Category: Food

A couple of weeks ago, we went to Boiling Crab for a Saturday lunch.  This location is in a strip mall/retail center off Curtner Avenue in South San Jose. They have another location on Capitol Expressway.

The restaurant opens at high noon, and this place is popular. Yup, that is a line you see below, stretching across 2 store fronts,  with about 10 minutes to go before opening. The line continued to grow as noon approached. If we had gotten there around or shortly after noon, we would probably would have had to wait for a table.

The format is the same as Red Crawfish: Order X pounds of seafood, with some sides and accompanying beverages.  The seafood is boiled/steamed, and then immersed into a sauce and delivered to you in a large plastic bag. One major difference is BC does not offer a prix fixe package that includes appetizers, side, seafood, and dessert. You have to order everything a la carte.

Boiling Crab has 4 spice levels and 3 types of sauces, with the 4th sauce, called “The Whole Sha-bang!”, a combination of the 3 main sauces.   The mild spice level has a small kick to it and is probably good for most people, as the medium can be too numbingly hot to be enjoyable after a few bites. The highest level is probably only for the people who enjoy drinking a cup of hot sauce for breakfast or think a meal is not a meal unless your tongue is numb 2 hours after the fact.

 

Crawfish is sourced from Louisiana and prices are “market based”, so always ask when ordering. When deciding how many pounds of crawfish to order, keep in mind that a good portion of the crawfish’s weight is the body, meaning the yield of meat compared to total weight ordered will be low.  If you are sharing everything at your table, I would recommend supplanting some of the crawfish with shrimp, which tends to have a higher meat to total weight ratio.  Another consideration: beer pairs well with spicy seafood, so remember to plan accordingly  For normal appetites, I would say 2 total pounds of seafood per person plus some sides and beer is enough. Larger eaters might want to bump that figure to 3 pounds per person. For every 3 pounds of seafood of the same type, you get a corn on the cob included for free in your plastic bag.  When in season, dungeness crab and blue crab can be cooked in the same style  as the crawfish and shrimp. Fried seafood plates/platters, including oysters when in season, are also part of the menu..

We opted for both crawfish and shrimp, with a side of “cajun” fries and a cup of gumbo. The dark roux based gumbo was well stocked with seafood and sausage, without being too thick or “slimy” like okra based gumbos. You have the option to add rice to your gumbo, but we decided to get it without so we could get more gumbo in the cup. It was a bit salty for a “standalone” soup.  A decent approximation of a Louisiana gumbo, but as mentioned before, could probably use less salt. Maybe next time we get a separate side of plain rice to eat with the gumbo and use the remainder  to mix in with the crawfish sauce (like I saw the couple at the table next to ours do).

Cut lemons wedges and salt/pepper mix were delivered ahead of the seafood, which arrived shortly afterwards nice and steamy in the aforementioned plastic bags. This time around, I tried the Rajin Cajun sauce by itself, but found the cayenne pepper element to be a bit too heavy handed. I’ve had The Whole Sha-bang in the past, and would recommend that, as it provides a better overall balanced flavor.

Peeling the crawfish and shrimp is a hands-on, predictably messy affair, so bibs are available for those of you not wanting to splatter spice laden liquid onto your nice clothes.

Because the seafood is boiled/steamed separately from the sauce, it can taste underseasoned to some. So BC provides salt and pepper in little plastic cups for every diner.  Another popular alternative is rubbing all that excess sauce that sticks to your hands onto your freshly peeled seafood.  If that is not enough,  you can coat the meat with the sauce sitting at the bottom of the bag.  Just make sure to let the sauce cool a bit, as the salt and cayenne pepper will make your singed fingers feel ten times worse.

Also, as per family style dining etiquette, you should not double dip your seafood into the common bag. If you are a double dipper or just like to drench your seafood in sauce, then I would advise dumping out the salt and pepper that comes in the little plastic cup and use that to scoop out your own personal portion of sauce. Or another option is just get your own bag of seafood.

And don’t forget the fat and roe in the crawfish heads. Crack open those heads and scoop it out! Or if you are adventurous enough and don’t care (or need) to see what goes into your mouth, you can just suck it out of the head right after detaching the tail.

If you’ve done it right, the meal should end with a nice large pile of shells and dirty napkins in front of you. Now is the time to  use those leftover lemon wedges to clean off those saucy, smelly fingers and hands.

