Hopkins Inn and Restaurant-Warren, CT

Yesterday, my sister, Mel and I went to a wedding at Hopkins Inn.  To begin with, the location is absolutely beautiful!!  It overlooks Lake Waramaug and incredible mountains that are full and lush.  I couldn't imagine a more picturesque location for a wedding, lunch or dinner.  There are tables outside for the regular restaurant.  The inside is an authentic Inn with very nice decor and there is a winery on sight. 

The cocktail hour was outside and the everything I tried was good.  There were mini crab cakes, stuffed mushrooms, bruschetta, shrimp toast,  brie, crackers and cheese, chicken satay and more.  Dinner was set up in one of the dining rooms.  It began with a fresh salad with dressing.  I'm not sure exactly what the dressing was, but I liked it.  For dinner, we had our choice of entrees.  I got the prime rib, the gentleman next to me got schnitzel, and his wife got scallops.  Every dish was amazing and cooked to perfection.  My prime rib came with shredded potatoes and zucchini.  We were all members of the clean plate club!  This wasn't the crank stuff out wedding food, this was top notch food.  For dessert we had a decedent chocolate cake with a chocolate mousse filling and coffee. Then, they brought around a plate filled with pastries.  I just gained weight writing this review!!

The wait staff couldn't have been any better.  Water and drinks were filled immediately.  The staff was attentive and polite.  Out table was served all together and we weren't left waiting.  To top it all off, our table had the nicest group of people, which made this wedding even more fun.  Great food, great company and a great day.

Congratulations Cathy and Shawn!

Rating: 💕💕💕💕💕

www.thehopkinsinn.com

Me and my sister, Melanie!

From my kitchen

Just for fun, I thought I would share a post of what I made for dinner last night.  I wanted to prove that we don't eat out all the time and I do know how to cook.  Last week was an exception, because we had visitors from Missouri, Colorado and Myrtle Beach, and it was my birthday, so we ate out a lot.

Here's the lasagna I made and yes, I also made the sauce (not gravy).  As you can see we did quite a job on it.  Lee also brought it for lunch today and I had a piece for breakfast. HAHA!

The waitress at this establishment was very knowledgeable and polite, even when the customer could be crabby.  LOL, I crack myself up. The beverages were serve yourself.  Dessert was either ice cream or a peach.  Again, it was serve yourself, in this very casual environment.  Hang out clothes are encouraged, bras are not!

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟  See, I can give 5 stars!

The White Horse - New Preston, CT

The White Horse Country Pub & Restaurant has rustic decor and a British leaning menu.  We have been there many times and have always enjoyed the food and the ambiance.  Our visit yesterday was definitely not up to its usual standards.  I'm hoping it was lacking because of employees being on vacation or the heat or there was a really awesome party the night before.

Lee ordered the filet mignon eggs Benedict with home fries and fruit.
I ordered the bacon,cheese and tomato quiche with home fries and fruit.  I've had the quiche before and enjoyed it, but something wasn't quite right this time.  We waited almost 25 minutes for our food.  Lee's filet was cold and my quiche was rubbery and my fruit was hot.  Obviously my plate had been sitting under the heat lamps, while the meat was almost being cooked (barely warmed).  Lee's coffee cup remained empty for quite a while as many members of the wait staff passed by our table and a few were just hanging out in the server area.  It was so bizarre, because it's always been one of our favorite places to eat.  One positive note is that their home fries were good and I'm picky about home fries, but I wasn't crazy about the warm fruit.  We are going to give this another try, because maybe it was just one of those days. 

Sometimes when I'm doing these reviews, I feel like Statler and Waldorf, the grumpy Muppets in the balcony.

Rating: 🍳🍳🍳

www.whitehorsecountrypub.com

Vespucci Tuesday Pasta Night Danbury, CT

I need to start out by saying that pasta night is run by the lodge members, so I won't be harsh, like I usually tend to be.  If you want to take a break from cooking in this hot weather or if you're in the mood for delicious pasta and meatballs, this is the place to go.  Dinner includes salad, bread and all you can eat pasta.  Since I moved to CT, I've been on the hunt for good Italian food and I don't think you can get more authentic then this.  Not only is the food really good, there is a lovely gazebo and also amazing views of Lake Kenosia.  At only $9 per person, it's an affordable, casual place to bring the family.

