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Review: Creative burger combos abound at Mo's Burgers & Brew

 February 16, 2012

Central question: Mo's Burgers & Brew in Gales Ferry certainly has its charms but, truth told, unless you live there, you've sort of got to want to go to Gales Ferry. So, despite the impressive,...

Say cheese! Why it's worth the drive to Shady Glen

 February 9, 2012

We're all used to seeing campaigns waged against hot-button issues on billboards across the country. Smoking. Drugs. Guns. But perhaps the most disturbing campaign recently surfaced in Albany, N.Y.: a campaign against cheese.

Review: Romance your palate at Elizabeth's Café

 February 2, 2012

If dinner out in a chic beach-house environment sounds appealing, wait until you try the food at Elizabeth's Café in Madison.

Restaurant review: Ballo Restaurant and Social Club

 January 26, 2012

At Ballo Restaurant and Social Club, the newest of the four restaurants the Mohegan Sun classifies as "gourmet," there is so much people-watching as the betting public walks past, so many rainbow lights just beyond, and such a low, dull...

Sushi and beyond at Mahzu Japanese Restaurant

 January 12, 2012

The idea of all-you-can-eat food is unsettling as it is. It brings to mind buffets of food sitting under heating lamps for hours. And the goal becomes folks shoveling food like wings, pancakes or lo mein into their mouths in...

Living La Dolce Vita: A cupcake tour

 January 5, 2012

A preliminary Internet search for "cupcakes in Connecticut" assures me that CT is way in on the Great Cupcake Renaissance that's taken the food world by storm. Indeed, I might lead a rally to oust "nutmeg" as our chief modifier and...

Our favorite restaurants we reviewed in 2011

 December 29, 2011

Octagon

Mystic Marriott Hotel & Spa

625 North Road, Groton

Review: On the Rocks is a fine food destination

 December 22, 2011

Over the (Eightmile) River and through the (Devil's Hopyard) woods is On the Rocks, the restaurant of the Fox Hopyard golf course. On a chilly Sunday in December, it feels almost like traveling to Grandmother's house, and when you get...

Give a gift to yourself with these tasty dishes

 December 15, 2011

Presents! Gifts! Toys! Decorations! Parties! Trees! Santa needs a ride to the dentist! Carol-singing! Gagging over but, yet, perversely, unable to turn away from Lifetime Network holiday movies!

Review: Fine dining with locally-sourced food at the Oyster Club

 December 8, 2011

My conversations with my iPhone generally start out pleasantly enough. "Siri, (I like to think my robotic personal assistant responds better when I address her by name) can you get me information about the Oyster Club in Mystic?"

Restaurant review: ION still keeps it real after more than 30 years

 December 1, 2011

If I may make a suggestion, next time you need to hit the post-holiday digestive reset button, head out to It's Only Natural restaurant, a longtime vegetarian enclave in Middletown. Or, just go if you like inventive, well-presented...

Review: Welcome a sumptuous, new Rice Box to Groton

 November 24, 2011

Lately, my wife has morphed, with lycanthropic viciousness, into the Vegetarian Who's Really Impatient With Not Very Many Great Chinese Food Options (TVWRIWNVMGCFO).

Keep it simple and let Ivy do the cooking

 November 17, 2011

There are many things I appreciate in this life: among them, a roof over my head; pretty much everything AMC has put on television, and, above all, someone who is willing to cook a meal for me. It's doubly special when that someone...

Downhome and done right at Kit Kat’s Smoked BBQ

 November 10, 2011

Pawcatuck's newest restaurant is about as basic as it gets: a bunch of square tables in a small square room, with metal folding chairs, plastic dinnerware and a fish tank.

Settle in and get comfy at Saybrook Soup & Sandwich Co.

 November 3, 2011

Like many, many other people, I get a regular hankering for one of America's top comfort-food meals: tomato soup and a grilled cheese.

Big Bubba’s BBQ serves as an oasis of comfort food, Southern-style

 October 27, 2011

If, like myself, you're a committed Epicurean - which is to say, a hoggy glutton - being afflicted with Bell's Palsy presents a cruel irony. Here's how it works.

