restaurant

Tuesday’s Treats #111

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Papa Jack’s Country Kitchen

Location: Flowery Branch, Ga

We’ve been to Papa Jack’s twice. The atmosphere is comfy and homey-like. They’ve just recently moved to a new location in Flowery Branch. Everything is nice and clean, free of clutter, trash and that time-layed grease to which many local restaurants fall victim.

The food on the first visit was amazing. We got veggies, salad bar, burgers and chicken fingers. Everything was delicious. They have a great salad bar, and all menu items are served fresh and cafeteria style. There are mostly tables and chairs for seating, but a few booths are available in the first room. They have great southern sweet tea, and the wait staff have a true Southern hospitality charm.

Our second visit was not as great as the first, but I’m hoping maybe it was just the time of day. Sometimes, cafeteria style restaurants can get hit with the “overheated, sitting too long” menu items. So, we’ll probably try them again, and I’ve been told by many to try their breakfast on Saturdays. They say the biscuits and the pancakes are to die for! Hmmm, I think I’m getting hungry. Maybe I’ll try them this weekend…

Here’s the website for the updated location and daily specials.

Tuesday’s Treats #110

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Luna’s

Location: Gainesville, Ga

Luna’s is great for a nice, romantic lunch or dinner, business meeting or any family gathering. It is white tablecloths and assorted silverware type settings; so, choose accordingly, but I do believe you’d enjoy it. My husband and I went here for lunch, and although, we don’t exactly start the day thinking, “oh, we’ll go have a romantic lunch date today,” we were on a lunch date, and we did feel romantic!

As you can tell from the pics, the presentation is beautiful. (The first pic above is the oil dip for the delicious bread they bring before the meal.) The shrimp and grits were amazing, and the burger was incredible! The key lime pie was absolutely delicious. It tastes a lot like the key lime we get at our favorite restaurant in Florida, and I think might know where they get it. 😉

The waiter was great and the restaurant was almost empty; so, we felt like we had the place to ourselves. We really enjoyed our lunch and will be back.

Luna’s

Tuesday’s Treats #109

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Nose Dive

Location: Greenville, SC

This place definitely has the urban cafe feel with its large, open air windows and cafe style seating. Their “subtitle” is fitting, “Urban Comfort Food.”

Honestly, had I read the menu before I took my two teenage sons here, I might would have chosen a different place, not because of the atmosphere. We were definitely intrigued. At first glance the menu didn’t have many, what I would call, “comfort foods” listed; however, they did have burgers and fries. So, that’s what we ordered, and we were so glad we did! They are delicious!! I also ordered Jasmine Rice, just because I’d like to taste it. It was another winner!

Next time we’re in Greenville, we will definitely stop by Nose Dive.

Tuesday’s Treats #107

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Midway Cafe

Location: Islamorada Key, Florida

Midway is a great little Coffeeshop located midway between Miami and Key West.

Tuesday’s Treats #106

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Burger Ranch

Location: Kiev, Ukraine

This place has amazing burgers! The atmosphere is really cool and comfortable, and the food is delicious. As you can see, the burgers they offer are very unique, but they do have “regular” cheeseburgers, too.

If you are American and plan to eat here, you need to be aware of one thing in particular: they will put sauce on our burger, regardless, if you ask for no sauce. Apparently, they offer sauce on the side; so, when you request no sauce, they interrupter this as no sauce on the side. The sauce that is put on your burger is meant to be complimentary. It’s actually a good sauce and is tasty with the burger, but it was a little comical for our party of 9 to come to this conclusion, as it took four tries for the restaurant to understand what a “plain cheeseburger” was. This concept was actually never realized in our visit, even after two translators tried to translate, “no sauce,” but rather than being annoyed, we chose to laugh it off and just eat the burger with the sauce “that wasn’t really a sauce.” 😂 The burgers and fries are just that good!! I’m sorry, I don’t have a pic. I higher I did but apparently not.

