Grandma's (Pies)

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Category: Restaurant Reviews

Grandma's is located on Central Avenue, closest to Fuller Road. Most people know Grandma's for their pies. Our visit, however, was for breakfast which they serve until 11AM.

The decor of Grandma's is just horrendous. I'm sorry, but it is. It takes the "granma's house" cliche and just does bad things to it. The carpet is beyond dark, and doesn't match the curtains. The chairs don't match, and there are decorations strewn for several holidays gone by (July 4th, Easter, and Christmas most noticeably), and that's not mentioning the random couch in the dining room.

If you can get past the decor, the food is "okay."

I ordered Cinnamon Swirl French Toast with Bacon, and Brian ordered the "Granny's Special" with scrambled eggs, and sausage. It took longer to actually put our order in, than it did for the meal to arrive.

My French Toast dish was skimpy to say the least. It was almost as if I had 3 end pieces on my plate. I'm glad I didn't order the short stack. The flavor was "okay." Nothing special, but passable. I attribute that to the flavor of the cinnamon swirl bread (what little there was on my plate). The crust was also very hard. The bacon was just this side shy of being jerky, and had very little salty bacony flavor.

Brian's dish was better executed. The sausage was cooked perfectly, and was flavorful. The eggs were cooked very well, but lacked any sort of flavor. The potatoes were perfectly tender, but unevenly seasoned and came with a boat load of onions that weren't described anywhere. The toast, though, was buttered well. Which, while it sounds like that shouldn't be a highlighted thing, we've found that very few establishments do this.

Our waitress, while nice, was very slow. It took a while for her to come to the table. It took a while for our beverage orders. It took a while for the check, and she left before even bothering to tell us to pay up front.

A very mediocre experience overall.

"Grandma's Special"	Cinnamon Swirl French Toast w/ Bacon

Wolf Road Diner

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Category: Restaurant Reviews

Wolf Road Diner is located at 219 Wolf Road, near Albay Shaker Road. The decor is classic diner, that's clean and done tastefully well.

In our breakfast visit Brian ordered the Sausage & Cheese Omelette with a side of Fries, and I ordered the French Toast with a side of Bacon. Both of our meals were on their "Specials" menu, which came with juice and coffee.

Brian's omelette was absolutely amazing. He'd asked our waitress what she would recommend, and her omelette recommendation was spot on. The sausage had great flavor, the eggs were cooked perfectly, and they didn't skimp on the cheese which just kept oozing out when you cut into the omelette. The fries were perfectly cooked, crispy on the inside and tender on the inside. Plus, they were seasoned so well that ketchup was not necessary. In fact, ketchup took away from the flavor of the fries. Even the toast that came with the special was perfectly buttered.

My dish, sadly, was not a success. Even though my French Toast was made with homemade Challah Bread, it did nothing to make up for the fact that the batter had no flavor and was nowhere near being soaked through. Actually, one slice had more flavorless batter than the other slice. The bacon was just "okay."

Service was spectacular. The juice glasses that came with the specials were small, so our server brought out two glasses. Our waitress was friendly, conversational, and knowledgeable. We didn't feel neglected, nor did we feel rushed. She was wonderful.

I'd recommend Wolf Road Diner, and even return, but for their amazing omelette. Just don't order the French Toast!

Sausage & Cheese Omelette w/ Fries	French Toast w/ Bacon

Smith's Tavern

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Category: Restaurant Reviews

Smith's Tavern is located on Remsen Street in Cohoes and is a gem that needs to be given the attention it deserves.

When we approached the vintage brick building it looked like a shady bar, which was confusing given the intriguing menu we'd seen online. We walked through the large door that had me feeling as if we were walking through a dark castle chamber, and saw an expansively long bar off to the right (we later learned that the bar is in fact quite special). Where was the restaurant? This still looked like a shady bar.

At this moment in our confusion, a waiter/maitre de came out from a back dining area. He greeted us, was very pleasant, and led us into a back formal dining room. A formal fine dining room in the back of a bar!

We were seated, and promptly greeted by our server who was pleasant and personable, though seemed a bit shy so he might've been new. There were so many dishes to choose from, including specials. Finally, we settled on Chicken Cordon Bleu (for Brian) and Shepherd Pie (for me). Brian's dish came with a choice of soup or salad, which he chose a Crab & Tomato Bisque (I may or may not have had an influence in this) from their list of soups.

Let's start with the bread! Warm, soft, delicious and accompanied with an amazing, homemade garlic herb butter. Wow! The Tomato Bisque came out next. While I will say the texture was chunkier than your typical bisque, this is by far not a complaint. The flavor was amazing. The were chunks of crab and tomatoes. I ended up having the bisque for myself, and scraping the bottom of the cup. It was that good.

Our entrees came out. I looked at mine with wide eyes, the portion size was that huge. Chunks of seasoned ground beef and vegetables, topped with seasoned mashed potatoes and wonderfully melted cheese. There was nothing about the dish that wasn't amazing.

Similarly done to perfection was Brian's Chicken Cordon Bleu. The outside was fried to a crisp perfection while the inside was tender, and juicy. The swiss cheese oozed out. The ham was delish (and I'm typically not a ham person). The only 'detractors' were the side dishes (vegetables, anda mix of sweet potatoes and mashed potatoes mixed with bacon). They did nothing to complement the perfection of the chicken.

As I was tossing two-thirds of my Shepherd's Pie into a doggie bag, Brian inquired on desserts. He was so impressed with the amazing meal, he figured dessert had to be ordered, even if we just ate it later.

Our waiter said we had to have the carrot cake. We did. Wow. The cake was moist, and the flavors were pronounced. The frosting was a homemade whipped cream cheese frosting. There was no gritty taste whatsoever. My favorite kind of frosting. My only picky note would be the chunks of walnuts were a bit too large, and could have been chopped smaller. In bites that had walnuts, you only tasted walnut and very little cake.

All in all, not even the picky notes could outweigh the flavor perfection we found at Smith's. This is a restaurant to not only visit, but to frequent. I could go on, and on, but at this point I highly recommend you experience this gem for yourself.

Shepherd's Pie	Chicken Cordon Bleu

Tomato & Crab Bisque

Mike's Hot Dogs

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Category: Restaurant Reviews

Written by Brian

Mike's Hot Dogs is on Erie Blvd in Schenectady.  We were in the area so we decided to swing by for breakfast.

I asked our server for her recommendation, and she suggested a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwhich.  It was a little strange of a recommendation, but why ask if you don't plan to listen.  The sandwich was perfect.  Eggs were cooked perfectly, just slightly runny, but mostly completely cooked.  There was a ton of bacon with a great flavor, and there was cheese in every bite.  The roll was also grilled.  It was perfect.  The hashbrowns that came with it were not really seasoned but were cooked well.

Josie ordered the french toast with bacon.  The french toast batter didn't soak completely through, so it was dry inside, and there was egg batter on the outside of the slice which is one of my pet peeves with french toast.  Her bacon was also cooked well with a great flavor.

Since the place literally has the words 'hot dogs' in their name, we decided that even though it was breakfast time, we should try a hot dog.  It was a good hot dog, and the sauce that makes them so popular was well seasoned.  I thought the meat in the sauce was a bit on the dry side, but Josie disagreed.  I forgot to take a picture of the hot dog before we ate it, so you can just appreicate the empty plate :)

Bacon Egg and Cheese with side of Home Fries	French Toast with Bacon

This would be the hot dog I forgot to take a picture of