Inside Fort Lauderdale

Tara Thai & Japanese Cuisine

Dennis — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 21:00:00 +0000

Tara is a new Thai and Japanese Cuisine restaurant tucked in a strip mall on East Commercial just west of the bridge. Its a nice space with green walls, black and green resin tables, track lighting and jazzy music playing. Its a pretty space with attractive but uncomfortable orange plastic chairs the only negative. There’s also pet grooming place next door so expect to hear some barking.

You can get take out here, but they’re not really set up for it. There’s no place to wait and there’s no front register. They do deliver with a $25. minimum.

I started with soup: the Tom Yum Goong which is a hot and sour soup flavored with lemongrass and lime with shrimp and mushrooms.

The soup was overpowered with lime without enough spice. Not a bad flavor, but not the correct one either. The soup included whole straw mushrooms and nice, jumbo shrimp with the tails on.

For the main course I had Red Curry Chicken which is served with steamed jasmine rice. The lunch price for this dish is $8.95.

The curry was smooth and had a nice taste. It was very mild; not as spicy as I expected. But I did enjoy it. The chicken was a bit dry and they used green peppers instead of red peppers; the red pepper in the picture was just a garnish. This kind of cost cutting is an annoyance, particularly when they’re charging more than most other places. Overall I liked the dish, but it could have been better.

Tara is a nice place with pleasant service unless barking dogs really annoy you. There are no bargains here, and it seems that they tend to temper the spice in their dishes. If you like your food spicy I suggest you specify it when you order.

Lemongrass Asian Bistro

Dennis — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 20:41:24 +0000

Lemongrass has 4 locations, and they’re yet another of the one size fits all Asian restaurants. They claim to be Thai:Sushi:Asian Noodles:Vietnamese, but they also have teriyaki and tempura dishes, so I guess they’re Japanese also. While its nice that there are more choices, the expectation of authenticity is diminished when the kitchen will cook you virtually anything from the far east. They also have wonton soup, so you can add Chinese in there as well.

Lemongrass has a bit of everything: a dining room, a sushi bar, and outdoor patio, and they also have a waiting room where you can sit and wait for a table or for your take out to be ready. I ordered one of their lunch specials, beef in a thai basil sauce. The first annoyance came early, as the price on their web site ($6.95) isn’t correct. Its $7.95. When I ordered on the phone, a women I could barely understand was asking what choice of something I wanted; but the menu doesn’t say I get anything extra. Finally I made out “spring roll”, so I ended up getting one of those also. Apparently its included despite no mention on the menu.

Presentation-wise, this is pretty good for takeout. I also like the fact that their containers separate the rice from the main dish so you can reseal it without having to deal with boxes. They used good ingredients, although it wasn’t very spicy. They gave plenty of beef, but the beef wasn’t tender. The spring roll just had cabbage and carrots in it and was just a waste of calories. It was an “ok” lunch but nothing I’d be interested in ordering again. I definitely wouldn’t order the beef again.

They do have a large menu here and they do deliver.

Andrews Diner

Dennis — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 15:00:00 +0000

Andrews diner is a small restaurant that always seemed to be closed when I drove by; they close at 3pm most days. It has big one-way mirrors as windows, and inside its a small place. There are 2 rows of booths and the servers kind of circle around you, filling coffee and dropping off orders. I found the place very uncomfortable. With all of the people circling around it just felt like everyone was watching you eat. Good service often includes leaving your customers alone while they eat.

I ordered my usual, and my server asked if I wanted sweet and low. I asked about Splenda, and she said they had it but she’d have to fetch it. She brought me back 8 packets. I almost laughed. The reason they don’t leave then on the table is so people don’t steal them, but then they bring you 8 if you ask for it. I ended up not using the splenda, but its useful to know that they have it.

The crowd in the joint was downright creepy: some pierced, tattooed dudes, an old gay couple, a group of ancient old ladies. Combine that with the feeling that everyone was watching me eat and I was almost totally creeped out. I was a bit put off when some regulars sat at a table nearby and they were greeted with a reading of the morning’s specials. Nobody read the specials to me. They definitely lose a service star for that.

My food was served in short order.

