Knife and Fork Inn – Atlantic City, NJ

The Knife and Fork Inn was one of Frank Sinatra’s favorite restaurants in Atlantic City.  It’s been recently renovated and taken over by the Dougherty family, owners of Dock’s restaurant, a 100 year old oyster and seafood joint in AC.

The dinner at Knife and Fork was fantastic when I visited in April 2011.

Tuna Tartare, French Onion Soup, Wedge Salad, Spring Mix Salad, Fantastic Potatoes, Filet Oscar and the most unusual lump crab cake I’ve ever seen are pictured.

Dirty Martini

Tuna Tartare

The Melting Pot – King of Prussia, PA

A slideshow of a January 2011 visit to the Melting Pot fondue restaurant in King of Prussia, PA.

Chicken, Beef and Seafood were all fondued along with a cheddar/beer mix appetizer and chocolate fondue dessert.

The Anchorage – Somers Point, NJ

My visit to the Anchorage in November 2010.  This casual bar/restaurant is a good spot for bar food and hearty entrees.

The Anchorage is a Somers Point classic.

Very good buffalo wings.

BBQ Bacon Wrapped Shrimp. These were excellent.

Chicken Fajita Wrap. This was very tasty. So big I couldn't finish.

French Onion Soup. This was not very good. The broth was very weak.

Tastykake – WTF?

Dear Tastybakers,

What have you done with our beloved Tasty-Klair Pie?????

I used to look forward to consuming the delicious 21 grams of fat, washed down with an ice cold glass of whole milk.

At first, I thought it was some sort of a one-time manufacturing deficiency at your new high-tech bakery at the Naval Ship Yard… I was comfortable sleeping at night knowing I must have gotten into a bad batch, and all would be well the next time I stopped into the local Wawa on my way home from somewhere.

… and then it happened again. … and yet I still made excuses.

It turns out, that was a case of denial.

Elevation Burger – Providence Town Center

What do you get when you mix the old fashioned American cheeseburger and new fangled trendy environmentalism?

A burger joint that doesn’t have bacon as an option.

Gino’s Hamburgers – King of Prussia

Growing up in the early 80s, our local burger joint was Gino’s. It was literally 3 blocks from my parents house. I remember walking there on Saturday afternoons with my grandfather for burgers.

Being 4 or 5 years old when they closed, I can’t say I remember the food. But I definitely kept the memories.

Two years ago, discussing old restaurants with Jake, we both recalled the Gino’s franchise. Googling the restaurant yielded good news.

They were making a comeback.

… and today was the opening day.

Varsity Inn – Ocean City, NJ

The Varsity Inn appears in all the old postcard and photo books of Ocean City, NJ in days of yore…it has operated under different names but has been the Varsity Inn since 1969.  I had never been inside until this past summer when my brother and I had breakfast there on his recommendation.  The breakfast was delicious, with omelettes freshly prepared and the crowded but fast moving dining room waited on with adequate attention.

Signs outside, inside and on the menu all boast of the Varsity Inn’s Baked Jersey Tomato Soup.  So famous they advertise quarts and pints of it on the menu.  Not really being a breakfast item, I resolved to return some time for lunch to try to the soup.

A crisp and overcast autumn Sunday saw me in Ocean City and looking for a place to have lunch with my mom and my brother.  I suggested the Varsity Inn and was not disappointed.  The restaurant was every bit as crowded in October as it is in July and it’s open year round for breakfast and lunch.

The soup did not disappoint.  It was creamy, freshly made, topped with a light cheese and crouton crust and my mom and I both savored each bite.  My brother ordered the chili which he reported was a little spicy (the way he likes it) and it was also topped with cheese and fresh chopped onions.

I ordered the turkey special (cole slaw and russian dressing on rye).  The Varsity roasts its own turkey breast which always scores high marks with me.   Nothing is worse than lunchmeat turkey.  The sandwich was very good, served with a small bag of chips and two pickle slices.

My brother ordered the chicken salad wrap and the freshly made chicken salad looked very good.  My mother ordered a roast beef club which was perfectly prepared – not too large but with moist roast beef and fresh lettuce and tomato.

