A taste trip to Italy

Hello everyone!

I’m making my way toward the end of the semester and I was having a hard time picking a final restaurant to review. I went to my trusty source Google and decided to find “best south jersey restaurant”. One restaurant that popped up a few times on some listings was “Luna Rossa Biagio Lamberti“. It just so happens that this restaurant is only 15 minutes away from campus in Turnersville and is on one of the major main streets known in South Jersey, the Black Horse Pike.

My sorority sister and I decided to go for lunch one day. I was super excited because when I was looking at their lunch menu they had a variety of options for an affordable price; all their entreés were around $15 or less so that’s good news for a college student. I also love Italian food so I was super stoked. Because it’s located on Black Horse Pike, it was super easy to get to. We went around lunch time and when we arrived there, there weren’t many people there, probably because they just opened for lunch.

We were greeted by the host who was an older gentlemen. He escorted us to our table which happened to be in the first dining room (there were two dining rooms). He gave us our menu and we both started looking through it. I liked the menu itself because it was very official, hard covered menu and I love when there’s descriptions for the entreés, that way I don’t have to keep asking the waiter, “what’s in it?”. Below is a panorama view from our seats and the menu:

While we were trying to decide what to eat, our waiter brought us bread to snack on:

2 pieces of the bread were plain and the other 2 pieces had some marinara sauce on it. I liked this idea because I was super hungry and I could eat the bread while I wait for my food to come out. However, what I would’ve liked was some bread, olive oil, and herbs, kind of like the break that comes out in Carrabba’s Italian Grill (if you haven’t been there, I recommend you go). I’ve been to other Italian restaurants that has served bread like that and I love it.

Our waiter had an accent, I think it was Italian, and I could kind of tell he was new to serving because he was kind of being a bit slow. I decided to order some bruschetta for my appetizer and eggplant parmesan (one of my favorites) for my meal and my sorority sister ordered chicken parmesan (I know, we are #basic). My meal came with a side salad so that was a cool addition, I just got the house salad and house dressing.

The bruschetta came out first:

It was overall good but when I bit down on the bread, I felt like it was toasted too long and it kind of tasted a bit burnt every time I bit down into it. I even looked at the bottom of the piece to see if they burnt it and there were no burnt marks but it still tasted kind of stale.

Before I knew it my salad came out followed by our entreés. The salad was pretty good, you know, just your typical salad before a meal haha. The eggplant parm was not bad (I had better, at a small local Italian restaurant). However, for the time being, it was satisfying. I immediately got full because well it was carbs that I was mostly eating. I couldn’t finish it all and it became dry so it was kind of unpleasant to eat. I asked for more sauce so I could take it home.

The waiter took our food and packaged it up for us, which was very nice of him. He gave us the check book and we were figuring out our payments. I took the paper he wrote on for our order to see how much the food I ordered was and noticed a writing on the back:

“Short lady”, how nice to describe me haha. My thing is that, how was he supposed to know I was shorter than my sorority sister by us sitting down? I don’t know, but I thought that was really funny, I couldn’t stop laughing when we went to the restaurant. When I was looking online, “Luna Rossa” has a variety of other menus for different things like: dinner, catering, party trays, & more. I may have liked it better if we went during dinner time because the pictures I saw looked a lot more appetizing. I think I might want to come back during dinner time.

If you’re looking for a decent restaurant to go to for lunch around the area and want a bang for your buck, you can try out this restaurant!

-Elisa

Where’s your “hotspot” for cinco de mayo?

Hey guys!

I want to tell you about a new restaurant that I’ve seen around my area. A nearby town called “Sicklerville” is my go to place for when I go to chipotle. I LOVE my chipotle! Anyway, I noticed there was a restaurant being built behind it for some time now and the restaurant is called “Plaza Azteca“. I’ve been wanting to check it out there because I do love Mexican food and I finally found time to go today for lunch before I had to go into work.

