On a trip to Boston for a conference my friend and I had a late lunch at the Black Rose and found it a real treat. The atmosphere was great and our waitress taught us a bit of Gaelic. The food was hearty and fresh and well worth the price. My friend had Irish Stew and could only manage to finish half of the stew due to the large portion. I had the lobster special and was surprised at the nice size and great flavor of the meal especially considering the price of only 10.99. The location is nice and you can certainly spend a few hours there just hanging out with friends

I was so in the mood for a good sandwich and bagel chips this weekend at NY Bagel. I had the smoked turkey with havarti and pepper mayo on toasted white bread and it was good. I was somewhat disappointed in the quality of the smoked turkey as it appeared to be store bought and sliced of the variety you get in one of those zip lock containers at any grocery store. The pepper mayo was good and I always request it on any sandwich I order. The bagel chips were nice and crisp with a small but really smooth and creamy veggie cream cheese dip. Everything was as I hoped until out of the corner of my eye I notice that a small cock roach has taken a seat on the napkin dispenser on my table. That was the end of my nice lunch. The staff apologized when I told them of the situation but there is nothing that could undo the roach. The sanitation of NY Bagel has always been suspect in my estimation as the bathroom is often very nasty but to see that such lack of basic cleanliness has spread is very sad indeed. I have been a frequent diner at this location but I think I’ll try the Jefferson location before I totally write them off.

I’ve eaten many times at Pastime and I have to say I’m never disappointed. Yesterday was no exception. I had my usual Turkey Sandwich (6.00) on Texas Toast and it was good. The smoked turkey was plentiful, moist and as fresh as the shredded lettuce and sliced tomato that it shared the bread with. I also had a slice of my co-workers shrimp and mushroom pizza and while the shrimp where nice and plump the mushrooms were of the canned variety and pretty tastless unless you can count rubbery as a taste component. Oh well I guess that’s what Tony’s is for. All in all Pastime is great place to eat in or get something on the go with reasonable prices.

Today I got out voted and ended up having lunch at Koto of Japan on College Drive. I have eaten at Koto numerous times and never really had anything good or for that matter bad to say about the experience. Well today changed all of that. I had lunch with 7 of my co-workers and we decided that most of us would like the Hibachi Lunch. Being not a big fan of sushi I thought this would be a good choice. We were shown a table near the back of the restaurant which seated patrons around the hibachi grill. The decor was dark and rather drab. Many parts of the carpet were much worn and my shoe actually stuck to the floor on one occasion. At this point I’m thinking the very low light in the restaurant is a good idea. The restaurant just seemed grimy at this point. After looking over a fairly extensive menu I chose the steak hibachi lunch with comes with mushroom soup, a salad, teriyaki vegetables, fried rice and steak cooked to order. This sounded like a great deal for 10.00. The soup was tasty. A light broth that was a little greasy but had a pleasant mushroom flavor. The soup contained a scant portion of mushrooms and scallions and some other bits I couldn’t really identify. The salad arrived next and consisted of a tired mix of iceberg lettuce and julienne carrot strips with a dressing that looked and tasted like an overly gingered 1000 Island that for some reason had separated. Finally the chef arrived to start the show. First he cooked the fried rice, which I was highly anticipating. All of the ingredients looked fresh so I was hoping I’d be in for a treat. Wrong, the rice was both mushy and crunchy. A combination I’m not sure how one arrives at, but this rice managed. The rice was tasteless and I’ve had better at countless quick stop Chinese restaurants here in Baton Rouge. I’ve even had better from the freezer of a grocery store. The vegetables were ok. Fresh but under seasoned. The steak again was just OK. It was thin sliced ribeye cooked to order and was fairly tender but again had no real taste to speak of. My greatest complaint about my lunch was the view. I had the end seat at the table which afforded me a view of behind the grill. So what’s so bad about that you ask? I’ll tell you, it was the dead roach laying legs up right by the foot of the chef. I couldn’t keep my eyes off of it. After starting off merely thinking the restaurant was grimy I now know it to be NASTY. I can’t really imagine a good reason to go to Koto of Japan but if you want a cheap lunch with some entertainment it might be an OK choice, let’s just hope the view doesn’t spoil it for you too.

