A Kitchen in Queens

Another restaurant in my work area is Bubby’s.  Bubby’s, which is well known for their amazing pancakes, fresh local ingredients and delicious deserts, also has some amazing lunch options.  I’ll admit, I haven’t been to Bubby’s in a while, mainly because I’m just a bit sick of the options there, but when my dad came to town last week, he requested that we eat there for lunch. Although I tried to talk him out of it for about 5 seconds, I gave in and we headed over.

My father, although not exactly a spiritual man, is very Jewish.  He sees it more as a cultural than a religious thing, which I can sort of identify with, I don’t totally understand it. He is extremely active in temple.  He’s in the temple brotherhood, hangs out with his havorah (a jewish social group), sits on the bima during Friday night services and is a teacher at the Hebrew High School (I don’t know if that’s what other Jews call their extended education past Junior High, but that’s what we call it).  As someone who has never had an appreciation for popular music, it’s been interesting to watch him learn just as much as his students in this course.  He has a new appreciation for Rap music (Beastie Boys, MC Search, Matisyahu, Shyne) and has ventured outside of his musical comfort zone.  It’s been nice watching him expand his musical horizons, even if it took Judaism to get him there.

What does all of this have to do with Bubby’s?  He wanted mazto ball soup.

Although I’m kind of burnt out on Bubby’s lunch menu, I will say that they have some seriously delicious foods, and there are several I haven’t tried.  As I mentioned before, all their ingredients are locally grown, which makes for some very tasty and fresh dishes. 

I never pass up a good matzo ball soup, and although I tend to prefer one with more broth and less veggies (don’t judge), Bubby’s soup is pretty delicious and has nice big chunks of chicken which is always a good thing.  The balls themselves are a pretty good consistency.  I wouldn’t say they are super fluffy, but they’re good none the less. 

I had also been curious about their hot dogs.  I knew it came with 3 dogs to a plate and figured this was something we could easily split between the 2 of us.  Had we known that it also came with fries, we probably would have skipped the soup, but since they were there, I of course ate them so that they wouldn’t go to waste. 

Each hot dog had a different topping.  One with avocado, one with sauerkraut and one with chili.   We split the dogs, which were very large and I was only able to make it through 2 halves before I gave up.  I had 1/2 of a chili dog and 1/2 of a sauerkraut dog, leaving the avocado for my dad.

Coming from Cincinnati, I always expect the chili to be meaty, but this one had beans.  It was still very good, just a bit different for me, and the sauerkraut had a nice taste to it.  Ultimately the dogs were VERY smokey and more of a sausage than a hot dog.  The smokiness of the dogs overpowered all of the toppings, and personally I found it too smokey for my taste. 

I prefer to stick to Bubby’s for the breakfasts, but when my dad comes in town, if he wants a good mazto ball soup, I’ll be happy to go.