Tag: garlic bread

Categories
partying restauranting

Medieval Times is the Best Restaurant in the World

Dang, I loved my time at Medieval Times. It was seriously awesome. I don’t ever remember having so much fun within a dining experience.

Chris got us tickets to Medieval Times. It was reduced admission with some proceeds going to Sandy victims. It was only around $30 per person. It looks like it’s usually $60, but there’s always coupons knocking it down to around $40. You just have to browse around their website for the promotions.

It was a pretty quick ride from Manhattan into New Jersey. We got there right when it all started. The place was huge. I thought they were lip syncing to a CD. But it was really the M.C. talking in his mic. His voice was so strong and bold. I was impressed.

There were pitchers on the table and was about to pour myself a glass of water. Good thing I didn’t. The waiter came around and poured it into our bowls. It was Tomato Bisque Soup. That would have been a surprise if I thought I was sipping on water. Soup was surprisingly tasty.

Then they came around with nice big slice of Garlic Bread. That was so good. Probably the best thing …and I don’t mean that to diss the other food. It was just good Garlic Bread.

Then we got a big half Roast Chicken –tender and seasoned. Herb Basted Potato – uh, alright. BBQ Spare Rib – tendy and sweet barbecue sauce. All surprisingly pretty decent food. Much better than I was expecting …and a lot of it.

Dessert was a like a Apple Turnover pastry. It was okay. But I was stuffed by that point.

They also gave me two big mugs of soda, which I mixed with airplane bottles of liquor I snuck in. I didn’t mean to be a cheat. I just didn’t realize they sold beer and alcohol. I bought a beer to make it up. Pretty good price. I think around $5-6 that comes in a decent size 3D lenticular souvenir cup. I was expecting it to be $8-12 honestly, so that was a great deal.

Free coffee even after I said didn’t want it, but then did ask for it later.

All this while this awesome show was going on, with knight and horses and a flying falcon. It was pretty insane. But in the end, it turned out we were rooting for the wrong guys. It was like a surprise twist ending, where we realize that the King is a dick and the Princess is a bitch. Seriously, they were whipping the evil bad guy at the end while they were locking him away. Wok the heck?

At the end of the show, everyone was hanging out in the lobby, buying stuff at the many gift shop counters, and getting more drunk with their kids. I was in the restroom and I swore I thought I heard some kid say, “Dad, we’re out of beer!” And then when I walked out of the restroom, I saw the cutest thing. Two tiny boys sword fighting and next to them, two tiny girls in princess outfits sword fighting with their roses.

Seriously, I really think Medieval Times is the best restaurant I’ve ever been to. Maybe the food isn’t so amazing, but it’s not bad for what is it. It’s the total package though. I’m just thinking of all the fancy restaurants I’ve been to and really, fuck those places. It just doesn’t appeal to me. You eat fancy food in a dim room and then you forget about it. You know what is awesome is yelling at the top of your lungs, getting drunk and watching knights hit each other and a falcon flying around the arena above your head while you eat chicken with your fingers. That’s just the most fun I’ve ever had dining. …if only they did all that at Gordon Ramsey’s restaurants.

Medieval Times - 149 Polito Ave. Lyndhurst, NJ 07071

Categories
italian tio wally

Tio Wally Eats America: Dino & Francesco’s Pizza and Family Restaurant

I’m happy to have Tio Wally (long-time Me So Hungry reader) aboard to send in his eating adventures from across America. Here he is in Moosic, Pennsylvania.

Greetings from Moosic, Pennsylvania
N 41° 22.475’ W 075° 42.111’ Elev. 820 ft.

Whenever the crew of the SS Me So Hungry wants to know where to go for something good to eat we ask the guys on the (loading) dock. So it was that we were sent to Dino & Francesco’s, a family run Italian restaurant in a (the?) shopping center in Moosic.

I was sort of confused the first time I went. “It’s in the shopping center at the bottom of the hill, right where the road forks, next to K-Mart,” he said. I drifted into the parking lot and saw K-Mart, a Dollar Tree and a Big Lots. But where’s the restaurant? I guess it was the fairly understated (by comparison) sign that threw me. But I found it.

I’m glad I did.

The first time I visited I ordered a sort of “Sampler Plate” that was a non-menu item on the Specials board that day. I don’t remember what it was or how much it cost but I certainly remember that it was spectacularly good.

The specials they were offering this time didn’t rock my boat at all: Half sandwiches of chicken or beef cheesesteaks with soup or salad or fries or whatever for $6.99. So I ordered directly off the menu.

I selected the Sausage & Peppers Parmigiana ($10.99), which comes with a choice of soup or salad. I chose the Cappaletti soup.

The Cappaletti the only soup that’s a standard menu item; they offer two or three additional homemade soups every day. The soup consists of plump little tortellini’s stuffed with minced beef and chicken, in a clear chicken broth. I’d had it before and … what can I say? It’s exquisite. Simple and to the point. Delicious.

The Sausage & Peppers Parmigiana is likewise heavenly. It’s a generous plate of classic, slightly hot Italian Sausage buried under melted Mozzarella cheese with just enough bell peppers to offer a taste of each with every bite. And the sauce is really great, too.

For $2.99 I added a side of pasta to the mix. The Ziti I ordered came out perfectly cooked, still slightly wet, with just the right amount of their great homemade marinara. I don’t know what it is about homemade marinara but, when made correctly, it’s truly a soul food in and of itself. It makes me melt gooier than cheap cheese under an infrared salamander.

The service is great, too. For example, I wanted a to-go box and the waitress asked “May I box this for you?” Sure, I said. Then I asked if it would be possible to get some more garlic bread. “Absolutely,” she said. She came back a few minutes later with what was easily the equivalent of a half-loaf of garlic bread wrapped in aluminum foil. Geez, Louise! (Her name was actually Nikki; Skippy loved her.)

I had so much of that great garlic bread left over that I ended up putting forkfuls of tuna salad that I’d bought at Braum’s. It was kind of like a cold cheese-less tuna melt. Seriously good stuff, Maynard.

Dino & Francesco’s is a hidden gem, one the locals certainly know well; they greet many customers by name. With any luck I’ll never go there again — I hate Pennsylvania (in a land yacht)!

I wonder if Dino and/or Francesco would like to relocate to somewhere flatter?

And so we roll.

Dino & Francesco’s, Birney Plaza, Moosic, Pennsylvania

Tio Wally pilots the 75-foot, 40-ton(max) land yacht SS Me So Hungry. He reports on road food from around the country whenever parking and InterTube connections permit.