Zip's Diner

Since our travels today took us up to the wild and uncharted territory known as northeastern Connecticut,  we planned to stop at Zip's Diner, located at Rt. 101 & 12 in Dayville.  We went there once before, but it's not an area we frequent so it's been a while.

 First, let me (Jane) state that we are both big fans of diners in general.  The whole atmosphere is inviting.  And if you are out on a busy day doing lots of errands (which we usually are) and find yourself needing some lunch, you can usually find one within a reasonable distance from wherever you are where you can grab a quick meal that won't break you and is a step up from a fast-food joint.  Having said that, although we love diners, we try to not visit them TOO often because while the food is decent, it's not by any means what you call "healthy". Lots of fried stuff, salty stuff, comfort food. And no matter what you might infer from our reviews, we do eat healthy most of the time.

Anyway, what we've realized is that diner food is pretty much the same everywhere.  Mostly the same stuff on the menu, all pretty good.  You've been to diners, you know the score.  So I'm not going to review the food at Zip's even though it was good (except the frappes, they were exceptional).

What I AM going to review is Zip's itself.  The diner opened in its current location in 1954, and has a long and interesting history.  The place is bright and cheery, and very clean.  It has the added appeal of being open 6AM-9PM every day!  A lot of diners close at 2 or 3 in the afternoon, which is inconvenient because not all of us follow the same schedule.

We were enjoying our frappes and waiting for dinner...it was kind of quiet, a few diners in there...when in walked Paul.  As I said we are not regulars in that area, but apparently Paul is because everyone, from every single employee to several of the patrons, greeted Paul by name as if he was everyone's best friend.  He sat at the counter and was immediately served his coffee just the way he likes it, without even having to ask.  That's the kind of place Zip's is, and it makes you want to be a regular, too.

As far as I'm concerned, though, the real star of the show was Michelle, our server.  She waited on us both times that we've been to Zip's, and she's an absolute ray of sunshine.  I wish everyone who has that job could have her personality.

So yeah, go to Zip's.  It's a fun place and the food won't disappoint.  Ask for Michelle!

Dante's Kitchen

We love our lazy mornings at home, taking our time over coffee and tea and what-have-you, but once in a while we'll go out for breakfast (which usually turns out to be brunch, by the time we get our lazy selves out of the house), and so it was on Valentine's Day.  We'd seen Dante's Kitchen, 315 Main Street, East Greenwich advertised in the area magazines for quite some time, and it was on the list, so....today was the day.

When we got there, it was slammed!  Not really surprising, because East Greenwich seems to be a really hot destination for people who love to eat and no matter where we stop in, there's always a bunch of people who had the same idea.  The atmosphere was very cozy and welcoming, and despite the crowd the wait staff was right on top of things and got to us right away.  French vanilla coffee was our beverage of choice.  Lots of southern-inspired goodness on the menu!  After much consideration, Joe decided on the veggie breakfast burrito, which I also wanted but it contains scrambled eggs, which I can't do.  As there was no scrambled tofu option to replace the eggs,  I went with one of the day's specials, apple-cinnamon pancakes.  Joe was very pleased with the burrito.  It came with a side of home fries, which I DID sample, and even though home fries sound like a simple thing it's worth mentioning that Dante's Kitchen is really good at them.  I've had them overcooked, undercooked, greasy, too much seasoning, etc. etc.  but these were done right.  He also got a side of cheddar grits.  They were good too, I mean grits are grits but the addition of the cheese was an interesting twist.

My pancakes were good, and they (the pancakes themselves, topping notwithstanding) tasted different from anywhere else that I've had them.  I could be wrong but it seemed to me to be a marked lack of salt, which I feel is a VERY good thing. They came with whipped cream and some sort of caramel drizzled on them, so no syrup needed (IMHO). 

Only two things we didn't like; I'll refer back to a post Joe recently made on our Facebook page regarding servers.  When you order food, and the server says, "I love that!" or "Excellent choice" that's ok, but when you're in a crowded little restaurant and you can hear your server saying "Excellent choice" to every single customer he's waiting on, it kind of loses its meaning.  The other thing was that after our server brought our check, he kind of disappeared.  I mean, it WAS really busy in there and he wasn't standing around doing nothing, but it's kind of a pet peeve of both of ours; you were right on top of things taking our order and the food came out pretty quickly, but once we're done we want to go.  And don't you want our table for the next customer?

We liked Dante's Kitchen a lot, and will most likely go back.  The food was very good, and above comments notwithstanding, the service was good too.

Condesa Restaurante Mexicano

We love Mexican food.  Almost too much, if that's possible.  So we kept driving by Condesa, 721 Quaker Lane, West Warwick, AFTER we had already had Mexican somewhere else and saying, "we have to try that place". 

Well we finally made it in, and let's just say we both had mixed feelings.

To start, it's a little more upscale than the Mexican places we usually frequent.  The decor is nice, but I found it a little strange that in a place that is more "upscale" the seating reminds me of a more casual place you'd go to have lunch.  There are no booths, and the tables are situated pretty close to each other; we were seated next to a group of people who were pretty boisterous.  Maybe it's just me (Jane, BTW), but if I'm out to a nice dinner I want to be able to talk without yelling over my neighbors.  And the water tastes like bleach.  Yeah, I know, it's city water and that's the way it comes out the tap, but yuck.

The service was great, no problem there.  Our server brought us a big bowl of chips and four different dips, which was fun.  We each ordered a sangria; he the Classic 9 red, and I got the Peach Ginger.  Both were excellent.  Joe has a thing for tamales, so he got an order of the chicken & poblano.  He described them as "lame".  Could only taste the cornmeal, I guess there wasn't much chicken in there.

For dinner I went with the California burrito.  It was between that and an enchilada that also sounded good, but every time I get an enchilada I regret it.  Something about the wet, slimy tortilla I don't like.  So I went with the burrito, and it came on a plate smothered in sauce.  I understand "burrito"means different things everywhere, so maybe that's on me for not asking.  It was ok, that's the best I can give it.  And for $15, I feel like it should be more than just ok.  What it WAS, though, was enormous.  Two of us could have split it and been full.  Joe went with the Pollo Maya, which came with grilled veggies and chipotle mashed potatoes.  He was really happy with it, and I tasted some too.  Very, very good.  The price was around the same.

The consensus?  We won't be going back.  It's a nice place, but you can get better Mexican for a lot less money at a lot of other places.  I wouldn't say don't go there, it wasn't BAD.  It just wasn't for us.