The eggs were slightly overcooked but nothing to get too annoyed about. The sausage was the supermarket freezer kind, but the home fries were fresh and well-prepared. They needed serious seasoning, but that seems pretty standard these days. The tiny coffee cup had to be filled regularly; why don’t diners just get bigger cups? They all give you all you want now, so there’s no point to a small cup.

I didn’t realize that the coffee was included; the total came to $6.67 with tax. It certainly was a good value. Too bad the place is so creepy.

Rocco’s Tacos

Dennis — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 13:28:24 +0000

Smith and Jones has closed, and Rocco’s Tacos will be opening this fall. The Big Time Restaurant Group in a partnership with Rocco Mangel bring their red hot brand to Las Olas Blvd. Word is that Rocco is headed to Mexico to buy furniture. I can hardly wait.

Panera Bread

admin — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 13:23:56 +0000

**** Coming Soon ****

There’s a sign in the window, so we know its coming. Of course Panera is also taking over the old Buca Di Beppo location and there’s been no work on the site in many months. So it may be a long time before we see anything here.

Easy Jerk Chicken Chili

Dennis — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 10:00:26 +0000

Jerk chicken has become a favorite of mine, and one day I just wanted to add a bit of meat to some bean chili I had left over and I realized that this was a match made in heaven. Sometimes great things are discovered completely by accident. The concept here is simple; instead of using the standard jalapeno or cayenne peppers for the heat, we’re using the scotch bonnet pepper that is inherent in Jerk seasoning. We add a little extra scotch bonnet, mainly because Publix sells them and they’re pretty cheap, to add some additional heat. You’ll need a dutch oven or other covered pot large enough to hold all of the ingredients.

Step 1: Marinade

The most difficult part of this recipe is remembering to marinate the chicken. You can either cut the raw breasts into chunks, slice the breast in half or buy thin sliced breasts. If you marinate a full cutlet the marinade won’t work as well. I bought the thin cut breasts mainly because they were on sale. If you dice the chicken you’ll have to brown it in a skillet before making the chili; if you use thin sliced cutlets you can cook them on a George Forman Grill. To marinate, put 2 teaspoons of the Walkerwood Jerk Seasoning in a ziplock bag with the chicken cutlets, work in the marinade to coat, and refrigerate overnight.

Step 2: Cook the Chicken

Take the chicken out of the ziplock bags and cook the chicken. Its going to cook a bit in the chili, so you only want to brown it without cooking it all of the way through. You want to sear the marinade into the chicken, so cook the chicken on relatively high heat. I have a variable temperature George Forman so I turn it up all the way and cook for about 4 minutes on each side. Some Foreman grills are not hot enough to sear. If you diced the chicken before marinading it or you don’t have a grill that gets hot enough, brown the chicken in the pot you’ll use to make the chili. When the chicken is cooked, dice the cutlets if you haven’t already done so.

Step 3: Assemble the Ingredients

Over medium heat, cook the onion, scotch bonnet pepper and the garlic in the olive oil until the onion is clear, about 3 minutes. Add the tomatoes, red beans and the black beans and the chili powder. I don’t measure the chili powder; I sprinkle it on until there is thin coverage over the entire pot. Stir the mixture until the chili powder is incorporated and then turn up the heat and bring to a boil. Once boiling, turn down the heat to simmer and cover. Get the heat so that the chili is just bubbling a little bit when the cover is on. Then add the chicken. It should look something like this at this point:

Final Step: Let it simmer

Partially cover the pot, leaving just enough of an opening so that steam can escape. You want the tomato juices to thicken into a sauce. Let simmer for 30-40 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes. Make sure you have a very slight boil.

That’s it. You can garnish with a bit of green onion but its really not necessary. You can add cheese or sour cream as well. Refrigerate what you don’t eat and re-heat for a quick snack. Its also great in an omelet with cheddar cheese.

Firehouse Subs

Dennis — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 19:08:37 +0000

Firehouse Subs is a yet-another chain sub shop to land in Fort Lauderdale; this one in the Harbor Shops shopping center. The narrow space sports fire engine red decor, with dalmation spots on the tables. They have just about every hot or addon-on sauce that you can think of.

