Dining out in the Lake Harmony area - the good, the bad and the ugly

So, I've written a lot of individual food reviews but thought it might be helpful to summarize some of the local area take out/dine in restaurants. For all you vacationers out there, here is my list of restaurant tidbits in the Pocono-area. I would say this covers everything off of Route 940 from Lake Harmony to Mount Pocono.

Pizza!: Most visitors up this way (with the exception of NASCAR season) come from the tri-state region - New York and New Jersey where good pizza is abundant. Unfortunately, a decent slice is hard to come by up here.

• The good: (and sometimes bad) - Dominic's Pizza on Route 940 in Pocono Lake. Dominic's is hit or miss. Sometimes the crust is crunchy and thin; adequate for NY-style but not really comparable. What's annoying about Dominic's is not only is it inconsistent but it's cash-only. Though their sign says "FREE ATM" - we all know that while a business may not charge ATM fees, most banks do regardless. Also, the selection of sides/other dishes is quite weak. What kind of pizza place doesn't even offer a ceasar salad?
• Even better: Brother Bruno's pizza in Mount Pocono. I haven't seen that many great reviews for them but to be honest, I found their pizza (on every occasion I've had it) to be VERY good and by any standard. They have these tasty chicken rolls too! As you may or may not have found out by now, beer (aside from cases) is sold at pizza joints up here. The biggest drawback of Brother Bruno's is their lack of selection in beer. Good pizza and a good six pack go hand-in-hand; so they definitely need to upgrade their selection

Sushi: Ugh. There are too many flaws with the sushi around here - the biggest being that there is only one immediate choice in the area. Before I go into details, take my advice and drive out to Wilkes-Barre to Mirakuya (there is a review on here for you).

• The bad and ugly and everything in between: Tokyo Tea House on Route 940 in Pocono Summit. Where to begin? The sushi is average to below average depending on the day. We wrote an earlier review about our dining experience but more recently, we ordered take out from there. What a mistake. We were craving sushi and didn't feel like taking the drive. If this happens to you, spend the gas money and drive to Wilkes-Barre. We ordered three rolls of sushi and a small noodle dish. THIS WAS 50 DOLLARS. What we brought back with us looked like what you would get at a mall food court. One little thing of soy sauce to accompany small rolls. This take-out meal would cost 10 bucks at a mall and instead we spent 50. Things just can't be enjoyed when they are SEVERELY overpaid for.

Wings: Though there are limited options, it is hard to mess wings up so you are pretty safe ordering from Dominic's or the Jubilee.

• The good: Jubilee on Route 940 in Pocono Pines. While they only do wings on Thursdays and Sundays, they have a great selection and sampler options for their various flavors. Try the dill and honey garlic; both are delightful. They are priced well and have a good beer selection to accompany the hot wings.

Groceries: With limited options for grocery stores, be selective when purchasing meats and other perishable items.

• The bad: Ahart's market on Route 940 and 115 in Blakeslee. Ahart's is the only grocery store within a 9 mile stretch covering Pocono Lake, Lake Harmony and Pocono Pines. Ahart's has an adequate selection of foods but be very cautious when purchasing meats, like chicken or ground beef. There have been a number of occasions that meat bought from there has already expired or expires the next day. Don't be fooled by the 5 for 19.99 deal they do, typically all the meat covered by that falls in the above said problem.
• Solution (for meats): One of the best kept secrets in the Poconos, is The Butcher Shoppe on Route 940 in Pocono Lake. Though the butcher there (who has been there for many, many years) won't exactly hold your hand or make you feel warm and fuzzy, he's got the best stuff around. From high quality filet to exotic game; whatever your mood - he has it. The quality of his meats is extremely high and the selection is typically good. Though if you want Filet Mignon, get there early on the weekend, he often sells out of it fairly quickly.
• The good: Weis market on Route 940 in Mt. Pocono. Weis, when compared to Ahart's, is better all around for selection and quality foods. It is a clean, large grocery store with plenty of choices. You can get gourmet cheeses and meats and day-to-day groceries without sacrificing selection or quality. The biggest downfall of Weis is that they never seem to have enough cashiers on-hand to make the check-out process easy. Sometimes the time it takes to check out almost makes it worth it to go to Ahart's.

