An Elmwood institution

Quaker Diner

319 Park Road, West Hartford

The Quaker Diner is a quintessential coffee shop. You know it already: walls covered in memorabilia, the staff that's been there for as long as you can remember, the sound of a metal spatula scraping pancakes off the griddle. You can sit at one of the booths or on a swivelly stool at the long counter facing the griddle and watch the short-order cook make eggs, bacon, toast, home fries, French toast and pancakes. Plus, you can always find an inspirational message on the blackboard, where daily one of the employees posts words of wisdom from "Life's Little Instruction Book." Part of the charm of a place like the Quaker Diner is its familiarity and the routine that you build around it. On Saturdays or Sundays, we head to the diner mainly for the Belgian waffles, which are crisp on the outside, tender on the inside, and redolent of vanilla. During the Terrible Winter of 2011 we also walked to Quaker Diner in two feet of snow just for these waffles. Alas, that was when we learned that the waffles are only served on weekends. However, on that occasion, a griddled muffin almost satisfied the craving. 

Besides the waffles and the ambience, a good coffee shop also has to have good coffee (obviously), good eggs and good home fries. The Quaker Diner does all three very well. The coffee is delicious. Their omelets are huge and tasty and filled with high-quality ingredients. And the home fries are just as they should be--well-spiced, with a nice combination of chewy potato skin and soft potato flesh. The menu is typical diner fare--eggs, meat, potatoes--but has some nice surprises as well: a delicious Greek-style omelet special with high-quality feta, Sriracha hot sauce for your eggs, and turkey sausage nearly as flavorful and savory as its pork counterpart.

We typically order an egg dish each and split a Belgian waffle. We're partial to the egg sandwich and the turkey special omelet.

Before:

 Ham, egg and cheese on a hard roll and a Belgian waffle

 Turkey special omelet, home fries, rye toast and the aforementioned waffle

The Quaker Diner, of course, is an outstanding value. For three breakfast dishes, unlimited coffee, and orange juice, we paid $18 plus tax and tip. Warning: this place is packed on weekends and the wait can take 20 minutes--you could be awkwardly staring at someone while they eat and you wait. If you choose to eat at the counter, the wait is much shorter. Luckily, the service is fast and has always been friendly every time we've gone. 

After:

 Clean Plate Club

A little Peru on New Britain Avenue

Piolín
417 New Britain Ave.
Hartford

After a dark, cold, snowy and otherwise brutal winter, Hartfoodie has finally emerged from hibernation as the massive snow piles melt. (Yes, Hartfoodie fans, we have heard your pleas for more pithy restaurant reviews; we cannot ignore our adoring audience.) Seeing as we poor teachers can't afford a real trip south to Peru for spring break, we decided that an excursion to Piolín in Frog Hollow (Behind the Rocks?) was the next best thing.

In terms of ambience, Piolín has little to recommend it if you're looking for chic and trendy. However, if you're willing to put aside your granite-countertop-and-stainless-steel-appliance sensibilities in favor of embracing a friendly urban neighborhood bodega, then Piolín is for you. The exterior is unprepossessing--it's hard to miss (let's leave it at that) and there's little off-street parking. However, what it lacks in sophistication it makes up for in charm.

Inside, we were immediately greeted with a smiling "Hola" from a waiter and directed to a table that was, unfortunately, next to an immense TV tuned to CNN en español at top volume. On a Friday night at 7:00, the restaurant was almost full of presumably Peruvian families--lots of children, babies bouncing in fathers' laps, tíos and abuelos grinning at their younger descendants. Many of them appeared to know the servers personally. This seems to be truly a neighborhood eatery, a place where the local Peruvian community gathers. As non-Hispanic outsiders, though, we still were welcomed with warm smiles.

Inside, it's clear that the owners take pride in their restaurant. Decor is basic, but the walls are painted in cheery colors and adorned with sufficiently "native"-looking paintings and the obligatory mural of Machu Picchu. In our experience, the TV at Piolín is always on. In the past it has been tuned to Hispanic music channels; on this night we were bombarded with news in Spanish.

The menu is bilingual, and so is the staff. The default seems to be Spanish but we've never had problems communicating with our servers. Peruvian cuisine has lately been touted for setting trends in the fusion of Latin American and Asian foods. A sampling of the menu items included several varieties of fried rice, pasta, steak, roasted chicken, and of course ceviche. We've eaten at Piolín several times and have always ordered the same thing, without regrets: Ceviche Piolín, an enormous plate of the classic Peruvian dish (raw shrimp, mussels, calamari, octopus and white fish marinated in citrus and spices), garnished with fried calamari, and the roast chicken platter. The ceviche in itself is enough to come back to Piolín for again and again. The seafood always tastes fresh, and we adore the variety of flavors on the plate--sweet and succulent shellfish, tangy citrus, savory and creamy corn and sweet potato, crispy calamari--all with just enough spice to intensify the flavors without overwhelming them. The roast chicken is some of the best we've ever had (and we know, because we've eaten a lot of roast chicken). It's moist and savory and tender and incredibly flavorful. Plus, it looks great, especially on a king-sized bed of french fries.

This is a meal best washed down with a Corona. Nothing else will do.

Also, we must mention the green sauce. This sauce deserves its own paragraph. The waitress said that the proper name for it is ají verde. We have no idea what's in it, and we don't care. It tastes damn good on everything. We ate it on bread, we put on ceviche, we dipped our fried calamari and french fries in it, we poured it on our salad, and we smothered our chicken in it. (Then we just took shots of it.) It's creamy, light, tangy, slightly spicy, and fresh-tasting. It seems like cilantro should be a main ingredient, but we're sure there's some special Peruvian element that we can't begin to fathom that makes it so incredibly delicious. Did we mention that it goes with everything?

Service was a little lacking this evening; it wasn't always prompt. We waited for our Coronas for longer than we wanted to, as we ate the complimentary bread and fried corn and wished for something to wash them down with. The chicken was served before the ceviche appetizer--a definite faux pas which has never happened before in the other three or four times that we've eaten here. After we'd finished eating, we had to flag down the server to take away our plates. To be fair, the restaurant was busier than we've ever seen it, with almost all the tables full and a constant stream of takeout orders.

This is not a white-tablecloth type of establishment, and we're okay with that, because the service is friendly, the food is fantastic, and it's a tremendous value. The ceviche, at $13.99, is a meal in itself. The two of us have never been able to finish the whole plate. The whole roasted chicken platter, complete with french fries and salad, was more than enough for two, and also cost only $13.99. We brought home with us a lump of ceviche, a quarter chicken, and enough french fries to feed us for a week. Our bill came to only $36.00, not including tip. It's good to know that even in the doldrums of winter, it's only a short drive away to authentic South American cuisine.