Hyderabad Indian Grill

Did you know that the population of India is 4.1 times the population of the U.S*, which means that Indian food is 4.1 times more filling than American food.

Today’s visit was to the Hyderabad Indian Grill (http://www.hyderabadus.com/).

For creativity and uniqueness I think that they have lots of different food options for everyone, including meals for kids with mild flavors, salads with flavorful sauces, and plenty of options for vegetarians. The food was very new to me and I have never had anything like it in my life, so because of that I give creativity/uniqueness 4.5 stars. The atmosphere was energetic and exciting with our server (Vamsi, one of the co-owners, I would highly recommend asking for him) taking us through the buffet. He knew what every item was, what was in it, and how it was made. This helped me understand and appreciate the food. If you know what ingredients are in it, and you know you like them, you will like the food better overall. The overall atmosphere was really good with Indian music pumping and the aroma smelling heavenly, it gave me the feel of being in India, not winter in Minnesota. The service was also good, and whenever we needed anything, they were there to give it to us. For the atmosphere I give it 4 stars.

The food I tried off the buffet was Naan, Chicken 65, Vegetable Coconut Curry, Samosa, Lamb Curry, Goat Biryani, Chicken Tikka Masala, Tandoori Chicken, Uttapam, Chole Bhature, and Aula Tikki Chat. The Naan was good with it being crispy and the perfect thing to have to balance the slightly spicy flavors that come with the food. The Tandoori Chicken was good with the meat being tender and delicious and the spices complimenting the meat perfectly, the skin isn’t tough, but soft. The Chicken 65 was my personal favorite of the night; the meat was tender and delicious, and the sauce and spices complimenting it perfectly. Like the perfect piece of chicken, which would be good on its own, but then they added sauce to make it heaven on a dish. The lamb curry was good with the lamb (which I have never had before) being tender and yummy. The sauces adding much needed flavor, melting deliciously into your mouth. The goat was good, but tasted funky and the meat was a bit soft. The Chicken Tikka Masala was good; the meat was tender and the sauces and spices compliment each other perfectly. The Chole Bhature was delicious, the chickpeas were cooked perfectly and were soft and delicious, the sauce being thick and making it so that your bite is always complete as long as you get some sauce. The Uttapam was delicous (rice patties with potato and peas in between the patties). The Uttapam was soft and savory which I did not expect, but was a welcome surprise. The Samosa was an interesting, but delicious bite. When I bit in I got lots of flavors with the most prominent at first being potato and chickpea, then after that you get, the breading. I give the food 5 stars.

The price of our meal was $40, and that is some of the most delicious food that I have ever had, so because of that I give their price 4 stars, which brings their overall rating to 17.5 stars.

clockwise (starting at the top): Naan,Uttapam, Chicken 65,coconut vegetable curry, Samosa,Bhature, Aalu Tikki Chat

*I got the population data from https://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&met_y=sp_pop_totl&idim=country:IND:CHN&hl=en&dl=en#!ctype=l&strail=false&bcs=d&nselm=h&met_y=sp_pop_totl&scale_y=lin&ind_y=false&rdim=country&idim=country:IND:USA&ifdim=country&hl=en_US&dl=en&ind=false and divided the population of India by the population of the U.S. and then drew my conclusion off of that.

Victoria’s

Did you know that Italian is the 4th most studied language in the world*.

Welcome to Victoria’s (https://victoriasmn.com/). The atmosphere was very fine and professional where everybody feels welcome. Our table was right next to a glass portion of a dividing wall with faux painting on the wall. The service was good, the instant you are seated you are greeted and are asked for your drinks and the are handed fresh bread. If you are smart while you are waiting (we had a 25 minute long wait) you will have your order ready to give to the waiter. Overall the atmosphere was a welcoming place for formal, casual, business, and family diners. I give the atmosphere 4.5 stars. I am going to try a new category which is creativity and uniqueness. Victoria’s is a unique place in Rochester because it has only 1 other similar restaurant in Rochester. The food at Victoria’s is good and their menu had a large selection of items you can order which sets it apart, although it does not have too many options that you wouldn’t find at another Italian restaurant. I give their creativity and uniqueness 4 stars.

