Albert "wahoowa's bff" L.'s Profile

Cafe 1010 was established with one principal goal in mind: to set itself high above the culinary void that is Charles Village.  If one seeks fresh, home-made, food made with care, one will see that Cafe 1010 brings a breath of fresh air not only to residents of University One, but also to those in the surrounding neighborhood willing to venture up to the condominium's 10th floor.

There are many qualities of this place that stand out from others. First and foremost, the cafe does not have a menu. Instead, the patron gives full control of their taste buds to the chef, who cooks up dishes of all regions, to her liking.  But don't be deterred: the food has as much flavor as it does in diversity.  Because an impending snowstorm caused everyone to hunker down in their apartments for the night (including myself), I had the opportunity to try one of her dishes today - the Moroccan Beef Meatball Tagine with Herbed Couscous.  For the flat fee of $5 (with her premium dishes at times at at a higher price), you will not find food made with such fresh ingredients elsewhere nearby, nor will you get so much of it as well.  The meatballs were wonderfully spiced and sprinkled with golden raisins to give a perfect balance, while the moist coucous complemented the meatballs in a way that other forms of carbohydrates such as rice, pasta, or noodles could not match.  My bowl of couscous with meatballs came with a slice of banana bread on the side to clear my palette.  After taking a small break after the main dish, I enjoyed this dessert with a cup of milk.

Due to the cook's busy schedule, the cook has established her own blog [whyisfoodsogood (dot) blogspot (dot) com], in which she publishes days in which she is open for service.  By the time she publishes this, she is ready to serve eager patrons immediately.  All I had to do was call in, let her know that I was interested in a meal, and she had it ready for me within minutes.  Encouraging a greener environment by enforcing her "BYOB", or Bring Your Own Bowl, policy, the chef will guarantee that you leave with your bowl filled, and that you finish it feeling satisfied and happy.

this place is fabulously delicious. i have only had the teri-avocado burger combo (fries and a drink), but all the ingredients in the burger go together so well. still waiting for the opportunity to try their chicken salad when i can keep my hands away from the burger.

because i take the bus everytime to visit my girlfriend, and my transfer point is exactly at this intersection, i was able to seem them put this restaurant together and knew approximately the week they opened (+/- 1 week).  my first thought was, "huh. pho on saratoga and cathedral. interesting."  the location is a bit odd, but i didn't really mind because the 11 and 3 bus lines take me straight from the vicinity of my residence to the front door of this restaurant.  after reading some initial reviews by the folks at the baltimore sun, i decided to put this on my mental list of places to try.

my girlfriend and i went here for dinner on a weekend night, and when we entered, the very small restaurant (~8 tables) was completely packed.  a waiter came to greet us after cleaning up a table (he seemed to be one of three people running the whole restaurant that night - the other two were presumably the couple who own this place) and said that we would need to wait around 10 minutes for a table to get free.  there was no waiting space really, so he directed us simply to stand at the door, putting us in risk of being slammed in the face by the next entering restaurant patron.

after less than 10 minutes, we were seated and given the menu.  i won't duplicate a review my girlfriend already gave, so if you want the details of our food, please see Mary W's review (around 11/28/09).

although there are a few other pho/vietnamese places located around town (one in towson and another one along rte. 40), here's why i liked this place:

1.  this was a slightly more convenient location for me in my opinion
2.  although the prices here are also higher than surrounding restaurants, i would definitely pay the marginal price difference for some pretty amazing pho/ summer rolls.
3.   i had time on my hands, so i was willing to wait for the slightly (very little difference) slower service vs. other pho restaurants (due to the small size of the kitchen).
4.   the size of my party was not big (just my gf and me), so getting a table in a timely manner wasn't difficult.  larger groups should be careful when dining here.
5.   NO MSG. (major (+) points)

this is officially my go-to place for viet food in baltimore.

My mother somehow had this written down on her list of restaurants to try. When I asked her where she got the recommendation from, she had no idea. So we tried it anyways....

we arrived there around 630pm on a saturday night, and noticed that it was pretty empty; however after an additional 10 minutes every single table managed to fill up. the place is well decorated with its coyote theme, and had two relatively large HDTVs in the bar/entrance area on opposite sides.  we were promptly seated and given chips. the first thing i noticed about the chips was that they seemed old but they were somehow very hot still, which led me to the conclusion that these things have been kept under a heat lamp. -1.

i continued to look on the menu and saw the menu identical to the one online: a mix of "mexican" dishes along with tex-mex and straight up american fare.  nothing on the menu seemed particularly appetizing, and the restaurant offered no daily specials either.  our order:

2-item plate with chicken enchilada and carnitas enchilada - both were extraordinarily bland.  the carnitas was probably the least moist that i've tried in a long time, and the chicken was underwhelming.  both were covered more in cheese than in sauce: fortunately their plethora of hot sauces (3 whoop-ass hot sauces (mesquite, chipotle, and hickory) and a cholula, along with salt and pepper) helped mitigate the bland flavor.

