Cafe Euro

As you're all well aware, I've been on a never ending quest to find quality lunchtime spots. Thanks to a nice Groupon deal that Deana purchased we found this little Cafe tucked away in Parkville.

Cafe Euro is the perfect place to find yourself when it's been "one of those days" at the office. Inside, it feels very intimate with a few small tables and I really enjoyed the ambient electronic music they had playing. Do they live up to the title Cafe Euro? I can honestly say that it reminded me of some of the small cafes Deana and I visited on our way to and from train stops on our trip across the pond last fall and I really appreciated that.

On the day of our visit I kept it simple with a Ham and Cheese Panini and a cup of Black Bean Soup. The owner takes your order and makes your order. You have to wait a little longer, but I didn't mind. I'd rather wait 5 extra minutes for a sandwich made fresh than to have something put together knowing that the meat and cheese were sitting out in a bucket for the last hour. I'm not going to embellish and pretend that the sandwich and soup were life changing. Afterall, I had a ham and cheese sandwich and black bean soup and neither of them are very complex dishes. But with that said, they were tasty and would be able to satisfy any lunchtime visitor. 

But as good as lunch was and as relaxed as we were in the cafe what sold Deana and I on Cafe Euro was their selection of unique coffee. We ended up with a bag of apple cinnamon coffee that they freshly ground for us. It was great to wake up on weekends during the fall and start our day off with a freshly brewed cup of this stuff. I'd say it's about time I find myself back there for a little lunch and a new bag of delicious coffee. And if you're a fan of relaxing environments, good food, and great coffee you should find yourself there as well.

Price: Cheap

Recommendation: A must visit for a relaxing time and good coffee

What to Order: Ham & Cheese Panini and Coffee.

Potbelly Sandwich Shop

What are you doing for lunch?

I think I'm going to hit up Subway real quick.

If you're anything like me you've probably had that quick lunchtime back and forth a million times in the last decade. You're probably sick of always having the same answer and moreso you're tired of the same flavors. Fear not, for I have a solution and it goes by the name Potbelly Sandwich Shop.

Despite the fact that I was tired of eating the same old sandwiches on repeat, my craving for a good sub never abated. There were other options for a good sub local to me, but when you factor in turnaround time and price (almost as important as the food itself during lunch) my choice for a good sub were slim indeed. However, about once a week I venture into Towson to have lunch with my lady and that's how I first came across Potbelly.

As soon as you enter Potbelly you realize that this isn't your average fast food sub spot. The staff is always happy to serve you and the products they serve are quality. The bread is chewy and ends up with a nice toasty flavor when it finally makes its way through the conveyor. The meats themselves are always tasty. Turkey tastes like turkey. Ham tastes like ham. And the meat isn't weightless like some of the stuff you might be used to. You might not end up with a 12 inch sub at Potbelly, but you won't need it because you're eating real substantial food. My favorite part of any sub at Potbelly are the condiments. Without fail, I order lettuce, Italian Seasoning, Oil, and what they refer to as Hot Peppers. The Hot Peppers are basically a giardiniera and they bring a flavor to the sub you won't find anywhere else. Man, I can't wait until my next visit! The vinegar tang and spicy peppers are addictive.

What makes Potbelly especially unique is how they show they value the customer by repeating your order back to you in order to ensure that they are preparing exactly what you're asking for. It probably drives them nuts to endlessly repeat orders all day, but that small attention to detail really pays off. And it might sound like a small detail, but the fact that they offer chips that aren't your typical gas station stock also pays dividends with a guy like me.

I'm not one of those people who get so wrapped into work that they skip lunch or eat something insignificant just to hold them over until dinner. I need a good lunch and if I'm going to eat I want it to be worth my while. Potbelly has my back and they have made the idea of eating another sub for lunch exciting once again. The food is way above average and the staff is top notch. So today, when you're debating if you have time for lunch do yourself a favor and see if there is Potbelly nearby. Your tastebuds will thank you and before you know it you'll be looking forward to lunchtime again just like me.

Price: Cheap
Recommendation: Hit 'em up on your next lunch break.
What to Order: Turkey Breast w/ Swiss, lettuce, Italian seasoning, oil and hot peppers.

