RogueFood Talk

[laststandchili]

Drove by this morning and they're open. Does anyone know if this is part of the chain that operates in Jersey and in the Towson area? If so are they any good?

I'm sort of excited as it's the only "diner" near me, other than the Double T on Ritchie Hwy (which sucks ######). Don't want to get my hopes up. Maybe I'll get up early one day next week and stop in.

Vayo con Queso

[laststandchili]

http://www.washingtontimes.com/weekend/diningout.htm


Fine, I'll check it out myself.

[clothier]

well, if you're going to get all pissy about it.

[laststandchili]

Not me. No need to be pissy. I'll be having the Captains Breakfast, and maybe a $2.99 cup of Maryland Crab soup on the side.

Maryland crabs. From Maryland, The Free State.

Manly Deeds, Womanly Words.

What's in Maryland?

The Chesapeake Bay that's what. The worlds largest marine estuary.

Yep. Biggest in the world. That's Maryland.

[clothier]

Nothing wrong with that.

Isn't Maryland for lovers?

[laststandchili]

Virginia is.

Maryland is for crabs. Thank god for that cream and those little combs.

[clothier]

thanks for clearing that up.

[laststandchili]

http://www.estiatoronline.com/Current_Issu...tory_Nov06.html

It's a little bit of a chain, but more like a family restaurant with branch offices. Move this if you'd like.

I was prepared to be disappointed, but overall the Nautilus Diner was a good experience albeit one I wouldn't drive to far out of my way for.

It's a great big monster of a joint that looks pretty much pre-fab, but diners were pre-fab so that's ok. A lot of the interior finish work is actually very nice, stone work, and tile, chrome abounds. Immediately upon entering you're hit with the de riguer pastry case. Big. Everything is made on site. I didn't sample anything but will on future visits. Big. Pretty and sweet looking. All of it.

The menu is typical diner extensive with the addition of quite a few high end seafood and steak offerings. Not fried batter dipped seafood but, lobster, scallops, stuff like that, and quite a selection. Priced too dear for me to order in what is essentially a casual family dining establishment, but it might be ok. Otherwise all the greatest hits are there, but some are tough to find amidst the small print on some parts of a complex menu (a guy with ADHD shot himself in the corner while I was there), it took me a solid 5 minutes to find meatloaf with onion gravy. (get there while it's new, the menu's are spotless). It's there though, along with quite a few Greek dishes, breakfast served all day, pastas, sandwiches by the score, and of course the desserts.

Service was friendly and efficient and probably family. I think everyone in the place had an Greek accent, good way to ensure their product.

I had the open faced pastrami reuben with potato salad, SO chose the chicken souvlaki and we split an order of "fresh onion rings." The pastrami was very good, generous portions of meat, swiss, and sauerkraut on rye, thousand island on the side (in fact all dressings came on the side, nice). My biggest issue with the reuben was that there was too little bread, throw another slice under that mountain of meat and cheese for god sake. The potato salad was interesting, potatos were thin sliced and mixed with the rest of the usual salad suspects so the texture was a little strange compared to typical chunks or cubes, plus it was served at close to room temp.

The souvlaki was disappointing, but reinforced my first rule of dining: Order not the chicken that be not fried. We subject ourselves to far to many boneless, skinless breasts at home to order it out, and this one was, as is to often the case, dry. but hey, at least it was flavorless. I'm willing to bet the traditional gyro would have been a home run. The souvlaki was otherwise a nice sized platter of, a very serviceable greek salad and fries along with the pita, feta, cucumber and other assorted accompaniments.

The onion rings we split were ok, a huge plate of very large and perfectly shaped rings, so perfect I was concerned. I'm still not convinced that they weren't some kind of frozen variety that were simply baked. The devils rings. There wasn't a bit of grease about them and no seasoning. I considered asking for some grease to dump on them so that some salt would adhere. They were tasty, crispy and a good accompaniment to my rueben, but they were miles from a transcendent ring experience. Those can be so hard to find.

Vayo con Queso