Verdict:
Boiling Crab is popular and the pre-opening lines attest to that.  Overall the seafood is fresh and cooked properly to just the right doneness. The sauces are tasty and meld well.

I prefer Boiling Crab’s flavors over Red Crawfish in San Mateo. Prices are also slightly lower than RC. The other advantage BC has for us is proximity: a 15 minute drive as opposed to 35-40  minutes.  If you need a crawfish fix, Boiling Crab is a great place to satisfy your cravings.

Habana Cuba, located in San Jose, serves up traditional Cuban food. The interior decor is meant to evoke a tropical house, perhaps one you might find in Cuba. It’s tucked along a commercial street near downtown San Jose.

Theresa’s cousin Larry and his wife Han were generous enough to give us a gift certificate to Habana Cuba as a gift. They also got one for themselves, so we decided to all go one night to try it out.  Each certificate was good for 2 people and included one appetizer, 2 soups or salads,  2 entrees, one dessert, and pitcher of sangria. We decided to go family style so we could sample the various offerings.

The Sangria came first, containing the requisite crushed fruit, served in pitcher for the table. Nothing that was outstanding, and about average on the spectrum of sangrias I have had in the past.  Appetizer were served next: Prawn Ceviche and Cuban Sandwich

The ceviche contained cooked shrimp marinated in a cucumber mango salsa accompanied by fried plantain chips.  The crisp starchy chips served as a good counterpoint to the acid and moisture of the ceviche.

The Cuban sandwich (bocaditos) contained the house slow roasted pork, along with the traditional mustard, pickle, and cheese on a grilled and pressed roll.  The pork was definitely the star of the sandwich, outshining the other ingredients.

A nice sized bowl of chicken soup with noodles, potatoes, and corn (sopa de pollo).  From the color, you would expect a very tomato-y, acidic soup, but surprisingly it was not and best described as “homestyle” cooked.

We ordered a variety of stews: Carnos con Papas (beef),  Chilindron De Cordero (lamb),  and Ropa Vieja (beef). And we ordered the Lechon A La Cubana (slow roasted pork). Entrees were accompanied by rice, grilled plantains, and black beans. The pork was definitely the best dish we ordered, flavorful and making you want to eat more.  The stews all seemed to share the same taste profile, as we could not differentiate much difference among the three stews we order. I think next time, we will stick to the roasted pork, skip the stews, and perhaps try some of the other dishes there.

For dessert, we opted for the flan and the coffee tartufo (coffee gelato with coffee sprinkles). The portions were a bit smaller than I would have expected from a standard dessert, but that could have been because they were part of a larger package. Both were average, with no real standout features.

Verdict:
Not having much experience in eating Cuban food, I am not able to judge the authenticity of Habana Cuba’s food or how it measures up to similar places in Miami. The food resembled “homestyle” cooking, like something I would imagine a typical Cuban family would produce.  The roasted pork is worth a trip, so definitely order that when there.  However, as I mentioned before, if sharing, I would only order one  stew and try some of the other dishes. Portions are pretty generous, so getting appetizer, soup, entree, and dessert was quite a bit of food. Sharing appetizers and one entree per diner should be plenty and satisfy all but the largest of eaters.  I would skip the dessert and go elsewhere for that. I would not put Habana Cuba in my regular rotation of “favorite” restaurants, but it is a  a good “destination” restaurant for groups that are looking for something a bit more ethnic.

After a morning of light hiking, on a recommendation from Theresa’s co-worker, we decided to try out Alotta’s Deli in Los Altos.  What makes Alotta’s unique and what a lot of folks rave about is their fresh baked sourdough bread. Bread is always 1/2 of the equation in a successful sandwich, so we had good expectations going in.

We had a somewhat difficult time locating the right section of Grant Road that Alotta’s was on.  We thought it would be near the corner of Foothill Expressway and Grant, but it’s actually located on a section of Grant that runs parallel to Foothill Expressway. After a couple spins around the block, we finally got pointed in the right direction.

We were there around 1pm and traffic was brisk, with a few folks waiting for their orders.  The signature ingredient of an Alotta’s sandwich is their homemade sourdough bread, which they bake fresh on a continuous basis. Workers brought out 3 pans of bread for cooling in the time span between when we ordered and when we got our food. The loaves were pre-scored into 3 segments so workers could easily slice off the correct portion each time.

