Allentown: Sunset Grille (March 2016)

I dined with some friends at the Sunset Grille for an early dinner in late March 2016; however, I live near the restaurant, so my spouse and I have eaten there many, many times over the past 20+ years. The Sunset Grille is open daily for lunch and dinner. You can make a reservation by telephone. Complimentary parking is available in their private parking lot. The owners of the Sunset Grille also have an association with The Stoned Crab in Macungie and The Shanty on 19^th in Allentown.

The Sunset Grille opened in 1990; however, the building in which it resides was built in the mid-1800s (it was originally called the Ruppsville Hotel and then the Sunset Hotel; see the antique sign for the Sunset Hotel hanging in the open foyer of the restaurant). Several different seating options are available: the ground-level main dining room (which is divided into two separate rooms, one of which is L-shaped), the bar (which offers both booth and table seating, as well as seating at the long J-shaped bar), and the upstairs dining rooms (in two different-sized spaces that are also used for private parties/events; the larger room holds groups of up to 40 people, and the smaller room holds up to 12 people). We like to sit in the bar area because of the wooden both seating. (All the rest of the seating in the restaurant is at tables). In warmer weather, al fresco dining is available (albeit next to a somewhat heavily trafficked road); a few of the outdoor tables are arranged under the side-porch roof overhang, and others are spaced on a patio and shaded by individual umbrellas.

The restaurant serves Southwestern and American food. Certain nights of the week feature special events: Sunday wings, Tuesday fajitas, Wednesday Mexican fiesta, Thursday comfort food, and daily happy hour. We almost always order the chicken wings as an appetizer (our favorite sauce is Sunset Gold); we think that the Sunset Grille makes some of the best wings that we’ve ever eaten. As entrees, we generally have a burger, sandwich, or Tex-Mex dish, although the restaurant offers larger entrees, too.

As stated previously in this review, we have eaten at the Sunset Grille too many times to count. The casual atmosphere, outdoor dining, reasonably-priced food, and large portions make it a frequent stop for us.

Fogelsville: Glasbern Inn (March 2016)

Glasbern

My spouse and I dined at the Glasbern for a late lunch on Easter Sunday in late March 2016. The Glasbern’s main restaurant is open for dinner daily. (Breakfast is available for guests of the Inn only.) The Inn also operates a less formal Pub, but we are unsure of those opening times or whether non-hotel guests can dine there currently. (We ate in the Pub a few years ago as non-hotel guests on a Friday night.) We have eaten at the Glasbern several times over the past 15+ years.

The Glasbern Inn is a bed and breakfast located in Fogelsville, easily accessible from Routes 22/78 yet in a beautiful country setting that seems far from the urban sprawl. The property spans 150 acres and includes many different lodging options in various types of buildings, a fine dining restaurant and a more casual pub, walking trails, meeting rooms/event spaces, a spa and fitness center, and an outdoor pool. This review details our dining experience in the main restaurant/dining room, which features 28-foot cathedral ceilings, rustic fieldstone walls, and exposed original beams. Dining is available at tables or at two-person booths. A private dining room is available adjacent to the main dining area.

On Easter Sunday, the restaurant was serving only a 4-course prix fixe menu for $75 per person (which included gratuity). Generally, we do not care for set menus, but when we read the regular menu on the restaurant’s website, the offerings and prices were similar to the prix fixe menu, so we did not feel as if we were sacrificing choice or quality to dine from their holiday menu. The menu offered four options for each course. As our first course, we chose the foie gras and chicken liver (which was served in a ramekin as a mousse topped with geleed fruit and microgreens, accompanied by two thick slices of toasted bread) and the cheese plate (which included four generous slices of different cheeses, along with some raisin walnut bread, toasted candied pecans, red grape halves, and cranberry pieces). As our second courses, we chose the Glasbern salad (which included crumbled bleu cheese, Granny Smith apple slices, and candied walnuts) and the grits (topped with pulled pork shoulder and accompanied by a soft-boiled egg; however, the egg yolk was a bit overcooked because, when we broke it, it did not “ooze” onto the grits and pork as probably intended). As entrees, we ordered the duck breast (accompanied by fingerling potatoes, blood oranges, and a vegetable medley) and the halibut (served atop cous cous and fava beans). The plating of the duck breast was amazingly beautiful and artistic, but we did not see those same flourishes with any other dishes or courses. For dessert, we ordered the bread pudding (served with a scoop of ice cream) and the carrot cake (two layers with a cream cheese icing studded with crumbled pistachio nuts). As we perused the menu, our server delivered a basket with two kinds of bread, which we dipped into olive oil that contained two kinds of salt, some garlic paste/spread, and a tiny sprig of rosemary.