The Great Baltimore Pizza Pursuit 2013: Buca Di Beppo

The rules of The Great Baltimore Pizza Pursuit are simple.  Each category is worth 2 points (allowing for half points). The only pizza I'm considering is the basic slice of cheese. At the end of the year, the highest score wins the coveted Baltimore Bistros and Beer's Great Baltimore Pizza Pursuit title. This week's entry is surprise entrant Buca Di Beppo. Click here to see how the last entrant fared.

I wasn't planning on including Buca in the Great Baltimore Pizza Pursuit, but after tasting their stuff during lunch last week I thought they deserved a mention. A future review of Buca di Beppo as a whole will be posted at some point in the future. Please keep in mind that despite the picture showing 3 types of pizza, the only one under consideration here is the cheese pizza.

Droop Factor - It's a bit hard to score this one when it comes to Buca's pizza. The pie was fairly small and it wasn't cut into the traditional triangle pieces. Because of this, droop factor really doesn't come in to play and so I'm giving them a 1 by default.

Score - 1

Greaseification - This pizza was greasy, but in a totally delicious way. I've mentioned the fine line pizza walks between grease gross and grease great. Buca di Beppo's was grease great.

Score - 1.5

Aroma - I realize this category is kind of BS, but it's my party and I'll make stupid criteria if I want to. Pizza either comes out smelling fantastic, or it comes out smelling really good. Because the pizza we got came with two other types of pizza attached to it, it's hard to evaluate the sexy aroma of the cheese alone. To be fair, I'm also giving a default score of 1 here because I can't be sure that that I wasn't influenced by the meaty aroma that was the godlike pepperoni.

Score - 1

Cheese - Buca's cheese was extremely tasty. Salty, creamy, greasy, and delicious. The pizza was cooked just the right amount of time to the point that the cheese started to get those beautiful little browned areas here and there. Really tasty stuff.

Score - 1.5

Sauce - I REALLY enjoyed the sauce. I enjoyed it so much I hit the caps lock button when I typed really in the previous sentence. There was ample tomato sauce throughout. The flavor was bright and acidic and there was an underlying flavor of garlic that a lot of the other pizzas I've been eating could have benefited from.

Score - 2

Crust - Buca's crust was quite delicious as well. It was thinner than usual and I really enjoyed that. This is a pizza you can eat without feeling like you're eating a bread anchor. They put a nice brown on it and overall it was a crust well done.

Score - 1.5

Overall Score - 8.5  out of 12

As you can see, Buca Di Beppo scored very well. Without the default scores of 1 for a few categories, this one would be right up there at the top. I visited them during lunch break because I had a coupon and wanted a cheap lunch. I left surprised as hell at how much I enjoyed their pizza. Walked in with chain restaurant bias. Walked out thrilled that I can walk there from work any day of the week.

Bombay Nights

I want to apologize right off the bat for this review not being as detailed as I'd like. The day I attended Bombay Nights I went with co-workers as part of a "welcome to the team" kind of lunch. Because I was still getting to know all the new guys and girls I decided to keep my professional food blogging skills on the DL. However, I wanted to make sure I talked about it here anyway, brief though it may be.

If you work in the White Marsh/Nottingham/Perry Hall area Bombay Nights is a great place to get really good food at a really great price. During the week you can get a smorgasbord of Indian food for about $9.95. The buffet includes roughly 10 different options from curry to tandoori to tikka masala. There are also all kind of chutneys and sauces to mix and match with the variety of breads and crackers they have available.

I thought it was kind of funny that I had never had Indian food in my entire 30 years of life and then all of the sudden I was eating Nan (very tasty by the way) for the second time in a week. The fact that it was a buffet led to some of the food being a tad dry or not quite as fresh as it would be if it were being cooked to order but this was still an excellent deal. For a little less than $10 you can have a lunch that won't put you to sleep like the Subway Club you eat every day and you can do so in a restaurant full of beautiful decorations.

Price: Cheap
Recommendation: Visit for the lunch buffet ASAP
What to order: Lunch Buffet