You place your order at one station in the back and then wait for your order. You can pick various canned drinks from the cooler  and chips from the rack and then pay for it all at the other station when your sandwiches are ready.  Other side dish selections include  a “salad bar” of around a dozen different salads (e.g. potato, fruit, cole slaw, pasta, etc, sold by the pound) and a hot bar with daily specials.  The day we went there was macaroni with 4 cheeses and spaghetti.  

We ordered the chicken salad sandwich and the hot pastrami.  All sandwiches come with lettuce, tomatoes, mayonnaise  mustard, pickle, onion.  The hot sandwiches also come with provolone cheese.

 

The bread was definitely the star of the show.  Wide and with the right amount of crispiness with a chewy, sour interior that stood up well to the filling. It might be a little dense for some, but definitely not as dense as some German breads out there.  The quality of the fillings was much better than your run of the mill Subway or Togo’s, but perhaps not as generous in quantity, so don’t expect filling to ooze out the sides as you make your way through. Portion-wise, a single sandwich will satisfy most appetites because of the bread density as well as the length of the sandwich. All in all a well balanced sandwich made with quality ingredients.

If you are a bread fan/connoisseur, it might be worth checking out. As far as sandwiches go, it would rank in the middle of the pack for me. Alotta’s is a nice place and  probably draws many lunch regulars from the surrounding neighborhood. Would we return to Alotta’s? Perhaps if we happen to be in the area, but I would choose to make a special trip out to Little Lucca before Alotta’s.

Hours are 10am – 6pm and they are closed on Sundays

Side note: Yes, I did make a lot of jokes about the character in Austin Powers that shared her name with this place when Theresa mentioned it to me.

Had dinner at Asteria Grill in Sunnyvale. The location is a bit hidden, tucked in the area between Mathilda, 237, and US 101, located next to a motel. Unless you know where to look, you would most likely drive right past, as the roadside sign is not obvious.  Having served as a steakhouse/diner in a former life , Asteria took the place of a Chinese buffet place that moved in after the steakhouse went bust.  Supposedly the chef is from Athena Grill, another Greek place in Santa Clara that served the same style of food.  Lunch is semi-table service where you order at the register, take a number, seat yourself, and food is then brought to you by runners. For dinner, it is full table service.  Specials are posted when you walk in.  Asteria has all the standard Greek fare, including gyros, souvlaki, lamb. mousaka, and wraps.

After ordering, we were served house made hummus and a bread basket with warm pita and french bread. The hummus had a  consistency similar to chunky peanut butter, but instead of peanuts, the small chunks were cooked chickpeas.  This gave it a nice rustic feel which is different from some of the paste like hummus served at other Mediterranean restaurants.  A nice way to start the meal off, also eliminating the need to order an appetizer.

Greek Salad came next and is included with all the dinner entrees.  Pretty standard with lettuce, feta cheese, olives and lightly dressed in vinaigrette. Perfectly serviceable salad, but nothing extraordinary.

I decided to order the grilled swordfish and Theresa opted for the grilled Filet Mignon medallion with grilled shrimp  We had a choice of vegetables, rice, or fries. I opted for the veggies and Theresa the rice.

Meats were grilled well, with the steak remaining juicy and cooked to medium as requested. The swordfish remained moist and had the proper level of seasoning.  As you can tell portions are pretty generous, so between the bread, salad, and entree,   our friends Kat and Nate ordered the gyro plate and the lamb chop special. Both plates had generous portions, with the pita piled high with gyro meat and french fries for Kat, and 3 lamb chops came with Nate’s order.  So portions should be more than enough to satisfy even larger eaters.

Taken together, Asteria is a place we would put into our regular rotation of food, especially if we wanted Greek food. It also delivers good value, as you will not leave Asteria hungry and might have enough left over for lunch the next day.

Open Monday to Saturday 11-9. closed on Sundays

 

We have been to TGI Sushi’s store in Campbell, where the food was great, but the restaurant was small, holding about 30 people maximum. So there is often a wait during meal times.  When we saw TGI Sushi opened another restaurant off Saratoga Ave in San Jose, we wanted to try it.  The San Jose restaurant is much larger with a couple dozen tables, with a large sushi bar in the center of the restaurant. We did not have to wait and was seated immediately.

