Juicy Burger

I tried the Juicy Burger in Ballston Spa with my girlfriend. The food was decent, but a little pricey compared with Five Guys or Fuddruckers.

The menu is structured a little differently than either of those chains. The basic burger is $5.00 and does not even come with lettuce. It is simply a hamburger on a bun, nothing less, nothing more. There are condiments on the side if you wish. If you want lettuce or tomato, you will have to upgrade to the Build a Burger, which is $7.50. The Build a Burger allows you to load perhaps 15 toppings on your burger, from bacon to sauteed onions. Fries and a drink can be ordered a la carte; there are no meal options.

I ordered the Build a Burger with sweet potato fries, and it was excellent. It was either one third or one quarter a pound of beef, on a large roll. I found it to be a little greasy, but very tasty. The sweet potato fries were good, not excellent. They were covered in salt, which I found a little unnecessary. I was excited that they had sweet potato fries; Fuddruckers did not have those until recently and Five Guys does not have them at all.

My meal came out to a little more than $12. Fudds will give you the burger meal deal for under $10; Five Guys is also under $10. $12 seems a little unreasonable for a meal without waiter service. For $12, I would prefer to have a nice meal at Chili's or Quintessence.

Golden Phoenix

The Golden Phoenix in Niskayuna is the best chinese buffer in the area. Like all Chinese buffets, it is very sparse inside. However, there is a great variety of fresh food. If the food was healthier, and less expensive, I could eat there every week.

Not only is the food excellent, there is a large variety of it. Along with the favorites, such as sesame chicken and lo mein, there was also salt and pepper shrimp and pineapple chicken. There was also a nice selection of sushi, from the conventional California rolls to a sushi shrimp tempura roll. The sushi alone would have made a good meal. Add to it Chinese food and a Mongolian bar and I could have eaten well beyond satiety.

One problem I have with this place is that the Mongolian bar asks you to put on your own sauce, rather than putting the sauce on for you. I am not a chef, and I do not know the ingredients in many of the sauces, so I made my dish way too spicy for my tastes. Next time I will ask for the chef's advice before creating my dish.

I give the Golden Phoenix two thumbs up. The variety and quality of their food was superior to any Chinese buffet I have been to in the Capital Region

J Bob Barbecue

J Bob Barbeque is in a very humble building on Route 50 in Ballston Spa. You will recognize it by the bright red color of the building and the huge smoker outside. The parking lot may not be very full, but don't let that dissuade you. Despite the humble exterior, this restaurant serves up some excellent barbecue.

We had the sampler, which included pulled pork, ribs, wings, cole slaw, beans and corn bread. Everything was excellent. Since this is Tennessee style barbecue, it is dry rub and does not have sauce like us Yankees like are used to. However, J Bob does supply the table with three bottles of different barbecue sauces. The sweet one was my favorite. All of the meats were very lean and moist. I particularly liked the wings, which had a strong smoky taste. I was less fond of the pulled pork, which did not have much taste to it.

The cost of our meal was $26, which was a bit pricey for the pound or so of meat that we got. However, I did appeciate the variety of food. If we were looking for value, we could have both ordered pulled pork sandwiches at $7.50 each. Overall, we had a very good experience at J Bob.

Carl R's

I ate at Carl R's in Glens Falls, NY tonight on the way back from West Mountain. I give it very high marks.

To start, chips and salsa are brought to the table, free of charge. The salsa is full of large bites of tomato. It is definitely fresh made, unlike Chili's watery salsa.

I ordered a buffalo chicken salad which I felt was fairly good. My only regret was that the portion of buffalo chicken on the salad was rather small. The presentation of the salad was strong, with four celery sticks lining each corner of the plate. A large amount of grated cheese was put on the salad. The vegetables were fresh and did not taste like they came out of a bag. The salad was reasonably prices at around 9 dollars.

I shared a brownie sundae with a friend, which was also very tasty. The brownie was warm and covered in rich hot chocolate. The vanilla ice cream was very rich and creamy.

Red Robin

Tonight I had a Crispy Chicken Salad at Red Robin. Though the portion size was good, the taste of the salad was not as good as Chili's, or either Wendy's for that matter. The salad is perhaps not the best item to order at Red Robin.

Taste: the crispy chicken in the salad was a little dry, and the pieces were very small. I could have had fresher chicken on my salad had I got the salad at Wendy's. The other ingredients in the salad were of comparable quality to Wendy's and not as good as restaurants like Friday's or Chili's. The lettuce also tasted like it came from a bag.

Portion: The portion size was good, though not as large as Chili's.

Cost: $9.99 is comparable with other restaurants of this kind.