was hoping for and tasted great. Lightly breaded and at least tasted fresh. I announced that I was very glad we found this place!

Then my mom took a byte of her cole slaw. Ug she said. I took a bite of my flounder, frozen I said. She tried hers and agreed. My step-dad tried one his shrimp, pretty good... tried his flounder, not so much.

Other than the flounder which had that spongy texture that made us believe it had been frozen, our problem was mostly what I was talking about at the start of this review. One man's bait is another's ambrosia. I will say that I'm sure there are people who would have loved the meal, for us, it just wasn't exactly what we like. We ended up putting a little Splenda in the cole slaw which helped, some butter (and salt for me) in the rice pilaf which helped, I had to rely on tartar sauce to enjoy my crab cake (I normally don't like tartar sauce), and cocktail sauce to help my oysters. I normally don't use any sauce too much.

Again, while I only gave it two stars, that is our personal opinion, I certainly think others should try it and see if they've found their ambrosia.