Steinhilber's Restaurant - Virginia Beach, VA

This weekend was time to revisit an old favorite, Steinhilber’s. Boy, did we time it right! Saturday’s weather was unseasonably mild, with low humidity, low temperatures and a nice breeze. That’s the perfect combination for dining al fresco on the water in Virginia Beach! Whenever you dine at Steinhilber’s, make sure you request a table with a water view, available both inside and outside. If the weather is nice, I recommend dining on the patio. I noticed that they have added several gas fueled fire-pit tables to their outside assortment. These would be great on cooler evenings.

After taking drink orders, our delightful server was quick to mention that they had a bounty of fresh vegetables, especially tomatoes, originating from the garden next door. How’s that for local? Two of the salad specials for the evening took full advantage of this bounty. They offered their twist on the classic Caprese and Tomato with Lump Crab. She had me at “Lump Crab”. My husband ordered the Seared Ahi Tuna Appetizer.

For his entrée he ordered the Baked Seafood Combination, which is a 3 oz. lobster tail, 3 scallops, shrimp and lump crab. My husband happens to be a soft shell crab fanatic. If a restaurant has them available, he is going to order one. They had them so he added one on to his order. I selected one of the specials; a bone in pork chop cooked with a peach barbeque glaze, served over a succotash of black eyed peas and corn. We ordered cocktails which we enjoyed while munching on cornbread and enjoying the view.


 All plates arrived in a reasonable time frame. We never felt rushed, and we never felt like we were waiting. The tomato did NOT disappoint, and the lump crab was very generous. The Ahi Tuna was also delicious. A tender cut, with a nice avocado sauce drizzle. The chop and succotash was special. Pork can be a tough meat to time right. It needs to be cooked through, but not over cooked. This chop was perfection. It was tender and juicy. I loved the peach glaze and it paired very well with the succotash. The seafood, including the soft shell crab, was another home run. 

Although I forgot to photograph it, I would be remiss if I neglected to mention dessert. I ordered the pecan pie with vanilla ice cream, noted to be a family recipe. Wow. This is a serious piece of pie people! The crust was very unusual. It reminded me of peanut brittle. It was crunchy with a distinct nut flavor, not at all your standard flour crust. The pie filling was heavenly. An extra spoon was brought out for the Mr., but I’m pretty sure he didn’t get more than a bite. I wasn’t into sharing my pie…which he is used to by now.

_Laine

Food-5

Service-5

Beverage-3

Restrooms-NA

Ambiance-5 - outside on this day!

 

Passion the Restaurant - Chesapeake, VA

Passion is the in corner of a small sized shopping center that has experienced quite a bit of turnover throughout the years. Several restaurants have come and gone, but Passion has persevered. I have been trying to talk my husband into going here for years. Yes, YEARS. Finally, the planets were perfectly in line (and he heard a good review from a friend whom he respects). When I suggested Passion on Saturday, I received a positive response. Game on!

Passion has a modern but cozy feel to it. There is a nice, rather large, open bar at the entrance. We were immediately met with a friendly greeting and seated. Half of the tables are lined up along the wall with one booth seat, and one facing chair. I like to see what’s going on, and grabbed the both seat. The kitchen is open to view, and although it is busy, there is no overwhelming noise or distraction for diners.

The menu has a nice variety of fish, poultry and meat. There is even a Vegan option, so our vegetarian friends don’t have to doctor up an existing entrée by removing the meat and adding something else. We felt obligated to try out their She Crab soup. It is a recent First Place winner in Critics Choice category of the East Coast She Crab Soup Classic. My husband ordered a cup and I promised to limit my intake to a spoonful. Always a sucker for specials, I ordered the "Maytag" Blue Cheese Crusted Filet Mignon for my entrée and my husband ordered the Grilled Porterhouse of Veal. Usually a white wine drinker, I opted for Pennywise Petite Sirah 2009, California to pair up with our meat. I liked it, but believe $11 a glass to be a bit steep. I did a little online "recon" a few days later and discovered 2008, 2009 and 2010 Pennywise Petite Sirah online for about $10 a bottle. I know restaurants mark up wine, but it is silly when the price of a glass equals the price of the entire bottle.