The low-down on liquor: If you are from PA, you already know the drill but if not - here it is: beer is not sold at liquor stores. If you want to purchase beer at, say, a distributor - you buy it by the case. If you want to buy beer in 6 or 12 packs, visit a local pizza store or restaurant.

• Beer: If you want to buy it by the case, visit Harmony Beverage on Route 940 in Lake Harmony. The selection is great but, buying beer by the case comes at a premium. If you need a 6 pack or 12 pack, you will find the best selection of craft or microbrews at the Jubilee or Dominics.
• Wine/Liquor: My personal favorite liquor store is PA Wine and Spirits on Route 940 and 115 in Blakeslee (right by the Ahart's). You can usually find high quality vodka specials on a weekly basis. They have a great selection of hard liquors and definitely a good variety of wine. They carry my favorite white wines: Kris Pinot Grigio and Kendall Jackson Avant.

Hopefully that helped provide some insight for you PA vacationers on where to pick up your favorite things. If you have suggestions for reviews or posts, feel free to give me a shout!

Tips for restaurants in NEPA

I hate to be the nag here but as a resident of a NEPA area that is sparse with food options, and abundant with visitors from other states, I have to do it.

NASCAR was here last weekend and by here I mean within 10 miles of where I live in PA. Food stores and liquor stores were filled with visitors - a great thing for the economy. But, what about restaurants?

If there is one thing every business should know (restaurant or not), it's that people are lazy and device-driven. As a visitor seeking dining options you probably want to turn your phone on, use a search service to find nearby dining - and end up on a site that is easy to navigate.

I am not going to tell restaurants to go out and spend money to have a website that is phone-friendly (the click to call option is great). But, if you have no website at all and/or no readily available menu - what do you expect?

For instance, this new place Lucky Luciano's on Route 940 in Pocono Lake (where Edelweiss used to be). They were in a rush to be open in time for the Pocono 400 - like most businesses they had a "NASCAR fans welcome" banner outside. But - how the heck are you supposed to get food from there?

My partner and I were in a lazy mood and pined for some italian take out. We thought we would try Lucky Luciano's. Go ahead and try to search for them on the internet.

Not only do they NOT have a website, but they don't even have a phone number listed anywhere. I did find a phone number listed with their "now hiring waitstaff" ad on Craigslist. I had to end up on a non-food driven website to find a number that most likely belonged to a manager.

No one answered. You mean to tell me, you want business? New customers? First, you need to give them an easy way to reach you. Otherwise, you WILL fail. I promise.

We ended up getting groceries and making out own Italian food and, in my mind I am certain that a business that doesn't even have a way to contact them can't possibly make better food than I do. That's what I have come to.

Also, reviews are important. In fact, when trying a new place for the first time, I always try to see what others say.

Inform your waitstaff, hostess, etc - all customers are important. The way you treat them is almost as important as the quality of food. People remember how they felt when they ate at your place. If they felt neglected, the food just doesn't taste as good.

All in all - don't even bother opening a restaurant without an easy way for potential customers to get ahold of you. Your product means nothing if no one can try it.

Once you are up, make it easy for any person on any device to find you and contact you.

Tokyo Tea House - Pocono Summit

Tokyo Tea House PA 940, Long Pond, PA
☆ ☆ 2/5 stars
As many of you have come to find out, good sushi is hard to come by in the Poconos. So, when given the opportunity to test the flavors of the orient nearby, my partner and I take it.

Unfortunately, the Tokyo Tea House leaves a lot to be desired. Appearance aside (as it lays in a shopping center, with a barely paved, un-lined parking lot), the Tokyo tea house is overpriced and underwhelming. Many japanese food places don't have a great atmosphere (dim lighting, awkward seating) but I try to not hold the look of the restaurant to any standard before judging the food.

We went on a Friday evening, around dinner time and as we entered the small, little restaurant we were informed that food may take longer than usual due to a large party being served. We ordered a few cocktails from the glorified basement bar (it was literally tiny and had very limited options).

As we perused the menu, we were surprised to see the prices. For a small place, in an area that could not have high leasing costs and had a small staff, the prices were kind of ridiculous. Had they offered prices on their online menu (they don't), we might have instead spent the gas money to drive to Wilkes-Barre to eat at our favorite japanese restaurant.

Since we were already committed to the "long" wait, we ordered the beef negi maki appetizer. The appetizer was pretty quick to arrive at our table, but I suppose that's because there were only 4 small peices for us to share. It was decent, a little overcooked and the serving size was pathetic.

