Meredith "rescuer of cats" P.'s Profile

Not half bad at all.  The portions are huge.  I have actually decided that, contrary to my previous review, I do like the option of getting what my friends are getting, and just being able to substitute tofu and make it vegetarian.  It's no Tara Thai, but it's fine.  I was happy to take home my leftovers and eat them later.

Great opportunity to try food trucks. For those of us who work outside the major food truck districts, this is a godsend. It's better to go for lunch of course - shorter lines, fresher food - but I love that they're open late enough to go for dinner.

One major problem is they won't let you bring in your own water. It's hot out there, and lines can be VERY long - I heard TaKorean gets to be over an hour. If you're by yourself, you have to beg someone to save your spot in line so you can go spend ridiculous amounts of money on water. They don't allow vendors to sell any beverages, so you have to wait in a separate line for a drink. Not good - I assume it's Bullpen rules, but this is an unusual event.

In general, I really love Truckeroo and I'll make time to get over there every month!

Yummy and they mix flavors. They don't seem to be out every day, or at least they're not on the daily Food Truck Fiesta emails. Truckeroo is a good place to catch them. Prices are good but the chocolate with chili peppers doesn't have enough kick.

Decent family-owned candy shop.  Prices are pretty reasonable, under $10 for a half-pound assortment.  Has a very good selection of sugar-free candies.  Their chocolate dipped and decorated Oreos are very cool!

We had lunch here on a Saturday, having taken the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad from Cumberland. I can only describe it as an unmitigated disaster.

You would think that having a few hundred people dropped off on your doorstep on a regular timetable would be great for a restaurant.  They'd have staff ready and waiting to serve those people, and their main items would be fresh and just about to come off the cook line.  Unfortunately, Malino's has not gotten that clue yet.

We stopped here because they were the first place we came to at the top of the hill that seemed suitable for lunch.  We should have realized when we walked in that an unattended baby in a high chair watching bad sitcoms on TV, no other customers, and utterly disinterested staff, meant this was not a good place to go.  Unfortunately, we went ahead and ordered.  I got a cold veggie sub and my friends ordered cheeseburgers and fries.

We sat down, and the one girl working behind the counter eventually brought us our fountain drinks.  Another guy turned up in the food prep area, then disappeared, then came back, but never seemed to cook anything.  Another employee disappeared to deliver a pizza.  After about 15 minutes, my friends and I agreed that we needed to ask for our food to go, so we would have time to make it to the other place we wanted to see before getting back on the train.  As I went over to the counter to ask for it to go, I saw the girl taking the burgers out of the freezer.  We figured the grill hadn't even been on when we arrived: that's the only excuse for taking over 15 minutes to even START preparing the food.

After 20 minutes of waiting, we left one of our party behind to wait for the food while the rest of us went elsewhere in town.  Our friend finally caught up with us about 15 minutes later.  Somehow it took 35 minutes to make one veggie sub and a couple of burgers and fries...something that other places pull off in about five minutes.  We took our food on the train.

I wish I could say that the food was worth the wait, but it wasn't...far from it.  My friends report that the burger was basically shoe leather, and I could see that the cheese was essentially a piece of orange plastic.  The fries had been cooked at LEAST twice before we got them, and were sitting in a puddle of oil in a styrofoam tray.  My veggie sub was bizarre, to say the least: a megaton of mushrooms, an overload of onions, and then...peppers.  Green bell peppers.  Sweet cooked red and green peppers.  Sliced banana peppers.  Every pepper I have ever seen on a sandwich was on this one.  On top of that was a single slice of tomato and a couple of shreds of lettuce.  I guess all this was vegetables, but seriously?  This is a veggie sub?  HOW??

We have no idea how this place stays in business.  I guess their strength is primarily pizzas and wings.  (Another family from the train had eventually showed up there; we saw them again on the train and they said their pizza was good.  I should mention that their pizza got started cooking before our food did, even though they arrived after we did.  Again...why wasn't the grill turned on when they KNEW train passengers were coming?)  It was a dismal place to sit and eat, so they must do a strong delivery service to the college.

If you're taking the railroad, DON'T GO HERE.  You might not get your food before the train leaves, and if you do, it will be terrible.

I have spent many nights here, as I attend a conference annually that is held here.  It's not for anybody but conference-goers, because it's too far from Baltimore to be worth the price.

The rooms are not that great. The beds are fine, but not outstanding.  I have to admit that the toilet is comfortable (!) and the shower has pretty good temperature control and water pressure.

I've never been to the Cinnamon Tree because it's too damn expensive.  The bar seems decent, but again, very expensive.

Can't believe I haven't reviewed Tigris yet!  Let's just say they're awesome.  Seriously, if you want falafel, this is the place in the DC area to get it.  Their falafel sandwich is only about $5 or $6 and it's big enough for two meals.  Unfortunately their planned delivery service never really got off the ground, but they're near my house so I pick up food there pretty often.

Vegetarian items are clearly marked and they have very reasonable prices.  It can get expensive if you go appetizer-happy though, so stick to the platters if you want to get tabouleh or baba ganoush or anything like that.  You will miss out on the joy of the falafel sandwich, but the falafel itself is good even in platter form.

Sure wish they had baklava more often though.  It's really good, which must be why they are always sold out of it!

They do cater - orders of $50 and up only.

Delicious but expensive!

Following a yelper's suggestion, I got the crispy/soft tofu in clear broth, which I ordered with egg noodles because they are simply better.  It was truly amazing!  I absolutely couldn't finish my meal and had to bring home leftovers, though they weren't as good the next day.  I wish it had been a little less sweet though...

The pumpkin empanada appetizer was good but it was kind of like little pockets of pumpkin pie.  It honestly belonged on the dessert menu.  I'm pretty sure they used pumpkin pie filling inside the wrappers, and it just didn't seem right as an appetizer - again, too sweet!

IMO the prices are too high - $26 (incl tax/tip) for just me and I didn't even have an alcoholic drink (just thai iced tea).  Then again, I didn't NEED that appetizer.  I will have to try it again - the menu looks great, so many vegetarian items! - and see if it's more palatable price-wise if you stay away from the fancy drinks and appetizers.

Good food and I appreciate that they have vegetarian items.  Most ramen shops - especially overseas - won't even consider making it vegetarian, they just use meat-based broths all the time.  But Toki Underground has a fully vegetarian ramen that is actually pretty decent - my preference would be for more tofu, but that's me.

The prices here are really quite good.  They do kae-dama which means you can get extra noodles for a small extra charge.  $10 for a big bowl of ramen isn't bad at all.  The beverages are a little overpriced though, and that's not even including the $400 sake I saw on the menu.  I guess the beverage prices are typical for DC...I just think they should be less.  (Especially the ramune...3x the price of what it costs at the grocery store!)

The seating arrangement is absolutely dismal, though.  Although bar-style seating is common in ramen shops in Asian countries, it's not common in the US, and it's not well-suited to conversations.  In fact, there's only two seats (the corner at the top of the stairs) where deaf people can sit and converse comfortably - and the Atlas area has a large deaf population, so it would be good to increase these seating options.

The best Japanese-focused market in the DC area.  The only place to find mitarashi dango (occasionally), yuzu fruit (sometimes), and Calpis concentrate (anytime).  They have several varieties of furikake, but the candy selection leaves a little to be desired.

I'm honestly not sure why they carry the individual microwavable servings of rice though.  They're about twice as much as similar offerings from Minute Rice in the regular grocery store.

Always friendly service and lots of my favorites from my time in Japan.  Love to stop by Hana.