| Reno
/ Sparks Eats |
Restaurant Reviews: Eater's Guide to Downtown Reno and the wider Reno / Sparks area -- cheap to chic and every dive restaurant in between! |
| ANOTHER LOCAL HAS SOME
EXCELLENT SUGGESTIONS: downtown Reno has some really good Asian food. 1. Golden Flower 5th and Sierra. all locals ...... try the #26. the best sandwich ever, all for $3.39... no checks here, each table has a number which you tell the cashier. great idea. 2.Also, the Vietnamese guy who opened Pho 777 a few years ago has now expanded across the street the block east of Cal-Neva. called..Pho 777. best pho anywhere. 3. Carolina..... best ribs around. on glendale, east of downtown, about 1 1/2 miles east on the north side. closes early, 7PM but awesome ribs. 4. Awful-Awful are, as u know, mighty good, but they are now $5.50. (ED note: The awful awful is an awfully good double cheeseburger, a real locals tradition, found at the three Nuggets: John Ascuaga's Sparks Nugget (janugget.com), downtown Reno "Little" Nugget, and the Carson City Nugget casino/hotel. See the weekly specials at the Carson City Nugget coffeeshop, the Awful Awful is $4.50 last time I checked.) 5. and for splurging, the Eldorado. Golden Fortune, the roast duck is the best you'll ever find. Ask for Leo, the waiter. he's a delight and will steer you right. Whole dinner ..about $25. Thanks, KW, for the great recommendations! I'm met KW at the Golden Flower, the pork sandwich for $3.39 was a tasty treat. I also have the seafood soup, a large bowl could be a meal on it's own -- JL, trackandtrain. Now that I live in Reno again, I've had a chance to revisit a few places I remember well... An old standby for the college crowd jjst west of the University is Pub'N'Sub. North of Interstate 80 is Pub'n'Sub -- across I-80 on Virginia and a few blocks northwest, near the college. If you click on the link above, read the review with a grain of salt. The reviewer is only blogging,a dn blog does start with blah. I personally am nearing 40 and have not outgrown Pub'N'Sub. So, now that you've decided to check it out, how do you get there from downtown? While still downtown, go west on Fourth street, then turn right (north) on Ralston and go over I-80. Pub'N'Sub is a few blocks up the hill on the right. Pub'n'Sub is a cheap little college dive with pizza and a variety of food with student-oriented lower prices. Don't forget to get a pitcher of beer and sit out back in the garden. Check them out.. everyone in Reno knows Pub'N'Sub. Archie's was a diner-style little hambuger joint when I used to live up here. Since then, Archie's recently completed a vertical expansion. Now the diner is downstairs and the new upstairs is a sportsbar. Near Archie's is an old standby dive for the young drinkers, the Little Waldorf Saloon, which claims to have been around since the 1920s. This is a real hotspot at night due to it's proximity to University of Nevada at Reno. Archies and the Little Waldorf are easy to find. From downtown Reno, drive north on North Virginia, crossing I-80 and moving through UNR. About a mile or two north of 80 you'll find these two places near the 7-11, before you get to North McCarran, the Reno ring road. |
GOTTA EAT AT GALETTI'S AND CASALE'S!Reno has a plethora of good places to eat. Before diving into the rest of this article, I have to tell you about two fantastic landmark restaurants in Reno and Sparks: Casale's Halfway Club and Galetti's Coney Island Bar. Skip the rest, try the best (first)!Both places have been around for decades. Both are on 4th street, about halfway between Reno and Spark, hence the name 'Halfway Club.' Let me start with Casale's. Mama Inez Stempeck has been perfecting her recipes for decades. From the outside you might be fooled into driving by. Inside you'll find a low-key inviting Italian restaurant with affordable spaghetti, ravioli and more. See the article from Reno News and Review with a photo of Mama Inez at work. A little closer to Sparks is Galetti's Coney Island Bar. It's about 60 years old and was named for Coney Island, an amusement park that was across the street eons ago. Galleti's is Italian-owned, but