Rating:  🍝🍝🍝🍝🍝

Jim Barbarie's Danbury, CT

Friday was my birthday so Lee and I were going to go to White Horse, but they don't accept the free entree coupon on Friday and Saturday dinners.  Then we tried Black Angus, but they had a 2 to 3 hour wait.  UGH!!!  I don't wait for food!  Tommy did offer us two seats at the bar, but...umm...NO!  Finally we decided to go to Jim Barbarie's.  It used to be the go to restaurant, but has slipped a little the past few years.  I was willing to give it another try, because we hadn't been there in a few years.

Lee ordered the special lobster bake and I ordered the surf and turf scallops and steak.  I was excited to have a salad with my all time favorite salad dressing, creamy garlic.  Our salads arrived and I was enjoying the yummy dressing, when all of the sudden, I feel a foreign object in my mouth.  I thought, oh crap did I just break a tooth, did a filling come out?  As I manipulated the object out of my mouth, I realized it was metal.  I cleaned off the object and it was...a small screw.  I handed it to Lee and he called over the host, who apologized and offered me a free appetizer.  I definitely wasn't touching the salad again, so I got stuffed clams, which I shared with Lee.  Barbarie's always had a good stuffing and the clams were good, even though I had kind of lost my appetite.

We received our entrees and Lee's food looked very good.  My stuffed scallops were sweet and properly cooked, my steak was bland even with a sauce on it and slightly tough.  I ate one scallop and a little steak, but I was very turned off at this point.  I didn't want to make a big deal, so I didn't say too much, I just asked for a doggie bag. We opted not to get dessert.  As we were leaving, the gentleman at the front said to us that a drink is on him next time we go there.  One problem, I don't drink.  Anyway, this review breaks my heart.  I wanted to say wonderful things, but I have to tell the truth and it wasn't wonderful.  I still had a really good birthday, despite the food fiasco.

The servers were nice except for one young man who looked annoyed to be working on a Friday night. I get it, I was young once too.  Wait, I am still young!

Rating: 😞😞😞

www.barbaries.com

Captain Lou's Chowdah House Bethel, CT

We brought two friends with us to visit Captain Lou's.  Neither one of them had ever tasted clam chowder, so we thought that was a good place to start.

Lee ordered fried scallops and I had the fried calms.  Our friends had hamburgers and all of us ordered the New England clam chowder.  The clam chowder was delicious.  It wasn't overwhelmed with potatoes and you could see the clam pieces.  Our friends were shocked by how good clam chowder tasted, because they are not huge seafood fans.

Lee liked his scallops and fries.  My clam strips were over cooked, but they tasted okay.  My friend ordered onion rings with her burger and she said it three times and when the order came out, she received fries.  We joked and called them Connecticut onion rings (she's from Missouri).  I do have to say that the young woman who took our order at the counter, didn't seem like she was in a very good mood.  She was a little grouchy and preoccupied.  I was surprised by this, because when we had been there in the past, the people were very nice.  Maybe she was having a bad day.

Ratings:
Chowder 🍟🍟🍟🍟
Other food 🍟🍟🍟

Final thought:  We would definitely go back and get a bowl of the New England clam chowder.

www.captainlouschowdah.com

Amanda trying chowder for the first time!!

Wooster Hollow Cafe Ridgefield,CT

Lee and I decided to give Wooster Hollow another try today. We have had issues with the service there in the past, and we were hopeful that they were resolved.  They weren't.

When we walked in, we were greeted by the owner, who is a very pleasant man.  The waitress took our order in a timely manner and our food arrived after about twelve minutes. Not bad so far.  Lee got smoked salmon eggs benedict with home fries and I ordered regular eggs benedict.  The benendicts were good and the home fries were edible.  Here's my question...why can't any place make decent home fries.  They are always bland and under cooked or mush. It is rare to find home fries that don't suck!! Hey restaurants, start paying some attention to your home fries!!!

So here's the deal.  Lee had to ask for a refill on his coffee and no one bothered to ask us how our meal was, but we could see the servers chatting with each other.  There were a couple male servers even play punching each other and they were standing right next to the coffee.  This was all happening about 7 feet away from me.  The other issue is that the owner sees the whole thing and doesn't say a word.  This is the same thing that occurred at our other visits.  We sat waiting for our check for 12 minutes, which wasn't too bad because we have waited much longer in the past. There was a table near us that actually had to get a server to take their order and like I said, there were three of them goofing around, ignoring the customers.  Terrible!!  It's a shame, because the food is pretty good, but I'm done with the nonsense.

Ratings:
Food 🍩🍩🍩
Service 😠

www.woosterhollow.com

DinerLuxe New Milford,CT

I have 2 reviews to do today, but I'll focus on DinerLuxe for this review.  I'll try to get to the other one later today.  I'm beginning to think that we eat out way too much!  Lee always wants to eat out, because he hates when I get the stove dirty.  LOL!

