Fiesta Mexicana

We stumbled across this little place when we moved to our new neighborhood. It was just too interesting to pass up. So we headed there for our anniversary.

Upon walking in, it feels as if you're sitting in someone's kitchen. The ladies behind the counter were so friendly. We quickly placed our orders, starting with a nacho app and the sampler platter for dinner.

They cook the food right in front of you. You actually get to watch them make everything, right there, in front of you! It was so great. The food arrives as soon as it is plated, so it's piping hot, fresh and ohmygodyoucan'thandleit delicious. Hands down the best BEST Mexican food I've EVER had.

Look at those nachos. The sampler had enchiladas (chef's surprise as to what they were stuffed with but we figured pork and chicken. We were adventurous and let them pick), tacos, tostadas and something else I can't remember but it was gooooooooooooooooooooooooooood.

The meat was very tender and melted in your mouth. Everything was seasoned perfectly.

Nothing was too spicy and all the flavors blended so well together. We were completely stuffed halfway through the sampler and ended up taking the rest home. I am pleased to say that it also reheated well the next day, and was just as delicious.

This place is small, there's limited seating but that seems to make it that much more awesome. It's also really inexpensive. You get your sodas or beverage from the case, you can BYOBeer and you get to watch them cook your food (but not in the showy Japanese steakhouse way, more in the Mexican mom/sister/grandma cooking for you sort of way)

The Corner Stable

This place isn't shy about advertising their greatest asset. BALTIMORE'S BEST RIBS! brazenly screams at you from the side of the building. Dave's pretty big on anything involving BBQ or pork, and well, I just love to eat.

The parking lot was completely full. We had to venture over to the "Overfill Lot" by the Battery Warehouse. The restaurant itself was jammed with people. Walking through all we saw were piles of bones and baskets of ribs.

What we didn't realize was that Monday is Rib Night. Their Monday special is a full rack of ribs and fries for only $13.99. So of course, that's what we ordered. We spent about 6 seconds looking at the menu. The waitress, was very sweet. She was busy but we were well taken care of. She got our drinks fast and then about a minute later the food arrived. We were stunned. It took about 5 minutes to get our dinners. "How?" we asked. She told us that on Mondays they have someone whose sole job is ribs. So they keep the ribs coming because the customers keep coming. We noticed the turnover was amazing. We finished our dinners in less than 20 minutes and cleared out for the next round of hungry rib lovers.

Now let me tell you about these ribs. This is a very casual place, our dinner arrived in a basket with the rack cut in half and stacked, fries next to it. They were drenched in this sweet, tangy, smoky sauce. I've never tasted a sauce like that before. It wasn't too sweet as some BBQ can get, but it was just the perfect amount of tang plus smoke. The meat fell off the bone. I took my fork and picked out each bone and piled it on a plate then was able to eat the rib meat with my fork (thus saving myself from the inevitable Sauce Face or the more detrimental Sauce Pants or Sauce Shirt). It was definitely enough food to fill us up. They don't serve you those skimpy wussy lean type ribs; these were plenty meaty. Melt-in-your-mouth, finger-lickin-good as they say.

The fries, if you can even get that far, were perfect. Natural cut, fried til golden and crisp but still soft and fluffy they were the perfect texture. The left over sauce from the ribs made for excellent dipping.

Not that we need to say this, but 5 Noms, two sauce-covered thumbs up and smiles all around. This place is definitely a well kept secret by the locals.

Stewart's Rootbeer

We are reviewing this place for these reasons:

• This old-time drive in type place is incredibly hard to find
• It's been owned by the same family for 60 years
• the same guy has been working there for over 40 years
• it's only open during the summer
• they has root beerz on tap!!!

Dave loves several things: me, dogs, Halo, naps and most importantly: hot dogs and root beer. In that order. When we drove by this place one day and saw it was open we nearly drove through the cement highway divider to get in there. Dave was so excited. They pour their root beer (or cream ale) into frosted mugs and everything is made fresh, by hand in the kitchen.

And everything is delicious. Dave devoured several corn dogs, while I face-planted into a double cheeseburger hot mess. It was heaven. The burger fell apart in my hands leaving me with mayo covered mitts and a clown-style smile of mustard and ketchup.

We highly recommend, nay, COMMAND you visit this place when they open next spring. Say hi to the friendly staff, sit back and enjoy several frosty mugs of rootbeer then raid the fridge on your way out and take home a few 4 packs of Stewarts fine beverages. Honestly, a must.

