Welcome to the first weekly “Last Week In Food” post where I tell you about all the tasty things I ate in Charlottesville. The format of this post will probably change over the next few weeks, but the general idea is that I’ll discuss individual dishes at local restaurants rather than the establishment as a whole.
Last week in food started out at Orbit on Tuesday night. I’m a big fan of their happy hour… who can argue with $2 pints of Guinness? To go with my Guinnesses, I ordered a dozen wings, extra hot and extra crispy. This particular batch didn’t come out as crispy as I like, but in general, when I want straight-up hot wings, Orbit is hard to beat.
Wednesday saw two meals. Lunch was the Jerk Chicken pizza at Mellow Mushroom. It’s their basic pizza with strips of chicken breast, pineapple, and Caribbean spices. While I love their Jerk Chicken Sandwich and their pizza, they weren’t two great tastes that taste great together. I won’t be ordering it again. Dinner was at Sticks. I tried the Kibbeh for the first time, and it tasted like what I would imagine meat falafel tasting like. As usual, the sesame beans were excellent. I love Sticks, but it’s so damn expensive, I don’t go out there nearly as much as I would if they dropped their entree prices a couple of bucks. Next time I do go, I’ll switch back to my normal lamb platter. All in all, Wednesday was a bust for discovering new and exciting Cville dishes.
Thursday was lunch at Old Virginia Fried Chicken. When I moved to Charlottesville, I was really excited when I saw that this place was so close to home. Then I went there a couple of times, and was sorely disappointed by the chicken, which tasted microwaved. That was two years ago, and I now realize that I must have just gone there at odd hours. Over the last couple of months, I’ve been back a few times, and it’s been delicious every time. Thursday I had a two piece white with baked beans, and the chicken was crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside, and well seasoned. I still rank Food of all Nations as the best fried chicken in town, but Old Virginia is definitely closing the gap.
Friday was another two meals. Lunch at Martha’s, which took one and a half freaking hours. The place was packed, and for some reason, they only had one server, who had not worked there very long. I ordered the Roasted Red Pepper and Goat Cheese Quesadilla. It was chipotle flavored flour tortilla with mozzarella, goat cheese, roasted red peppers, and portabello mushrooms served with a side salad of greens and salsa. It was very very good. My favorite thing about Martha’s is their homemade lemonade that comes with free refills. I made it through three glasses. For dinner, we splurged and went to Tokyo Rose. We ordered the Sashimi Entree, Spicy Tuna Roll, and Shrimp Tempura Roll. Considering most of my sushi consumption is at Asian, I mean China King Buffet, it was a pleasant change to have huge slices of fish, and not be as concerned as to whether or not it was going to kill me. Of course, this was right before I read Joe’s post over at bookofjoe, which informs me that all sushi will kill me. The service was absolutely atrocious. We were the only people there, and when we were ready to leave, it took a half hour for anybody to come back into the room, let alone our table. Very annoying.
And then Saturday, on the way back from the Mates of State show in DC, I had the nachos at Sheetz based on a friend’s recommendation. I can’t imagine any food being more awesome at 2 AM.
And thus ends my week in food. I wrote a lot more than I had anticipated, so you get a cookie if you made it this far.
