madylarian
The curmudgeonly
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Parkville, MD
| It's that time of year again.
The restaurant thread was too old to reply to, but the other night we went to my favorite place for seafood, Captain's Cafe, up in Middle River. That's where we usually go for steamed crabs but since it's that time of year I had to have soft crabs. What makes this place so good is not only the seafood, but the vegetables. They always have some kind of fresh ones and last night it was fresh spinach, which was out of this world good.
For cheap but good bar food:
*The Firehouse Tavern on Joppa Road just 2 blocks west of Harford Road (The best shrimp salad sandwiches) *Olde Philadelphia Inn on Philadelphia Road, just a few miles north of 695. (Huge sandwiches and good steaks) *Tully's on Belair Road just above the Beltway. (Also makes a great soft crab dinner) For a great, cheap diner with incredible food and lots of local atmosphere:
*The Boulevard Diner on Merrit Blvd. in Dundalk And my all-time favorite Italian restaurant:
Scotto's Cafe in The Festival at Belair, Rt. 24 between I95 and Belair Road in Belair. ( The only bruschetta I like and I don't like tomatoes or tomato sauce) mady
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Rxdoxx
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| Woo Hoooo FOOD 
Tully's been to, stopped a while ago, sometimes decent other times fair. Don't know if it was whoever was in the kitchen, but got rubbery (freezer burnt??) calamari once too often. But Tully's is an ok place.
Old Philadelphia Inn is ok also. Went there often, very good crab pretzel. Steak, especially on steak special night (Thursday??) was a bargain. Again depending on who was in the kitchen. I like steaks true medium. I think it was Mike that got it right, the other cook thought medium was well done. But again, another nice place.
Driven by Firehouse many times, never stopped. Will check them out in the near future.
Where exactly is Captains cafe?
I like I think it is Captain's Quarters (or its Crab Quarters, I get the names mixed up, one is more a carry-out, the other is the nicer restaurant) in Chase, not cheap-cheap but food was always great.
My favorite cheapie is Jad's Caddy Shack on Back River Neck Rd (across from the Rite-Aid). Fried food is never greasy, large portions and nice prices. Country fried steak with mashed sweet potatoes keeps calling me back there, but I've had a lot of other things there from fried ravioli to pot pie in an edible "bowl".
Loonie's in BelAir Business Rte 1 north of 24, next to the Wawa has an awesome crab dip.
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madylarian
The curmudgeonly
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Parkville, MD
| said by Rxdoxx  :
Woo Hoooo FOOD
Where exactly is Captains cafe?
I like I think it is Captain's Quarters (or its Crab Quarters, I get the names mixed up, one is more a carry-out, the other is the nicer restaurant) in Chase, not cheap-cheap but food was always great.
Captain's Cafe
2843 Eastern Boulevard, Essex, MD 21221
(410) 682-4581
Crab Quarters is just a little bit past Captain's Cafe. There's a small sign on the corner of Captain's Cafe's lot that says Crab Quarters and underneath that, in very small print, it's says something like "1 block". We were actually going to Crab Quarters and went to Captain's Cafe by mistake when we saw that sign.
Fronting Eastern Avenue is the liquor store. The restaurant is in back. Enter it from the left side (facing the liquor store). There's a garage just before it and the parking lot surrounds the building so you can enter it on both sides.
mady
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madylarian
The curmudgeonly
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Parkville, MD
| reply to Rxdoxx
said by Rxdoxx :
Woo Hoooo FOOD
My favorite cheapie is Jad's Caddy Shack on Back River Neck Rd (across from the Rite-Aid). Fried food is never greasy, large portions and nice prices. Country fried steak with mashed sweet potatoes keeps calling me back there, but I've had a lot of other things there from fried ravioli to pot pie in an edible "bowl".
We scouted out the location of Jad's last weekend on the way home from Captain's Cafe. Jeeze, but Back River Neck Road has changed! I haven't been down it in a long time, though it was always kind of sleazy, even the 15 or so years ago the last time I drove it. No, wait, my father tells me it was kind of grubby when he moved there from NYC back in 1948 to work at Martin Marietta.
