I went with a couple friends to Twiggy’s Panamanian Caribbean American Cuisine on Brookland Park Blvd. I accidentally found this place while driving around lost in the North Side. I had to get lost to find it again, but we found it. After we ordered and paid through the plexiglass, we sat down inside. The only dish available at the time was the $5 chicken curry lunch special. We ate chicken curry. It included chicken, rice and beans and cabbage. [...]
I went with a couple friends to Twiggy’s Panamanian Caribbean American Cuisine on Brookland...
I go to Nick’s Produce at 400 W. Broad St. whenever budget, time or indecision prevent me...
I sit on the outside of Richmond foodie orthodoxy. In part this is true because I brag about eating...
I went with a couple friends to Twiggy’s Panamanian Caribbean American Cuisine on Brookland...
Did you know that you can get lunch at Secco Wine Bar for $7? (plus tax and tip. Don’t skimp...
I wonder how many reviews have already been written about Mamma Zu. I bet it’s in the triple...
I went with a couple friends to Twiggy’s Panamanian Caribbean American Cuisine on Brookland Park Blvd. I accidentally found this place while driving around lost in the North Side. I had to get lost to find it again, but we found it. After we ordered and paid through the plexiglass, we sat down inside. The only dish available at the time was the $5 chicken curry lunch special. We ate chicken curry. It included chicken, rice and beans and cabbage. [...]
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Did you know that you can get lunch at Secco Wine Bar for $7? (plus tax and tip. Don’t skimp on the tip, that’d be sucky of you. In fact, some of you should know that tipping less than 20% is bush league.) There are actually lots of lunch options here for $10 or less. I had this pulled chicken sandwich and loved it. Everything about it was good. Writing this makes me want another one. I also can’t think [...]
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I wonder how many reviews have already been written about Mamma Zu. I bet it’s in the triple digits. I think it’s the most famous restaurant in town. I had spaghetti and meat sauce for lunch last week. It cost $8.50. It was regular. I was hoping for better-than-regular. Mamma Zu is one of those places where people are happy to be treated poorly in exchange for the right to brag that they’ve had some religious food experience there. I’m [...]
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Holy crap, this was good chicken. It was fried and then covered in some sweet barbecue sauce stuff. Wow. It costs $7. It’s not a huge portion, but I recommend it. The meal comes with rice, beans and cabbage. All of those extras end up being covered in the sauce. Excellent. I give the sauce 5,000,000 out of 5,000,000 points. The chicken was great too. There are a few Jamaican places within walking distance to my office. They’ve all got [...]
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Pasture serves lunch. The lunch menu isn’t a cool list of “small plates” like the dinner menu. I had the $8 “Frankfurter”. It was about 6″ long, with spiced ground beef, slaw onions and mustard. I should have ordered the $11 cheeseburger. I’ve had the burger before and it’s excellent. The hot dog wasn’t bad, it just didn’t taste like $8. I’m almost sure I’d know what eight bucks tastes like. The hot dog comes with a side of chips [...]
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Update 2/21/2012: Cameron’s Seafood Closed this month. Did I do that? I like crabs. Before I moved to Virginia, I didn’t really know what to do with a whole steamed crab. Now I know. Cameron’s Seafood on Broad is a cool place. They have an informal seating area, but really, I think of Cameron’s as a takeout place. They usually advertise the price of crabs by the dozen on the old-fashioned lighted sign outside. You can sometimes get live crabs. They [...]
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Akida is the ugliest restaurant in Richmond. It’s also my favorite sushi restaurant in town. The food is good and cheap and the service is great. The restaurant is employed mostly by one family. I kind of love that the whole restaurant (about the size of a big walk-in closet) is plastered with home-made “Do not park at Bank of America” signs. There is no pretense here. Just sushi. There’s nothing about the food that will make you shout hallelujah [...]
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I go to Nick’s Produce at 400 W. Broad St. whenever budget, time or indecision prevent me from having something else for lunch. It’s my dependable “Plan B” lunch spot. That’s actually a compliment. It’s good enough to eat several times a week. It isn’t new or exotic. It doesn’t surprise or tease. It’s just really good. Nick’s is an international market with a sandwich counter. The Sandwich Man is great. 30% of the attraction here is personality. 70% is everything [...]
