Posts Tagged ‘Review’
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Every once in a while you want to have a good hamburger. There are numerous places that sell hamburgers in the Scranton area. Unfortunately most of them are chains. You have your five guys, McDonald’s, Burger King and Red Robin. Each one has something that makes them stand out. Burger King it’s the whopper, McDonald’s it’s the Big Mac and five guys it’s the french fries and a freshly made hamburger. Each establishment sells oversized sodas.
Which one is the best value for your food money? If you’re in a hurry It could be a tossup between Burger King and McDonald’s. I would recommend neither. You could shoot over to Red Robin and be in and out pretty quickly, and spend just a few dollars more than any of your McBoxes. You’ll get a premium hamburger at Red Robin.
What is the difference between a quarter pounder and the classic red Robin original burger? First off your served your food at a table by a waitress. You’re greeted by a hostess when you come in the door. You get all the french fries you can eat which may or may not be a good thing. They have sweet potato french fries as well as regular french fries. It is $.99 to substitute sweet potato french fries for the regular french fries.
Our night at Red Robin there were four of us eating dinner. We had one burger with no bun, one burger on a gluten-free bun and two regular burgers. My personal favorite was their bleu cheeseburger, it has blue cheese crumbles as well as mushrooms. GlutenFree bun was excellent. You could not really tell that it was GlutenFree other than the fact after a while the bread starts to crumble if it gets wet. The bun is superior to most gluten-free buns I have had in the past.
This establishment makes their money from you ordering alcoholic beverages. As soon as you arrive you’re greeted by invitations to purchase alcoholic beverages. Although they are making more than enough money off their soda at $2.59 a glass. Throw in your tax and your at $2.75. For a family of four this adds $11 to your dinner. We could have bought 22 quarts of Coca-Cola for this price at the grocery store. Usually the appetizers are kind of overpriced but here they were not. We ordered some type of jalapeno rings, they looked actually like calamari but they were jalapeno slices. We all gave them the thumbs up. Usually we get the onion rings as they’re pretty good too. But that night we did not.
Our hamburgers ranged in price from $9-$12. My wife received hers free for celebrating her birthday with Red Robin. It’s easy to sign up online. You do not receive a bunch of spam emails from them either. I have many friends who go to our local seafood house for their free petite lobster dinner for their birthday. Personally I do not feel as though it is worth the free price tag. Sure it is good but it is not great. As they used to say at work if it’s free it’s for me. I do not feel that way. The food has to be good for me to take it.
Our dinner at Red Robin was good and the family of four were all happy with our meal. We did not leave feeling as though we were overcharged for our food. The only thing I think is a little high price is their soda. I always felt as though I would rather pay a few pennies more for my food then be overcharged for a beverage, which only cost pennies to serve.
Our waitress was very nice and more than attentive to our needs. They provided my wife with the unexpected singing of happy birthday and a free Sunday. That was a very nice surprise. The Restaurant manager came over to our table to verify that it was my wife who was in fact having her birthday. My wife was not required to remove her drivers license from her purse and give it to the manager. Unlike the local seafood house you have to give the waitress your drivers license and she returns with it in about 10 minutes. I don’t know what they actually do with your drivers license when they take it to the back. I don’t like it and I don’t think they should be able to do that as well. Red Robin was very hospitable to my wife on her birthday.
Our family will go back to Red Robin again and again. The variety of hamburgers they sell is wonderful. The food is all served freshly made, fresh and hot. Their large french fries are very tasty, and you can eat all you would like.
http://www.redrobin.com/
Red Robin
570-489-0060
1235 Commerce Boulevard
Dickson City Pennsylvania
This small-town American diner located in North Scranton has the best chili. I have had chili in almost all of the restaurants in Scranton. Of course the restaurants that serve chili that is. It is true that most diners in the winter do serve chili. It is hard for me to find one that has the perfect consistency of ground beef, tomatoes and beans. Neen does a great job of food. I had written about this diner previously. It is truly one of my favorite breakfast and lunch spots in the city of Scranton. You will find me eating there a couple times a week. As the winter comes into play in northeastern Pennsylvania to me it is a very bittersweet time. A cold, wind and snow always makes me hungry for a nice hearty soup. Neen has mastered numerous soups. Her chili is my favorite. She and her staff have made some tasty soups that you wouldn’t really think of, her stuffed green pepper soup and her pizza soup were both wonderful. For me it is always hard to eat there for lunch and not have her homemade rice pudding and pies that are out of this world. You could take a trip down the street to McDonald’s or any of the other fast food chains and spend probably more money and have food that is not nearly as good. But the choice is yours.
