Hop The Tandoor Palace Train

Okay, the Tandoor Palace isn't exactly in Scranton, or even the Lackawanna Valley, but it is close enough. I mean we have spoken to people who have driven an hour from Binghamton, NY to Moosic just to satisfy their craving for Indian food at the New Amber Indian Restaurant so I feel completely justified in suggesting the forty five minute drive to Tannersville to sample Tandoor's Northern Indian bill of fare.

Cuba and I were traveling (hungrily) home from New Jersey and she was fiddling with the UrbanSpoon app on my iPhone as we drove along I-80 on our way back to The Electric City. All of a sudden she happily exclaimed that there was a well rated Indian place just a few minutes away. She tapped for directions and just like that we were on our way to the first of what will likely be many visits to the Tandoor Palace.

The Tandoor Palace is an interesting place. It is located adjacent to the Days Inn motel and believe it or not, one of the dining rooms is a converted train car. The photo I have included with this review is accurate folks. Once you enter the door, you will walk through a huge lounge room that seems to serve no purpose whatsoever and into one of the at least two dining rooms this labyrinthine restaurant has. I recommend sitting in the dining car for atmosphere. You will understand if you visit, because the other rooms are just...blah. If however it is a hot day and you are the type who doesn't like their dining room on the warm side, do not sit in the train car as the air conditioning doesn't really cool it off too well. The menu is extensive and has vegetarian, fish, and meat dishes as well as many varieties of Indian bread and soups. There are plenty of appetizers to tempt you as well.

After taking a bit of time, Cuba and I decided. I opted for the Palak Paneer, which is a rich ground spinach sauce with Paneer cheese cubes, and Cuba ordered Paneer Tikka Masala, again the Paneer cheese cubes, only her's was simmered in a special tomatoey sauce with onions, peppers, and delightful spices. The Palak Paneer was good, but Cuba, who always orders well it seems, was rewarded with an amazing meal in her Paneer Tikka Masala.

Two people can actually get away with sharing one meal in this place. The meals come with a generous bowl of rice to help sop up all that delicious sauce and as soon as you are seated, each table receives a nice, and refillable, portion of papadum, crisp wafers similar to flatbread, accompanied by wonderful chili sauce and tamarind sauce for dipping. We did, in fact, leave with a substantial doggie bag. Not only did we have two entrees, we also ordered some Keema Naan, which is a white pita-like bread stuffed with minced ground lamb. This naan had a distinctive lamb taste and was heavily spiced, so know what you are getting into if you order it. I personally love lamb, but I know it isn't for everyone.

The service at this place was fine, the waiters attentive, and the food served promptly ...piping hot. We felt as though the entrees, particularly considering the quality, were fairly priced in the ten to sixteen dollar range. I feel that it is worth mentioning that the restaurant was quite busy and I think it says a lot for the food that over half of the patrons I saw were Indian. The atmosphere is a little weird, with the exception of the cool train car room, but all in all it was a good experience.

We both really enjoyed the Tandoor Palace and would encourage anyone to go there. It is a short drive from Scranton and a convenient quick stop off of I-80 if you find yourself going to New Jersey, NYC or on the way to or from the Newark Airport. All aboard!

Tandoor Palace
Next to Days Inn
I-80 at Exit 299
Route 715
Tannersville, PA 18372
(570) 619-0068

It Happened at Osaka

It all started out with the best of intentions. Cuba and I were going to take a walk around Lake Scranton. We try to do this as often as we can. We have been on a roll too. Today was the first day we missed this week...but I'm getting ahead of myself. Anyway, the big plan was to walk the lake, then grab a quick bite, then grocery shopping, then home. Well, I came up with the bright idea of picking up our other car, which was in the shop, before the walk and the mere act of doing that, coupled with the prospect of driving two cars to the restaurant, then having to pick one of them up again later after shopping, and driving home separately at the end of the night...well it was all too much for Cuba to bear. She looked at me with those big green eyes and said "Let's just go for sushi and then to see Julie and Julia." How could I refuse her?

I have to be honest, neither of us were too excited about it, but we decided to give Osaka in downtown Scranton another shot. We used to really like this place. They used to run a half price sushi special on Sunday nights that we would go to once in a while. Then that became a little too popular with the college student crowd for our tastes. We never really loved the place, but we went there because it was consistent. Then they closed for renovations...for months. I must say that the place looks really lovely now. It hadn't changed much since the Robata days of the 80's and 90's prior to this recent update, so it was long overdue.

The new decor seems to have really brought in a young, hip, and attractive clientele. Both Cuba and I were struck by the amount of 20 and 30-something young women populating the bar and restaurant, and on a Thursday no less. These were not boozy barflies either mind you, and except for the ham-handed advances of the three aging and married Lotharios next to us at the bar, the ladies had the place more or less to themselves. Granite bar, chic decor, and eye candy aside, the food, and the sushi in particular, is lackluster at best.