Btw, have you been to the Boulevard Diner on Merrit Blvd. just past where Trappe Rd. runs into it? I really like the place. Cheap food, decent quality and a huge menu. Personally, I like it much better than the latest version of the Double T diners. Well, for that matter, I never liked the original Double T diners, either of them. I always liked the Bel-Loc much better.
mady
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madylarian
The curmudgeonly
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Parkville, MD
| reply to Rxdoxx
said by Rxdoxx :
Woo Hoooo FOOD
My favorite cheapie is Jad's Caddy Shack on Back River Neck Rd (across from the Rite-Aid). Fried food is never greasy, large portions and nice prices. Country fried steak with mashed sweet potatoes keeps calling me back there, but I've had a lot of other things there from fried ravioli to pot pie in an edible "bowl".
We tried Jad's tonight on your recommendation and we are definitely going back! Good food, great prices and huge portions. We did the soup and salad thing tonight but the table next to us got the fried chicken and it looked home made. It was nice to have some Maryland crab soup that tasted like crab soup, not vegetable soup with some crab meat in it. Thanks Rxdoxx!
mady
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Rxdoxx
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| Jad's is kinda like Sip-N-Bite (Boston & Alicanna Sts), you drive by shaking your head saying no way..... until someone gets you in there.
Added Boulevard Diner to my list when I'm in that area, I'm not a big fan of the DoubleT(s). Think the one on BelAir Rd is better than the Rte 40 one close to me haven't been in the 40 west one since the early 70's if it is still there..
Haven't been in BelLoc Diner in ages and ages, used to live in the apartments behind them in the early 70's.
I usually have a list of 5 that I go to and if one closes or messes up, then find a replacement.
Right now its
Han Sung (St.John's lane - Korean)
Antrium1844 (Taneytown, pricy but M.Gettier is the best )
Jad's
DeSantis (BelAir Rd- Perry Hall)
House Of Kabob (Persian Harford Rd, one mile inside 695 and B.Y.O.B.)
Distant List
Jalapeno's (Parole, MD)
Gabrielle's (Ijamsville)
Loonie's (BelAir)
Will also try Simon's (recommended by hsindogg) but opening at 5pm and weekend reservations puts a crimp in it.
Tried Linwood Cafe's shrimp salad, $10, good, large, but not exceptional, Firehouse is still on the try list.
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madylarian
The curmudgeonly
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Parkville, MD
| said by Rxdoxx :
Jad's is kinda like Sip-N-Bite (Boston & Alicanna Sts), you drive by shaking your head saying no way..... until someone gets you in there.
Ahh, the good ol' Sip-N-Puke.
We went to Jad's again last night with my dad. It was especially memorable for him because when he and my mother first moved down here from New York in 1948 they lived in the old Riverdale Apartments and he worked at Martin's. Anyway, the fried chicken was as good as it looked and the cost for three of us for drinks, soup and dinner each plus one dessert which we all shared was $45 which included tax. My dad even took home enough for another meal.
quote:
Added Boulevard Diner to my list when I'm in that area, I'm not a big fan of the DoubleT(s). Think the one on BelAir Rd is better than the Rte 40 one close to me haven't been in the 40 west one since the early 70's if it is still there..
Haven't been in BelLoc Diner in ages and ages, used to live in the apartments behind them in the early 70's.
The Bel Loc is just down the road from us so it's really convenient but now so is the DoubleT at Belair and Joppa. I will always feel some loyalty to the Bel Loc, though. It's ALWAYS been a diner, not a lets-cash-in-on-the-new-wave-of-nostalgia one like the new DoubleTs. Personally, I never cared for the ones on Route 40 east and west and I am not sure what the connection is between those old ones and new ones in Perry Hall, Dundalk and Belair. I've been to the Perry Hall and Dundalk ones and they are just ok. I much prefer the Boulevard Diner. How can you not love the Dundalk cache of the place? 
quote:
Tried Linwood Cafe's shrimp salad, $10, good, large, but not exceptional, Firehouse is still on the try list.
