My wife and I have eaten here a couple times. The first time was for dinner using a coupon from our Entertainment book. The second time was this last weekend for lunch to celebrate her graduation (she got her Masters degree).
The Plum Garden is a Japanese restaurant. They have both regular seating, and hibachi. Hibachi is where sit around the cooking surface, and the chef cooks right in front of you, usually providing a bit of entertainment, doing various tricks with the food and cooking utensils.
Both times we ate here, we did the hibachi thing. The quality of the hibachi cooking “show” depends on the experience of the chef you get. The first time we ate here, we had a great show. The second time, the chef wasn’t nearly as skilled. Things they would do included building a small volcano from onion rings, and having it shoot fire and smoke, and then having lava pouring out, spinning an egg on a spatula, tossing it in the air, and having it slit on the edge of the spatula, tossing balls of rice into the customer’s mouths, etc. It’s a lot of fun.
As for the quality of the food here. It’s excellent. I have had the hibachi steak both times, and my wife has had the shrimp. The shrimp was probably the best I have ever had on the first visit. I really considered the getting the shrimp on our second visit. But I was able to try my wife’s shrimp. It was still really good, but not as good as the first time. I guess it depends on the shrimp. Besides the main entrée, the meal also include Japanese onion soup, rice, and a garden salad with some sort of dressing that I tastes like it is made from carrot juice. It’s interesting. Maybe the difference in chefs is a lunch versus dinner thing. But during our lunch, we saw the chef at one of the other hibachi grills, and he was doing many of the tricks that our chef hadn’t done. So maybe it is just luck of the draw. Or maybe you can request a chef?
Anyway, the food is a great, and the service excellent. I will eat here again.
The Plum Garden is located at 3349 Monroe Ave, Rochester NY, 14618 (which is actually Pittsford). Their phone number is 585-381-8730.
A bunch of my friends and I were in Boston for the marathon. We met up at the convention center where the expo was being held. We went out searching for some place to have breakfast or brunch all together. There were about 15 of us. We wanted to find some place where we could sit all together. Probably not easy on regular days. But the city was crowded with people there for the marathon. We wandeded around the streets, stopping at places, and asking about available seating. Most of the places had no room, or there would be an incredibly long wait. Then we stopped at Charley’s Restaurant. They said they had room for us, though we would have to wait maybe 20 minutes. Sounded like a good deal.
The bunch of us waited in the bar area talking. After a bit, someone came and took us downstairs. We were seated all together. There weren’t any other people down here. It seems like they opened this area up to accomidate our group! How cool was that.
Service was very good, though the food was a little slow to come. That really didn’t bother us, and we were enjoying talking. A couple people had to leave, to make it to the Red Sox game.
The food did come, and it was very good. I had the “Newbury Breakfast” which consisted of three eggs any style served with an English muffin, fresh fruit, home fries and crisp bacon, sausage or ham. It was very good. My only complaint was that it was pretty light on home fries. Cmon guys, potatoes are cheap! The other people in the group seemed to enjoy their brunch meals as well. My wife, and a friend ordered the french toast, and they brought little tiny things of syrup. Not nearly enough for the friend toast. But a simple request, and they brought more. I would eat here again.
Charley’s Restaurant is located at 284 Newbury St, Boston, MA 02115. Their phone number is 617-266-3000. They have a website: www.charleys-restaurant.com
We were in town for the Boston Marathon and staying at the Doubletree Guest Suites. The night before a marathoin, runner traditionally will eat pasta for the carbs. We asked the people at the front desk about any pasta type restaurants in the area. As luck would have it, there was a pasta place across the street. We headed over, and found the place without too much difficulty. The entrance isn’t obvious. There are signs though.
We haad to wait to be seated, but that was mainly because there were six of us. But we didn’y have to wait too long. They were busy, and we could see many other people eating in there that were plainly marathoners as well.
The service was very good. My wife who managed restaurants for many years, was so impressed with the manager, that she approached him after dinner, and complemented him on the job he was doing.
The food was good andd plentyfull. I had spaghetti with meatballs. I was full by the time I was done. Some of our party didn’t manage finish their meals.
I would probably go here again. It is very convenient if you are staying at the Doubletree Guest Suites in Waltham.
Their address is 475 Winter St, Waltham, MA 02451. Their phone number is 781-684-0650.
My wife and I were staying in Waltham for the Boston Marathon. I also had some friends that were staying in the same hotel. We planned to go out for dinner. Not knowing any of the restaurants in the area, we looked in the little guide we got from the hotel. My wife and I wanted clam chowder, but beyond that, we had no real preference. We looked in the guide and found a seafood restaurant named The Naked Fish. It was right down the road. We headed there, and were quickly seated. Looking in the menu, I was surprised at the prices. $16 for fish and chips? This was not what I had in mind. We quietly left.
I set my GPS to take us into the main strip of Waltham. We drove down main street looking for some place to eat, but nothing jumped out. We went down another road, and spotted John Brewer’s Tavern. We decided to try it.
We were quickly seated. Service was very good, and we quickly had out drinks. The only thing I knew I wanted was clam chowder. My wife and I decided to share a bowl. As for the main meal, there were many things that looked good. I asked the waitress what she recommended. She recommended several things. Of her recommendations, I chose “Elaine’s Marinated Steak Tips”. My wife chose the Reuben Sandwich.
The clam chowder was very good. I have had better, but I have had alot worse. The steak tips were excellent, and my wife seemed to enjoy her Reuben.
One of my friends had the chicken pot pie. It had this big puff pastry thing on top and I was surprised how big it was. He seemed to enjoy it also.
If I qualify for the Boston Marathon again next year, I plan to stay in Walthan again, and I also plan to visit John Brewer’s Tavern again.
John Brewer’s Tavern is located at 39 Main Street, RT 20, Waltham, MA, 02453. Phone # (781) 894-9700. They have a web site at http://www.johnbrewerstavern.com
We were staying at Eel Weir State Park, and looking for some place to eat lunch. I fired up my Tom Tom GPS and searched points of interest for restaurants near my position. There were of course McDonalds and Burger King, but we can eat there when we are at home. We wanted to eat something different, most likely local. I found various places including a Chinese place, a sub place and a pizza place. Those weren’t anything that appealed to us at the moment. We also needed a place where we could take our dog, or at least leave our dog in the car for a minimal amount of time.
One of the places in the list was named Fish’er Chips. That jumped out at us. Both of us being from the Seattle area, grew up eating Fish & Chips at places like Ivar’s! So we both thought that was a great idea.
I used my GPS to get us there, and we found it no problem. The seascape painted on the side of the building help identify the place. Fish’er Chips was a small place. There was a small amount of seating inside, but there was also seating outside. My wife and I were the only customers when we arrived, but a bunch of people showed up shortly to get ice cream at the ice cream portion of the restaurant. We both ordered the Fish and Chips, I the small, and my wife the large. The small one comes with one piece of fish, and the large with two pieces. The plan was that we would split the second piece of fish. Our order didn’t take long. We took out orders outside to eat at the covered picnic tables so we could take our dog out of the car. The guy (who I believe was Steven Fisher, the owner) brought out condiments for us. I was very impressed with the service. He also seemed to care about what we thought of the food. The food was very good. The fish was haddock lightly breaded. The breading was sort of sweet tasting. And the fries that we got were also very good, and plentiful. I would eat here again. The ice cream also looked good, and seemed to be popular with the locals.
Fish’er Chips & Ice Cream is located at 608 Ford Street, Ogdensburg, NY 13669. There phone number is 315-393-3473.