Restaurant Review: Como Deli

Since I dragged my family to Erie, PA, to shiver in the "cold" (perfect running weather, not-so-perfect-spectating weather), it's only right that we all do something together as a family, and since we were 2/3 of the way to an amazing natural wonder, it would be a shame to miss out on Niagara Falls.

But the Falls aren't the topic of this post. The topic is food.

When we are on trips, we generally enjoy trying new places, especially local restaurants (as opposed to chains). So at the Niagara Falls information desk (where the guy told us to save our money on the "package deal" because it wasn't going to be worth it for us - who says New Yorkers are rude?), we asked the guy (who  incidentally looked like he was someone who would know) where we should go to eat. He started with the nearby "touristy" places, but we asked him where he would eat. He directed us to Little Italy on Pine Street, where we found The Como Restaurant.

Well, we actually found the Como Deli, which is the fast side of the Restaurant. We didn't exactly know what to order, but the woman behind the counter was extremely friendly and showed us what they had. We chose a Manicotti dinner which had two huge Manicottis (is there a correct plural for Manicotti? Or is that the plural of Manicotto?) - one cheese (for Tara) and one meat (for me). It came with two sides, so she had a meatball and I had an Italian sausage. At our request, she drenched the whole thing with sauce. The kids went with pizza and shells with red sauce.

The food was fantastic. It was out-of-this-world good. It was come back and eat here every day good. It was move into the neighborhood and beg for a job there so I can eat it more frequently good.

And what made it even better was the staff. It seemed like they greeted almost all of their customers by name and were extremely friendly. When we asked what a particular dessert was, they gave us a couple of them. Free. And when our boys saw a little girl eating a cookie and wanted their own cookies, and we sent Andrew to the counter to buy a couple. They wouldn't take his money and gave him several cookies. And more when he went back for another (and still they wouldn't take his money).

This was one of the best restaurant experiences I can remember.

(for full-disclosure purposes, they did give us free desserts and free cookies for the boys, and the meal was so horribly underpriced that we thought they had possibly forgotten to ring something up - like "cheaper than McDonalds" priced - but nobody from the restaurant staff had any clue that I was going to write a review and they probably won't read this but that's fine)

Restaurant Review: Fabian's

Our family purchased the entertainment book as part of a fundraiser for Jonathan and Andrew's preschool, and when we have a day off together and are going out to eat, we try to go somewhere new (with special offers from said entertainment book).

Friday this was our plan: we headed for the Columbus public library in the morning, had pizza for lunch at Fabian's (50% off a pizza), and then went ice skating.

This post is about Fabian's.  We got there shortly after 11:30, and we found an empty restaurant.  Only the bartender was there.  We had the run of the place (literally,after we put in our order).  The boys thoroughly enjoyed the SouthPark pinball machine while we waited.

The decor was Chicago (think Al Capone pictures with a few reminders of the Bears, the Cubs, and the White Sox - you could tell that we weren't actually in Chicago because there were both Cubs and Sox memorabilia together in the same place).  One wall was Christmas ornamented - a little out of place, I thought.

On to the food: we ordered garlic bread as an appetizer.  The garlic bread itself was the usual - we all liked it - but the unusual thing was that they served it with some delicious pizza sauce (on the side).  When I tasted the dipping sauce, I knew that the pizza would be good.

Fabian's bills itself as a "Chicago Style" pizza place, and, well, Tara and I have lived in Chicago, and we know Chicago style pizza.  We (honestly) weren't expecting much.  We checked the menu and ordered the Italian specialty pizza (pepperoni, capicola, sausage, Italian beef) - Chicago style.

When it came out, it looked Chicago style. Deep dish, full of cheese, sauce, and toppings.  I mean really full.  Packed.  And the taste... I was suddenly transported back almost 20 years and I was back in college, enjoying the taste of authentic Chicago pizza.  The crust was delicious, flaky, and buttery.  The sauce was loaded with garlic - not overdone, mind you, but enough that you knew you'd had garlic.  The meats: delicious.  My mouth is watering as I write this.  One piece was enough to fill me up. And I ate left-overs for dinner as well.

I was surprised that such a good restaurant wasn't jam-packed by noon on a weekday. The food was fantastic.  One of the best pizzas I have had in years.  Maybe Columbus just doesn't "get" Chicago style pizza.  Or maybe they're just haven't heard of Fabian's yet.

(tip: if you go on a weekday between 3 and 7 pm, they have some great happy hour deals)

Four Reasons for Four Reasons

Yesterday my family and I had lunch at Four Reasons Bakery and Deli in Lancaster, Ohio.

We went down for a funeral, and since we were all dressed up and since we were hungry, we decided we'd like to go out to eat. The usual places, pizza and fast food, weren't all too attractive, so we decided to drive around a little and see what was available.

We saw Four Reasons and decided it looked good. Here are four reasons to go back:

1. The food was fantastic. We got a French Dip sandwich and their Fairfield Club sandwich and shared them between the four of us. We all loved them. The kids loved dipping their French Dip sandwich.

2. The atmosphere: besides the loud guy who knew everything about everything (sitting two tables away - he was holding court, er, having a conversation with someone, but his voice really, really carried), it was a great atmosphere. If you wanted to come in and eat (plenty of local business-people were there on their lunch breaks) or if you just wanted to hang out, it was a great place for it.

3. The help: everyone who worked there was super-nice and friendly.

4. The desserts: You didn't think we'd go to a place like this without sampling some of the desserts, did you? Jonathan got a huge cupcake (he just ate the frosting - but the cake was really good, too), Andrew got a GIANT chocolate chip & M&M cookie (he was so proud of it), Tara got a pumpkin spice whoopie pie, and I got an apple turnover. Yum!

We originally thought we should have ordered another sandwich for the four of us, but after desserts, we were glad that we'd left room!

You can find Four Reasons on the web at www.fourreasons.com

What's Better than a Trip to the Zoo?

...a trip to the zoo and free burritos!

Today we went to the Columbus Zoo for the day. It was lots of fun. After that, we stopped at Whole Foods and bought some food and sampled a lot more, and as we were heading for home, we passed a Chipotle store.

It was Tara who noticed the sign: 100% off burritos: today from 5-8!

Although it was only just after 3:00, we stopped and shopped for a while in the nearby strip-mall. At 4:30, I went over and stood in line. By 5:00, we were heading in the door for free burritos. We got 4 burritos and 4 drinks at a total price of... $0.00!

Kudos to Chipotle for running a great gimmick!