You can get an 8″ or 12″ sub on either white or wheat bread, with an optional pickle spear. I’m not sure why the pickle is optional as they don’t charge extra for it, but I guess some people don’t like it in the bag. The place is staffed with kids, and ordering can be very mechanical. For example if you ask for a meatball sub to go, they’ll ask you if you want that to go. It’s clear they’re reading from a script.

I sampled an 8″ meatball sub on white. The bread is very good; soft and not too chewy. The sub is a bit different than you might get from your local pizza joint; its light on the sauce, and light on the cheese also. The meatballs are small and managable with italian spices baked in. They’re perfectly round, which implies they are from the freezer. Its not as impressive looking as the one on their web site, but for $5.95 it makes for a satisfying lunch. Note that they sprinkle “italian seasoning” on it, mostly oregano, so if you don’t care for that you might consider asking them to leave it off.

On another visit I ordered an Italian Sub. They have a new promotion where you can get “double meat”, which seems simple enough. But it proved to me a bit of a problem with an Italian sub. There was some serious banter between the cashier and the sandwich guy about how to handle it. I didn’t quite understand it all, but I think the default was to charge me extra for each kind of meat on the sandwich. Why can’t they just give you twice the amount they normally do? Isn’t that what double meat means? But they ended up giving me double meat and only charging me an extra dollar, so I guess it came out in my favor. As you can see, its a pretty well-stuffed sandwich.

Again, it comes with a pickle. Its free so I took it. While I can’t complain about the amount of meat in the sandwich, it just wasn’t that good. It just didn’t have the same flavor pop as the sub from Premo’s I had last week. The cold cuts didn’t have much taste. The tomato wasn’t ripe. It was just too bland for such a stuffed Italian sub. A real yawner.

Smokey Bones

Dennis — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 21:00:00 +0000

I’ve passed this place numorous times, and I never really knew anything about it. It looks like something left over from long ago; one of those old Florida joints that are way past their time. But its really not like that at all.

Smokey Bones is actually a large chain owned by Sun Capital Partners, who also own Boston Market, Hickory Farms and Friendly’s. Its actually a pretty nice place inside; brightly lit, open and not cramped. Their menu is quite extensive and its not just barbecue; they have a full menu with Ribs and Smoked meats only a part of it.

The entire restaurant has been retooled with new LCD TVs and its a big improvement over the old tubes they had all over the place. The dining rooms are comfortable for dining and also for watching the games from your table.

The bar area has 5 large TVS on each side with an extra large one in the corner that can be viewed from any seat on that side of the bar. The screens are close and viewing it clear and easy.

They have all sorts of regular apps like chicken wing and finger, but I didn’t come to Smokey Bones to order chicken fingers, so I ordered a 1/3 rack of St Louis ribs with sides of cole slaw and baked beans; the standard BBQ combo for me. If I said my server was gruff I’d be cutting her some slack; she was the most mechanically unengaging person I’ve encounterd in recent memory. She dropped all sorts of stuff in front of me without even a word; napkins, wet-naps, a setup, and a paper bag. I thought maybe she thought I wanted take out, but later discovered that the paper bag is for the bones. Apparently they don’t like to handle plates with bones, so you just load up your garbage into a brown lunch bag and then just drop it in the trash. Its all very elegant.

Finally, my order arrived.

They certainly don’t score points for presentation. The first thing I thought of was the massive portions I got for $10 at JAX House of Ribs; for $11.99 this seemed like a snack. It was really enough for lunch, but I didn’t take anything home either. The ribs were pretty good, a little dry and not fall-off-the-bone tender, but ok. The cole slaw was also pretty good; not too sweet with carrots and red cabbage mixed in. The beans were way too sweet; they just tasted like they were swimming in smoked brown sugar or molassas. They would have been good with less sugar. But I just couldn’t eat them.

On a subsequent visit I decided on the fish and chips, just because i was intrigued by their use of “Alaskan Cod”. It sounded fresher for some reason. My server asked if I wanted the large or small, even though there is no small on the menu. I’m calorie aware, so I took the small. As it turns out, the small is 1/2 the size for $6.99 instead of $9.49. Apparently its not just half the amount of fish, as the fries were a skimpy portion.

At least they seem consistent in their lack of presentation, and service was equally dull the second time around.

