Offbeat Eats

05/22/2026

Sharing my "Health Check" re-review of Beefside in Concord, NH. A few years into new owners, they are still one of the best places in the area for old-school, piled-high roast beef sandwiches and French Dips.

Anyone that's known me for a long time knows that two of my favorite sandwiches are the related roast beef sandwich, and the French Dip. As I discussed in detail with my review of Jamie's Roast Beef in Peabody a few years ago, roast beef sandwiches are definitely a regional specialty, but the speci

05/15/2026

Sharing my review of Shirley's Kitchen in Suncook Village, NH. Not just your average breakfast and lunch diner, Shirley's also has a great menu of Korean- and Korean-American fusion dishes, including an awesome Omurice.

A recent trip over to Dover, New Hampshire resulted in us looking for breakfast options around the greater Hooksett area (the region between Concord and Manchester, NH, straddling the Merrimack River). Until very recently, this would have been an almost automatic choice of The Robie Store for break

05/11/2026

Sharing my review of an old favorite, Windsor Station in Windsor, VT. A converted rail station serving up steaks, burgers, and some of the best hand-made pasta in Vermont.

Last month, we were looking for a good place to go to celebrate Carol's birthday, and realized we hadn't been to one of our area favorites for a while: Windsor Station in Windsor, VT. As you might suspect from the name, Windsor Station is in the former railroad station, and it's one of the area's b

05/08/2026

Sharing my review of The Wooden Soldier in Fair Haven, VT. Serving up classic diner fare in a restaurant that's changed surprisingly little since it opened in 1965, The Wooden Soldier offers up a great and affordable breakfast, including a top notch Benedict.

We recently had to do a short day trip over to the Adirondacks in New York, and that left us looking for a new place for breakfast on the drive over. We've had a lot of great little spots on this drive, like Sugar and Spice and Big Apple Diner, but on this particular trip our timing lead us to want

05/06/2026

Sharing my review of Jalisco Bar and Grill in Newport, NH. One of several Mexican places in the "Lower Upper Valley" to open in the last few years, Jalisco offers up some good Mexican food in the old Country Kitchen location.

Back in 2021, one of my favorite breakfast spots, Country Kitchen in Newport, NH, announced that they wouldn't be reopening after Covid-19 closures. I miss that spot; it was definitely a bit of a dive, but the food was good, the prices quite affordable, and they really had a nice selection of loca

05/04/2026

Sharing my review of Odysea Coffee in Bristol, NH. In-house roasted Honduran coffee, and a great selection of pastries, sandwiches, and crêpes.

One of the odd details of NH that you don't really appreciate until living here is that we only have two major interstates (I-89 and I-93), and if you aren't driving between Manchester and Vermont (I-89), or heading to the Whites from Boston, there's a good chance the ideal route for your travel isn

05/01/2026

Truth

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05/01/2026

Sharing my review of Zaytoona Middle Eastern Restaurant in South Burlington, MA. A good selection of Middle Eastern food, and one of the best chicken shawarma bowls I've ever had (almost as good as Haji Baba).

After a weekend of robotics judging in Burlington, activities wrapped up around 7:30pm. The I-89 route back to my home in New Hampshire isn't exactly heavily populated with dining establishments, and many of the few options start closing at 8pm, so I consulted my list of places in the Burlington ar

04/29/2026

Sharing my review of Taco Gordo in Burlington, VT's Old North End. Great tacos and good tequila drinks in a converted bottle redemption center.

Like my trip to Portland in March, early April had me spending several days in Burlington, VT at the University of Vermont (UVM) campus, volunteering as a robotics competition judge. Like usual, this involves rather early mornings and a good 12–14 hour day of volunteering, and then usually my even...

04/27/2026

Sharing my review of Restaurant Abouda in Montreal's La Petite-Patrie neighborhood. Serving up some great Tunisian food, Abouda is particularly good if you need a family- or group-based outing.

Our second day in Montreal involved a pleasant outing to the McCord-Stewart Museum (which had an excellent Offbeat-eats relevant exhibit, On the Menu, featuring menus and other paraphernalia from various Montreal eating establishments), a quick trip out to Verdun for Cabane Panache (the annual Montr

04/25/2026

Omurice breakfast.