Restaurant Articles
My companion and I are seated in a bright, airy dining room at a table covered in screaming white linen. The walls around us are painted in rich earth tones. An amuse-gueule, a long plate with slices of orange and pineapple drizzled with balsamic vinegar, arrives
Restaurant Articles
When my wife and I moved to the Rochester area almost a decade ago, one of the first restaurants we visited, largely because it was close to the condo we were renting, was Timothy Patrick's Irish Restaurant in Penfield. The pub became our frequent restaurant of
Restaurant Articles
Winter has returned to Rochester at long last. Our two-month reprieve from snow and ice came to an abrupt end last week, and within a day I started thinking about escaping to somewhere warm and sandy. At such times, I'll often gravitate toward Latin-American food, particularly
Restaurant Articles
The plate full of lamb tagine and cauliflower risotto I'm having for lunch cost me roughly $10. The loaf of raisin-fennel bread sitting on my counter at home set me back about half that. My son is addicted to $4 orders of braised pork-belly buns. All of that adds
Restaurant Articles
The first piece of chicken hit me right between the eyes before plopping neatly onto my plate. Between gusts of shocked laughter, I took a proffered towel from our smiling hibachi chef, knocked back a swallow of sake, and caught the next bite
Restaurant Articles
One holiday down, two to go. With the holiday season finally upon us, it's time to break out the cheery smiles and the bonhomie, time to brush off that forced good cheer. Time to eat too much, drink too much, and generally try to bury your
Restaurant Articles
The first time I set foot in the Istanbul Market on Norton Street, my head was filled with fond memories of lahmacun - a Turkish cousin of thin-crusted pizza topped with a spicy mixture of finely ground lamb, beef, onions, tomatoes, and Italian parsley. Not being
Restaurant Articles
Little things matter. The light in the dining room. The spacing of the tables. Whether the butter that comes with the bread is brick-hard or creamy smooth. Whether the consomme is crystal clear or cloudy. Whether silverware is replaced. And whether everything from the center
Restaurant Articles
With winter right around the corner, the impulse to eat like a glutton and crawl into my burrow for a nap becomes nearly irresistible. As the temperature drops, I start to emulate bears by eating more than I should, and mimic squirrels by putting food up
Restaurant Articles
A few days ago, I walked into the Winfield Grill on Winton Road for the first time, and felt like I'd just stepped out of a time machine. It was a busy Saturday evening, and the tables were filling up with happy families, couples both young
Restaurant Articles
On my third visit to New Taj India Cuisine in Corn Hill Landing, my cover - and at least some of my objectivity - was blown. As I pushed through the door on a blustery afternoon, Avtar Singh, co-owner and chef of New Taj, recognized me
Restaurant Articles
Los Gallos Mexican Grill in Greece, despite appearances, is not your typical Tex-Mex restaurant. I'm putting that up front, because the minute I stepped in the door a few days ago, my heart sank. Colorful sombreros on the walls, crepe-paper dancing senorita decorations, and basin-sized unearthly
Restaurant Articles
Do you have a favorite pub? A place you come back to every Friday night? A place that your feet just automatically lead you to at the end of a hard week? Now, have you ever toyed with the idea of actually owning your favorite watering hole?
Restaurant Articles
It's been a very hot summer. For a week, the mercury was pegged above 90, making even the hardiest of us scamper for the thermostat to turn on the AC. And now we enter the dog days of August. We keep cold drinks close at hand. Ice cream shops
Restaurant Articles
A couple weeks ago, my 14-year-old nephew, whose family strictly observes the complicated Jewish dietary laws of kashrut, arrived in Rochester for a brief stay. I wasn't optimistic about the possibility of making his fondest wish - to eat out as many times as possible with his restaurant-critic uncle
Restaurant Articles
Over the past couple of years, Rochester has been swept - in a modest way - by two Vietnamese food fads. First pho, a fragrant and cheap beef noodle soup that is a staple of Vietnamese street markets, and more recently, banh mi, that Franco-Vietnamese fusion
Restaurant Articles
Ziad and Imad Naoum, co-owners of Sinbad's Mediterranean Cuisine on Park Avenue, want you to make a mess. They don't say it in so many words, but their menu tempts you to abandon knife, fork, and a bit of decorum and dig in with your hands
Restaurant Articles
Pick up the phone to make a reservation at pretty much any restaurant on a Monday night and you are likely to get a lot of answering machines. Monday is the traditional restaurant "weekend" - the chef's day off - when all but a handful of
Restaurant Articles
When Tastings, the high-end, high-concept restaurant attached to Wegmans' flagship store in Pittsford, closed in 2009, there was a lot of speculation on what might fill the space. I heard rumors about a gourmet market like Balducci's in New York, a cooking school and demo
Restaurant Articles
Fish tacos have finally arrived in Rochester. Almost a decade ago, I first encountered the wonder and mystery that is the Baja-style fish taco on a visit to San Diego. A small portion of fried fish, topped with shredded cabbage, a creamy mayonnaise-based sauce, and a
