Tomato Cafe in Fishkill, NY - Restaurant Review!

Greetings foodies!

Today we have a blog post about actual food for a change, instead of all this alcohol.  No no, I'm still drinking, everything is okay, don't worry!  It's just that occasionally, one has line one's stomach with food to absorb the alcohol, and this was one of those times.  A delicious time for that matter.

Tomato Cafe is located on Main Street in Fishkill, NY.  I had passed there many times before finally bringing the lady and me for a bite to eat.  We've been consistently impressed by both the quality of the food and the fair value of the restaurant.

When you enter Tomato cafe, it smells like a good old fashioned Italian restaurant.  It's worth noting that while they make many "standard" Italian dishes, the chef clearly has a flair for the original and gets rather creative with the specials - to great effect!

Garlic bread bites and good Italian bread  were served hot and delicious!

We don't usually order entrees when we come here, but this time was different and they brought us a nice bread basket.  The bread came out hot.  There were garlic bread bites and sliced Italian bread.  The spread we believe to be margarine, in case that matters to you.  The bread was yummy and served as a nice lead into the meal.

Red Robin Gourmet Burgers in Poughkeepsie, NY - Restaurant Review

Greetings foodies :)  Today we review Red Robin Gourmet Burgers in Poughkeepsie, NY.  Usually known as just "Red Robin", this is a chain of restaurants that offers a variety of burgers, sandwiches and similar fair.  They also have a reasonably stocked bar in their restaurants too.

Red Robin started many years ago as a tavern, and although the restaurants still feature a bar area, the main focus is their gourmet burgers.  They get pretty creative with how they make up the burgers and I have to tell you, they do a pretty damn good job of keeping the things interesting.  Let's take a look :)

Red Robin, like so much else, is located right off of Route 9 in Poughkeepsie, NY.  It's something of a juggle to get into the parking lot, as you have to drive around a few buildings and take a rather circuitous path to get there.  You also happen to pass a Five Guys pulling in - but no, it's not the one in the link, that one is down the road :)  Once you actually make it to the Red Robin parking lot, there is ample parking for all concerned, so that's always nice.

The entrance to Red Robin.  Time to go inside and chow down!

As we approached the entrance, one of the staff members held the door open for us.  It didn't hurt that they weren't mobbed, but still, it feels nice to be invited into a place and to be treated so nicely.  As a rule, they are friendly and polite as anything at Red Robin.  They must really stress making the customer happy to the waitstaff, because even if there is the rare issue with service, the interactions with staff are never anything but cordial.

Hudson Buffet in Fishkill, NY

If there's one thing I like, it's a good Chinese buffet.  As you know, I love Chinese food.  While what we in America call "Chinese Food" is often nothing like what the Chinese eat themselves - as I understand it, many of them subside on far simpler dishes and even the classic ones made for emperors are different based on American tastes - Chinese food still proves to be delicious, exciting, and for me personally, always a treat.  I could nearly always go for some Chinese, and this brings us to Hudson Buffet.

General Tso's chicken, Sweet and Sour chicken, Teriyaki Chicken, Green beans and Lo mein!

Restaurant review - Five Guys Burgers and Fries in Fishkill, NY

Oh.  Boy!

A Five Guys Burger with all the toppings!  Yummy!

This last Friday, I got to go to Five Guys Burgers and Fries (also known simply as Five Guys.)  If you haven't heard, 5 Guys is a chain of restaurants / fast food establishments that keeps it simple - hot dogs, hamburgers, fries, and drinks.  I know that my blog focuses on eating healthy, but really - who can't appreciate a nice greasy burger and french fries every now and again?  If you're one of us that can, I urge you to hoof it on over to your nearest Give Guys as soon as you can and taste what these guys have to offer!

Five guys started in Virginia as I understand it and they've spread pretty rapidly.  They feature fresh, never frozen beef for their burgers and they fry the french fries in 100% peanut oil.  Now, this isn't some gourmet angus free-range whatever nonsense burger.  It's a fast food burger, cooked well done (although I imagine they could cook it less if you asked, they're very amenable.)  The burger is good though - juicy, good tasting beef, pretty good if you ask me.  The fries are very tasty - if you've had the thick cut style of fries they offer, fried in peanut oil, you understand what they're offering.  Personally, I like pretty much everything fried in peanut oil, but that's a topic for a different day :)