Tuesday I had the pleasure of dining at the latest incarnation of 333 3rd Street. I joined a few co-workers for a late lunch and was pleasantly surprised by the really good food at 333 Bistreaux. The restaurant has a nice outside dining area that offers both street side tables and a covered area closer to the entrance of restaurant. The service was very good and the food was better. I had the lunch special of crab au gratin served with rice pilaf. The portions were small but very much in line with the price of 7.95. The rice pilaf was moist and contained a whole host of tasty bits ranging from spinach, carrot and onion to nicely toasted pine nuts. The crab au gratin was just short of excellent. It was creamy, fresh tasting, included numerous medium sized lumps of crab and just the right amount of cheddar cheese and bread crumbs on top baked to perfection. So why was the crab au gratin just short of excellent you might ask, well that has to do with the mound of crab shell on my plate that increased with every bite. I would have thought maybe it was just my bad luck but two of my lunch companions ended up with similar piles. Lack of attention to the detail of picking crab almost spoiled an otherwise delicious dish. The lunch ended with a nice gesture from the kitchen of on the house slices of chocolate cake. While the gesture was exceptional the cake was just ok. It was a rich chocolate cake studded with chocolate chips and a chocolate genache. The taste was over powering with nothing there to balance it out. A simple dollop of lightly sweetened whipped cream would have been a nice addition and would have made this a much better option for ending a nice meal. In all, I’m looking forward to returning to explore more of 333 Bistreaux’s menu.

Yesterday, along with several co-workers I dined at Mike Andersons. Service was great. We were a party of 8 and were accommodated rather quickly, especially for the lunch time rush. I wish I had such praise for my lunch. I had the Thursday lunch special which was the Jason (9.95). The Jason was a filet of white fish stuffed with crabmeat dressing and deep fried covered in crawfish ettouffee with rice and your choice of side and salad. I opted for the stuffed potato and house salad. The salad was average. A salad plate of relatively fresh ice berg mix, one slice of red onion and 4 overly hard croutons with my choice of light ranch, which I have the feeling was a bottled variety. The fish was unidentifiable. I actually had to take the batter off just to make sure it was fish. I’m still not convinced. The crab stuffing was pleasant. It was nicely seasoned claw meat. The stuffing was hot which is much more than I can say for the ettouffee. However being cold wasn’t the ettouffee’s only sin. While it contained a more than average number of nice crawfish tails the ettouffee had a rather fishy taste that wasn’t appreciated. The star of this lunch was the stuffed potato. It was hot and filled with a cheesy, bacon studded filling that was very enjoyable. All in all the lunch was rather uninspired. Again I must mention that the service was very expeditious . Frank is a great server and our table was never without refills. Also, he handled the dizzying task of splitting checks for a large party with a smile.

Friday night my friend and I dined at Ninfa’s. It had been a few months since we visited the restaurant where we had previously been frequent patrons. Of course the first thing I noticed was the new decor. I have to admit I didn’t like it. For new decor it seemed very dated. It reminded me of a cheap furniture store. But we came for the food not the decor. The food was ok but several things were a disappointment. My friend and I shared chips and salsa, an order of beef quesadillas, Jackie fajitas with the Chihuahua topping and each had a bowl of xochitl soup. Granted this is a lot of food. We always plan on leftovers for the next few days; however the lack of freshness of several items made this a bit difficult. Chips and salsa were their standard quality. Crisp chips and fresh green and red salsa, no complaints there. The quesadilla was ok. After an extended wait, which we understood given it was a Friday night; I was disappointed in the lack of flavor and excess of grease I experienced with the quesadillas. Next came what I had been waiting months for, my all time favorite xochitl soup. The soup was hot and had several nice pieces of chicken hanging out in the bottom of the bowl. Then I noticed that the cilantro, one of the main ingredients that make this soup awesome, was mainly a mix of yellowing stems, brown leaves and down right mushy green rot. We both picked around until we could find a few salvageable leaves to put into our bowls. The fajitas were good if again lacking seasoning. The meat was plentiful and tender and the tortillas were nice and fresh. All in all the meal was just ok. If more attention to detail had been made in the kitchen the meal would have been good