Fratello's Italian Restaurant, 8531 Brier Creek Pkwy - Suite 109, Raleigh

Knowing full-well that I'm not a fan of Italian, I opted to go to Fratello's lunch buffet today. I couldn't resist the $7.95 price tag. The sign advertised spaghetti, meatballs, salad, pizza, sausage and peppers, eggplant parmigiana and baked ziti. They also had garlic knots.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that although the buffet was TINY, the salad portion was relatively large. Fratello's offered Romaine and mixed greens, tomatoes, red onions, Kalamata olives, pepperoncini peppers, feta cheese, parmesan cheese, Caesar dressing and Italian dressing. It wasn't very pretty but it worked. I got a plate full of salad, some ziti and garlic knots. The ziti had an olive flavor to it but it didn't bother me. My first plate was a success. The garlic knots were VERY yummy.

I went back to treat myself to a slice of pizza and a couple more garlic knots. My first bite of pizza I spit out because it was COLD. Two important factors here. #1 - I do not spit out food. That's how undesirable it was. #2 - I considered it a fluke of the buffet and tried again. However, when I returned with my new slice of pizza, I took a bite and again had to spit it out. The pizza tasted disgusting. Not fresh at all. And I only had a slice of cheese pizza - I can't imagine what other toppings would do.

So, to end my meal, I ate my final garlic knot and dubbed the salad the best part of the buffet. Additionally, I made the mistake of ordering a soda and my glass was dry for a considerable amount of time. I asked for a to-go menu to browse and the lunch buffet is cheaper than any single item on the lunch menu except for a side salad. So sad. Despite my poor experience with my second plate, the price was good for my first plate of food.

Website and menu: http://www.fratellosbriercreek.com/
Speed: Slow considering everyone got the buffet and the waitress just had to stay on top of drinks
Price: $7.95-$10.95/plate (lunch); $14.95-$23.95 (dinner)
Hours: Mon—Thurs: 11:30am—2pm, 5pm-9pm; Fri: 11:30am—2pm, 5pm-10pm; Sat: 5pm—10pm; Sun: 5pm-9pm
Overall: 2/5

Baby Moon Cafe, 100 Jerusalem Drive, Ste 106, Morrisville

I'll admit up front that my opinion of Baby Moon is a bit skewed. I would say that the majority of the menu is Italian and I'm not a big fan of Italian food. So I expect an Italian Restaurant to pack a mean salad. I ordered the Baby Moon salad - Herb crusted chicken, roasted peppers, zucchini, olives, mixed greens, tomatoes, and Spicy ranch dressing. Unfortunately, I expected the chicken to be blackened with herbs rather than pan-fried with herbed breading that it really was. Additionally, I believe that the olives may have been racid because they did not taste appetizing at all and I love olives. Also, something was strange about the zucchini and roasted peppers. Too slimey for my salad preferences. The salad was also served with bread that may have been good had there been olive oil on the table to dip it in. As it was, it was just bread too dry to eat.

The service was adequate. I never went without a drink. Our waiter wasn't very friendly and he wasn't the only thing cold about Baby Moon. I would have been warmer if I was dining in Antarctica (I even brought my jacket).

This is the second salad I've had at Baby Moon and I'm going to have to go out on a limb and say that they just don't do salads well. Everyone seems to enjoy their Chicken Pesto sandwich and pasta salad. Next time I'm forced to go to Baby Moon, I'll get that.

Website and menu: http://babymooncafe.com/
Speed: Not bad
Price: $6.95-$23.95/plate
Hours: Mon—Fri: 11am—10pm; Sat: 4pm—10pm
Overall: 2/5

Fujisan Japanese Steakhouse, 8411 Brier Creek Parkway, Suite 105 Brier Creek Commons

Fujisan was a nice excursion from the standard trip to Kanki. The waitress brought us warm towels to wash our hands and took our orders. The prices were very reasonable. For dinner we could get steak for $16.95 or two meats for $17.95. The soup and house salad were pretty standard fare. The waitress didn't slack on drink refills so they already earned high marks in my book.

It was the atmosphere that really set this steakhouse apart from the competition. The staff seemed genuinely happy to be there. Our chef was Asian, not a Hispanic person trying to pretend to be Japanese (we've had that before). It was a friend's birthday and since she was carrying a present to the table, the staff immediately picked up on it and brought my friend complimentary dessert and a balloon. Most places today charge you for that kind of service.

