🚀 go-pugleaf

quadrun@emanon.cs.jhu.edu (Jason Velasco) writes:

>But I do have to say, "been there" (well, not the one in Arlington) and
>PaperMoon's food blow's em ALL AWAY...

I like this place (the style, anyway), and Hopkins really needs something
to add life to the area, but...

I have a couple gripes from the second time I went there.  The first
time, a friend of mine ordered sweet potato fries, which I tried.
They were fresh cut into shoe strings, and I liked them enough to try
them a second time.  Well, the second time, what I got looked like it
had come preprocessed and frozen.  These were "fries" made of mashed
sweet potatoes, formed into the size and shape of mozzarella sticks,
breaded and friend.  They were cloyingly sweet (almost as if the
potatoes had been further sweetened, but it might just have been the
preparation), and the interior lacked any distinctive texture, being a
puree.  I will not order sweet potato fries again before asking what
I'm going to be served.

Also, my friend's hamburger was quite underwhelming, looking more like
something you'd get from Levering cafeteria than from a real diner.
He ordered it medium rare, but it was far too thin to really control
the way it was going to turn out.  There's no excuse for this that I can
see.  Even PJ's turns out a decent burger.

I tried their "Philly cheesesteak" (nothing like a real Philly steak, of
course, but pretty good) and their "Bird's nest" (turkey, alfalfa sprouts,
honey mustard, avocado, probably other things).  The latter was good, but 
I've not certain all the ingredients really balance each other or whether
it's kind of a gimmick.  The avocado (I suspect) tended to soak the bread
a bit, so it seemed like the concept might require work to get right.

I haven't tried their meatloaf.  The City Paper recommended this too, so
maybe there's something to it.

I only had dessert there one time.  It was cheesecake, which was not
bad (though I like having a crust on the bottom).  The milk shakes might
be good; the City Paper says they invested a lot of money in equipment.

The fact that it's open 24 hours and in walking distance of Hopkins,
and kind of cool without being pretentious or cliquish makes me
willing to forgive a lot of problems.  I just hope they don't start
cutting corners on food, as they appear to be doing enough business
at this point to get big heads about the whole endeavour.
-- 
Paul Callahan 
callahan@biffvm.cs.jhu.edu