D. Taylor's Food & Travel

We were recently talking to a neighbor about Chinese restaurants in the area and she recommended Chia Sen on Payne Road.  It is next to the AT&T store, near Bull Moose, not too far from the Maine Mall.  We were in the area and thought we would give it a shot. As we walked to the front door, the signs, “Fine Dining,” and “Chinese Cuisine,” promised a wonderful meal.   We were moderately disappointed when we didn’t see tablecloths, which are part of our definition of “fine dining.”   However, we were pleasantly greeted and brought to a nice table. It took a long time for the waiter to stop by.   We ordered waters with lemon.   Because Chia Sen also has a full bar, we decided to order a couple “Bloody Mary’s.”   The waters were dropped off quickly and the waiter left without a word – Presumably to go to the bar to get our drinks.   The waters did not have the lemon, as we had asked for.   The “Bloody Mary’s” took quite a while ...

Weathervane Seafood Restaurant , South Portland, Maine (Near the Maine Mall) It is a rare day that my wife suggests we go out to eat at a seafood restaurant.  She said she had a “hankering for some scallops.”  She suggested Ken’s, which is just down the road from our home.  We headed down and found Ken’s closed for the season.  For some reason we were thinking they remained open – apparently not.  Anyway, knowing Bailey’s, The Clambake, and The Pine Point Grill were closed for sure, I had to think…. How about the Weathervane by the Maine Mall, I suggested.  She said “sure, why not” and away we went. We were immediately met and seated by a friendly hostess.  Our waitress stopped by, we ordered some water with lemon and continued to review the menu.  The waters arrived with lemon and all was well. Sea Scallops (Seafarer portion), Onion Rings, & Coleslaw Weathervane Seafood Restaurant, We decided on sea scallops, for my wife, a...

Getting older is usually a pain, however, ever since I learned about Uno’s “double nickel” program, it definitely has its advantages.   The double nickel club give an awesome 30% discount to people over 55 on Wednesdays.   As such, Uno has become our Wednesday place to eat when we are out and about. As we were out shopping last Wednesday, I suggested we eat at the Uno Pizzeria & Grill at 280 Maine Mall Road in South Portland, Maine.   We have eaten there several times before and have liked the food there in the past and at 30% off on Wednesday, I’m all about that. We arrived for a late lunch, a bit before 2PM, and were greeted promptly by a hostess that took us to a table and gave us our menus.   A couple minutes later our server, Kayla, stopped by.   She wrote her name and a little happy face on a napkin and took our drink order—waters with lemon. The waters arrived and we still weren’t ready to order food. Kayla told us to take our time to con...

It is always sad when one of your favorite restaurants falls from grace. Ruby Tuesday in Smyrna, GA , was one of our favorite places to eat. Service was always very good, the biscuits tasty, but, most of all the ribs were awesome. My wife always ordered the "Ruby Ribs," The Memphis Dry Rub was her favorite.  Since we moved to Maine we've tried a couple of the Ruby Tuesdays in the area.  First we went to the Ruby Tuesday in South Portland.  Service was mediocre at best; the salad bar seemed to have fewer things than it did in Smyrna. With so many restaurants in the Maine Mall area we figured we'd go elsewhere in the future.  Not a big deal. The Ruby Tuesday Memphis Dry Rub Ribs we liked at Ruby Tuesday, Smyrna, GA Some weeks later we happened to be in Westbrook and thought why not give the Westbrook Ruby Tuesday a try.  What a mistake. The dry rub ribs were no longer on the menu and not available. Our server tried to tell us that the ribs were the same an...

Staff was quite pleasant. I reserved the room through Expedia's AARP site. Nice, easy, great site to use. After a long drive and great day visiting family we arrived at La Quinta Inn and Suites in St. Albans, VT in the evening, long after dark. Check in was simple and friendly. It was nice that the hotel didn't require an imprint of my credit card for "incidentals." (I had paid in advance through the Expedia website.)  Small window in room and example of chair Photo from La Quinta website We arrived at night and didn't not the hotel windows, so I was surprised when we arrived and saw the room only had one small window. I'm sure the windows were intended for energy conservation but even after sunrise the room was fairly dim. I sat down on the bed and found the the mattress was broken down. That concerned me but I found the center of the twin bed to be okay. There wasn't a desk and chair but there were two small sitting chairs with a sm...