We had a good holiday meal at the Glasbern; the food was tasty and the service was attentive, and the atmosphere of the property and the main dining are lovely and special.

Easton: Sette Luna (March 2016)

Sette Luna

My spouse and I dined at Sette Luna for lunch in late March 2016. Sette Luna is open for lunch Mondays through Saturdays, Sunday (jazz) brunch, and dinner daily. In Italian, the restaurant name “Sette Luna” means “Seventh Moon”. Metered street parking is available, or park in a nearby surface lot or in the city garage. We have dined at Sette Luna several times since it opened in 2005 (in the space previously occupied by another Italian restaurant called Moscatos, which has since re-opened in Palmer Township). Sette Luna’s sister restaurant is nearby Maxim’s 22 Bistro & Brasserie.

Sette Luna is located in downtown Easton, not far from the center square/circle. The restaurant occupies two adjacent storefronts in a quiet location on Ferry Street. The restaurant features two dining areas, both with high ceilings, wood floors, and rustic décor. The main dining area features an open kitchen, where you can see the chefs at work, particularly utilizing the brick pizza oven. The second space is used only during the busiest times of day, and features a bar as well as table seating. In warmer weather, you can dine outside on the sidewalk. (The restaurant has heaters, and although we dined in late March, the weather was conducive to al fresco dining.)

Sette Luna serves rustic Italian (Tuscan) cuisine. We shared the grilled shrimp and broccoli rabe as a starter (drizzled with olive oil, garlic and lemon), followed by the Sette salad (arugula with marcona almonds, olives, fennel, and orange segments). As entrees, we ordered two pasta dishes: Bud’s Bolognese (with an incredibly generous portion of sauce atop house-made fettucini) and the traditional cheese and cream fettucine, each of which arrived with a hunk of crusty bread drizzled with olive oil for dipping in the sauce. (The pizzas sounded very tempting, but we saw three delivered as we were ordering, and they seemed a bit burnt around the crust edges for our taste, although others seemed to be enjoying them.) For dessert, we shared the tiramisu. The restaurant delivers a mix of olives to snack on while you peruse the menu, but if you want bread (which is home-made and dusted with parmesan cheese and olive oil), you must order it (and pay an additional $2). We would have liked to dine from the dinner menu, which contained house specialties such as veal osso bucco and lamb shank, but those items were not available until after 5:00 pm.

We enjoyed our lunch at Sette Luna, and we hope to return to try the dinner menu sometime soon.

Macungie: Savory Grill at the Seisholtzille Hotel (March 2016)

Savory Grille – One of Our Favorite Lehigh Valley Restaurants

My spouse and I ate lunch at the Savory Grille on a Sunday afternoon in mid-March 2016. We have dined at the Savory Grill at least once or twice per year since it opened in 1997. (We would dine there more often, but the location is a bit remote, and the meals are elaborate and pricey – but SO worth it – which makes it feel like more of a special occasion type of place.) The restaurant is open for dinner Wednesdays through Sundays, and is also open for lunch on Sundays (starting at 1:00 pm). The restaurant accepts reservations by telephone only.

The Savory Grille is located on a country road near Macungie and the Bear Creek Resort in the historic Seisholtzville Hotel (which dates back to the 1800s). The restaurant is owned and run by (husband and wife) chefs Shawn and Dorothy Doyle. (Chef Shawn worked at area restaurants like the Spice of Life, the Cascade Lodge, Hotel Bethlehem, and the Brookside Country Club, whereas Chef Dorothy graduated from the CIA and worked at the Manor House.) The restaurant offers two spaces in which to dine: the original dining room and the newer Arbor Room. The original dining room has a glass door that provides a glimpse into the sparkling clean kitchen. It features oak chairs and tables of varying sizes as well as an antique oak bar that seats about six guests. The Arbor Room, a newer addition to the historic property (along with the newish entrance area), has high ceilings, a stone wall, and large windows that can be opened in nice weather.

The Savory Grille serves excellent continental cuisine. The chefs make all of their own sauces, seasonings, breads, and dressings. For appetizers, we ordered the lamb bangers and mash (in a nod to St Patrick’s Day that week) and the pork cheeks (served atop parsnip puree and garnished with granny apple slivers). As entrees, we chose the scallops and the buffalo strip steak. The tasty scallops were accompanied by gnudi (gnocchi-like dumplings made with ricotta cheese instead of potatoes), and the delicious steak by citrusy smashed sweet potatoes. Both entrees were served with an amazing selection of freshly cooked vegetables, including shredded carrots, bok choy, broccoli rabe, spinach, and either tiny bundles or French green beans or asparagus. All meals come with what our waitress called a “simple green salad”, although we thought that it was much more than that, with crispy taro root strips on top, mung beans spread around the greens, and homemade salad dressings (our choice of three dressings including chipotle, ginger, and creamy; the dressing descriptions from our waitress were much more comprehensive than mine!). We also received a yummy amuse bouche from the chef, which consisted of a dollop of chick pea hummus (perhaps roasted red pepper due to the color) with tortilla chips. The restaurant also delivers two types of house-made bread to your table (which were [traditional] white and [very unusual] chocolate on the day that we dined). The desserts all sounded amazing, so we chose to share the coconut cream pie, the contents of which was a bit more pudding-like and could have used more coconut for our taste, but it was nicely designed and delivered in a tiny homemade pie crust and accompanied by bruleed bananas (which also lined the bottom of the pie) and fresh whipped cream, along with a drizzle of caramel.

