Tonight we returned to Taste of Italy in Mattoon. We were impressed with our first visit and tonight was more of the same, only better. I may have been imagining things, but it seems the helpings are getting bigger. We both brought home plenty for a second meal.

Sarah had the Eggplant Parmigiana and a salad. I had the Chicken Scarpariello with ziti and a bowl of clam chowder. Sarah’s eggplant was generous and tasty. She brought a bit more than half home. My clam chowder was a bit thin and more like soup, but it still tasted ok. My entree was chicken and sausages with onions, peppers, potatoes, and mushrooms in a white wine sauce. The ziti on the side had meat sauce. My meal was huge and delicious. I barely touched the ziti, although it was also quite good. I brought home half my entree and most of the ziti. I had a glass of merlot with dinner and it was a decent pour. Our bill came to just over $30 (tip included), so not bad at all for what will be two meals for each of us.

This evening we finally made it to the Broadway Beef House on Broadway in Mattoon, IL. Sarah’s colleagues had talked about it and it’s been mentioned in the comments here. We were able to drive over and walk in with no waiting right at dinnertime.

If you’ve ever been to the Amish buffet places in Tuscola or Sullivan, you’ll find the Broadway Beef House decor familiar, with the exception of a huge grill in the back of the place. This is a grill-your-own restaurant, although they will happily grill it for you if you wish. We were seated towards the back and it was a bit too close to the grill for us. We were bordering on uncomfortably warm the whole time.

The first thing I noticed was the really inexpensive wine by the glass. I ordered a merlot and immediately saw why it was so cheap. The pour was tiny. I had a few sips and it was gone before my meal arrived, so I had to buy a second glass. Note to the owners; a glass of wine in a restaurant should be 1/4 of the bottle and priced accordingly.

Sarah ordered the Prime Rib and baked beans and I went with the Ribeye with a baked potato. We had them grill my steak. We both added a trip to the salad bar. The salad bar was ok, although some of the items looked a bit worn, especially the tomatoes. Sarah’s prime rib looked ok when it arrived, but it was stone cold, like it had been sitting on the plate for a while. My ribeye was fairly large, but even with the extensive marbling, it was  strangely bland. Both were prepared as ordered (medium rare). My baked potato was also mediocre. I’m no expert on potatoes, but this one wasn’t a typical Idaho spud. Sarah decided to bring home most of her prime rib so she could enjoy it later at a reasonable temperature.  All in all, it was a disappointing meal. And at $55, way too pricey. Both AJ’s  and Roc’s Blackfront in Charleston offer better steaks for far less.

Note: I listed Broadway Beef House as being in the Family range, but several of the entrees are in the High End range.

I was really in the mood for a good Reuben today, so we stopped in to the Courier Cafe on Race St in Urbana for lunch. The Courier really knows how to put a Reuben together. Mine was lean, hot, had just the right amount of sauerkraut, and came with 1000 Islands dressing on the side. I also had some of their excellent fries and they even made a great iced coffee for me (though it’s not on the menu). Sarah had a very tasty Grilled Swiss and Pesto sandwich with some of Courier’s signature sweet potato chips. It was the perfect lunch.  

Tonight was our first trip back to Don Sol after our initial visit shortly after it opened. I’m please to report that the service bugaboos have been purged. Service was excellent tonight. And judging from the full house, business is good.

I decided to try one of their margaritas tonight. On the rocks with no salt. It was really, really good. I make a mean margarita myself, so I am seldom impressed with restaurant margaritas, but the ‘ritas at Don Sol were superb. I ended up having two.

One of my favorite meals at El Vaquero is Cazuelon, which is chicken, steak, refried beans, and rice. The closest Don Sol has to that is a dish called the Parilla Plate. Like the Cazuelon, it has chicken, steak, beans, and rice, but it also includes grilled shrimp. The chicken and steak were tender and juicy. The shrimp were very tasty, as were the beans and rice. And it came with pico de gallo, lettuce, sour cream, and avocado sections. The whole dish was well prepared and very good. Sarah had the Seafood and Rice plate. It has scallops, shrimp, and guacamole over rice. She was quite pleased with everything except some fish which was included and wasn’t supposed to be. She thought it was a bit strong. Nonetheless, our meal this evening was excellent. I’m really pleased they have ironed out the rough spots and I look forward to many more meals there.

All weekend we’ve been at a conference where all meals were included, so we haven’t been out to a restaurant since earlier in the week. The conference food was great, though. We were at The Desmond Hotel and Conference Center in Albany, NY. Their food and service would rate Five Spoons for sure. I highly recommend them for conferences. And for lunch today we popped into a 99 Restaurant and had some pretty decent baked schrod.

Back to central IL tomorrow, though. I’ll be glad to be home, but I’ll miss the restaurant choices.

Several years ago we ate at an Indian restaurant in Oklahoma City that was so bad it defied description. The memory of that place is the baseline for the bottom of my rating scale, Gag Me With a Spoon. No place we’ve eaten since has ever been that bad. However, Taj of India came awfully close today. We stopped in there on our way to the Book Barn in Niantic. Sarah had eaten there several years ago and remembered it being a good place. Maybe they’ve changed owners since, but the quality was long gone. They supposedly had a lunch buffet, and even had a large sign saying so as we pulled up, but there was no buffet to be found, so we ordered a couple of classics off the menu. Sarah had her Saag Paneer and I went with my usual, Chicken Tikka Masala. We also requested naan and raita. After a fairly long wait, we got most of our food, save the naan. I knew the second I saw my dish that we were in trouble. My chicken tikka masala looked like chunks of chicken floating in underhydrated Campbell’s tomato soup. It tasted as such, too, albeit a bit more peppery. Sarah’s saag was like spinach that had been through a blender. The naan, which finally came, was closer to a pancake and the raita was sweet enough to be dessert. We actually left food on the table, which speaks volumes as to how bad it was.

