Random Taste for Thursday 2/22/18

Here we go again for the 3rd year ... a brand new set of tastes for 2018 ...

 here's the SEVENTH of FIFTY tastes of FLORIDA 

(coming to you on sequential Thursdays.  All.  Year.  Long.)!

Establishment:  Ethos Greek Bistro
Location:  Wilton Manors
Meal:  Dinner
Drink:  Mykonos Mule
Appetizer 1:  Pork Belly
hickory smoked grilled strips
Appetizer 2:  Zucchini Croquettes
shredded carrots manouri, dill & mint fried to golden brown
Appetizer 3:  Grilled Octopus
sashimi grade Mediterranean octopus, char-grilled
Appetizer 4:  Bread Plate
with oil
Main:  Faroe Islands Salmon
a “boutique” style salmon, grilled & finished with a lemon caper sauce
Side(s):  "greens" (kale?  spinach?) and (flavored?) rice
Dessert:  n/a
Server:   I thought he was JB but maybe he was JP 'cause the receipt said johnpier
Website:  https://www.ethosbistro.com/wilton-manors/
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/ethosgreekbistroWM/

Here we are, three years into this series and there are still some "firsts" resulting in an expansion of the category list on the right hand side of the blog.  Specifically, last week was the first Hungarian eating establishment ... and this week is the first Greek one!  What we still haven't seen yet is the first A of this third year ... although this place came close, it didn't quite get there BUT it is actually the highest score of 2018 to date.  To see what number that is as a Troy-score, keep on reading:

AMBIANCE:   9/10 (not only is it right "on the drive" [code for "great for people watching"], but the layout is very open, so if you're not lucky enough to get on the patio right next to the sidewalk, the "inside seating" is still set up in a way that it feels like an extension of that outdoor area ... I know this to be true despite taking a seat at the table that was facing toward the bar and kitchen ... I will say that we were lucky being a party of three at a fourtop table, because there was so much good food to order with the small plate concept and only a limited amount of space to place it on the table -- were we a group of four, it would have been too small [which is the reason for the point deduction]).

FOOD:           9/10 (coming from Chicago, I expected to see some flaming cheese ... but my disappointment in not having any of that delicacy in this Greek bistro was swept away once I got my hands on those shared small plates -- healthy tasting zucchini croquettes [on a pile of classic Greek creamy goodness of a dip], perfectly textured charred octopus, and oh-my-that-pork-belly [see the bacon category below] ... followed by a hot [temperature hot] and flaky hunk of salmon in a delicious salty [but not too salty] mildly lemon-y sauce ... although my Mykonos Mule was meh, that was more because I rushed my drink decision at the beginning of the night ... the single point lost in this category is for the sides that accompanied my salmon, which simply [and oxymoronically] "stood out" for not being memorable) 

SERVICE:      8/10 (here's what I liked -- at this meal, we were reconnecting with a friend who finally made the big move from Chicago to the FTL [as *we* did four years ago], and so we were in no hurry to order, which wasn't a problem for our server despite how busy the place was, and the interactions with him were friendly and efficient all night long ... here's what I *didn't* like -- because we were ordering in stages [drinks then small plates a bit later followed by big plates], we held on to the menus, and had to argue with another server who was flying past and tried to reclaim them [a point deduction] ... also our server cleared the table at the end of the evening which included a tablemate's mostly untouched bronzini dish [seen as served below -- along with the orzo paella eaten by another] -- it was untouched because he found pin bones in it -- and there was no conversation inquiring as to why said server was clearing a mostly full plate of food [hence the second point deduction])

BACON:         10/10 (had I been dining by myself instead of in a group setting, there's every chance that I would have ordered a small plate of pork belly, followed by a second small plate of pork belly, followed by a conversation with the management as to whether I could order my main course on a big plate with nothing but pork belly ... in other words, pork belly for the win -- and for all the points in this category)

BONUS:         7/10 (+3 for the server casually upselling the drink orders to be doubles ['cause alcohol makes everything better], +3 for that same server offering up the bread plate once he saw that we were the "eatin' type", and +1 for being a place to which we will return -- maybe even to their original Coconut Creek location next time)

TroyScore:  43 out of 50 -- aka 86, a B

Random Taste for Thursday 2/15/18

Here we go again for the 3rd year ... a brand new set of tastes for 2018 ...

 here's the SIXTH of FIFTY tastes of FLORIDA 

(coming to you on sequential Thursdays.  All.  Year.  Long.)!