The food we ordered was Gnocchi Pomorado, lasagna, meatballs and Chicken Parmesan. The gnocchi was good with the sauce to gnocchi ratio being perfect. The gnocchi was a bit too soft on the inside, which might not sound bad, but imagine you take a bite of gnocchi and the inside is chewy, so you swallow the sauce and then you just have slightly under cooked potato. The lasagna was good with the meat, noodles and sauce all aligned and the presentation was good with it all looking very professional. The actual lasagna was as well tasting as it was looking, with the noodles not being overwhelming and the meat taking the star of the show while the noodles were the supporting cast and the sauce being the manager of it all. The Chicken Parmesan was good with the beautiful chicken breading being the first thing that you notice, and then the sauce elegantly draping it making the Chicken Parmesan a “bellissimo capolavoro” (“beautiful masterpiece” if you’re too hungry to Google what that means). The Chicken Parmesan tasted like well… chicken. It was tender and juicy, when you take a bite of it the first thing that you get is the outer crust, which is soft and quick to dissolve in the mouth. Your mouth then gets the punch of chicken which is perfect in every way. After that the sauce is there like the most flavorful napkin wiping your taste buds. I give the food 5 stars.

Our meal cost $87.25 which I think is a fair price because the food was good, the restaurant was nice, and we had leftovers. I give the price 4 stars, which makes Victoria’s overall rating 17.5 stars.

*I got this info from (https://www.thelocal.it/20161027/love-food-and-music-why-italian-is-now-the-worlds-fourth-most-studied-language)

Top Pomorado Gnocchi
Bottom (L-R) Chicken Parmesan, Lasagna

Buffalo Wild Wings

Studies have shown that Americans eat about 18,000 wings in their life.* This means that each tooth in your mouth eats about 563 wings in its lifetime. When you walk into Buffalo Wild Wings (https://www.buffalowildwings.com/en/) the first thing that you notice is all of the TV’s – 26 to be exact. You then are seated, handed a menu, and asked what you want to drink. Their many waiters are always ready to answer any of your questions and you will be asked what you want to eat. The atmosphere gives off a very sporty feel, where I would go to watch a big game but not carry a serious conversation, or have a talkative dinner. I give the atmosphere 4 stars. The service is good with them always being ready to get you whatever you might need and being able to answer all of you questions, I give the service 3.5 stars. We ordered boneless wings with Teriyaki, sweet BBQ, and Asian Zing. We also ordered bone in wings with sweet BBQ sauce, fries, chips, and chicken tenders with sweet BBQ sauce on the side. The boneless wings were good; I tried a bite of the Asian Zing and decided it was too spicy, but I am a spice wimp. The sweet BBQ boneless wings are the mildest flavor that they have and is also my personal favorite. They are not too saucy and the meat is tender and delicious while the sauce gives it a nice sweet BBQ taste to compliment it perfectly (note the wings do cool off very fast). The Teriyaki boneless wings are not that good and the sauce is a bit salty. The bone in wings have good meat on them, but they are fatty and were not my favorite. The chips and fries are nothing special but that does not mean that they are bad, they are just average. Last but not least comes the chicken tenders, they were delicious especially when dipped in the sweet BBQ sauce the meat is tender and the breading is good, but they are not too different from the boneless wings. I give the food 4 stars. The price for our meal was about $45 and at one of their local competitors (Applebee’s) a similar meal was about $47. For the price I give it 4 stars, which gives it an overall rating of 15.5 stars.

Top (L-R) breaded chicken tenders with chips, bone in wings
bottom (L-R) fries, boneless chicken wings (top = Asian Zing, bottom L-R sweet BBQ and teriyaki)

* got the information from https://www.buffalowingsandrings.com/blog/275-16-facts-from-the-wonderful-world-of-chicken-wings number 13.

Hunan Garden

Some Chinese people* eat snakes, silkworm moth larvae, fried scorpion, dogs, and some even eat cats. When you pull into the parking lot you are faced with a big bland plain building and on the left is Hunan Garden ( http://www.hunangardenmn.com/ ) in bright red letters. As we walked in there were a few people picking up take out. You are greeted and are taken to your seat and are asked what drinks you want. As you order there is a waiter supporting all of the tables in addition to the waiter who is already serving you. After you eat you are handed fortune cookies; overall I give their service 4 stars. For the atmosphere you get a very lively Chinese vibe, with Chinese paintings lining the walls, with a wall splitting the dining room into two which gives you the feeling of privacy with the hubbub of conversation which livens the place up. Their menu had all of their 138 options labeled with some of the sections being chef specialties, chef suggestions and all of the meats being given there own section where they name everything that you can get with that meat. I give the atmosphere 4 stars. For the food we ordered chicken Teriyaki skewers (appetizer), General Tso’s, chicken with broccoli, pork majestic, beef and Lo Mein noodles, mandarin pork, and white rice. The chicken Teriyaki skewers were fried and the outsides were crisp while the meat on the inside was juicy and tender. The General Tso’s chicken was good and the sauce went perfectly with the meat, making it so that the tender meat you could taste but that it was not bland. Their pork majestic was… well.. majestic, with the sauce complimenting the pork and its breading perfectly making everything stand out. First you get the breading, like on a corn dog, next you get the meat tender and delicious, next the sauce which finishes off the balance with a nice pang of sweet. The beef and noodles were good but nothing special, with the beef being slightly under sauced and the noodles being noodles. The rice was good with the majestic pork sauce poured onto it, it had a nice flavor and texture with it being almost creamy but still had that classic rice texture. The chicken and broccoli was good (it is always one of my favorites at Chinese restaurants) the broccoli was a bit hard but good flavored and the chicken had no sauce on it but it was very soft and well flavored. I give the food 4.5 stars. For the price our meal cost $60.15 and at a local competitor, to get roughly the same food we ordered, was similarly priced at $54.35. I think the food was amazing, so I give the price 4 stars which gives Hunan Garden an overall rating of 16.5 stars.