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I ate Jerk chicken at the Jerk Pit. Some restaurants are cool even though (or because) they are a little gruff and chilly. I like those places. I walked into the Jerk Pit for the first time and I instantly loved it. The Godfather at the counter didn’t trouble himself in the least. He was memorably unfazed. I’m also pretty sure he doesn’t remember me. I had a quarter chicken, rolls and coleslaw for lunch. It cost $5.40, it was [...]
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I sit on the outside of Richmond foodie orthodoxy. In part this is true because I brag about eating very inexpensive food. Lately, I’ve needed my food to be extra-cheap. Here are the things I’ve been eating for lunch lately. They are all $4 or less. City Dogs – $1 Richmond Original Chili Dog on Mondays in the Slip/Tuesdays in the Fan Citizen – $2.75 Egg & Cheese Slider Nate’s Taco Truck Stop – $3 Tacos The Empress – $4 [...]
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Bistro 27 is a very good restaurant. The food is good and the atmosphere makes people feel more important than they really are. Good stuff. I have eaten there a few times and I have always enjoyed my meal. The cheapest entree on the lunch menu is usually $9. There is a Kobe / Wagyu beef burger on the menu for $12. Every time I see it on the menu, it taunts me. It says (in a British via Tokyo [...]
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On a tip from @KSiddall, I went to lunch with my family to Citizen. It is not an easy place to find. I think they like it that way. It’s a sandwich shop. Nothing on the menu costs more than $6. They get their bread from La Sabrosita bakery and they refer to their sandwiches as “Tortas”. In Mexico, a “Torta” is a torta because it is served on a specific type of roll. In some ways, these sandwiches are [...]
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I never had a crush on any of my friends’ mothers. Moms always seemed old and ordinary to me when I was young-er. I usually think of American Thai food like I thought of other people’s moms – old, ordinary and not apppealing. Thai Corner recently opened very near my office. I have been twice so far. Today, I had the Nur Nam Tok (beef slices seasoned with ground roasted rice and other things) for $8.95. The crushed and roasted [...]
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I had this “Heritage Burger” made from “ancient breed” beef at Balliceaux. I had no idea what “ancient breed” beef meant, but it looks so cool on the menu. I had an ancient hamburger and I didn’t die. I feel like I can brag about that. The burger was good. It tasted like beef. The cheese on the burger was strong and salty. I liked it all. I would order this burger again. I also had the potato salad. It [...]
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I live just a couple blocks from Globehopper. I happily walk right by Starbucks to get there. I go to Globehopper for a few different reasons: A. To do homework and drink coffee. B. To have meetings and drink coffee. C. To sit and read with my kids and drink coffee. D. To hide out on the very cool back patio and drink coffee. The food and furniture are good, the people are friendly and the internet is free. Globehopper [...]
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Last week, the folks at C’est Le Vin complimented this blog and then pointed out that I hadn’t been to their restaurant yet. Since my patronage can be purchased with that kind of stroking, I went to visit them for lunch the next day. I took five friends with me. It seems that most of the menu items are Italian inspired. The average price of lunch entrees was about $11. The Twitter suggested I try the Four-Cheese Gnocchi. I did. [...]
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I had lunch on a Saturday at Lady Nawlins and the food was good. Today, I came back for more. I did feel like an unwanted invader in an insiders-only club when I first walked in and sat down. But, I eventually got served and everything got better. I had the house-smoked hot-sausage po-boy for $9. It was very good. I was impressed that they smoke their own stuff. I don’t really know why that impresses me. One of the [...]
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We’re experimenting. On Wednesdays at 6pm I’m going to be teaching a spanish class at The Empress. We’re calling it “Happy Hour Spanish”. For $10 you’ll get a Conversational Spanish for Beginners lesson and one of two beverage options. Feel free to order more on your own! The idea is that we’ll have fun, learn some conversational Spanish and enjoy drinks+ at The Empress. The class will be a weekly event for a while. Come try it!
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These are my 10 favorite restaurants in Richmond right now. This isn’t just about food. It’s about lots of things. Food, money, service, friends, memories, character, characters etc. I expect that this list will change frequently. ______ The Empress Can Can Sue’s Country Kitchen 8 1/2 City Dogs The Boathouse Racine Patrick Henry Pub King’s Fish Market The Hard Shell ______
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The office where I work just recently relocated to Broad Street near 1st Street downtown. I’m glad. The cheap, good food options here are plentiful. For example, I can walk out the back door and reach “Mama J’s” in just about 4 minutes. So I do. The first time I went, I had the $8 lunch special. It was Baked Chicken with one side (I got “Mama J’s Famous Seafood Salad”) a corn muffin and a drink. The portion of [...]
