When we're home in Philadelphia, we rarely dine at the finest places the way we do on vacation. But, still, it's nice to know that we have that option, and we're glad that there are restaurants where we're not ashamed to take out-of-town guests or guests who are not Jewish or don't keep kosher. It wasn't always like this.
When we moved here in 2000, there were two kosher places in the Northeast - Holyland Pizza and Dragon Inn. And there was an Israeli place with a certification that no one accepted, so it finally went out of business. Still, it seemed like paradise to us after eight years in Milwaukee, which only offered a dairy restaurant housed in the Jewish nursing home. The food ranged from boring to awful, and the place wasn't open on Sundays or evenings - the times when most people want to go out and eat.
The Dragon Inn was a typical Chinese restaurant. It was a step above pizza and sufficed for anniversary and Mothers' Day dinner. But it went out of business a few years later because of a dispute among the owners.
The Holyland Pizza eventually spawned the Holyland Grill - a meat restaurant several blocks away. Both places are your typical kosher equivalent of McDonalds. The food is fast, edible but not great and there is no atmosphere. But your kids can run around the whole time, and no one cares. Well, sometimes the food is fast, I remember a Thursday night at the Pizza about nine years ago with my aunt when we waited about an hour to get served. Fortunately she loved watching little kids run around. But it's not the time of place you want to take your boss.
My boss did take me there once for my birthday with the rest of our department. I think she was ready to call the health department by the end of the meal. I've never seen anything offensive there - hair in the food or insects. But it has that kind of atmosphere.
The pizza at Holyland Pizza is very good. As is the calzone. A few times I've ordered the mozzarella sticks. They get them frozen, and they aren't always careful to cook them all the way through. They have recently added sushi to the menu, which my daughter and son-in-law report is the best in town.
Service is about what you'd expect. There is usually one staff person at the counter - a sullen teenager, often Israeli. They take your order as if they are doing you a big favor.
A couple of years ago, they remodeled. It was a definite improvement, but for some reason they carpeted the floor. Big mistake for a pizza shop with a million little kids running around.
Now that my kids are grown I never eat there. But we do takeout pizza because the pizza, as I've said, is really good. No one at my house eats sushi.
The Holyland Grill is an attempt to be a step higher in the restaurant food chain. Instead of ordering at the counter, they have wait service. The food is not fancy - schwarma, falafel, mixed grill, Philly steak sandwiches (without cheese) and fried chicken. The Israeli main dishes are not bad. The fried chicken is pretty tasteless. The vegetables are always overcooked, and the salad bar looks like it's been sitting around for too long. They also have a Chinese menu - after the Dragon Inn closed they hired the cook. I didn't care for the brown sauce everything was cooked in at the Dragon Inn, so I don't like it any better here. But the Sesame Chicken and Garlic Chicken are tasty.
Fortunately, we have many more choices now, which I'll start on next time. If you've eaten at any of these places and have your own opinions, please let me know.
No comments:
Post a Comment