Dinosaur “Bar-B-Que” is a New York state BBQ set fo restaurants that first opened in 1983 as a concession stand near Albany, NY for bikers. Since, they’ve expanded to a few more locations, including upstate NY as well as NYC. We’ve been to the Brooklyn location a few years ago, and we remembered it being pretty good. To relive our memories, we decided to visit again on a Sunday afternoon. We were able to walk-in at 4 PM without wait, though there were some logistical issues that did surface when we dined.
Boqueria is an east coast Spanish tapas chain. The food here is quintessential Spanish shareables, including large paellas. We originally ate here with some friends in the Upper East, but we have also tried this restaurant in Flatiron. Reservations are fairly easy to secure, and it does get busy during core hours. If you have a decent sized party, this is probably a decent restaurant to bring folks that might be into family style sharing.
This is the main site to the sister site Maison Pickle.
The food here is really good, filling, and not too expensive.
Of course, you have to get the pickles. For appetizers, we got 4 pickles (spicy, green beans, green tomatoes, and regular). We also got a side of fried pickles. I liked them all to be honest, and would love to get the carrots next time.
Walked in on a Saturday at 7 PM with no reservations, and it was packed despite it being pretty frigid outside.
Luckily, we got seats at the bar.
The french onion soup was really good. The gruyere cheese was nice and toasty, and the beef broth with the onions wasn’t salty like typical french onion soups.
The porterhouse of course was cooked a perfect medium rare. The strip side was preferred over the filet mignon. There was some sauce on the side, but we didn’t need to use the sauce on the side because the steak was seasoned well and had a good flavor.
On our last night before heading back, we stumbled onto this cajun place. For the price per quantity, this was unmatched.
The fried crawfish was delicious, albeit small. I was really digging the cocktail sauce with french fries though. That might be my new ketchup substitute now.
The fried crab cakes were delicious as well. You could definitely taste more of that crab taste, and it wasn’t overly drowned by the sauce in it.
This is a semi-random shack off the highway about 10+ miles away from Girdwood.
The fried chicharron and fried okra was really good.
The fried ribs was had a slight crust to it with a strong glaze. I thought this was just OK.
The main dish was one of those platters that had St Louis ribs, chicken thighs, and sausage. You know something is up when the coleslaw was more memorable. I simply loved the coleslaw. It is this really punch-your-face vinegar-y taste with a subtle sweetness. The meat itself was just eh. I’m not sure if it was because it was dry or what. The ribs taste like they were boiled first then put on the grill. They still don’t have the char you’d look for off the grill. The chicken and sausage was both kind of bland. The cornbread was dry.
We’re boarding in Girdwood, and at night we’re looking for a good restaurant to try out.
Surprisingy, Girdwood has some pretty decent finds here.
The fried sweet potatoes was nice. I prefer this over thin cut sweet potato fries because you can get more fullness out of this. It was served with some jalapeno-ish creamy sauce that wasn’t spicy. I would’ve preferred it having more of a kick.
In Anchorage, there is this spot that for some reason got a lot of good Yelp reviews. Usually when you venture outside of the major cities in the U.S., you have lower expectations on the taste of food. Of course in Alaska, we’d expect high quality seafood.
The cioppino was delicious. The bowl that it came in was huge, and the clams/fish/shrimp were all pretty tasty.
