Category Archives: Reviews

The Mill, Hershey PA – November 22, 2014

Although we had plans for at least the last month and a half to try this place out, we had yet to get there… On a Saturday afternoon, we had been in Hershey, PA with the intention of meeting up with some relatives of mine but those plans fell through – so I needed to feed my sweet tooth with a batch of chocolate chip cookies from Chocolate World before we headed back out. We were starving and decided to take a drive down to Shady Maples Smorgasbord straight from there so we plugged in the info on the GPS. So, following the GPS’s directions, we made a turn off of Hersheypark Drive and at the end of the road, where we were being directed to make a left turn, sat a beautiful brick building with a small sign in front of it labeled The Mill. Located at 810 Old West Chocolate Avenue, Hershey PA 17033.  Surprised to have found it by accident, the decision to veer off and go inside instead was a quick and easy one. This building previously served as the historic Curry Feed Mill, established in the 1880’s. And while it now serves as a restaurant, it still holds onto its old interesting charm with its exposed brick and stone walls, steel bar tops, hardwood floors, wooden beams, aluminum pipe venting, modern track lighting and fireplace.  Also, in keeping with authenticity (in my opinion), the ingredients used here are fresh from local farms, the sauces, etc. are made fresh and the meats are smoked in-house everyday.

IMG_1778.JPGWhen we walked in we were quickly greeted by a hostess who escorted us to the lower level for seating. Our waitress was soft-spoken yet swift and knowledgeable. We got there during their lunch time frame (3:00 pm) which offers a somewhat shortened set of menu options and lighter faire. While studying the menu some and in addition to the water and sodas we ordered, Jonathan and I decided to try a couple drinks from the bar – I had a White Russian and Jonathan tried the Apple Cider Martini. Both were mixed perfectly. Very tasty. We also wanted to try an appetizer or two so I went with the Deviled Eggs. These aren’t the usual white eggs with the yellow deviled yolk.. Theirs is what is usually referred to as a pickled beet egg – dark pink in color and the deviled yolk was somewhat of a lavender color. They were garnished with bits of bacon, micro greens and beets – and off to the side was a spicy honey dipping sauce, or perhaps a drizzle(?). The flavor of the egg was also much more like that of a pickled egg – more vinegary. I like pickled eggs, so I enjoyed them, however I can’t eat very spicy foods so I didn’t use the dip/drizzle. Jonathan chose the steamed Johnny’s Blues Wild Maine Mussels for his appetizer, which also include (for flavor and garnish) red curry, garlic cloves, The Mill’s own house smoked sausage, lemon oil, basil and wontons.

IMG_1779.JPGSince I was still lunch-minded, I went the sandwich route and chose the Mill Standard Burger, which is a Brioche-Certified Angus Beef burger usually topped with Porter Cheddar cheese, bacon, an onion ring, and house-made dijonaise and barbecue sauces. It’s also accompanied by a side of fresh-cut fries. It was SO good, that I literally could not put it down. LOL! Maybe I was extra-hungry, I don’t know but after the first bite, my plate never saw it. 🙂 Jonathan chose the grilled-to-perfection, 6 oz. Chateau Steak which is listed to be served with mushrooms, Mill-cut fries and a red wine reduction sauce, however he chose to substitute his fries with the mashed potatoes. Here I say again, kudos to the grill chef, this steak was perfect! Medium-rare with just the right amount of pink, wonderfully seasoned, already-sliced and presented beautifully with the mushrooms, mashed potatoes and sauce. My daughters love grilled salmon and it happened to be listed on the kids’ menu, so they both chose that, while my youngest chose a garden salad for her side and my oldest chose the mashed potatoes. I had a small bite of the salmon and mashed potatoes and loved both.
We indeed enjoyed everything we tried on this visit! Our compliments to Executive Chef Joe Mishler, Line Cook Frank Hadley and the ladies at the bar on the lower level. For the delicious food, great service, comfortable atmosphere and reasonable price, I’m quite satisfied with our experience here and I’m certain that we’ll be making trips back and bringing others. 😀

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Jasper’s, Largo MD – November 15, 2014