Establishment:  Uncle Lui's Restaurant
Location:  Sunrise
Meal:  Dinner
Drink:  Not a Coke (Maybe a Root Beer?)
Appetizer 1:  Chicken Livers
sautéed with onions. tomato and green peppers
Appetizer 2:  Corn Chowder
Appetizer 3:  Bread Basket
Appetizer 4:  Potato Pancakes
served with butter, sour cream, and applesauce
Main:  Hunter Schnitzel
veal cutlet sautéed with mushrooms in a sour cream-paprika sauce
Side(s):  Spetzle PLUS Red Cabbage and Cream Spinach (the last two served family style)
Dessert:  Home Made Apple Strudel
with whipped cream
Server:   the Bodnar family's son (I'm guessing)
Website:  http://uncleluisrestaurant.com/?home
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/Uncle-Luis-Restaurant-118161088199185/

Ever since one of the first tastes in this series from when it started back in 2016 resulted in a disappointing German meal (I won't put them on blast again here, but you'll find it easily on the blog using the helpful hyperlinks on the right side) ... and ever since we've been mentioning that experience to our frequent tablemates JL/AL ... THIS restaurant has been offered up as THE place for the most authentic food of its kind in the area.  Admittedly, it's authentic Hungarian food as opposed to German, but the similarities in cuisine are clearly evident -- although, what with me having Prussian ancestors on my father's side, I want to make sure to not stir up any ill will from centuries ago.  To that point, here's where this family business ended up with their Troy-score:

AMBIANCE:   9/10 (oh Florida and its strip malls so full of restaurants ... where one never knows what one will find when one walks inside, and, in this case, one will find a brightly lit square of a room with a classic European style woodwork and pics from the home country blown up large on the walls [as seen in the accompanying photos] ... not pictured are the half a dozen wooden china cupboards filled with figurines and Herend Porcelain [which I now know is a Hungarian source of pride] ... if anything, it just might be a little TOO bright [a point deduction] and some mood lighting might go a long way)

FOOD:           9/10 (not since we did our last thing in an Italian restaurant [and by "thing", I mean order enough to feed everyone on the family tree all at once] have we seen so much food on the table ... and rare is the time that I can't clean my plate, but I took almost half of my main meal home with me 'cause I was already so full of potato pancakes, rolls, soup, livers, etc., etc. ... of course, no matter how good everything was [and it was!], in my opinion, no place will be able to score perfectly in this category without carrying CocaCola products [hence the point deduction]) 

SERVICE:      9/10 (we're pretty sure that it was the son of the family that took our order ... and we're just as sure that it was the momma who brought the dishes from out of the kitchen as soon as they were ready [everything was served piping hot that was supposed to be] ... and things were fine until the end of the night, when we awkwardly found out that they closed at 8 and NOT 9 when they started to turn the lights out, and so the half hour we stayed in conversation with those in our party was actually long after they were all ready to go home ... and so I have to deduct a point that they didn't *say* anything about our staying past closing time -- which I would have thought would have been the proper course of action prior to turning off the lights)

BACON:         9/10 (seeing as how it wasn't disclosed exactly how the momma made everything taste so delicious, I'm figuring that there's more than a good chance that she was using some szalonna (Hungarian fatback bacon) in some of the sauces ... had anyone in our party ordered the calf's liver, we would have seen the one dish on the menu that included bacon ... but no one did [note that the garlic chicken and chicken paprikash that they *did* order are part of the photos below] ... all that said, I wouldn't have minded if the liver it had been with was that chicken liver appetizer [which explains the point deduction in this category])

BONUS:         6/10 (+3 for those portion sizes and all that authenticity [so much paprika!] and +3 for bundling dessert in with the meal)

TroyScore:  42 out of 50 -- aka 84, a B

Random Taste for Thursday 2/8/18

Here we go again for the 3rd year ... a brand new set of tastes for 2018 ...

 here's the FIFTH of FIFTY tastes of FLORIDA 

(coming to you on sequential Thursdays.  All.  Year.  Long.)!