We have been to this diner many times and it looks like a throw back from diners in the olden days. Hahaha!  The service was very good, as usual.  There was a young family in the booth next to us and the waitress was commenting to the family how cute she thought the kids were.  With that one of the kids said, "You should see our dog!"  We all cracked up.  I don't generally laugh out loud, but that was very funny and cute.  There's nothing better than starting a meal with laughter.

Lee ordered the meatball grinder with fries and I ordered the jitterbug with fries and veggies.  It's not something I would usually order, but my Mom always ordered that and she was on my mind, so I gave it a go.  Lee liked his grinder, but he does prefer his meatball grinder from another restaurant.  The nice thing was, that they gave him extra sauce on the side without having to ask.
My jitterbug was good.  The gravy was a little too sweet for my taste, but it wasn't bad.  The veggies were really good with peppers, onions, zucchini and summer squash and who doesn't love fries smothered in gravy!  We skipped dessert. We were full.

Pros:
Very friendly wait staff
Food served in a timely manner
Above average diner food

Cons:
Lee's soda not refilled (that's being picky)

Rating: 🌞🌞🌞🌞

www.dinerluxe.com

Agave Danbury, CT

I'm going to start this review by saying that I am not a fan of Mariachis at restaurants.  I feel like they are very intrusive while I'm trying to eat.  It's so annoying to be enjoying a meal and you have have to stop eating to smile and be polite to the musicians and then they expect a tip for interrupting your meal and making your food cold.  We try our best to avoid the Mariachis at all cost.  We actually left the restaurant quickly when they were getting close to our table.  We decided to forgo coffee and dessert, just to get the hell out of there.  It seemed like many of the other tables did the same thing.  The tables with kids may enjoy the traveling minstrels more than we do.  Enough of my rant, on to the review.

I ordered the chicken flautas.  I've never had them before, so I'm still not sure how they should taste, but I'm pretty sure the chicken shouldn't have tasted like it did.  There was chicken inside a fried flour tortilla with lettuce, tomatoes and very little cheese on top.  There was supposed to be pico de gallo, but I didn't see or taste any.  The chicken was so dry that it reminded of that scene in "Christmas Vacation"  when they are eating the extremely dry turkey and hacking up shards.  I had to dip the flautas in salsa, just to get it down.
Lee ordered chicken fajitas and they were good.  There was quite a bit of chicken and veggies.  Sometimes restaurants hardly put any chicken in their fajitas, but this was loaded.

Pros:
Wait staff was attentive as soon as we sat down.
Food came out in 10 minutes.
Good fajitas
Okay chips and salsa

Cons:
Blasted Mariachis (unless you like them)
Didn't fill up our drinks
Didn't ask how the food was
Dry flautas

To be fair, I've had other dishes at Agave that were good, so I can't give them a bad rating.  I would just say, don't order the flautas if you go there.  Also, find out what nights and times the Mariachis will be there, depending on your preference.  Sorry, I forgot to take pictures of the food.

Rating; 😒 for flautas
             🎸🎸🎸 for overall ( yes, those are guitars)

agavemexicanrestaurantct.com

JK's

Not that JK's really needs to be reviewed, because everyone in the greater Danbury area already knows how great it is.

JK's is the "Cheers" of Danbury!!  There have been very few, if any times, that we did not walk in and know at least one person.  There was one time that I was there for lunch with a couple friends and between the three of us we knew every single person in the place.  It's not just a place to eat, it's a gathering place where everybody knows your name.  It's a place to see old friends and meet new ones.

The food is consistent.  You know when you go there to eat that your food will be really good and prepared in a clean environment.  JK's is primarily famous for their "Original Texas Hot Weiners" , but there are so many other delicious items to choose from.  My husband's favorite breakfast sandwich is ham, egg, cheese, link sausages and fried onion on a toasted hard roll.  He likes to call it the DMV, because it's worth the wait! LOL!  I don't know if I have a favorite, I order according to my mood.  Everything is good so you can't go wrong with anything you order.

The one thing that makes JK's so amazing is the staff.  When I was in the hospital and out of commission for quite a while, I received messages often that the waitresses and busboy were asking about me.  After being away for months and in isolation, the first place I went was JK's.  When I walked in, the waitresses all stopped by our table to say hi and how happy they were to see me out and about.  They welcomed me home and that's what JK's is, it's a home.  A home where you are fed, feel comfortable and cared for.  It's so much more than a restaurant,  it's a warm comfy blanket of nourishment!

