Saturday, March 29, 2008

Golden West Cafe

Golden West Cafe
1105 W. 36th Street
Baltimore, MD 21211
410-889-8891

A group of us were out and about in Hampden last night and were hungry for some tasty eats. We tried to go to Holy Frijoles but the surely waitress told us it would be over an hour for a table. A quick search on the Treo found another cafe we could go to, just down the street. The Golden West Cafe had only a 15 minute wait and an excellent bar where we could wait out our stay. We were pleasantly surprised by the availability of Rogue beers and spirits. Mr_BTM and I had the gin and dark rum by Rogue and truly enjoyed our cocktail.

The menu here is fairly random with sandwiches, salads, and a few texmex entrees. I was surprised at the availability of a wide variety of vegan and vegetarian choices on the menu. We started out with tofu nuggets (fried tofu) with a chinese inspired dipping sauce. Very delicious. For dinner, most of our table ordered the black bean burgers ($8.99) with delicious garlic fries or peanut noodles (vegan). The burger was excellent and the fries fresh cut were full of awesome garlic flavor. The peanut noodles were a hit as well. Our bill was less than $50 (not including the bar tab) for 4 people. This is a great spot for some tasty eats at a cheap price!

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

DuClaw Brewing Company

DuClaw Brewing Company
Multiple Locations
We visited the Fells Point Location
901 S Bond Street
Baltimore, MD 21231
410-563-0575
Sun-Th 11:00 AM-10:00 PM Dining Room, 11:00 AM-2:00 AM Pub
Fri & Sat 11:00 AM-12:00 AM Dining Room, 11:00 AM -2:00 AM Pub

Coming from Portland, home to hundreds of breweries and brewpubs, we sorely miss our good beer. We were excited to see that DuClaw's had a brew pub in Fells Point, close enough that we can walk, if needs be. We went on a Friday night and noticed the restaurant wasn't all that full. Granted, it was raining pretty hard so I'm sure some folks just stayed home. But still, the place was kinda empty. We should have seen this as a warning sign! We were seated promptly and started off with the beer sampler and a pint of the "Funk", their American style wheat. Of the beers we tasted, none of them tasted all that good. The Funk beer was a fairly weak wheat and tasted more like a pilsner.

On to the food...we both ordered cheeseburgers ($7.99). Mine came way too well done (asked for medium well) and the bun was crunchy. I don't like crunchy buns or overdone beef burgers so I wasn't happy with my meal. Mr_BTM also had a burger but his was done to his liking and he still didn't like it! The food simply lacked flavor. I wasn't impressed with the menu options either. I'm not sure we'd go back here since the beer and food were quite mediocre.