Chart House Restaurant (chain restaurant)

Rating:

Quality, Taste, Cleanliness, Environment, Price, & Staff

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Positive: Excellent view of the water with a large array of seafood and delicious, warm chocolate lava cake.

Negative: Mediocre tasting food.

Overall: Large, high quality seafood selection with excellent ambiance. The food taste, however, is average.

Revisit:  Not again.  Despite the great quality and large selection the taste is just not good enough, and even the excellent ambiance does not make up for it.

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UPDATED APRIL 4, 2012:

I had the chance to try the Chart House Restaurant in Philadelphia overlooking the water and Camden NJ.  The restaurant had the same, excellent ambiance I remembered from their other restaurant in Northern NJ.

I enjoyed the Calamari appetizer and thought it was great.  The Macadamia crusted Mahi with Peanut sauce and Coconut shrimp with crab fried rice were both of excellent quality but the taste was mediocre at best.  In fact I thought I made them better at home.  The chocolate lava cake was as excellent as I remembered it from my prior visit.  Since the restaurant wasn’t as busy, the service was excellent and the server was very helpful.

Although the seafood selection is pretty large with many great things available for pescovegetarians on the menu, I would not be coming back due to the lack of taste. 

FROM APRIL 7, 2010:

Does your family always go to Halal only restaurants?  Are you tired of going to restaurants that always look run down?  Do you want to take your special loved ones to a nice restaurant on an important occasion?

If you answered yes to any of those questions then Chart House Restaurant is an excellent place for you and your family to try. More than half of the menu is seafood and everything tastes delicious.  The best part is that the food does not have a “fishy” taste as it is seasoned very well.

I recently tried this place with my family and absolutely loved it. It is located in Weehawken, next to the Hudson river, with the most beautiful view of The New York City skyline. They offer outdoor seating after Memorial Day Weekend, which is a great option to have. They also have a brunch buffet which costs $35 per person, a great price for the food and the unobstructed view of the city.

My family and I did not choose to do the buffet. We ordered the spinach and artichoke dip with crostinis for appetizers (this was one of the specials of the day) and we all loved it! We also ordered Clam Chowder which was great too but had too much clam meat for my taste. For the entrees we ordered different types of fish including the Macadamia Crusted Mahi Mahi with Coconut Rice, Parmesan Sea Bass with Fettuccine, and Flounder stuffed with Crab Meat. My favorites were the Parmesan Sea Bass and the Macadamia Crusted Mahi Mahi.I am really picky with seafood and this has become one of my favorite seafood restaurants as all the fish were fresh and tasted very good. We also ordered the coconut shrimp for an entree. For those that do not like fish, this is always a safe option. All the entrees were normal proportions and could be finished by an average person. They weren’t extremely large and sharing may not be an option if you are moderately hungry.

The last thing we had was the Chocolate Lava Cake which was just mouth-watering and is definitely a must have! (Although maybe the Grand Lux Cafe probably has a better tasting lava cake.) Just remember to order this with the rest of your food as it takes 30 minutes to make. Our waiter did not tell us about this until we were ready to order dessert. This was the downside to this restaurant. You pay $40-$50 per person to dine but don’t get that kind of service. Our waiter only came to us to take our orders and to give us our food. It was hard to get a hold of him because we would hardly see him near our table; he did not have many tables that he was serving either. He did not even come to ask us if we needed anything, something that’s expected from waiters at all restaurants. Despite the service, I highly recommend this restaurant because of the delicious food and amazing view of NYC. It would also be nicer if you go at night rather than the day.

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Chart House Restaurant Website

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S&H Kebab House (Philadelphia)

Rating:

Quality, Taste, Cleanliness, Environment, Price , & Staff

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Positive: Excellent Black Angus Steak with excellent ambiance in a great location.  Turkish tea and Baklava are delicious.

Negative:  Turkish food is average in quality and they serve grocery store quality pita bread rather than fresh Turkish bread.

Overall: Great place to go with family and friends, especially if you like steaks and appreciate great service and ambiance. 

Revisit:  Will definitely revisit them, especially when family and friends come to the Philadelphia area.

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Looking for halal steaks in philly?

I have had the chance to visit S&H Kabab house a number of times for dinner and lunch.  It is located on Pasayunk Road close to the busy South Street area by Penns Landing in Philadelphia.  This is a nicely decorated Turkish restaurant with great ambiance and good quality food. Not to mention their great service from kind staff.  They have black Angus steaks which are unheard of in the Halal food realm.  The steaks offered include New York strip steak, Filet Mignon, and the T bone steak.  I get them medium rare and find them to be very succulent and delicious every time I eat there. They are probably one of the best steaks I have ever eaten; I have yet to try Cairo Steakhouse on Steinway street in Queens, NY though.

