deprofundis

I don't think it's possible either. Freezing a living thing slowly, like in your freezer at home, would cause ice crystals to form in its body and tear up its cells, killing it. It might be possible to freeze it really fast (and really cold) using liquid nitrogen to minimize the ice crystals, putting it in a "cryonic freeze." Kind of like Ted Williams. I'm sure it's been done before on small animals, but I dunno about lobsters.

According yesterday's Daily News, Famous 4th St Deli reopens Monday!

If Bookies is as bad as she claims it is, then no. I'm with you. There are restaurants that may be worth ~$300 for two, but if the reviewer's experience at Bookbinders was as bad as she said it was, they deserve to get slammed. Hopefully they'll read the review and make some changes. If I was paying that much for a meal, I'd expect it to be flawless. This isn't a mom and pop restaurant on the corner. They're charging big money and deserve to be called to task if they produce a shoddy product. If they're this bad, hopefully they'll go out of business. I'm sure she'd be much kinder to SSOH, which probably costs less than half the price. I'm a big fan of SSOH, but if they started charging 30 bucks for a crab cake my expectations would change accordingly.

It must be the same owner from way back when, because I just saw Ulana in there a few days ago. I just noticed that website hasn't been updated in 7 years!! I think people are right that it's more of a hobby than a serious restaurant. Even on club nights the place doesn't get too packed. How do they stay in business? lol

The dance club Ulana's actually doubles as a french/continental restaurant. I go to the dance club every once in a while, but I've never known anybody who's actually eaten at Ulana's. I've also never come across any reviews of the place anywhere. Has anybody ever actually dined at Ulana's? Check out their website. There's links to the menu at the bottom. I figure the place can't be that good if it gets absolutely no press or word-of-mouth buzz. But look at their menu. Escargot? Puff pastry with shrimp & scallops in mushroom cream sauce? Sounds like they might be doing some serious cooking there!

I guess I'm the first to try out Famous Dave's? I ordered the Spare Ribs + Brisket platter. It came with 2 sides (I chose beans and potato salad), corn bread, and corn on the cob. They also have 5 different styles of barbecue sauce on the table. So here's my breakdown of the meal: BBQ sauces: they had their standard tomato-based sauce, a sweet sauce, a hot sauce, a texas-style sauce, and a vinegar-based sauce. Most of them sucked. Really bad. The best was the regular sauce, but even that wasn't as good as I've had at the other bbq joints in the city. Corn on the cob - not that great. mushy. Corn bread - actually a corn bread muffin. not bad but nothing to write home about. Potato salad - again, not bad but not great Beans - Ok, these were some good beans. They had hunks of bacon mixed in. Smokey-porky flavor. Very good. Ribs - disappointing. Did not taste smokey at all. A little too much pepper flavor - or something. The bbq sauce didn't help out too much. Brisket - was served on top of a slice of white bread. The brisket was actually pretty good. Had a nice smokey flavor. I think I detected a metallic aftertaste though. Meat was a bit fatty. Possibly lower quality meat than the other places? Still, if I had to go to Famous Dave's I would stick with the brisket. Portions - just about right. Not small and not enormous. Price/value - total bill with soda, tax, and tip was just over $22. I can't really say this is a good value considering the competition. Service - very friendly. no complaints here. food came out fast. Summary - good beans and brisket. Most everything else disappointing. Not a very good value. I probably won't be back anytime soon.

Oh yeah, I'm a fan of Don Pablos' grilled chicken fajitas. Chevy's is pretty much identical to DP's, but I give DP's the edge. I used to like Chi-Chi's years and years ago, but they must have went downhill or something, cause towards the end they were god awful. I guess that hepatitis scare was the nail in the coffin. ;-) Anybody like Carrabba's? They're also a pretty good chain imho, although they're food's pretty heavy/greasy.

Oh yeah how could we forget the Triangle Tavern! It is still there, although under different ownership, and it's just a bar now (no food). I still stop in every once in a while.

It's Burger King style. They give you a paper cup and you can fill up on soda as much as you want. Yeah, a pretty sweet sauce with a little spice. According to their website (www.tommygunns.net) they also offer an "Alabama White Sauce" (bold bbq flavor w/o the carbs). I didn't try it, but maybe that's vinegar-based? TSJ does have better sides, but they're double the price of TG's and TG's gives you more.

I didn't try the greens, but I'm sure I'll be back there soon!

Hi folks, I just ate at the new Tommy Gunn's on South Street. Had the barbecue sampler and a soda, which set me back only about $16 (roughly $6 cheaper than the Smoked Joint for their sampler + soda). The sampler comes with spare ribs, brisket, pulled pork, and sides of cole slaw and baked beans. Ribs - Excellent. Moist and yummy, nice smoky flavor. Better than the smoked joint's, which I found to be very dry. Brisket - Excellent. Light smoky flavor. TG's brisket is served shredded, as opposed to TSJ's, which is thinly sliced. I give the edge to TG's. Pulled Pork - OK. A little dry. I didn't detect much smokiness. Very slight edge to TSJ. Sauce - TG's has excellent sauce. It's slightly spicy, too. Sides - Tommy Gunn's sides need work. The baked beans were average. They're gloppy, with sort of the consistency of refried beans. They also have shredded pork mixed in, which is nice, but doesn't really add anything IMHO. The cole slaw was good I guess, but how good can cole slaw get, right? They also gave me some free corn bread. Their corn bread is very sweet, but not really memorable. Portion size - Big enough but not huge. I have leftovers. Service - You order at the register and they call out your order number when it's ready. Orders come out pretty quick. Service was very good. Summary - Definitely a place I would go back to, and reasonably priced. There is no reason to go to The Smoked Joint, unless the sides are that important to you or you like to waste money. ;-) I think LaBan's review was off the mark.