As always, our food and the service at the Savory Grill was outstanding, and as always, we walk away asking ourselves why we don’t splurge and treat ourselves more frequently to a terrific meal at this fantastic restaurant.

Allentown: Pub at Wegmans (March 2016)

Pub by Wegmans

My spouse and I ate dinner at the Pub by Wegmans on a Saturday evening in mid-March 2016. The Pub is open for lunch and dinner daily, and it accepts bookings via the Open Table reservation system and by telephone. Complimentary parking is available in the regular grocery store parking lot. We have eaten at the Pub two other times since it opened in mid-2013.

The Pub features a few dining areas; we prefer to sit at the large wrap-around kitchen bar, where we can watch the food being prepared, but you can also sit at a table or booth, at the (alcohol) bar, or in a more contained back room (which only seems utilized to handle overflow). When the Pub first opened, the majority of the dining areas were open to the grocery store, with the beer coolers on one side and self-seating for the store’s prepared food on another; the Pub has since hung filmy curtains around those two sides of the perimeter for more privacy (a welcome addition). Our only criticism of the space is that we could not hear the man who was playing the baby grand piano in the self-seating area, which would have added a nice touch to our dining. (Perhaps they can relocate the piano from the rear of that area to the front of that space to reach the Pub’s diners.)

The Pub’s menu features American cuisine. We shared the Irish nachos as an appetizer (it was the weekend following St Patrick’s Day), which were described as crispy potatoes topped with cheese, scallions, and bacon; we were surprised to find that the “crispy potatoes” meant potato chips (although they did seem house-made). As entrees, we ordered the chopped salad and the hamburger. The dressing on the chopped salad may have been just a bit too heavy-handed, but otherwise the salad was nicely prepared. The burger arrived just slightly overdone as “medium” when it was ordered “medium-rare”. Unfortunately, we were unimpressed by the crème brulee for dessert, which seemed heavier/denser and more eggy (pale yellowish) than we usually find.

The Pub by Wegmans clearly fills a need, for it was quite busy on the weekend night that we dined. (We definitely recommend making a reservation.) Although we won’t rush right back here, we do enjoy sitting at the chef’s bar for entertainment, and we prefer to dine here than at nearby chain restaurants because the Pub is more unique and its menu changes periodically.

Easton: River Grille (March 2016)

River Grille

My spouse and I ate lunch at the River Grill on a Saturday afternoon in mid-March 2016. We have dined at the River Grille many times since it opened in 2003 (in the space previously occupied by the Sign of the Carpenter store). The restaurant is open for lunch and dinner on Mondays through Saturdays (closed Sundays). You can book a table via the Open Table reservation system or by telephone. The sister restaurant to the River Grille is Ocean, where we have enjoyed several excellent meals. Metered street parking is available, or park in a nearby surface lot or in the city garage.

The River Grille has several areas in which to dine. At the front of the restaurant is a dining room in which the windows can be opened in nice weather. (This area can also function as a private event space.) The middle portion of the building contains the bar area on one side and a few booths for dining on the other side. The bar area includes a long wooden bar with high-top bar tables arranged to one side. The rear of the restaurant features the open kitchen with many tables in front of it. The décor features light woods, neutral walls, a dark marble bar top, high ceilings, contemporary paintings, and a stainless-steel kitchen.

The River Grille serves upscale American cuisine. On our most recent lunch visit, we shared the chicken pizza as an appetizer (with roasted red peppers and pesto), followed by the open-faced Reuben sandwich and the Italian sandwich. Sandwiches come with your choice of French fries or a small side salad; the side salad was particularly delicious. For dessert, we shared the peanut butter bomb, which was tasty and not too sweet.

We enjoyed our lunch at the River Grille, and we look forward to returning soon to try their dinner menu.

