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Duino (Duende)
Deserves the good buzz
Reviewed by Miss Molly on July 13, 2010
My parents wanted to take us out for my birthday and I chose Duino Duende. This was a risky choice because my parents' dining habits are determinedly myopic. In addition, my mom can't eat gluten or dairy and hates anything hot or spicy. Fortunately Duende posts their menu online so I was able to scope it out and discovered that it's planning is very allergy/sensitivity friendly! Little symbols accompany every menu item letting diners know immediately what's vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, or adaptable to those requirements. The menu has lots of items with which most people will not be familiar, but the waitress was endlessly patient and friendly answering questions. You can also easily save yourself some time and confusion by looking up the menu online beforehand. Our server was lovely - attentive but not hovery. The food was great, everything I had hoped it would be! Even my parents (who dislike food that is too "weird") loved everything, and mom was excited about how many gluten/dairy free options she had. I wish I didn't have to, but I can only give them two stars for ambiance. It was about 78 degrees outside (I just verified this with the National Climatic Data Center database), but inside it was roasting. There were very large, loud fans scattered throughout the space, but they didn't seem to do anything but make it very difficult to hear. We were all dressed in light summer clothes but still sweating profusely throughout the meal. After awhile we gave up trying to hold a conversation because it was too much of a strain to try to yell over the fan noise, and the waitress had to get right up next to my parents and shout to answer their menu questions. We had been intending to stay for desert but by the end of the meal decided unanimously that we needed to relocate someplace cooler and quieter. The whole evening would have been perfect if only we hadn't felt like we were dining inside of a Finnish sauna with a jet engine soundtrack.
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Bite Me Organic Pizza
Great pizza, bad service
Reviewed by Miss Molly on March 4, 2010
My boyfriend and I stopped here to order a take-out pie for dinner. Even though it was over an hour before their closing time the young woman running the front end was very vocally annoyed that we were there because it had been slow that evening and she thought she was going to be able to close up early. While we were there several other people called and stopped by to place orders and she was curt with all of them. The pizza was great, but we were very unimpressed with the young lady who was so irritated with all the customers interfering with her plans to go home early. While we sat waiting for our order she was blowing out candles and putting up chairs all around us, making sure we knew we were in the way. I can see how she might have been exasperated if we had walked in 5 minutes before closing, but this was far from the case.
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Asiana Noodle Shop
Love it!
Reviewed by Miss Molly on October 24, 2009
I have been here three times now and love it. The service is excellent - attentive but not hovering - and the food is reliably good and well portioned for good prices. I love walking down the stairs to the restaurant, I feel like I'm descending into some secret hole-in-the-wall! And this has nothing to do with the food, but the bathroom sinks are way cool.
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Bluebird Tavern
Finally gave it a try!
Reviewed by Miss Molly on October 24, 2009
We were really nervous about trying Bluebird Tavern. We don't have a lot of money and were wary of getting ripped off for the poor service and microscopic portions described in so many user reviews. But we finally decided to risk it last night, and I'm so glad we did! We ordered a roasted chicken and foraged mushroom bread salad built-for-two supper and were thrilled with the service, presentation, quantity, and quality. I wasn't psyched about the chef's choice starter which featured two of the only three foods I dislike, but I probably could have avoided that by mentioning my preferences to our server. The salads were large, fresh, flavorful. We chose the venison sausage and frites for sides and were pleased with both. The sausage was a little dry inside, but the flavor was excellent, especially paired with the relish of sweet/sour red cabbage and mustard seed that came with it (I think that's what it was). The frites were great! Crispy and intermingled with fried basil leaves, and came with savory malt vinegar aioli and their sweet, cidery homemade ketchup. The chicken, oh the chicken! It was so juicy and tender that we didn't need knives to cut it up. The flavor was perfect, just the perfect essence of roasted chicken saturating every bite. The bread salad and mushrooms were lovely, too. Mushrooms were firm and bread remained magically crunchy, not soggy, even though it was all drenched in delicious drippings. Even though we were full after all this, we decided to have a peek at the dessert menu and ended up ordering the cookie jar. While the idea was cute, we were least impressed with the cookies. If you're going to go for dessert, I'd try something else. Overall we were very, very impressed. Very satisfied. Very happy. I don't think we can afford to go regularly, but we'll certainly keep it on the short list of special occasion destinations.
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Depot Street Malt Shop
Frozen vegetables?
Reviewed by Miss Molly on October 11, 2009
Maybe it's my fault for ordering a grilled chicken salad in a malt shop, but I found my lunch very strange. The salad was described on the menu as being topped with a grilled chicken breast and blanched vegetables. I had no complaints about any aspect of the salad except that the "blanched" vegetables were just a handful of frozen veggies thrown on top - the broccoli, cauliflower, carrot mix you buy in a bag at the grocery store. That might have been tolerable except that they were STILL FROZEN. The warmth of the chicken breast had partially defrosted some of them, but those on the outskirts were still icy. Is it just me or is that odd? My boyfriend was perfectly happy with his chili and onion rings. The atmosphere is fun, but a little dirty. Our table was sticky and there was a lot of food debris on the floor. Our waitress was lovely. Very friendly, fast, and attentive without hovering. Overall, I guess I'd give it another shot but stick to the most typical diner-type dishes.
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Pho Dang Vietnamese Café -- Winooski
We love it!
Reviewed by Miss Molly on September 8, 2009
We have been to Pho Dang many times and it is our current favorite of all the local Vietnamese places. Sure, the ambiance is pretty much zero, but the food and service are great!
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