Comparing two meals out for $20 and under

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A cookie-cutter chain restaurant in Seattle, Wash.

We had dinner out for about $18 each on Saturday night at Pine Hill, a Korean restaurant in Paramus, and took home leftovers.

A few days earlier, I had lunch with two friends at a chain restaurant, The Cheesecake Factory in Hackensack, and forked over $20 in splitting the bill three ways. (Both figures include tax and tip).


For dinner at Pine Hill, I had a large bowl of spicy soup filled with codfish and vegetables ($14.95), served with steamed rice, and shared 11 complimentary side dishes that are part of every Korean meal.


My wife had a stone bowl of soft-tofu stew with shrimp  ($10.95) and my son had a large bowl of spicy soup with short ribs ($13.95). They had juice ($2 each) and I drank water.


My son said he "couldn't move" after finishing his soup, rice and side dishes.


Our healthy side dishes, or panchan, included cabbage and radish kimchis, bean sprouts, tofu, sweet yam, an egg souffle, shredded radish, acorn gelatin, an iceberg lettuce salad and a small, whole grilled mackerel.


When I asked, the waitress brought us more of the sweet-and-spicy cabbage kimchi and two more pieces of tofu. 


Pine Hill is off the beaten path for Korean food -- far from the dozens of places in Palisades Park. But it serves more side dishes with dinner than the others.


What did $20 get me at The Cheesecake Factory? I ordered a large salad with blue cheese and walnuts, but asked the waiter to hold the chicken ($13.95). I drank seltzer and a large cup of black coffee.


At another chain restaurant, Joe's Crab Shack in Clifton, we ordered a $29.99 pot of three kinds of crab and the kitchen overcooked them. Our total bill was nearly $100.


The crab meat I was able to extract from the soft shells was tasteless.


Both The Cheesecake Factory and Joe's were crowded and noisy. Joe's doesn't even take reservations.


Pine Hill Restaurant, 123 Paramus Road, 
Paramus; 201-843-0170.

Party atmosphere, disappointing food

Image by TheRogue via Flickr

At Joe's Crab Shack, the fish and shrimp are a lot more satisfying.

Eat at Joe's for the shore vibe, festive atmosphere and dancing servers, but don't expect much from the signature crab dishes.

If you like noise and loud music, you'll find plenty of both at Joe's Crab Shack in Clifton, where dozens of the young, enthusiastic servers drop everything and dance every 45 minutes as disco lights revolve overhead.

Maybe the dancing and the servers' colorful T-shirts are designed to distract you from the ultimately disappointing crab buckets and steam pots at this chain restaurant. 

We started with cups of lobster bisque ($3.69 each) and I had a side Cesar salad ($3.19) before we shared two entrees, the Caribbean Feast ($19.89) and the Crab Daddy Feast ($29.99). 

The Sea Turtle Sundae was $7.49, and a cup of weak black coffee was $2.49. I declined a free refill.

With iced tea and lemonade, and a $12 tip, I ended up spending nearly $100.

My wife and son liked the lobster bisque and lemonade, but I thought the thick soup tasted more of corn than of crab.

Joe's calls some of its entrees "feasts," but take that with a grain of salt. 

     

I found the Caribbean Feast the most satisfying, with its juicy fillet of mahi-mahi, shrimp prepared two ways, and rice with pineapple and big chunks of carrot and other vegetables.

The Crab Daddy Feast combines Dungeness, Snow and King Crabs in a bucket with an ear of sweet corn and two boiled, skin-on potatoes.

All of the crab legs (not claws, as I wrote earlier) had one thing in common: They were soft and hard to crack, so it was a struggle to get the crab meat out of them. I ended up eating only slightly more crab than shell.

And the crab I did eat wasn't that tasty -- it bordered on being dry --  despite the spicy boil we ordered. 

I had asked the waitress if she knew the weight of the crab in the bucket, and she said each of two crab clusters weighed 18 ounces and there were two King Crab legs. 

Of course, I didn't have a scale at the table, but there seemed to be less crab than that.

We plan to return to Joe's for the twin-lobster steam pot, and to try more of the fish and shrimp. But we'll steer clear of those pesky crabs.

There are other nearby food options as well, including Zinburger and It's Greek to Me.

Joe's Crab Shack, 405 Allwood Road,

in The Promenade Shops at Clifton shopping center, 

Clifton; 973-777-5114. No reservations taken.

Web site: www.joescrabshack.com