Dominicks Pizza

Rating: 4 stars
Price- 12.99 for a medium
Portions- its pizza. 12 inches is 12 inches
Parking- street parking only
Seating- None
Website: www.originaldominicks.com

I grew up with dominicks pizza. I remember as a child waiting in the car as my father parked on the street and RAN to Dominicks to pick up our feast. It is our families favorite pizza place.

• Not just for the taste, which is out of this world
• Not just for the price which you can't beat.
• But because it is also a family owned and operated

The taste-
The star of their menu in my option is the BBQ chicken pizza. Surly something this good needs to be illegal. The chicken as onions are so tender and soft. The bbq sauce is sweet with the ever so faint air of spice. AWESOME

The Price-
They are always having specials. the 10 inch BBQ is under $9 and the 18 inch is #16. CRAZY. There cheese pizza is practically free, in fact, with some of their awesome deals it is free. Whats not to love! Ok- I am done sounding like a comerial, but its true- good, cheep, food cant be beat.

The people-
Dominic is family owned and operated. They are local. I love local restaurants. The good local, family owned restaurant is dying out, and it is a shame. Part of what keeps Dominicks alive is the people who own and work their. They are a very nice group of parkville locals. My mother taught Dominicks grandchildren a few miles away at Oakleigh Elementary.

Dominicks, like many Harford rd eatery is a part of my past, and definitely a part of my future!

Fractured Prune

Rating: 3 stars
Price- not online (i will be calling cus I don't remember)
Portions- smaller then your average donut
Parking- not very much, but some to the right of the building, and behind it.
Seating- None- except out side of
Website: http://www.fracturedprune.com

When your broken, bruised, maybe even (dare I say it) FRACTURED, these little round wonders would put a smile on your face.

I had the Chocolate Covered Cherry: cherry glaze, mini chocolate chips it was delicious. It was warm and its texture was so soft it melted-in-my mouth. It was very messy. Joes food was taking forever (i;ll get back to that in a minute) It was a catch 22 I have had their donuts a cold, and let me tell you, I don't recommend it. FP's donuts are WAY better warm. Almost not worth it cold. So i new i had to eat it then, before it was ruined by time. Since the FP does not have seating inside and it was far to cold to sit outside I was stuck siting on a ledge to eat my donut. It was sticky and worth the mess it made of my fingers, hands, and some of my face. I am a very neat eater, but even i could eat this with out making a mess. If you are not familiar with the FP they do donuts differently from most of your traditional bakery's. They use the traditional method of making the donuts. Only they make them all like plain cake donuts. Then comes the fun part. they "create" each donuts individually by"dipping" the donut in glaze and topping. A wonderful prosses, BUT as the "wheres the beef" women sounded that battle cry I ask almost the same question of the Fractured Prune. Wheres the filling?

Joes sandwich, I would say fail-wich, but I believe the fail-ness of this "sandwich" will be demonstrated enough in the following passage. First of all,it took forever. As we order we saw the boy behind the counter get out a little round "egg" out of the refrigerator and place it on the counter. (sanitary? not quite.) My donut was finished before his sandwich was started. (a lengthy proses as I explained above) "Started" is an odd word for it because the method of "cooking" the egg was really heating it up in a microwave. This method created a rubbery egg with inconsistent heat placement. Not quit what we were looking for. The sandwich came with ham and bacon on your choice of bread. Although I respect choices, i was not impressed with this sandwich.

BOO on microwaving.

Pita Pan (a second helping)

I will be the first to admit when i was wrong. I only gave Pita Pan 3 stars. Last week if proved to me once and for all that it is a 4 star establishment

I was impressed.

The service was ok, I think the women was overwhelmed but the amount of people who decided to dine at Pita Pan last week. That night there were only 2 staff members there and, well, things were a little behind. I thought to my self. "OH GREAT, not only as there food "so so" now there service is lacking.." BUT after we ordered is was not long before our food was up. I was impressed at how fast these two worked.

I got the Pita Pan Burger. It was, Awesome.
Onions, mushrooms, avocados, and cheese ... these are a few of my favorite things.
I pride my self on my own creativity with ingredients but i have never thought of combining my favorite things and topping them on a burger GENIES! I mean it was one of th best burgers i have ever tasted... it was almost magical.

Joe had the gyro and although we cannot agree on the correct pronunciation of the dish we can agree that it was delicious. He said that is was the best one he had had in baltimore. Which is speaks volumes. It was really good, and i don't even really care for gyros. This one had so much meat and sauce, it was almost 2 meals!

Then there was the desert. I am a nut for cheesecake. It is my favorite food. They had the best cheesecake money can buy. It was only a little bit behind Ms Bassits cheese cake, and that is a TRUE compliment. It will be harder to start my diet knowing that something that delicious is so cheep and available any time.