For dinner, I ordered my favorite sushi roll, the dragon roll, and a basic roll to accompany it - I believe I had a white tuna roll. My partner was thrilled to see the variety of noodles they had to order, though our young waitress couldn't really help him in explaining the difference of the noodles. He ordered the Yaki Udon noodle dinner - which was chicken sauteed with vegetables and noodles.

His noodle meal was brought out about 15 minutes before my sushi was brought out. I aided him in eating it and it was pretty tasty though a bit over-oiled. By the time my sushi came out, I wasn't all that hungry but because I love sushi, I indulged.

The rolls were both very small and unfortunately, they maneged to ruin the dragon roll in a way that I had never tasted it - even at cheap sushi places. The eel tasted more like ginger - I suppose they managed to make some variation of it that gave it a flavor entirely like ginger.

It was disappointing. All in all, if you are absolutely desperate for sushi and can't get out to Wilkes-Barre to eat at Mirakuya, then Tokyo Tea House will do. But plan to overpay for average sushi served by inexperienced waiters in a dingy restaurant. Also, watch the potholes as you attempt to park.

Pocono Brewing Company - Swiftwater, PA

Pocono Brewing Company
PA 611, Swiftwater, PA

☆ ☆ 2/5 stars

What a shame Pocono Brewing Company can't capitalize on the assets at their dispose. PBC, as they call themselves, offers a great environment for a night out with friends. With a big open floorspace, game room and weekend entertainment, PBC COULD be an awesome place.

I am partially reminded of the Ice House in the Pocono Pines (which is now closed down) when I think of PBC - great environment with lots of room for a great night out.

Okay, onto PBC. We went on a weekend night and it was appropriately crowded for such a night; not too busy, but busy enough. We ordered a beer sampler and enjoyed a few of their own microbrews - unfortunately, their website doesn't work (in a digital world, that's unfortunate) so I can't name the beers that were included (they weren't that memorable I suppose).

We had a few different servers; one male and one female - I suppose this means they pool tips. The female server was quite nice, though her low-cut v-neck shirt was inappropriate for a restaurant filled with families. We had their appetizer sampler - nothing special. It had jap. poppers, mozzerella sticks, southwest eggrolls and onion rings. It was good, but reminiscent of a Friday's-Applebee's-Chili's type of thing. Quality was mass produced and it was standard bar food.

My partner ordered the chicken fajitas for the main entree and I had a buffalo chicken wrap. Again, nothing to write home about; just bar food. My wrap did have fresh mozzerella which was a nice surprise and not something typically found in a buffalo wrap. The fajitas came in a very large portion and served their purpose.

For dinner, we ordered accompanying beers. It was not long after we finished eating and almost-full beers that the male server asked if he should drop the check off. We smiled and said no as we planned to go into the game room, enjoy some games and finish our beers. Before we were able to get to the game room, he returned and asked again.

He must have asked us about 4 times if he could drop the check. Our drinks were not drank and our table hadn't even been cleared. I used the nearby restroom and when I returned, the check was on the table. Apparently he dropped it anyway even though my partner said we weren't ready.

At this time, the restaurant was less busy - we were surrounded with open tables but the persistence of this server to rush us out of the restaurant ruined the entire experience. I don't believe I finished my beer and I certainly didn't even get to go into the gameroom.

If a restaurant, like PBC, offers an entertainment experience (with a game room and comedy show that evening), they shouldn't play the fast table turnover game. It defeats the purpose. If you want to turn your tables over quickly then don't have additional features. For sub-par bar food; a rushed experience and a server without bed-side manner, PBC gets 2 stars.

For the entertainment alone, should I had been able to enjoy it, it could have earned three stars. Unfortunately, there is no silver bullet here. I would recommend you go to enjoy the cool atmosphere but at the same time you may not get a chance to do that if you do dine there - so instead you will be paying for bar food which could be more cheaply obtained at a chain restaurant.

Bailey's Steakhouse - Mt. Pocono, PA

Bailey's Steakhouse
604 Pocono Blvd.
Mt. Pocono, PA

☆ ☆ ☆ 3/5 stars

Where to begin? I have mixed feelings about Bailey's. My partner, myself and two of our guests visited the steakhouse this past weekend. Right off the bat, the host walked us around in a maze attempting to seat us at different tables that weren't ready. We finally were seated - the restaurant wasn't as busy as we anticipated for a weekend night but the service was incredibly slow. We waited quite awhile for a server to see us, then longer to get our drinks.

