Amundsen Bryggeri & Spiseri

About two blocks off Karl Johans Gate is Amundsen Bryggeri & Spiseri, which was filled inside and outside with friends meeting for drinks and for dinner. Seating indoor and outdoors, with long tables outside for big groups and inside, the restaurant felt very much like an English pub.

We ordered the bangers and mash and the fish and chips for dinner. The sausages were clearly homemade, a perfect texture and nicely seasoned served with silky smooth mashed potatoes and surrounded by a deeply delicious gravy and topped with sautéed onions. An awesome meal in itself.

The fish and chips was amazing. A nice crispy breading on the fish which was on the sweeter side (think a very crispy funnel cake hugging a moist and flaky fish). The dish was served with french fries that tasted like they were hand cut and an obviously homemade tartar sauce (which was creamy and tangy and delicious).

Amundsen Bryggeri & Spiseri also brews their own beer on the premises and has a full bar if you are looking for something very unique to Oslo.

Max Brenner, Philadelphia

 Chicken Alfredo

Chocolate Hazelnut Crepes with Strawberries

When I need to satisfy my sweet tooth at dinner time, Max Brenner, in center city, serves decadent chocolate entrees as well as delicious dinners and lunches. We've enjoyed brunch here during the Mummers Parade on New Years Day, and recently stopped by for dinner.

For dinner we ordered the chicken alfredo entree, which was absolutely delicious. The chicken was tender, the sauce addicting and a perfect portion.

We also ordered the chocolate hazelnut crepes with strawberries that was on their specials. It was served with a little vial of chocolate ganache to pour over. Chocolate hazelnut filling and little crunchy things inside the crepe, as well as strawberries inside and outside made the crepe decadent and sweet.

The kitchen is open until 11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and open until 1 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Max Brenners is the perfect location for dinner after a show at the Kimmel Center, which is only mere blocks away.

Hofbrauhaus, Las Vegas

Built to look identical to the Hofbrauhaus in Munich, Germany, Hofbrauhaus in Las Vegas, just a few blocks from the strip (it's across the street from the Hard Rock Hotel), serves up traditional German food, Hofbrauhaus beers, and the boisterous atmosphere you'll find at the original.

You can make reservations online, which we highly recommend, as the night we were there the dining room filled up quickly, which left a large number of people in the lobby waiting for a table.

Hofbrauhaus doesn't bring bread to the table, but you can order one piece of bread for your meal. Our best recommendation is to order the "Jumbo Complete" which is a huge soft pretzel served with two types of mustard and cheese - and is big enough for at least four people. For dinner, we ordered the Schnitzel Wiener Art, which was a huge platter, but still crispy and delicious; Oktoberfest Bratenteller, which was Bavarian pot roast with red cabbage; and Bierkutscher Steak, a 10 oz. steak that was tender and served in gravy. Service is also quick and friendly. The only issue we had is that there were no substitutions allowed, including side dishes.

We also ordered a 1 liter of the original beer and a 1 liter of a Radler (it's not on the menu, but they will make it for you). A Radler is part lemon lime soda and part original Hofbrauhaus beer for a very tasty dinner drink.

Ooka, Montgomeryville

Ooka on Bethlehem Pike in Montgomeryville, is a great place to celebrate a special occasion. Tables seat eight and are seated on the half hour, and definitely make reservations in advance!

We did the hibachi for dinner and ordered the chicken and filet mignon combination dinner. The steak was delicious - tender, perfectly cooked and melt in your mouth. The chicken had a very strong teriyaki flavor.

Dinner was served with soup, hibachi noodles, white rice (with an option to upgrade to fried rice), hibachi vegetables, and shrimp.

Also on the menu is a wide variety of sushi that you can order as an appetizer, which will be brought out before your meal.

Our hibachi chef was very good with the small child at our table and very good at keeping track of who ordered what and who didn't order which items, which I find very important at a hibachi restaurant. The waitresses were also very efficient with refilling drinks, bringing out any extras, and keeping waiting tables happy.

Trax Restaurant and Cafe, Ambler

We enjoyed Trax Restaurant, which is located in the suburban Philadelphia town of Ambler, during the semi-annual Ambler Restaurant Week. The prix-fix menu had a wide variety of dishes for every palate, and the restaurant is BYOB. Oh, and it's located in the quaint town of Ambler.

Trax is a very small restaurant, so reservations are definitely recommended. The building used to be the town's train station, and the trains still run behind the restaurant. There is indoor and outdoor covered seating.

We thoroughly enjoyed every item we ordered! The tomato soup was perfect, as was the tomato mozzarella salad as starters. The statler chicken and penne pasta were both cooked perfectly. The chicken had nice crispy skin and the chicken was moist. The sauce on the pasta was succulent and delicious.

For dessert, we ordered the chocolate mousse, which was a very good chocolate mousse, as well as the peach cobbler, which was huge, but delicious! The peaches were fresh and the cobbler was crunchy and crispy, even after sitting in the peaches as we ate around the cobbler.

Our waitress was also very helpful and friendly, even as the restaurant started to get busy. We highly recommend making the trip out to Ambler and giving Trax Restaurant a try!

Zephrus

Sangria

Farfalle

Roasted Statler Chicken Breast

Located inside the Martha's Vineyard Mansion House, Zephrus Restaurant was a great pick on a warm summer evening. With plenty of indoor seating, as well as a few tables on the restaurant's enclosed patio, this was a great place to enjoy the summer evenings while people watching along Main Street in Vineyard Haven.

We ordered the white wine sangria, which was crisp and refreshing, and perfect for the summertime.

For dinner, we ordered the farfalle, which was perfectly light, while still being filling. The garlic sauce was delicious and everything was cooked perfectly.

