My Gordon On

I have a certain compulsion to rate / grade / evaluate all restaurants I go to. You see, it is in my genes to be this way. My Scottish grandfather has always been very critical of food; how it is prepared and the like. And, as you may already know, my chef-hero Gordon Ramsay is from Glasgow, Scotland. I have watched ALL of Gordon's USA and British episodes of Kitchen Nightmares, so I know what to look for. Because of that I am now a self appointed expert and I must get my Gordon on. I am compelled to judge restaurants.

And in my three years of marriage, I have picked up on my man's less than 100% enthusiasm for my need to get my Gordon on. I can see that it mires his own experience. So, I do my best to hold off on my comments. Now that I have a blog, I finally can reveal my inner thoughts and minutia that I accumulate during a dinning out experience.

So here it is....

... let's start with context first...

Lombardo's is know in Albany as the BEST Italian restaurant in town. You can see from the picture here that they have been in business for a while with their vintage signage. So, my man and I have been looking forward to going their for our 3rd anniversary.

The things that needed improvement:
The Menu
Mine had splatters of food on the pages. Uhmm, yuck.

The options were typical for an Italian place. I am sure you can guess.... Chicken Parm., lasagna, Chicken Marsala, oh - and fettuccine Alfredo. For prices for entrees go from $15 - $25, I want to see more creativity and fun options on the menu rather than the same-old.

General maintenance
The dining room is actually very nice. They've kept their 1920's charm, but there was woodwork missing around trims and the varnish on the booths needed some help. Again, for the reputation of the place and the prices, I expected more.

Service
The service was fine. Nothing outstanding. Things came, things went. I just didn't feel welcomed or taken care of, as I have in other places. I like to get a little chatty with the waitstaff and tell them of the special occasion that brought us to the restaurant. Our server last night, though, was all business and I could see he really didn't care what brought us there.

Salads
Italian cooking is about freshness and simplicity. Our salads came out with tomatoes that were green and obviously not something that grew within 100 miles of Albany. It was disappointing to me to be served a hard, tasteless tomato when at home we have 5+ luscious locally grown heirloom tomatoes on our windowsill. The same goes for all the veggies making up our salad. We might as well have been at some diner with them. I am ok with this type of salad in the winter, but come on... in the summer there is such wonderful produce to be had locally.
Then, they didn't even have a house dressing. The options were jarred things probably brought right off the Sysco truck.

Pasta
It's a Italian restaurant. How about some fresh pasta???? I don't want something out of a box that I could have cooked up myself.

Things that were good...

Our wine was quite nice.
My ravioli entree was very tasty.
The 1920's atmosphere. Wonderful wooden booths, tile floors.
The old push button service caller at our booth. It looked like a doorbell.

And, of course, celebrating our 3rd year of marriage together.

Overall, I prefer Bellini's (another well recognized Italian Restaurant in the Albany area) over Lombaro's.

Thanks for letting me get my Gordon on. I feel much better now.

First One - Ever

I've recently subscribed to a magazine called Good. I was inspired to start my own blog from a brief article in Good about Metblog.com. It's a website where about 10 people from 50+ cities throughout the world blog about their town. The concept is that folks would rather hear from their neighbor where to get the best sandwich in town rather than from some columnist or paid reviewer.

Sadly, there isn't a blog about Albany, NY to date on the site. So, I figured I could get started on my own musings about the area and how my life fits into the Capital Region.

And, I do know where to get the BEST SANDWICH in town is. I'll even drive all the way from my job by Crossgates for one of these beauties:

Andy and Son's Deli at 256 Delaware Ave., Albany

It's close to the Spectrum Theatre and on the same side of the street.

Their subs are just incredible. Great bread, quality meats, and surprizingly tasty combinations of flavors when you opt for one of their specialty sandwiches.

Also, you know you're in a real italian place when you overhear a customer debating with the clerk wrapping meat in paper about who is growing the best tomatoes that summer - as happened today.