We started off with some sake, and I had miso soup. The sake was hot, but the miso was cold. Strike one. We followed this up with some nigiri and three rolls. The nigiri we chose was saba, which is pickled mackerel, and hamachi, or yellowtail. We had spicy scallop roll, New York roll, and Lackawanna roll. I have to say that the scallop roll was okay, if not a bit too spicy. Scallop rolls are some of Cuba's favorite things to order at sushi bars, and this one fell squarely in the middle. We have had better and we have had much worse. The New York roll was a spicy broiled roll with Salmon over (fake) crab stick and tempura flakes. It was unremarkable but again okay. The Lackawanna roll is a deep fried creation containing eel, white fish, crab (real), salmon, scallion, and tobiko. Again, this heavily spiced roll was nothing special, but fine nonetheless. By this point you may be saying to yourself that this meal sounds perfectly fine if not a little ordinary. Well, the horror show is about to begin. Enter the nigiri. Strikes two and three.

The word "sushi" as you probably know refers not to the fish, but to the rice upon which these potentially delightful little packages are built. "Sushi" is a high quality, short grain rice that is dressed in rice wine vinegar and either formed into little balls for nigiri or pressed into sheets to enclose the rolls that we all love so much. The rice should be flavorful and of a consistency that binds it together so that it holds up to being transported from plate to mouth while remaining beautiful and intact. Osaka's rice was neither flavorful nor of the correct consistency. Our rolls and nigiri literally fell apart in our hands. The fish that topped our nigiri was no treat either. The hamachi had a waterlogged consistency and was full of connective tissue, which made it impossible to bite through. This stuff should be of an almost buttery consistency and a good portion of both my and Cuba's hamachi wound up spit out into our napkins. The last item that we had was the saba. Saba should be a beautifully colored, slightly oily, lightly pickled slice of heaven. Osaka's was not. It was gray and reminded me of pickled herring out of a jar, you know the one, ...way in the back of the fridge. I will not be having that again, ever.

In spite of the shortcomings, we did enjoy sitting at the bar, having a couple of beers to wash away the sins of the meal, conversing with each other, and people watching. I am sure we will go to Osaka for drinks again one day, but we will leave the sushi to places more qualified for the job, like Katana in Wilkes Barre for example. I want to love this place, I really do. It is close to home, and easy on the eyes. Maybe tonight was just a bad night. Was it? Please let me know what you think.

Osaka
224 Adams Avenue
Scranton, PA 18503
(570) 341-9600

Good Eats on the Cheap

Cuba and I had only been home for one day. We spent the last week on a "vacation" that left us more exhausted than refreshed and were having difficulty reconciling ourselves to having to run off to Wegman's to stock up the kitchen and (God forbid) cook up something for dinner. Seeing the trip as unavoidable, we jumped in the car and headed off to Dickson City. Then, as we rocketed past TGI Fridays we saw it... the answer... the perfect solution... Five Guys Burgers and Fries!

This was not our first visit to Five Guys, nor will it be our last. The burgers at this place are great. Now I do not want to give anyone the impression that these beauties are going to be anything on the level of a Kobe burger from Coopers, but Five Guys burgers are delicious, fresh, quickly prepared, and they start at $3.29. That, frugal reader, is worth a few bonus points. Judging by the wall hangings in the restaurant, Five Guys has received their share of accolades. This is a chain restaurant and its walls are festooned with laminated newspapers from such exotic locales as Columbia, South Carolina and Wilmington, Delaware declaring Five Guys as "Fine Dining of Hamburgers" and "Best Burger in Delaware" among other achievements.

The menu is simple and satisfying. The burgers come in basically two varieties, the regular size which comes with two fresh, never frozen patties, and the "little", with a single patty. Having chosen a size, one can add bacon and or cheese for an additional cost , and from there on out, it is all about customization with fifteen additional toppings available at no charge. The toppings include the usual suspects plus A-1 sauce, Bar-B-Q Sauce, hot sauce, grilled mushrooms or onions, and jalapeno peppers, to name a few. Rounding out the menu are hot dogs, veggie or grilled cheese sandwiches, and most importantly, wonderfully good french fries. The fries are skin on, cut on site, Idaho potatoes, deep fried in peanut oil and served Cajun style or liberally salted. I am usually a fan of a thick cut, steak fry sort of spud, but these are very good and they come in ridiculously large portions. There are barrels full of roasted peanuts available for snacking while you wait for your order and the soft drinks are refillable. In all honesty, I must report that on a few of our visits to this place, and I do mean just a few, we got overcooked burgers or fries. Also, the service, though usually fine, can be spotty. I do not mean to characterize this as the norm, but I would be remiss not to mention it. I believe that when a person pays less than $4.00 for a sandwich in a place operated by teenagers, that person must have a flexible set of expectations.

I will state clearly that I am not a fan of chain restaurants generally, but Five Guys manages to live up to the hype. Pass McDonalds and Burger King and satisfy your next burger craving at Five Guys.

Five Guys Burgers and Fries
735 Scranton-Carbondale Highway
Dickson City, PA 18519
(570) 941-0113