erik "the Mango" w.'s Profile

Last week, the ladyfriend picked out Rio's for a mid-week date. Post Crossfit WOD and shower, we hopped in the car and headed over the east side. While Rio's neighborhood is a bit...terrifying...the food and dranks more then made up for the adventure.

Watch out you don't pass it, we had it in our GPS and still almost missed it behind the enormous condo(?) community that is being erected (heh) next to tiny little Rio. Parking was easy as there were a few spots behind Rio's and a ton on the side streets.

We meandered over to the patio and found a place to sit down. The patio is cute and sheltered from N. Pleasant Valley. It appears to be dog friendly as well, but there is some glass in the gravel. It appeared to be fairly dull though.

The paint job inside Rio's is really cool. It feels very Brazillian. You can order at the counter or there are waiters.

The service was great! Our waiter was very conscientious and knew the menu very well.

I ordered up this little lemon shaped pastry that was full of cheese and other goodness. It was amazing. Apparently it's called a Salgadinhos. I also ordered up Vegetais na Caneca, a tasty vegetarian entree. There is a lot of food in it that is pretty unfamiliar for Americans, so I would recommend this for the brave only.

Prices were very reasonable for food and wine. They don't have a license for hard liquor, but you can BYOC (Bring Your Own Cachaça). For $2.50 they bring you everything you need to make your own Caipirinha - just add booze.

So, I've only been to Logan's once and it was not on a night where there are awesome movie clips that everyone has been referencing. It seems a little odd for there to be dancing at this place though as Logan's appears to be a pretty dated restaurant.

Last Saturday we went to B.D. Rileys to watch the Pats game. Unfortunately, it was SO packed, that we decided to go to Logan's to grab some food (and find a place to sit). So we wandered in...

It was about 8pm when we sat ourselves as no one met us at the door other than the bouncer. The table we sat at had not been bussed, so my ladyfriend's sister cleaned the table off for us.

The interior brought me back to yesteryear as this place has not been updated in quite some time. I would probably offer it a pass, but not so much considering our experience. There are several TVs around the "restaurant".

After sitting for about 15 minutes without being approached by a waitress, we went up to the bar and ordered beers and food. The bartender was not apologetic when he told us that "there's going to be a long wait." Well, at least he said something.

45 minutes later, my veggie burger, but the queso I had ordered in the hopes of eating before we got our food was not. I should have known better and just cancelled it, but instead I reminded the food dropper offer (no waitress remember) went back and whipped up something real quick. The queso I got certainly did not match the description on the menu. There were no tasty jalapenos in it. It was merely a bowl full o' velveeta and a couple of diced up tomatoes.

Well the game was winding down on a positive note (45-10), so we decided to leave. So back to the bar to check out and wait in another line to get our check.

Pretty disappointing - unfortunately I was starving, otherwise I would have just left.

The Upper Decks is a good sports bar option if you're south of the river. I love that I can bring my dog, sit on endless square feet of decks, and watch the game on a big ass screen.

I've only been inside of Upper Decks once and it was nothing special. However, the outdoor decks are fantastic. Tons of seating and a great view of Austin - it's great for those of us who like being outside.

Food is solid. Nothing amazing, but better then most sports bars. The black bean burger is enormous and quite tasty. The queso is good as well. They have some healthy options as well - some large salads.  

They don't have as big a liquor selection as I would hope. It's pretty limited to your standards. Same with the drink menu itself. What if I want a Sazerac with my black bean burger? No go here. Beer menu is okay, but nothing to brag about either.

Service is always friendly, but it seems like every time we've been here we've dealt with slow service (at least 5 times). Last time we were there it took at least 20 minutes for someone to take our drink order, after it took 15 minutes for a table to clear up. No bueno!

Up the service speed and drank selection and this place would easily be 4-5 stars in my book!

For sentimental reasons this is one of my most favorite Italian restaurants in central Massachusetts. Before my Grandfather passed away, I took him here. He grew up in central Italy (Abruzzo). For those of you who do not know there is a long standing dislike between the northern Italians who are industrious and the southern Italians who are (much) less so. When my Grandfather saw that the owners were from Calabria, I thought we might need to leave given his reaction.

However, we both ordered up a tasty Eggplant Parm sandwich. The sub itself is enormous and cooked to perfection in my opinion. It's a pretty tasty piece o'eggplant and cheese. My grandfather and grandmother (both full-blooded eye-talians) agreed that this place has some pretty tasty food. They have catering and delivery as well.

The atmosphere is nothing to get too excited about - it's a simple restaurant that is setup to be a lunch joint. Not a good date place. They also have what appears to be an excellent selection of Italian desserts, but I have not tried any of them.

Unfortunately for those of you who have read this far, I have been to this restaurant a dozen times, but have only ever ordered the eggplant parm sub when I've come here. So, I really can't speak to the quality of the food other than the eggplant. But, if you want a good eggplant parm sub, this good sir, is the place to be.

So, if this restaurant wasn't in perhaps the Pizza capital of the world, it would be 3 or 4 stars. Unfortunately for Hell's Kitchen Pizza, they are located in the city with the best pizza in the world (that's right Chicago).

I visited a few friends in Hell's Kitchen for New Years Eve. After walking about 3.5 miles to get to their apartment, I had built up a ravenous appetite for my favorite drinking base, pizza.