Is that the Linwood's out towards Owings Mills? If so, I went there once. Expensive but nothing to get excited about.
Btw, the weekend before last was our anniversary and we went to the Charleston, Cindy Wolfe's restaurant downtown. I know a lot of people find it overpriced and pretentious, but I really like it. Yes, it's expensive. But I have never found it pretentious. In fact, we chatted with the people seated on both sides of us. One of them was an astronomer from Australia here to visit the Space Science Center at Hopkins. Another couple was visiting from Chicago. And our waiter was not at all stuffy.
During our meal we could see and hear fireworks over the harbor through the closed blinds and some of us mentioned how nice it would be if they opened the blinds so we could watch. Since we were seated near the open kitchen and Cindy Wolfe was working that night, she overheard us and did just that..opened the blinds.
So, any recommendations for a good Mexican restaurant?
mady, who is suffering some serious steamed crab withdrawal and will have to make a trip to Captain's Cafe very soon
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hsindogg
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| said by madylarian :
So, any recommendations for a good Mexican restaurant?
Nacho Mama's!!!! Good eats, awesome portions for a great price. Canton Square.
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Rxdoxx
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| reply to madylarian
Nacho Mama's is good.
I have been to Mexico 8 times off the tourist track, so when I think of Mexican food, I don't think SW USA Tex-Mex fare. I picture Ceveche, Bistek Arrechera, Menudo.........
and was bowled over by CMHunt's recommendation of Jalapeno's in Parole. I went there hoping and expecting a cantina type of place and walked into a "fancy" Spain/Mexican dining.
Wife and I ordered a total of 8 appetizers (2 to go) and ignored the dinner menu. A seafood Ceveche served in a large Margarita glass, a fish empanata with a lining of olive tapanade.........
It is outside of Annapolis, 97 to 50, down Aris T Allen, east on Solomon's Island and turn north at the intersection before the old Hechingers. In a strip mall behind a chain steak house.
May not be what you had in mind but the scallops...the mixed mushroom/garlic sautee........I'm drooling on the keyboard just remembering
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madylarian
The curmudgeonly
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Parkville, MD
| I'm kind of prejudiced against all those nouveau type places in Canton. It's like those restaurants in Hampden such as Cafe Hon that cash in on looking like the REAL places that used to be there. Or the "Avenue" in White Marsh that pretends to be the kind of place that malls such as White Marsh drove out of business.
There used to be a wonderful restaurant in Hamilton. Puerto Del Sol was a Spanish/Peruvian place owned by a Peruvian. When it first opened we used to be one of the few customers there and the owner/chef would often serve us something not on the menu but that he made "just like in Peru". What he could do with fish was heaven. Anyway, sadly, that place is gone and there's a "Mexican" restaurant there now though we have not tried it yet.
I think that what we might consider "good" Mexican food, as in not the Tex-Mex kind, is not what the poor or average Mexican would eat any more than most of eat like The Prime Rib all the time. For instance, I used to work with a woman, still living at home, whose family came from Mexico. For lunch, she often brought burritos, enchiladas or tamales in some form or other. This was the ordinary food her family ate.
mady
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hsindogg
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| said by madylarian :
I'm kind of prejudiced against all those nouveau type places in Canton.
I think that what we might consider "good" Mexican food, as in not the Tex-Mex kind, is not what the poor or average Mexican would eat any more than most of eat like The Prime Rib all the time. For instance, I used to work with a woman, still living at home, whose family came from Mexico. For lunch, she often brought burritos, enchiladas or tamales in some form or other. This was the ordinary food her family ate.
mady
Nacho Mama's is in no ways nouveau...c'mon, for godsakes, they serve nachos out of hubcaps!
That's what they serve, burritos, enchiladas, fajitas, fritas, etc...and large large portions of them.
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Aria73
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Can anyone recommend good sushi or Indian food in the Cockeysville/Timonium/Towson area?
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Rxdoxx
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| reply to hsindogg
Just got back from Simon's, really liked it. 2031 e. Fairmont St 21231
Got the spinach salad and smoked salmon tostada, tried 2 new beers Boddingers and Reserection.