only features Italian food on Tuesday. Try the "all-three," spaghetti with sauce, pesto and polenta. Like Casale's, this place is a friendly inviting trip back in time to an era before big chain restaurants took over the world. Galetti's has "New York Jew approved" Pastrami, and my Polish Mom said she hasn't tasted pastrami so good since she was a youngster in Milwaukee in the 1950's going to the Jewish deli. According to my experts, this is the only place in Reno/Sparks with real pastrami. I never liked corned beef until I tried it at Galetti's Coney Island Bar. Lunch at Galetti's is served 11am-2pm Monday - Saturday, if you go on Tuesday or Thursday you'd better get there early. Both times I've been there a card game broke out after the huge lunch rush. The only dinner is served on Wednesday night. Don't miss Galetti's Coney Island Bar. NOW THAT YOU ATE CASALE'S AND GALETTI'S, WHADD'YA WANNA EAT?FOOD AT THE El Dorado AND Silver Legacy CASINO/HOTELS: I personally am split between the El Dorado and Silver Legacy. I like the Tivoli Gardens restaurant at El Dorado, but prefer the Cafe Sedona (formerly the Sweetwater Cafe) at Silver Legacy, the food's a little better with a better Asian selection. Neither place is cheap, any real meal costs at least $10 and up, plus drinks and tips. I haven't tried the buffets. For the "yuppie cigar-smoking brew-pub, beer and music" crowd, go to the Brew Brothers right in between the El Dorado and Silver Legacy by the fountains, a fine place for cigar smokers and yuppies alike, just across from the ritzy Italian restaurant I never tried. Downstairs at the Silver Legacy on the side of the casino is a food-court area. Having said that, the El Dorado has (by far) a better coffeeshop and bakery at the entrance to the Tivoli Gardens. The coffeeshop at Silver Legacy gets busy -- real busy. If the El Dorado coffeeshop is busy you can order all the same coffees and desserts ten steps away at the Tivoli Gardens cashier desk, or at the lunch counter behind the cashier. Don't forget to try a truffle, overpriced at $1.25 each. WHAT'S TO EAT AWAY FROM the El Dorado and the Silver Legacy?The problem with both places is that they are not cheap. Reno is about cheap hotel rooms, and it should be about quality, well-cooked cheap food. My favorite place for this combination of lower costs and decent food is Molly's Garden in the Fitzgerald's casino, right next to the Reno trench on Virginia. If you walk out the southeast corner of El Dorado and cross a street, before you cross the Reno trench there's an escalator and elevator up to a walkway crossing the Reno trench. In the old pre-trench days this walkway took you up over the street level trains and into the casino. It's still worth going into Fitzgerald's this way for two reasons. Aside from the Fitzgerald's parking garage, this is another great direct viewpoint into the Reno trench. Also this sky-level walkway currently has many great historical photos of Reno, Truckee and Donner Pass. My favorite is a guy working with dynamite while smoking a cigarette. This was definitely pre-Osha or Msha! No writeup of downtown Reno could be complete without mentioning the cafe at the downtown Nugget casino, on Virginia St just south of the El Dorado and the Reno Trench. In the back of this casino is a little cafe that serves the "Awful Awful" which wins awards as the best burger in Reno. Don't miss this old-time diner-style cafe in the back of the downtown Nugget, or at Rosie's Cafe at John Ascuaga's Nugget Hotel in Sparks near the Union Pacific trainyard. To get the real deals on food, try the Cal-Neva's Top Deck Casino-- I've never had any problems and the prices are much cheaper. WARNING: The Cal-Neva Top Deck is not for the haute cuisine high-fashion crowd, but if you're a friendly real person who lives at least 100 miles from either coastline, then you'll probably like it as much as I do. If you think Iowa is "flyover country" then please skip the Top Deck and go to the Roxy. Many of the older casinos will offer cheap food including Cal-Neva's eggs and ham for under $2, a real breakfast for any eater. Fitzgerald's