Geoff’s Superlative Sandwiches Review June 18, 2013

I have been to Geoff’s twice and each time it is a great experience. The sandwiches have been amazing and the service is always outstanding. My two favorite sandwiches are ‘The Frigid Bitch’ and the reuben sandwich.

Now let me start on the reuben. I have had many of reubens over the course of my life some amazing and some awful. Let me just say that the both times I had this sandwich it was great. The corned beef is cooked and season to perfection. They put the exact right amount of sauerkraut on the sandwhich. Which in my opinion is one of the crucial points, because if there’s too much it dominates and is overwhelming. The final and most important is the russian dressing. Geoff’s taste delicious and they know not to over douse the top of the sandwich as the bread will then get soggy. All in all the best reuben sandwich I have found in Providence.

Finally the atmosphere is great at Geoff’s. There are so many different choices of sandwiches lining the walls on a chalkboard that even the most pickiest eater would be able to find something. Also they have a barrel full of house made pickles that are delicious and free to anyone who purchases food. Let me just say that the pickles were delicious.

All in all a great place and I would recommend it to anyone wanting a great sandwich in Providence.

 

Los Andes Restaurant Review

I have been to Los Andes Restaurant twice and have been impressed on both my visits. It is a The fist time I went it was on a Thursday night and little did I know that they would have live music in the restaurant area. It was a great addition to my experience.

Now on to the food and service. The service was spectacular from the host getting us a table even thought it was crowded rather quickly. To the waitstaff that is always welcoming and willing to give their honest opinion about a dish on the menu. Which an honest opinion when asked at a restaurant is hard to find. The food in general on both of my visits has blown me away. The taste and quality are very high in my book.

On my first trip I ordered ‘Pollo a Los Andes’ which was very tasty and a very large portion of food. The dish has pieces of chicken breast, round slices of sautéed with chorizo, cherry peppers, banana peppers, onions, and tomatoes. It is then finished in a garlic-wine broth. Let me just say that the broth is delicious and packs a decent garlic punch. Finally it is served on a bed of steak fries topped with mozzarella cheese and scallions. Let me start off by saying that this dish is very filling and I wasn’t able to come close to finish the whole dish and I can eat a lot of food. If you are not a person who likes spicy I would avoid this dish as it is spicy due to the chorizo, banana peppers and cherry peppers. This has been one of my favorite dishes that I have had in quite some time. It seems like an odd combination of ingredients when you read it but when you take that first bite all the flavors come together.

On my second trip I ordered ‘Envuelto de Pollo’ this was a delicious dish and was a large portion as well. The ingredients that make up this dish are fresh chicken breast, layered with fire roasted peppers, queso blanco, spinach, and mushrooms, rolled and encrusted with seasoned Ritz crackers, finished in the broiler, topped with an aji Amarillo cream sauce. Let me just say that this dish was creamy, crunchy and delicious. The chicken stayed nice and moist while being cooked and the cheese and vegetables inside added to the delicious taste of the dish. This dish either comes with your choice of either mashed potatoes or white rice. I ordered the white rice and it was tasty and complimented the dish.

I would highly recommend ordering either of the dishes I mentioned above as they will not disappoint. The restaurant has a full bar and also does take-out. Their web address is http://www.losandesri.com. Go on over and check out their website and plan your trip to this great restaurant. I know I will keep going back for more.

Tazza – Delicious Drinks, Small Plates and Brunch March 2, 2013

So I was excited when tazza reopened in downtown Providence. I had been to lunch a couple times before the whole place was redesigned and revamped. Personally I could not be happier with the new offerings that tazza now has. tazza is located at 250 Wesminister Street in the heart of downtown Providence, RI. Now tazza staying true to its roots still has the coffee/tea counter setup next to the bar as soon as you enter. tazza is open seven days a week. During the week lunch and dinner are served along with the coffee/tea counter being open from early in the morning. On the weekends brunch is served. The bar is open late night Wednesday through Saturday.

My first time going into tazza when it was reopened was after I had had an awful dinner at a different establishment with my fiancee. We were just going to go in a have a drink or two. We sat down at the bar and were promptly greeted by an extremely friendly bartender. She showed us the drink menu and let it be known that she would answer any questions we had. Well let me just say that the specialty drink menu was large and very diverse. Now I was not sure what to order at the first as a few different choices caught my eye. I finally decided on a ‘Pineapple Basiltini’ and boy was I not disappointed. The drink was described as having tazza’s own basil infused vodka, pineapple juice, muddled basil and freshly cracked pepper. Now when this drink arrived in a stemless martini glass I did not waste anytime in diving right in for the first sip. It tasted delicious and extremely fresh. The basil vodka and pineapple were light and seamlessly blended together. The thing that hit this drink out of the park for me was the fresh cracked pepper on the top. It added this slight spiciness right at the end of each sip. This is now one of my favorite drinks that I have had anywhere. Even though I have a preference for the ‘Pineapple Basilitin’ I have either ordered or tasted a sip or two from a few other drinks on the menu and I have not been disappointed with any of them.

Now on this particular visit I also decided to order something off of the small plates menu since I was still hungry. Now tazza does change their menu and uses local and fresh ingredients. At the time their were rabbit ravioli’s on the menu and I ordered them. When the plate arrived there was four over-stuffed raviolis filled with delicious shredded rabbit meat. The raviolis were covered in a delicious creamy sauce. The raviolis themselves I could taste right away were freshly made and they were cooked perfectly al dente. The shredded rabbit meat filling melted in my mouth and put a huge grin on my face because it was so delicious.

