athrax

Bella Mia is located in Phillipsburg, NJ, not even 5 minutes from downtown Easton via the “free bridge” which connects the two towns. Bella Mia serves homemade pasta with their dinner specials, which are very reasonably priced and well-made, and offers a limited selection of beer, wine, and spirits to enjoy with your meal. The ambiance is elegant enough for a nice little date night with your sweetheart, but relaxed enough for a nice family dinner.

Admittedly, I am not a fan of Bella Mia’s pizza. The brick oven method of cooking sounds alluring, but I found the crust to have a cardboard-like consistency on more than one occasion, and a doughy consistency on other occasions.

I can talk positively about the calzones and strombolis, however, because they are amazing; quite possibly some of the best that I’ve had. My favourite calzone combo would have to sun dried tomatoes, spinach, and mushrooms – yum!!!

If you are a vegetarian, make sure you read the blurb on the menu about the standard tomato sauces they offer; one is made with meat for added flavour, and one isn’t.

The pizza here is horrible and expensive ($3.20 for a slice of plain; $4 for a slice of plain white pizza.) Skip it, and go to over to The Village to eat at the new Chipotle instead.

I haven’t been here in years (there’s no point in going, since I don’t eat seafood anymore) but this was another place I always used to go to with my grandparents. We would often get the crab legs, but the best part of the meal, hands-down, was the cheese and garlic biscuits. That’s why I rated the restaurant with three-stars – the cheese biscuits are so good.

It’s a toss up, resulting in the three-star rating. Sometimes the food is good, and other times it is just sloppy. Any of the salads are usually safe-bets as are the eggplant towers (essentially eggplant rollatini, stacked instead of rolled, served with a house salad.)

In the winter, I would try to avoid sitting in the front area near the door, because that area is very drafty. On one occasion when we asked to change seats because of the draft, we were rudely informed that we couldn’t because all of the tables in the back dining area were reserved. Funny, considering that maybe two tables walked in while we were there, and the rest of the room was still empty by the time we left…

The people at this Dunkin’ Donuts are very friendly and know how to make decent-tasting Dunkin’ Donuts coffee. It is generally worth the drive from Flemington (when I am there) to come here if I want Dunkin’ Donuts coffee.

Many unpleasant experiences here with nasty staff (the one or two friendly men they had working here left or were transferred to another location) and horrible tasting coffee. Don’t waste your money on this junk; go over to Borders, Friendly Grounds, or Bucks County Coffee House instead.

Nice atmosphere, not too fancy, and there is also a full bar. The prices are in the mid-to-high range, but the portions are generous. There are two menus to order from: the dinner menu and the lunch/lighter fare menu.

I have been here for dinner twice with family and the food was excellent on both occasions. At my table, someone ordered the Lamb Montmorency. I did not taste it (for obvious reasons), but it looked delicious and there was a generous portion of lamb for $28.

Dessert was the only course that I, admittedly, was disappointed about. They offered triple chocolate cake, carrot cake, cheese cake, and ice cream the one night I visited – nothing too extraordinary.

I used to go here often with my family and I remember that the food was excellent and everyone was very friendly. I remember getting this delicious appetizer all the time: Gorgonzola cheese balls, breaded, fried, and served with cranberry chutney. Amazing!!! Since I haven’t been there in years, I am very curious to go back there and see if anything has changed… and to see if they still have those yummy fritters on the menu.

This isn’t going to be a friendly review by any means. I’m infuriated, and I’ll let everyone know it.

Last night I had yet another bad dining-out experience that topped off with a nasty confrontation with the old, snotty, and chauvinistic owner of the Forks Diner. Frankly, I don’t know why we went here. We were nearby and starving, I guess.

Being originally from New Jersey, I have been in my share of diners, good and bad – but let me tell you that this was an abomination.

I ordered crab cakes, but unfortunately they were out of macaroni and cheese which killed my mood since that was what I was craving. My dining partner ordered stuffed flounder with crab meat. Our food arrived, and it looked… well, like something you would expect to get at a diner, but far worse as we came to find out.