Magnolia Cafe, Charlie's Water Wheel

I drove past them today too and noticed they were closed. It could be because of the holiday tomorrow. But I know they're open Saturdays now cause I went there last week. Try again next week! What kind of cheese did you get when you went to Tony Luke's?

Sorry to resurrect this ancient thread. ;) I just had lunch at Mexico Lindo. I ordered the taco "al pastor" and quesadilla "tinga de pollo." As a sort of appetizer they brought out a nice dish of tortilla chips topped with refried beans, a sprinkling of cheese, and sides of green salsa and pico de gallo! The taco was decent, but the rival mexican places in south Philly do it better. The meat didn't seem to be seasoned enough. The quesadilla could have been better too. Since the menu describes it as having chilis in it, I expected it to be somewhat spicy. I didn't detect any chilis or spiciness at all. I'm sure I don't know every Mexican restaurant in the area, so Mexico Lindo may be the best around the Camden area. But I would suggest trekking over to south Philly for La Lupe or Veracruzana. As far as authentic Mexican joints in NJ, I can suggest Lola's on the White Horse Pike in Lindenwold. I've not had the tacos there, but their quesadilla tinga de pollo is wonderful and very spicy, and they make great burritos. Another possibility is La Esperanza on Gibbsboro Rd, also in Lindenwold. I haven't been, but they are supposed to be good also.

To clarify, I was talking about Chili's ribs. I haven't been to Famous Dave's, but it's right around the corner from where I live and I'll probably check it out when it opens.

You're not missing anything.

Nope, there was no Russian dressing.

I too was wondering about this place, so I searched around and found some reviews. The general consensus seems to be that the food's just OK, but why would you go there if you already have some good bbq places in town?

Just got one of the final corned beef specials at the Famous 4th St Deli: Appearance: 6 (of 10) Looked like a big, sloppy sandwich. Not necessarily a bad thing. Bread: 6 Nothing really remarkable about the bread. Not a very strong caraway taste. Held up rather well though. Meat: 6 Average quality corned beef. You can get stuff like this anywhere. Slaw: 6 Tasted ok. Perhaps a bit too heavy on the mayo though. Overall: 6. Not bad, but I wouldn't go out of my way to go there.

I've never had the deli food at 4th St, but their cookies are very good. I don't know if I would give them 5 grease stains, but I've never met a chocolate chip cookie I didn't like. I'll try and get there for the deli food before they close this Wednesday. I've been to the Kibitz Room in Cherry Hill; I assume it's the same guy buying 4th St. Kibitz definitely makes excellent NY style Jewish deli food, so the change can't be all that bad. Their corned beef and brisket are awesome. $9 for a half and a soda sounds high, but their half sandwiches are like three someplace else! And their matzoh balls are the size of softballs! lol

John's is open Saturdays now til 3pm! If you go you might want to try asking them to go a little lighter on the cheese. But trust me, they make an awesome cheesesteak.

I've been eating a lot of cheesesteaks lately, and I think I've pretty much hit all of the key places (with the exception of Chink's). I've had the steaks at Pat's, Geno's, Jim's, Steve's, Dalessandro's, John's, Shank's, Tony Luke's, the White House (AC), and Donkey's (Camden). My favorite steak? I have to concur with LaBan: it's John's! The only critique I have about John's is that I think they use a little too much cheese. I think cheese should be an accessory (sort of like ketchup), not a main ingredient. Not just on steaks but on pizza, too. John's was heavy on the cheese, but otherwise an amazing sandwich. The worst offenders of over-cheesing were John's, the White House, and Shank's. Anyway, my second favorite was Geno's, followed by I think Donkey's. You really can't go wrong at any of these places though. I also sampled John's roast pork sandwich with spinach and provolone. An excellent sandwich, but I definitely give Tony Luke's the edge on the pork sandwich. I haven't tried DiNic's in the RTM. PS - the White House makes an amazing cheeseburger, but it's a little greasy. ;-)

South 9th Street from Washington Ave to around Christian St. There's a few things south of Wash but not much Italian stuff. Pat's and Geno's are at 9th & Wharton.

I can't prove it but it didn't taste like cheese whiz to me... Cheese whiz isn't that cheap either... you can save a lot of money using the imitation stuff. But otherwise they do make an excellent steak. I have to try it with american.

Just had a Tony Luke's cheesesteak for the first time (usually get the roast pork!). I must say it was an excellent steak, HOWEVER I have to deduct a couple points for the cheese! I ordered a "wiz with", which is what I pretty much always get. I am 99% certain that Tony Luke's does not use real Cheese Whiz®. Whatever they used tasted like a cheap imitation and lacked the cheesy gooey goodness of the real stuff. It was kind of like that bland stuff they give you when you order nachos at the movie theater. booo. I advise people going to Tony Luke's to stick with american if they order the cheesesteak. Anyone else have a similar experience?