Despite living in the Lehigh Valley for most of my life, there are plenty of local eateries I've never heard of. Luckily, my shopping has taken me to all ends of the Valley and, thanks to a couple of drive-bys, some places have caught my eye. This weekend, after a Saturday full of spending, I visited Giovanni's Pizza in Fogelsville to sample their extensive menu of authentic dishes. Giovanni's has an extensive sandwich menu, including Veal Patty, Barbecue Beef and Cheesy Beef, which my brother opted for. I'm not usually one for anything beefy or cheesy, so I left the review up to him. It was …
Chinese food is one of those things that's hit-or-miss for me. It's not like pizza; pizza has two categories: great and good, but I've never met someone who found pizza they just couldn't have a second slice of. I have, however, come across plenty of Chinese restaurants that I swore I would never visit again, no matter how hungry I was. Sometimes it's just too greasy, too 'eh' for my taste. But it looks like I've finally found a local spot that lives up to my expectations, and plenty of other people's, too. I visited Evergreen Chinese Restaurant after a friend tipped me off to it, claiming it…
I enjoy eating Thanksgiving leftovers maybe a little bit more than I do Thanksgiving dinner itself. I look forward to turkey sandwiches and mashed potatoes for lunch instead of my usual cold cuts, but now, a week later, I find myself getting a little tired of leftovers. So, for this week's Bites, I decided to seek out the exact opposite of Thanksgiving dinner and found myself at Vince's Cheesesteaks, in the Wal-Mart shopping center on Mill Creek Road in Allentown. This local eatery serves up hearty favorites like calzones, pizza, hoagies, sandwiches, wings and, of course, cheesesteaks. I …
Comfort food is something everyone is familiar with, and when venturing out for mine, I usually look for the same two or three different meals and decide between them. But, on a recent trip to Cracker Barrel in Fogelsville, the franchise touted its new Texas Beef Brisket barbecue dinner. Now, being a BBQ fan and Food Network groupie, I figured it was time to step out of the box and give it a try and also give the Cracker Barrel's comfort food the once over. The Dishes: The Texas beef brisket and the roast beef dinner. What's On The Plate: Sliced beef brisket, Texas toast, french fries and …
Anyone who has driven around the Lehigh Valley might have caught sight of two tiny stands on Hamilton Boulevard or Tilghman Street. From afar, they might look like an abandoned produce stand or the remnants of a gas station, but these vintage-looking stands are home to one of the Valley's favorite coffee spots: Java Joint. Java Joint is proving to be the little coffee stand that could, earning the title of best local coffee shop for five years in a row as part of Lehigh Valley Magazine's Reader's Choice Awards. During the week of Nov. 6, Java Joint was offering the Hot Butter Toffee Latte. I'…
It seems to me that Wegman's and Subway have become everyone's favorite hoagie spots. But while that might be convenient, there are a couple of local hoagie spots that shouldn't be overlooked. One of them, which I visited this week for the first time, is Windsor Deli on Tilghman Street in Allentown. The deli wasn't too crowded on Tuesday when I visited, which was a good thing. It meant that my inability to decided which sandwich to choose wasn't holding up the regulars. Eventually, I settled on the Petite Turkey Club Pita, which offers turkey, bacon, American cheese, lettuce tomato and (hold …
A gluten-free diet used to mean saying goodbye to carb comforts like bread, pasta, crackers and cookies. But now, due to a heightened awareness of the gluten-free diet, most restaurants have adapted their menus to reflect customers looking to eat gluten-free. Still, there are few local spots that have the same kind of variety you might find on an Applebee’s or Red Robin menu. Luckily, thanks to new hot spot Relish in Upper Macungie, gluten-free eaters can say goodbye to gluten without bidding farewell to flavor. I’ve never been a gluten-free eater, and neither has the friend who accompanied …
Plenty of places boast that their dining is kid-friendly, or that a restaurant welcomes patrons of all ages, but at Rascal's Food & Fun on Ruppsville Road in Allentown, it's the truth. On any given night at this combination restaurant/family fun center, you'll find a family of four seated next to a group of teenagers enjoying a few appetizers as their parents enjoy a few glasses of wine at the bar. If you haven't been to Rascal's, picture it as a local version of the popular dining-while-gaming chain, Dave and Buster's. Rascal's is home to a casual dining restaurant, arcade games and …
Last week I was looking to catch up with a friend over lunch. We only had about an hour, and she's a huge fan of anything Italian, so we decided to try out Picasso Pizza in Trexlertown. Picasso's has an extensive menu, ranging from pizza and pastas to chicken dishes and entrees. In order to get a sample of everything on a tight schedule, we opted for some Italian classics, including tortellini, garlic bread and stromboli. Our garlic bread was lackluster. I don't know if I've just become accustomed to over-buttered or greasy garlic bread, but something about our serving didn't wow me. There …
I've been dreading the end of summer, mostly because I consider it to be the end of my favorite food season. I'm not ready to surrender my grilled hamburgers and corn on the cob. Luckily, thanks to Dickey's Barbecue Pit in Wescosville, I don't have to say goodbye to all my favorite summer dishes just yet. Before I give my foodie feedback; I have to give Dickey's credit for their atmosphere. The space is small, but the decor gives the eatery the look and feel of an authentic barbecue joint. The tables are covered in blue and white checkered tablecloths and the walls are covered in vintage-…
