Front Street Cafe

I like everything about Front Street Cafe (1821 Hillandale Rd). The inside is small and quaint, the staff is friendly, they have outside seating, and everything I had on the menu was very good to excellent.

I had their lunch special, which was an open-face tuna melt topped with asparagus and a side salad. Excellent.

The rice pudding and coffee were also very good.

They also have wireless Internet. The only downside is that it is a bit on the expensive side: lunch, dessert, coffee, and a diet coke came to $18. They have some really good looking dinner specials, but they close at 6.

Silver Spoon

Today was a first for me — I went to the same restaurant twice in the same day. This was mostly because I am studying and by driving back and forth from my house to the restaurant I can avoid actually doing the work, but also because Silver Spoon (5230 N. Roxboro) is pretty darn good. It is definitely a North Durham locals type place, and seems to draw a lot of its business from the surrounding retirement homes. Everyone was extremely friendly (I heard “ma’am” used at least 20 times by the staff and patrons in the 1.5 hours I was there in the morning). If you are in the mood for diner food, I would strongly recommend this place as an alternative to Elmo’s.

I think it is owned by the same people that own Golden Spoon (3500 N Roxboro St), which is a little bit closer to 85, but I haven’t eaten at Golden so I don’t have anything to say about it.

I got there around 10am for breakfast, and they were happy to accommodate me in a booth with a plug for my laptop. There is wireless available, but no indication that it belongs to Silver Spoon. I had an egg, cheese, and bacon croissant, which was very good in the extremely-unhealthy-greasy diner sort of way. The home fries were very good — a bit mushy, but with a little bit of a spicy kick to them. The menu has a wide assortment of breakfast items (which they serve all day), including a bunch of non-standard omelets.

I had been told that their speciality was fried chicken, so I had to try it for dinner. I must say, it was among the best I have had in the Triangle. The sides were nothing to write home about (I would recommend against the mac & cheese — if I were to do it over again I would order the mashed potatoes and gravy), but the chicken was incredibly moist and perfectly fried.

I don’t normally eat dessert, let alone apple cobbler, but I was in the mood so I gave it a try. I thought it was very good, but take that for what it is worth (not much).

It’s that time of year . . . (Goodberry’s Frozen Custard)

Goodberry’s Creamery is a Triangle based frozen custard shop that is very good. It isn’t fancy, but it really hits the spot on a warm day. Although they have a couple of locations in the area, the closest to me is this one in North Durham (3906 N. Roxboro Rd):

Their daily special was called sweet cream, and it was excellent.

Seriously, go ahead and stop by — you know you want to.

Restaurant openings report

Chubby’s Tacos (748 Ninth St)

Also, rumor has it Five Points Cafe (next to Toast) just had its final inspection and will be opening imminently. Although, this has been the rumor for a half year, so take it for what it is.

UPDATE: Chubby’s isn’t really open, unfortunately, but there is painting being done on the outside so maybe it will be soon.  It’s where Xiloa used to be.  Something to look forward to, maybe.

No. 1 Panda House

So, one (out of three total) of the cool things about Chapel Hill is that there are a couple of neat local food blogs that have popped up. (In case you are wondering, the other 2 cool things are Jujube and Bonne Soiree.) On the recommendation of the folks at The Biscuit, I stopped by No. 1 Panda House (3808 Guess Rd).

As was recommended, I ordered off of the “super secret” Shanghai menu. The lady taking my order was very friendly and helpful with explaining some items on the menu to me. Unfortunately, this place just didn’t do it for me.

I ordered the San Huang chicken (chicken served cold in a soy based sauce), and it was just OK (basically tasted like cold chicken in soy sauce).

I also tried the Lion’s Head Casserole, which was a huge pork meatball-ish thing. It had potential, but something about it caused me to not finish more than one of them.

The nice lady recommended the Sauteed White Fish with Wine Sauce, and this was by far the best food of the meal. However, it wasn’t good enough for me to eat all of it, and is not something I would return for.

The Durham/CH divide continues..

