French Fry Diary 685: Ruby Lounge, Holiday Inn Totowa NJ

The Bride and I visited the North Jersey area again recently for the wedding of a dear friend. After the ceremony and reception, the wedding party and close friends met up again later at the nearby hotel where many of the guests were staying to hang out and talk. Eventually it was time to eat again, and then came the fries.

The place we chose to chill at was the Ruby Lounge at the Holiday Inn in Totowa, New Jersey. When we had first arrived, much of the restaurant area was empty and there were only a few folks at the bar. One man, the bartender, was doing a one-man job keeping his eye on everything. He took orders, seated patrons, tended the bar, all while the bar and restaurant filled up during the oncoming dinner rush. At one point, he was taking care of easily three dozen people at once.

And that is just the tip of the iceberg. When it came to taking our party's orders for dinner, he did so without writing anything down, despite the complexity of some of the orders. It took some time for the food to come out gradually, but all the orders were perfect. The dude's memory was that good. It was amazing, incredible customer service.

For my dinner I had an excellent chargrilled burger on sesame seed bun. The side of fries were natural cuts, some underdone, but still very good. They kinda reminded me of Burger King's original French fries, in that they appeared to be limp and a little bit greasy, but still tasted great. Also, while not my thing, the cole slaw was highly recommended by several folks. All in all, a great cap to a wonderful day.

French Fry Diary 279: Columbia Harbour House, Magic Kingdom

Any port in a storm, that's what they say, and it was a stormy night in Disney's Magic Kingdom, so after hitting the Hall of Presidents, we went to the nautical and colonial themed Columbia Harbour House for dinner. I loved the Hall of Presidents this time, by the way. There's nothing new really, short of an animatronic President Obama, but the host in the lobby was very well read, and he and I got into a great conversation about posse comitatus. However, The Bride is not the history nut I am, plus we also wanted to stay out of the rain.

At the Columbia Harbour House, I got fries of course, and as always in the parks, they were the Disney standard natural cuts. Remember what I said a few days ago about it being who's doing the cooking not how they're cooked? Well, these were very limp and greasy, not good fries at all. Ick. The Bride enjoyed her salad quite a bit though.

Now it should be noted that these are not the only kind of fries you can get here. As I noticed on the Disney Food Blog after I got home from vacation, sometimes they will serve meatier, and better looking regular cuts with the Fried Fish Basket. I wonder if I could request them next time I go?