Portions are generous, with their specialty rolls being sufficient for an entire meal.  We decided to order and share amongst the four of us at the table, ordering the sashimi dinner, rolls, and a couple of nigiri.

Sashimi was the standard tuna, salmon and himachi, with each of the 12 cuts being very large and thick. Was fresh, although the hamachi was a bit on the “too cold” side, indicating either it sat in a cooler for too long or perhaps experienced some freezing during the shipment process.

Nigiri was standard fare, nothing specialWhat differentiates TGI from other Japanese places is the variety of rolls and the spin that it puts on them. And the fact all their specialty rolls are huge.  Someone ordered the Gangham style roll last time, so we decided to go with it. The roll has hamachi on top and surrounded with tempura flakes and drizzled with a Srirachi/Ponzu sauce. The Hailstorm roll (in the background) was spicy tuna, salmon and cucumber.

Kevin’s Special roll with avacado, tuna and Macadamia nuts and topped with unagi.  I was expecting the nuts to be sprinkled on top, but they were wrapped inside the roll. The nuts added a nice texture contrast and unique flavor to the roll.

Prices are reasonable given the amount of food you get. In addition to sushi/sashimi, they offer the standard bento box fare for those who want cooked food.  The menu is extensive and it will take a number of visits before you make a dent in it.  Would recommend ordering and sharing so you can taste a variety of their food. The service staff was not as well oiled as the Campbell store, as sometimes it was hard to flag down our server. But I expect it to improve as the staff gets more settled in and things settle in after opening.

Met a work colleague in Downtown Mountain View for lunch and decided to pop into the new Steins Beer Garden for Lunch.. Steins was formerly a Chinese Restaurant named Golden Wok, and for a brief time a buffet place named Villa 8 that failed to gain traction as well.

The lunch menu consists of various sandwiches, salads, and smaller entrees. After ordering, a jar of pickled veggies came to the table.

I opted for the Rueben sandwich and my colleague Mark opted for the beet salad.

Beet salad was well presented and fresh, but as Mark noted, was not very substantial, and he was expecting more given the price.  Rueben was decent, made with good quality pastrami, but nothing outstanding and average among the ruebens I have. The service was still getting settled, and our server was not particularly familiar with the menu.  Since it was lunch on a work day, did not try any of the beers.  I think I will revisit after Steins has ironed out its operations and for dinner rather than lunch.

After her Lenten prohibition on eating red meat, Theresa was ready for some red meat.  What better way to celebrate the lifting of the prohibition by doing seven courses of beef, Vietnamese style. Off we went to Anh Hong, which has 3 restaurants in the Bay Area: San Fran, Berkeley, and Milpitas. We opted for the Milpitas one, which is located in a strip mall/shopping plaza off Calavaeras Blvd.

The seven courses are: beef special salad; beef fondue in red wine vinegar sauce; steamed beef patty; grilled beef sausages; beef wrapped in hawaiian leaf; beef rolls with onions and lemongrass; and beef rice porridge.  All of this is served with rice paper, lettuce, carrots, cucumbers, bean sprouts, and large sprigs of mint so you can create your own wraps with the various ingredients.

Condiments included chunky hot pepper sauce, fish sauce, and a slightly sweet shrimpy sauce (first time I have come across something like it), allowing you to mix your own dipping sauce and set your own spiciness/heat level.

Course #1 – Beef salad – Slices of cooked beef over shredded daikon, carrots, sliced celery, topped with peanuts and mint, and dressed in a light fish sauce based dressing. A nice, clean, fresh way to start off the meal.

Course #2 – Beef Fondue in red wine vinegar sauce – A hot pot of vinegar based braising liquid warmed by sterno was brought to the table along with slices of raw beef.

You dip the raw slices of beef into the steaming liquid until it’s medium rare…………

then you can wrap it in rice paper or lettuce with the accompanying veggies and top or dip in the sauce of your own making.

A note about the rice paper, which come to the table in its dried form along with large bowls of warm water. To make the paper pliable and edible, you need to quickly soak them in the  warm water. Getting the right amount of soakage to obtain the right pliability takes a bit of experimentation. Creating a nice looking wrap can also be a challenge as the paper becomes really sticky and adheres itself to your plate. I guess i am still a newbie at it, but with some experience, I’m sure it becomes a lot easier.