I took the 1-hour, 45 minute trip down to Jasper’s, in Largo, MD for a Saturday night birthday dinner with my relatives that had originally been planned to be held at Maggiano’s, in D.C. but got switched at the last minute. (Please note, to find this restaurant by GPS, you may have to put in Upper Marlboro, MD instead of Largo, MD…GPS does not seem to be able to locate it, using the latter.) Since there had been no reservation made in advance at Jasper’s, the wait for seating was somewhere around an hour. When I walked into Jasper’s, I noticed that it was a pretty large and well-lit place with a fully-stocked, sports-type bar in the middle with large TV’s around the top. From what I understand, not only is this a family restaurant, it sorta doubles as a hang out spot for folks in the 30’s – 40’s age group. That was obvious when I got there. The atmosphere is young, hip and fun, but not teeny-bopper. You’ll see what I mean when/if you try it out.

 While the six of us waited at the bar for our seating, a few of my cousins decided to get appetizers…they had the hot crab dip and the calamari. I did not try any of it, as I wanted to save my appetite for my entrée. But from what they’ve said, they REALLY enjoyed both dishes.

So finally we got seated…Our server must have been new to this type of work, as he didn’t seem to realize that stopping in the middle of taking drink orders (saying “hold on, I’ll be right back”), walking off and not being seen again for about 10 minutes is not a good look. Apparently the lady at the table next to us had asked him to bring her a bowl of broccoli and cheese, but instead of going straight to the kitchen to get it, he came to take our drink orders (she was a bully, by the way – shouting across the room at someone she knew, for not going out of their way to come say hello to her). Either way, my side-eye was ready at this point. Strike one.

After our server had come back with the bully lady’s broccoli and cheese, he resumed taking our drink orders…but took forever (again) to come back with the drinks and take our food orders. All I wanted to drink was water – I wanted to keep things simple. I think everyone else had the same thing in mind; they kept their drink orders simple as well.

We got our drinks and we all placed our orders for food. I ordered a Caesar salad to start. Our server asked me if I wanted to add bacon bits to my salad and I told him yes – knowing I normally never have bacon in my Caesar salad but I was gonna go off the cuff a little bit because he offered it. I should have stayed in line with my “keep it simple” method like I did when I ordered water to drink, as the server brought me my salad without the bacon that he offered me. Instead it had little pieces of red peppers that resembled bacon, sprinkled on it. I didn’t ask for that. BUT, rather than sending the whole salad back and running the risk of having to sit there with a loud growling stomach while everybody else had salad, I sent him back for my bacon…I never got it tho. Strikes two and three for him. *sigh*  

IMG_1705.JPGAnyway, my entrée choice was called the Jasper’s Crab Explosion, which is basically a baked crab cake but the way it’s put together is more like a “pile” of seasoned lump crab meat, rather than being “caked” or pattied together. This usually comes with fries and coleslaw, but I substituted a baked potato for the fries. My entrée was absolutely delicious! The Crab Explosion is somewhat on the spicy side, but it’s not “hot” or overbearing. It’s very flavorful. The baked potato was done perfectly; nice and tender the whole way through. It was excellent. Around the table, I noticed that my cousins ordered the Blackened Tilapia, the Baked Stuffed Shrimp, and the Fried Fisherman’s platter. I didn’t dip my fork in any of their plates though. LOL

Despite my gripes with the server, I do plan to go back and visit this place again because the food is that good and I really enjoyed the atmosphere. I hope I end up with a better server next time and it has been duly noted to make reservations first, as their crowd definitely calls for it.

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Captain Don’s, Harrisburg PA – November 8, 2014

IMG_0517.JPGPeople, people, PEOPLE…  I must be completely and brutally honest in my review of this place, located on Friendship Rd (right off of TecPort), in Harrisburg, PA because my experience here was unfortunately not a good one.  First; I am a seafood lover…I’ve always been one ever since my mother introduced me to it and other delicacies as a small child.  So I was really looking forward to the opening of this restaurant, which was originally supposed to be in May of 2014…then June…then whenever.  Amidst much anticipation and very mixed reviews, it finally opened at the tail end of summer.  I purposely waited until I felt like they’d had enough time to get the establishment together before my family and I would try our hand at it.  My girlfriends went and tried it on October 31st (when I was unable to go along due to prior commitments) and I hadn’t heard any complaints from them, so I figured now was the time to go ahead and see about it.

