Certainly I can state with confidence that I do not have leprosy, bird flu, cholera, malaria, or even so much as a cough. Occasional seasonal allergies are about all I can claim.

But what other reason could be given for the utterly crappy service I got the other night? When I got there, the restaurant was about half full. I was seated at one of those odd tables by the window that’s half booth. That was fine. Chips came, and so did my soda. So far so good.

Then the wait began. Almost 15 minutes before my order was taken. Waiter moved like he was on drugs. I thought it would get better, but no. Over 40 minutes before my meal appeared. Meanwhile, other tables arrived, were served, and left. And once my food was there, I was totally ignored. I had to walk up to the front to get my ticket.

Was my food good once it got there? Yes. Am I even going to tell you what it was? No. Why should I help Rio Grande out when they treated me like crap?

Yo, Columbia restaurants, especially Rio Grande. Single women do eat out alone. And guess what. We expect, and deserve, the same service and attention you would give anyone else.

I like the food at Rio Grande but I’m not likely to be going back any time soon.

Only my siblings will truly understand the title of this post. When we were little, my Mom would try to take a nap on Sunday afternoons, and we girls, being girls, would go upstairs and play. That inevitably meant much giggling and thumping. So my Dad would stomp to the bottom of the stairs and yell at us, “Every single Sunday it’s the same old thing. You girls need to settle down and be quiet so your Mom can sleep.” (somehow my brother never seemed to be implicated in these adventures, he was probably shut in his room listening to Deep Purple or Pink Floyd or something). Eventually we put it to music and used to sing it back to Dad, which he did not find at all amusing I’m afraid.

The reason I brought up this story is the comment in my post about Bleu that I always review the same places. Every single post it’s the same old thing! Well not literally the same post repeated. But yeah, I kind of agree. Columbia doesn’t have restaurants opening every single week, and I am just one person, a person on a budget. Further, if I go out with friends I try not to dictate where we will go; sometimes I end up in places I’d never go to voluntarily, and often we just end up making the same rounds.

For the blog, I am constantly struggling with trying to offer you SOMETHING versus being repetitive, especially on locations. It seems in the comments below most of you are okay with being a little repetitive. But I wanted to bring up, yet again, that I do welcome submissions from you, the readers. My only rule is that I ask you to not be an employee of the place you are reviewing and use your real name to ME (I can post the review under a pseudonym but I need to be sure you are a real person).

Reviews can be sent to info@comowhineanddine.net.

What a perfect night to enjoy the new expansive (used to be Boone Tavern) patio at Bleu. When we got there at 5, there was a wonderful jazz band playing in the background. But they quit about 5:30 to our disappointment; apparently they were a group of high school students playing for a teachers’ party. Let me tell you, they were GOOD and Bleu should definitely get those kids back and pay them for playing. It was a perfect accent to the sun and breeze and really good food.

I got the pork tenderloin with roasted grapes and grape tomatoes, kale and garlic bacon fingerling potatoes. See it? Isn’t it gorgeous? You actually don’t see the entire serving because I had already eaten part when I remembered to take a picture for you guys.

There’s just something about beautifully presented food that tastes as good as it looks. My friend got the swordfish tacos. We each also had a dessert; he the goat cheese cheesecake and I the gooey toffey carrot cake.

Yummmm.

Dinner this evening at Sophia’s. Server sets down the saucer for the olive oil and bread. She leaves a fingerprint smear of balsamic vinegar on it and instead of cleaning it or replacing the plate, says, “Oh don’t worry about that, it’s just a little balsamic.” Mind you, there’s no balsamic in the Sophia’s dipping oil, it’s just olive oil and pepper (which we had to ask for, she didn’t offer it).

I made her replace the plate. I didn’t want to be looking at her finger smear of balsamic while I was dipping my bread. I could tell she thought I was being ridiculous.

Was I?

For the person who wants me to take more pictures of the food in the restaurants I eat in… (and I promise I will, but this is hilarious, and kind of pointed. And true.)

Yep, I think so. Okay, so I know that Pizza Hut has $10 any size/type pizza. But if we are talking homade pizza, if we are talking flavor, if we are talking a great, thin neopolitan crust, if we are talking a great sauce and wonderful ingredients, then it’s Babbo’s.

They have several specialty pizzas including a margarita, one with roasted garlic, and one with mushrooms, garlic and truffle oil. But I actually like to order my own. Tonight I had pepperoni, spinach, mushrooms and sausage. My friend got pepperoni mushroom and onion. He got a choice whether to have regular onion or carmelized onion, he chose the latter.

So why is it a good deal? The specialty pizzas are only $10. On the order-your-own pizzas, you get up to four toppings, again for $10. For a 12″ pizza. I could only eat half.

I would call the flavor and quality of the pizza every bit as good as Red and Moe’s, but at a much cheaper price and more freedom to choose ingredients. Okay, the combinations are not as unique, but I think that, in a nutshell, is why Red and Moe did not make it.

So next time you’re in a pizza mood try Babbo’s. You won’t be disappointed.

