Pattie Shack -- BBQ Buffalo Burger and Sweet Potato Fries

Much is said about Five Guys these days, and rightly so. They've become a national hamburger chain by taking the hamburger back to what it was before the mass production of McDonald's and Burger King and what have you.

Now imagine a distinctly New Hampshiresque Five Guys.... That's the Pattie Shack on Elm Street in Manchester.

Like Five Guys, Pattie Shack has irregularly shaped by hand, exceptionally tasting hamburger and very customizable toppings, but Pattie Shack makes a bigger deal about the toppings, the menu next to the counter seems to stretch on to the point where it's a difficult decision out of all the good choices.

I decided to take it simple and go with the BBQ Buffalo Burger and some Sweet Potato Fries, and I was definitely not disappointed. If you're wearing business attire, like many of the people around me in the tight spaces of this restaurant, you'll definitely need a napkin because they load up on the extras.

For what I recieved, the price was more than appropriate, and the servers seemed happy to see me, even if they were only behind the counter. Parking wasn't great, but it's downtown Manchester, so that's not a huge negative, and that was really the only negative.

After this meal, i'm wondering if the Pattie Shack will follow Five Guys lead and expand into the next national phenomenon.

Meal: BBQ Buffalo Burger and Sweet Potato Fries
Price: $8.75 without tax
Speed of Service: 10 minutes
Time of Meal: 12 PM, Weekend

Thai Chili -- Larb Kai and Thai Iced Tea

Thai food has a reputation for being spicy, and that reputation is duly deserved at Thai Chili in Salem.

The Larb Kai I ordered was certainly not a subtle combination of flavors and textures, it was an attack on my taste buds, almost as though it were a competition to see how spicy you can take your food.

If there were more white rice and Thai Iced Tea, it might have been palatable, but it was a bit too much for me, and I generally enjoy spicy food.

There is much better, much more nuanced and balanced Thai food elsewhere in New Hampshire, but the taste of this food wasn't the key problem, it was the price. With all told, not including the tip, this salad and a Thai Iced Tea came out to around $22. Anything above $15 for this meal, maybe $11 or $12 given the fact that it was an ordeal to eat it due to its overwhelming spicyness, is too much. $22 is way too much.
Massachusetts is only a mile or two down the road here. You can probably find a better meal there than this place if you don't want to check elsewhere in town.
Meal: Larb Kai and Thai Iced Tea
Time of Meal: 5 PM, Weekend
Speed of Service: 10 Minutes
Price $22.00

Wings Your Way -- Special Reserve

Wings Your Way on Elm Street in Manchester is actually a chain, but it's small enough of a chain (only two locations, I believe) that it maintains its genuine atmosphere, which in this case is that of a frat house or in the case of what I ordered: one of those TV eating competitions.

Then again, I knew what I was getting into beforehand, so it's not a complaint but a warning: if you like hot boneless Buffalo Wings, you'll probably be happy with Wings Your Way's Special Reserve.


The heat is a slow heat, an aftertaste, and it lingers and multiplies after each piece of chicken, with the Ranch/Blue Cheese giving enough for your taste buds to steel you forward for more.

It was an experience for me, but just to be warned, I like spicy stuff. Afterwards, your stomach is filled, but your tongue is filled afterwards as well with a feeling of satiety, that the preset taste perceptions you had before have now been enhanced, at least for an hour or so after you eat.

I want to head back to try some of their other flavors, they hit it out of the ballpark with just the Special Reserve, and the waitresses were happy to give me a frequent diner card, that might have just done it for me. Parking's a problem, but it's downtown Manchester, so that is to be expected.

Meal: Special Reserve Chicken
Price: $ 13.99 without tax
Speed of Service: 10 minutes
Time of Meal: 1 PM, Weekday

Bellagio's -- Canadian Poutine

I've only been to Canada once, but I regret the fact that while I was there I did not get any Poutine, perhaps the most quintessential Quebecois food stuff imaginable.