Hsin when you go back there, ask Heather about the guy who complained that he wasn't charged for an entree.
Aria, sorry, I haven't found an Indian place that I would rave about yet. Sushi, there are a number of great ones, but I know none in your area. Han Sung on St.John's Lane and New No Da Ji on Charles and 25th but not real close to you.
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Descent
Wrap It Up
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WDC Suburb | reply to madylarian
anybody know some good restaurants closer to WDC, but not too far? rockville/germantown/gaithersburg area? |
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madylarian
The curmudgeonly
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Parkville, MD
| reply to hsindogg
said by hsindogg :
Nacho Mama's is in no ways nouveau...c'mon, for godsakes, they serve nachos out of hubcaps!
Hon, that is exactly what nouveau means. It doesn't mean fancy or expensive. It means oh so new and cool and kitsch.
mady
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hsindogg
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| said by madylarian :
Hon, that is exactly what nouveau means. It doesn't mean fancy or expensive. It means oh so new and cool and kitsch.
mady
Well, I guess I'm new, cool, and kitsch.
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Yowzaaah
Ours Go To Eleven
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| reply to madylarian
Holy Frijoles on 36th street in Hamden, its small and BYOB, Food is Great!
In case you're wondering, I'm a transplanted Baltimoron withering in Cleveland.
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singe606
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Westminster, MD
| reply to Aria73
said by Aria73 :
Can anyone recommend good sushi or Indian food in the Cockeysville/Timonium/Towson area?
edo sushi in the padonia village shopping center is excellent. they dont have sake or japanese beer, but you can pick it up at the liquor store in the same shopping center and bring your own. try the volcano roll.
for indian, i like india palace a lot. its on the corner of york and cranbook. the food is great, and you gotta love the pink walls and sitar player (only on saturday night, i think?). this place is also BYOB.
i really recommend you try both! |
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Rxdoxx
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| reply to madylarian
Mady, been back to Jad's yet? (I have)
Another little gem is House of Kabob
»www.houseofkabob.net/
Tonight I got the Oloveih carry out, the strangest "chicken salad" I've ever had but delicious) . Wife got the koobideh (think of very tasty meatloaf-not exactly but close).
We have been going there about 2 years.
Portions big, food tasty, and as they say in B'more prices downright reasonable.
Some things I didn't care for, not a big fan of persimmons, but the Barg Kabob (filet mignon) at $12.95 is awesome.
The tea and iced tea tasted like they use constant comet, a hint of clove, not the usual standard restaurant fare but I like it.
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madylarian
The curmudgeonly
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join:2002-01-03
Parkville, MD
| said by Rxdoxx :
Mady, been back to Jad's yet? (I have)
Yep. We took Dad there for Father's Day. We'll definitely be back. The only drawback is that reservations are recommended.
quote:
Another little gem is House of Kabob
»www.houseofkabob.net/
Hey, you were in my neighborhood! I know the place. We drive by it quite often. I haven't been there but I have had that kind of food before and it's not a style I particularly care for. Just a matter of personal preference.
However, last week we did go to Los Amigos, 5506 Harford Road in Hamilton. It's the Mexican restaurant that's now where the Peruvian one used to be. I have a feeling it's the same people. Though the decor is nicer there are still a lot of the Peruvian decorations and a Peruvian dish or two on the menu. We liked it and will be back.
Admittedly the menu is mostly the traditional Mexican dishes that Americans expect, but there are also some not-so-traditional ones such as marinated shrimp served with rice, guacamole, salad and tortillas or a Peruvian dish of beef sauteed in olive oil, onion, tomatoes and herbs. We both got enchilada dinners, which were quite good and much better than the Chi Chi's versions.
The prices are really cheap. Most dinners run $8-$10. The portions are adequate but not huge, something I appreciate. And, while I am not much of a drinker, I do like the occasional Margarita with Mexican food. Be warned that theirs have real alcohol in them, not the flavored water and ice that too often are served as Margaritas. And the warm chips served with two dips are not loaded with salt to make you drink a lot.
mady
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