It’s not exactly restaurant related, but I wanted to point all of you toward a great post today by Eric Reuter over at Chert Hollow Farm, regarding the e. coli outbreak which may, or may not, have been caused by raw milk. Eric has some really good points about the insanity of the bureaucratic food inspection service…

Read his post here.

Several people on this blog and others have been talking about the new Penn Station, located over by the Southside Gerbes, next to Kirlin’s Hallmark. So tonight, I checked it out.

By the raves I’ve been getting about the place, I had really high expectations. I thought the sandwich choices were a little limited, and there is only one kind of bread. On the other hand, you *can* build your own sandwich, and it’s nice that you can get 6″, 8″ and (I think) 10″ sizes, as well as small, medium or large fries. I got a 6″ Italian, hot. My friend got their “signature” Philly cheese steak. We both got fries and one of their large, square, chocolate chunk cookies.

My sandwich was extremely messy. As in, it was soaked and dripping in grease and vinegar. The flavor was okay, but it was kind of miserable to eat. I completely soaked through two napkins and was close to soaking a third one. I didn’t really find the flavor spectacular enough to make up for all the mess.

My friend’s Philly cheese steak was less drippy. He said it too was decent, but both of us agree that we think Pickleman’s is better. I also think Sub Shop beat this by a mile.

Now the fries were indeed excellent. I enjoyed their nice, crispy finish. Very well done.

The cookies? Well, they were big. For me, they would have greatly benefited from using semi-sweet chocolate instead of milk. They were just too sweet for me.

Price was good; my 6″ sandwich, small fries, large soda and cookie was about $8.50. But overall, I’d say Penn Station isn’t bad, but for me, it’s no competition for either Pickleman’s or Sub Shop.

Took the trip to the new Bleu tonight.

We started with the batter dipped cauliflower, one of the half-price happy hour specials, served with a good curry sauce and some kind of fruit reduction. The cauliflower was crisp tender and there were six large pieces; we only managed two each.

My friend had the new roasted peach salad and the crab cakes; if he had been at home, he would have licked the plate. He followed with the crab cakes; three nice sized little cakes.

I had my favorite cobb salad, and then tried the mushroom risotto. And wow, what a dense, powerful flavor. Crimini mushrooms, “fried” shiitake (they were really just crisped which was even better, I didn’t need the breading) and truffle oil. I could only eat half, it was incredibly rich, flavor exploding on the tongue.

We finished with a piece of the champagne cake, topped with coconut. Served with a raspberry reduction, it was just as good as the rest of it.

I have to say the decor still needs some work; it’s looking tired and dated in there, dark and with more of a70s/80s vibe than the hip, funky feel I loved at the old Bleu. And they seriously need to get their name on the door; you go and it’s some kind of management company, so it’s really confusing as to what door to go in. But that’s all fixable. Good food is good food, and that Bleu really has figured out. I can’t wait to try some of the other new dishes.

Oh, and our bill? Take off the wine, and we were at about $50 for an appetizer, two large salads, two entrees, and a shared dessert. I had to bring half my risotto home. Bird sized portions? Nope, not so.

After my Hu Hot post, there was discussion from one of our readers along the lines that the local-owned high end restaurants serve only “bird sized” food and are way to expensive for the amount of food you get.

Now I love my readers. And I love it when we are able to get into a spirited discussion like the one on that post; scroll down to read the comments if you haven’t already. I don’t want everybody to agree with me; how boring would that be? I also realize that as a female I may not ingest the sheer amount of food that some men enjoy. Though, seriously, ya’ll have not seen me eat; I can put away a powerful lot of food.

Part of our discussion was the culture of the U.S. which seems to equate “large and cheap” as good. I have friends who think this way. They used to go to the Chinese Buffet on Clark Lane every Friday night because they put crab legs on the bar. One of them told me flat out that the crab legs weren’t very GOOD, but they were there, it was cheap, and it was all you could eat. Somehow “large and cheap” trumped actual flavor and quality (and, in this case, risk of food poisoning since the health department inspections on this place were dismal and they knew it).

All that said, I’m interested in the perception that local restaurants are overpriced with too small serving sizes. Bleu was specifically mentioned, but I felt it was mostly lumped to local, especially local high end places.

So I thought I would open this up to you guys. What local owned restaurant dishes do you think are a particularly good deal? Where have you been (and what dish did you have when you went) where you felt dissatisfied, hungry, and ripped off?

I’ll start it off. One of my favorite dishes (seriously, it’s like crack) is Taj Mahal’s Palak Paneer. I can get a to-go order of Palak Paneer plus an order of their amazing homemade naan for $13.49 (including tax and yes, I do know the exact amount, why do you ask?). For that price, I can get four moderate meals or three large meals. It is a huge amount of food. So average $3.37 to $4.50 each meal. At Bleu, one of my favorites is the smoked shrimp and grits. It’s $12, but has 5 huge shrimp and a very generous portion of cheese grits so rich and creamy and filling that I can barely finish it.. Right now I’m not bringing to mind something that was overpriced and undersized, but I’m sure you all will jog my memory…