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Things Richmond Loves: 1. men in cut-off shorts 2. PBR 3. tater tots 4. calf tattoos 5. bad chinese food 6. neighborhoods with names 7. bicycles 8. vegetarians 9. people who pretend to be vegetarians 10. brunch There’s no people so into brunch as Richmonders. I like that. Traditions and rituals add character. Richmond has identity. Brunch for me, though, is for special occasions. I like pancakes at noon like anyone else, but why does it have to cost $15? [...]
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I had lunch with some equally frugal (a.k.a. poor) friends at Momotaro. The food was o.k. But it was difficult to find a decent-sized lunch for under $10. There is a $7.95 lunch special which includes soup, salad and a very small roll. Since the lunch special looked like an exceptionally small amount of food, and I was very hungry, I ordered a tofu roll and a couple sushi pieces – made from a tiny omelet (there was a better [...]
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For $3.85, the turkey sandwich on a croissant from the Lombardy Market is a hard lunch to beat for the price. It’s not really a restaurant, it’s that little convenience store next to Balliceaux on Lombardy St. in The Fan. You can also get ham biscuits for only $.79 each. I liked those too. Several people had recommended the Lombardy Market’s sandwiches to me so, I went for a quick to-go lunch while on the run. It was worth the [...]
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Boyd’s is very much the kind of place that I love to try – small, unpretentious, unrefined and a little bit ugly. A twitter friend recommended it to me, and I was glad. Unfortunately they were out of a few of my first choices from the menu, but there’s something non-traditionally cool about a place that says “you’ll like what we give you, even if it’s not what you wanted” (no one actually said that out loud). I had a [...]
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The food is only part of the appeal. The restaurant is nice and the staff is exceptionally cool. That’s a tough-to-come-by combination. Good food (and coffee), cool place with wifi and staff that makes customers feel welcome. My current favorite dish is the Risotto +duck confit. There is also a great $4 egg salad sandwich. I gave The Empress 741 out of 803 points (plus 323 points for bribery = 1064 points) The Empress is at 2043 W. Broad St. [...]
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I did not like my food at Lantern House. When I walked into the big stand-alone (and apparently old) restaurant, I was greeted by George. He’s the owner. He was friendly and chatty. I told him that I needed to take my lunch to go. He recommended the “General Lee’s Chicken” over everything on the menu. I ordered it and was a little stung by the $10.95 bill. From my seat at the bar I could see that there was [...]
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Today I had lunch with “The Marinara” at “The Red Door Restaurant”. Except for a seriously flawed fashion sense, he is a very good guy (e.g. he paid for lunch). We talked about international travel, blood pressure, food, Sunday Supper and blogs. We also had some relatively decent food. Mr. Marinara and I have already known each other for a while now, but this week, through diligent investigative work, he discovered my “secret identity” as @RVALunchSpecial The menu here is [...]
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I drove by Sam’s Burgers and Subs and knew I needed to stop. So I turned my car around, almost ran somebody over and went in. No one died. Its a very small place. There’s a little lunch counter with stools so you can watch no-nonsense Bill cooking handmade burgers and subs while you eat. I ordered a “Sam’s famous burger” and fries. The fries were not memorable, but the burger was really good. Together the burger and fries were [...]
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I ate lunch at Joy Garden. It didn’t completely suck. I drive by Joy Garden on Broad St. in downtown Richmond twice per day. I have often said that it looks like a great bad-guys lair. If I were a cool bad-guy, I would hang out in a back booth at Joy Garden and plot sinister things. Doesn’t it look like a good mafia hangout? I had sauteed string beans and Kung Pao chicken. Should Kung Pao be capitalized? The [...]
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It’s Cinco de Mayo. Who cares that Mexican people don’t celebrate the defeat of the French at Puebla? I will celebrate by eating Peruvian style chicken at a “mexican cafe”. I went to El Jardin Latino for lunch today and got 1/2 of a rotisserie chicken, rice and beans for $7.99. It was very good food. I gave it 5 out of 6 points. The chicken was a huge portion of food for the price and it was impossible to [...]
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