I can admit when I am wrong; and in this case I was wrong. You have won my heart Pita Pan.

The Chameleon Cafe

Rating: 4 stars
Price- 20-30$ an entree
Portions- Average
Parking- We parked at the Safeway, but i don't know if your supposed to. We were not towed, so i think its cool.
Seating- Medium-ish (on the smaller side) dinning room.
Website: http://www.thechameleoncafe.com/

Karma Karma Karma Karma Karma Chameleon
You do come and go, you come and GOOOOOOOOOOOOO

OK- I'm done.

In an attempt to make up for a not as trilling Valentines day, Joe and I voyaged out in search of a nice meal. The whole day had been very disorganized and it had all the makings of a horrible evening. I was in a bad stressed mood. We entered the chameleon as it was opening for the evening. We were their first table. It was odd because we entered the restaurant from the front door which appeared to be in the work station of the wait staff. Next time we know to come in the door near the Safeway. The staff seemed very nice. We happened to be so early that our waiter was not even at work yet. (we saw him come in as someone poured our water) At first i was worried that it was awkward that we came so early but within the half hour the whole restaurant was jumping and i was glad that we had gotten there early. They do take reservation, and i would recommend making them. The workers seemed to know most of the people in the restaurant. They were very personable.

The menu was limited, they only had about 10-15 things to choose from. Although limited, the menu had a variety of unique foods. I was surprised at some of the combinations of ingredients and cooking styles. I had the duck. quack. It was fantastic. It was grilled with broccolini (i think) served over risotto with sausage and cider reduction. Let me brake it down, The duck was awesome, it was a VERY generous portion and cook exactly to my liking. Some places skimp on duck, here I was served almost a large chicken breast sized portion; I was very impressed. quack. I could have sworn that the menu said it was served with squash, but it was served with what appeared to be broccolini. I honestly don't know why I didn't ask, but it was a nice restaurant and I did not want to appear stupid. (which was silly, but I'm sure most of you have been in that kind of situation) The sausage was nice but as many of you know, my friends and I make our own sausage and although there sausage was good, it was not as tasty as ours. Not to be a sausage snob, but I like ours better. The cider reduction and risotto were out of this world. I wanted to lick my plate. The way the flavors of the reduction mixed with the duck juices made the plate almost irresistible.

Joe had the salmon. It was kind of a smaller piece of fish, but I think it just looked small and was thick. You could tell by the striations of the fish that it was of nice quality. The salmon was pan seared (my favorite method of preparation when I am cooking it at home) The menu said it was pan seared with a branade crust, the crust was so minute that it was almost nonexistent. The sauce was there, and the flavors were nice, but I wouldn't call it a branade "crust". The lentils were smooth and tender. (they were by no means mushy) I was impressed how the sorrel butter really brought the whole dish together.

Atmosphere was relaxing and comfortable. It was apparent that this place is a favorite in the neighborhood. I would love to be one of the regulars here, but, alas, it is a very expensive place. It might be the nicest place on my little mission. I would recommend it for someone who wants a high dinning experience. I was impressed by how well the Chameleon combined fancy with relaxing. It was expensive, but you got alot for your money.

Emerald Taverns

Rating: 3.5 stars
Price- 7$ a sandwich
Portions- Average
Parking- They have a little parking lot in the back. The one on the side is only theirs at night.
Seating- Limited seating, about average for a bar in Parkville
Website: None?

Review:
Emerald Tavern is a neighborhood bar. It is the kind of place you can walk to on a snow day. 30 inches of snow could not keep me from my daily quest on Harford road.

Becca was in search of wings, Old bay wings to be exact. We tried the wings and beer but they do not have old bay wings. I will just have to go back there when we are not on a mission.

The Emerald Tavern has awesome specials. When we went on Monday they had 4$ cheese buggers, WHAT A DEAL! After looking at the menu is seemed that almost everyday had a special deal. Steve had the burger and said that it was really very good, for a bar. So, not the best burger in town, but good with a good beer. I had the "emerald dip", which was a french dip sandwich, it was very good and a big portion for under 8 dollars. I was pleased with my sandwich, excellent for bar food. Beccas old bay wings were not a disappointment. The looked and tasted fantastic. They were kind of like the wing dings we used to get at Shepherd Universitys wing night. Becca liked them so much she ate some of them cold latter that day.

I was a little sad that their menu was not really descriptive. We ordered cream cheese poppers who's write up said fried cream cheese, it said nothing about the jalapeno peppers that were involved. As some readers know, i don't "do" spicy foods. (for many reasons) So I was a little disappointed that they were really jalapeno poppers.

The Emerald Tavern exceeded my expectations in our quest for old bay wings. I might not go back to this place JUST for food. But if i am looking to get some good drinks, with some good people, and I am in need of some good food then I could see going back to the Emerald Tavern. Also, from what I hear, they don't close, even in snow storms.

