Happy Anniversary, RWG

We’re celebrating our first anniversary here at Rochester Westside Grub, reflecting on our inaugural year which included climbing all the way to No. 2 on Urbanspoon Rochester’s blog rankings.

We’ve eaten a lot of good food in the last year, and look forward to what’s to come, but it’s going to be difficult to top one restaurant: General Hoock’s.

It was the first place we visited for the blog, and it’s yet to be surpassed. That’s why it’s our 2010 Restaurant of the Year.

We’ve made several return trips, bringing along different friends each time. We’ve also passed along word to others, who tell others and keep Hoock’s customer base growing.

Each return visit provides some new delicious twist as Shawn Hoock keeps unveiling – and letting customers create – new concoctions every day.

For instance, Waffleopolous – a breakfast sandwich in between waffles. (Yes, that’s bacon cooked into the waffle)

Or there’s the Roc Bomber, basically a giant garbage plate sandwich. (Image courtesy of Hoock’s Facebook page)
We could go on and on about Hoock’s creations, but we’ll leave it up to you to visit the restaurant on Buffalo Road in Gates and see for yourself.

Believe it or not we did go to, and enjoy, and number of other restaurants as well. In fact, we’ve come up with a list of our top five thus far:

1.) General Hoock’s (1308 Buffalo Road, Gates)- See the laud fest above.

2.) Hilton Family Restaurant (54 Hovey Street, Hilton)- Hoock’s has surpassed it as our favorite place in the last year, but our hometown HFR still brings the gang together for a delicious breakfast in an atmosphere that feels like home.

3.) Tully’s (1225 Jefferson Road, Henrietta)- Our favorite sports bar, with the best chicken tenders on Earth.

4.) Rohrbach Brewing Co. (3859 Buffalo Road, Gates)- Authentic German cuisine along with various other fantastic sandwiches and some fantastic white chili.

5.) DiBella’s (2450 Ridgeway Avenue, Greece)- Consistently voted best subs in Rochester, and very high on our list despite being (as Greg calls it) a niche restaurant.

Honorable Mentions: Taste of Texas (122 South Union Street, Spencerport), Martusciello Bread (2280 Lyell Avenue, Gates), Joe’s Brooklyn Pizza (1100 Jefferson Road, Henrietta)

Another restaurant, Yumbo’s, might have cracked the list, but we just found out it closed both its locations. However, Yumbo’s still does catering and is searching for a new location, according to its website. That’s some darn good barbecue, and I hope to eat it again soon. UPDATE (8/21/11): Yumbo's has since reopened at 1460 Lyell Avenue in the city, just west of Mt. Read Boulevard.

In other news, Hoock’s clear emergence as our unquestioned favorite restaurant has forced us to change some grades up, which will be further detailed in our next post.

Anyway, we’ve now added a Facebook fan page and opened a Twitter account in order to spread our name, so get involved and let others know – even if they don’t live on Greater Rochester’s west side.

We look forward to exploring visiting some new places soon and seeing if anything can touch General Hoock’s, which will be difficult. We may even make some trips farther west in to the Buffalo area, so stay tuned.

Well, thanks for a great first year, and hopefully the second will be even better.
-Rochester Westside Grub staff

Philly Steakout

1595 Long Pond Road, Greece
Visited Oct. 11, 2010
Written by Tyler



There aren’t many places you can find Philly cheese steaks in the Rochester area, but Philly Steakout in Greece does its best to serve up a slice of the City of Brotherly Love.

Located on Long Pond Road near its intersection with Ridgeway Avenue, Philly Steakout is a no-frills place that specializes in quality subs.

My dad has brought home Philly’s satisfying hoagies several times over the last few years, and it was about time I went for myself – and brought along some of the guys, as we celebrated Joe’s birthday.


Philly has an unassuming facade despite its busy location just past The Mall at Greece Ridge and Unity Hospital. The relatively small building is fairly clean inside, with a decent amount of seating.


“I was pleasantly surprised when we walked into the place, as the interior was much more welcoming than the outside of the building,” Greg said. “It was much more spacious inside than its exterior dimensions would belie, and there was plenty of seating. I liked how the walls were adorned with authentic Philadelphia cheese steak memorabilia.”


