Bad Service, Slimey Pork Sandwich Puts Fork in Brother Paul's as Viable Dining Option

“Why did we stop going to Brother Paul’s?”

This is the question I asked my wife when we were thinking of going to the Eagleville, Pennsylvania establishment a couple weeks ago. The reasons were somewhat vague in my head. I sort of remember friends of ours saying they got hassled about coming into play darts too late? I think there was something where another friend wanted a certain sort of glass for his beer and it was seen as a major affront by the staff. There may have even been something in there about a waitress being generally rude. But we couldn’t really remember so I figured we should make a return trip.

Anyway, now that we have returned, the reason for our lack of patronization over the last few years has been crystallized anew: The service blows. And the food isn’t much better.

Farewell to Golden Key: Panda Pavilion's Dumplings Are Simply Much Tastier

Golden Key will always hold a place in my heart. My parents held my college graduation lunch there. My sibs and I threw them a 25th anniversary party there. We surprised a friend with a 30th birthday party there. All three events were wonderful and I've enjoyed their food for as long as I can remember.

But as Saucy noted in his March post, something terrible has happened to their dumplings as of late. Way too doughy and, even worse, way too wet. For me, the dumplings are the highlight of the Chinese food meal. So this was a serious problem.

Tale of 3 Pies: The Little Treehouse, Fox & Hound, and Domino's

As a true pizza fanatic, I'm not ashamed to say that I ate pizza three times last Friday and was totally in the mood for it again by the time Saturday rolled around.

To quickly recap my three pies of the day:

Lunch
The nibble and I met a friend and her two girls at The Little Treehouse for some playtime and a bite. It's an indoor play space with a small jungle gym, make-believe play stations and several toys and books, as well as a small cafe with tables and chairs. Cool concept (and certainly lucrative at $8.50 per child), but I'm not sure it's a place we would frequent. Perhaps it's just that I don't have many mommy friends and I certainly cannot see myself going there to meet/talk to randoms. Or it might that most of the children over two were girls, which tipped me off to the fact that loud, energetic boy play probably isn't the thing to do there. Or maybe it's just that I don't like taking off my shoes in strange places.

Tale of the Pie: Paesano Pizza

Oofah. Talk about a bad pie. Our level of disappointment might be partly due to the fact that the last two pizza joints we reviewed (Oaks, Gino's) were quite good. Or perhaps the pie just totally sucked.

We originally ordered for delivery, but when we were quoted a time estimate of an hour, we decided to pick up because I was too darn hungry to wait. Paesano's must be going green and delivering by foot because there was literally no one else in the place when the hubby picked up the pie. So we're not exactly sure what would have taken an hour.

Tale of the Pie: Paradise Pizza

Full disclosure: Before it became this blog, The Pizza Project was just an Excel spreadsheet printed out and stashed away in one of our kitchen drawers. In all honesty, we ate this Paradise pie a few weeks ago, so the experience isn't super-fresh in my mind, but I remember it was tasty and have a few spreadsheet notes to share.

We had tried Paradise Pizza a few times when we first moved into our house - most memorably when we invited my dad, sister and two very good friends over to help us paint half the house ... in one day. Yes, clearly we were homeowner virgins and this was our first time planning a painting project of this magnitude. After 12 continuous hours of painting, we figured we should feed them something and ordered from Paradise, as it was the closest spot to our new house.

I remember it being good, very good in fact. But we didn't continue to order their pizzas because they don't deliver. Yes, this may sound extremely lazy, given that it is only a five-minute drive from our house. But the truth is, when you're already sitting on the couch in your PJs or velour sweatsuit watching TV with a total winetooth, the last thing you want to do is bundle up and head outside to pick up your food.