On a positive note

There are a few places I've recently visited  that really deserve some praise.

El Pollo Rey
You have two choices when ordering... Half or whole, and they're talking about chicken, great grilled chicken.

Pho Hoa
Good Pho, great Banh Mi. Get the Pho to eat among the awesome decor, and get a Banh Mi to go. The crunchy french roll is so good you'll come back for more. I take the carry out Banh Mi and throw it in a 500 degree oven for a few minutes and it is as good as new. Tell Spike I said hi.

Tamale Wizard
The tamales are delicious and sold in an ever-changing variety. Also, the bean soup and the house rice rocks! I had their only entree, a half chicken, and it was so dry I almost sent it back. It had great flavor though. If it was fresh it would have been great. If the Tamale Wizard reads this I would like a rematch on the chicken.

So Bahn
Good Korean fare. I like the Tong Galbi and the Kim Chee soup.

Mendolia's or Scimeca's? NO THANKS! The former sausage kings are no more.

I made a big mistake the other night. I bought some Mendolia's Italian sausage. What was I thinking? This stuff was so bad I called the company to bitch about it, at night, on a weekend. The cool thing is they called me back in about five minutes! If they cared as much about the quality of their sausage as they do about customer service, the stuff might be edible.

Mendolia's website states, "The recipe he developed has stood the test of time and remains the same today." Bullshit! This not true. Mendolia's and Scimeca's have always been the competing sausage kings of KC. Both brands have become so horrible I will never buy either again.

In the race between these sausage losers Scimeca's comes out on top, on top of the crap pile that is. The Mendolia's I bought was ground so fine it was like super salty cardboard pulp in a plastic casing. I don't know what they stuff it in, but it reminded me of cellophane off a pack of smokes.

If you want some good sausage these days make it yourself. If you don't wish to tackle that lengthy endevour, visit a local butcher. A couple places that still make the real deal are; Bichelmeyer's, Carollo's, Werner's, McGonigle's and possibly your local supermarket.

I almost forgot.... Alex Pope is soon to open The Local Pig in the East Bottoms. Sausage heaven! The Pitch recently posted an article about it.

Is this a bad joke?

The pitch announces Pandolfi's will begin dinner service. This place is atrocious. Do not go near this "Deli".

I'll elaborate.

I went in with a friend to get a couple meatball sandwiches to eat there, and a sub sandwich to go for another friend.

The meatball sandwiches were as bland as can be, they contained little or no flavor. We could taste no oregano, no garlic, no seasoning, just bland tomato sauce and bland meat. Even salt would have helped. The addition of some cheese would have been nice too. I've never had a meatball sandwich without cheese. Maybe this is how "real" Italians make them and I just haven't had the pleasure of having an authentic one?

The bread could have been great if it was toasted or grilled. It was like cold sponge. Can't we put it in an oven or a salamader for one minute? Even if it was toasted, I don't think it could have saved the sandwich. I did order some chips from a bag and they were great.

Each of us could only stomach half the sandwich and we're generally big eaters. We opened the to go sandwich thinking we would split it and order another one to go for the friend who asked for it. Nope. After one look at it, we resealed it and left hungry. Do real delis use Boar's Head? I don't think so.

I didn't want to waste my time writing about this place but to appease the brave "Anonymous" I did. It'd be smarter not to go back!