While waiting for our food to arrive, we were served bread with seasoned, dipping olive oil. The bread was slightly sweet in flavor and paired well with the salty, herbed oil. The She Crab soup arrived with the claw tip exposed, as is their signature flair. It really was good! The cream base was rich and a perfect consistency. There was plenty of crab meat. The flavor was excellent. There were nice subtleties to the seasonings. Nothing overpowered the flavor of the cream and crab.

The Veal entrée has a dramatic presentation. It is impressive, served on its side next to a beehive shaped mound of garlic mashed potatoes. It is also accompanied with mushroom Demi Glace, and Sautéed Spinach. He gave his best try, but there was no way my husband could finish it. My Filet was delicious. The meat was very tender and the proportion of Blue Cheese was right on. Blue Cheese can be overpowering. A little bit goes it long way. It was served on top of slices of Cheddar potato Gratin cake with sauteed spinach. I don’t know what was in the sauce that covered the plate, but it was delicious as well.

We finished off the meal with dessert. Alex has really gotten me hooked on bread pudding. They had a white chocolate bread pudding with Frangelica sauce that immediately caught my eye. My husband ordered Key Lime Pie. Again, my husband could not quite finish off his dessert, but the bread pudding was a goner on my side of the table.

I would be remiss if I did not mention the service. Our server was very good. He was very professional in appearance and demeanor. He kept drinks full, the table clear and courses moving along at a leisurely, but not slow, pace. When we were walking out, we received warm thanks from the friendly kitchen staff. Passion was a big hit with me. I will definitely be a repeat customer.

_Laine

Food-5
Service-5
Beverage-5
Restrooms-did not use...
Value-4
Ambiance-4

Passion the Restaurant
1036 Volvo Pkwy #3, Chesapeake, VA 23320
(757) 410-3975
www.passiontherestaurant.com 

Outer Banks Brewing Station - Kill Devil Hills, NC

According to their website, “The Outer Banks Brewing Station is the first wind powered brewery in the United States! We were also the first business to produce wind power on the Outer Banks. We pride ourselves in being innovative and conscious about the environment, while helping others learn as much as they can about renewable energy and sustainability.” Okay, that is great, but how is your food?

Spring break found me down at the OBX for an overnight with my family. Arriving right around lunchtime, we headed for a familiar spot we had been before and liked: The Outer Banks Brewing Station. The restaurant interior is dark. The decor doesn’t appear to be overly thought out. My daughter found it hilarious that rugs were hung up high on the walls, right next to the disco ball. The women’s restroom doesn’t say “Ladies” or other iterations on the door; it simply has a Wonder Woman Doll. This always makes me smile. Everything has the look, feel and smell of a bar, but what else would you expect? Live bands play most nights and the restaurant morphs. The real eye catcher is the brewery, of course. Through large windows you can see the all the inner working of the process. Occasionally you will see someone walk through doing whatever task is needed at all the different stages of brewing. I am not a beer drinker these days; however they also offer non-alcoholic home brews of Ginger Ale, Root Beer and Cream Soda. My husband tried one of the hearty beers and I sampled the Root Beer. Hands down, the best Root Beer I have ever had!

We were the first customers of the afternoon, followed by one or two other tables during our stay. The service was brisk and friendly. I think they have a great kids menu, which even includes a kid’s steak. My daughter ordered a kid pizza (typical). The crust on their pizza is really more of a whole grain flatbread, with cheese topping and very light sauce. Not at all a typical kid’s pizza, but she devoured it. It was so large we had to take leftovers home. Leftover packaging is recyclable and compostable. Nice! I ordered a Caesar Salad with grilled Salmon. It was perfect. Sometimes Salmon gets overcooked at restaurants, but this one was just right. My husband ordered the Barbecue. When it hit the table I knew I had been out-ordered. I am a hush puppy lover, and had to steal one from his plate to sample. They were tasty and sweet. The cornmeal was a light flavor that came though subtly versus overpowering other flavors.

