Neighborhood: The Corner

Adam’s Apple Sandwich at Rev Soup

Jun 24

Posted by Erin in Food Finds | View Comments

It took me awhile to venture beyond Rev Soup’s forte – quite obviously, its soups – to try its non-liquid offerings. Which means I wasted valuable time in finding one of the most delicious sandwiches in town.

There’s a lot to love about Rev Soup. The fact that they offer sustainably raised local food (their latest project is a recently purchased Rev Soup Farm). The eclectic, delicious wine selection that tempts you in the order line, especially because all bottles are under $10. And come on, Rev Soup could stay in business just serving the Spicy Senegalese Tofu Peanut Soup. There’s… Read More

Tags: Charlottesville, Cuisine: Sandwiches, Neighborhood: Downtown, Neighborhood: The Corner, Restaurant: Revolutionary Soup

Sushi Love

Apr 10

Posted by Jed in Reviews | View Comments

A local neighborhood rag in San Francisco once published an unfavorable review of the popular low-end sushi restaurant We Be Sushi, and titled it “They Be Mushy.” Another reviewer once wrote of Nobu, the famous global sushi hot spot, “No bull, Nobu is sushi nobility.” Therefore, in what appears to be a long and international tradition of cheap plays on sushi restaurant names, I unofficially dub this review “Sushi Hate.”

That may be a bit extreme, actually. It’s more like “Sushi I Think of You More as a Friend.”

When evaluating a sushi restaurant, we try to order the basics and steer clear of the pan-Asian dishes that many such restaurants feel… Read More

Tags: Charlottesville, Cuisine: Japanese, Neighborhood: The Corner, Rating: 2 stars, Restaurant: Sushi Love

St. Maarten Café

Dec 7

Posted by Jed in Reviews | View Comments

Before there was Cheeseburger in Paradise there was St. Maarten Café. Tucked away on the dark side of the Corner, backed up against the railroad tracks, St. Maarten’s has been inconspicuously serving up juicy burgers, solid wings, and beachy cocktails for almost twenty-five years. It won’t win any prizes for popularity, but it’s not for lack of things to like.

The entrance is as drab and non-descript as a speak-easy, but the interior is festive, draped with enough ocean-faring paraphernalia to make Captain Quint feel at home. There are fish tanks, giant marlins on… Read More

Tags: Charlottesville, Cuisine: American, Neighborhood: The Corner, Rating: 3 stars, Restaurant: St. Maarten Café

Cantina, Revisited

Oct 28

Posted by Jed in Reviews | View Comments

Not long ago, we received a nice email from a manager at Cantina. She had read our initial review and said that things had come a long way since their first week of business, when we ate there last. We had wanted to like Cantina more than we did so we agreed we would pay another visit sometime soon.

After giving it another shot, there is good news and bad news. The good news is that they now grill their burrito after wrapping it, giving it a much better flavor and texture. The bad news is that everything else was still below average.

The “Southwestern Shrimp” quesadilla was flavorless except for an unappetizingly spinachy aftertaste. Is there even… Read More

Tags: Charlottesville, Cuisine: Mexican, Neighborhood: The Corner, Restaurant: Cantina

Bubble Tea at Ni Hao Café

Oct 21

Posted by Jed in Drinks | View Comments

If you’ve never had the oddly delicious experience of tapioca in your tea, now’s the time. At first glance, bubble tea looks much like iced coffee, but then you see the black spheres on the bottom, and a strange jumbo-sized straw that can only be there to grant passage of those spheres into your mouth. What are those things? Blueberries? Junior Mints? No. Boba balls. Made of tapioca and other stuff I can’t pronounce, boba balls are chewy morsels of unidentifiable flavor that sound weird but taste fun. It’s all about the texture. You have to try them to understand.

Ni Hao Café, which also serves our favorite Chinese food in town… Read More

Tags: Charlottesville, Neighborhood: The Corner, Restaurant: Ni Hao

Food Find: Ni Hao’s Ma Po Tofu

Oct 9

Posted by Erin in Food Finds | View Comments

The sign of a truly authentic Chinese dish is when the tofu comes with meat sauce. We recently hit up Ni Hao on the corner (the new Chinese with some Thai restaurant in the old Ethopian Messob space) and asked the waitress about the Ma Po Tofu. “Very healthy choice,” she assured us. Which we felt good about. And then when it arrived in a thick gravy of meat bits drowning those healthy chunks of tofu, we felt even better about it. The tofu, pork, hot peppers, and scallions dish was beyond delicious. The tangy hot flavor was perfectly punctuated with szechuan pepper. If you haven’t had szechuan peppers before, they’re fascinating. They look like harmless peppercorns but actually… Read More

Tags: Charlottesville, Cuisine: Chinese, Neighborhood: The Corner, Restaurant: Ni Hao

Bodo’s Bagels

Aug 20

Posted by Jed in Reviews | View Comments

If you live full-time in Charlottesville and have a mouth and haven’t had a bagel from Bodo’s you should be the subject of one those psych experiments at UVA where they pay you $10 to breathe through a juice-box straw for an hour while asking you questions about whether you think you’re… Read More

Tags: Breakfast, Charlottesville, Cuisine: American, Cuisine: Bagels, Good for Families, Lunch, Neighborhood: 29/Emmet St, Neighborhood: Preston, Neighborhood: The Corner, Parking, Rating: 4 stars, Restaurant: Bodo's Bagels

Arch’s Frozen Yogurt

Aug 13

Posted by Jed in Reviews | View Comments

I remember when frozen yogurt first arrived. For me this was at a deli in Dayton, Ohio called “The Upper Crust.” At the end of the counter there was a huge metal machine that looked like something out of a 50′s science-fiction movie. You pulled the handle and out came pale pink strawberry goodness similar to ice cream but fluffier, and good for you too!
Fast-forward a few years and several hundred miles to Charlottesville in the mid-90’s. I’m at UVA with a really bad haircut… Read More

Tags: Charlottesville, Cuisine: Ice Cream, Dessert, Good for Families, Neighborhood: 29/Emmet St, Neighborhood: Ivy, Neighborhood: The Corner, Rating: 4 stars, Restaurant: Arch's

Boylan Heights

Aug 10

Posted by Jed in Reviews | View Comments

There are basically two kinds of burgers for sale out there: The thick and fancy restaurant burger taller than a 10-gallon hat, with toppings like feta and spinach, and the thinner grease-pit burger, with toppings like ketchup and mustard. Boylan Heights serves up the former, and they do it well.

The interior is like posh exposed-brick boutique meets frat house. A bar with backlit bottles vies for attention with a massive portrait depicting a scene… Read More

Tags: Charlottesville, Cuisine: American, Cuisine: Hamburgers, Neighborhood: The Corner, Pool Tables, Rating: 3 stars, Restaurant: Boylan Heights

Cantina

Jul 29

Posted by Jed in Reviews | View Comments

Though we were sad to see Martha’s Café go, we were happy to hear that a taqueria had arrived in its place. Cantina has preserved the same homey feel as Martha’s but the menu is straightforward Tex-Mex, with basically nothing besides nachos, tacos, quesadillas, and burritos.