Once we did have a server, she was quite friendly so all was forgiven. We were pretty hungry at that point so we ordered soup and an appetizer; the sesame seared ahi tuna. While the tuna was great quality (better than most places), the serving was nothing short of a half-sized appetizer, with 4 very thin peices.

I ordered the petit filet mignon, medium-cooked with a loaded baked potato on the side and the salad bar. My partner ordered the rib sampler which included St. Louis spare ribs, Memphis Baby Backs and Dinosaur Bones.

The salad bar was interesting - it wasn't as big as anticipated but included delightful other small sides (egg salad, pasta salad, etc) - things that if you were to add seperately to your meal, you would pay extra for.

The petit filet was just that; petit. However, it was cooked to perfection and the quality of meat was very good. In terms of price, it was $24.99. Not outrageous but not exactly reasonable. The rib sampler was great with the exception of the dinosaur bones which, from what my partner suggested (I did not try them) were very fatty, cow-derived bones of some sort. He tasted one and did not eat any.

All in all, a dinner for four with a few cocktails was about $170.00. Unfortunately, the restaurant would be much better served if it had lower price tags. Like most places, it had a lodgy feel, base-line furniture and slow service. The food quality was good (minus the dinosaur bones) but not $25 an entree-good.

Again, I would suggest buying steak from a local butcher or going to the Village Squire. I did enjoy what I ate but don't feel that it's prices matched its decor and menu.

Check out the menu (notice the lack of prices listed).

Robert Christian's - Pocono Lake, PA

Robert Christian's
Route 940
Pocono Lake, PA

☆ ☆ 2/5 stars

I guess the best way to begin this review is to share the convo that was had between my partner and I after we ate. This convo, in short, was about how if a restaurant wants to charge semi-high prices, their decor should match. It also included, a shared desire for a real, fine dining restaurant to exist in it's place. Because, to be fair, Robert Christian's gets pretty busy - and I have no idea why.

Many restaurants in the Poconos have a rustic feel to their interior - wood paneling, etc. This one had those things but while dining (In August) their mantel still had Christmas decorations on it and their table clothes were nothing short than dollar store picnic tarps. Rather than rustic, it felt dingy and cheap.

The menu, however, was not cheap. Though it wasn't Blakeslee Inn pricey, it was overpriced. The quality of food and pedigree of the chefs who made the dishes were underwhelming. The star of the show was the RC House Salad - I do not know what is in their dressing (and our waitress didn't share) but it had a very unique flavor that I have yet to experience anywhere else.

As per usual, the wine menu disappointed - It was obvious from when we first entered, this would be the case as their wine rack was filled with Sutter Home. Come on restaurants, I drank Sutter Home in college BECAUSE it's cheap!

Same rant, different restaurant. Anyway, the main courses were okay. I had the Chicken Marsala - a pretty common dish. Their version of this included a slim amount of bad quality chicken and a bland sauce. My partner had the Chicken ranch wrap from the lite fare menu and was more dissapointed with the flavor than I was with my dish.

All in all, it was not memorable. I gave Robert Christian's two stars because the experience included: bland food, a dingy atmosphere and prices that were a bit too high for the quality of food.

If you are still interested, here is the menu

Albright Mansion/Absinthe House - Jim Thorpe

Albright Mansion/Absinthe House
66 Broadway
Jim Thorpe, PA


☆ ☆ ☆ 3/5 stars

We popped in for breakfast during the Fall Foliage festival and had quite an enjoyable experience. From the historical information (including supposed ghost sightings) to the era-rich decor inside, our short breakfast was delightful.

I had chocolate chip pancakes, a side of sausage and a mimosa and my partner had the full english breakfast and a bloody mary. Breakfast food is always hard to review as it is quite simple. But, as a chocolate chip pancake-lover, I am always critical of the batter and moisture of the pancakes and I was quite pleased - they absolutely tasted as though they were made from scratch and had a hint of buttermilk taste.

Both breakfasts were quite satisfying and the prices were very good. Though I can't speak to their fine dining and dinner menu, I can say that if I am in Jim Thorpe again on a weekend morning, I will absolutely pop in and grab breakfast; I recommend that you do as well.