Bad eats at great places

[deprofundis]

I got the hankering for a sausage and peppers sandwich today so I headed over to Tony Lukes. What a disappointment! They use sausage patties instead of links, and the meat was very gristly and pretty bland. Avoid that one. Other disappointing dishes at otherwise great restaurants:

The chicken parmesan at Shank's. Very dry and tough meat.

The ribs at The Smoked Joint. Sorry, they suck.

On the other hand, some pretty mediocre restaurants occasionally turn out the fantastic dish, the wings at JC Chinese for example. I haven't tried it, but I recall Holly saying the buttercream cake at the Melrose was great.

Anybody have anything else to add to the list?

[Rich Pawlak]

I got the hankering for a sausage and peppers sandwich today so I headed over to Tony Lukes.  What a disappointment!  They use sausage patties instead of links, and the meat was very gristly and pretty bland.  Avoid that one.  Other disappointing dishes at otherwise great restaurants:

The chicken parmesan at Shank's.  Very dry and tough meat.

The ribs at The Smoked Joint.  Sorry, they suck.

On the other hand, some pretty mediocre restaurants occasionally turn out the fantastic dish, the wings at JC Chinese for example.  I haven't tried it, but I recall Holly saying the buttercream cake at the Melrose was great.

Anybody have anything else to add to the list?

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The split pea soup with croutons at the Melrose. Etherial.

[MarketStEl]

Moriarty's Buffalo wings. Absolutely the best in town. The rest of the menu is satisfying, but hardly what I'd call great.

[katbert]

I was disheartened by Monk's fries on Tuesday. I should qualify that by saying that I like my fries burning hot, fresh from the deep fryer, crispy on the outside, and powdery or not on the inside. Form factor is mostly not an issue, I'll take shoestring, steak fries, crinkle. One exception is waffle cut, because I think those fries can be too large for me to eat comfortably. While I think good fries are usually fresh cut, twice fried, and in between the shoestring/steak fry sizes (the consistently best fries that I've ever had were from Vleminckx Sausmeesters), single fried from the freezer can sometimes definitely be better. Anyway, Tuesday's fries at Monk's were super hot but limp. I wonder if the oil wasn't hot enough. I would write more about fries b/c I've had Good Dog's fries twice this week also but Sandra Day O'Connor is resigning and aghhhhh.

[Rich Pawlak]

Moriarty's Buffalo wings.  Absolutely the best in town.  The rest of the menu is satisfying, but hardly what I'd call great.

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I think McGillins Old Ale House makes a better overall basket of wings, crispier and hotter than Moriarty's. That said, Moriarty's Jameson's wings are exceptional.

[mrbigjas]

Moriarty's Buffalo wings.  Absolutely the best in town.  The rest of the menu is satisfying, but hardly what I'd call great.

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I think McGillins Old Ale House makes a better overall basket of wings, crispier and hotter than Moriarty's. That said, Moriarty's Jameson's wings are exceptional.

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mcgillin's has great wings, true. and at happy hour time they're cheap. order a whole pile; they'll bring them out on a cafeteria tray for you. damn good.

[philadining]

I was disheartened by Monk's fries on Tuesday.

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I'm with you, I've actually always been a bit disappointed by their fries. And that seems like the one thing a place like that should get right. Oh well. (And Sandra Day O'Connor is freaking me out too, but I suppose this is not the place to whine about that. Some good fries would make me feel better though.)

[Holly Moore]

There is no such thing as a really great shoe-string french frie - a dialogue I've had with the owner of Monks since the day that they opened.

[mrbigjas]

I was disheartened by Monk's fries on Tuesday. I should qualify that by saying that I like my fries burning hot, fresh from the deep fryer, crispy on the outside, and powdery or not on the inside. Form factor is mostly not an issue, I'll take shoestring, steak fries, crinkle. One exception is waffle cut, because I think those fries can be too large for me to eat comfortably. While I think good fries are usually fresh cut, twice fried, and in between the shoestring/steak fry sizes (the consistently best fries that I've ever had were from Vleminckx Sausmeesters), single fried from the freezer can sometimes definitely be better. Anyway, Tuesday's fries at Monk's were super hot but limp. I wonder if the oil wasn't hot enough. I would write more about fries b/c I've had Good Dog's fries twice this week also but Sandra Day O'Connor is resigning and aghhhhh.

one quick thing about fries:

when the kitchen is on at brasserie perrier, there isn't a better pile of fries in town. there i said it. alongside what could very well be the best burger in town, these fries are golden, they're crisp, salted just right, pillowy on the inside. they're actually perfect. however, i have also had them where they were kinda limp and not so good.

but when they're good they're the shiz, yo.

[katbert]

There is no such thing as a really great shoe-string french frie - a dialogue I've had with the owner of Monks since the day that they opened.

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Do you consider the fries at Grace Tavern to be shoestring? B/c the last time I was there, the fries were the same size as the ones we had at Monk's (i know, same ownership etc), sort of shoestring cross section but shorter than the length of a potato, but they were crispy and fabulous. That was what I was expecting from Monk's.

Good Dog's freshcut sweet potato+regular fries are yummy flavorful b/c of the considerable salt and the sweet potatoes, but while they're always fresh/burning hot, they're never particularly crispy. Also the small/large fry sizes seem to have vanished off the menu; there's now only a $5 generous cereal bowl size. Don't order more than one order at the table at a time.

And speaking of fry sizes, I had no idea that McDonald's had discontinued its supersize sizing. ha. Apologies for highjacking this thread into french fries.

[jmbrightman]

Moriarty's Buffalo wings.  Absolutely the best in town.  The rest of the menu is satisfying, but hardly what I'd call great.

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I think McGillins Old Ale House makes a better overall basket of wings, crispier and hotter than Moriarty's. That said, Moriarty's Jameson's wings are exceptional.

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mcgillin's has great wings, true. and at happy hour time they're cheap. order a whole pile; they'll bring them out on a cafeteria tray for you. damn good.

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Locust Rendezvous also has very good wings, half price at happy hpur.