Market Bistro (by Price Chopper)

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Category: News

Written by Brian

Josie and I were lucky enough to get a private tour of the new Market Bistro by Price Chopper.  Market Bistro isn't your standard grocery store, it is a nexus between a grocery store and restaurant.  Besides being a significantly better than average grocery store, there is also a complete selection of prepared foods offered.  Everything from salads and subs, to sushi, to BBQ smoked on site.  There is even a full service restaurant and a cooking school within the Market Bistro

The supermarket itself is larger than a normal store, and has an entire aisle dedicated to organic and gluten free food, an aisle for cultural food, and usually two or three shelves in every aisle dedicated to local products.  So instead of just finding Coke and Pepsi, you can also get a wide selection of Jones sodas, or get locally produced peanut butter instead of just Peter Pan.

It is an impressive store with an exciting new concept; merging the idea of a restaurant with a grocery store.  We tried a variety of different foods from 'Bistro Blvd' and it was all quite impressive.  It is hard to pick a favorite from the food we tried, but the smoked ribs and the lobster roll were among our favorites.

Market Bistro is located in Latham at 873 New Loudon Road.  Whats not to love about a grocery store that has a larger selection than normal and a complete restaurant environment as well?  I'm most excited to see what they do with the cooking school.  It will be nice to take a class and be able to buy everything you need to make a recipe at home at the same place.

There are a ton of pictures below, so be sure to click 'read more' to see them all.

A 6 foot section of fresh pastas from a local manufacturer	Large selection of cheeses	Olive bar, with 32 different types of olives

BBQ - in addition to normal rotisserie, Market Bistro has a smoker in the store using hickory from Tennessee	Market Bistro has an entire aisle dedicated to organic and gluten free foods	Chef's Prepared Meals - Pick any entree and two sides for $6.  Intended to be brought home and heated up, but they will also heat it up for you if you want to eat there

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Nishiki Sushi Japanese Restaurant

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Category: Restaurant Reviews

Written by Kent

Nishiki Sushi is a new arrival to East Greenbush (Rensselaer) and I don't believe EG or the neighboring towns have had any or many sushi places, so we hope they are great, hope they do well, and are here to stay.

Upon entering we were instantly greeted and then shown to our table while we observed the small but newly-renovated and nicely decorated atmosphere.   There is a sushi bar which occupies most of the space that features a color-changing lighted front, as well as approximately a dozen tables for 2, 4, or 6 diners.

A server promptly appeared offering each person a warm towel that was individually wrapped, which was a nice touch, especially on a cold winter evening.  She then collected them after use and said she would return for drink orders.   The website & Menu is here: http://nishikisushiny.com/  Note, the menu has a 'hibachi entrees' section, but there are no hibachi tables for diners to sit at:  All entrees come from the kitchen or sushi bar.  This was different to see, but I decided to try the Hibachi Salmon Entree with a side order of Egg and Vegetable Hibachi Fried Rice. All 3 of my dining companions ordered different dinner bento boxes.  When I ordered the fried rice, the server asked if I still wanted the white rice which was included with Hibachi Entree.

While the server asked for our drink order, they explained that Nishiki offers a full liqour-wine-beverage selection.  We ordered Hot Tea and Hot Saki, along with our meals and we were glad that we ordered the tea.  The hot tea was a Japanese brown-rice green tea which tasted amazing.  The tea was served in a single cup, however the refills were plentiful and always timely, never reaching below a quarter-filled tea cup.   This goes for the water fills also.  The service was top notch and flawless, always around when needed, but not overbearing or hovering.  

First to arrive - the miso soup was hot, flavorful, and perfect and the salad was larger-than-normal with the typical Japanese ginger salad dressing.  We requested additional dressing which was promptly delivered and it was fresh and flavorful and great for dipping items we would recieve later.

The food arrived shortly after the salad and soup and the flavor and seasoning, price, portion, and presentation was 5 'forks' (stars) for my meal.  The taste of each bite of both the Hibachi entree and the fried rice was satisfying and perfect, for me.  The dinner bento boxes were tasty and nearly unable to be finished, certainly not skimpy.

During our visit, it was clear that there was sufficient staff on hand to cover the dining room and the never ending pickup order arrivals and phone calls.  The staff met each and every request of ours with speed and smiles, all while other servers often covered tables that weren't their own.

We were not rushed and had a perfect dinner and it was nice to see when the check arrived that there was no additional charges for things like the white rice, the drink refills, and the extra salad dressing.  During our departure, several staff thanked us for our visit and wished us a pleasant goodnight.  We will certainly return and recommend you give Nishiki a try too.

Hibachi Entree - Salmon	Fried Rice - Egg & Vegetable	Dinner Bento Box - Salmon Teriyaki

100 Reviews!

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Category: News

Written by Brian

CRFoodies has just published our 100th Restaurant review!

Iron Gate Cafe - Brunch

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Category: Restaurant Reviews

Written by Brian

A good friend of mine from college loved Iron Gate Cafe, and for some reason I never went back in the day.  Today I had a friend from out of town visiting and she wanted a place where she can get a mimosa with breakfast.  We hadn't reviewed Iron Gate yet, so off we went.  Iron Gate Cafe is right on Washington Ave by Lark St. in Albany  It is set back a bit from the street, so it is a little hard to see.  Parking is completely street.  This review is for their weekend brunch, which is a different menu from their standard fare.

There was a brief wait for a table when we arrived, but it wasn't more than 5 minutes or so.  Larger parties should anticipate a wait of around 20 minutes.

I was torn on what to order, so I mentioned a few things to the waitress, and she quickly said, "stuffed french toast", so I ordered that with sausage.  Iron Gate's version of stuffed french toast is two pieces of french toast with cheese, a fried egg, and your choice of meat inside.  It is served with hash browns.  The french toast was cooked well, and thoroughly battered, and it was exactly as described. There was plenty of sausage, but the egg was overdone.  The hash browns were good but could have benefited from a little seasoning.

My friend ordered Johnny cakes:  cornbread pancakes with blueberries served with your choice of meat.  She really enjoyed it, the pancakes were cooked well, had a good cornbread flavor, but weren't too dense.  She would order the dish again.

I liked Iron Gate Cafe, it reminded me of Madison Cafe.  Kind of Hipster type attitude and staff, with fun twists on typical dishes.  Fun place with good food, Iron Gate gets 4 forks.  As a fun additional note, we arrived before noon, so they couldn't serve us mimosas, but they took the order, and the second it hit noon, they were on our table.

Stuffed French Toast (with sausage, egg and cheese inside)	Johnny Cakes with Sausage