tommy

here http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...dpost&p=1097521 here http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=53514&hl= here http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=72908 and here? http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=60600&st=0

perhaps they choose to not publish bad reviews. i'm the same way: i don't usually slam places. i'd rather talk about good experiences. that doesn't mean that people can't trust my reviews/opinions, though, just as it doesn't mean the record's reviews are questionable. perhaps their editorial/advertising policies are questionable, but i wouldn't assume their reviews are. unless, of course, i found that i didn't agree with most of them.

i wouldn't assume that writers need to acknowledge where they get their ideas from. do you, for example? separately, the founder of the largest internet food discussion site wasn't the only person to recommend this place, no?

The 3 cup chicken casserole is by far one of the best chicken dishes I have ever had at any chinese restaurant. Its up there with the freshly killed kung pao chicken from Grand Sichuan International midtown. ← Why do I beleive this new review of a fairly old restaurant is not a coincidence? Lotus Cafe (Bergen Record, 2006) ← you feel the review is directly related to your and rachel's post?

i guess this is obvious, but boneless butt is butt with the bone taken out. if you need to make a distinction btwn butt and shoulder (or whatever the two parts are), i guess there's a difference, though not one that i'm usually concerned with. just about every supermarket uses butts to make sausage. they almost always have them in the back for this purpose, and they don't put them out because only freaks like us buy them. i usually just call ahead (a day or 2 if possible), talk to the butcher, and tell him/her to put one aside for you. if you do this even 2 times he'll know you by voice, because they ain't getting too many of those calls. ask to have the bone removed and have it tied if you don't want to deal with it. kings has cheap enough butt. corrado's in paterson might even be cheaper.

i guess it's not cheesy to me. and to others i'm sure. as far as crapplebee's goes, i've had better service at crapplebee's, and other chains, than i have at local non-chain places. perhaps there's a lesson to be learned there. but what do i know: i'm just a customer.

Well, that would seem to say that ALL retail should close Sundays. Ain't happened since 1982. ← the fact that this restaurant is open on monday and closed on sunday seems to suggest that they want to be open on monday and closed on sunday. personally i love it when restaurants are open on monday, since so many are closed.

while it's almost always apparent who the customer is, it's not always so clear who the server is, given that there are often runners, hosts, busboys, managers, servers, wine waiters, etc, running around and possibly approaching your table right out of the gate. i'm all for anything that makes communication more effective and efficient. it's has never been a burden on me to have a server say "i'll be your server" or (gasp!) "my name is dennis and i'll be your server". i wish that was the biggest issue i encounter every day. as for prices changing all of a sudden a la Shalmanese's scenario, it's not too hard to envision a situation where a server says a price of x when asked, and it's in the computer as y. although i'd think that wouldn't be intentional most of the time. just par for the course when remebering and reciting the price isn't part of the approach. (an no, i don't think anyone would notice. speaking for myself i estimate that i don't notice 75% of the mistakes made on my restaurant bills)

at better restaurants it's usually more about what looked good at the market that day or what the chef felt like doing out of the ordinary based on availablity of ingredients, or weather, or whatever. as far as not trusting restaurants, well, i don't eat at restaurants that i don't trust. i'm not sure why anyone would. ← 'better' restaurants don't run specials though, its called a tasting menu. this is what is used to highlight the seasons. I think i you really look at this, its only middle to low end restaurants which run specials... IMHO ← 'better' restaurants aren't serving the customer food that's been sitting in the fridge too long. that's my point. plenty of better restaurants where i come from have "specials" or "additions to the menu" or "market selections" or whatever they choose to call them. tasting menus are completely different to my mind and have little to do the additions to the menu that we're discussing. a chef can highlight seasonal ingredients with a standard menu as well as with a tasting menu. top-tier restaurants in NY (and most other places i've been) generally don't have a static menu and specials, but i'm not limiting my definition of 'better' to those restaurants. they also don't serve tasting menus exclusively.

Because presumably the turnover is higher with the cooked. Especially with pork-based goods, since they eat a lot more of it than beef and other meats. I can certainly tell you that from the roast char sui that I've bought at King Fung, it compares very favorably from the best stuff I've bought in NYC chinatown. ← one might assume that they cook the raw stuff they're about to get rid of. tasty doesn't always mean safe. caveat emptor.

Boy, you are a brave soul... I went into King Fong a year ago and the stench almost bowled me over. Place has an overall filthy, unmaintained apperance as well. Don't know how it passes the health inspections. ← agreed. one visit to King Fung was enough for me. it took weeks to get that smell out of my head.

Yes, but with that info, its pretty hard to say that the ban in NYC has hurt the bar biz! ← i would argue that it is. that's my point. over-and-out.