The Turkish food is also good in quality but not as good as other Turkish restaurants I have eaten at in New York City.  It is probably somewhat better than Sahara Restaurant and Efes in New Brunswick, NJ. Their doner kebab and chicken sheesh kabab (which is very tender unlike what you find at other restaurants) are probably the best Turkish dishes they offer, but you can try their mixed platter which gives a huge helping of all their Turkish meats. Their portion sizes are good but the amount of rice they give is usually not enough for me.  I also tried their Turkish tea as I saw most customers drinking it and although I find Turkish tea to be too strong for me, I enjoyed their tea. Their home-made baklava is very delicious as well and tastes very fresh.  One problem is that their Pita bread is the frozen ones you can find at grocery stores.  However, their hummus makes up for it and is a great appetizer.

In addition to the restaurant decor, service, and high quality food, the owner is very friendly and came to check on us while we ate.  He also allowed me to pray at their restaurant in the back where they usually have their Hookah Lounge.  Another time I went, though, the owner was not there and the workers did not allow me to pray in the restaurant as it was raining and the Hookah Lounge is located outside in the back.
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S&H KEBAB HOUSE WEBSITE

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Related articles

• Al Basha (Northern NJ) (halalfoodcritic.wordpress.com)
• Bakhtar Halal Kababs (Queens) (halalfoodcritic.wordpress.com)
• Doner Kebab – Turkey (beatcancer2010.wordpress.com)

Burger.Org (Philadelphia)

Rating:

Quality, Taste, Cleanliness, Environment, Price , & Staff

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Positive: Good tasting kosher organic burgers.  There is also a large variety of other kosher meat entrees which include turkey, chicken, fish, and lamb.

Negative: Ordering time not optimal but food comes out quick.  

Overall: Great place to try great burgers if you are in the area or craving kosher meat!

Revisit:  I will definitely go again as there is no other place that offers good quality, tasty kosher burgers in Philadelphia.

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Looking for some good burgers in philly?

Burger.org is a Glatt Kosher restaurant located on South Street in Philadelphia. The setup you would expect at a burger joint is immediately apparent upon entering the restaurant.  There are multiple tables with bar stools and some with chairs. There are also chairs at  counter in the center of the store where you can order food and watch TV while eating.  You can tell that this is an authentically kosher restaurant as there are many pictures and relics reminiscent of the Jewish religion and culture, as well as the cook in his traditional garments. I also saw that one of the workers was praying on the side, making this a prayer friendly place although I did not ask to pray myself.

The menu is full of a variety of free range/grass fed organic meat (chicken, turkey, lamb, beef) for sandwiches and burgers as well as wild catch Fish dishes.  They also have a variety of vegetarian dishes ranging from Hummus to Salads and even veggie burgers.  Service is quick and the workers are very nice and friendly.

I had the chance to experience their popular El Mariachi Burger and Fried Chicken Sandwich.  The El Mariachi was delicious and included pico de gallo, guacamole, raw onion, tomato, lettuce, and chipotle sauce on a medium cooked patty.  The Fried Chicken sandwich consisted of a chicken cutlet and tasted fresh and was equally delicious.   The meat quality is good and you can tell that its organic as advertised.  I think the taste is great but it is not as good as Burger 7 located in Virgina.  Their sweet potato fries, however, were not good and may have been better if they were crispy.  I did not have a chance to try their regular fries.  I will visit again and try their other items, and will update this post accordingly.

I recommend coming here if you are in the mood for some good burgers and cannot find anything Halal in the area. Glatt kosher implies a stricter standard of cutting kosher meat as per about.com:  it must come from a kosher animal and be slaughtered in a kosher way. For meat to be glatt kosher, in addition to the two above conditions, the meat must also come from an animal with adhesion-free or smooth lungs. Overall I think this is a great place to go if you’re craving burgers and want to try something new.

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 Burger.org Website

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Ed’s Buffalo Wings & Pizza (Philadelphia)

Rating:

Quality, Taste, Cleanliness, Environment, Price , & Staff

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Positive: Clean location in University City with large screen TVs to watch sports.

Negative: Below average quality and taste.

Overall: Good place to visit for halal food if you are a college student in the area.  Otherwise look elsewhere. 

Revisit:  Nope

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are you a student looking for a quick bite while in university city?

Ed’s is located by University City and is in a great location for students at Drexel and Penn who are looking for a quick halal bite. I have been to this restaurant two times and since my visit earlier in 2011, they have renovated. The restaurant is very clean and has two wide screen tv’s, making it an ideal location to watch sports with friends.

But besides this, the food lacks quality and taste. We ordered curly fries, boneless chicken fingers, philly cheesesteak, and buffalo chicken cheesesteak. Out of these, only the curly fries were good. I do not recommend the other items. The chicken fingers were dry and hard with way too much buffalo sauce. The meat for the philly cheesesteak had a very strong meat taste and no flavor; there was more cheese on one half of the sandwich too. It just was not made well. As for the buffalo chicken cheesesteak, the chicken was dry and tasted too much like buffalo sauce. It didn’t have much cheese in it either. So all in all, I would not go back again and the only reason I went a 2nd time was because I had forgotten how bad their food was. Oh and make sure to ask them for the halal menu because not all their items are halal.
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Ed’s Buffalo Wings & Pizza Website

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