Well.  We arrived for our 2pm reservation and upon entering the establishment I noticed that it was clean but very small, which was ok – but contrary to the All-You-Can-Eat Buffet advertisement, there was no “buffet”…not the type where you could go and place things on your plate yourself.  Keep in mind, you have a 2-hour dining time limit when you do the “buffet”.

Also, there had been a hostess/waitress at the door who seated a couple who walked in ahead of us, but never came back to seat us…Then finally, a tall waiter whose name began with a “J” (I believe it was Jarrod or something close to that)  came to greet and seat us, and would be our waiter for the day. 

Waiter J was friendly, but slow and not very good at multi-tasking.  He would run back and forth and back again to bring us one thing at a time, which annoyed me quickly but I did my best to keep cool.  We ordered drinks, which is what we always do first, but it took so long for Waiter J to bring them back, to the point where another more experienced waitress named Ashley offered to retrieve the drinks for us.  We asked her could she take over for Waiter J and be our server instead and she agreed, but when she went to ask Waiter J if he would mind if she took our table for him, he told her “I got it.”  I didn’t agree, but I decided to behave and give him a chance.

So finally we get our drinks and place our orders for food.  My youngest daughter ordered chicken fingers and fries from the appetizer menu, so her food came up first and they were pretty tasty.  My oldest daughter ordered the fried jumbo shrimp and fries platter, and Jonathan and I ordered the $34.95 all-you-can-eat “buffet”, adding the Maine lobster to mine for another $9.95, as well as an appetizer of mussels for Jonathan.  I thought the mussels would be steamed in garlic/butter but instead they came out in the tomato sauce and honestly, I thought they were repulsive.  Somehow though, he enjoyed them.

My oldest daughter’s fried shrimp platter came out, and she was immediately disappointed with the flavor or lack thereof.  The batter that the shrimp were fried in tasted soapy, as did the overcooked hushpuppies.

And finally out comes the all-you-can-eat trays.  This “buffet” selection includes Maryland Crab Soup (which looked like succotash, and didnt have any crab in it – Jonathan had a bowl of it, I refused), corn on the cob, hushpuppies, steamed clams, steamed shrimp, steamed Blue crabs, steamed snow crab legs and as I said earlier, live Maine lobster which could be added on for an upcharge.  We both asked in the beginning that they do not give us the Blue crab or the corn, but load us up with the steamed “everything else”.  ….We ended up with both the Blue crab and the corn, and little bits of everything else.

Now when I think all-you-can-eat, as far as seafood, I think back to Luddy’s down in Goldsboro, or the Manor House in Middletown, where they would literally dump crabs by the bucket in the middle of your table and let you go for yours until you beckoned for more.  This was far from that.  We had to beg and wait for little bits of this n that.  And none of it was seasoned – not the Blue crab (not that I wanted it, but still), not the shrimp, the lobster, the crab legs, none of it.  BUT, the corn on the cob had a little bit of something sprinkled on it…that’s not what I went there for though.  Even the lobster was void of flavor.  It was loaded with water, though.  Yet and still, I did my best to eat what I could of it because ya just don’t waste lobster.  You can’t!  LOL!

While I was disappointed that our food lacked flavor, I figured I’d dress it up somehow – butter helps everything.  I don’t like the oil that a lot of these restaurants are trying to pass off as melted butter – it doesn’t sit well with me.  So I asked Waiter J if he could get me real butter, melted.  He said he could and went back to retrieve it.  He came back with it and I dipped two big pieces of snow crab leg in it and bit them…and found that the butter was sour.  It had that funky rancid taste.  I was done at that point.

 While we were going through it at our table with all this bad food and all these platters everywhere, Waiter J was slow to come and take things away to help us make room and he was also slow to keep our drinks full.  Another waitress (not Ashley, a different one) came and refilled our drinks, as well as take our payment once Waiter J finally brought the bill but never came back. 

