ITALIAN GARDEN

Italian Garden, 2716 Wade Hampton Blvd.
Greenville, SC

We were really hoping to like this restaurant, since it would be close to our house and whenever we were in the mood for Italian Food it would be mighty convenient. Unfortunately, it didn't deliver on either food or service.

 

This was a Mexican restaurant previously and I forget what it was before that, but the new owners have really done a great job on renovating the inside as can be seen above. 

We went at lunch and ordered two of the lunch specials - meatball sub which came with fries and spaghetti with meat sauce which came with a salad.

Both selections were just ok, not bad, but definitely nothing above average (to us, they both had the look and taste of food bought from Sysco, rather than being made in-house). The meatballs were sliced to make it appear there was more meat in the sandwich, but it was still only half full of meat (you can get a pretty good idea from the photo of how much it was lacking). The meat in the spaghetti sauce was almost non-existent, you had to really search hard to find any of the tiny morsels of meat. Add in the fact that the salad dressing appeared to be watered down and the sweet tea really should have been called "barely sweet tea" and  I came away with the idea the restaurant was trying to cut as many corners as possible to make a profit. Personally, I would rather pay a little more and get a couple of decent meals. Our server was under-trained and almost comically bad. Once she brought our order, she disappeared until we were almost finished eating, then she returned again within a few minutes, and then once again a few minutes later to ask us if we wanted.....there was a long pause....because she couldn't remember the word "bill" or "check". Maybe things are different at evening service, but we'll never know because this lunch was such a disappointment, we won't be returning.

HOLMES HOT DOGS

Holmes Hot Dogs, 925 W Blackstock Rd
Arcadia (Spartanburg), SC

Even though my wife grew up in Spartanburg, she had never had a Holmes hot dog. We happened upon it when we first went to Bubba's BBQ & Bash and could see Holmes Hot Dogs from Bubba's parking lot. Doing some online research, most everyone seemed to be in agreement that this was Spartanburg's best hog dog. Spartanburg has several of our favorite restaurants, so it was quite a stretch to drive to Spartanburg for "just" a hot dog. It turned out that Holmes Hot Dogs was well worth the trip.

What can you say about a restaurant that has a great hot dog, great sides, great decor, and a super friendly staff, other than "why haven't I been here before?" We both got single hot dog plates, which included fries and slaw. My wife says this is the best hot dog she has ever had and I tend to agree with her. The fries were done to perfection and the slaw was the creamy mayonnaise type that I like. The only misstep was on my part...I rue the fact that I didn't order the TWO hot dog plate. Next time we're in the mood for a hot dog, it looks like we'll be driving to Spartanburg and I would recommend you do the same. Menu below:

Addendum: After visiting Holmes Hot Dogs approximately every other week since my initial review, we tried another item - the bologna sandwich - which is served with mustard, chili, and onions. This was really good and I can, without reservation, highly recommend it. A grilled thick slab of bologna on a warm bun with the above accompaniments. The only problem was I had to omit one of my hot dogs for 1/2 of this sandwich. 

NORTHWEST GRILL

Northwest Grill, 13045 Old White Horse Rd,
Travelers Rest, SC 29690

I know polls mean nothing, except how many people you can get to vote for you. However, Northwest Grill piqued my curiosity when it was recently voted #2 in WYFF's Best Burger Facebook Poll. It's 26 minutes from my house to Northwest Grill and I'm happy to say that the trip is well worth it.

We both had cheeseburger plates, I got the large (probably about 1/3 pound) and my wife got the small (probably about 1/4 pound), both were delicious, cooked right and accompanied by fresh cut french fries. On top of the great burger, John, the cook who had a name tag that said "Burgerologist" (and he definitely deserves that title), insisted that we try the banana pudding, which was made from his Grandmother's recipe. This was an outstanding banana pudding and I think the only one I've had that was better was at OJ's Diner, and John's was darn close. 

Be aware when you go that each order is made fresh, so if there's a few orders in front of you, there will be a short wait. Once your burger arrives, you'll know it was well worth that wait and if you're anything like me, you'll be thinking "I'm definitely coming back to Northwest Grill".

CHARLIE'S BAR-B-QUE

I've eaten at Charlie's Bar-B-Que before, but it was many years ago. We've driven past the restaurant several times over the last few months, so I thought I would give it a another try. Unfortunately, that was a mistake. I'll give them credit for having a very friendly and efficient staff; however, that doesn't make up for the low quality meals that we ate there today.