Beers that live up to the hype: Westvleteren

If you ever have the chance to get a bottle of any beer from the abbey of Saint Sixtus of Westvleteren in Belgium, you should absolutely do so (at any cost). A friend in Belgium was nice enough to send me a bottle of the blonde, #8, and #12.Today I tried the #8, which is ranked the 8th best beer in the world by Beer Advocate and the 20th best beer in the world by RateBeer. This trappist ale is perfect in almost every way — fruity aroma, with a bitter-sweet aftertaste. It is somewhat similar to Rochefort 8, except the Westvleteren hides the alcohol better.

The #12, ranked the best beer in the world by both sites, is anxiously awaiting the completion (or possibly beginning?) of my last final exam.

PK’s, or, where to play pool and get a beer in (very) North Durham

I see PK’s Billiards and Sports Bar (105 Infinity Road) all the time when I am at Orellana or the BP across the street getting Diet Coke. (Unrelated note, BPs that are marked “Family Fare” consistently have a great price for Diet Coke — $2.99/12 pack.)

I am not sure if you can really call PK’s a sports bar, as it only has 1 TV, but they definitely have 8 pool tables and 4 dart boards. This place is pretty cool, if you like dive type establishments (which, if you haven’t been able to tell, we do). Smoking is definitely allowed, and they have all your standard bottled American beers. Also, they play good music, nice and loud.

According to this article in the N&O, the family that runs the place recently experienced a pretty tragic loss that seems like it will impact their business. So, why not stop in and have a beer if you are in the area and help support it? While that article may give the impression that some sketchiness occurs there (and it might, I haven’t been there late at night), I was totally comfortable when I was there.

Restaurant openings report

Hardee’s (DMC RM 017 S. Purple Zone — 2000 Erwin Rd.)
Mez (5410 Page Road Suite 8)*

* According to a jobs posting on craigslist, Mez is a new contemporary Mexican place near RTP from the group that did 411 West, Squid’s, 518 West and Spanky’s.

Taqueria El Pequeno Atoron and Huaraches

I just noticed today that the tienda at 3407 N Roxboro Rd has a taqueria in it. This is in the strip mall with the post office, and in order to find the taqueria you need to walk to the rear left of the store. For the first time ever I had huaraches (as distinguished from a huarache, which is a sandal), and I must say, they are very tasty. They are basically tortillas with meat, beans, avocados, tomatoes, lettuce, and cheese piled on top. I know in my heart the dish was not healthy, but it did have somewhat of a salad feel to it.

The taqueria itself is pretty cool.. sort of run down (in a good way), with what looked like about 10 tables for dining in. English was a minor challenge, but after a couple of attempts it worked itself out. Another bonus, they made the food right in front of me and I was out of there within 5 minutes, which is a very fast turnaround for taquerias in this area. I will definitely be back to check out their other (reasonably extensive) offerings.

Durbar 84

Today I stopped by Durbar 84 (2103 Allendown Dr) for lunch. Durbar classifies itself as a Napalese & Indian restaurant. We got there about a half hour before they closed for lunch, and the place was dead, so the buffet (which looked pretty inclusive) was not in the cards. Besides, I was interested in the Napalese aspect of the place, which does not seem to be featured in the buffet.

I tried the momos, which I had never heard of, let alone tried before. At least as they are served at Durbar, they are dumplings filled with ground chicken, turkey, and spices. They are served with an interesting spicy sauce — basically tomatoes cooked in their tandoor mixed with sesame seed, chili peppers, and lemon juice. It was an interesting experience for me. I quite liked the momos, but especially so after I got the balance of dumpling to sauce correct. You should absolutely order them if you go there, but even though I liked them and am glad I ordered them, there was something missing to make them a truly great experience that I would go out of my way to return for.

The highlight of the meal was actually something the waiter needed to convince me to overcome my fullness to try: the rice pudding. They have, unequivocally, the best rice pudding I have ever had. It is perfectly balanced with cardamom, actually giving the dish the mistaken impression it contains cinnamon and nutmeg. Seriously, this was the stuff dreams are made of.