This restaurant is rather new, and the staff doesn’t seem to be very versed in much beyond what they are accustomed to; so, if you run into a difficulty as we did, I’d suggest just giving them a bit of grace. They’re new, and hopefully, they will learn differently. As I stated before, the food is delicious, and they have the potential of being a great restaurant. So, hopefully, they can realize what “no sauce” truly means before too many Americans visit and don’t like the additional condiment on their burger, because, again, those things are delicious!! 😉

Oh, and they have a really cool hand washing area, too. You can simply wash your hands here instead of holding up the restroom line.

I’m not sure they have a website yet, but here are a few “review” sites that will probably help you with location and other things.

Tuesday’s Treats #105

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Tsarske Selo

Location: Kiev, Ukraine

This restaurant is so authentic to Ukraine, and if you are visiting Kiev, you need to place it on your “must see (and eat).” The atmosphere is set in rural country inn or home, and as you sit at your table looking throughout the restaurant, you can almost imagine being in someone’s countryside home. It is very cozy and comfortable. The waiters and waitresses are all in traditional Ukrainian attire, and most evenings, there are a variety of singing groups who will come to your table and serenade a song or two.

The food is delicious, and if you can’t read the Ukrainian on the menu, no worries. Just flip it over for English; however, not being too familiar with authentic Ukrainian dishes, I opted to be safe and got the chicken Kiev. It was absolutely delicious! The lattes are tasty, and one in our party got the cherry dumplings and said they were scrumptious. The bread they serve before hand is tasty, but if you’re American, you may be surprised they don’t serve traditional dairy butter with it. They serve a beet horseradish, a very spicy mustard and a “butter” made from pig fat. This is, actually, a staple of Ukraine that came into play during their long years of famine. It is a little too greasy and not too tasteful for my liking, more akin to pure lard, but for the Ukrainian natives who were hosting us, it was an appreciated topping. They also serve before the meal small, square pieces of toasted bread with a pickle and a little square of pig fat (kind of like a substitute for bacon). The bread was tasty with a hint of garlic, but I skipped again on the fat square. It all definitely adds to the authenticity of the restaurant, and I wouldn’t change a thing!

In the evening hours, a groups of Ukrainian singers will come to serenade, and apparently, there are different groups. My husband was here in September, and there was a group of all men who sang traditional Ukrainian songs, and one man whistles like a bird. I watched the video, and it was amazing! The night we were there, it was a duet. The woman played the accordion and sang, and the man had a deep, burly voice and distinguished mustache. They sang strong and beautiful, singing of a handsome fella loving a beautiful woman.

It was simply a delightful evening, and I hope every time we are in Kiev, we might get to visit this restaurant. You leave feeling just a little more Ukrainian than when you walked in.

For more information, please check out their website and their Trip Advisor rating.

Tuesday’s Treats #104

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Ostannya Barykada (or “The Last Barricade”)

Location: Kiev, Ukraine

From the secret code needed to gain entrance into the hidden door to the walls covered in Ukrainian memorabilia, the restaurant surrounds you with the pride and patriotism of Ukraine. You cannot help leaving feeling like you’re taking a bit of Ukraine home with you.

The menu is in both Ukrainian and English; so, don’t worry if you don’t speak the language. Be sure to start with the warm bread that is a bread bowl with melted Brie inside. Oh. My. Goodness. Yum! It is rye bread of which I’m actually not a big fan; yet, when paired with the cheese and jam, it is absolutely delicious! The chicken Kiev and fried potatoes and mushrooms are absolutely incredible, as is the steak and cherry dumplings. We weren’t brave enough to try the mashed potatoes with catfish, but one in our party did get regular mashed potatoes, and they were quite tasty.

The whole experience is definitely worth the effort to find this hidden gem in the middle of Kiev. I found an article on the restaurant, and I will share it here, as it doesn’t seem they have an actual website.

Tuesday’s Treats #103

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Cafe Intermezzo

Location: Atlanta, Ga

This place is so cool! The atmosphere is different than the Coffeeshop I visited a few weeks back. It’s more of a “cafe” venue, but that definitely doesn’t take away from the enjoyable surroundings.