 

 

I wanted to tell you guys about it because it’s a fairly new restaurant in the area and not many people like myself have tried it. Good news for you guys is that its only approximately a short 16 minute drive from Rowan University’s campus so for those wanting to dine in a sit in Mexican restaurant this is your place to be! The featured image above is a picture I took outside the restaurant today. The restaurant sits in a plaza called “The Shoppes at Cross Keys“. What’s unique about this plaza is that there’s a lot of different stores and restaurants inside it. A few times I’ve eaten at chipotle here and have decided to take a stroll and see the different stores around the plaza. Other restaurants in this location are “Texas Roadhouse” and “Buffalo Wild Wings“. To see a store directory of the stores in the plaza, you can click here.

As soon as I walked in, I was greeted by the hostess who escorted me to my table. I sat down at a booth (yay) but couldn’t help but notice the decor of the place. Here’s a picture of the restaurant from where I’m sitting. Pretty cool, huh?

There was plenty of seating with cushioned padded seats! That’s always a plus!

The hostess gave me the menu and I immediately found the page for “lunch”. My waitress came and took my drink order (always water). She also brought me chips and salsa! FREE STUFF, I love free stuff! So the restaurant serves lunch everyday which I thought was pretty cool because most restaurants only serve lunch on the weekdays. I decided to create my own lunch combo with a burrito and enchilada. I also decided to order a side of guacamole because I love guac TBH. Literally, 3-5 minutes after she took my order she brought out my guacamole. MMMMMM so good! It wasn’t long before my meal came out as well. From the time I ordered it to when it came out, I probably waited less than 10 minutes – talk about fast service!

Here is a picture of my meal! I kind of forgot to take a picture when she brought it out because I was super hungry and decided to dig in, pardon my manners, LOL. The guacamole kind of reminded me of Chipotle’s guacamole but not so similar. I still think Chipotle’s guac is TO DIE FOR. I couldn’t tell which was the enchilada and which was the burrito. I was expecting the burrito to be something like Chipotle’s but I guess not. My lunch entreé cost me $8 and my total meal came out to be $11. I thought that was pretty good! I also couldn’t believe how fast everything came out to be. Granted, it wasn’t busy time but still! I arrived at the restaurant around 2:15 and was out of there 10 minutes before 3pm, such a quick meal! I definitely want to go there again for dinner and try other entrees.

When I was leaving the restaurant I noticed a banner about cinco de mayo. I don’t know what your plans are for that holiday but hey, this is a good restaurant to start at. I hope you guys consider going to this place! It’s definitely a cool place to go to that’s not far from campus and it’s a different kind of food too! Different compared to campus food!

-Elisa

South Jersey Welcomes Sabrina’s Cafe

Hey everyone!

It’s been a bit since I last posted, sorry about that! With the semester dwindling down and all of the activities crashing in around the same time I’ve been a busy bee! However, I come with good news. I was able to squeeze in a restaurant a couple days ago for me to visit and I’m super stoked to tell you guys about it.

So let’s go back to 2012. I attended Drexel University for my first year of college and fell in love with a restaurant called, “Sabrina’s Cafe“. It was super convenient to go to because it was right next to the dorms and was my go to spot for breakfast/brunch. I’m excited to share the news that the eatery is now in Collingswood, New Jersey!!!! This hot spot will be joining the 34 restaurants already in the borough, adding to the line of restaurants on Haddon Ave. This location is their first in New Jersey with 3 other locations in Philadelphia and 1 on the main line in Wynnewood, PA. The days of having to take PATCO or driving over the Ben Franklin and Walt Whitman bridge just to have a bite of Sabrina’s is OVER!

They serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner with their breakfast items available all day #BRINNER 🙂 Their menu offers a variety of items from pancakes to french toast, burgers, sandwiches, salads, chicken, and pork chops. Not to mention, this eatery is also VEGAN & VEGETARIAN friendly!!! Their daily specials which can be found on their Facebook page and website. The above pictures are from their Instagram page.

image from Yelp

 

My favorite is the “Stuffed Challah French Toast” with Bananas and Strawberries – french toast with farmer’s cream cheese and vanilla bean syrup YUMMMMMM. It is super delicious and sweet and flavorful, UGH its just so good.