I opted for a Chicken Cordon Bleu sub, which is the one my dad always gets me. It includes a generous portion of chopped grilled chicken, ham and Swiss cheese (which I opted not to get); but Philly’s sweet dijonaise has always been what makes this sub one of our all-time favorites.

The chicken and ham are pleasing, the bread is just alright, but the dijonaise brings it all together.

There are only two sizes of subs here: regular and large. I ordered a regular for $5.32, and it was a pleasing portion. There were only a couple of workers behind the counter, and only one line, but it wasn’t busy at all and our food was ready in a matter of minutes.

Joe, Greg and Tim all gravitated toward large Buffalo Chicken subs, which included grilled chicken, fried onions, bleu cheese, American cheese and Philly’s wing sauce. The subs truly were large, and the guys all seemed to like their subs. Joe, who was reluctant to go at first (wanting to try DiBella’s), said he was glad we went to Philly Steakout.


“Even though I didn’t get a Philly cheese steak, the Buffalo chicken sandwich was very tasty,” Joe said. “It wasn’t as hot as I would have wanted it to be, but tasted good nonetheless.”

Even though food connoisseur Greg downed his sub and said he was pleased, he said there was still room for improvement.

“Ordering was very easy and our food was prepared unexpectedly fast,” he said. “(The sub) had my mouth watering just thinking about it. It looked delicious, but was a little bland in color. While the sandwich was still served hot, and was nevertheless quite tasty, there was almost no Buffalo flavor to be found in it. The sauce was more of a teriyaki/sweat-and-sour combo, which was very disappointing.

“When I ordered a Buffalo chicken sandwich, I expected a hot mess of savory chicken slathered in peppery hot Buffalo wing sauce that would leave my mouth agape with fiery acidity. This was not the case. If they had labeled the sandwich something different, my opinion of my visit would likewise be better, but because of this misunderstanding, my experience at Philly Steakout was thus a Buffalo-sized disappointment.”

The rest of us didn’t quite agree with Greg, as we were rather pleased with our subs. The thing I like best about Philly Steakout – aside from the dijonaise – is the chicken selections available, particularly of the grilled variety. As you may know by now, I’m a big chicken fan. This is a chicken and sub lover’s haven.

Other sub choices include Chicken Cheese Steak, Chicken Classic, Buffalo Steak, Teriyaki Chicken, Chicken Parmesan, Hickory Chickory, Veggie Philly and Chicken Finger.

Most subs range from around $5 to just under $9. There are also a few wraps, salads, kids’ items and typical fryer items – including some good sweet potato fries – but the focus is on subs.

The Philly steak isn’t generic, frozen shaved steak purchased from a grocery store either; there were real steaks visible behind the counter.

Ironically, no one got an original Philly cheese steak. Just another reason to go back, I guess. We hope to do so very soon.

Ratings:

Service/Atmosphere: Surprisingly comfortable inside, while still feeling like a traditional sub joint. The service was very quick and to the point.

Food: Not a ton of variety, but far from a basic sub menu. A lot of chicken options to choose from. The subs are consistently good.

Value: The prices are reasonable, but with relatively few choices there is relatively no variety in price (in other words, there’s no dollar menu). But the portions are large and the subs are well worth their prices.

Overall: Consistently pleasing, in both taste and portion size. A gem if you notice it in its busy location. It’s right near a DiBella’s, but the two shops specialize in different types of subs. Go here if you want to try something a little different or get a taste of Philadelphia.

Grade: B+

A few notes...

After reflecting on all the places we have been to and consulting our grading standards, we decided our grades for a handful of restaurants needed to change slightly.

General Hoock's has blown away the rest of the competition and has even surpassed our beloved HFR, which we plan to revisit and re-evaluate soon.

DiBella's fell to an A-, simply because we haven't been back there nearly as many times as we've returned to Hoock's.

Yumbo's dropped from an A- to a B+ because it seemed closer to the category of our other B+ rated restaurants, not quite on the same level as places like Tully's and DiBella's.

