Chowda Fest – The SoNo Brewhouse Review – Good Chowder Was Had By All

The SoNo Brewhouse Seafood Chowder

“Not very thick but tasty, I suppose.” says ChowderDad. He’s right – the flavors were outstanding!

“It was OK.” says ChowderGirl. “It gets a V.O. for very odd. But awesome.”

Great display!

I love when they give crackers. Not everyone does that and it really is important for some people. And by some people, I mean ChowderBoy and ChowderGirl, who went over and tried to take fistfuls.

If only it was thicker!!!!

In other news, we may reconsider our constant need for thick chowder. We may be…wrong.

ChowdaFest Review – Tavern On Main New England Clam Chowder

Westport’s Tavern On Main New England Clam Chowder

Very baconey. Very thin. If it was thick, we would have LOVED it.

No chowder picture...

This was our last grab. And it was great but we were just so very very done with writing or thinking about chowder, we couldn’t really make a fair assessment.

We hit the wall. This was the taste that brought us to our Chowder Knees.

We’ve been there for dinner before, loved the dining experience, and we will have to go back just to try the chowder properly. It’s not their fault we ate too much chowder.

ChowdaFest Review – Southport Brewing Company

First things first. We love Southport Brewing Company. We have had some great meals there. Last fall, the ChowderParents had a ridiculously great drink there. And ChowderKids had a great pasta dish. We love them. In fact, the day we saw the house we bought, we went to SBC to discuss the purchase. We have a long standing love of this place.

On to the review.

Southport Brewing Company: Clams Casino

The biggest thing about this soup was that none of us could figure out why it is considered Clams Casino.

• “What makes it Clams Casino anyway?”
• “It is a great tasting soup but I don’t understand what makes it Clams Casino? I need a bigger bacon flavor, among other things.”

Interesting...

The biggest question was…WHERE IS THE DEAD PIG?

Clams Casino Chowder

We liked it very much. But not knowing why it is called Clams Casino Chowder…we were confused. And saddened.

Southport Brewing Company: Sausage, Egg & Cheese

Once again, the ChowderFamily asks “Where is the dead pig?” If it is supposed to be sausage-inclusive, why don’t we taste any sausage?

Where's the dead pig?

It has a bit of a weird taste.

We liked it in theory more than in practice.

ChowderBoy? Liked everything about it and had 3 cups.

Nice booth set up though! We liked the visual 🙂

We still love you SBC!

ChowdaFest Review – The Crab Shell Times Two

Crab Shell New England Patriot Crab Chowder

Possibly the best quote of the day came from this sampling. “There’s a secret stash of bacon in here but it only came in mine.”

New England Crab Chowder

It was very floury and ChowderDad said “I liked it to start but it went real bad, real fast.”

ChowderMom really enjoyed it and thinks ChowderDad was imaging things.

Crab Shell NY Giant Lobster Bisque

ChowderBoy thinks it is disgusting. But then, we have established that he does not like lobster bisque at all.

but not the Giants.”]So it’s up to ChowderMom. Here’s the deal. “I loved it. I did. It was, by far, the best bisque of the day. But I could not vote for it because they named it after the Giants. And booooooo.”

Darn, that's good!

I would go back there a thousand times for their bisque. It was THAT good.

ChowdaFest Review – O’Neill’s New Irish Clam Chowder

O’Neill’s New Irish Clam Chowder:

The soul of Ireland in the heart of SoNo. I cannot believe we have lived in the area for almost 7 years and we have never been to O’Neill’s. Especially because we’re relatively proud Irish Americanish kinds of people. (How’s that for a half explanation?)

New Irish Chowder

So we were very excited to see them on the ChowdaFest list.

So the chowder. Well, it was rich and tasty but no one could figure out what made it Irish. And that really disappointed us – because we were counting on something WOO! It tasted good – but it tasted like New England Clam Chowder.

We were looking for something else. Maybe some secret stash of salmon would be included…along with infinite wisdom and knowledge.

Isn't This McCool?

But it was really good. We really did enjoy it and now, now we think we must go there for a Happy Hour or Sunday Brunch.

Such a hardship, really, for us to be forced to go to a classic Irish pub. I hear they make a great bloody mary. But we all have trials and tribulations…

ChowdaFest Review – Reviews of Bridgeport and Norwalk Restaurants

In the interest of jamming multiple food reviews into one post and not overloading our readers with 30 separate posts that are about as interesting as the chowder we tested, here is a three-fer.

Ash Creek Saloon:

I have to admit that we may be pretty biased here. We really desperately want to love this place. It just never happens.

Sorry, Guys!

However much we enjoy dead pig in this house (and we do love dead pig), everyone felt it was overpowering in some way.

• It starts better than it finishes.
• It tastes like burnt ham.
• Maybe there is too much dead pig in it?

Rowayton’s Lobster Bisque:

Lesson learned. The children hate lobster bisque. Because this was pretty okay and they both freaked out and refused to finish it.

That said, the lobster didn’t taste fresh. It tasted a bit gummy. The overall flavor was fantastic though!

Restaurant at Rowayton

Nicholas Roberts’ Oyster & Pork Belly:

The line made it nearly impossible to get through and even taste it. It looks great, the individual serving seemed to be a priority for them (fresh breadcrumbs or something) and we heard from Random Chowder Lady that it was very very good. Maybe we will have to take a trip there to try it.

Wahhhh! We want pork belly!

