I visited Fuel Pizza in Rivergate (Highway 160 and S. Tryon St.) for lunch yesterday for a meeting. My expereience was typical with what I have grown to be accustomed to from Fuel Pizza. The service was great and the food was ready really fast. The downside is that when you order by the slice (as is the norm at Fuel Pizza), the slices are not always hot and fresh. They reheat the slice quickly (not sure how) and then deliver it to your table. The overall quality of the ingredients and the selection of toppings is excellent but in my opinion it loses something in the process that it goes through to get to me (the end customer). I can not really comment on getting a whole pizza cooked fresh because I have never done it - although I would imagine that it would be much better.

I will continue to go to Fuel for the simple matter of its excellent location and fast service coupled with its lower than average price (as compared with other restaurants in the immediate area). Also, the food is better than some of the fast food options around. Another good thing is that since it is by the slice, I can get mine loaded up with toppings and my wife and child can get their plain cheese version.

For those that do know know much about Fuel Pizza, it is a chain that originated in Charlotte and has expanded to nine locations (per their website).

Let me know of your experiences at Fuel Pizza by leaving a comment! I would be especially interested in hearing comments from someone who has ordered a whole pizza there.

Sonny’s Dutch Mill opened a few months back in the new Lowe’s Grocery Store Plaza in Tega Cay, at the corner of Gold Hill Road and Highway 160. Since they opened, I have become a regular in a sense. I go there about once every two to three weeks.

The last time I went was on Saturday. My sister was in town along with her three children and we took both our families there. Everyone loved the restaurant choice - especially the kids who loved the music on the radio.

The original Sonny’s Dutch Mill opened in Rock Hill more than 50 years ago. The new Sonny’s serves the same classic menu of classic “all-the-way” hot dogs and hamburgers that are done right. Unlike many of the places that call themselve hamburger joints, Sonny’s does not frown or look puzzled when you ask for chilli and slaw on your burger or dog. They know that this is the way they were meant to be eaten!

Sonny’s also has a host of other items on their menu from chicken sandwiches to BLT’s, although I have never tried them. For me, it is hard to resist the 2 hot dog plate with fries. Oh yes, don’t forget the fresh cut french fries - they are great. Just in case you prefer the krinkle cut, they are available too.

As you may have guessed based on the rest of the menu, they are very kid friendly. I would also recommend the fresh made milk shakes - they are excellent.

Overall , the service is good, although a couple of times that I have been it took longer than I felt it should have to get my food or to pay. The staff is always very friendly.

As far as price, it is not as cheap as it was 50 years ago, but is priced appropriately for the market. I think a 2 hot dog plate with fries is around $6.25 (don’t quote me on that) and a big hamburger with fries is about the same. It isn’t as cheap as some places but it is much higher quality than most places. I have been to a lot more expensive places and gotten much less and worse food - for instance, a $9 hot dog at a place in Southpark that didn’t stay open very long.

If you are in the Fort Mill/Tega Cay/Lake Wylie area and need a quick bite - Sonny’s Dutch Mill is an excellent option.

I visited the new Lake Wylie Junction Grill & Pub on Tuesday, April 8, 2008 with my family. This was our first visit to the restaurant since it reopened under its new name/ownership. The restaurant is located at the former location of The Grid Iron (13105 S. Tryon Street in the Steele Creek area) which operated at that location for several years.

We had been wanting to try the restaurant since it opened several weeks back, but had not had the opportunity. We choose to go on Tuesday because they had a 35 cent wing special and I was once again in the mood for wings (I get in that mood a lot.)

Inside, the Junction looked pretty much the same as The Grid Iron did - although I did not go into the bar area, so that may have been different. It offers a bit of upscale ambiance but still maintains the feel of a nice sports bar. They have a number of televisions throughout and a wall in the main dining area that is all televisions. The Grid Iron had these televisions too, but for whatever reason never seemed to become known as THE place to go watch the game. I think the seating and sound arrangement makes it difficult for a group to go watch a game and enjoy it together. Then again, that may not be what they are shooting for - which brings up the question as to why all the TV’s in the first place.

Anyway, back to the food. The Junction is another one of these restaurants that breads their chicken wings. Most restaurants do not do this. I feel it takes a lot away from the wing and lowers the overall quality of the food. Their normal process is to fry the wings, bread them, and then fry them again. Upon my request, they were able to make the wings “naked” which is the customary way to get wings without the breading when restaurants insist on making them this way. I ordered 10 hot wings and 5 wings with barbeque sauce. Much to my delight the wings that came out were very large. If you are a wing conisseur, you know that the size can vary greatly from restaurant to restaruant. The hot sauce was hardly hot at all. In fact, I am surprised that anyone would consider it hot - or even mild for that matter. I almost seems to cool my mouth off instead of heat it up. Perhaps it was a bad batch or something, I guess I will see next time. The barbeque sauce was good.

My wife ordered the Homestyle Chicken & Dumplings. It was odd because the menu stated that they were Southern Style, but when the dish came out - it was orangish in color. I have been eating chicken & dumplings my whole life and have had them at dozens of restaurants and I have never seen them this color. They contained a good bit of vegetables - which wasn’t a plus for my wife who was looking for traditional southern style chicken & dumplings. This was more of a chicken soup or stew. Overall, she felt the taste to be acceptable - just not what one would expect upon ordering Chicken & Dumplings.

The service was about average for this type of restaurant. The waiter had just started there and was average. There were not any major issues like an inability to get refills in a timely manner or messed up orders. He bought the bill promptly and everything went smoothly.

As far as prices go, many of the dishes were average priced for this type of restuarant. Sandwiches were between $6 to $8 with fries. Most of the main courses were between $13 and $15. The chicken & dumplings seems a bit overpriced at $12.95, but I guess this should have been the first clue that they were not traditional.

I will definately go back to Lake Wylie Junction in the future. I have heard a lot of good things about other items on the menu and would like to try more of the entrees. Feel free to leave me comments with your experiences at Lake Wylie Junction. I look forward to hearing them.

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Welcome to my Food Blog. As you can tell by the title, I am from Charlotte, NC. I actually live in Lake Wylie, SC just a few miles from the Charlotte by car…..less than a mile by boat!

Both my wife and I are CPAs and we have our own firm here in the area. Since this blog is about food, I will not bore you with all of my work history and qualifications related to my profieincy as an accountant. If you want that information, visit my Periodic Ramblings of a CPA blog.

By creating this blog, I hope to create a journal that is both helpful to myself as well as others. I want to be able to share my dining experiences with others - both the good and the bad. While this blog will contain a lot of reviews and experiences with local area restaurants, I do not plan to keep the focus that narrow. I will also detail my experiences cooking at home and dining when out of town. Hopefully, it will help somone when they are on vacation. There is nothing worse than going on a trip and being unable to find a decent restaurant [this is where I would reference the post to Carolina Beach if I had already written one].

Anyone that knows me can vouch for the fact that I love good food. I love it a lot. I have a true passion for great food. Feel free to send me your favorites or to add comments on mine. If you feel differently about a restaurant, feel free to comment and let everyone know. The more input we get, the more this blog will help us all in the never ending quest for the perfect restaurant.

I might also add that I have a 2 year old that loves food too - his deal is that he only likes food that is shaped like a dinosaur and contains chicken. You will probably see a lot of reviews of chicken nuggets over the next few months!