The chef was entertaining and a pretty skilled performer. He actually made 98% of the tricks he tried to do and he was delighted to entertain his table. He didn't throw food at the table either, which has gotten really old at the other Japanese steakhouse. His only stunt was to threaten me with a condiment bottle that pushed out a straw when he squeezed.

Also different from the competition, Fujisan provided fried rice and noodles with dinner. Yummy.

Website and menu: http://www.fujisansteakhouse.com/
Speed: Pretty good
Price: $7-$16/plate (lunch), $12-$30 (dinner)
Hours: Monday - Thursday 11am-2pm; 4:30pm-10pm; Friday 11am-2pm; 4:30pm-11pm; Saturday 3pm-11pm; Sunday 12pm-9pm
Overall: 4/5

Capitol City Chop House, 151 Airgate Drive, Morrisville

See here? I do eat at places other than Mexican restaurants. I decided to go the healthy route and ordered the Santa Fe Salad with Blackened Chicken ($10). It was pretty tasty but the salad prep station dropped the ball on this salad. I had Roma tomatoes cut in half and a whole jalapeno. In addition to the cucumber and chicken, I had to chop my own salad. I ordered it without crispy tortillas but I missed the sour cream and got a whopping glob in the middle of my salad. Not too hard to remove though.

One guy in my party had a complaint though. The Capitol City CHOP House did not have a Pork Chop on the lunch menu. Lucky for him, they were more than happy to let him order off the dinner menu. Our vegetarian party member had a tough time of it though and ended up with a Caesar salad (does he know the dressing is made with anchovy paste?), vegetable medley and french fries.

I couldn't resist ordering dessert though. It had been one of those days. So the waiter quickly gave us our options: "chocolate cake, creme brulee, cheesecake, key lime pie, bananas foster." So I opted for the chocolate cake. The server forgot to mention it's REAL name:

Mile High Chocolate Suicide Cake served with homemade Chocolate Pecan Ice Cream Truffle ($11)

The service was ok. The waiter was a little snobby but he warmed up by the end.

Website and menu: http://www.chophousesofnc.com/ChopHouse/ourstory.htm

Speed: The waitstaff seemed slow to respond to mundane requests like straws and bread. However, they were nicely staffed for our party of 7 with one waiter and 2 runners.

Price: $7-$14/plate (lunch), $19-$49 (dinner)

Hours: Monday - Friday 11:30 am - 10 pm, Saturday: 4:30 pm - 10 pm

Overall Score: 3/5

Torero's Mexican Restaurant, 1837 N Harrison Avenue, Cary, NC

I know you must be thinking that I only ever go to Mexican restaurants. However, when I started this blog, I wanted to review only original restaurants found only in North Carolina. That seriously limits what I can review. Of course I've hit up Andy's since my last review but there are so many of them (though the one on Davis has better service than the one on Harrison).

So, Torero's. Up until this year, Torero's was my all-time favorite Mexican restaurant in the Raleigh area (now it's Cafe Capistrano). My biggest complaint to-date is that their salsa has a very strong cilantro flavor. So I opt for their cheese sauce. They probably give you the best bang for your buck on queso dip.

My favorite dish at Torero's is Arroz con pollo - rice with chicken. It's unique to all Mexican restaurants, I think. Chicken is sauteed in a thick mushroom gravy and served over rice. Everyone who knows me knows I don't do Mexican rice. However, served up this way, I'm all for it. They bring tortillas on the side and you can eat the dish like fajitas. Yum. Another added bonus, it always seems to be the special so it's super cheap. Regular price is $6.25 but it's usually on sale for $5.50 or less.

I've also recently had their Chicken Fajita Quesadilla. It's like a normal chicken quesadilla but the chicken is grilled like fajita chicken. Before my most recent experience, I never noticed that Torero's uses a strange sauce to prepare their fajita meat. Turns out it is also the hot sauce on the tables and it tastes oddly familiar to teriyaki sauce.

So, two out of the last three times I've gone to Torero's, they've sat my party on the other side of the bar. Somehow this becomes the "no fly" zone and we never see our waiter again. It takes forever to get our check and since every Mexican restaurant is different, we can't remember if we take our check up to the front or pay at the table. So we wait longer. Good food, long wait.

Website and menu: http://www.torerosmexicanrestaurants.com/
Speed: The waitstaff was slow to bring the bill.
Price: $5-$12/plate
Hours: Unknown
Overall Score: 4/5