Had I been the one to dine and dash the way I’d done as a youngster who loved to prank, I’d have definitely done that here.  Captain Don’s will never see me or get business from my family again and I must add here that I spent the majority of my evening in bed, sick after eating here.  It was that bad.  😦

 

Bonefish Grill – Camp Hill, PA

Good day, people! It’s been a few months since I’ve given any updates as to places we’ve visited and such, so let’s hop back to it.

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Aaaaah, the Bonefish Grill, located in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania…
Let me first say, that when my family and I visited this place when it was brand new in the summer of 2012 (I mean literally brand new…it was the day after the grand opening), I didn’t really enjoy my experience. The wait was excruciating, then once we got inside, the waiter was clueless, and my appetizer (the only thing I’d felt like ordering) left much to be desired. I wasn’t living for it. My kids and boyfriend all wanted to try it a second time for benefit of the doubt, but I just wasn’t seeing it for the place..I honestly doubted it would last.

Fast forward to January 19, 2014…one of my girlfriends who always likes to try new things for her birthday, invited all of us ladies out for a Sunday Brunch. I never knew Bonefish did a Sunday brunch so I was willing to give this place another shot because of her insistence, and because it was brunch…I could choose a “breakfasty-type” entrée or something more in the lunch/dinner way. So I decided to go the lunch/dinner route.

What I chose was the Grilled Salmon with lemon butter, and sides of Steamed Asparagus and Potatoes Au Gratin, with my drink being a Georgia Peach Martini (two of those, actually). I was pleasantly surprised with everything, I must say! The food was delicious! Even the asparagus was perfect, and I never eat all of my asparagus…I may eat some, but I never finish it. My salmon was darkened and crusty in all the right places and juicy on the inside. It was wonderful. By the end of our sitting, my plate looked washed except for the last bite of potatoes because I just couldn’t force it.

I have to apologize for the lack of pictures here; I ate my food so fast and forgot to take any.  LOL

Since we had a party of 6, but were expecting a party of 8, we had two wait-staff, a guy and a girl (I apologize, I can’t recall their names at this time). They were gracious, but my favorite was the gentleman, who worked my end of the table. My girlfriends and I have a crazy sense of humor and he was able to keep up with us without being on the edge of losing his job. LOL

However, people I must warn you (and this is my ONLY complaint) that we did notice that the floors in the restaurant are quite slick. You must be careful as you walk through this place (heading to the bathroom, etc) as your feet just may surprise you.

Other than that, Bonefish Grill was definitely a hit for me this time around and I’m anxious to go again!

http://www.bonefishgrill.com/Locator/details/camp-hill-pennsylvania

 

Nellie’s Southern Cafe – October 11, 2013

My mother and I had the opportunity to visit Nellie’s Southern Cafe, located in the blossoming Midtown section of Harrisburg, on Reilly St (off 3rd St). This is a brand new, family-run cafe, owned by Tony Tumer, that is open during breakfast and lunch hours. Its small but cozy, with a touch of upscale charm. Our gracious host and server was Tony himself, and in his usual fashion, he was very attentive, swift and generous.

This cafe serves an array of southern-oriented dishes and being from a southern family myself, I was pleased to see one of my favorites, fried fish and grits, which was what I ordered with a side of homefries and a glass of sweet tea. My mother was only in the mood for light faire, so her choice was the eggs, grits, homefries and toast, and a cup of coffee.

I enjoyed my meal; I thought it was pretty good, being such a new place. (Its only been open for 3 weeks now.) Not everyone can make fish & grits to my liking, but I can say that I enjoyed mine here.

We were in and out in under an hour, which is good time for the meals that they serve. I plan to return and try out more items from the menu.

I’d like to congratulate Tony on this new business venture. Its great to see new entrepreneurs bringing new businesses to the area. Please do go ahead and try a meal for yourselves. 😀

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A New Place To Be in Harrisburg, PA – PM Bistro & Lounge

Sonny, my cousin Rashaad and I popped in to visit the recently opened PM Bistro & Lounge on July 11, 2013 on a whim. By the time we visited, this place had only been in business for maybe 3 weeks and already I believe it’s a hit. If you’re familiar with Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, you’re probably familiar with the location of this lounge that sits right on the edge of the Reservoir Park, formerly operated as the Parkside Cafe. And now we have it, totally (and beautifully) renovated as the PM Bistro & Lounge, owned and operated by two couples of the Harrisburg area.