Big Bad Wolf

Rating: 4 stars
Price- 7$ a sandwich
Portions- Very Large
Parking- Street parking only but i have never had an issue
Seating- Limited seating at a counter top, outside seating when it is warm.
Website: http://bigbadwolfbarbeque.com/

Review:
Big Bad Wolf BBQ should be called big AWESOME wolf BBQ because nothing about this place is bad.

OK, maybe that lead in was a little JOEke like but it is true. I LOVE this place. I have loved this little yummy house for a while now. Everything about this place is terrific, well almost everything.
They are local, they use great ingredients, they are friendly, and most importantly, they have a limited menu which insures quality on everything. The only down side is they are not open on sundays. I repeat NEVER on Sundays. If you want good Sunday BBQ you will have to look else where. Joe and I have made the mistake of getting our hopes up for Wolf BBQ on Sunday multiple times and it almost killed me with disappointment when we saw those dream crushing 6 letters CLOSED. When you want BBQ, big bad wolf is the place to go, in less it is a Sunday. (yes the my 4 Sunday trips to wolf have made me a hair bitter...)

Anyway, back to the review.
In honor of the live Man Vs. Food episode we needed superior grub. Wolf was clearly in order.
The sweet honey bbq brisket had all the smokey sweet flavor you would expect from a place that is about the size of my room. As always the brisket was tender yet crispy in all the right places. Joes KCspicy sauce literally had him licking the box it came in. As always, I order the mac and cheese and the sweet potatoes. The Mac will make your order take longer to prepare. They must make it right when you order. Joe and I think that they might heat it in a smoker. That would explain why it takes a little bit of time to prepare. It would also explain why the Mac is so crazy good. It has a smoky undertone, that could ether be provided by smoking it or using some sort of strong smoked cheese. Honestly, it doesn't matter how they make it. Its good and well worth the wait. (its is not that long of a wait, I am inpatient when it comes to BBQ) The sweetpotatos are also delisious, they are soft and sweet. They are cooked southern style which I enjoy.
If this is your first time to Big Bad Wolf house of BBQ I have a few tips for you:

• Don't confuse this place with fast food, your food will be great and great food takes time. Come in, have a seat at the counter and chat with the workers. The people who work at wolf bbq are extremely friendly and knowable. Be prepared to have some great entertainment and conversation while you wait.
• Order the big bad wolf. There signature sandwich will give you a good taste of what you had been missing by passing this place by. But I do warn you, it is enough to feed 2 if you get sides... (also this sandwich is the best bang for your buck on the menu!)
• Even though this place looks small they do take credit card (some bbq places do not)
• There really is not a lot of inside seating (pretty much none). I love eating outside there in the summer but just a warning, the seating outside is basically in the traffic of Harford road. (not ideal for little kids who like to run) My advice, in the summer, pick up your food and go to a park to eat.
• Oh and- They really arn't open on Sundays..... (never on Sundays)
  

Thank you everyone who has been leaving comments all of your tips and suggestions are very much appreciated!

Pat's Pizza

Rating: 2 stars
Price- about 10$ a pizza about 8$ a sandwich
Portions- Average - Small
Parking- Easy, a lot on the side
Seating: Plenty
Website: http://www.patsfamilyrestaurant.com/site/index.jsp

Review:

So pats is a chain, who knew? It had all the feeling of a chain, the place has very little charm. But I must comment that I dig the orange furniture.

It was a snowy baltimore night when Joe and I were starving and driving home from helping our friend Eva paint. We needed something good, cheep, and fast. Why not Pats? My mother was also hungry so we picked up food for her as well.

I had a calzone, more like disappointment zone. I spend many a wonderful college park nights feasting on DP dough so I will admit I have high cal-standards. This zone missed the mark. I was hungry and even my starvation couldn't make it tasty. It had very little cheese and was mostly those cheep canned green peppers.. Color me disappointed!

Joe had a cheeseburger sub which, compared to the Hamilton Tavern Burger, was simply awful. It was small, and looked greasy. I didn't waste my time with tasting it because I was two busy picking out green peppers..

My mother had a chicken pesto painni. It looked and tasted really good. It was the main reason I am rating Pats as 2 stars rather then 1. It was fresh and filling. I ate half of it for lunch the next day which was just as tasty! It was a well flavored and well made. Way to get it right pats!

I have had another Pats experience, they do have an excellent white pizza. I had it once, right when they opened. It was so good I didn't realize that Pats was even a chain. I am hard to please when it comes to white pizza and Pats hit it out of the park with that one. I will have to see if it is still as good.

So all in all, I guess it depends on what you order. It is definitely not the best local grub. I might go back to Pats, its easy, fast, and right by my house. If i am looking for a white pizza, i would give it another try. BUT it is NOT my favorite on Harford road, not by a long shot!