Rooster's

Visited on Saturday, September 5th with Scott and Christie

Ben's Review
Scott had been trying to get us to go to Rooster's for awhile now, so we could enjoy his new picnic table in his backyard. We finally made it last Sunday on Labor Day weekend. Scott and Christie live close to Roosters, so we drove over there with beer in tow and walked over to Rooster's.

Rooster's is a tiny place, clearly intended for takeout but they do have a couple small tables. The menu on the website is not small, but in reality you only go to Roosters for a couple of their specialties - pulled pork sandwiches, bbq ribs, and fried chicken. After we ordered Scott and I played Space Invaders at one of those old-school video games that is set in the table.

I was starving by the time we got over there, so I went with the large pulled pork sandwich combo, which comes with coleslaw and fries. I was contemplating the Memphis style sandwich, that comes with coleslaw ON the sandwich, but I figured I could just put some of my coleslaw on top if I wanted (turns out I did). The large sandwich is completely overkill. It comes with an absurd amount of pork, I bet a quarter pound of pork fell out of my sandwich, and it still had tons of pork to spare. I ate the rest of the pork mixed with coleslaw and fries, which was a great way to clean my plate. The fries were pretty good, but they didn't retain their heat very well. The coleslaw was good, but nothing special.

(Oops, I forgot to actually take a pic of Ben's sandwich unwrapped. See below, and then add a bunch of meat)

We finished up our sandwiches outside at the picnic table and hung out for a bit before heading inside. We sampled several different beers as Scott and I had stocked up at 1st Grand Ave liquors the day before. We also admired Scott's in-progress kegerator for his homebrew. All in all a great Sunday night.

• Service: Not much service at Rooster's, cause it's not needed. Order your food and move on. :)
  

• Food: Excellent pulled pork with decent side dishes. Scott also has enjoyed the fried chicken in the past.
  

• Drinks: Some canned sodas, not much else, Rooster's is a BYOB dinner.
  

• Ambiance: The ambiance at Rooster's is whatever you make it. I'm guessing you are usually there by yourself as you wait for your food, so it can be whatever you want it to be :)
  

• Price: The pulled pork combos range from $7-$9 for the combos, Erin's and my meal was an even $18. Not bad for a huge meal.
• Convenience: Plenty of on-street parking on Randolph and surrounding streets, and I would guess it's not typically a long wait.

Erin's Review
Well, I don't have a ton to say about Rooster's.... we had a lovely walk there from Scott's house, they made our food fairly quickly, but not so quickly that it was apparent that it had been sitting out for awhile, so that was good. While we were waiting, a piece of French Silk Pie caught my eye, and I thought "it will be mine. Oh yes, it will be mine".

I got the small pork sandwich with mild sauce. It was very good. I'm not a huge pulled pork fan - it's good, but not something I crave or anything, so I'm probably not the best judge. I enjoyed the fries and didn't eat the coleslaw, so I can't really rate that. I ate a few onion rings that Scott had, and those were quite good as well.

The pie was the best part of the meal for me :) That and the mango drink that Scott provided me. Yum!

If you're into BBQ, stop on over for a solid meal.

Deets
Rooster's BBQ
979 Randolph Ave
St. Paul

Holy Land

Visited on Monday, March 24 (picked up alone - ate at Becca and Joe's new place with them plus Amanda and Steve)

Erin's Review
We got the Sheik's Dinner for 4+ at Holy Land on Central to feed 6 - initially I was a little nervous that it wouldn't be enough, but it turned out to be plenty! The only things I would have liked more of were 2 more pitas and maybe a little bit more rice. Everything stayed very hot even though we did not eat right when we got to the house, which was great.

Ben took care of the ordering, so he gets into that below. All I did was eat - the food was GREAT! I will present it pictorially.

(Here is the falafel, grape leaves, chicken gyro, gyro, kufta-shish-chicken kebobs, greek chicken, and rice, according to what is listed on the menu)


(Hummus)


(Pita bread - did not come cut up, I did that so that 6 people would not fight over the 4 pieces we got)


(Delicious greek style salad with feta, tomatoes, cucumbers, romaine, and some wonderful dressing)


(A variety of desserts - there were more under there, all I had was the baklava, which was great!)

Ben's Review
Our time at Holy Land was short lived. I called in our order of the Sheiks Dinner around 2:30 in the afternoon in preparation for going over to Becca and Joe's place for dinner, with my brother Steve and other sister Amanda. Ordering was fantastically easy:

"Hello, Holy Land."

"Hi, I'd like to place an order for pickup at 5:30"

"What would you like?"

"The Shieks Dinner for 4+"

"Ok, we'll see you at 5:30."

That was the gist of it :) It's nice when there's a single item to order for 6 people.

The restaurant itself is also a small grocery store. When you walk in the door they're cooking the orders to your right behind the counter, to the left is the cafeteria style seating area for those that want to eat their food ASAP. We had to wait ~10 minutes to get our food, during which I got a nasty papercut right under my fingernail, it hurt real bad! (or maybe I'm just a big baby)

We took our food and headed to Columbia Heights, the food was tempting us the whole way as it smelled delicious.

The food didn't disappoint. After getting a tour of the new house, we sat down to eat. There was a lot of meat, which was good, however I wasn't really sure what the meat was. There was some chicken, beef, and some gyro (I think). In any case, the food was excellent and it was a pretty good value, it was less than $50 for 6 of us.

The ratings:

• Service: Service was great, what little of it we had. They don't wait on you, they just cook, and they do it well.
  
• Food: The food was great, and you get several sauces for the meat.
  
• Drinks: Nothing for us, but free tea if you eat there.
  
• Ambiance: It's fun to be able to see them make your food, if you're into that kind of thing. It has the atmosphere of a cafeteria, with people waiting for their food on a tray.
  
• Price: The price for us was great, I thought, less than $9 a person.
  
• Convenience: Holy Land is located right on Central, not a whole lot of parking so you might have to walk a block or so if you get screwed.

Deets

Holy Land
2513 Central Avenue NE
Minneapolis

Highly Recommended for the food

(No, Thank YOU Holy Land! We'll be back!)