Yes, but that would only be logical in New Jersey, where there is a finite number of licenses per municipality. In New York State, there is no limit on how many licenses can be issued. Just meet the requirements, pay the minimal $3K fee (or thereabouts) and Voila! you have your license. That's also why the NY-NJ border on the Rockland side is littered with restos with liquor licenses. Unlike in NJ, in NY you don't have to wait for a business to fail to get a liquor license. There is no limit, either in quantity or geography there. ← it's still a single data point. lou, you'll *never* retire if you keep giving away the two cents!

that's just one data point. there could be any number of reasons why applications were higher, including, perhaps, a sudden higher-than-usual failure-rate in businesses which then made more available for application. the only valid contribution to this thread (in the way it's been framed) would be from a business owner who has had a chance to evaluate the ban's affect on his/her business. short of that it's all opinion and conjecture. i've noticed that people who opine on this topic generally aren't very persuasive with their arguments, so it's not as though anyone's mind will be change. that's a shame as that would at least indicate something positive came out of the exchanges.

DRock, are you a cook or are you otherwise in the business? if so would you feel comfortable revealing where you work?

capital idea if that's the case. i've gotten the impression that the set-up is a bit forboding. they'd do well to open it up a bit.

it's rather difficult to see in fromt the street, isn't it?

Roxanne's is a very nice pub style atmosphere, brick oven pizza , nice big salads, good pastas, and sandwiches. Try it you'll like it. Nice bar... ← yeah, hey, lutece and rooftop1000, roxanne's is pretty good for sure...but it DOESN'T SERVER A FRIGGIN HAMBURGER!!! that's ok, i guess i didn't need it anyway. i had a fun time with my heinkeken and chicken wings, thinking about where i was going to go for a burger afterwards. the "brick oven" is a gas-fired, and likely ceramic-lined oven. the pizza is in the style of Brooklyn's (hackensack, ridgewood, edgewater), and could use a bit more salt and flavor (they're very easy on the sauce, the fresh mozz has little to no flavor, and the crust is just OK, although it has nice blistering on the bottom). our server was top-notch. nice and attentive. now if they could just get a hamburger on the menu... regardless, after months/years of research, i see a clear business opportunity. and beef shoulder and brisket ain't too expensive. edit: ramapo valley brewery, if i'm thinking it's where it was, is no more. also, i saw a place called "ole ole", but then right above it about a block was a more interesting looking mexican place. anyone know the name? and then ireland's was at the end of the block if i'm putting 2 and 2 together correctly. nice area right there. i like it.

it's nice to think that but it's not always the case. in fact, i just read a review the other day that mentioned that one of the specials was priced way out of line with the rest of the menu, and no prices were mentioned. to think that this doesn't happen is probably naive. and clearly the only way to ensure that it doesn't is to print the specials with the prices, and not rely on a server. it's not tacky to mention price. where else does one not know the price before purchase? is it tacky to list the prices on the menu as well? is it tacky to ask the prices? a consumer making a decision on value based on price isn't tacky. it's smart.

at better restaurants it's usually more about what looked good at the market that day or what the chef felt like doing out of the ordinary based on availablity of ingredients, or weather, or whatever. as far as not trusting restaurants, well, i don't eat at restaurants that i don't trust. i'm not sure why anyone would.

i'm guessing mike will be able to figure this one out all by himself. why don't we let him finish up his trip in peace.

Not too sure about that one. Hard to really know. Have to get into the psyche of the management for that one. But the fact is, that a lot more restos do NOT give prices with specials than do. That's been my experience, anyway. ← i can't speak to the places you go, but i'm about as confident as i can be when i say that i'm certain that the restaurants i frequent aren't trying to get over on me or otherwise screw me, silver oak included, even when they're not reciting prices.

you could say that about a regular menu with no prices listed as well. there's a reason prices are listed, and that reason is because people want to know the prices. it's as simple as that. here are the options, in order of widely accepted preference: 1) printed specials (obviously with prices listed) 2) spoken specials with prices listed 3) spoken specials with the speaker ignoring the fact that there are actually prices associated with the products they're describing. if i'm a restaurant owner i'm not going with the last option. in fact, i'm going with the first option. i might even couple the first option with giving the server a chance to wax poetic about today's specials (there goes that sneaky marketing again - damn those restaurants for wanting to sell product!) i agree that it's not a way to get over on the customer in most cases. just about all cases in fact. but rather, it's an oversight. which is why rosie (and many others) keeps on hammering away at it. edit: cross-posted with menton1.

the s/p shrimp i've seen at the sunday brunch are smaller and do have their heads on.

several places that i've been to that make this dish, including C46, sometimes ask if you want it prepared without the shell. it shouldn't come as a suprise to anyone that most people unfamiliar with the cuisine probably don't think to eat the shell, or don't find it to be an appetzing concept. i'm puzzled that people are puzzled. personally, i eat the shell, and all of the shells that my guests leave on their plates. my friend eats the tails, but i draw the line there. on another note, the spicy capsicum noodle steps all over just about everything you'll have aftewards. i try to save it for the end of a meal.