Thursday, April 30, 2015

This Week's Counter: Bay Diner

We made a trip way out in the West side to Bay Village, home of the Bay Diner.  This is a very small place in a strip of stores not far off I-90. It was pretty busy on a Saturday morning, but we were lucky to find 3 seats open at the counter (we brought Tami along as a guest!).

Service was above and beyond friendly -- the young waitress welcomed us, made recommendations on what to order, and was super-attentive the entire time we were there. She recommended the"Bay Cakes", which are the house specialty pancakes.  We considered it, but in the end none of us tried them.  Ted has his usual combo with coffee, Cam had chicken and fries, and Tami had French toast.

Not only was the service great, but the food was outstanding even without Bay Cakes.  Potatoes cooked well done as ordered (most places get this wrong), food hot, portions large.  All around excellent.  Can't wait to go back and maybe try the Bay Cakes.

We've been to over 30 counters now, and this is one of the very best. We highly recommend going out to Bay for breakfast here.  It will be very well worth the trip!


    















Tami says: "Clean, friendly and good food. Also good company!  I give this counter 8 frying pans."



Cam says: "Very comfortable counter with excellent service.  Delicious food and large portions. I give this one 8 frying pans."



Ted says: "This place is a winner all around -- food, service, prices, atmosphere.  Hard to give any place a perfect 10, but this one comes really close.  An exceptional 9 pans!"

Sunday, April 26, 2015

This Week's Counter: Superior Restaurant

Reading the Plain Dealer the other week, we happened to notice an article about unemployment rates that included a picture of a local restaurant. It showed a guy serving food from the kitchen with seating in the background, and there was clearly a counter!  The article said it was the Superior Restaurant downtown on E. 30th, do we decided to give it a try.

The place wasn't too busy on a late Saturday morning, and there were plenty of seats at the huge counter.  The whole restaurant is brightly lit with lots of chrome and linoleum -- not the nicest atmosphere, but clean.  Service was fairly quick and attentive, although not overly friendly.

Cam ordered an egg and bacon sandwich, and Ted had the usual eggs, bacon and potatoes with coffee.  The food came out quickly but was pretty average -- nothing too exciting.  Same for the coffee.  We had forgotten to order the eggs scrambled for Cam's sandwich and they were fried -- but surprisingly, he liked it anyway.

Looking around the place, it was clear that deli sandwiches were the thing to get -- lots of corned beef sandwiches being served all around.  They looked really good and must have had a full pound of meat, just enormous.

Our guess is that this is a great place to go for CB, but just fair for anything else. Skip it for breakfast, but go for lunch if you want deli food and are really hungry.


    


Cam says: "Not very comfortable atmosphere, fair service. Delicious food though. I give this one 6 frying pans."



Ted says: "Passable breakfast if you can't find anything else.  Could be a good alternative to Slyman's for CB sandwiches, will have to try that next time.  Only 4 frying pans for now though."