Tio Rodrigo’s brings tasty Mexican food back to New London

 October 20, 2011

First it was Zavala's closing. Then La Cantina. New London diners who craved Mexican food could have been left wandering the city, their desire for good spicy cheesiness unfulfilled. Not to mention the kind of havoc that would have...

Discovering the joys of Neon Chicken

 October 13, 2011

My father drove the same exact five-mile route between our home and his business for more than 20 years. At a certain juncture, he would pass a small hospital on one side of Edgefield Avenue and, directly across the street, a...

Restaurant review: A welcome return for Noank's Seahorse Restaurant

 September 22, 2011

Every town has its popular haunts, but the Noank community's affection for the Seahorse Restaurant has withstood decades. The way new owner Thomas Tsagarakis likes to put it:

Restaurant review: Gabrielle's is a neighborhood haunt that could be a standout

 September 15, 2011

Gabrielle's has been a culinary mainstay in Centerbrook for nearly a decade, and I took a friend there last week after an unexplainable hiatus. I'd always enjoyed the kitchen's efforts - the cooking was plain but so good I never noticed...

Restaurant Review: With Best of Everything, it's the best meal you never made

 September 8, 2011

Let's start with this: if you're a staunch, self-reliant cook, you probably don't tend to shop for ready-made dinners. But here's the thing: good cooks know good food, and good cooks deserve nights off. So I suggest you devoted cooks...

Restaurant review: Home, sweet home, Mistah G!

 September 1, 2011

One should never take the greatness of Mr. G's for granted. A dining experience there - the welcoming service, the very fine food, the ambience of family and comfort and belonging ? it's like the first time you behold the Temple of...

Restaurant review: A creative variety of pretzels and beer at the Malted Barley

 August 25, 2011

These pages are normally reserved for waxing eloquent about a variety of appetizers, entrees and desserts in a meal, but this time we're keeping it simple: Pretzels. Beer. That's it.

Summer's bounty at ever-green River Tavern

 August 18, 2011

Jonathan Rapp is one of Connecticut's homegrown celebrity chefs - minus the television show, plus the extended fan club. His River Tavern in picturesque Chester, from my experience, remains one of very few restaurants foodies in eastern...

Restaurant review: Go west, for far-Eastern delights at the Taste of China

 August 11, 2011

There's Chinese food, and then there's authentic Chinese food. We all need a generic lo mein fix from time to time, and any number of pop-up take-out restaurants can accommodate that, but when you want to sit down and truly celebrate the...

Maria's Seaside Cafe: A wonderful seasonal restaurant

 July 28, 2011

When you think of Misquamicut, you probably imagine all those great places that come with a true beach community: fried food shacks, ice cream stands and ocean-side bars. But expand that image a bit further, to a place that still takes...

Octagon turns 10: Regional hotel dining at its best

 July 21, 2011

Octagon Steakhouse, tucked into the Mystic Marriott and hidden from neighboring I-95 by a thicket of trees, remains an eminent destination for serious diners. You might never know it.

Eat your veggies (and then have a cupcake) at Mangetout

 July 14, 2011

I've determined that if someone would cook vegetarian meals for me every day, I could easily go vegetarian. Great chefs can make beautiful alchemy happen with our plant-based friends.

There's no place like home, but Cristy's is a close second

 July 7, 2011

Diner food offers that singular staple that so many of us, at one time or another, crave above all other things: breakfast for dinner.

Restaurant review: Brasserie Pip is a culinary world apart

 June 30, 2011

BRASSERIE PIP

46 Main St., Ivoryton

Hell Fire brunch is a little taste of heaven

 June 23, 2011

The idea of "brunch" is one that comes with certain associations. For me, I'm thinking of that "Barefoot Contessa" woman, preparing food like Quail Eggs Wrapped in Pinon-Smoked Fawn Bacon, then serving it to yacht owners who look like...

A triumphant Gallic accent at Bar Bouchée

 June 16, 2011

Jean-Pierre Vuillermet of New Haven's stately Union League Café presumably saw the absence of great cooking along the mid-coast and last year opened Bar Bouchée on a quiet side street in Madison. And to my mind, at least,...