Establishment:  Over Easy Cafe
Location:  Oakland Park (Wilton Manors)
Meal:  Brunch
Drink:  Orange Juice
Appetizer:  n/a
Main:  The Waffle Slam
1 Belgian Waffle, 2 Eggs (I chose scrambled), 2 Bacon, 2 Sausage
Side(s):  n/a
Dessert:  n/a
Server:   Michael
Website:  http://www.overeasy.me/home.html
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/The-Over-Easy-Cafe-76681947405/

How many times have I stepped foot inside the local UPS store to ship something somewhere?  Probably a dozen, since making the big move here back in 2014.  How many times did I notice that a few doors down in the same complex was a diner (and you *know* we love diners in this series)?  Zero.   But thanks to a google search on a Sunday when we woke up wanting brunch, 
we were able to find this place that's been around since 1995.  It advertises itself as being family owned and I have a sneaking suspicion that every single employee (from the greeter to the grill guy) might just be related.  Below is how this family fared in the Troy-score:

AMBIANCE:   9/10 (sure it's small and cute and basic, with only a handful of booths and just over a dozen stools around a counter ... but that's exactly what you'd expect from a Florida strip mall eating establishment [*everything* down here is in a strip mall] ... they effectively use the old giant mirror trick to make it seem like it's bigger than it is ... and the sea decorations painted right on the wall were just the right amount of kitsch ... the problem comes in that it's so small, that the customers inadvertently get involved in the diner drama [see home-fries-gate below] or in the diner business [we got "trained" along with the new girl because we couldn't escape hearing that back and forth])

FOOD:           8/10 (I am happy to report that this diner had spreadable butter [frequent readers know that I have a pet peeve at breakfast/brunch when the butter pats are all but frozen] and that they trusted me with a whole bottle of syrup instead of a tiny carafe ... and while things didn't look all that amazing, they tasted just fine -- even those simple looking eggs -- although a point is still coming off the top because of the plain plain waffle that arrived [how's about a little dusting of powdered sugar or something? ... the first photo is how it landed on the table, and the second one is after I helped it be a little more camera-ready] ... a second point is also deducted because that plain plain waffle tasted like it might have sat in the iron a touch too long) 

SERVICE:      8/10 (the whole experience ended without issue, but it began a bit awkwardly due to home-fries-gate ... aka that time where we were told that they were out of home fries, and so we asked for alternatives, and then accidentally ordered home fries again, which was greeted with an exasperated sigh, an Anderson-Cooper-talks-to-Kelly-Anne-Conway style eye-roll and more attitude than was deserved for that "offense" -- only to find out later that they apparently were never out of home fries after all ... first impressions really really count -- so it's double the deduction)

BACON:         9/10 (if I only hadn't been in the mood for breakfast that day, then most surely I would have ordered the "inside out bacon" "cheddar burger" [quotes shown as printed in the menu], which was described thusly:  2/3 lb Burger Stuffed with Bacon & Cheddar and Topped with Bacon & Cheddar served on Toasted Challah Roll [caps shown as printed in the menu] ... that item alone shows a proper respect for the pig-candy and is almost worth all the points ... just one point is being deducted because that breakfast bacon could have been a little bigger/thicker/tastier)

BONUS:         7/10 (+3 for the menu option being bacon AND sausage instead of bacon OR sausage, +3 for what my tablemate ordered [picture below] of some southern style sausage gravy served over sausage and biscuits, and +1 for being a place to which we will return 'cause that "inside out bacon" "cheddar burger" is calling my name)

TroyScore:  41 out of 50 -- aka 82, a B

Random Taste for Thursday 2/1/18

Here we go again for the 3rd year ... a brand new set of tastes for 2018 ...

 here's the FOURTH of FIFTY tastes of FLORIDA 

(coming to you on sequential Thursdays.  All.  Year.  Long.)!