All told I will make it a point to visit the Varsity on my next trip to the shore and I recommend it for both breakfast and lunch.  Or go for breakfast and get some take out soup for later.  It’s worth it.  The menu is extensive for both breakfast and lunch with daily specials.  The usual breakfast offerings along with a menu heavy on sandwiches and salads for lunch.

The varsity theme is carried throughout the decor with college pennants hung around the pressed metal roof.

Varsity Inn

605 E 8th St
Ocean City, NJ 08226
(609) 399-1500

Radice – Blue Bell, PA

Having enjoyed privately catered events and several meals at Toto Schiavone’s Moonstruck restaurant I was excited to find that he was opening a new restaurant close to my home in Blue Bell.  I had read about the concept:  A small number of full dinner plates but mostly “small plates”.  Some are appetizer sized, some a little larger.  They recommend you order 3 or 4 “Assagi” (Italian for ‘taste’) if you’re looking to make a meal out of the small plates.

Since I love to taste a little bit of everything I was looking forward to visiting Radice and waited for about six weeks after opening to let them work out any kinks.  My party of three adults and one 8 year old was greeted at the door by Toto himself, who seemed to be on site until around 7:30 p.m. or so.

We were immediately seated in the pleasant dining room.  Despite hardwood floors, noisewas not a problem in the main dining room but I imagine when the restaurant is full in both the front and rear (opened up nicely since it was a private dining room in the prior restaurants at this location) it can get noisy.  A wood fired oven dominates the semi-open kitchen and is utilized for many dishes and the pizzas.

Drink orders were taken and delivered quickly and the waitress explained the menu concept and answered questions.  My friend Paul, working in the kitchen, also visited the table and made recommendations as well.

Toto stopped by and let us know that the kitchen would make anything the 8 year old would like for dinner.  She asked for some pasta and tomato sauce.  They accommodated her and she was quite pleased with the offering, finishing almost all of it (and tasting a lot of the food served to the adults).

A variety of three different kinds of fresh bread was served with olive oil and herbs.  A “Wedge” salad made with Bibb lettuce, pancetta and bleu cheese was reported to be excellent and Ruchetta Arugula salad I had was excellent (and plentiful).

The Braciolini, delicate but generous meatballs, were shared by three of us and were very good.  Tender and flavorful, not at all heavy with a flavorful tomato sauce.  The creamy gorgonzola

Bibb "Wedge" Salad

gnocchi were heaven.   The sauce with just enough flavor to compliment but not overpower the light and freshly made gnocchi.  The other small plate I enjoyed, Frascatole, a ricotta polenta was served volcanically hot.  It was very tasty but the scalding from my first bite took away from my enjoyment of it.  The polenta was moist and creamy and I would try it again but probably be more careful on my first bite.

Arugala Salad

Baby Clams

Seafood small plates were more a mixed bag.  The baby clams were reported to be tasty and the bed of small pasta balls underneath were eaten until the plate was clean.  Also reported to be excellent was the grilled squid which looked appetizing even though I don’t enjoy squid.  The scallops were served mashed into a crab cake style presentation and were not as highly recommended as the other two dishes.  More a case of “not what I expected” then anything being especially wrong with them.

A pizza topped with spinach, prosciutto, and goat cheese (I think) was enjoyed by the person who ordered it but not by her husband who tasted it.

Dessert was a little hodge podge.  Cappucino was served before the dessert order was taken and was strong but reported to be very tasty.  Chocolate gelato and blackberry gelato were served with a homemade chocolate biscotti that was not too hard and looked tasty.  I ordered peaches warmed with an orange liquor sauce and served with a scoop of vanilla gelato.  The last dessert of the evening was mixed berries served in a light cream.

The gelato was tasty.  My peach dessert was also very tasty, though it probably needed an extra scoop of gelato to go with the generous serving of peaches.  The mixed berries were more of a mixed bag.  They were just “ok”, with some berries being very hot and other being ice cold.   But 3 out of 4 wasn’t bad and the berries may have just had an off night.

However, the desserts did come out scattershot, 1 first, then 2, then the berries after everyone had finished their other desserts.  The waitress did apologize profusely for the delay and did update on us the delay when the 2nd round of desserts was delivered.  Attentiveness provides for a lot of forgiveness.