Neen’s Diner
1777 Brick Ave
Scranton PA 18508
Tel:(570) 344-2120
Did you ever eat somewhere and you thought “Wow”. I’ve had the wow factor only a few times before maybe in New York City, or on a Royal Caribbean cruise when you’re served food that is just so good you would just love to sit all day long and eat continuously. I had that experience in Dunmore the other day at “What The Fork”. In talking to numerous people the overall consensus was why would you be at a food truck? I remember years ago the food truck coming down Washington Avenue. He would have items like cheeseburgers a couple soups but nothing that was really out of this world, although it was good food it was nothing to write about. I have not seen him in years. His food was served hot but not made on the truck. This food I had the other day was definitely worth writing about. From pork tacos to andouille soup and who could forget the pumpkin waffle Turkey cutlet sandwich with cranberry sauce. Since I was so happy on my first visit on Friday I decided maybe I should try it again on Saturday to make sure it really was just as good? I went on their Facebook page to check to see where they would be on Saturday. It was about 5:20 PM and they had posted that they were closing early due to running out of food. I think if you own a restaurant that is the ultimate compliment and sign of success. On Sunday I went back to Facebook and found where they were set up. On Sunday they had picked the UPS store in Dunmore on South Blakeley St. On the previous Friday they were on Grove Street in Dunmore. If you go to Facebook and search for what the Fork and hit the like button and you’ll get their feed listing their menu and location.
Now on to my favorite part the food. Our pork tacos were something extraordinary. If I just described to them to you, you might say “Why would I mix all those foods together”. When I opened up my taco and looked at it and saw things like carrots, cabbage, sweet potato straws I had the same thought. But after a bite into the taco I was food bliss. There was a sauce on the taco that was not your conventional taco sauce. It left your palate exploding with flavor. I inhaled the two tacos. The tacos came in a nice cardboard package for $6.50. I had the andiuille sausage with wild rice soup. Ate about half of it and gave the remainder to my wife and she discovered there was a whole brussels sprout in the soup. For her it was like winning the lottery. For me I was not aware of the brussels sprout is I did not dig that far down in the bottom of the loaded soup. On Sunday we had the tacos again and the queso cheese sticks with homemade buttermilk ranch dipping sauce. Picture a stick of cheese rolled in crunchy tortilla chips and deep-fried briefly. Loaded with spices and flavors. My friend on Friday had the pumpkin waffle sandwich with Turkey and cranberry jam. It was six dollars. Judging by the size of it, it was well worth six dollars. My friend gave it a high rating and really enjoyed the pumpkin Belgian style waffle taste and texture with the Turkey cutlet. Of course the cranberry jam made it like a Thanksgiving dinner all rolled into one. Our food ratings were great.
Here is a e-mail that I received from a regular about What the Fork: I ate at the What the Fork truck today, and I had the pulled pork tacos (pulled pork, “candy sauce,” siracha slaw and sweet potato fries) and the house fries (twice baked, with pink Himalayan sea salt). The tacos were so amazing, and I devoured them. The “candy sauce” was the perfect sweet complement to the spicy siracha slaw. Unfortunately, since I took my fries back to my office to eat, the fries were cold and soggy, but that could have been due to travel time (since it was almost a half hour later). The service was nice and quick, and I will definitely be going back and trying the other amazing-sounding items.
It looks like the writer had an enjoyable lunch but as with any french fries you need to eat them immediately. In our case the food that we purchased we ate within 5 minutes of our purchase. They have really nice takeout containers made of cardboard. They have numerous canned beverages available. I thought for the quality of the food & the cost was exceptional. I’ve been to many restaurants that could learn something from this food truck. Add them to your Facebook “Likes” to see their menu. And call ahead and your order will be ready when you get there. I took a good look at the kitchen in the truck and was very impressed with the cleanliness as well as the happiness of the staff. As you know you have to have the three key ingredients to make a restaurant work: Service, Food and Facility. All three of these items were in place and they exceeded my expectations.
Phone 570-862-8383 They accept credit cards!
Every time a movie comes out that is a sequel I cringe. Will it be as good as it was before? I had that same worry when I saw the Bingham’s had reopened. The restaurant has been open for a little while now and this weekend we decided to make a trip north of Scranton 26 miles. Bingham’s used to be a place we ate at often. We used to have season tickets to the Binghamton Rangers. Back in the old days when Binghamton was the nearest place you went to go see hockey. Unfortunately it’s been years since we’ve been to Bingham’s or Binghamton. It’s not that we grew tired or disliked the restaurant or Binghamton, northeastern Pennsylvania has grown so much. Now I don’t have to drive to Binghamton to go to Target or Pizzeria Uno’s. On the way to Target there used to be a great children’s store we shopped at we remember fondly.
We got to the restaurant shortly after 12 o’clock and the restaurant parking lot was just about filled. Very easy to get to from Scranton. We waited about 5 min. and we were seated. The waiting room was comfortable obviously since the building was completely destroyed in a fire the building was completely rebuilt.