As Alex has mentioned several times, there is a lot of mediocre to bad food at the Outer Banks. This seems to happen in most resort/vacation type cities. Over the years I have found the Outer Banks Brewing Station to consistently serve good meals and good service along with their tasty brews. That they are making a concerted effort to be innovative and conscious about the environment is a great added bonus. Because, let’s face it, if the food is bad, no one is going to eat there regardless of your environmental efforts. The restaurant is conveniently located close to the Wright Brothers Memorial. If you are there with your family, I recommend this as a nice lunch place for all.

_Laine

Food-4
Service-4
Beverage-5
Restrooms-3
Value-4
Ambiance-3
Outer Banks Brewing Station
600 South Croatan Hwy, Kill Devil Hills, NC 27948
Open 7 days a week! Mon – Sun at 11:30 am, Brunch on Sun til 4 pm

Nordstrom Cafe - MacArthur Center, Norfolk VA

What's for lunch today?














Orange Cranberry Cheesecake. Nuff said!
(Eat your heart out Alex:)


_Laine

Do You "App" Before You Eat? What is Your Restaurant Resouce?

It may come as no surprise that one of our favorite things to read about and talk about is food. Alex and I really look forward to our daily meals. We are always chatting about a recipe, or a dish we had recently, or where we want to eat next. I recently read the Pavarotti quote "One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating," and thought it hit the nail on the head! Like most people, we learn a lot about restaurants, good and bad, from friends and co-workers.

Another great resource is, of course, the Internet. I have a few favorite sites and Apps that I use. (I only use FREE Apps). I have found that local city newspapers/websites are a fairly reliable resource if you are heading to a major metropolitan area. A new App I like for New York, that also has a webpage is The Scoop, from the New York Times. There are four sections breaking down:
1. Top 50 restaurants by Sam Sifton, NYT restaurant critic
2. Bars by Pete Wells, Dining editor of NYT
3. Weekly Events
4. Only in NYC
Each section is broken down into lists. Each entry is accompanied by a map with pin points, a short review, phone number and website. You can check off the list as you go and share with friends via Facebook, Twitter, email and text. Pretty cool.

Two sites I visit regularly are Yelp and Urbanspoon. Both have apps. I like and use both for different reasons. Yelp is wide open. Everyone and their brother are on there posting comments and rating everything from restaurants to the cleanliness of the restroom at the gas station. I know there has been a lot of controversy about Yelp lately (as in class action suit), but I believe that the majority of the comments are just plain folks, out and about in their lives voicing their very important opinions. You can pinpoint vindictiveness fairly easily and write those off for what they are. Negativity and anger are part of the package with any type of open comment forum online, unfortunately. More people will take the time to vent about bad experiences over good ones. I like to read comments from users who write a lot of reviews, because I believe these will be more balanced. Someone with only one or two reviews is typically on a mission to slam someone about a bad experience. All Yelp entries are rated on a five star system. You can make "friends" and follow people who review shared interests. Yelp's App is nice, user friendly and free. Like most, it uses GPS to target your location. Each business will display the address, user ratings, distance, and price range. There are feeds of your activities, your friends' ratings, and social-networking posting. It has a check-in feature that lets the user post where they are by selecting a location, leaving a "tip" as they call notes, and then posting to Yelp, Facebook and/or Twitter. An App is available for Blackberry, iPhone and Android.
Yelp Website
Yelp App