In the same regard, the Arlington was changed to a B, not quite reaching the heights of our visits to places like Abe's and Krony's.

Recently a lot our reasoning behind the grades has been based on how often we would return to each place. With the updated grades, we are more comfortable with each assessment and feel they are now more consistent with our standards.

DiBella’s Old Fashioned Submarines

2540 Ridgeway Avenue, Greece
Visited April 3, 2010
Written by Drew



Being a group of college-aged guys, there is almost nothing more exciting than going to a professional athletic event.

The night before Easter Sunday, Chad, Tyler and I attended the Rochester Knighthawks indoor lacrosse game. And as always the question arose, ‘where can we get a meal on our way to the game?’ DiBella’s Old Fashioned Submarines was the answer.

DiBella’s originated in the city of Rochester, but now has 16 locations scattered throughout the Northeast United States. Seven are in the Rochester area, with three each in the Buffalo and Cleveland areas, two near Pittsburgh and one in Ann Arbor, Mich.

However, the only one definitely considered Rochester’s “west side” is on Ridgeway Avenue in Greece.

Walking into the restaurant itself was an experience. As soon as you open the door, the aroma of the fresh bread and the grilled sandwiches punches you right in the face (in a most pleasing way, of course).

You are then greeted by music from the 1930s and ‘40s and old New York deli décor on the wall. And finally, regardless of how busy it is, the words “Welcome to DiBella’s” aren’t far behind. It truly is like walking into an old-fashioned New York submarine shop.

So now let’s talk about the submarines themselves.

DiBella’s has two different meal deals available, the small and the medium. Each of these deals comes with a drink and a bag of chip. Being a big guy myself, the small meal deal is just the right amount of food. Another bite or two would be overkill.

If you choose, you could substitute your bag of chips for one of Grandma DiBella’s famous cookies. You can choose from two different varieties; chocolate chip with nuts or without nuts. It is suggested that you finish your meal with one of these freshly baked cookies.

I have been a huge fan of DiBella's submarines for as long as I can remember. Nine times out of 10 I will order my “go-to sub” which is fairly simple: seeded roll, turkey, mayo, and American cheese. The explanation for my order is just as simple as the order itself. The seeded bread is the original bread of the sub shop, the mayo and turkey mix well together, and the American cheese because of Uncle Sam.

So on our visit, I ordered my usual, which was great as always, and Chad ordered a Chicken Philly Supreme without cheese. The sandwich included a hefty serving of grilled chicken pieces, peppers, onions and added a sweet Rochester kick with Boss Sauce.

When asked about his sandwich Chad simply responds, “Excellent,” and when asked if he would order it again he said, “I sure would.”

Tyler didn’t order anything because he had just eaten a huge meal, but said he thought Chad’s Chicken Philly (which the restaurant seemed to be hyping at the time) looked delicious and, having a love for chicken like he does, should probably try one soon.

Tyler has eaten at DiBella’s before, however, and said his Hot Turkey and Ham on Multigrain bread he had last summer was one of the best subs he ever ate in his life.
Both the City Newspaper and the Democrat and Chronicle agree with us when it comes to our satisfaction with DiBella’s, which has been voted “Rochester’s Best Sub” for the last eight years and counting. It wouldn’t be surprising to me if it wins that title again.

Aside from its 16 locations, DiBella’s seems to be in a partnership with Wegmans. Many Wegmans stores I have been in have the “Old Fashion Submarine” moniker and have very similar subs to DiBella’s.

I visited Subway about a week after my visit to DiBella’s. I paid roughly the same price for the same amount of food, and I was amazed how much DiBella’s ruins Subway for me. There just isn’t a fair comparison.

Ratings:

Service/Atmosphere: Very quick service, always fairly full, more than enough people behind the counter to speed up the process. It seems like you walk back into time when you walk in.

Food: Always the best of quality. I have never had a bad meal here.

Value: Great food with reasonable prices, plus good portion sizes.

Overall: There is a reason it was voted the best subs in Rochester for the last eight years.

Grade: A-