Classic Fifties Diner Experience at Zoe's in Harvard Square

Tucked away in the basement level of a building on Mass Ave. near Harvard Square is a little gem of your all-American classic diner, Zoe's Restaurant. In addition to serving breakfast all day, Zoe's offer Greek cuisine in a retro atmosphere topped with chrome and vinyl, a jukebox, and flavored sodas.

For an appetizer, we decided to share an order of "Famous" Homemade Spanakopita ($4.49), or paper thin phyllo stuffed with spinach and Feta cheese wrapped in paper thin phyllo dough. We were a bit taken aback by the presentation--literally, we received a plate with one big fat piece of spanakopita.

Inside the crispy phyllo dough was a generous mush of spinach and Feta cheese. I liked the ratio between the phyllo dough and the spinach/cheese filling. I am glad we ordered just one serving because too much of it would have been a bit cheesy for my liking.

For my entree, I decided to go with Zoe's "specialty" of Mix'n Match Kabob ($15.99). I chose the beef and shrimp kebob. All kebobs are served with choice of potato or rice and vegetable.

The amount of beef and shrimp was just right for my liking! A true surf'n turf, indeed. The marinated chunks of sirloin in Zoe's special seasoning was tender and juicy, while the shrimp marinated in a light honey Dijon was plump. The kebobs were also skewered with vegetables like onion and bell pepper.

I chose to get rice on the side with green beans. The rice had some sort of tomato marinara sauce on top. I would have much preferred fresh green beans, but these were soaked in some nasty, oily red sauce.

It would be a shame to come to a diner and not order something from the breakfast menu. The Smoked Salmon Benedict ($11.99) had two dropped eggs with Atlantic smoked salmon and grilled tomato topped with hollandaise sauce on English muffin. These were served with homefries. I didn't try the dish but it certainly looked rich and filling!

 

Classic American Brunch at The Smith NYC

Brunch is my favorite meals of the week for two reasons. First, unlike breakfast, lunch, or dinner that occurs every day, brunch typically happens only once a week, usually on a Sunday morning. The rarity of its occurrence definitely makes it special. Second, I stay up late on Saturday nights and sleep in on Sundays, so I am often very hungry when I wake up. Arguably, food tastes so much better when you are hungry. 

Just a couple blocks from where I am living in Midtown, there is a restaurant called The Smith, a casual American Brasserie serving brunch, lunch, and dinner that transforms into a bustling bar at nights. The restaurant was completely packed when we got there around noon for brunch. We were seated about 20 minutes later. One thing I realized is that The Smith is definitely not the place to be if you are seeking a place to have a quiet brunch because it is extremely loud...to the point you cannot hear the music playing in the background or the people you are having conversation with.

The Smith was serving items from both the brunch and the lunch menus. The Lobster Roll ($25), served with a side of French fries, had a huge portion. The generous serving of fresh, plump lobster meat was mixed in with spiced aioli, diced tomato, scallions, and arugula. The bun was lightly buttered and then toasted. The French fries were very skinny.

As the name suggests, the Simple Scramble ($15) was a classic brunch menu with home fries, three pieces of apple smoked bacons, and egg white scrambles. I tried a little bit of the home fries, which had some spices and tangy seasonings.

I didn't want to start the day with a full stomach, so I ordered the Shrimp Salad ($21) with basil viniagrette on the side. The salad was served in a huge bowl full of avocado, fennel, tangerine slices, frisée, and plump shrimp. I liked the variety flavors in frisée (bitter, sweet, etc.). The salad had too much pepper in it though because it was really salty.

Because we enjoyed our first time at The Smith, we decided to check it out two weeks later. The Roasted Chicken Salad ($19) wasn't as colorful as the other one. It had arugula, apple, walnut, brie, and grilled onion.

I decided to have another classic brunch entree: Smoked Salmon Benedict ($19), which was served with home fries on the side. I knew the hollandais sauce would upset my stomach, so I asked the waitress to skip it.

The eggs benedict was served on a lightly toasted English muffin. It had an ample load of smokey smoked salmon, poached egg, and a sprinkle of basil.

I used to dislike egg yolk, but I really like it now especially in poached eggs. The way the egg yolk "pop" and seeps into the cracks in the English muffin is quite amusing. I am glad I didn't get the hollandais sauce because the egg yolk itself was rich enough.

All-American Brunch at Colby's in New Hampshire

On our way to the downtown area during our spontaneous trip to New Hampshire last Sunday, we asked the taxi driver to recommend what we should do in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

"Well, there isn't much to do around here," he said, "except eat and drink!" Well, that sounded just perfect. He named some restaurants that he liked, one of which was Colby's, which specializes in breakfast/brunch. While walking around the town, we ran into Colby's so we decided to try it out.

Will ordered hot chocolate, which came with generous amount of whipped cream on top.

If I wasn't allergic to chocolate, I would have loved this. It looked very rich.

I had The Down East Special ($7.99), consisting of two eggs any style, choice of pancakes or French toast, home fries, and choice of bacon, ham, sausage, veggie bacon, or veggie sausage. As you can see from my plate, I got two poached eggs, veggie sausage, and homemade cinnamon swirl French Toast for $1 extra.

The French toast was sprinkled with powdered sugar. I skipped the butter.

The French Toast was sort of hard to cut into. Unlike the ones I had in Korea, it was much harder and not as moist. It almost tasted fried or at least pressed really hardly on the pan. I poured a generous amount of maple syrup to make it more moist.

The taste of the cinnamon was so strong that I couldn't taste the egg on the outside. When I poured the maple syrup over the french toast, the powdered sugar melted and coated right onto the toast to add more sweetness. The French Toast was huge and very heavy because it was lathered with butter before covering it with eggs.