On my buddy's recommendation, we decided to go to Hell's Kitchen Pizza, which is about 2 blocks from his hood. The restaurant itself is literally about the size of a large walk-in closet. There are a couple of small tables and a counter to order food.

There were several pizzas, but only two were veggie friendly. I ordered a sicilian and two regular slices of margarita (sp?) pizza. They were greasy as heck, but it's pizza and will always and forevermore be greasy.

However, there really wasn't anything memorable about my experience at Hell's Kitchen Pizza. Skip this one for one of the other amazing pizza joints in NYC.

Quite honestly, I am shocked at some of the reviews of this restaurant. Not only was the food at Grace excellent, the service, and the atmosphere were superb.

It was raining like mad when we walked over to Grace from a local pub. Not quite sure as to where Grace was located, we relied completely on my Droid to steer us in the right direction.

After we dried off in the conveniently located bathroom near the front door, we wandered up the stairs to the main room. This restaurant is absolutely gorgeous.  There really is no way to describe it with words and photos do not do it justice. I was struck by the polarity between the modern kitchen and bar compared to the ancient church (it was constructed in 1855). The kitchen is open to the rest of the restaurant and is located where the altar would be located. The seating was a mix of pews and chairs. The bar was gorgeous and located in the middle of the room.

We were sat very quickly. The drink list was lengthy and the dranks were strong. I ordered the Holy Julep (bourbon drank) and my ladyfriend ordered the Heated Affair. Both drinks were excellent and reasonably priced.

The food was a tad on the expensive side, but this is not the type of place you'd go for a bite to eat - better for a celebration or special occasion. A great place for a hot date (definitely a third date material). I ordered the Housemade Ricotta Cavatelli and we got some brussel sprouts. Good stuff!

The service was fantastic. Our waitress was super nice and came back multiple times throughout the night to make sure we had plenty of bevvys and were enjoying our respective meals.

We didn't save any room for dessert, but we did save room for a nightcap. They have a respectable scotch menu here.

If you live in the area or are just visiting, this is a great place to check out.

The New England Aquarium is timeless. Seriously. I don't think this place has changed since I started going 2 decades ago. Actually, I take that back, I'm fairly certain the awesome jellyfish exhibit is relatively new (last 5 years).

Regardless, this is one of my favorite aquariums. Even though it is 2 days before Christmas, it was not packed to the hilt with a bunch of little snotty kids running around.

The exhibits are all maintained very well and the staff is incredibly friendly. We had one old gent come up to us when we were staring at the exhibit of a Massachusetts island beachfront and give us the life story of a few of the birds in the exhibit and describe every single piece of foliage, fauna, and fish. Talk about awesome. I've never learned so much in 5 minutes.

The big salt-water tank is a ton of fun to check out. They have a pretty fun selection of big fish, sharks, and turtles. Outside of the big tank there is a plethora of penguins & seals. There are multiple petting areas where you can cop a feel of a skate or a flounder or two. They also have fun events that go on during certain hours of the day.

Recommendation: pre-game at the 21st Amendment (or another local bar) to take your experience to a "whole, 'notha, level."

Met up with a couple of friends here at the 21st Amendment while I was in town for Christmas/New Years. The entire time I was here, I couldn't stop thinking about Nucky Thompson from Boardwalk Empire, which is one of my new obsessions.

The atmosphere in the 21st Amendment is interesting - everything looks very old including the building (it probably is). It has a pretty neat post & beam construction.

There was a solid, albeit not enormous drink menu. They have a handful of good beers on tap. We were pre-gaming for the New England Aquarium, so I ordered up something a little stronger, an egg nog & bourbon drank, which was the tasty. Highly recommended. Overall, the drinks seemed very reasonably priced.

The food menu was lengthy. I opted for the Portobella sandwich with sweet potato fries. The sweet potato fries, which is how I measure the quality of a restaurant, were very good.  My sandwich was also tasty.

Great little bar in Beacon Hill - definitely swing by for a reasonably priced lunch.

I am a very anal car owner, but this weekend it was just too cold to wash the dirt and grime off of my car from several weeks of sitting in my driveway while I was away on vacation.

Instead, I flipped open my laptop and searched for a good & inexpensive place in town.  The Final Touch stood out because the reviews were all quite good and the prices are reasonable.  

I popped in around 11:45 on a Sunday and handed my keys to one of the guys there. They took my car through the "Soft-Touch Treatment" for $16.99.  This includes a wash, a drying, wheel & tire wash, and an interior vacuuming.

The results were pretty darn good. The wash went well - no new scratches or anything to be alarmed about. My carpet is pretty clean. My wheels are an absolute bi$*@ to clean, but they did a pretty good job on those too. Just a few missed spots, but nothing major.

All vegetarian food makes this place pretty awesome for us veg heads.

To preface this, I rarely, if ever, go out to eat Indian food. I don't understand the menus and the food is a little too mysterious for me. Same holds true here as well. The menu is a pretty long list of Indian food names, but not a lot in terms of a description, so it's always a surprise for what you're actually ordering.

Last time I was at Bombay Express, I ordered the Cheese Dosa because I like cheese (still don't know what a Dosa is). What came out was an enormous, glorious, crunchy, cheesy pizza shaped "dosa".  It was amazing - particularly when dipped in the tasty sauce that it came with.

Although the atmosphere in this restaurant is lacking (it's basically Indian fast food), it is very inexpensive and the mystery food is quite tasty. Highly recommend it for a quick lunch.