 

 

To get this delicious treat and many other excellent items on the menu, Sabrina’s Cafe is about 30 minutes from Rowan University campus and it’s location is perfect for a nice stroll in town. The restaurant is located on Haddon Ave. with other restaurants and shops on the same street. So if you’re looking to go to a place on a nice sunny day full of activities to do, Haddon Ave. is where its at. There’s plenty of shops on the streets – antique stores, vintage stores, dress shops – and a variety of restaurants for dining.

 

 

When I went to Sabrina’s Cafe in Collingwood a few days ago, I immediately noticed the decor of the restaurant was super classy yet I felt “at home”. The wooden tables, cushioned bench seating, and chairs felt like I was at someone’s house sitting at their dinner table. They also had different pictures and mirrors on the wall with big chalkboards hanging from the ceiling. The light colored walls meshed with with the decor and the lighting and the huge windows where you can look out into the street. I can tell the atmosphere they were going for is like a “at home” feeling, a place where you can come with friends and family and have a good meal. It’s not your regular diner style place but more of an upscale twist to it with gourmet like food.

I was thinking of the “Stuffed Challah French Toast” to be my food of choice. However, I wanted to try something different. So I decided to get a burger, “Robs Island Home Burger”. This came from the menu featuring some burgers from Sabrina’s brother restaurant, “Spencer ETA Burger“. With this burger you get a choice of Grilled Angus or Turkey Burger on Brioche with mixed greens, tomato top with grilled Canadian bacon, melted pepper jack, fried plantain, a creole dijonaise & pineapple – red onion – red pepper – black bean salsa. I got the Grilled Angus with everything on it except the fried plantain and a side of parmesan fries. As soon as the waitress brought it out to me, I was trying to figure out how to eat the burger because it was SO huge. The easiest way was to cut it in half and dig in! The parmesan fries were a good addition as well. Totally glad I decided to try something different but the “Stuffed Challah French Toast” is still my fave.

If you’re looking for a little adventure I highly suggest visiting this place. The staff is very nice and friendly and the restaurant is so inviting and homey feeling. The food will have you wanting to come back for more. You can’t find food like this anywhere else. There’s no place like home 🙂

-Elisa

Take Me Back to Pic-A-Lilli

The easiest way to get to Pic-A-LillI’s  from Rowan University is to go via the Atlantic City Expressway (ACE). The directions are pretty easy and after exiting the ACE you have to take a couple turns, go mostly straight the whole time, and you land in front of the famous tavern. As soon as I pulled up (around 10pm) I could tell it was packed! There were cars lined up surrounding the restaurant.

Me, my sister, Emily; and my sorority little, Nicole walked in and the first thing we saw was a rectangular bar which every seat was taken. We found the host podium and were greeted by the host. Behind her were tables packed with people. She escorted us to our table and the first thing I noticed when I sat down was man, the menus were worn down! The menu hasn’t changed since I’ve been there the first time, back in 2010. Coming in here, I knew exactly what I wanted: appetizer, wings, and dessert. In the past, I’ve ordered their crab bread and almost every time I go back there I always order it so that was a given. My sister wanted to try their fried pickles so we ordered that as well. I don’t mind spicy but I wanted to definitely get flavored wings that was tasty so I went with garlic parmesan. For dessert I decided to go with a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cheesecake.

We didn’t really wait too long for our food. For the all you can eat wings, you start out with 10 wings and if you want more they bring out 5 wings each time you ask for more. I, however, couldn’t even finish the 10 I started out with and had to bring it home. I know I wanted dessert so I made some room for it 🙂 To say the least, I was very happy with my results and I most definitely want to come back!!!