Radice

722 W. Dekalb Pike

Village Square Shopping Center

Blue Bell, PA

www.radicerestaurant.com

Radice

Bibb “Wedge” Salad

Arugala Salad

Baby Clams

Glen Macnow’s Annual Sandwich Safari

Nick's Roast Beef Sandwich (Courtesy of Philly Inquirer)

Radio host Glen Macnow’s annual sandwich safari is coming to a close and the top winners are chronicled in this Philadelphia Inquirer article.

The top sandwich was a hot roast beef sandwich from the original Nick’s Roast Beef in South Philadelphia. I must admit my one experience with Nick’s Roast Beef was underwhelming but I’m inspired to give it a second try.  Thus far, for my money, Ye Olde Ale House in Lafayette Hill still serves the best roast beef sandwiches I’ve ever had — carved from a steamship round behind the bar.

The full list of nearly 40 sandwiches in competition can be found here.

Duck Deli – New Britain, PA

The Duck Deli first snared a Best of Philly mention for, of all things, its Tuna Hoagie even though it is renowned for its North Carolina style barbecue.  It was this legendary barbecue that I arrived in search of on my most recent visit.  Tagging along with me was a family that included a bonafide Texan with a high standard for bbq.

We were not disappointed.  Located off of Route 202 in New Britain, Bucks County it is tough to avoid noticing the Duck Deli with its animated duck welcoming you.

Bridgeport Rib House – Bridgeport, PA

I first patronized the Bridgeport Rib House at their second former location the creatively named Conshohocken Rib House.  That closed some years ago, but the original in nearby Bridgeport is still producing great ribs and a fair price.

There is not much in the way of ambiance.  This is a biker bar that serves great ribs and has for many years and offers up live music on many nights of the week.  The motif is something of a witch doctor’s lair with spooky pig looking things scattered about and a collection of ties tacked to the walls.  Legend says if you enter the place after 9:00 p.m. wearing a tie it gets cut off and tacked to the wall.

Penn’s Tavern at the William Penn Inn – Gwynedd, PA

Penn’s Tavern is the casual dining room at Lower Gwynedd Township’s historic William Penn Inn.  The WPI shimmers during the winter with thousands of miniature lights.  The circa 1714 Inn is one of the premier dining locations in Montgomery County and offers banquet facilities and three dining rooms:  The semi-private formerly members-only exclusive Commonwealth Club on their second floor, the main Monet Dining Room for fine dining (both the Commonwealth Club and Monet rooms have the same menu) and Penn’s Tavern.

I have probably been to the WPI fifty times in my life but I had never dined in Penn’s Tavern so when we tried to get reservations to celebrate my birthday on Mothers Day weekend…Penn’s Tavern was all they offered.  It was as good a time as any to try it.

We were seated within 15 minutes of arrival, which wasn’t bad considering the crowds.  We took our seats in one of the tables in the modest bar area with live piano player (as opposed to a dead one, I suppose).  The pianist played mostly saloon songs from the 50′s and 60′s and instinctively played “As Time Goes By” just as one of my companions said “I’d really like to hear…”

MaGerks – Fort Washington, PA

It is a pretty good bet if MaGerks was around when George Washington and his troops were marching by during the Revolution, they would have stopped in for a sandwich and a beer.  The former Bent Elbo Tavern reinvented itself last fall as MaGerks, the third outpost of a Maryland-based restaurant operation run by area natives.

Mandarin Garden – Willow Grove, PA

I remember reading about the Mandarin Garden in Philadelphia Magazine some years ago.  Larry Kane, in a 1994 interview, declared it “the best Chinese food in the world”.  That is probably an exaggeration, but it is very good and the menu has a larger than usual number of dishes that are not the “usual fare”.  You can get all the “usual” stuff (General Tso’s, Sweet and Sour this and that, Moo Shu, Lo Mein, etc.) but the variety of “specialty” dishes has impressed me on both visits.

CNN’s 50 Best Restaurants in the World

A bold list.

One of surprisingly little interest to me.  I suppose I don’t have the same tastes as “world eaters” they surveyed.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/04/27/fifty.best.restaurants/index.html