Off the top, this place touts itself as an upscale lounge, complete with proper dress code and over-35 age limit. Basically, no shenanigans allowed whatsoever, and I totally appreciate that. People in our age group and above have been waiting for a long time for a nice place to go and unwind, away from the younger, less-seasoned crowd. And here it is. Thank goodness.

During the 4th of July week/weekend (while we were on family vacation in SC), I saw lots of posts in my timeline from friends of mine who had visited the Bistro and every comment in regard to the food, the service, the atmosphere, music and overall experience were all complimentary. Sonny and I agreed that we had to try it out as soon as we had the time, once we returned to Harrisburg. So we did… 🙂

“Later for the leftovers, let’s go out! LOL!”: As I stated earlier, this venue is right outside the Reservoir Park, which rings bells in my mind to remind me that parking may be iffy at times. Parking in that area always was tricky from time to time, depending on what was going on. So with that being said, when we arrived, finding a parking spot in the row on the side of the building was a little difficult.

So we parked and entered the building through the tinted-glass revolving door, and nearby on the right was the outdoor seating area with palm trees and outdoor dining tables. It was a nice night for outdoor seating, but Sonny insisted that we eat inside. I was ok with that. Rashaad didn’t care either way. LOL!

When we reached the host station, we were greeted by the host for the evening… I’m not sure if it’s the usual since this was our first visit, but the host station was very dark. There was no light over the host. However, I didn’t look up to see if there had been a light fixture or not. Either way, seeing him was a bit difficult for the time of day, as it was around 8:00 in the evening and the sun was setting.

Our host greeted us and walked us to our seats. On my way to be seated, in my usual fashion, I glanced around the room to take in as much as I could, quickly. By this time so far, I liked what I saw. Patrons seated, having wine and dinner, dressed in either business attire or casual with class. Some were couples, some were friends (or perhaps relatives) getting together. All looked to be the type to fit the venue. The interior of the building has been totally gutted and rebuilt, equipped with beautiful peach and other earth-toned wall colors, flooring, seating, lighting, doors and decor – including live orchids as centerpiece accents on each table. I was enjoying it more by the minute.

Immediately after we were seated, we were greeted by our server, Amy, who was bubbly and friendly, and able to keep up with the sense of humor at our table, which is remarkable. We are people who like to have fun, to say the least. LOL Anyway, she took our drink orders and gave us time to read over the menus. To be a new restaurant, and a bistro at that, I felt like the menu was full of choices. Normally, a bistro’s menu is very limited. This one seems to expand a bit, which is good.

For my drink, I ordered a Bistro Breeze Sangria, in “white”…which was actually peach in color. It arrived in a large (burgundy style) wine glass, and was pretty tasty. At $10 a glass, I had to enjoy it…even enough to order another one. There was only one slight minus here – it didn’t have ice in it. (I like my sangria very cold) I probably should have asked for some ice to put in it myself. But beside that, I loved the flavor. 🙂

For an appetizer, Sonny and I had the Thai Bang Chicken, which were small bites of chicken with a spicy Thai sauce. And for dinner, I ordered the grilled salmon with roasted potatoes and green beans, which were all delicious! The grilled salmon was perfect; very flavorful with a little bit of grilled “crunch” on the outside but nice and tender on the inside. The green beans were not the canned version; these were fresh, French green beans, prepared al dente. And the potatoes were seasoned and roasted nicely. I rarely ever finish my whole plate of food when I dine out, but I ate pretty much all of what I ordered. It was that good.

Rashaad had the chicken & waffles for an appetizer and for dinner, also had the grilled salmon, but paired his with baked macaroni & cheese and asparagus. Sonny had the crab stuffed chicken with garlic mashed potatoes and asparagus. I tasted everything (small bites, of course 😀 ) and enjoyed it all! LOL!

While we were eating, Amy was attentive enough to keep constant check on us without being overbearing. Which was nice. And what was twice as nice was the fact that the head chef, Frank, came out to meet and greet our table personally. He took extra care to make sure our food presentation was picture-perfect and that we enjoyed our dinner there. I must say, Frank really did out-do himself. Not only did Frank come out to meet us; we were also greeted by two of the establishment owners, Chuck and Quinn.