If you enjoy Indian cuisine, do not eat here. If you’ve only had Indian at Taj of India in Middletown, please try it somewhere else. You don’t know what you’re missing.

After our so-so meal at Joe’s Shanghai in NYC, we were up for some really good Chinese food. My favorite in this area is Ming Palace over on the Berlin Turnpike, so when Sarah’s folks asked where we wanted to eat tonight, I raised my hand.   Ming Palace has a dish I love, Tangerine Beef and Chicken. We always eat family style there, so we just order several dishes and some fried rice. Besides the Tangerine Beef and Chicken, we had Broccoli and Garlic Sauce, Walnut Beef and Chicken, and Vegetable Fried Rice. We also started off with Cold Noodles in Sesame Sauce. Plus Ming’s has the tastiest crunchy noodles for dipping in mustard or duck sauce.

The Walnut Beef and Chicken may become my new favorite dish there. It was excellent. The Tangerine Beef and Chicken was, as always, superb. And the Broccoli in Garlic Sauce was perfectly steamed and not too overpowering. The Vegetable Fried Rice was the perfect accompaniment.  Amazingly enough, the whole meal came to about $50 before the tip. Compare that to the mediocre meal for $75 we had at Joe’s Shanghai. You just gotta know where to eat, I guess.

Finally back in CT after our train ride from NYC. Sarah’s folks (Judy and Steve) picked us up at the train station in Hartford and took us out to dinner at Cugino’s in Newington. We’d eaten there several years ago and I remembered it being very good. Tonight was no different. We sat in the most comfortable restaurant booth I’ve ever been in and enjoyed some good bread with really excellent dipping sauce. It was olive oil with chopped tomatoes, peppers, spices, and crumbled cheese. Very tasty.

For entrees Sarah ordered Penne Arrabiata, which had Italian sausage, onions, and peppers in a light, spicy tomato sauce. I tried some and it was delicious. I had Cugino’s Tortellini, which were cheese filled and came with peas and prosciutto in a blush sauce. It wasn’t quite what I had expected, but it was delicious nonetheless. We all took a good portion home. It was the best Italian I’ve had in ages.

Our train back to Hartford wasn’t leaving until 4:30PM, so we had lots of time to waste after sweeping through the exhibits one more time at Book Expo this morning. We had to leave our luggage with the hotel and I wasn’t about to leave my laptop with them, so we were stuck toting it around. That meant no museums, as they won’t let you bring in anything larger than a hand bag. We decided to walk around and see if we could find an interesting place to eat. We ended up looping around and coming back to 57th St where we started. As it was getting late and we were pretty warm, we ducked into an inviting Irish pub called D. J. Reynolds. 

Sometimes dumb luck works in your favor. D.J. Reynolds is a neighborhood hangout for the local retirees. It was loud and friendly and quite the show. Talk about some characters. One gentleman was telling stories from the 40′s and interweaving songs from the era played on a kazoo, much to the delight of his audience. As I’ve said before, you can’t fake or buy atmosphere like this. (Excuse the lousy pic. Best I could do with a cell phone camera.)

There were so many classic pub items on the menu, I had a hard time deciding, but I settled on Fish and Chips. Sarah went with the Chicken Pot Pie. I also ordered a black and tan, figuring if anyone could do it right, it would be this place. I was right. It was perfect. We also had a large basket of excellent breads, one of which was cinnamon-raisin. Very tasty.

My fish and chips were classic pub grub. Nothing too noteworthy, but good stuff. Sarah’s chicken pot pie, on the other hand, was excellent. The crust was several inches high and light as air. The chicken pieces were large and the gravy was delicious. She was quite happy with it. And as we were in no hurry, we just sat there for a bit and soaked up more atmosphere. Glad we stopped in.

Our quest tonight was goooood Chinese food. We’d read positive reviews about Joe’s Shanghai and it was within walking distance of our hotel, so that’s where we ended up. Joe’s Shanghai is best known for their crabmeat and pork filled Soup Dumplings. They looked interesting, so we ordered them as an appetizer. They were quite tasty indeed.

For entrees we ordered Orange Beef and String Bean Szechuan Style. The beef dish came with quite a bit of perfectly steamed broccoli. The orange sauce was not too spicy or sweet, but the pieces of beef were larger than a mouthful and there were no knives among the silverware. It made eating the beef a bit of a challenge. The string bean dish was very generous and included some ground pork. Both meals came with a bowl of white rice. I had a Tsing Tao beer with my meal, which after our walk to the restaurant on a warm evening, went down quite nicely. Oddly, it was served in a wine glass.

Although the entrees were well prepared and tasted okay, we weren’t really wowed by them. The dumplings were really good and maybe a tough act to follow, or maybe we’re becoming a bit jaded by the superb food we’ve had since arriving in the city. Still, Joe’s Shanghai was not the memorable Chinese cuisine experience we were hoping for, and diners should note it also is firmly in the High End category. While it wasn’t the highlight of our dining tour of NYC, it was the most expensive meal.