Grand Lux Cafe (New York/New Jersey)

Rating: 

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

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Positive: Original and delicious baked to order desserts.

Negative: Very busy at lunch/dinner times and desserts take 30 minutes to be made.

Overall: Great place for baked to order dessert in a grand setting that must be tried if you come within 15 miles of any of the locations!

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craving donuts?  molten chocolate? strawberries?  pineapple?

Grand Lux Cafe is my go to restaurant for desserts whenever I am in Long Island, Paramus, or even Las Vegas. They have baked to order desserts which take half an hour to make so you have to order them when you order your entrees.

Let me start with the Molten Chocolate Cake. This is one of the best lava cakes i’ve ever had. It is served very hot with vanilla ice cream. What makes it really good is the quality of the chocolate that they use and the hotness of the chocolate liquid inside. Another one of my favorite is the beignets that they sell with 3 dipping sauces. Please be aware that one of their dipping sauces has alcohol in it so make sure to tell the waiter before hand!  These are also made fresh and are very warm. The only way I can describe them is that they are in between zeppoles and donuts. I recommend them highly if you are in a group of 4. For 2 people, these are a bit too much because I believe you get 6 for one order.

I have also tried the pineapple upside down cake which is not bad either and only recommend it if you are craving a pineapple dessert. The strawberry shortcake is also delicious for all you strawberry lovers. The ambiance of the restaurant is great as well. The decorations are very grand just like they say it in their name “Grand Lux.”  If you want delicious, baked to order desserts and live close by definitely try this place out!

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    Grand Lux Cafe Website

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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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Buddakan (Philadelphia, New York City, & Atlantic City)

Rating:

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

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Positive: Delicious Non-Alcoholic Drinks with Extraordinary dessert in a fine dining restaurant.

Negative: Small, expensive portion sizes without the quality expected in a high end restaurant

Overall: Good place for a fine dining experience if you only want to have their non-alcoholic drinks with dessert.

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Update (10/9/2011):

Upon visiting Buddakan again for dessert and non-alcoholic drinks I realized that they do not always keep the same drinks as they had changed them.  The two non-alcoholic drinks they had were Pink Lemonade and Ginger Soda.  I tried the ginger soda which was definitely a little too weird for me (I miss the Spirit and Passion Juice from my last trip).  However, the five spice cinnamon donuts and the soft, warm chocolate cake hit the spot!

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A Uniquely expensive Pan Asian Chain restaurant in New york, southern nj, and philly.

Buddakan is a high-end, Pan Asian restaurant situated in New York, Philadelphia, and Atlantic City.   I had the chance to visit the Philadelphia location in Olde City on Chestnut Street. I would definitely recommend having a reservation before coming here as it was very busy when we came. The service was exceptional and the server was also kind and tried her best in helping us pick the drinks and dishes.  The ambiance was extraordinary. The restaurant has two floors with various types of seating areas and booths to satisfy everyone. The upstairs portion seems more secluded and quiet, although there is a bar there as well.  The downstairs portion has a huge buddha statue.

This restaurant has various nonalcoholic drinks, including “spirit” consisting of thyme and a carbonated beverage, and “passion juice” (made of

pomegranate juice, cherries, blueberries, etc).  The drinks were a delightful addition to the restaurant and reminded me of Sushi Samba.

Reluctantly, the food here was ordinary and not excellent. The portion
sizes were pretty small and although the shrimp toast was unique, the
main shrimp entrée did not have enough seasoning to the core of the
shrimp and the Pad Thai was too rubbery for my taste. I didn’t try
their wide fish selection however.  Despite the main course not being that good, the desserts truly made up for it.  The five spice cinnamon donuts with various dipping sauces (chocolate, blackberry jam, and ginger cream cheese) and the warm chocolate cake were delicious.

Overall I would say that Buddakan is a great place to go if you are looking for a fine dining experience  and want to have some non-alcoholic drinks with

appetizers and dessert (I would probably leave out the appetizers
too).   The main entree are just not worth it.

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Buddakan’s Philadelphia Website

Buddakan’s NYC Website

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Surf Taco (Southern NJ)

Rating:

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

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Positive: Variety of seafood/vegetarian tacos and burritos with distinct sauces and tasty fillings that you won’t find anywhere else but California.

Negative: Located by the shore so it may not be as fun in the winter.

Overall: Good Restaurant to try if you like seafood and Mexican food.  (and you are tired of the typical Mexican food chains)

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update:  I went back a few times to the restaurant and had the burrito.  It was not as good as I was hoping.  Nonetheless the remainder of the food was still excellent, just as I remembered it.

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Tired of Taco Bell?

Want to try something similar but with more variety? Try Surf Taco, located in Long Branch, NJ and other beach towns along the Jersey Shore (such as Jackson, Belmar, Point Pleasant, etc).

Upon going there I didn’t know what to order as there were so many options for people that eat seafood and vegetarian dishes. They offer many shrimp and fish tacos, different types of burritos, quesadillas, and much more. I tried the Surf Taco and thought it was decent but not great because of the large amount of fish they put in it.  With that said, the fillings in it were delicious. I also tried one of their specials, a mango coconut shrimp taco which was just too delicious…I would go back just for that.  I have never had a taco like that before and have been tired of eating tacos with beans all the time.

You can also add some flavor to your tacos by adding the 4 different sauces that they have available, similar to Chipotle and Qdoba, but located outside the counter so that you can add as much and as little as you want. A mistake my friend and I made when we went is that we ordered additional nachos. All the tacos come with nachos already but we also ordered the Max dip loaded nachos. Even though they were amazing, our stomachs were way too full after eating 2 tacos each plus the extra order of nachos. I suggest you eat one taco if you want to get an order of loaded nachos.

I love Mexican food and this definitely is one of the top on my list for Mexican food. I will go back soon to try their burritos and update my review then. Another plus about Surf Taco is that it is located on the Jersey shore, so its a good place to go eat in the spring/summer and hang out at the beach afterwords. All in all, make sure you try this wonderful restaurant.

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Surf Taco Website

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