The PM Bistro is owned and staffed by some really great people. The atmosphere is warm and inviting and the food in my opinion is awesome. I was impressed with pretty much everything and our experience here overall was enjoyable, even with it being so new and still in the process of being tweaked. I highly recommend that you go on and check this place out and see what you think. I bet you’ll enjoy it too. 🙂

– Alonda

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Service Matters – Joes Crab Shack

If there is one thing that will definitely turn me off from returning to a restaurant, it is poor service. Food quality and presentation are very important, don’t get me wrong. But give me good food and bad service, chances are I won’t be back. I think some establishments have forgotten that treating your customers with respect and kindness goes a long way, and in my opinion, has a bigger influence on my choice if I’m going to be a one-time diner or if I’m willing to return again regardless of the quality of food. I’ve dined at many places that may not have had the best food. But the waitresses/waiters treated me like I was a valued customer, and for that alone I’ve returned.

The reason why I wanted to talk about this subject is based on a recent trip Alonda and I took to Cockeysville, MD to enjoy some seafood at Joe’s Crab Shack. All though we started this blog to give our reviews on our dining experiences, we had decided that we would only blog about restaurants that were not franchises, or how would you say “main stream” ie. the Red Lobsters, Applebee’s & of course Joe’s Crab Shacks. Our main focus was to draw attention to the smaller, not as well-known dining places that we love to try as Foodies. But this experience that we had at this particular Joe’s Crab Shack I felt I had to tell everyone about how horrible the service was. Now I’ll give it to Joe’s, I do like their food; I think for a “main stream” restaurant they are pretty good. They’re one of the only places that I actually think you get the same thing as you see in their tv commercials. And to me that’s saying a lot. I know many of us have seen a burger or dish on a tv ad and been like “OMG that looks so good I’ve got to try that place”, only to get there and think “this looks nothing at all like it did on tv”. Makes you feel like you’ve been duped doesn’t it? I know that’s how I feel. But anyway the service that we received while there was probably the worst I’ve ever experienced.

On arrival, we were seated by the host and given our menus and as they always tell you “Your server will be right with you”. Well our server never got that memo. Because we sat there with nothing but our picture menus for 20+ minutes (I use my stop watch on my phone to time how long it takes before the server first comes to our table). And during the time we sat patiently waiting, multiple employees waitresses & waiters walked by our table, but not one stopped where we were seated. And behind us at a empty table, a group of employees were just looking at us as they sat around eating and having a little pow-wow. So now I’m agitated and I have to get up and ask to speak to a manager. That in itself took 10 minutes for the manager to come out and see me.

I let her know what my complaint was as to waiting 20+ minutes with no service and she assured me that she would send a server right away to our table, and went to walk away from me as if that was resolving the issue. I had to let her know that if she wanted us to stay and eat at their restaurant that she would be the one taking care of our table that afternoon and not one of her servers who thought it appropriate to stand around amongst themselves and eat, talk and laugh while there was a busy restaurant happening all around them. The manager agreed and assured me that she would be the one to take care of us.

So I returned to our table to inform Alonda of the conversation I just had with management and that the manager agreed to be our server. Well to make a long story short, our orders were taken when she came to the table we ordered the steamed garlicky mussles as an appetizer and two Arctic Bay steampots, being as though we were sitting long enough to know what we wanted. The appetizer didn’t make it out to the table before the entrees did and the manager had the entrees sent back and she showed up minutes later with our mussles. Which by the way were very good. Then our steam pots came out and they were also very good. As I said before, all the food was good and I have no complaints about that at all.

The manager did make it up to us by deeply discounting our check for the waste of our time and hassle. But although I like going to Joe’s Crab Shack I don’t know if I will be going back to that particular location anytime soon. Because to me, service and respect for my time matters more than what a place is serving on the menu.
If a restaurant wants happy and repeat customers, remember our time is money too and no one wants to drive somewhere to be forgotten or ignored.
Food quality and taste are important but remember above all else and I think most importantly SERVICE MATTERS!!
-Sonny

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