-Elisa

Chicken Wings You MUST Try Before You Die

Next on my list of food joints to go to happens to be a little inn in Burlington County on the edge of the Wharton State Forest, a placed called Pic-A-Lilli Inn.

image from nj.com

I was first introduced to this place by some friends of mine and we happened to go on a Wednesday night where we soon found out Wednesdays were their “All You Can Eat Wings for $9.95” deal. This happened 3 years ago and I’m happy to be going back to this place again tonight for some tasty wings!

image from Pic-A-Lilli Inn Facebook

Though it is a bit of a drive-about 45 minutes from Rowan University-it is well worth the drive and a bang for your buck! The tavern has daily specials which can be found here and unique delicious food on the menu that makes customers want to come back for more.

I wanted to find out why Pic-A-Lilli Inn is such a hot spot for wings and their food, so I went and did my Google research. Apparently, CBS Philly did a segment called “Taste with Tori” that featured Pic-A-Lilli Inn’s “All You Can Eat Wings”. The article features a video of reporter Vittoria Woodill visiting the tavern and trying out the famous wings as well as other items on the menu. Pic-A-Lilli Inn also showed up on a BuzzFeed article titled, “22 Chicken Wings You Have To Try Before You Die“, as well as an article from Only In Your State titled, “These 19 Restaurants Serve The Best Wings In New Jersey“. No wonder this tavern is bringing in people from all over the area!

I haven’t been to Pic-A-Lilli Inn since last summer when I went on a camping trip in the Wharton State Forest with my boyfriend. I’m definitely excited to go again; I’ve been saving my appetite for this the entire day lol. Check out my Instagram- @neighborhood_bites for when I post pictures tonight while I’m eating some good ass wings 🙂

-Elisa

Successful Night at P.J.’s!

Honestly, you can’t beat a great night with wings and friends. My friends and I arrived at P.J.’s a little after 9 P.M. and holy poop was it still packed. I thought, “oh, we’re going after dinner time it shouldn’t be too bad”. Man was I wrong! There was 7 of us in our group but the wait wasn’t too bad, about 25-30 minutes are so. The time went by pretty fast and we were heading to our table. Theres two seating areas, the dining room and the newest addition, the four seasons room. This climate controlled room was built just last year and offers a spacious room with plenty of seating, a full serviced bar, and can be open during those cool summer nights for a nice patio effect or closed off during the cold winter months. Fortunately, we were able to be seated in this cool are, below is a picture of the room:

image from P.J. Whelihan – Washington Township’s Facebook 

The hostess escorted us to a high top table which was at one side of the restaurant where no one else was sitting so it was easier to hear everyone talking in our table. A cool thing about their menu is that its paper and acts as a placemat when eating food; the above picture shows as an example. The menu offers the guests an easy read layout where everything is on one paper, no flipping through pages and each item on the menu has a description!

The waitress came and took our drink and food orders, I ordered a glass of water and a mint chocolate chip Bacardi frozen drink. The Bacardi frozen drinks were $5 each and offered a variety of choices. For my wings, I decided to order 10 “Kickin’ Korean” wings, which was a new flavor I have not tried yet; usually I get chipotle lime (SOO GOOD). Another item that struck me was the loaded ‘tater tots. Crispy ‘tater tots with melted cheddar jack, bacon, green onion, PJ’s famous fry sauce, and drizzled with sour cream; C’MON how can you not get that?! Long behold is my dinner:

You could tell from the picture that my frozen drink so freaking good because I was half way done it by the time the food came LOL! Everything was so perfect and great I couldn’t have picked a better way to spend my Tuesday Night. If you’ve never been here before, you need to come thru!

A little 12 minute drive with some friends for some good ass wings doesn’t hurt nobody! I’m glad I was able to bring along some friends of mine for this awesome dinner. I hope you all consider coming to P.J.’s next time for your Tuesday night dinner!