Do you know of any Chowder Festivals we simply need to attend? Any dead pig festivals? Hunger Games feasts?

We’re getting ready for Newport but maybe you’ve got a favorite even we need to attend beforehand!

ChowdaFest Review – Mansion Clam House, Westport

Okay, we know they won. But their chowder is SO much better at the restaurant! We reviewed it around Mother’s Day a few years back and we very much enjoyed it. But this time, it was “a floury mess” says ChowderDad.

It started as a 7 but got downgraded as we ate it. And we really all hate to say it isn’t great – because it really was great on site.

CG tries the famous Mansion Clam House Chowder

ChowderGirl says it is the only chowder she ate at ChowdaFest that wasn’t slightly yellow so it made her warm and fuzzy inside. But she still refused to finish it.

ChowderMom thought it was “mushy, bland, not buttery…but good on the thickness…thanks to the aforementioned floury mess.”

Even ChowderBoy, the most positive upbeat reviewer on the planet…downgraded it as he talked about his thoughts.

Sorry, Mansion. We will just have to go to Westport and eat it when it’s fresh.

ChowdaFest Review – Rory’s Classic New England Clam Chowder

ChowderBoy went to town on this one. In fact, it is nearly a full week after ChowdaFest and he is STILL talking about Rory’s chowder. His singular response to the entire ChowdaFest was that Rory’s is a 10, the best at the event.

I will admit that ChowderDad and I think it got better since we tried it in 2008. When we tried it last time it had onions in it and had a thick film of dill over the top. This was nothing like that chowder and it was, overall, pretty darned good!

The grown-ups got sherry in their chowder!

ChowderBoy isn’t the only one who loved it – they placed 2nd overall for New England Clam Chowder.

It had a strong flavor, a decent amount of clams, and a LOT of celery. Whether or not you think that is a good thing is an individual choice but ChowderMom really hates excessive amounts of celery.

We just spent some time looking at their menu and we agree – we need to visit and try it again. A full bowl, nice and fresh.

We may need to review their onion soup too – look at this glory!

ChowderBoy is salivating!

ChowdaFest – The Liquid Lunch Experience

ChowderBoy identified Liquid Lunch’s New England Cheese Steak Chowder Versus New York Roasted Cauliflower Soup as his number one priority for tasting. We all found this strategy confusing – he didn’t even want to start with a New England Clam Chowder first.

But his enthusiasm (and pro-Patriots stance) won us all over and off we went.

The great battle!

First up, the New York Roasted Cauliflower.

ChowderGirl gave it a 4/10 because she has recently decided she hates cauliflower. I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t have known it had cauliflower in it without the sign but okay. Her only statement was “uhhhhhh.”

ChowderBoy loved it, ate it all in about 2 bites, and proclaimed it was the best he’d tasted so far. Then decided MAYBE it could use less cauliflower. Also, he hates the Giants.

Yeah, that was pretty good!

On to the New England Cheese Steak Chowder.

• ChowderGirl gave it a 7, with no compliments. Just one small question, “why is all their food yellow?” (Note: not yellow). To be fair, she was up until midnight the night before, boot scooting to Footloose with her little buddies so we weren’t surprised.
• ChowderBoy ate a second helping and licked the cup he liked it so much.
• The random woman at the ChowderTable said it tasted like a cheeseburger.
• Our guest reviewer arrived later and said it was the best thing he’d ever eaten.

Overall, the parental testers were less than thrilled but supportive of the efforts. We always like a Liquid Lunch in general.

Helping #2

ChowdaFest – What a Day!

Before we get too deep into the specifics of the chowder, we would like to talk about how much we enjoyed the day!

Chowder Lovers Unite!

We had a great day. ChowderBoy and I discussed our strategy early in the day and we made up ChowderFamily review ballots for ourselves (knowing that the official ballots would not hold all our thoughts). We made them based on our old ranking system and had columns for each person to rank the chowder. Big mistake. Or, rather, big waste of time! The whole ChowderFamily just ended up scribbling notes on napkins and the official ballots and on the backs of our homemade ones.

We arrived later than we intended. The original game plan had us there right as the doors opened so we could get a table and avoid the lines. We dawdled and ended up arriving around 11:30. But we got a table and settled in for a few hours of eating!

A few general comments:

• Overall, it was really wonderful. A lot of generally happy people, chatting and enjoying the day.
• The whole Patriots – Giants thing added an extra level of interest to the day. And people were really funny about it – not antagonistic, just fun.
• The way the lines form (or don’t form, as the case may be) is frustrating. Some folks are lined up and eating as they stand in line, sometimes leaving people standing in front of a booth, not eating, waiting for the next one. And then people have to try and dive through the line.
• We find it nearly impossible to eat every single chowder. We all felt sleepy and stuffed about 2/3 of the way through. I wish we didn’t scarf down so many so quickly!
• They have the Sacred Heart Band play – great idea! Next year, maybe they can play upstairs so it isn’t so loud. We could barely hear ourselves think to review the chowder!
• We saw so many people we know there. It was really neat to see so many people enjoying our very favorite food!

Chowda Chick!	Chef Quahog	Great Stuff!
Dubious	Apparently, thumbs down.	OMG. So full.
Cannot. Move.	Too Much Chowder	No, really, I'm fine!

We can’t wait until next year! But before we move on to the official reviews, we want to thank Jim Keenan for an awesome day! Next year, we want to help!