Urbanspoon is restaurant centric, calling itself "the world's leading provider of time-critical dining data". You won't see three-quarters of the world in their directory yet, so there is plenty of work still to do, but I agree that they have established a vast database. Urbanspoon covers all bases with general public comments, newspaper/magazine reviews, and bloggers. It is mostly American, but also contains some Canadian, UK and Australian reviews. You can cast a simple "like" or "don't like" vote for each establishment, and can change this vote anytime in the future if your opinion changes. Written reviews are not required. All restaurants display a "like it" percentage at the top with reviews below. Many restaurants have a menu posted, a feature I like. Like Yelp, their App is good and free. A popular feature of their App is the "Shake". Shake your phone and a slot machine styled screen will randomly select a restaurant for you. This doesn't appeal to me as I usually know what I want, but I can appreciate the novelty. It uses GPS to search or browse a restaurant near you. There are filters for neighborhoods, types of food, features (delivery, etc., popularity. Urbanspoon also has a "friends" feature, but this is less popular than Yelp's, perhaps due to the mixed resources of the reviews.

An App is available for Blackberry, iPhone and Android.

Urbanspoon Website
Urbanspoon App

I would be remiss if I did not mention my lifeline, Google. Oh yes, I do so love the Google. Just type in what you want, for example, Thai in Norfolk, and read the results. Simplicity at its best.

Are there other sites or resources that you use? Let us know. We love to try new things!

_Laine

Freemason Abbey - Norfolk, VA

I have been to Freemason Abbey a few times in the past. Once, when I was nineteen (cannot remember, does not count) and the other instance was with a work 'group lunch' and it was terrible. For obvious reasons, I was a little leery about going again, but Laine and I wanted to review something new and so we did a weather toss between two places. Sunny skies sent us walking to Freemason. Online, I noticed they had a vegetarian menu, which had eight or so choices and this lifted my apprehension slightly. We were seated quickly, but the menu did not show these vegetarian selections. My anxiousness grew to some extent but was calmed when I asked about the missing items and the waitress, with her 'girl training' in tow, said the vegetarian items are on a separate menu and brought it speedily. The veggie sandwich description looked like a lot of lettuce with some sun-dried tomatoes and onions and did not sound like it had a lot of heart to it. There was a vegetarian flatbread pizza, but pizza twice last week has cured me of that craving for a while. Another selection, the Gouda fettuccine, caught by eye, but that is a little heavy for having to go back to work and sit at a desk, so my top choices were the vegetable stir-fry with rice or the vegetable fettuccine. The vegetable fettuccine came with either Alfredo or marinara. I chose marinara so I could avoid falling asleep after lunch. No one likes a face plant on their desk. The waitresses asked if we wanted rolls. It was nice for them to ask to avoid bringing bread for a table that does not want it. Why waste unnecessarily. The rolls reminded me of Pepperidge Farm rolls, which are not bad for store bought. I expect a little more out of a restaurant but of course a lot buy in bulk. The rolls were warm, but I highly doubt homemade.

Our food came out in a reasonable time and my vegetable fettuccine looked better than I had presumed. I like to hope for the best and prepare for the worst. I am let down less frequently and this meal proves my theory of choice. The marinara had a good flavor and was of the right consistency, not too viscous or too watery. Sautéed mushrooms, peppers, broccoli and onions were plentiful in the dish, as well, with a little Parmesan. My only suggestion is to add carrots, squash and zucchini to the vegetables. A few more vegetables would give this dish some character.

Service was excellent. The two gals who waited on us were attentive and very pleasant (always helps when someone has a trainee because the trainer puts the best foot forward). Prices were reasonable, with my dish coming in at $8.95. Overall, this is still not a favorite of mine, but I would not have an anxiety attack if someone suggested going again, I would just not be the instigator of the idea. It could be the building that makes me feel out of place. I typically only enter churches for weddings, funerals or for architectural appreciation in other cities.