Since I have gone I have brought different friends back for drinks but haven’t had a chance to try anything else off of the small plates menu but after reading the description for each item it always sounds so appealing. But I have gone back for brunch twice. Once with my family and once with one of my good friends. Now the time I went with my family I decided to try the Chicken and Waffles. The chicken that came out with the dish had a buttermilk coating on it and was all pieces of breast meat fried to perfection.  The waffle was not only light and fluffy, but filled with bacon pieces. I mean how can you go wrong with a bacon waffle. Now the chicken and waffle was covered with a rich and decadent creamy sausage gravy. It was heavenly and I ate every last bite of this dish. Now on this trip we got an order of the house-made buttermilk beignets to try as for the table as well. The beignets were light and each of three different dipping options that came with the beignets complimented each other so well. The three choices to dip/spread over the beignets were regular butter, orange honey butter and a lemon curd. My personal favorite was the lemon curd as it provided a slightly tart taste that I like with the sweeter taste of the beignet.

Each time I go to tazza I leave satisfied and already thinking about when I can make a plan to go back again. That is the sign of a good establishment in my opinion. So make sure that you go and enjoy this place be it for a drink, a sampling of some small plates, dinner or bunch. Let me know if you have gone to tazza and what your experience was.

Make sure to check out the website for tazza, http://www.tazzacaffe.com for the exact hours hours they are open, their current menu offering and how to contact them for a reservation.

DownCity Restaurant August 8, 2011

So I heard that DownCity Restaurant had updated their menu and were now offering $3 drafts and $3 appetizers each weekday, so I had to go check it out. I brought my fiancee and one of my good friends with me a little bit after 3pm on a Friday. We sat at the bar and I was excited to try a few appetizers. Boy was I in for disappointment. My fiancee and I ordered the ‘Spicy Salty Calamari’, the ‘Lobster Sliders’ and the ‘Lime Chili Chicken Wings’ to share.

Let me start with the calamari first. I have ordered calamari at many different restaurants as it is one of my favorite appetizers and this was by far one of the worst that I have tried. It was not spicy at all, or even salty for that matter. The dipping sauce that was given with it lacked any flavor. The calamari rings were overcooked and were chewy. This was not a great start.

The chicken wings were not any better. The presentation on the plate was very nice, so A for that. The wings themselves were overcooked and extremely crispy on the outside. The lime chile sauce tasted, according to my fiancee, like the sweet and sour sauce you would get at McDonald’s and I had to agree. Usually when you order chicken wings they are good, but not so at DownCity Restaurant.

Finally I tasted the lobster sliders. They were absolutely disgusting. There was hardly any lobster meat, if what was served could even be called lobster meat, first off. They had a weird sweet taste to them and it almost tasted as though the lobster meat was bad. I ate one slider and didn’t eat the rest.

My friend Erin, got the lobster sliders as well and thought the same thing. She also ordered the clam chowder. She told me it was extremely bland tasting, as she dumped a bunch of pepper into the chowder, and had a few spoonfuls and then stopped eating as it just didn’t have the right taste that a chowder should.

All in all it was an extremely disappointing outing. The only good thing was that all these appetizers were only three bucks. If I had paid full price for any of these items I would have been a little bit upset. I do not think I will be venturing back to DownCity Restaurant any time soon. I think that the food they are putting out during this happy hour type special will keep many of people away from coming back to try dinner. I would not recommend giving this establishment your business.

Farmstead Review July 14, 2011

So I had been meaning to go and check out Farmstead (www.farmsteadinc.com) as they are an artisanal cheese shop, since I love cheese. So I jumped on their website to get their address and I found out that they are now offering lunch Tuesdays-Saturdays. I was more than excited. So I ventured over hoping to find a great sandwich or salad.

When I arrived I looked at the menu and saw a couple of choices of sandwiches that piqued my interest. I was torn between the Corned Beef Tongue sandwich and the Cheesemongers Grilled Cheese. I ended up deciding on the grilled cheese. Now the description of the Cheesemongers Grilled Cheese was listed as ‘A mix of various pasteurized cheeses, Bourbon melted onions’. It came with a small side of what appeared to be homemade potato chips and a few small slices of, what I think, were bread and butter pickles.

I was not happy when I started to eat my sandwich. First off I saw that there was large pieces of salt on the top of the bread on each sandwich half. I’m not sure why they were there but needless to say I tried to brush them all off but of course some still remained stuck. I then opened up one of the half of the sandwiches (which you can see in the picture) and there was not a lot of cheese and barely any onions. That puzzled me as most grilled cheeses tend to have a lot of cheese. I then closed the sandwich and took my first bite. All I could taste was salt, even though I had tried to brush all the salt off the top of the bread. I finished off that first half of the sandwich and there was hardly any taste of onions and the cheese didn’t have a distinct flavor at all. I was extremely disappointed. The second half of the sandwich had more onions on it but I couldn’t taste anything bourbon, or any seasonings really for that matter, about them. I did try the potato chips and those were bland as well. If they were homemade (which I think they were) they need to have more seasoning on them. Finally I tried the pickles. Those were a disappointment as well. They were way to sour. I’m not sure what type of pickles they were supposed to be, but something was off when they were made.

All in all I was extremely disappointed. They do offer outside seating as well as some tables available inside. Soup and salad is also available in addition to the sandwiches. There is a beer and wine menu available for lunch. One last thing to note though, a customer behind me asked if they could make a customized sandwich with some of the ingredients they saw on the board and was told no by the employee at the counter. So I would suggest not taking someone who is picky to get some lunch as they might not be able to find anything.

In the end I would not recommend going to Farmstead for lunch. There are many other and better choices in and around Wayland Square.