Tre Piani (Central NJ)

Rating:

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

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Positive:  Excellent fine dining experience with delicious food and superb service. 

Negative:  Not enough virgin cocktails, and the desserts are mediocre.

Overall: Great restaurant to visit when in the mood for a fine dining experience or for a special occasions.

Revisit:  Yes, especially for the steaks and burgers along with the ambiance.

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Ever wonder how it would feel to experience halal food at a fine dining restaurant instead of  just eating seafood all the time?

Well… Tre Piani offers just that! This place is perfect for celebrating a special occasion, having a fancy dinner with friends, or taking out your special someone. They have a separate halal menu that you have to request and they cook everything in separate pots and pans so you don’t have to worry about it being mixed with the non-halal meat. The service here is spectacular from the minute you walk in to the minute you leave. The servers are very well trained and they continuously come to your table to ask if you need anything, constantly filling your water glass. I’ve been there several times and the service has been spectacular every time. Tre Piani also has a catering service and I believe you could rent out a part of the restaurant as well to do a special event such as a graduation party or a birthday party for adults.

They offer a wide variety of food. The appetizers include fried calamari and different types of soups and salad. The entrees consist of Italian dishes, burgers, pizza, and some steaks. I have enjoyed their Tre Piani Burger (cooked medium well), and the filet mignon steak (cooked medium rare) the most. The portion size for the steak is perfect for one person. It is served with mashed potatoes and sautéed spinach. The meat was tender and juicy and I definitely recommended it medium rare for anybody who loves soft and tender steak. The Tre Piani burger was amazing as well. I would recommend getting it cooked medium well or well done rather than medium rare. Also, it is very big and heavy so only get it if you are really hungry. Otherwise I would recommend the smaller burger that they have on the menu.  Their italian dishes are truly authentic and delicious.  I don’t think you can go wrong with anything on the menu.  Please be aware though, the menu they have on their website is old — they have a newer, updated menu with more steaks at the restaurant.

I would really like to see a larger variety off virgin cocktails at the restaurant as they only have a mixed berry cocktail which is not worth nine dollars.  In terms of the dessert, I wasn’t that impressed. i tried the warm chocolate cake but I definitely like the Grand Lux molten chocolate cake better.

Compared to other high end restaurants, Tre Piani is not as expensive as you would expect. If two people go, and they get one appetizer, 2 entrees, and a dessert, they could expect to spend about a $100.
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Tre Piani’s Website

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Artichoke (Manhattan)

Rating:

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

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Positive:  Artichoke slices are great as are the Margarita slices.  The Sicilian pizza is the best!

Negative:  Make sure to tell the waiter to have your pizza cut with a clean cutter and don’t cross contaminate with their pork meatball sauce.

Overall: One of the best pizza I have ever eaten.

Revisit:  OF COURSE!

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want to try delicious pizza and don’t want to wait long?

I was in the mood for Difara’s Pizza but it was closed. That is a rare occurrence but the main problem of Difara’s is the amount of time you have to wait. I agree that his slice topped with fresh mozzarella and basil is the best I have eaten, but sometimes you just dont have the time to wait. I looked up a few review websites and lists online, and decided to try out Artichoke Basille’s Pizza. I saw that they were known for their Artichoke slices but I didn’t think I would like them given that I usually like simple toppings or plain slices. Nonetheless, because of the raving reviews on sites and the customers I met at the location, I decided to take the plunge.

I would definitely say that if I liked toppings or was in the mood for something unique I would love the large, artichoke slice. It reminded me of spinach and artichoke dip on pizza. However, I am a simple person and plain slices just do it better for me. Also, if it had tomato sauce, then I may have liked it better. I did however, really like their margarita slice which closely resembled Difara’s but did not get as far. However, when I tried their Sicilian slice my mouth was doing the tango and I thought it was better than Difara’s by far. They had lightly burnt the bottom, something they were supposed to do, in order to give it a burnt/bbq style taste along with the already delicious sauce, buttery crust, and mozarella cheese. Given the time it took to get the pizza and the taste I experienced I would go to this place over Difara’s any day. However, if Difara’s just sped up the process I would definitely go there for their regular slices.

The sicilian winner in my book, though, is definitely Artichoke. The other great thing is that they have a few pies already out and constantly being made so that you can grab a slice on the go (unlike DiFara’s) and not wait around for pies to be made. They also have three locations in Manhattan (East Village, Chelsea, and Greenwich Village). Overall this is a great restaurant to hit up when in the mood for excellent New York style pizza by the slice or as a pie. I have yet to review other well known establishments but so far this place takes precedence over Difara’s based on taste and the waiting time.

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artichoke’s 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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Matchbox 369 (Washington DC)

Rating: 

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

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Positive: Nice location and atmosphere with good desserts and brunch items.

Negative: The Pizza can’t compare to NY Pizza.

Overall: I wouldn’t come back to this place unless if I wanted to try their brunch menu or have some dessert with friends.  Beware of long lines!

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LOOKING FOR high quality pizza in dc?   try this place first.

I went to the crowded Matchbox restaurant located in a busy area of downtown Washington DC, Chinatown.  I had to wait 45 minutes to get parking and another 45 minutes for seating on a Sunday afternoon!  By the time I finally got seating I was thinking to myself that this pizza place better be worth the time and effort.  So now you may be wondering… was it worth it? Well it wasn’t! It was neither amazing nor bad though.

I will admit that the pizza was unique in that the one that we ordered had a spicy sauce but I didn’t think the quality of the cheese was that great. It also wasn’t warm when it arrived probably because the waitress was so busy that she forgot to check on the pizza.  Everyone knows the best pizza is hot with cheese dripping all over the place. Well that wasn’t happening. Another pizza we had ordered had potato chips on it and was pretty unique and decent tasting.  I, however, wouldn’t go back for the pizza. 

They did have a large non-pizza menu as well and maybe if you are in the mood to try something else there and you can withstand the wait then go for it.   The dessert was good but not great.  They had fresh cinnamon donuts which were great.  They came with a Cholula dipping sauce which may contain alcohol so be careful!  The molten chocolate cake was dry and cold – not something I expected or liked.  We did see that someone had ordered fresh cinnamon rolls from the brunch menu which both smelled greatly appealing and looked delicous.   On the bright side the atmosphere was nice so its possible to go there with friends.  Hey, after NY style pizza I dont think you can get anything better, except for chicago deep dish pizza or Papa Tomato’s in NJ.

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Matchbox Website

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