~Alex

I'm with Alex on Freemason Abbey. I have been there several times in the past, but it never really bowls me over. I know some people really like the ambiance, but eating anything in a church other than a thin wafer, approximately one inch in diameter, seems odd to me. However, lunch was good Tuesday, and service was excellent. We were in and out of there in under an hour, and Alex's meal was not from their express lunch menu. I was surprised to see that they were fairly busy, and we were seated upstairs in the last booth by the servers' station. I had preselected a salad after checking out their menu online, only to discover that their current in house menu was different, lacking that salad of course. Hrumph! Oh well, instead I selected Abbey Flounder; Boneless flounder filet broiled and topped with our house crab cake. Served with rice and green beans almondine for 8.95. This is from their "Lunch in a Flash" menu. It was quite good. Fortunately someone in the kitchen knows how to cook fish, and it was done to perfection.

I don't think it moved to the top of my list, but my opinion has definitely improved and I would not hesitate to return to Freemason Abbey in the future.

_Laine

Freemason Abbey Restaurant
209 W Freemason St
Norfolk, VA 23510
(757) 622-3966

Waiters Who Won’t Write

Call me old school, but when a server comes up to the table and asks me if I am ready to order, I want to see a pen and paper in his hand. I find it very unsettling to see someone standing there just staring at me, memorizing (or not memorizing) my order. It seems that “paper free” ordering is a growing trend in restaurants these days and I don’t get it. Is this yet another effort to “go green”, or are we supposed to be impressed at their skill? I mean, if a waiter is such a master of memorization then why doesn’t he memorize a text book on rocket science and go work at NASA? When they don’t write an order down, there is always a lingering worry in the back of my mind that the order is going to come out wrong. Granted, errors occur even when the order is written down, but in these instances the waiter can blame the “kitchen”. If they don’t write it down, I’m placing the blame on the order taker. Some restaurants are even more advanced and use hand held, palmsized computers which eliminate the need to write down the order and enter later in a register. These devices send the orders immediately from table to kitchen. Not only does this eliminate errors, but it cuts down on wait time caused by the multitude of interruptions that could occur from the time you place your order until the time the server can get it entered in a register. Wow, I’d like to see more of these!


I discussed this topic recently with several friends and found that opinions are split down the middle. I decided to go straight to the source and find out what the masses think. As with everything else, this led me to Google, which in turn led me to a great article from this month’s Orlando Magazine 17 Service Slip-Ups That Can Ruin a Meal. He concurs with the need for written documentation of orders. Do you? Let me know!

_Laine

The Dirt on Local Restaurants

Did you ever wonder what it looks like in the kitchen of your favorite restaurant? It's kind of interesting how we all just blindly march into a dining establishment and consume whatever they set before us. Most articles on restaurant cleanliness will tell us that our kitchens at home would fail miserably if subjected to the rigorous inspections that restaurants must endure. Personally, I'm more comfortable with my own family's dirt and germs than I am with a stranger's.

Having been a waitress in my younger years, I found most restaurants were genuinely concerned with food preparation, safety and cleanliness. Everyone had their little card authorizing them to serve or prepare food for the Commonwealth, and we all had our side work which ensured the facility was maintained properly. But, if you don't work there, how do you get to see what's going on in the kitchen? Back in the day I dated a guy who actually walked into the kitchen of every restaurant. (One of those things that was "cute" at first, but quickly turned irritating and embarrassing. I am not a proponent of this.) There is a much better and less conspicuous way to get all the 'dirt'.

The VHD, or Virgina Department of Health, routinely inspects and post inspections of all food establishments. This includes day care facilities, nursing homes, hospitals, and correctional facilities. All the information and violations are public record and posted on the VHD website. To locate your city and start snooping go the the VDH site , locate your city and then find your favorite restaurant. The PilotOnline also has a nice search for this which is a little prettier and user friendly. Be warned, you will see violations. Virtually every establishment gets one or two. It's up to you to decide how dangerous it would be to your health, and if it would prevent you from further visits. Hey, what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger...right?

_Laine