Ichiban - an old favorite

Tonight I celebrated "Jewish Christmas" with my friends by going to Ichiban, a Chinese-Japanese restaurant with two locations in Albany: one on 338 Central Avenue and one on 1652 Western Avenue.  My friends and I met up at the one on Western Avenue, near Guilderland. 

Ichiban is one of my favorite restaurants.  I went there a lot when I first moved to this area seven years ago.  I frequented the Central Avenue restaurant then, since I lived in the Pine Hills area of Albany and did not have a car.  It was one of the few quality restaurants I could get to on foot.  I do not eat at Ichiban a lot any more.  I do a lot of my eating out with the "Dining Out" meetup.com group, and we go to different restaurants all the time. 

Christmas Day was an ideal time for me to visit one of my old favorite restaurants.  Ichiban is one of the few restaurants open on Christmas Day.  Once I pulled into the parking lot, I saw the place was packed.  The front desk told us the wait was five minutes;  however, we waited at least fifteen minutes to get a table.  The waiting area at Ichiban is not big; however, they do have a TV for those who want to catch up on local news. 

Once we got our table, it took awhile for us to get menus and finally, to get drinks.  Our waitress definitely had her work cut out for her tonight; there were a lot of tables that demanded her attention and she dealt with it the best she could.  Unfortunately, there was a bit of a language barrier between us.  She had difficulty understanding us, and we had difficulty understanding her.  This is typical of my experiences with the wait staff at Ichiban.  To her credit, she put in the orders correctly and gave all of us separate checks as we requested. 

When I go to Ichiban, I typically get one of the bento boxes.  I find them to be a good value.  They come with soup, salad, and the entree and typically cost under $15.  Usually, I get the Executive Box, which comes with chicken or salmon teriyaki, a california roll, vegetable and shrimp tempura and crab rangoon for $12.99.  This time I did not want the tempura, so I ordered a different bento box.  This one included salmon sashimi, a salmon skin roll, eel, and scallops for $13.99. 

First I got up to get my salad.  The Ichiban salad bar is not particularly impressive, but I suppose Chinese-Japanese restaurants are not known for their salads.  The salad bowls are quite tiny.  I filled my bowl with whatever was left of the lettuce, kim chee, Korean bean sprout salad, and ginger dressing.  It was very tasty and satisfying.  The miso soup was good.  Miso soup is a pretty consistent product though -- I have never had a bad miso soup. 

The entree was excellent.  The portion of salmon sashimi was quite generous.  There was maybe an eighth of a pound of very fresh salmon on my plate.  The salmon skin rolls were crunchy and delicious.  They had a sweet sauce poured over them which was very good.  The little scallops were also tasty, especially with the sweet red sauce that was provided on the side.  I do not like eel, so I gave that to my friend, and she seemed to like it. 

I wish I had ordered some Chinese dish so I could evaluate that too.  My friends ordered Sesame Beef, House Chow Fun and Dragon and Phoenix and those all looked good.  The portions were large and the dishes looked colorful and tasty. 

Ichiban has a lot of competition in the area.  Less than a mile down the road from the Guilderland location is Hana, which is a much bigger restaurant serving mostly Japanese food.  The Albany/Colonie area also boasts Emperor's on Wolf Road, Koto in Latham and others.   Ichiban rates well with its competition, offering a solid product at a reasonable price.  The service could be a little better, but I still consider enjoy going to Ichiban, even with so many other good Chinese/Japanese restaurants in the area.

Hannaford Sushi - Great for a meal in a pinch

In my blog, I generally like to cover only restaurants.  However, in some cases, I will cover supermarkets when I feel it is necessary.  One supermarket that goes above and beyond with their prepared meals is Hannaford. 

One of the best prepared meals to get at Hannaford is their sushi.  Hannaford offers many different types of sushi -- california rolls, spicy salmon rolls, spicy tuna rolls etc.  The ones that I get most often are the spicy tuna rolls.  These are offered with either brown rice or white rice.  They come in either eight piece ($6.99) or sixteen piece trays ($7.99).   I usually get the white rice, 16 piece trays.
 

Hannaford sushi is just as good as the sushi you get from a restaurant.  During the working day at the Wolf Road Hannaford (I am not sure about other Hannafords), the sushi chef makes fresh rolls for you upon request, assuming the roll you desire is not already in the refrigerator.  I tasted one of these fresh rolls recently and it was absolutely delicious.  The cucumbers, raw tuna, sesame seeds, and rice really come together to form one delicious combination of colors and flavors.  It is just as good as anything you get from Ichiban, and it is a bit cheaper.  In comparison, fourteen pieces of sushi at Ichiban or Hana cost $10 at least. 

Hannaford sushi is a relatively cheap, healthy meal to get if you are on the go and do not feel like cooking.  It is way better for you than the other options on Wolf Road, like Arby's or Five Guys.  If you are in the Wolf Road Hannaford during lunchtime, you can even sit down and eat the sushi while in the store.  Hannaford sushi is one of my favorite meals.  If you try it, maybe it will become one of your favorites too.  Bon apetit!

Paolo Lombardi's not so great

My girlfriend and I went on a meetup.com event to Paolo Lombardi's in Wyantskill.  map

The restaurant is very impressive from the outside.  The interior of the restaurant is very impressive as well, though a little cramped.  The main dining room has very large windows and feels very Italian.  The walls were decorared with garland for the holidays. 

