Christina's in Beauregard Town

Hidden in downtown Baton Rouge at the corner of St. Charles and Somerulos, Christina's has been offering up quality home cooking for years.  This little restaurant is not as well known as it should be around town, but its loyal customers still keep the place packed for breakfast and lunch.  I recently ate lunch at Christina's for my first time and was certainly not disappointed.  Darrell Broussard joined me on the walk from our busy offices to the Beauregard Town neighborhood.  The quaint restaurant is warm and welcoming, and the lunch menu is full of Southern-fried home cooking. 

Christina's in Downtown Baton Rouge

Christina's had a lunch special on this fortunate day that featured a chicken fried steak with gravy and three sides.  Their list of sides rotates so it is written on the wall instead of in the menu.  However, it is long enough to count as reading a book, so picking three seemed like a difficult task.  I wanted to vary things up a bit, so I eventually settled on the buttered corn, collard greens, and praline yams.

Chicken Fried Steak with Buttered Corn, Collard Greens, and Praline Yams

The corn had a good buttery taste as the name implied but beyond that was just your average canned corn.  The collard greens tasted pretty good and I enjoyed their saltiness and tender texture.  However, the highlight of the sides, and in fact the entire meal, came in the form of the praline yams.  They may not have been much more than canned sweet potatoes with plenty of butter and caramelized sugar, but this dish was purely delightful!  I could have eaten those praline yams all day!  The chicken fried steak had a great flavor and combined well with the white gravy, but it was a little smaller than I would have liked.  Still, the praline yams made up for everything and in the end, I had no complaints with the meal or the restaurant.  I'd gladly go back to Christina's any time, and I especially want to check it out for breakfast!

Good Burger: Riverside Patty

Baton Rouge has a handful of great places to eat fresh burgers so it is a shame whenever somebody thinks that fast food or national chains offer superior patties.  Among the elite burger joints in the Red Stick is Riverside Patty, a staple of the downtown dining scene since 1982. 

Riverside Patty on Third Street

Walking into this place you get the feeling that you're going to eat something good.  The surroundings make even a relatively young man like me nostalgic for the days of old school burger joints with classic milk shakes.  While Riverside Patty doesn't quite deliver on the shakes, they still do a fine job with the burgers!  The place is as casual as can be and could certainly use a renovation, but that's what makes the character so great!

A View of Riverside Patty's Ordering Counter

On one visit to Riverside Patty with Darrell, I ordered the house special.  This combo comes with a half pound burger patty and all the fixin's, fries, and a drink.  I ordered mine on a wheat bun with lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and honey mustard.  Just for good measure, I opted for a side of sweet potato fries!  The burger tasted delicious, but it lacked the juiciness that I had previously experienced at Riverside Patty.  The burger seemed overcooked and indeed the patty was well done throughout, without even a hint of pink in the middle.  I was rather disappointed, but still ultimately satisfied.

1/2 Pound Combo Burger with Honey Mustard and Sweet Potato Fries

On a future visit with Dana and Becca I ordered a Bacon Swiss Burger on wheat.  With all the other toppings the same, I found this burger to be slightly better, though still overcooked.  What is it with restaurants these days that make them not want to serve a medium rare or even medium cooked burger?  Well done beef is for the birds!  Again, this burger was tasty, but it could have been so much better with a little grease dripping down my forearms!  Next time I visit Riverside Patty I'm going to make sure to note that I want the burger cooked medium, not well done!

Bacon Swiss Burger

5,000 Visitors!

5,000 Visitors!  Thanks everyone!

 

A huge thank you to Samantha (http://www.thesecondlunch.com/) for capturing the above image of visit number 5,000.  I'd also like to especially thank Darrell (4,993), Stacie (4,996), and Nikki (4998) for keeping me up to date on facebook!  If you aren't a fan on facebook yet or you aren't following me on twitter, make sure to click the links on the left to sign up!

Wag's on the Levee

Today I ate lunch with Darrell Broussard, former LSU Student Body President and one heck of a guy, at Wag's on the Levee on Third Street in downtown Baton Rouge.  I've been there several times since I started my new job.  One of my offices is right around the corner so it is pretty easy to walk in for a quick lunch.  Wag's is good food but it needs some work.  The walls are barren, the tables and chairs are too ordinary, and the restaurant as whole has a real lack of character.  If that starts to come around, then business should pick up because the food is good.  Their menu features rotating tradition southern and soul food like fried chicken, stuffed bellpeppers, crawfish etoufee, and red beans and rice.  Today's special was smothered pork chops served over rice with a good brown gravy.  In fact, there is a country song about good brown gravy, so you know when it is right, it is some kind of tasty!

       

I had a side of green beans and macaroni and cheese (made with spaghetti noodles) with the pork chop. The chop itself was a little small, but the portions of food overall were plenty for a lunch. The meat was tender and moist and a perfect companion to the rice and gravy. The beans were cooked with ham and very tasty and the the macaroni and cheese was typical but good. The lunch specials only run $7.95, so its a pretty good bargain for a full plate of home-cooked-style grub. I've been to Wag's several times now and I'm sure I'll be back again.  It would not be on my list of eateries to visit downtown to eat at until it improves the ambiance of the restaurant itself, but if you are already downtown its worth giving a try, especially if you are in the mood for some southern classics!


UPDATE 1/12/2010:

I ate at Wag's again recently and was a little let down by the quality of food.  I ordered the special of the day, the smothered chicken, and it lacked flavor and came out rather dry.  The meal was edible at best, and I left full but not very satisfied.  The green beans and mashed potates were easily replicable by anyone with a can opener.  The cornbread had a sweet taste to it and was sadly the highlight of the plate.  Maybe it was an off day and an over-done dish, but I certainly wasn't happy this time around.  I guess I still couldn't argue with the price though!

Smothered Chicken over Rice with Mashed Potatoes, Green Beans, and Cornbread