Establishment:  Ikea Restaurant
Location:  Sunrise
Meal:  Lunch
Drink:  New Nordic Fruit Water, Cola flavored
Appetizer:  Garlic Bread
Main:  Swedish Meatballs
Side(s):  Mashed Potatoes with Gravy and Mixed Vegetables
Dessert:  Almond Cake
Server:   Cafeteria Style
Website: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/store/sunrise/Food_Restaurant
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/IKEASunrise/

So many times we've wandered through the carefully constructed maze that is the Ikea experience, marveling at how much one can fit into such small living spaces, wishing we knew Swedish so we could interpret all of the names (or at least understand some of the stick figure style images) -- and yet never before (not back in Chicago from whence we came nor here in the SoFlo where we've been since early 2014) have we been tempted to partake of the items in the cafeteria.  Oh sure -- we've smelled a good thing or two as we passed by on each visit ... and you can't exactly miss the meatball signs scattered throughout the place -- but still we didn't stop.  That ended this week when we decided to cash in my "free birthday meal" email before it expired at the end of my birthday month (what can I say -- it pays to be "friends and family").  Keep on reading to see how it fared in the old Troy-score:

AMBIANCE:   9/10 (hidden away in a corner of the building with great big windows that showed a view of a giant American flag [and the roof of the parking garage], the seating area offered a number of different sections to break up the crowds and was kept clean despite a high turnover ... and I have to be honest, one thought that crossed my mind as I sat there was that, in the zombie apocalypse, I would want to get my people to clear out the closest Ikea to set up camp there ... anyways -- the one point lost comes from the fact that the seats seemed a little small and weren't Americanized to handle our larger bodies)

FOOD:           7/10 (there were choices for chicken balls and veggie balls, but anyone who knows me already knows that I went for the meatiest of the meatballs from Sweden -- the traditional ones, which were perfectly sized to pop in your mouth whole and which were properly gravied for added flavor ... although I normally don't take gravy on my mashed, getting some on the classic scoop of instant potatoes was the right decision ... and that almond cake was very rich AND very delicious ... the problems though [each resulting in a point deduction] -- the garlic bread was "well done" on one side and barely done on the other, the lingonberries were missing from my plate and that new carbonated soda drink was all fizz in a cup that dissolved into a liquid in a very odd way)

SERVICE:      7/10 (it was literally a cafeteria set up ... wait in line, grab a tray, fill it up with goodies, get to the hot food line and make your choices and then pay your way out of the corral to pick a seat ... so in all, there were only brief interactions with the person who put the meat on your plate, the person who put your sides on your plate and the person who took your money ... in this scenario, the first one got it right, the second one got it all wrong [almost giving me the wrong plate of ... gasp ... veggie balls] and the third one made it better by wishing me a happy birthday as she scanned my email ... so 2/3 positive interactions leads mathematically to a score of 6.67 [rounded up to 7])

BACON:         5/10 (I didn't see bacon anywhere -- not even in the breakfast menu items ... but maybe there were some bits on the salads [there *were* lots of salads, even if I didn't select any] ... because I try to be culturally sensitive, I literally googled "do swedes eat bacon" and the interwebs say that they do -- although clearly they eat more fish than anything else ... so I'm going to give my "culturally sensitive score" of 5 in the hopes that some chief Ikean somewhere reads this and considers adding bacon balls to the ball list)

BONUS:         10/10 (+3 for the little girl who passed by our table at the end of the meal with her daddy, singing along to the "Let It Go" song on the speakers just as we were trying to figure out what tune it was, +3 for my tablemate's dish of chicken fingers and fries [pictured below] which showed up as an adult plate with big pieces of specially breaded chicken and fresh hot fries, +3 for starting the cafeteria line "dessert first", 'cause, you know, priorities and +1 for being a place to which we will return [not that we're running back ... but we will be Ikea-ing again sometime soon ... and we are "friends and family" after all])

TroyScore:  38 out of 50 -- aka 76, a C