Things started off great.  The bread was right out of the oven and absolutely delicious.  It came with butter and olive oil.  The bread was out of this world!  Our salads were also above average.  Oddly, Paolo Lombardi's only has two salad dressings -- house and blue cheese.  I got the house, which was very good.  So far, Paolo Lombardi's made a good impression on me.

I got a simple dish, chicken parm ($15.00), and I was not too impressed with it.  The portion was big which was good.  I was not a big fan of the sauce.  Perhaps I am not the best judge, because I am not a huge fan of Italian food to begin with, but I did not like the taste of the sauce.  The thing that hit me was the pasta.  It was cold and dried out.  There was a little meat sauce poured on it, but that did not mask its coldness and dryness.  I did not see anyone at the table finish their pasta.  Everyone else at the table liked their meals.  Everyone's portions did look very impressive.  However, I did not have the best experience. 

We were a large crowd, so oftentimes, we face slow service.  However, Paolo Lombardi's was overly slow.  The dinner was 2.5 hours from start to finish.  It took us an hour just to get our salads.  Paolo Lombardi's was not especially eager to do separate checks for the table.  They ended up doing separate totals, and that suited us just fine.  One of the waitresses was particularly unpleasant.  She told us that she is retiring this week and is glad to be hanging up her apron.  She said she just doesn't care any more.  Overall, the service was slow and not very friendly. 

Paolo Lombardi's gets a thumbs down from me, but, remember that there were many other people eating there and they seemed to like their meals.  My meal;  however, was average at best.  The bread was excellent though, and the atmosphere was very nice.

Footsy Magoos, a great new bar in Downtown Troy

I have a friend who lives in Troy and one of his new favorite places is Footsy Magoos on 17 1st Street.  I expected this place to be a dive bar;  however, I was pleasantly surprised. 

Footsy Magoos is in a beautiful old building in historic downtown Troy close to Monument Square.  The building is very nicely decorated, with some beautiful chandelier's hanging from the ceiling.  The bar is all wood and is beautiful.  There is a game room as well.  Especially funny is the men's bathroom, which has naked lady playing cards posted on the walls. 

To my delight, Footsy's has a selection of hot beverages, which is great in the cold weather.  I am not much of a drinker, so I just got a plain hot chocolate.  It was nothing fancy, just water and Swiss Miss in a cup with whipped cream on top, but it was nice to get a non-alcoholic drink at a bar.  Footsy's makes hot beverages with alcohol ini them as well.  I am told Footsies does not have many beers on tap;  however, they do have lots of bottled beer. 

Footsy's is a very nice place to spend a Friday or Saturday night.  There is plenty of parking in Downtown Troy so you do not have to walk too far to get to your car.  The bars are not as close together as in Albany or Saratoga so bar hopping is difficult.  However, Troy is developing a bit of a nightlife.  My friend is convinced Troy is going to become the next Brooklyn.  It appears like some of the pieces are falling into place.

Little Anthony's

To finish out my Public Speaking course at Hudson Valley, my professor ordered pizza from Little Anthony's on 1095 Central Avenue in Albany.

Little Anthony's makes a delicious pizza. I tried a piece of the 24-cut sicillian. It was absolutely delicious. It was doughy and cheesy and just really good. It was not too greasy either. I tried to restrain myself, as I had eaten poorly for lunch; however, I had to have a second slice. I was uncomfortably full later on, but it was worth it. ;-)

Paesan's used to be my favorite pizza place in the area, but now my favorite pizza place in the area is Little Anthony's.

Junior's

Tonight I ate at Junior's on Madison Avenue. Though this mostly is a college hangout, there is some decent bar food to be had there.

I had a buffalo chicken salad which was one of the better ones I have had. Served up in a huge bowl, this salad had cheese, some tomatoes and a large portion of mild buffalo chicken. The portion was way bigger than something Friday's or 99 Restaurant would serve. For mild, the chicken was a little spicier than I would like.

The only thing I have not liked about this restaurant is that the service is not very good. Perhaps they are understaffed because the waitresses do not seem to get much time with their customers. Perhaps they do not want to get in the way of their customers watching sports on one of the many TV's in the restaurant.

If you stick to the recommended dishes, like buffalo chicken, Junior's is a good place to go. It has a fun atmosphere and reasonable prices.

Scarborough's

I visited Scarborough's in Rotterdam this Friday. The atmosphere was warm, and the food was good, though the portions were a little small. Overall, I was very pleased with this restaurant.

The restaurant is in a strip mall on Altamont Avenue, convenient for Wal-Mart shoppers. Though the mall is sedate, Scarborough's does it's best to dress things up inside, with a large bar and ample wood furnishings. It feels like TGI Friday's would feel if it was not a chain.

The menu is all comfort food. Burritos, sicilian chicken and roast beef sandwiches are all on the same menu. The prices are reasonable, with many entrees priced below $10.

I ordered the turkey platter, which was delicious. Turkey, cranberry sauce and stuffing were stacked one on top of the other. The turkey was juicy, the stuffing was rich and the cranberry sauce was sweet. There was only a quarter pound of thin sliced turkey on my plate, which was not enough to satisfy me. However, you do get what you pay for. For $8.95, the portion was adequate.

I like what Scarborough's is about -- old-fashioned atmosphere, and down-home cooking at a reasonable price. I will definitely visit this establishment again.