The veggie sausage tasted just like regular sausage...I really hope it was vegetarian!

The sausage was made with soy. It was crispy on the outside. I ate it with the poached eggs because it was too salty by itself.

The very bland-looking poached eggs. The egg yolk was cooked too much because I usually like it slightly watery.

Ash ordered two servings of blueberry & white chocolate pancakes ($5.99), also sprinkled with powdered sugar and a dollop of butter.

This pancake must have been the special of the day because it was written on a chalkboard rather than on the actual menu.

The little piece of pancake I had was quite delicious! It was fluffy and sweet. Don't tell my aunt, but it tasted better than her pancake at her restaurant in Berkeley ;)

Will ordered the same menu as I did, except with regular French toast, scrambled eggs, and bacon. The regular french toast was much thinner and smaller. I probably should have ordered that (and probably couldn't have finished it either).

In addition to the pancake, Ash had the Wester Omelets ($7.99) with ham, bell pepper, Spanish onion, and cheddar jack. The omelet came with a side of home fries and a choice of toast.

Tyler ordered the same thing as me and Will (probably the most popular deal!) with pancakes, over easy eggs, and bacon.

Although my mouth was happy while eating the breakfast, my stomach hurt a lot after probably because the restaurant used ton of butter and oil in its food...the French toast was covered in butter even without the added butter on top and the home fries, when I first took a bite of it, all I could taste was the margerine. Too heavy for my stomach to handle! :(

Judging from how packed the restaurant was, Colby's probably well-known in the area. But for me, I don't think I can handle heavy, American breakfast food.

Starting the Day with a Breakfast Buffet at the Seven Square

Hotel breakfast buffets are the most overrated, pretentious place ever because they provide mediocre, unsubstantial breakfast food at ridiculously exorbitant prices. While staying at the Plaza Hotel on the night before the WingSharers Conference, I dined at the Seven Square buffet on the second floor of the hotel.

Because I woke up at 5:30am, thanks to my jet-legged friend who arrived from LA that night, we decided to just go down to get an early breakfast at 7:30am. The hours are 6:30 to 10 am, and it looked like we were one of the first customers.

We were seated by the window, but couldn't see anything outside because the sun had not risen yet. Right as we sat down, the waiter asked us for coffee or tea. After sipping on my lukewarm earl grey tea, I sought out the buffet bar.

Before taking the picture of the buffet, I customarily asked the waitress if photography was allowed. She asked the chef, and he said as long as I am not disturbing the customers, it should be fine. Since it was early enough, there weren't very many diners. Score!

It was interesting that they had a salad bar at a breakfast buffet. There were seafood salad (but it looked like shrimp was the only sea creature...), olives, tomato and fresh mozzarella, and squash!

The squash was mixed with honey glaze sauce that wasn't too overpowering and topped with pumpkin seeds. I would have been happy with just a platter of these squash. The squash was slightly overcooked--just the way I like it because it is softer to chew that way. Some pieces were way too overcooked to the point they tasted jerky, however.

The overview of the buffet. See how there is only one guest? At first I thought the buffet just wasn't popular, but by the time I left around 8:30, it was much more crowded.

Fresh fruits are very expensive in Korea. Oh, how I wish HUDS would serve something like these in the dining hall! The fruit salad was a mix of semi-sweet kiwi, refreshing Asian pears, and not so special apples. The grapes were so big and fat, while the pineapple was sweet and juicy.

The rice corner...you could make a mini bibimbop with all the vegetables and kimchi. Koreans traditionally eat heavy breakfast to start the day right.

Pastries from a European bakery called Eric Kayser. The paper underneath was stained with excess butter from the pastry. Yikes. I had a bite of that orange mini muffin. It had a hint of pumpkin spice with walnuts. A little too dry for me.

Cereal and oats on top, sugared dry fruits, and nuts & seeds. I really miss having cereal for dinner...haha

Of course I didn't eat the cheese, but I took it for the sake of Mommy because she always has some brie cheese. It also reminded me of ancient Greeks gorging on grapes, wine, and cheese.

Baguette that you can slice from the table.

Different types of sausages and other meat. My friend said they had two types of bacons as well: crispy and tender.

There were pea soup and abalones porridge in the black pot with various toppings on the side. Porridges are sort of like the Korean oatmeal.

The waffles with whipped cream, blueberry jam, and maple syrup. By far one of the worst waffles I have ever had. They were extremely dry, bland, and chalky.

The pancakes were even worse...They were crispy on the outside not from being grilled just now, but from the chalkiness.

I was amazed to see how many different ways one could cook an egg! Steamed beaten eggs on the left, boiled eggs on the right.

Scrambled eggs and poached eggs!

The chef on top cooked not only omelet-to-order, but also rice noodle-to-order. For breakfast???

From left to right are some type of grilled fish that was so dry it tasted like it was grilled for 24 hours, hashed potatoes, bacons, and egg plant gratin that looked very unhealthy. Too heavy, too early!

My first plate included squash (inevitably), fresh fruits, fried rice, poached egg, and abalone porridge. The fried rice had grilled mark from the grill and the tossed sesame seeds added a new twist to the flavor. The egg yolk in the poached egg was half cooked and the creamy yolk helped to make the otherwise dry fried rice somewhat softer. The abalone soup was bland.

The plain yogurt with melons, pineapples, and watermelon. I wished the yogurt was more sour and creamier...where is my Greek yogurt?

Although the pancake and the waffle were horrendous, the French Toast was a delight! It had the fluffiest center that dispersed and melted in your mouth. Also the blueberry sauce on top added moistness to the toast.