The house salad looked old, so I took a few bites and set it aside. I tasted the carrots, which were worse than disgusting, and set them aside, too. I tasted the crab cakes, and I wanted to toss them on the floor, but I just set them aside with everything else. The only thing that tasted decent was the baked potato, which I proceeded to make a meal out of. How sad is that when the only thing that tastes good is a baked potato? (Guess I was showing my Irish roots…)

I politely told the waitress that the crab cakes I ordered tasted “gross” and “not good at all.” She could clearly see that I took a bite of the one crab cake, mushed it up, and set it to the side. They had the consistency and appearance of soggy wheat bread with small little chunks of “crab”, and my dining partner had the same mystery crab-and-bread matter as a “filling” for her fish. I didn’t even get to mention that the carrots were mushy and disgusting, and looked like a leftover war ration from WWI, and the salad was in the walk-in a little too long. The waitress apologized about the crab cakes and asked if I wanted anything else, to which I said no, and said that she was going to mention something to the chef or manager.

When the bill came, I was infuriated to find that nothing was done about the disgusting $10 plate of crab cakes that I mushed up and set aside, or about the $13 fish dinner that was about equally as bad. She even charged extra for the baked potato my dining partner ordered on the side after we discovered that the carrots were old and disgusting. Our bill was about $30 for garbage that we hardly even ate. We were essentially paying $30 for side dishes because the meals weren’t too tolerable: two potatoes, two salads, and two other small side dishes.

I went up to pay and asked the other waitress if I could speak to a manager. Our waitress was standing right next to us at the counter at that point, and she didn’t even come over to say anything or even listen to what I said to the manager/owner; she ran off to hide in the kitchen. It infuriated me that she didn’t bring someone over in the first place, like the nasty old jerk that I was about to encounter, to show him/her that we were dissatisfied while we were seated, but running off and not saying something about it after my second complaint was the icing on the cake for her. Maybe she was afraid of dealing with this jerk, who obviously has a gross amount of control over his small female wait staff, but I’m not afraid to tell him off.

The manager/owner came over. I politely told the him that we just got done and I had told the waitress that the crab cakes were not good at all. I described them as tasting and looking like soggy bread, and mentioned how I took one bite and set my plate aside because they were that unappetizing. I was perfectly calm and collected until he started getting arrogant: “Well, nobody has ever complained before” and “what do you want me to do about it?” were the replies I received after I went as far as to use words like “disgusting,” “gross,” and “horrible” to describe the meal that I didn’t even eat.

I was floored, to say the least, and any tolerance I had was absolutely gone at that point. An owner shouldn’t act that way after receiving a complaint from a customer, and I don’t think I have ever gotten that kind of response from an owner in my life. He told the waitress at the counter to take only half off my meal, and dissappeared into the kitchen only to make a brief appearance as we were heading out the door.

The waitress whipped out her little calculator and apparently couldn’t do simple math because 50% off turned into about 30% off, and the bill only went down a few dollars. I was so angry at that point and just wanted to leave, so I wasn’t thinking clearly enough to say, “That’s unacceptable. We’re NOT paying for that garbage.” As for the waitress, she only got $1 tip for not handling things the right way. Hell, it’s more than I received in the past as a waitress for giving GOOD service.

To say that I will never be going there again and that I will let people know of my bad experience is a gross understatement. I am obligated to give a star rating of at least one star, but if I had the choice I wouldn’t give even that. Zero stars for a diner with worse-than-pathetic food, pathetic service, and a pathetic owner who doesn’t know how to handle angry customers or take criticism.

The Melting Pot is a pretty cool experience. It is a DIY fondue restaurant (you get to cook your own entreé) featuring three courses:

-A cheese fondue appetizer, served with bread cubes and sliced veggies. There were three to choose from: cheddar and ale, swiss, or nacho cheese.

-An entreé. There is a vegetarian option of fresh vegetables as well as steak, chicken, and shrimp options. Any of these can be cooked in a tempura batter or a flavorful broth (three broths to choose from.)

-A chocolate fondue dessert, served with fresh fruit, marshmallows, and more. Dark chocolate with a shot of Baileys comes highly recommended.

Eating here with a group is fun and the food is good, but there are two downsides:

-It is pricey. Dinner for two could cost $70 or more.

-You can’t come starving. The cheese and chocolate fondues are the best parts of the meal, but they are not filling and it never seems as if there is enough.