😍😍😍😍😍

June Health Inspections-Danbury

Blu Pointe Newburg, NY

We weren't planning on going to this restaurant, but we were in Newburg to visit George Washington's Headquarters and we just followed the river until we found a place to park. All the other places were jam packed. I said to Lee that I thought that this restaurant looked a little pricey and I was correct.  When we entered, the hostesses didn't pay too much attention to us and then asked if we wanted to sit inside or outside.  I, of course, said inside. We were led to an open dining area that had a roof, but it was basically outside.  I could touch the people walking on the sidewalk.  We didn't mind too much, because the weather was beautiful and there weren't any bugs. Bugs piss me off!  The first waitress was very uninterested in waiting on us.  The rest of the wait staff and there were many, were very nice.  It was fun watching the boats on the Hudson River and the ambiance was good.

I think I'm going to do a pros and cons section so you don't have to spend too much time on my ramblings.
Pros:
Right on the water
Waitress asked before she cleared the table
Kept our drinks filled
Yummy bread and tapanade with eggplant
Tasty desserts

Cons:
Never told that there were specials (heard another waitress tell other patrons after we ordered)
I ordered my steak medium and it was given to me well done
We were never asked if our meal was okay
Other patrons were given more attention
Told me that I was getting greens as a side and I got broccoli
I was given two very small potatoes. Smaller than a golf ball

This is what we ordered:
Me
NY strip steak 10oz with a sherry peppercorn sauce $34
Berry panna cotta, mixed berry coulis, honey cake (eeww), meringue, and chantilly cream $11

Lee
Swordfish charcoal grilled fillet, cucumber tomato quinoa, Tuscan kale. with a lemon saffron emulsion $36
Vanilla bean creme brule, whipped chantilly cream, petite baked meringue. $10

I'm going to start giving ratings that will correspond with holidays or time of year or weather.  I will give the ratings from 1-5.  1 being cocky and 5 being freaking awesome!!
Rating 🌞🌞🌞

Overall our experience was pleasant and a treat that we won't be doing again any time soon.  If you have an occasion where you don't mind dropping some coin, this is a nice place to go.
www.blu-pointe.com

Carriage House Patterson,NY

Happy 4th of July weekend!!

First of all, I want to stress that this is only my opinion!!  There are things that I don't like that many people may enjoy very much. I have a friend that loves everything I don't like and visa versa. I'll be like, "I hate that place" and she'll say, "I love that place." For example:  I hate salmon, so any review of a salmon dish will be my husband's opinion. I don't care for sour cream, mayo or raspberries. I don't eat sushi or blue cheese for medical reasons.  I also don't drink alcohol.  Those are the big things.  I'm sure more things will pop up as we venture through a food extravaganza.  Okay, that was an exaggeration of epic proportions!! LOL!

I do have a couple pet peeves that I will most likely grumble about more than once.

1.  I hate when a server starts picking up plates before everyone is finished eating.  I'm sure that comes from my childhood, because my mother would get mega pissed if we ever picked up our plates before she was finished eating.  Now, as an adult, it bugs the crap out of me too.  I think it makes the person who isn't finished eating feel rushed.
2.  When a glass is empty, no one should be waiting for a long time for it to be refilled.  I mean people could choke to death, especially if the food sucks.
3.  Another thing, and this may just be me, but I don't like when they put raspberry sauce under my dessert.  Don't even drizzle that shit near something I'm going to eat.
4.  Waiting forever for someone to take my order, for food to come out (within reason) or to get and pay a check.  I do take into consideration how busy a place may be or a kitchen that can be backed up.

On to reviewing:
We went to Carriage House for lupper (the meal between lunch and supper).  I ordered the Carriage House Philly and Lee ordered the salmon BLT.
Lee always orders that and he loves it!! Salmon with mixed greens, bacon, tomato, remoulade sauce on a brioche bun.
My philly was okay.  Thinly sliced seasoned steak, broccoli rabe, caramelized onion, provolone cheese on a crispy garlic wedge.  I thought it was light on the steak and very heavy on the broccoli rabe which made the bottom of the roll soggy. I'm not a fan of a soggy bottom.  It wasn't terrible, it just wasn't what I was looking for. Half a sandwich filled me up. I will try it again and say no broccoli rabe.
Both orders came with fries and they were very crispy. Nom nom!
Lee got a root beer float for dessert and I had cheesecake, which I shared with Lee.  They were both good except for that blasted raspberry drizzle under the cheesecake.

All in all a big thumbs up, because we have never had a bad meal there and the wait staff is very good.  They are friendly and fill up Lee's soda in a timely manner.

Mangia Peeps!