5 NOMS!

Dave's 2 Cents:

Many years ago, before I-95 came along, Route 40 used to be a booming highway. As you exit downtown Baltimore and drive East on 40, you can just imagine how grand a roadway this area was. Hotel shells line the street, which were once booming with people, after all this was the only way to Delaware and Atlantic City before 95 came along.

Out from the rubble though, stands a classic gem that has stood the test of time. Stewart's root beer. Once a prevalent franchise spread up and down the east coast, this is the last Stewart's store front in Maryland. As a matter of fact, it's the last of its kind in the Mid- Atlantic. If you want to travel inland, the Midwest has a few in northern Ohio, and the next closest one is in Camden County, New Jersey. I know that spot well, as i spent the first 10 years of my life right down the road from the "Drive in" version of Stewart's in West NJ.

The only 2 things that could make this place perfect is: 1. being open all year, and 2. being a true drive in (parking your car outside and a girl on skates rolls up to your car and takes your order).

When you walk into this place, you can just get hit with a huge feeling of nostalgia. Whether your 30, 40, 50 or 60 years old, there is a good chance you've been to a place like this during your childhood.

As you order from the front counter, you can watch through the doors, your food getting freshly made and another person reaching into the deep freeze to grab your mugs for your root beer. The root beer and diet are on tap, and the other 4-5 flavors are vended through the normal fast food dispensers.

There are also pallets of bottled flavors for you to take home with you, in all the flavors. They even allow you to mix and match flavors whether you buy a 4 pack or a crate of 6- 4packs. You can even get root beer 1 gallon barrels, filled with your favorite flavor!!!

If this diner has touched your childhood like it has mine, you definitely need to share the experience with friends and your own children. This place is worth the drive, you truly need to visit.

G&A Restaurant

G & A Restaurant
3802 Eastern Avenue
Baltimore, MD 21224
(410) 276-9422
http://www.gandarestaurant.com/
Mon - Sat: 7 am - 7 pm ~ Sun: Closed
BEST HOTDOGS IN BALTIMORE

This came to us by way of the suggestion box once it was learned that Dave loves hotdogs. LOVES hotdogs. Apparently this place is said to have the best hotdogs around.

Apparently that is correct. They also have the best everythingwetasted around.

This place has been around since 1927 and has remained family owned the entire time. You walk into to this narrow little, easy to miss place and you're greeted by a friendly staff. Once seated, we began to pour over the laminated menus (ah, true diner style) that never leave the booths. We ordered a couple of cokes, and got down to business with the food.

I ordered a G&A club which came with turkey, ham, cheese, lettuce, tomato, mayo on three crispy toasted slices of white bread with a side of coleslaw. Dave ordered two dogs, mustard and relish, and a slider platter which had three cheeseburger sliders with ketchup and mustard and pickle and a side of fries.

The sliders hit the table first and we dug in. Holy delicious. You can tell right away these were made FRESH mere minutes before we started shoving them into our mouths. The bun was soft and the fries were fresh cut. We got a side of gravy for dippin' (something Dave was skeptical about but being from one of the fattest states in this great U.S. of A. I knew was delicious and after some coaxing from myself and our waitress he agreed to try it). I am happy to report that the gravy was salty, gooey and perfect. The combo of fry and gravy was unbelievable. Dave is now a convert.

So, now for the club sandwich. I went with an easy dish I suppose, but it looked good. It's really really hard to mess up a club sandwich. This one was great. The bread toasty and perfect (except for the one burnt slice but it was hardly noticeable and I only took note of it when the club fell apart in my hands and I saw it, then had a good laugh). The coleslaw was also pretty good, definitely carrying that "homey" taste with it.

Dave LOVED the dogs. He loved them. The look on his face when he bit into them was priceless. It was like he'd never tasted a hotdog before.

Now, I will say that this diner isn't pretty, but it's clean, and it's well broken in and that is exactly how diners should be. It's been standing for about 90 years so it has stood the test of time.

The owner himself, Andy was working the register, cooking, greeting people which was amazing to see. He took so much pride in this place you could just feel it. Our waitress apologized several times and thanked us for being "patient", even though the wait for the food was under 15 minutes and everything was so incredibly good we would have waited longer for it.

This place TOTALLY gets 5 noms. The food was amazing, the service was amazing, and we were completely and totally happy with the entire experience.