Trexlertown: 1760 Pub-n-Grille (April 2016)

I dined at the 1760 Pub-n-Grille on a Friday afternoon in mid-March 2016 as part of a large group of people attending a work lunch function, but because I live nearby, my spouse and I have eaten there several times previously over the past 20+ years. The 1760 Pub-n-Grille is open daily for lunch and dinner. You can make a reservation by telephone. Complimentary parking is available in one of their two private parking lots.

The 1760 Pub is located in Trexlertown at the intersection of Routes 100 and 222. The building that houses the restaurant was built in the mid-1700s, as its name suggests. The current owners purchased the property in 2012. Prior to that time, in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, it was called the 1760 House, and it was the site of fine dining, with Revolutionary War-era decor and waitstaff wearing Colonial garb. The restaurant was closed for a bit in the late ‘80s due to a fire, before being reopened as a restaurant called Maxx Regal, and finally now it is called the 1760 Pub.

The 1760 Pub has been nicely renovated to include wood and stone accents. You enter the restaurant in the expansive bar area (built in the 1700s as a log cabin), which features an array of flat-screen TVs, high ceilings, and high-top tables. Adjacent to the bar is the main dining area, which features a real fireplace surrounded by a faux stone wall. Towards the rear of the building is a game room and a private event space (which even contains a tiny raised platform area where you can speak or perform karaoke). In addition, you can dine outdoors seasonally on a deck that overlooks Trexlertown Road (Route 100). More than thirty TVs are arranged throughout the building, so you can always catch your favorite sporting event.

The 1760 Pub offers generous portions of American pub food at reasonable prices .The appetizer menu features the usual items: chicken fingers, chips and salsa, nachos, mozzarella sticks, pierogis, potato skins, and quesadillas. Burgers, wraps, and sandwiches (including many kinds of steak sandwiches made with beef or chicken) dominate the menu, along with a few more elaborate entrees (fish and chips, steak). You won’t “break the bank” by eating here, even if you order one of the more expensive entrees.

Allentown: Pistachio Bar & Grille (March 2016)

My spouse and I dined at Pistachio Bar and Grill for a light dinner on a Sunday evening in early March 2016. We have dined at Pistachio many, many times since it opened 18+ years ago in 1998. Pistachios is open for lunch and dinner daily, with additional brunch selections offered on Sundays (such as omelets and benedicts). The restaurant accepts reservations via telephone, Yelp, or Facebook.
Pistachios is located in a strip mall shopping center near Dorney Park, at the intersections of Hamilton Boulevard (Route 222) and Cedar Crest Boulevard. Plenty of complimentary parking is available in the shopping center lot. The restaurant is large and cavernous, and as a result, it can be a bit loud during its most crowded times. Original (and unusual) art hangs on the walls. The ceilings are open to the industrial piping and wiring, and the kitchen is open to the dining area as well. The restaurant also features a large bar area with additional table seating alongside. Sidewalk dining (albeit with a view of the parking lot) is available in warmer weather.

The menu at Pistachios contains Italian, Mediterranean, and American cuisine, and it is re-printed (although not necessarily changed) frequently. Our favorite appetizers are the hummus (served with freshly-made pita bread, and sometimes drizzled with olive oil and roasted red peppers), the gorgonzola potato chips (house-made chips drizzled with cheese and sliced scallions), and the Mediterranean appetizer plate (with hummus, tabouli, peppers, feta cheese, olives, and stuffed grape leaves). The pizzas are good, although the quality can vary (we ordered a four cheese pizza on our last visit, and two of the cheeses used were yellow cheddar and blue cheese, which are not normally on other four cheese pizzas that we order elsewhere). Our “go-to” menu items are their delicious salads, with our favorites being the seafood chopped salad, regular chopped salad, chef salad, citrus chicken salad. Also, the chicken Oscar entrée (panko-breaded chicken breast topped with asparagus, crabmeat, and hollandaise sauce, and served with a side of amazing polenta) is a repeat order for us.

Service (like food quality) has been variable over the years. Even though we tend to order the same dishes, ingredients are sometimes excluded or substituted at whim, and presentation varies greatly (for example, on the chef salad, sometimes the cheese is cubed, and sometimes it is thinly sliced), perhaps depending on the chef on duty. Sometimes we receive bread service and sometimes a small amuse bouche (like hummus) from the chef, and other times we do not, even though we tend to order the same appetizers and main courses each time we visit. We used to have a terrific (and favorite!) Pistachio bartender/waitress, Colleen, but she has since moved on to work at Bell Hall in Allentown.

We enjoy the salads at Pistachios, and we also like to dine outdoors on their sidewalk when the weather is just right. We appreciate that they are open continuously from lunch through dinner every day of the week, and we like the fact that we can always easily secure a table when we dine at off-hours (which seem like normal hours to us). Pistachio has a casual vibe with upscale food, and we find ourselves returning often.