* Some Chinese people does mean some, do not think that every Chinese person eats these foods. https://www.quora.com/search?q=do+chinese+people+eat+dogs . I was looking for unique, lesser known facts that sort of tie in to the food I’m eating.

Back (L-R): General Tso’s, chicken & broccoli, pork majestic
Front(L-R): beef Lo Mein, Mandarin pork, white rice

Smoak

The average human body is 55% edible meat* and so in honor of us the first place I visited was Smoak a B.B.Q. restaurant ( https://smoakbbqmn.com/ ). When you arrive at Smoak, the first thing that you notice is the aroma of smoked food as you enter the restaurant. When you enter, there is a waiter at the door who finds you a seat and seats you. Once you are seated a waiter arrives and gives you the menus. The next thing that you notice is the atmosphere: the smell, and the wood ceiling along with the bare piping running along the ceiling and the buzz of conversation which leads to a very happy atmosphere. For the atmosphere, I give it 5 stars. As far as service goes it was average, from the minute you walk in you are greeted, given a menu and then asked what drinks you want. All of your questions you have about the menu will be answered, and then you can order. For service I give it 3.5 stars. The food that my family and I ordered was the pulled pork, the chicken, the french fries, beans, mac and cheese, sausage, bacon, brisket, and ribs. My favorite was the chicken, which had a smoky flavor and extremely juicy which combined was heavenly. Another one of my favorites was the ribs which, while lacking in meat, the meat that was on them was juicy and fell off the bone. The french fries were good but a bit under seasoned, the beans were OK but slightly dry, the mac and cheese was nothing special. The sausage was splendid, juicy and melted in your mouth. There were four types of bacon: apple wood, jalapeno, brown sugar, and cherry cola. My personal favorite was the apple wood because it was crisp and it gives you nostalgia for the fall season, when you had a bite of that perfect crisp apple, which is now in bacon, which makes everything better. The brisket was tender but a bit too thick and, on the edges, the bark to meat ratio has a bit too much bark which will leave your throat longing for moisture. The pulled pork is good but a bit dry and too clumpy. The sauces was nothing special, so overall I would give the food 4 stars. For pricing our meal cost $106 for three and we got to sample pretty much everything that they had. Their only competition in town, John Hardy’s, to get about what we got (they did not have bacon, mac and cheese, sausage) was $82, but the experience at Smoak was exceptional. I give the price 4 stars which means that the overall rating is 16.5 stars out of 20 stars.

*This was obtained by math using numbers from determining how many pounds of meat is on the average human ( https://www.saveur.com/cannibalism-calorie-count/ ) and figuring how the average human body weight ( https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/earthnews/9345086/The-worlds-fattest-countries-how-do-you-compare.html ). I took the amount of edible meat on the average human (75 pounds) and then divided that by the average adult human weight (137 pounds).

Blog introduction

This is my (Tim’s) food review blog where I will sample Rochester’s (MN) restaurants from a 12 year old kid’s perspective. With this blog I hope to make the ultimate family guide to Rochester (and its surroundings) so that if you come here with your family or alone you will get to experience Rochester to it’s fullest.

For every restaurant, I will be rating it on a scale of 1 to 5 stars for service, food, pricing, and atmosphere to get an overall rating out of 20 stars. For the service I will be rating their in store service and also website functionality like menu, ability to make reservations and location details. For the food rating I will be rating their food quality and originality. For pricing I will be comparing the price of their food to the price of food of their competitors ex. burger at McDonald’s price compared to burger at Burger King’s cost and will also be taking into consideration the food quality. For atmosphere, I will be basing that off the overall feel of the room and aesthetics.

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