I've hitched up at Golden West at least a dozen times and the results have ranged from great to utterly retarded. It would be very easy to pick on the staff too, but it's Hampden... what can you expect? Instead, I'll just write up a short list of the good, the bad and the ugly.
The Good:
- half-price burger Mondays
- chili-cheese fries made with real chili (not that Hormel canned bullshit)
- one time they had a schnitzel special, it was splendid
- the men's bathroom walls are plastered with old LP covers that have been copiously vandalized with penis references; they always make me giggle when I'm peeing
- decent menu selection
- in recent years their notorious wait time has gotten much, much better
The Bad:
- half-price burger Mondays tends to yield sub-par results, YMMV
- the kitschy decor is kinda lame; it kinda makes you feel like the owner just didn't feel like repairing the "aged walls" and then he dumped a bunch of yard sale leftovers all over the place for decoration
- biscuits and gravy needs to be SAUSAGE gravy instead of mushroom gravy
- hot water and a tea bag sets you back $2.35, where as an iced tea is only $2.00... wtf?
- it seems that the bartenders usually never talk to you until you've been standing/sitting there for at least 2 minutes
The Ugly:
- the other day I had a multiple-mistake breakfast order: ordered eggs, sausage, biscuit and home fries but the cook decided to put mushroom gravy on everything for some reason... got the re-make order, but the eggs weren't cooked, and when I told the waitress again she didn't even respond and just took the plate back... in the kitchen they literally scrapped the eggs off my plate back onto the grill and then re-plated them, ridiculous... waitress seemed fed up with ME when she finally brought it back, and didn't even think to offer any type of discount or anything
- one morning I had the pleasant addition of a shard of porcelain in my hash browns
As always, those are just my personal experiences and I'm not boycotting the restaurant or anything. I do however suggest that you don't go during a busy window of time, like weekend brunch. It seems that most of their fuck-ups occur when they're at full capacity. Also, I've always had much better luck/service at the bar than at a table.
Golden West Café
1105 W 36th St
Baltimore, MD 21211
410-889-8891
www.goldenwestcafe.com
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Monday, March 8, 2010
SALT
To me the idea of opening a trendy, boutique restaurant nestled between several blocks of row homes in Butcher's Hill seems odd... then again if I lived there, I would probably think it was pretty cool. SALT (I'm pretty sure they don't spell it with all caps, but I'm going to because I don't want to confuse myself later when reading and wonder why I keep talking about sodium chloride) has been around for a few years, but it seems only within the last year that I heard of it, and even then it became synonymous with places like Pazo, where I have also never been due to it's "fancy" reputation. I'm only 27 after all and haven't fully embraced the idea of fine dining yet, so this journey to SALT was a culinary coming of age journey.
My partner had made us last minute reservations and from what she said, the restaurant was easily persuaded to shuffle us into their otherwise packed Friday night date book. When we got there, we were ushered in like pseudo-royalty, too (by this I mean that the maître d’ opened the door for us, personally "checked" our coats and then gave us a choice of where to sit... obviously I'm not very used to good service). Our waitress might have been the best part of the dining experience though, she was extremely helpful and interested in helping us with the menu as well as persuading me to try duck for the first time. Also she had a mega cute lisp and I thought of asking her to record my outgoing voice mail message, haha. The only thing I can fault her for was the tardy delivery of our free bread, but whatever.
As I mentioned, I got their duck special which consisted of tenderloin, confit, gouda orzo and topped with a cherry balsamic reduction. I'm a big douche and never order meat less than well-done, so I was a little afraid to eat all of the tenderloin because it was, you know... cooked how it's supposed to be. It was good though, and not oily or anything like I had heard duck can be. The real boner-maker on the plate was the duck confit though. It was like the best bacon/Smithfield ham I've ever had times ten. People should be "confit-ing" more meat, like all the time. Also, the portions were pretty much perfect as I was able to take down the entire plate and not feel bloated and gross. We got some chocolate-fudge cake with lavender(?) ice cream too, which was pretty epic.
All in all, SALT pretty much lived up to the hype that I had been hearing about it and was one of the more memorable meals I have in Baltimore. So if you've got a c-note burning a hole in your pocket and want to have a sexy-food dinner date, go make a reservation here. If the duck isn't on the menu, go ahead and order a plate of the duck-fat french fries, apparently they are pretty tasty, too.
salt
2127 E. Pratt Street
Baltimore, MD 21231
410-276-5480
Open Monday - Saturday at 5 P.M.
Reservations
Taken for parties of 2-8
My partner had made us last minute reservations and from what she said, the restaurant was easily persuaded to shuffle us into their otherwise packed Friday night date book. When we got there, we were ushered in like pseudo-royalty, too (by this I mean that the maître d’ opened the door for us, personally "checked" our coats and then gave us a choice of where to sit... obviously I'm not very used to good service). Our waitress might have been the best part of the dining experience though, she was extremely helpful and interested in helping us with the menu as well as persuading me to try duck for the first time. Also she had a mega cute lisp and I thought of asking her to record my outgoing voice mail message, haha. The only thing I can fault her for was the tardy delivery of our free bread, but whatever.
As I mentioned, I got their duck special which consisted of tenderloin, confit, gouda orzo and topped with a cherry balsamic reduction. I'm a big douche and never order meat less than well-done, so I was a little afraid to eat all of the tenderloin because it was, you know... cooked how it's supposed to be. It was good though, and not oily or anything like I had heard duck can be. The real boner-maker on the plate was the duck confit though. It was like the best bacon/Smithfield ham I've ever had times ten. People should be "confit-ing" more meat, like all the time. Also, the portions were pretty much perfect as I was able to take down the entire plate and not feel bloated and gross. We got some chocolate-fudge cake with lavender(?) ice cream too, which was pretty epic.
All in all, SALT pretty much lived up to the hype that I had been hearing about it and was one of the more memorable meals I have in Baltimore. So if you've got a c-note burning a hole in your pocket and want to have a sexy-food dinner date, go make a reservation here. If the duck isn't on the menu, go ahead and order a plate of the duck-fat french fries, apparently they are pretty tasty, too.
salt
2127 E. Pratt Street
Baltimore, MD 21231
410-276-5480
Open Monday - Saturday at 5 P.M.
Reservations
Taken for parties of 2-8
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