Dave's 2cents:

So as you heard, after a reader saw my bad review of Stuggys, he/she suggested G&A. When I google mapped it, I wasn't impressed with the area, the southeast area past Patterson Park, aka Little Havana.

But as I have been told MANY TIMES, if I want to live in Baltimore I got to get over these bad areas.

Walking into this place was nostalgic. I grew up in West NJ, with a diner names Geets, and my wife in Michigan named Tony's. We both sat down and looked around and felt like we were home.

The customer service was outstanding, from the BOSS, Andy greeting us at the door, to the waitress making sure we were ok every few minutes.

The food was heavenly. Yes the sliders were good, but the hotdogs were perfect. (I realize that I cannot tell you about this without you pervs giggling because I sound phallic, so here it goes...)

The hotdog's crisp skin just pops as you bit into it, as the warm hotdog innards explode in your mouth. Leaving its eater with closed eyes and a wide smile. nommmmmmmmm

ok, seriously. stop giggling.

Stuggy's

Stuggy's

809 South Broadway

Baltimore, MD 21231

Phone: 410-327-0228

http://www.stuggys.com/

Thursday - Saturday: 11am - 3am

Sunday: 11am-5pm

Knowing my husband's all-consuming love for hot dogs, when I heard about this place I figured we'd have to go sooner or later. We chose sooner. As for me, hot dogs aren't a holy grail food, but I can appreciate a good dog now and again.

First of all, I love this location. Fell's Point is one of my favorite areas of the city. I love how close and intimate all the shops are with each other, the proximity to the water, the fact that you can have a great meal and then five feet later have a great dessert/beer/drink/whatever. It rocks.

This place is tiny. There are only four stools in it and when we walked in, all four were covered in teenager. We stared hungrily at the chalkboard menu for a few minutes, I had already decided on the Motor City Coney (1/4 all beef dog covered in chili, shredded cheddar cheese and diced raw onion...just like they make 'em back home) and Dave settled on a #3, two dogs, fries and a drink.

I will apologize for not having taken pictures of our actual foods, we both had inhaled our dogs and then realized "Oh crap, the blog" so we found some photos online of their food. I will testify that what you see in these photos is what you will get at Stuggy's.

The food came fast. We requested that the Teens working boot their loitering friends and they did. We sat down to eat. I loved my dog. It was fabulous. Crohn's be damned. I ate that chili like...a person who can eat chili and not end up in blinding pain an hour later. Usually I dislike raw onion but it was excellent on this dog. The chili was plentiful, the cheese was fresh and gooey and the onions crunchy and...pungent, as onions tend to be. The stomach ache I eventually suffered through was worth it.

I ate all of Dave's fries too. These fries were very different than any others I've ever had. They were fresh cut, no doubt about it, covered in sea salt, but they tasted almost like they'd been refired as they were slightly chewy. Still a really good flavor, just odd texture.

The soda they have here is like no soda anywhere else. Boylan Soda Co. It's some fancy pants odd flavored soda (think if Jones had a fountain machine, but not as delicious). With flavors like Black Cherry, Orange Creme, and an odd tasting Root Beer, the soda selection was a tad disappointing for me. I liked the idea of the unique variety, I'm just not a fan of the "creme" variety of anything.

Overall, I give it 3 out of 5 noms.

Dave's 2 Cents:"I'm not even supposed to be here today!"

This place pissed me the F#*k off.

It was as if an Oscar Mayer hotdog and "Clerks" the movie had a baby and gave it up for adoption in Baltimore.

On entering this establishment with no A/C in 100 degree weather, teens behind the counter not greeting us, and the only places to sit and eat were occupied by the employee's loitering friends, my temper grew fast.

At the point where our "to go" food was handed to us in "eat in" fashion, is when i started getting snarky.

As I tried to communicate with one of the employees over the blaring Death Metal music playing overhead, I asked if all these kids were their friends. When he said yes, I requested he tell them that they need to make room for paying customers.

On the flip side: The hot dogs were awesome, some of the best I have ever had. Surprisingly they were 100% beef, which I prefer Chicken/Pork.

I would suggest that the owner possibly think about doing some random walk ins or secret shoppers, but its really not worth it for what it is, a glorified hot dog stand in a popular bar district.

I just wouldn't be surprised if you caught the employees playing roof hockey at some point during the day...