We also ordered the roasted chicken, and substituted green beans for artichokes. The chicken was succulent and juicy, the risotto was creamy, and the sauce was amazing!

We would highly recommend Zephrus for lunch or dinner in Vineyard Haven.

Brick Alley Pub and Restaurant

 Chicken Piccata

 Chicken Au Poivre

 Triple Shot Appletini

Doc's Peanut Butter Cup Spiked Shake

Good food. Fast service. Yummy libations. What more could you want from a restaurant? Brick Alley Pub provides it all.

At peak hours, the wait for a table could be a while (45 minutes when we walked in), so put your name on the list and check both the upstairs and back bar for open seats. These are first come, first served. If you find a seat at the bar, ask the bartender to have the host take our name off the waiting list (it's only fair).

We sat at the bar on the main floor and found it rather enjoyable! The bartender was very attentive to our drink and food needs and watched our precious seats while we enjoyed the soup and salad bar.

We ordered the chicken piccata and the chicken au poivre. Both were delicious. The sauce on the au poivre was super yummy: creamy and decadent, and very, very peppery. Each meal also came with Brick Alley's soup and salad bar, which has quite a selection of salad fixings and a soup or two on the bar.

We also ordered drinks, an appletini from the bar's "Triple Shot Martini" list and the peanut butter cup spiked milkshake. The shake was peanut buttery, creamy, and didn't at all taste boozy (that's the best kind of frozen libation).

I always thought an appletini, was an appletini, was an appletini. This tasted like your run of the mill appletini, but much stronger!

O'Brien's Pub

After a bad dining experience at Asterisk, and seeing a number of negative reviews for some of the area restaurants, we decided to go low-key and try O'Brien's Pub, which was walking distance from our B&B and seemed to always be bustling with people.

We were so glad we made the decision to eat here! We ordered the proscuitto mac and cheese and the fish and chips, as well as the blueberry beer. The mac and cheese came in a very large portion and was very, very good. No substituting quantity for quality here.

The fish in the fish and chips was flaky and moist, but the breading was crisp and crunchy, the perfect combination for fried fish. It was so good I didn't even want the french fries. And came in such a large portion that by the time I got through the fish, there was no room for the chips!

The blueberry beer was also delicious and served with fresh blueberries floating in it.

Asterisk Bar and Restaurant

 Chicken Milanse

 Belgian Drunken Beef

stick found in the Belgian Beef

We ate at Asterisk on a Sunday and had an absolutely terrible experience. We made a reservation using OpenTable for 9:15 p.m., but arrived early, at 8:45 p.m. The host informed us that no table was currently available and we'd have to wait until our reservation time, but we could wait at the bar.  We were in no rush, so this was perfectly fine.

However, there were numerous empty tables around the restaurant, some clean, some still dirty. None of the wait staff ever made any attempt to clean the dirty ones.  So we waited a half hour for a table just because no one could take the time to clean tables after other customers left.

It seemed that the busing staff wasn’t on duty Sunday night, as the wait staff was in charge of busing tables, setting tables, serving food and drinks, taking payment and more.

That said the biggest issues came after this. When we were finally seated, it was at a table adjacent to the bar. The tables on either side of us were still dirty from the previous patrons, and remained dirty during our entire meal.

Once we were seated, it took 15 minutes for a waitress to speak to us and bring menus, and this only happened after we said something to the host.

Because the table was adjacent to the bar, and after about 9:30 p.m., the restaurant becomes more of an evening stop on the Newport bar scene, it became very uncomfortable, as bar guests were bumping into the chair at our table as they moved around and bumped into each other.

I can’t even recommend the food. It was mediocre. The Belgian Drunken Beef we ordered had the wood stem left in it from one of the herbs (I hope) and the chicken was bland.

Gabriel Archer Tavern at Williamsburg Winery

Off the Williamsburg Colonial Parkway is the Williamsburg Winery, home to the Gabriel Archer Tavern. Thi soff the beaten path restaurant is quaint with out door seating, as well as indoor. The outdoor seating is under a patio surrounded by a thick vine cover, blocking out damaging sun rays while still allowing in the light.

On the drive into the restaurant, you have to drive past the vineyards, a beautiful drive down a small lane to the winery, tavern and Cafe Provencal.

We ordered the Chicken Piccata and the ham steak. Both were cooked perfectly and all entrees are served with a seasonal vegetable, we had roasted potatoes and fresh green beans.

The chicken piccata was incredibly tender and the sauce was the best piccata sauce I had ever had. I wanted everything in the sauce: potatoes, green beans, we even tried dipping the ham in the sauce.

The ham steak was nice and thick, without being too much. There were cider glazed apple slices served on top, and a cinnamon, apple, wine sauce on the ham. The sauces was spiced perfectly with enough flavor to pair with the ham without over powering the ham.

"Damn Good Food" at Hell's Kitchen

Hell's Kitchen in downtown Minneapolis grabbed my attention because, well, first of the name and then the sausage toast on the menu. That's right, sausage bread. As per their website, "a deliciously dense bread made with our own homemade bison sausage, toasted walnuts, black currants, black coffee and spices. Try it...those who do usually love it enough to order an entire loaf to take home." It's served with whipped butter as well as house made peanut butter, apricot jelly and blackberry jelly. This is delicious. Seriously. Yummy.

As Hell's Kitchen was bringing breakfast back to the Twin Cities, we clearly had to try their breakfast offerings. So we ordered the Classic All-American Breakfast, two eggs, hash browns and your choice of maple-glazed bison sausage, thick-sliced bacon, or a slab of slow-roasted pit ham. I ordered the pit ham, and was very happy I did! Yum!

We also ordered the baked penne in creamy garlic sauce, topped with mozzarella cheese and chicken. Very yummy. (You can add sausage or shrimp if you prefer.)