-Elisa

 

Wing Nite on Tuesday Nights

I’ve literally been waiting for this day to come for awhile! I would like to introduce to you Wing Night on Tuesday Nights at P.J. Whelihan’s. Starting at 3 PM on Tuesdays, P.J. Whelihan’s features its’ wings for half off. That means you can get 10 wings for about $6, what a f****** steal! For those of you who don’t like wings, they have other delicious options on their menu as well.

image from P.J. Whelihan’s website

With new renovations within the past year, P.J. Whelihan’s is bumping. The new dining area and patio gives plenty of seating indoors and out. They offer a variety of regularly updated food and seasonal drinks, plenty of huge ass TVs to catch your sport game, and great happy hour specials with 53 draft lines! Later on tonight I’ll be heading to Wing Nite with some friends for some great food, great times, and great laughs 🙂 Keep on the look out for my next post on how my night went at P.J.’s!

-Elisa

Nifty Fifty’s Milkshakes!

Just getting back from my visit to Nifty Fifty’s! Very cool place to go to that’s really close to campus! I decided to bring along two of my sorority sisters for this awesome adventure. As you can see from the image to the right, Nifty Fifty’s is only a 15 minute drive from campus if you’re traveling by car. This route takes you through the suburbs of Washington Township, NJ with really easy directions.

We could easily spot the diner with its red roof sidings, black and white checkerboard walls, neon signage and a big sign that read “Nifty Fifty’s” and below it said, “Taste The Memories”. What a cute little slogan for their restaurant, especially with the 1950’s theme! There was parking all around the permitter of the diner so it was really easy to find parking. Here is a picture of the restaurant viewed form the entrance:

image from their website

Attached to the diner is a miniature golf course; which unfortunately was closed during the time of our visit 😦 According to mini golf page on their website, the course is an 18 hole miniature golf course affordable for everyone. The cost to play is $4 for ages 5 and under; $5 ages 6-12; and $7 for ages 13 and older! The Turnersville location even has a dinner and golf package where one round of mini golf is included with a choice of: any Double Burger, Honey Grilled Chicken, Chicken Cutlet, Mushroom Chicken, 9 nuggets or 4 fingers, Fish Filet, Caesar Salad; french fries or onion rings; a soda and an ice cream sundae, or any milkshake for $14.95 per person. It sucks that we couldn’t mini golf but that just gives us an excuse to come back again 🙂

Now let’s talk about the real reason why I came here, MILKSHAKES! We went inside the restaurant and we immediately came face to face with their jukebox, how cool! A waitress greeted us and escorted us to our table. There were several awards displayed on one wall of the diner. You could tell they take pride for the recognition they received. The decor inside the restaurant matched the decor outside with the black and white checkerboard tiles with red booth seating. We told the waitress we were here for milkshakes and she gave us a separate menu and I couldn’t believe what I saw!

There was soooo many choices to choose from and I’m a very indecisive person. My two sisters chose an apple pie cheesecake milkshake, peanut butter chocolate oreo milkshake, and I chose a banana cheesecake milkshake. I couldn’t decide between a regular cheesecake or banana milkshake so I combined the two! Our milkshakes cost $5.19 each which is pretty affordable considering how much they give you. From the milkshakes we selected, you can probably tell these are no ordinary one flavor milkshakes. They are definitely one of a kind and can only be found at this place so I highly suggest you come check it out 🙂 So I end this post with a picture of my sorority sister Emma taking a picture of me taking a picture of my milkshake lol

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

-Elisa

Milkshakes from the 50’s!

Hi everyone!

Later on this weekend I will be making my way to Turnersville, NJ to visit a little family diner called Nifty Fifty’s. For those of you who have seen the movie Grease, have you ever wondered what it would be like to go to a malt shop, the local hang out place that was featured in the movie? Just imagine, an old 1950’s ice cream parlor design with a soda fountain consisting of numerous flavors to choose from as well as delicious treats such as malts and milkshakes. Well Nifty Fifty’s takes you back to the’50’s with their stylish decor, fresh cut homemade french fries, homemade milkshakes and fountain sodas, and tasty burgers!

image from Nifty Fifty’s website

The diner was founded by Leo McGlynn and his family in 1987. There are three locations: two in PA (Folsom, Philadelphia) and one is South Jersey (Turnersville). Leo always had a passion for cooking and loved creating new foods and milkshakes to impress his customers. He wanted to give his customers the opportunity to experience the 1950’s. Below are images from when Nifty Fifty’s first opened in 1987. All images are from their website.