I'm probably not going back anytime soon, but fortunately there are plenty of places around here with the dish, and Bellagio's on Broad Street in Nashua is one of those places.


And this Poutine wasn't too bad, although it wasn't fantastic. Pretty standard stuff: tin of French Fries, gravy, little curds of cheese. A little more cheese would have been nice, but whatever.

Not sure what else to say about this other than Poutine is perhaps the least healthy thing you could eat, and this Poutine was no different: at times you need to stop and feel your heart yelling at you.

By the way, Bellagio's also has an Italian version of Bellagio's where the gravy is replaced with tomato sauce.

Meal: Poutine

Price:$6.95 without tax

Time of Meal: 1 PM, Weekday
Speed of Service: 10 minutes



Mei's Cuisine -- U12 Luncheon Special

I've said this before, but i'll say it again just in case you've never heard me say it before: General Tso's Chicken may have originally been made with dark meat, but it shouldn't be made with it now, especially it it's stringy and just an amalgam of several dark meat pieces cobbled together with fat.

However, if you do it right, dark meat is perfectly acceptable with General Tso's, and Mei's Cuisine in Suncook achieves this.

How do they do it? With very small croquette pieces. Each piece of dark meat gets its own little morsel. The sauce was ok, but if the meat is the key thing to the dish, and Mei's does fine with it there.

I ordered the U12 Luncheon Special, which gives Chicken Fingers aand Fried Rice along with the General Tso's, and at a decent price to boot. It's unfortunate that the place was empty when I was there, because this meal wasn't too bad, and I would suggest it to anyone driving from Hooksett to Concord on the west side of the Merrimack River.

Meal: U12 Luncheon Special

Price: $6.95 plus tax

Speed of Service: 7 Minutes

Time of Meal: 12:00 PM, Weekend

Yama's II -- Pajun

One night I was in Hanover, New Hampshire and it was bitterly cold, so I was looking for a place to get some food on the main drag before I went home to avoid having to brave the harsh weather going up and down the town's sidewalks.

So, I decided on Yama's, a Korean place a block or two away from the Hopkins Center on South Main Street, and I was happy I made that decision.

There were a few options, but what I settled on what the kimchee filled Pajun, basically a crispy, doughy pancake. If you've ever had scallion pancakes at a Chinese place, this is basically the same thing, except replace the scallions with kimchee and make it bigger.
It was a good choice for what I was looking for that night: not a huge meal, it was on the appetizer menu, but it filled me up and at a good price too.



Meal: Pajun
Price: $8.95 without tax
Speed of Service: 10 minutes
Time of Meal: 8:30 PM, Weekday

Grand 38 -- # S5

I apologize to anyone in advance who might live in Pelham, but for the most part it seems to be a fairly run down place in comparison to some of the other nearby towns, and this should probably be taken into account with any analysis of food service in town.

This account comes from Grand 38, which I accidentally mistook for another Chinese restaurant in town since I hadn't been to Pelham in a long time. A case in point of that shabbiness could be found here, there was a huge cracked pane of glass appearing as though it was about to shatter on the front door.

Grand 38 straddles two genres of Chinese restaurant found in the United States: the glorified bar and the take out counter. Normally, a Chinese place will have one or the other, but this one has both, and I think the owner/manager/whatever was surprised when I confused the two: I ordered my meal, an S5 special (Beef Terriyaki, Crab Rangoon and Fried Rice) and sat down in the dining room even though he gave me a take out platter without asking me whether it was here or to go.

The food was adequate, nothing to write home about, but edible enough to fill you up. I can't complain there, and the price for what you get proved to be a pretty good ratio.

Ultimately, if you're in Pelham, Grand 38 is a pretty decent option from my experience. But it wouldn't stack up if it were nearby in say, Nashua or Salem or Lowell.

Meal: S5 Special

Price: $6.00 plus tax

Speed of Service: 5 minutes

Time of Meal: 12:30 PM Weekday