Luna Del Sea

Luna Del Sea Bistro
www.lunadelsea.com

300 West Pratt Street
Baltimore, MD 21201-6504
(410) 752-8383

BEST SEAFOOD: INNER HARBOR
Click Here for Menu

Today's post was supposed to be about Dangerously Delicious Pies, but since it was closed, we headed over to Luna Del Sea to review this little seafood bistro. Our good friend Sami, whom you may remember from our Sorso Cafe post suggested we try it out, as he knows the owner. We headed over there with him and our friend Heather in tow to help us sample a wider range of the menu.

I must say first off that this place is very cute. It's set up elegantly, comfortable seating, the ballroom has a gorgeous mural on the wall. Right away we felt at home there. We were one of two tables in the place so it was nice and quiet.

We started the meal off by ordering fried soft shell clams and mussels in a garlic butter sauce. Dave sure does love his fried clams, and he wasn't disappointed here. They were perfectly crispy on the outside, soft on the inside and the dipping sauce was a phenomenal complement. I was a little biased about the mussels and so were Dave and Heather.

The last time I had mussels they were chewy and rubbery and not having a basis of comparison, thought that was how they were supposed to be. Now that I've tried these, I know otherwise. These were tender and nearly melted in your mouth. The garlic butter sauce was so good that we all used up the rolls to soak it up and polish the plate. Sami sure knows his food, he did an excellent job picking out that dish. Even Dave and Heather liked them. Luna Del Sea, you have 3 new mussel converts.

For the entrees Heather ordered the crab cake sandwich with fries, Sami got the seafood trio, broiled, Dave ordered the fried seafood platter and I ordered the shrimp salad sandwich.

Everything came out very quickly, which was probably due in part to us being 50% of their business at that time. July 5 was weird because so many people were considering it a holiday (Dave and I had off work) but it kind of wasn't so the business flow was off. We were eating lunch at 2 p.m. for example.

My sandwich came out just a little later than everyone else's because I mumbled my order and the waiter didn't catch it. We each took turns sampling everyone's food. Dave's platter came with fried fish, fried clams, fried scallops, and fried crabcake. Sami had broiled shrimp, scallops, and crabcake. Heather's was a crabcake on a bun, and mine was shrimp salad (shrimp, goodness and mayo) on a bun.

I must say, everything was incredibly delicious. Sami's seafood trio was especially good. Everything was cooked perfectly. I never thought I'd like crab cake, but this place really has it down. There wasn't a single thing that we ordered that we all weren't completely satisfied with. Sami's scallops and shrimp were buttery, tender and very very fresh. The crab cake from his platter was flaky and so good.

Dave's fried crab cake had a similar flavor but you could definitely tell the difference between fried and broiled. Dave's was a tad crispier on the outside, but soft, warm and good on the inside. Dave's scallops were also cooked perfectly, with the crispy outside a great complement to the flaky inside. Heather had the same crabcake the guys had so nothing new there, but still delicious. My sandwich while although my least favorite thing on the table was still delicious. The shrimp was very fresh, it wasn't bland whatsoever and the kaiser roll was soft. The fries were the highlight however. Whatever they are cooked/battered in is just wonderful.

I give it 5 noms.

Best seafood place in Baltimore I've been to so far. The staff is friendly and fast, service was great and it's in a good location. Parking might be a bit of a problem, since it's located on Pratt street but it's definitely worth it.


Dave's 2Cents:

I am completely amazed that I've never seen or heard of this place (I drive by it everyday coming home from work). From outside, it looks like a little place/rowhome with outside eating. What you get when you walk in is amazing. Huge sports bar, big fluffy pillow outside lounge area, massive ballroom for private events, 20 foot ceilings, famous people all over the walls... just GREAT.

Another thing that impressed me is the smell, which is what I look for when going to a seafood joint. Smelled fresh and clean! The owner came and sat with us for a few moments to check on us, he seemed like a very nice down to earth fellow, the waiter made sure all out glasses were full and our mouths were smiling, between running outside and blowing off the sidewalk (poor kid).

I honestly can't find one bad thing about this place. Its located across the street from the convention center and there are many places to park and walk. One suggestion would be parking at the Gallery Mall and walking a block over, but there's many blue "P" signs around.

I tried many new things and revised things I've never liked, and loved them all. Mussels... Crabcake... Scallops... Om Nom Nom!

Cheers!