May I recommend ... these three dishes

 June 9, 2011

With the summer comes time for another of the caloric adventures I like to call Some Stuff I Think You Should Eat - wherein I wax, in suitably drooly fashion, over a few intriguing meals I've sampled of late.

Culinary creativity and classic diner atmosphere rule at O'Rourke's

 June 2, 2011

As soon as I caught sight of a waitress holding a giant egg beater covered in batter in one hand and a bunch of clean spoons in the other, I knew O'Rourke's was my kind of place. She stopped at each table, offering customers a taste of...

Goldy's: A welcome return

 May 26, 2011

When we moved here almost 14 years ago, the building on Colman Street was a franchise in the Roadkill Café chain, a restaurant known more for its spectacularly ill-advised name than for anything interesting to eat. When that...

Burgers to savor at Jack Rabbit's and the Rabbit Hole

 May 19, 2011

There's burger joints, and then there's Jack Rabbit's/The Rabbit Hole, a burger joint that is most definitely a contender for the shoreline area burger crown.

Pan-Asian delicacies at Singapore's Grill

 May 12, 2011

If you are a fan of Asian cooking, you will have abundant choices at New London's venerable Singapore's Grill and Sushi Bar. It features not only Malaysian cooking (incorporating aspects of broad range of South Asian cuisines) but also...

Fireside chat: Let’s talk about Brick Oven Creations in Gales Ferry

 May 5, 2011

Opening a restaurant is never an easy task, but a small village location highlighted by a huge, mostly empty plaza seems especially daunting. Trying to reenergize a business district has to start somewhere, however, and late last year,...

Stash's second course is tasty fare

 April 28, 2011

Following a perhaps fated and circuitous path, Stash's Café in New London is once more under the purview of Steve "Stash" Schiavone. The popular, all-are-welcome establishment - where judges happily eat next to bikers next to...

Alforno: Old Saybrook's taste of Tuscany

 April 21, 2011

You can take the gal out of New Haven, but you truly can't take the New Haven out of the gal, especially if she's eaten the local pizza.

And this gal has.

The glow undimmed at New Haven’s Ibiza

 April 14, 2011

Back in the 1980s, when he was in his 20s, restaurateur Ignacio Blanco opened Norwalk's acclaimed Spanish restaurant Meson Galicia. Meson Galicia thrived, moved, and became Meigas, which begat Pika Tapas and Mediterranean Grill, in New...

Almost like the real thing: The 'meat' of the matter at vegetarian Kong Foo

 April 7, 2011

Whenever I meet a vegetarian, I can't help but feel bad for them. While they're proudly explaining how no animals had to be killed for their consumption or touting the health benefits of their diet, I nod in understanding - but really I'm lamenting...

Go for the gusto at these fine buffets

 March 31, 2011

Some joker left a message telling me Jean Georges AND Aquavit had instituted $9.99 all-you-can-eat buffets, and I sprinted to Manhattan with a 20 dollar bill and a doggie bag.

At Fay Day Bakery, good things really do come in small packages

 March 24, 2011

You've got to love a place where dinner is wrapped up like a dessert and dessert can justifiably serve as dinner.

An embarrassment of riches at Liv’s Oyster Bar

 March 17, 2011

I don't eat a great deal of red meat, but if my doctor told me to cut it out entirely, I'd move to Old Saybrook and console myself with the marvelous and varied seafood dishes at Liv's Oyster Bar.

New potential at the Flood Tide restaurant

 March 10, 2011

The Flood Tide restaurant seemed a natural choice for the Food Network's show "Restaurant: Impossible." Its prime location - part of an inn on a Mystic hilltop overlooking the water - and the culinary accolades it once received were proof that,...

A tantalizing trinity at a trio of restaurants: Ribs, crispers and gumbo

 March 3, 2011

Let's raise the curtain on another episode of Three Interesting Things I've Eaten Lately.

Porky Pete’s BBQ: It’s not just a clever name

 February 24, 2011

You know how they say good things come in small packages? Chalk up one more point for that old adage, because Porky Pete's BBQ in Essex offers another case in point.

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