3-item plate with chicken taco, some other taco and chile relleno: similar to what was described above.  The chile relleno was munificently covered in cheese, while the pepper itself was almost nowhere to be seen.

mexican lasagna: this was the only dish that seemed pretty distinctive/wasn't drenched in cheese (ironically).  i didn't try it, but the person who did seemed to enjoy it. a tinge of spiciness.

turkey jalapeno enchilada: "tasted like chicken."

casa noble tequila sampler ($16): smoother than expected.

Overall, if you didn't already notice what "broke" it for me, the blandness of many of the dishes left me irked and wanting to say "pretty bad" when the waitress asked how the food was as she was taking my dish away;  i ended up simply adding a "pretty" ahead of my usual "good" response.  also, these dishes also came at a higher than average price for what they offered.

the service was also majorly lacking.  this place seemed to be understaffed, given the number of restaurant patrons. we asked one waiter for straws. he forget. we asked another for the tequila sampler menu right after we ordered. she forgot, and we asked once more before she got it for us immediately and apologized.  the food took a good 30 minutes or so to come out.

so, despite the fact that this is a tex-mex place, and it does indeed offer more than just burritos, enchiladas, and tacos, they have much to work on their execution of these dishes.

the ambiance in this restaurant is ridiculously sparse and cold, but all i really care about is the food.  i've been trying to find a decent mexican restaurant around the mt vernon and charles village area, and one day my friend recommended this place to me.

my girlfriend and i went here for lunch, and we were seated by the only waitress there (presumably the owner or some relative of the owner).  the complimentary chips and salsa were served: the chips are slightly thicker/have a different texture than your typical tortilla chip.

i ordered a tamarindo, carne asada taco, al pastor (spicy pork) taco, and a chicken tostada, and my girlfriend ordered a pineapple fruit drink and a chicken enchilada (served with rice and black beans).  the tacos were average, as it only came with the meat, a little cilantro, and a slice of lime.  even with the addition of salsa, it was not very impressive.  the tostada was slightly better.  however, i must say that this has been close to the most authentic mexican food i've tried in the city.  the meat itself was pretty flavorful, but the taco could have been made slightly better.  as for the enchilada, it was pretty well made. no complaints about that.

total bill for the meal came to around 25-30 before tip. pretty good for baltimore standards, i guess.

i would really like for this place to stay open as well, which is why i'm writing a review for this place today.  it is a decent mexican restaurant, located conveniently 1.5 blocks west of n. charles st., right next to the enoch pratt free library.  i highly recommend you go if you are seeking authentic mexican food in the city, and don't want to venture too far into east baltimore to find decent mexican food.

if only they had something even slightly close to this in the east coast....

i've been a fan of this place ever since the first time i tried it.  i've been to 3 of their locations (torrance, redondo beach, and lomita), and all three locations are equally delicious.  when i eat with my family i go to the other two locations, as they offer waiter service, whereas this one is solely takeout only.

everything: burritos, tacos, enchiladas....are all delicious.  i can never eat enough of their tortilla chips, and therefore i always request extra (at no extra charge).

my friend raved to me about the breakfast burritos here and so we went together to grab breakfast burritos.

my best guess is that what made this place popular was the quantity of food you got with just a few bucks, but as my friend also noticed, they jacked up the prices a bit.  a breakfast burrito now runs quite a bit over 5 dollars (if i remember correctly, that is) and even though they're good, they're not so much a bang for the buck.  if i'm ever craving a breakfast burrito, i will come back here again, but if i simply want a cheap filling breakfast, i will look elsewhere.

my girlfriend and i came on a sunday morning, around 10:30AM.  it was completely packed, but it still only took about 10 minutes for our food to come out.  my girlfriend ordered the lox with cream cheese (which was simply 2 pretty small slices of smoked salmon with huge slab of cream cheese - no capers) and i ordered an egg/ham bagel.  although the egg/ham was very thin, with the extra cream cheese that my girlfriend scraped off her bagel, i stuck onto mine, and the result was pretty satisfying.  the bagels themselves were the perfect texture.  definitely a repeat visit coming!

Plain and simple restaurant. No more than 15 items on their menu.  my girlfriend and i tried 2 orders of their dumplings (6 for 3 bucks, just a TAD expensive if you ask me: thus the -1 star), and a pork bun, which they actually reheated using a microwave under the counter (they made a futile attempt to hide the microwave as they slammed the microwave door before handing the pork bun to me).  The dumpling definitely had a very unique texture, and the provided dipping sauce stuck to the dumpling's surface very well.  If you don't like almost sugary dipping sauces for dumplings, you probably won't like their sauce, but i really liked it.  i would have liked to see more than one option for the dipping sauce, but i didn't bother asking them whether they had any more types (spicy perhaps?).  however, relative to the price of many surrounding eateries, i will definitely come here again.

hands down, the best thai restaurant that i've ever been to (although i haven't been to THAT many thai restaurants).  there is a distinct aura of authenticity in these dishes and it definitely showed in the taste.

i made the drive down from baltimore with my girlfriend.  we ordered many dishes, including duck, drunken noodles, tilapia, papaya salad, and more, and all of them tasted amazingly fresh and delicious.  there is no doubt that i will make every effort to drop by here again before i ever leave the east coast, and order more and different dishes from their large menu.