I had a chopped sandwich plate with macaroni and cheese and the loaded potato salad. My wife had the same plate but with slaw and baked beans (see photo below). Much to my dismay, the macaroni and cheese was your standard "Kraft" style. I think this is the first time I've been in a BBQ restaurant and been served a children's dish. The loaded potato salad was the best thing we had, but I'm assuming they buy it from someone, since it was pretty obvious they didn't put much effort into their sides (slaw and beans were both just ok). If the BBQ had been good, I could have overlooked the sides, but the meat was practically tasteless and my guess is that is why they put sauce on it before serving it to you. My recommendation for Charlie's Bar-B-Que is spend your money at about any other BBQ restaurant in Greenville and you'll be better off.

CIRCLE M BBQ

Circle M BBQ, 345 Martin Sausage Rd, Liberty SC 

Circle M BBQ in Liberty SC made the SC BBQ Association's 100 Mile BBQ List (BBQ that you would drive 100 miles to eat). Everybody's taste in BBQ is different and I have to say, that for my taste, Circle M was just pretty good, but more like 10 mile BBQ (BBQ that I would drive 10 miles to eat....that's still not bad, since there's some BBQ I wouldn't drive a mile to eat).

When I say BBQ, I mean only one thing, the classic chopped/shredded pork Q on a bun. So I had the small bbq sandwich plate which comes with slaw and beans (no choosing sides at Circle M, these are the only two sides, with one exception, you can replace one of the sides with Brunswick stew for an additional .75. My wife had the same plate with an added side of Brunswick stew.

The sandwich was good, but the smoked meat already had some of the pepper vinegar sauce they use (the only sauce available). It was ok, but I would have preferred tasting the meat and deciding if I wanted any sauce. If the meat is good enough, it shouldn't need any type of sauce. I thought the beans were pretty good, the wife thought they were fair. She did really like the marinated slaw, which to my surprise was sweet. Hearing that the owner had learned to cook Q in NC, I was assuming he would fix a "red slaw". I'm not big on Brunswick stew and my wife said she had had much better. If I was in Liberty and someone said let's go to Circle M for some Q, I would be agreeable; but I certainly wouldn't ever drive from Taylors to Liberty again on my own, I can get much better Q in a much shorter trip.

SUGAR 'n' SPICE

We've driven by Sugar n Spice Restaurant many times over the years. Recently, I ran across the fact that they were famous for their roast beef (cooked in house) sandwich, so after the Hub City BBQ fest we thought we would give them a try. 

"A-Plenty" seems to be regional to Spartanburg, since I don't think I've run across it anywhere else. Our Greenville variation would be "big boy( or plate) half and half"

We split a Roast Beef a Plenty plate and the restaurant was nice enough to, not only provide an extra plate, but also another serving of slaw. Our opinions differ on this plate. I found the roast beef, which truly is like home cooking, to be flavorful and mighty tasty. My wife on the other hand thought it was too fatty. We did agree on the slaw, it was dry and could have been improved with some mayonnaise. Sugar n Spice was much better than The Beacon (the only other restaurant of this type that we've eaten at in Spartanburg) and for a roast beef sandwich I don't think you'll find better. Would we go back? Maybe, but there's so many better places to eat in Spartanburg, that Sugar n Spice wouldn't be one of our top picks.

CHUY'S

Chuy's, 1034 Woodruff Road #B, Greenville, SC

For a person who doesn't like to eat in chain restaurants, I sure have been eating in a string of them over the last few weeks. First there was On The Border, then Texas Roadhouse, and now Chuy's, which turned out to be the best of the trio. One drawback is it's on Woodruff Road, but thankfully it's on the lower part near Verdae Blvd. and here's a hint: you can turn at the red light before you get to the restaurant and go through a couple of parking lots and arrive at the back of Chuy's.

We split a couple of plates. Above are the Chili Rellenos - two anaheim peppers fire roasted and filled with ground sirloin with ranchero sauce, battered then fried and served with a drizzle of sour cream. Very tasty with almost a sweetness to them. You can also have these with chicken, shrimp, or cheese.

 
Above is our other plate - Elvis Green Chile Fried Chicken - a pounded chicken breast, breaded with Lay's potato chips, deep fried and smothered in green chile sauce and cheddar cheese. The combination of all the ingredients worked and made for a flavorful entree. 

Both plates came with rice and beans, which were both pretty standard. We were served pre-meal complimentary chips and 2 dips - salsa and creamy jalapeno. The chips were the thin variety but very salty (which was only noticeable if you ate them without dip). My wife liked the salsa, but I thought the lime in it was overpowering, the creamy jalapeno was basically ranch with jalapeno. Overall, this was a pretty good meal and a chain restaurant I could see putting into our regular line-up of places to dine. My only real disappointment was I didn't notice until late in the meal that they had Shiner Bock, making me realize I had missed an opportunity to drink one of my favorite beers.