The desserts are amazing, and the coffee is so strong, it might get up and walk out on you 😂, but everything is delicious! They have a plethora of desserts from which to choose, and they have actual meals to order, as well, but we’ve only had coffee and desserts.

We ordered the apple pie and cherry pie ala mode. I had the Coccoloccino with white chocolate added. Oh. My. Word. Delicious!! The others in our party had the s’mores cheesecake, black coffee, and another non-alcoholic coffee, but I don’t remember the name, and I can’t find the coffee menu on the website. (Yes, they have a food menu and a coffee/beverage menu that’s like a book!)

The noise of the place was surprising a good him at about 10:30 pm on a Wednesday night, but it wasn’t overpowering. It was a comfortable atmosphere for our party of 7 to chat and fellowship for a while.

The special things around the cafe are what is so intriguing. They add special touches within each room to give it character. Like right near the bar area, just in the wall, three or four gold racks had been placed and a few newspapers were hanging. Coming from the restrooms, there were two huge mirrors placed on either side of the wall; so, when you stood there, it was as if your person went on forever. My son called it the infinity mirrors. Near the end of this post, I will post a pic that I rarely ever do for restaurants. I will post you a picture of the bathroom! They were so cool! They have the old fashioned, wood grain, Barclay Victorian style toilets. It looks like it’s right out of the scene in Godfather II. The ceilings had copper tile, and the time and attention they put into ever detail shows.

They have several locations within the Atlanta area. We had been to the Peachtree Street location many years ago and loved it. This might, we were at the Ashford-Dunwoody Road location. For more information, check out their website here.

Tuesday’s Treats #102

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Saltgrass Steakhouse

Location: Pensacola, Fl

This place is amazing. The atmosphere makes you feel like you just stepped into a true Texas Roadhouse (not the restaurant chain), and the steaks don’t disappoint! Which I suppose is pretty good; since, they have 67 locations and only 14 of them are outside the state of Texas! Haha.

Check out their website for locations and menu items.

Tuesday’s Treats #101

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DePalma’s Italian Cafe

Location: Dacula, Ga

We have been to the location in Athens years ago, but this was our first visit to the new Dacula location. The atmosphere is really cool, and the staff is friendly.

We ordered breadsticks, Caesar salad, chicken Alfredo, lasagna and pizza for our part of five. We were sure we’d have to-go boxes to take home; yet, these were all items we wanted to try.

They, also, brought “house bread” tot he table before the meal; so, we had plenty of bread and carbs! Ha ha. The house bread was homemade Italian, served with a olive oil/balsamic dish to dip. The balsamic definitely has a tangy kick, but it was delicious. I could have eaten the whole plate as my meal.

The breadsticks can be made with meatballs and opinions or spinach and onions, but we just opted for cheese. These were fresh made and delicious as well. As I mentioned before, this was a lot of bread; so, I was trying to moderate myself. The Caesar salad came just in Time, and it was scrumptious. The dressing was just right, and the romaine was crispy and fresh and the Parmesan just right.

Next came out meal that we didn’t think we’d finish because of all we had already enjoyed. My husband and son split the pizza. It was half pepperoni and half sausage, pepperoni, mushrooms and green peppers. As far as pizzas go, I do like a little thicker crust, but it was tasty and definitely worth ordering again. Our oldest and his girl had chicken fettuccine Alfredo with broccoli, and they said each of theirs was good. I had the lunch lasagna (with the salad), and although, it was definitely a different kind of lasagna than I’m used to, with its spinach, ricotta cheese and a small bit of meat all topped with bread crumbs, it was still delicious. Surprisingly, I ate the whole serving.

Yes, we did have a bit of leftovers, but not as much as I expected. I’d have to say, I have a few other favorite italian restaurants, but this one is pretty good. We’ll probably be back again.

To find out more, you can check them out online.