Or if you don’t want to bother, you can go the low carb route and just use the lettuce and other vegetation to create your wraps.

Courses #3,4,5,&6 – Two types of beef rolls, grilled beef sausage, and meat cake (which actually is more like a Vietnamese meatball or meatloaf).

 

Rolls can be eaten standalone or in your own homemade rolls. Dipping sauce is optional as they are tasty without it.

 Course #7 – Beef Porridge – To wrap up the meal, a hot steaming bowl of porridge with bits of beef.

I was expecting this to be fairly heavy meal, given the name, but having a good mix of fresh veggies, grilled meats, and finishing with a rice soup made it nicely balanced overall.  It was also a great way to sample different types of Vietnamese cooking and Anh Hong pulls it off well, all at a reasonable price.  Good for larger parties with the added fun factor of customizing your own food. I would characterize the seven courses as a “sampler” type of menu item. While the menu states each order can feed two, if you have  bigger eaters, you might want to order something else like a starch or other dish as a supplement, as each order comes with a small portion of salad,  2 or 3 rolls/slices of each type of beef, and a single bowl of porridge.   If you are only getting the “seven courses”, Theresa’s general rule of thumb for larger eaters is to take the number of people in your party and subtract 1 to get the number of orders you need. Anh Hong should definitely be on our rotation of places for satisfying the hankering for beef.

 

Theresa’s cousins suggested we all goto Red Crawfish in downtown San Mateo, to satisfy their crawfish cravings. Located in the downtown San Mateo district in a former commercial building along the CalTrain tracks, the decor is modern with a bar and several TVs that were showing sports.

Crawfish and shrimp are sold a la carte at “market price” on a per pound basis. The menu also has a selection of fried seafood plates/platters, stir fried seafood, and various sides (including steamed rice).  They also have some set menus that bundle several selections together for one price and are easily enough to share between 2 or 3 people .  You can substitute items, but there is a $2 surcharge in addition to any price difference (e.g. you can swap out one pound of shrimp for one pound of crawfish, or switch one of the sides for another). We opted for the #1 and swapped out 1lb of crawfish for a pound of shrimp. At Red Crawfish you can specify your spice level: mild, medium, spicy and xspicy. We opted for medium.

Spicy seafood is always better with beer. We were considering the 21st Amendment IPA, but were not sure if we would like it. Our waitress was nice enough to bring us a small sample of it to let us try it.  Clean and slightly sweet,  the IPA would pair well with the spicy food, so we ordered a full glass.

First to the table was the garlic bread and “cajun” fries.

The fries were delivered piping hot, fresh out of the fryer to the table. Garlic bread was toasted well, but was more like buttered toast with some garlic flavor rather than the garlic bread you typically get at Italian restaurants.  I characterize these as “standard” sides, nothing really memorable, but served as decent appetizers. Then, the namesake dish came.

The places I have been to here in the Bay Area cook up crawfish a bit differently than the way I grew up with in Louisiana. The crawfish are not boiled in salty, spice laden water (call a low country in some parts of the country) and served drained of all liquid, but rather par boiled and then served in a plastic bag with the seafood immersed in a steaming, garlicky sauce that is mixed with hot, spicy oil. Essentially what this means is the spice and flavor do not penetrate the meat like the Cajun boil method, but rather relies on surrounding liquid that you get on your hands to season the meat. For extra kick, you can dip your seafood after deshelling into the large pool of sauce in the bag.  This is probably done so the spice level can be set shortly before service, whereas the Cajun method commits the entire batch to one level.  All that sauce also means eating is messy affair, so diners are given lobster bibs and there are entire rolls of paper towels on each and every table. Crawfish and shrimp were firm and not overcooked, which tends to happen with boiled seafood, although I think they may steam their seafood here (the menu offered the option to serve seafood without sauce by as well).  Medium spice was plenty spicy for us, so I imagine the spicy and xspicy are really really hot (think asian spiciness standards). The burn was intense, but not a lasting, lingering burn, so you could still taste other foods after eating a few crawfish.  Besides the burn, the flavor profile was dominated by garlic and lack the follow up punch of lemon and herbs of the crawfish that I grew up with.

The garlic noodles came next and were delightfully chewy and super garlicky (but in a good, not overpowering way), and served as we were digging into our crawfish. It’s inclusion on the menu is probably because the owners of this and other similar crawfish restaurants around the Bay Area are of Vietnamese descent. If you don’t like garlic, this dish, and probably most of the dishes here, are not for you.