They have a really great menu, if I remember correctly it was at least five pages long, they had over 20 specials for the day that we ate there, four soups, numerous types of fresh breads and more desserts that I could count, or photograph. I cannot write a review that gives Bingham’s justice. There is not enough room on this website to go through the countless items of food and desserts that they were serving at the moment that we were there. Every person I talked to was happy with their food and the prices were reasonable. I took numerous photographs while I was there, and in the collage that is posted on this website approximately 20 other photographs didn’t make the cut. I thought I would just tell you about the favorites that we had and the conversation’s that we had with the manager, and the waitresses. Every person went out of their way to welcome us into the restaurant. When you come in your immediately greeted by a rack of fresh bread and homemade pies that are available for takeout, and the hostess will be standing there to help you. Four steps forward you will be at one of the many desert cases that proudly display the pies and the other delicious desserts. As a person who truly loves desserts I was simply blown away by the sheer magnitude of desserts! How can they have so many things they could serve at any moment.
Forget about the cheesecake factory everything here is freshly made! I do not recall the last time I saw fresh raspberry pie as well as all of the Staples from apple, banana, chocolate cream to my personal favorite peanut butter pie. A paper thin crust covered with the peanut butter cream, and then a soft layer of milk chocolate. My wife had the blueberry pie, father-in-law had the raspberry pie, my mother-in-law had strawberry shortcake, and of course I had my favorite peanut butter pie.
I know for some people to drive of 26 miles, may be a long way to go just to get dinner. Trust me this will be one drive you’ll be glad you made. I cannot think of any restaurant in northeastern Pennsylvania that has such a variety of food. If you’re with a group of people and there are numerous fussy appetites you will be able to find it at this restaurant. From pigs in a blanket to beef pot roast with beets, they had it all. Fluffy mashed potatoes, crunchy French fries. I cannot think of one negative comment to write about the restaurant the bathrooms were impeccable.
Bingham’s Family Restaurant
State Route 92-Exit 211 off I-81
Lenox, Pennsylvania
570-222-6666
http://www.binghamsrestaurant.com
A recent trip to the University of Scranton brought me to the new cafeteria located just off Mulberry Street and Monroe Avenue. This new building was constructed a few years ago and houses the mailroom, the cafeteria, the bookstore, some conference rooms and of course one of my favorites Chick-Fil-A. If you’ve never eaten at a Chick-fil-A restaurant and you like chicken you should really try Chick-fil-A. It’s not the most complicated menu in the world as the chicken breast is their primary meal. They do have salads and of course those great waffle fries and a couple wonderful dipping sauces. Of course I can’t forget their chicken salad and lemon meringue pie. I’ve eaten at this restaurant throughout the Midwest and to our south and was very happy when they put one of these so close to downtown Scranton. Inside the cafeteria you’ll find the traditional cafeteria food such as soups, pizza, salad, hamburgers, hot dogs and all the other things you would expect to find at a college cafeteria. But for my friend and I our trip to the University brought us to eat at Chick-fil-A. I’m a great fan of their chicken nuggets as believe it or not they’re actually made from chicken breast. They’re not chicken that’s been blasted off the carcass of a chicken bone and then flushed with ammonia, no this is actually 100% chicken. I know it’s a novel idea, there french fries are made out of potatoes and their chicken nuggets are made out of chicken. What a great idea. Make food out of what it originally came from and serve it the way it’s almost healthy. If you would not like fried chicken you can get a grilled chicken breast served piping hot on a fresh made bun or even on top of a crisp green salad. Maybe you might be interested in a chicken salad sandwich or a chargrilled chicken sandwich or even a chicken wrap. Whatever you want to order you can get freshly made lemonade to go along with it. If you head to Allentown you will find two Chick-fil-A restaurants, one located in the mall and the other is a standalone restaurant just south of Interstate 22, their chicken nuggets are outstanding and I love the various sauces that they have including a Polynesian sauce and a great honey mustard. My friend had the chicken sandwich, as you can see in the photograph and we had the waffle fries and I had the chicken nuggets. Don’t get me wrong at one time I loved the McNugget. But I just don’t any more. When you bite into it you see that meat that’s all light and foamy looking should we really be eating it? I don’t know. I do know if you like a chicken breast sandwich you will not find a nicer breast sandwich than the Chick-fil-A sandwich. The cafeteria is open to anyone there is ample parking near the University of Scranton. It is near the library. Standalone restaurants are not open on Sundays and they support numerous nonprofit agencies. As I’ll we say he’ll have to give it a try and see if you like it or not personally for me it’s a good choice. The college bookstore has some nice items related to the University of Scranton as well as a fair selection of textbooks, sweatshirts, T-shirts, snackfood, etc.
University of Scranton
Denaples Center Cafeteria
Corner of Monroe Avenue and Mulberry Street
900 Mulberry St.
Scranton, PA 18510