had a sign on a bar recently saying 99 cent shrimp cocktail, it can't be all bad, right? Try it out ...Are you really broke and need a beer? Go to the Cal-Neva sportsbook snack counter, they have "beer and hot dog" and "taco and beer" deals for under $3 and you can watch fourteen sports games at once there. Typically, the snack counter offers Hot Dog and draft beer for $2.50, two tacos and draft for $2.75, and for just over $3 you get a Heineken instead of draft beer. Close into downtown, local places to eat include authentic Mexican food from Beto's and JJ's Pie Company on 5th street for pizzas and more, both a few blocks west of Virginia. There's a Starbuck's nearby, plus Starbuck's in Harrah's downtown. Along the redeveloped riverwalk area, just south of downtown near the Truckee River, are great coffeeshops, restaurants and bar for eclectic artist types and other high-fashion hippies, as well as a movie theater complex. I haven't tried it yet, but Peg's Glorified Ham'n'Eggs is a truly local favorite, south of the Truckee River near the courthouse complex. WHEN IN RENO, EAT AT THE SAME CHAIN AS USUAL?Now that half of Southern California has moved to Reno, if you get out and about in your car you'll find nearly every chain eatery you have at home, including all the fast food places and Olive Gardens you can handle. Two semi-national chains I don't see much in California are Del Taco Mexican fast food and Sonic, an American-style drive-in. RENO'S NORTHWEST CLUSTER OF SHOPPING IMHO, the best fast food is found at El Pollo Loco, try the Grilled Fiesta burrito. There's a Pollo Loco a few miles south of downtown on Virginia, or go west on I-80 two exits from Virginia, exit at McCarran, turn right, go north a few blocks and you'll find my favorite Reno shopping mecca. Not only is there El Pollo Loco, but there's a Wal-Mart with groceries, an Albertson's, a Safeway, McDonalds, Dairy Queen, Chili's, QDoba, Jacques en le Box, MceeDees, Burger Thing, Taco Smell, KFC, Subway, Jamba Juice, There's a Kohl's going in, a Walgreen's, two 7-11's, Pizza Plus, IHOP (Internation House of Pancakes formerly Village Inn), Carl's Jr., Arby's, and of course Starbucks. In this neighborhood at Mae Anne / McCarran and Seventh / McCarran are two more local Reno favorites. The famous Flowing Tide Pub and Hacienda Mexican Restaurant are there, and nearby is one of many Bully's Sports Bars. Once place I have to mention is a semi-chain, the Black Bear Diner, a homey place with a lot of character and great food. I have only eaten at the Sparks Black Bear Diner on North McCarran just north of I-80, but there's another Black Bear Diner just south of Vassar street, about a mile south of downtown on Virginia. The menu is newsprint, with old articles from the 50's and 60's on the back of the menu. Very folksy, this is my kind of place. I go to mafia places and old-style places, and not much else. If it's too modern or stylish you won't find me there. CASINOS AWAY FROM DOWNTOWN ARE FOR LOCALS The Gold Dust West is a fine place, between Fourth and Fifth near Keystone a few blocks west of downtown Reno. Right across Fourth street is an old standard, the Gold and Silver, which claims to be Reno's oldest family restaurant. The Gold Dust West is a local's casino, with a nice restaurant. for people over 21 only. That means no kids screaming and running up and down the aisles. This is a very popular place for seniors trying to get away from their grandkids -- "We'd like to take you, Johnny, but you're not old enough." It's 21+ only because you can only get in by walking through the casino. The Gold Dust West casino is a local favorite with lots of penny slots and giveaway nights. Another popular locals casino, east of downtown is Baldini's. I only went there once years ago, it's off my beaten path, but it's another place to see authentic Reno and get away from the downtown glitz and glitter. (OK, OK, we're not Vegas, but they're trying!). When I travel, I like to avoid national chains and eat at a local place. North of town a mile or two on North Virginia past UNR is the Bonanza Casino with the Branding Iron Cafe, a local