For this week's 'Bites,' I visited Joe's Pizza in Fogelsville. Most pizza joints are pretty basic; they offer your pizzas, strombolis, pastas, cheesesteaks, etc. Joe's offers all that and more. Poking around their website last weekend, I found that, besides offering traditional Italian fare, they have gluten-free menu options, the "colossal" 28-inch pizza pie and DIY pizza kits, which are available for purchase and can be made at home. The toughest part of visiting Joe's is deciding what to order; when they say they have a variety, they mean it. Ham and pineapple, buffalo chicken, …
I can safely say that, every week, I have at least one craving for Chinese food. I don’t know what it is about those little white take-out boxes that makes me keep coming back again and again, but for some reason, no meal will ever satisfy me like an order of General Tso’s or Sweet and Sour Chicken. Fortunately, the Lehigh Valley has plenty of Chinese food restaurants to satisfy my craving, and, up until last weekend, I thought I had tried almost all of them. But one local joint that I had overlooked was Panda & Fish, a Chinese restaurant located on Main Street in Fogelsville. So, in the name…
Lunch can get a little monotonous after awhile. Whether you’re being economically savvy and brown-bagging it or you always visit the same pizza place with a handful of your fellow co-workers, the same old thing can start to taste a little stale, no matter how much you like the menu. Luckily, Saladworks came to the Valley last year to help all of us in a lunchtime slump. The nationwide restaurant chain, located on Tilghman Street in Allentown, offers healthy and customizable soup, salad and sandwich offerings so that you won’t be stuck with a severe case of dining déjà vu. The Dishes: Autumn …
Lately, I’ve been noticing a lot of restaurants in the Valley that seem to have never caught my eye before: some pizza places nestled in between nail salons and grocery stores or hoagie spots in some of my favorite shopping centers that I just never seem to have noticed. One of those is Wild Rice, a hibachi/sushi/Asian cuisine restaurant in the Tilghman Square Shopping Center on Broadway in Allentown. I regularly visit AMC and Planet Fitness, but always seemed to overlook Wild Rice. So, for this week’s Bites, I decided to explore some uncharted territory and find out what I had been missing. …
I’m not a huge fan of fast food. Part of that comes from having a mother who frowns on any meal that comes with a toy, and part of that comes from the stomach aches I gave myself in college every time I thought a late night burger was a good idea. So, when a friend recently suggested we eat dinner at Trexlertown Chick-fil-A, I was hesitant. Even though she assured me that it wasn’t anything like its other fast food competitors, I was a little wary. But there was a little piece of me that missed the fountain sodas and fries, so I decided to give it a try, under the agreement that, if I hated …
It’s Phillies season. As a fan, that means a lot of things to me, including religiously following probable pitcher schedules and anxiously awaiting the post-season. But as a fan and a foodie, it also means that it’s that time of the year again: when I can indulge in burgers, fries, and anything with the word ‘buffalo’ in its name. So, for this week’s Bites, I decided to visit PJ Whelihan’s on Broadway in Allentown to celebrate baseball (and burger) season. Although I’d been there before, I decided to take on some new menu items. The Dishes: Buffalo Nuggets and the Classic Cheese Steak. What’s…
Chinese restaurants are typically hard to judge. You have to know someone that has eaten at a particular spot and can recommend it. There are so many there’s no way of knowing what the food is like unless someone else has taken the plunge. It’s like trying to find the best pizza place, one with both a crust and sauce you like. I had driven by Asian Bistros on Hamilton Blvd. by Air Products countless times, and even though I love Chinese, I just didn’t stop because, well, the building didn’t look appealing. They’re in an old converted quick stop place and it just doesn’t have any eye appeal. …
I get easily intimidated by Mexican restaurants and burrito joints, because I was always one of those kids (and still am) who doesn’t like their food to touch. Understandably, Thanksgiving has always been a bit of a struggle for me. Still, it’s hard to pass up rice and beans, spicy ground beef, or a burrito just because it’s got a little guacamole on it. So I left my picky eater at home this week and decided to go all-out at Cali Burrito, the Hamilton Blvd. burrito joint that has already earned a ton of local fans. The Dishes: The Sonoma and The Old Monterey What’s on the Plate: The Sonoma, a…
My income typically only allows me to dine at places that sell toys with their meals, but this weekend, I was itching to feel like a 23-year-old on the town instead of a 6-year-old in her car seat. So maybe it was fate when I saw the happy hour sign outside of Pistachio’s Bar and Grille on Cedar Crest Blvd. From 4-6 p.m., Pistachio’s offers half off their drink menu and select appetizers, so I grabbed a friend and we were able to get our money’s worth in a restaurant that didn’t have a play place. The Dishes: Chicken Satay, Margherita Pizza, Chicken Potstickers, a Sangria Martini and a Mango …
For a few weeks now, I’ve been passing the Bread Box on my way to the gym, and I’ve been slowing down and—rather creepily, might I add—peering inside for any signs of life. I might be on my way to work out, but even I can’t resist the temptation of a place with a name like Bread Box. Lucky for me and the handful of other passers-by that I’ve seen eyeing it up, the Bread Box opened last weekend. So naturally, on my way OUT of the gym, I had to stop by and check it out. The menu at this Allentown café isn’t unlike what you might find at Panera or Wegmans, but what makes it so unique is that …