We ended up finishing all the seafood, as evidenced by the large pile of shells and empty plates that the waitress cleared from our table before the arrival of dessert, beignets.

Being a native New Orleanian, I have a very specific idea of what a good beignet is and should be, so I was really interested in seeing  Red Crawfish’s version. The “beignets” were the size of donut holes and came nice plated, topped with powederd sugar, accompanied by a scoop of vanilla ice cream, all drizzled with chocolate syrup.  They might as well have been donut holes with a texture, mouth feel like a cake donut rather than a puffy, light beignet. A little disappointing, but I guess it’s their interpretation of a beignet.  Disappointment aside, eaten together with the ice cream, it was a decent albeit non-memorable dessert. Not something I would recommend as a must try, and if not part of the set menu, I would say go elsewhere if you really need dessert.

I would describe Red Crawfish as more of a fusion place rather than as a purely Cajun place because they employ a different cooking method for seafood, infused with some Vietnamese flavorings. If you go in with that mindset, I would say as a  seafood restaurant, it works. Food and service were good, and I can picture it being a fun place to hang out, perhaps even catch a Sharks, Niner, Giants game while eating. I would recommend going in a small group, as the act of messy, hands on eating is something that should be a shared experience. Red Crawfish fills a gap for those living along the Peninsula area who need a crawfish fix, although we feel that there are other places that are a slight notch above Red Crawfish. As with most restaurant choices in the Bay Area, it’s a question of how far are you willing to drive and then wait for a table versus the quality of the food you are getting.

Theresa looked up a pho place in San Jose near 280 and Winchester called Pho 24. It is located in a newish plaza next to the Century 25 theaters.  Decor is nice and the food is a bit higher quality than the normal pho shop.

 

Sprouts, basil and lime came first on a separate plate.

I ordered the large size bowl and it seemed to be just a bit more broth and noodles compared to the small bowls I saw on other people’s tables, but was a good hearty size. The beef broth, while a bit salty, is not overly salty or over laden with MSG as some places (but it does have some, else it wouldn’t be pho), with less anise than other places I have been to (which is great because I am not a big fan of anise or licorice type flavorings).

Theresa ordered the dry noodle bowl with shrimp and chicken.

My father in law ordered the chicken banh mi sandwich

 

All the food was tasty, and I would say it’s location is convenient to those that live around the area. Service was friendly and helpful. They even took orders via an iPad, so points for being high tech. Would I drive out of my way to have Pho 24?  Most likely not, but it beats out your typical “fast food” type of pho shop though. If you are ever in the Valley Fair/Santana Row area and need a pho fix, this would be a good place to get it.

 

 

Tried a couple of restaurants in nearby strip mall in Santa Clara on 2 separate occasions. Both mostly cater to the lunch crowd which filters in from the nearby offices and businesses.  Both also seem to do a fair amount of takeout business as well.

Bistro Siam opened a couple of months ago and serves up the standard Thai fare.  We tried it on a weekday night, and it was pretty quiet except for a couple other tables.  Ordered the Pad Thai and the stir fried eggplant with a side of brown rice.

MSG is not used in the food, and is prominently printed on the menu. The food was fresh and tasty, and not over cooked, as tends to happen with some Thai dishes.  Pricing matches the bistro name, as it is slotted slightly below a “full service” Thai restaurant like Krung Thai or Amarin.  I think next time I would do take out and eat with my own rice (and save the $2/bowl charge) .

Dona Maria – We had another Dona Maria near our old home, and this branch serves up the same fare.  We chose to dine in, but there is a counter set up to process take out orders. Chip and salsa are complimentary when you dine in.

There are platters that include rice and beans.

You can also order a la carte (e.g. single tacos, enchiladas,tamales, etc).  In our case, Theresa ordered a single tamale and an order of the enchiladas.

If you don’t need beans or rice, I would suggest a la carte, which gives you a lower overall price.  If your table mates are willing, you can always order one platter and share the beans and rice that come with it as well.  Dona Maria is good if you have a hankering for Mexican and happen to be nearby.

I would put both restaurants on my rotation of lunch places or if we are doing takeout for dinner, as the prices are reasonable and fairly good options if you happen to be in the neighborhood.