During Football Games on Saturday and Sunday and from 1pm to Close on Mondays they have some pretty good specials, including chicken chili nachos for just $7.95.

As chains go, Smokey Bones is an ok place to grab some lunch. Its the only BBQ I can think of where you can sit in a fairily nice environment and watch the news or a game. So if you feel like some ribs and don’t want to sit on a picnic bench with a bunch of rednecks Smokey Bones more than passable.

Stained Glass Pub

admin — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 19:28:00 +0000

The first thing you’ll notice about the Stained Glass Pub is that its not really stained glass; its just a clever paint job. You might think that the place looks like a cathedral, but its really not like that at all. Its a place thats virtually all old-time regulars. Most people in Fort Lauderdale have never been to this place.

Where to Watch Football in Fort Lauderdale

Dennis — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 19:21:38 +0000

Consider this the definitive guide to watching football in or near Fort Lauderdale. As a football enthusiast and blue bleeding New York Giants fan; I take my football seriously. One of the few things I don’t like about South Florida is not being able to watch Giants games in my pajamas with a big pot of coffee and a Sunday omelet. I’ve been to virtually every sports bar in a 5 mile radius. I’m going to lay out what I like and don’t like about each venue, where to go if you’re stuck without a car in particular parts of town, and also options for Sunday and Monday night games when there’s only 1 game and the NFL Sunday Ticket isn’t a requirement. Of course if you’re a Dolphins fan you can just stay home and watch the games on TV in your pajamas. So this guide isn’t meant for Dolphin’s fans.

I recognize that there are different interests in watching football. There’s the betting fan, who wants to watch all the games. There’s the out of town or relocated to South Florida fan, who wants to watch his or her team not named the Dolphins, and there’s the tourist / visitor fan, who is stuck at a hotel without a car and just wants to watch some football on Sunday. I’ll try to address all of those interests.

First, a general guide for those with transportation:

Duffy’s Sports Grill Fort Lauderdale

From a standpoint of overall experience, the “theatre” at Duffy’s Fort Lauderdale is the best place to watch all of the games. They have very large projection TVs “in the round” so you can literally watch any game from anywhere in the bar area. They also have Flat Panel TVs throughout the restaurant if you’d rather sit at a table.

The big negative of Duffy’s is the same as the positive; the big projection screens. The quality isn’t as good as sitting in front of a 50 inch TV watching your favorite game. If you’re an HD snob you may not be happy with the projection TV quality. But they are big. So seeing the game is not a problem.

Another positive of Duffy’s is that the food is good. The wings and burgers are good, and they have a full menu if your wife or girlfriend wants something more healthy. This place had bad ownership previously, but the Duffy’s chain took it over last spring and its now a first class operation.

Bokamper’s Sports Bar and Grill

If the price of gas isn’t an issue for you, Bokamper’s is probably the nicest place in range on an overall basis. Its just a really nice place. There are 4 big TVs on each side of the bar so if you have a seat its just like sitting at home. There are cute chicks working here in tight clothing. The wings are good. Its just paradise for wing-eating hetero sports fans.

The big negative is that its in Plantation, which might as well be Tampa if you’re at a hotel without transportation. Its not on the way to anywhere, but its worth a trip if you want a higher class place for an afternoon or evening out.

Champps Americana

Champps is a big place with decent food and service. The TVs are up on the walls and frankly some of them are hard to see if you’re over 30yo. I’d be apprehensive about coming here to watch a particular game as it might be on a set that I can’t see very well. But on Mondays they have 1/2 price hamburgers so its a popular option for Monday Night Football. They haven’t announced any specials during Sunday Football however, and their 1/2 price appetizer happy hour special doesn’t apply on weekends.

Champps is in an area near a number of extended stay hotels, La Quinta Inn and the Fort Lauderdale Marriott North. For the rest of us, its a bit off the beaten path.

Mugs Bar and Grill

If you’re closer to college age you might like Mugs, which is more of a college football bar than an NFL place. There are usually a lot of young people in this place. Its a big room with a poorly positioned bar that isn’t the best layout for watching multiple games. They have ok food. I’m not a big fan of the place, but they get good crowds for Florida college games.