Though I’m not a ’50’s baby I’ve always wondered what it would be like to experience the decade and how life would be different back then. Having a jukebox in the restaurant and being able to pick your own music sounds like such a cool and neat idea. I’m looking forward to going to this diner and trying out their food and experiencing the ’50’s!

-Elisa

Spring Break Trip

Hi everyone!

As spring break comes to a close, I figured I would tell you guys about my spring break trip and of course the restaurant I went to while I was on break! First of all, the original plan was to go to the Pocono Mountains for a ski trip. I checked the weather prior to my trip and it didn’t look too good. We went this past Tuesday-Thursday and it said it was going to rain the whole time during our trip 😦 I started going on panic mode. What am I supposed to do in the Poconos if we can’t ski! Welp! That’s what Google is for right? So like any American this day and age would do, I went to Google:

and clicked on the first link:

As I began my research of things to do, I discovered that a lot of these places were closed because it wasn’t spring yet and since many of these things had to do with being outside, the rainy weather wouldn’t make things better. So my boyfriend and I kind of just went with it and tried to think of things to do inside.

Tuesday afternoon we checked in at the Comfort Inn – Pocono Mountains. Then decided we would go out to dinner and watch a movie afterwards, cute little date night, I know 🙂 We decided on a restaurant called “Forks Family Restaurant“. When we looked at the menu, everything was reasonably priced for us being college kids and there was a variety of items on the menu. When we looked at the directions, we were surprised at how close it was to our hotel. 

Here are some pictures of the restaurant:

Picture from Forks Family Restaurant Website Gallery

Picture taken from TripAdvisor

Picture from Forks Family Restaurant Website Gallery

Picture from Forks Family Restaurant Website Gallery

For my dinner I chose a caesar salad and one of the restaurant’s dinner specials, bacon wrapped in pork tenderloin with a balsamic glaze and apple chutney. The entrée came with mashed potatoes and vegetables of the day.

After our meal, my boyfriend and I looked at each other and said “we have to come back here again next time we’re up here”. For a family restaurant, this restaurant was one good ass place. The service was really good and the waitress was helpful in suggesting items on the menu since we were first time visitors. If you’re in the Pocono Mountains area, I high suggest you visiting this restaurant! Afterward, we went to a movie theatre in Wilkes-Barre, a nearby town next to the town we were staying in. The movie we watched was “London has Fallen”, very good movie to see if you’re an action thriller lover like myself! After the movie, we drove home and went straight to bed.

The next day was the day we were supposed to go skiing. That morning I checked the snow report for Jack Frost Big Boulder:

COOOOOOOOOL. This was the main reason on why we decided to go up to the Pocono Mountains! To be honest, I was tooooootallly pissed like beyond pissed.

We still wanted to make the best of our time there so we went to our hotel lobby and asked the hotel employees for some help. They had pamphlets of activities to do around the area and we looked at each of them. There was a paper the front desk receptionist printed out for us that had local activities. One of the activities was bowling. I thought, “why not?”. Ryan, my boyfriend, and I have been dating for almost a year and we haven’t gone bowling together yet so why the hell not. We got ready for our day and decided to go to a nearby Subway for lunch then afterward we would go bowling. We chose a bowling alley called “Stanton Lanes” because they had a deal on Wednesday. Their awesome deal was 2 hours of bowling, 2 slices of pizza, a beverage drink, and shoe rental, all for $9.95. We definitely couldn’t pass this offer. Also the bowling alley was only a half hour from our hotel, also in Wilkes-Barre, like the movie theatre. We had a really great time bowling and kind of got a bit competitive, like all couples do when it comes to sports.

I take a look back at my Spring Break trip and regret nothing. Though I wish we could’ve went skiing, I was still able to spend time with my boyfriend and that was the ultimate goal of my trip. Not being able to ski this year just gives us an excuse to try again next year! Let me know how your spring break went and what you did! Also thanks for showing some love and viewing my page 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

-Elisa