I finally went to Bonefish Grill for the first time and was very pleased. The Bonefish Grill is an upper end Seafood chain headquartered in Tampa, Florida. They have two Charlotte area locations - one in Pineville (Corner of Carmel Rd and Highway 51), and the other in Matthews (off Independence Blvd).

The atmosphere was exceptionally nice. There are few restaurants in the Pineville area that offer a sense of upscale ambiance like the Bonefish Grill. The service was also exceptional as the waiter was very attentive and was always on top of making sure that our dining needs were met.

The meal started with a basket of bread that was quite good. The one black mark from the service standpoint would be the removal of the bread when the meals are served. Many people eat bread throughout their meal - not just as an appetizer. They did bring the bread back upon request though.

I started with the Bang Bang Shrimp. As promised, they were tender and crispy and were covered in a delicious spicy sauce. The amount of shrimp that I received was way more than I expected and could have easily served as a lite lunch by themselves.

For my entree, I had the clilean sea bass. I was amazed at how well this fish was cooked. It was exceptionally tender and moist. The rich taste of the sea bass was complimented perfectly with the warm mango salsa that covered it. The exceptional salsa consisted of red onions, diced mango, red pepper, scallions and cilantro. This fish was complimented nicely with a mashed potatoes that mixed exceptionally well with the warm mango salsa.

For desert, I had my favorite again - Creme Brulee. Once again, I loved it. I am not sure if it is possible to get bad Creme Brulee. I will keep looking until I find some. The Creme Brulee at the Bonefish Grill was larger than several other restaurants - perhaps twice as large as some. While it still rates high in my book, I still believe that it is not quite as fantastic as a few other places - particularly, McCormick & Schmicks and the Palisades Country Club (the best I have ever had).

All in all, I really enjoyed my meal at the Bonefish Grill. I would highly recommend it to anyone in the Pineville area of the restaurant that is looking for a nicer restaurant to go to. Also of note, they do have Steaks, Pork Chops, chicken, and a variety of other dishes if you have a non-seafood eater along.

I went to lunch the other day with a group of collegues.  One of them choose Hawthorne’s because it is his favorite restaurant in the area.  I am always skeptical when someone tells me that a place has the best pizza in town - although, I rarely get “bad” pizza.   

As a group, we had an order of the garlic knots which were fantastic.  Soft, fresh and hot!  They were some of the best garlic knots I have ever had.

For my meal, I ordered a couple of slices with pepperoni and mushrooms.  It took longer than it should have to get them - quite a while actually.  Once they came out - they were outstanding.  It truly was some of the best pizza I have had in town.    It was similar to many of the other top NY Pizza places in town, but it wasn’t nearly as greasy as some of the others (not that I mind grease.)  

Their menu also boast a wide assortment of other items, from chicken wings and stromboli or calzones to pasta and sandwiches.  I can not wait to try some of the other menu items.  Also, their prices are fairly reasonable with a fairly large slice of NY Pizza starting at $1.75.  A 16-inch pie will run  you about $12-$15 depending upon toppings.

I visited Baoding the other day for the first time in years. I got to thinking about how long it had been there, and did some research. It has been at that location for 15 years now (since 1993). For those that are unfamiliar with Baoding, it is an upscale chinese restaurant located in Southpark (4722-F Sharon Road; in the plaza with Barne’s & Noble’s). Most of my past visits to Baoding have been for lunch - mostly when I worked in Southpark. This time, I went for dinner.

Baoding is upscale and has a great modern, peaceful and relaxing atmosphere. The wait staff is very friendly and does a great job of actually making a little bit of conversation. It seems to me that in many chinese restaurants, the wait staff just barely tries to break through the language barrier and just gets the order the best they can. Of course, this comment only applies to those chinese restaurants with chinese employees - some have American wait staff. I imagine this helps the employees at Baoding become better at communicating with English speaking people in general - thus, increasing the accuracy of the orders.

To start with, I had the hot and sour soup. It was wonderful, although I am sure it was the best I have had. It was more spicey than most, and I wasn’t sure 100% why the word sour was even in the name.

I can’t remember what my main course was called, and it is not on their online menu. The closest thing I can remember was Pineapple Shrimp. While I may not recall the exact name, it was outstanding. If you love pineapple, and you love shrimp, you HAVE to get this. It was served on a split pineapple which was stuffed full of jumbo shrimp, pineapple, snow peas, pepper and onions. This dish is definately going on my favorite dishes list.

My wife had Beef & Broccolli. She always gets Beef & Broccolli at Chinese restaurants. It is the only Chinese food she will eat. In other words, she is quite the expert on Beef & Broccolli. She liked the dish, but did not think it was drastically better than some of the cheaper places she has had it at.

Another note, is that it isn’t that kid-friendly. They have no kid’s menu or chicken nuggest. You can get the sweet & sour chicken (the closest thing to a chicken nugget) as a substitute. My son seems to enjoy that, but I don’t know if he bought the whole idea of the “red ranch” that we tried to sell him as the dipping sauce.

All in all, I will definately be going back to Baoding in the future. The atmosphere is great, the service is great, and the food is great.

In my everlasting search for a quality BBQ restaurant that is actually in Charlotte, I decided to try Bert ‘N Gert’s BBQ & More (located at 9401 Statesville Rd, Suite C, 28269).

I arrived around 1:30pm on a Tuesday (June 17th) and the restaurant was very slow - only a couple of other people dining. I ordered a BBQ plate and had to wait a little longer than I should have to get it. When it came it look delicious. Unfortunately, that is there the deliciousness ended. The BBQ tasted extremely watery. Almost as if they had added water to it to keep it moist. It was not very appetizing at all. It was actually some of the worst BBQ I have ever had.

I recalled hearing a BBQ guy on the food network state one time that “sauce hides things.” Well, they need to use more sauce. After forcing about a 1/4 of the BBQ down without sauce, I tried their varying sauces which were all sufficient. None of them were “knock your socks off and give me a bottle to take home good,” but they did an ok job of covering up the watered down pork.

On a positive note, the slaw was excellent and the hush puppies were awesome. The baked beans were just average. My three year old stated that his grilled cheese was “good.”

To sum it up, I probably will not be going back just for the amazing hush puppies and slaw. I will continue my search for quality Charlotte BBQ. At least there are a few good places just outside of Charlotte with good BBQ (Courtney’s in Clover and Alfred & Charlie’s in Gastonia). I think I need to plan a trip to Lexington BBQ (in Lexington) so I can once again see what I am missing.