cafe and Cactus Creek, a fancier restaurant. The Cactus Creek slogan is, "You're not a tourist, you shouldn't have to pay like one!" If you are up for a drive up 395 into the desert, about ten to fifteen miles north of Reno is Bordertown, a small casino with a decent little restaurant and an "RV resort." MORE LOCAL AND NATIONAL CHAINS One Northern Nevada local chain is Heidi's, with locations in Reno and Carson City. Heidi's is a little local restaurant with breakfast, lunch and pies. For something newer and imported from SoCal, not quite national yet, Orange County's Claim Jumper built a high-end steakhouse in South Reno by WalMart on Virginia at Kietzke north of McCarran. TO REALLY SAVE MONEY, GO GROCERY! Just so you know, there's a full selection of Safeway and Albertson's and other grocery stores as well as Trader Joe's and Whole Foods. There's Scolari's and Raley's and Sak'n'Save and others. The nearest grocery stores to downtown at the Albertson's at Fifth and Keystone near I-80, the Raley's across the freeway at Seventh and Keystone, and an Albertson's to the south toward the Peppermill at Plumb and Lakeside. Go south on Virginia from downtown, turn right at Plumb, go west a block and turn into the shopping center before Lakeside. This shopping center is also the location of Josef'sVienna Bakery. Back in Sparks there's even a tortilla factory, but that's another story. FINAL MENTIIONS -- ZPizze, Moxies and Pierce's Pub in the Northwest, plus south of downtown is El Borracho and (for the Yuppie's) Brick's, with high-class and a nice wine bar. ZPizza is SoCal pizza for Yuppies, and I love it. It's on Sharland's, take I-80 west past McCarran to Robb Drive. Exit, follow the road to the right, turn right on Sharlands and turn in at the Scolari's. ZPizza has a great pesto pizza and many other high-class healthful food combos. Moxie's - In the same shopping center as Scolari's and ZPizza is Moxie's, a nice small fancy restaurant for the golfer crowd. Pierce's Pub -- A nice friendly pub with a nice beer selection in the Northwest, get to Robb Drive, go north to Mae Anne, turn left and look on your left. Also in this shopping area near Pierce's is a newly opened second location for Peg's Glorified Ham'N'Eggs, a great place for a Glorified Eggs Benedict. El Borracho -- Never been there, but I hear good things. El Borracho means "the drunk," and this is a longstanding Reno favorite for Mexican food. Brick's -- Significant for being located across the street from Reno's best Chiropractor, Dr. Neil Crowley. Brick's is for yuppies, but don't let that stop you. Dress well and enjoy the great wine bar and fine menu. $$$$ FOOD WITH A VIEW -- SKYLINE CAFE IS FOR YUPPIES OK, OK, you want one more place to go? From downtown, go west a few blocks and turn south on Arlington. Cross the Truckee River, go a few miles until Arlington turns into Skyline. Go up the hill just past Horseman's Park toward the South McCarran ring road, Skyline Cafe is on the right in a small strip mall. Skyline Cafe is in the fancy part of Reno, the Southwest near Caughlin Ranch. The views can be great if you get the right table, and Skyline Cafe is another favorite for the Reno Yuppie set. $$$$ WAIT WAIT WHAT ABOUT THE PEPPERMILL COFFEESHOP? How could I forget to mention the Peppermill Hotel/Casino with the famous Peppermill Coffeeshop? With trademark purple and blue interior and all those cool fake trees, what could be better? Chinese food specials in the afternoon, that's what What can I say, the Peppermill Reno Coffeeshop is a Reno classic and spawned many Peppermill's in Northern California (sans-casinos, of course.) When at the Peppermill Reno on South Virginia, don't forget to peek in on the Peppermill lounge, complete with soft seats, dark lighting and good-looking cocktail waitresses. Just past the Peppermill lounge is the fishtank bar, a totally cool bar, one of a kind. Don't miss it!Think I missed something? Of course I did, there's a humungous choice of places to eat in Reno and Sparks. If you're a local or a tourist, send me your writeups. Send a mail to jim at uthanevada.com, and enjoy your lunch! |
