Super Star Inn, Baltimore MD

The Super Star Inn is located at 5603 Pulaski Highway in far Eastern Baltimore City. It is very easy to miss since it sits back from the road between a transmission shop and a auto body shop. It blends in with this light industrial part of the City. This place is quintessential, blue collar, Baltimore right down to the form stone exterior.

There is nothing fancy about the place. It really is a blue collar type place. At lunch time you see many guys in their dark blue or green work cloths sipping something in a discrete drinking glass. Eight years ago it would have been a haze of blue smoke.

The massive 360 degree bar takes up most of the room. There is a pool table, dart board, and three poker machines turned to face the kitchen window and not the rest of the room. The only thing missing is a pin ball machine. Twice now I have had lunch here. The bar tenders are real honest to God, Baltimore Hons. The cook watches you from the kitchen window to make sure you have a smile on your face when you try your food.

As most places like this, there is a board featuring the daily specials. Crab cake plater is one of them. $9 for a crab cake, fries, and slaw. This is a super deal. The crab cake is full of meat and has a nice strong old bay flavor. It is a bold cake, not a high brow one you might find for twice the money. The fries are really good too. Both visits, my guest went for the crab cake special. Both were very pleased with their choice.

I made the choice of gyro platter. At  $7.50 for the platter, it was not the best I have ever had, but it was acceptable. The second time there, I went for the little, 6 ounce cheeseburger. The 8 ounce is the standard. Sorry for no photo. It was one of the best burgers I have ever had. It sits firmly in the top 5. At $4.50 it was even tastier than I could have expected. All the food is good honest bar food at a very reasonable price.

I suggest you try the Super Star Inn. It has taken over as my place to take people who visit my shop. The dinner specials are very tempting and will probably having me bringing the family across town one evening. Thursdays they have a 16 ounce New York strip steak with two sides for $11.95. No need to dress up, or put on any airs when coming here. If you are the popped collar type, you might want to go somewhere else.

Score: A perfect 10

Shin Chon, Ellicott City MD

I think many will notice I tend to gravitate toward ethnic restaurants. Shin Chon at 8801 Baltimore National Pike, #27 sure fits this bill. It is at the far end of the Lotte Plaza. Korean BBQ is the thrust of this place. Be very careful coming here. The parking lot is very busy and the drivers tend to be oblivious to an other cars. I am not stereotyping, we almost got into three accidents just trying to park. It was Friday night so the place was packed and it was hopping. The wait was only about 10 minutes however.

The first home run; the beers are BIG. I like that. The beer was also VERY cold. Second home run.

Korean meals are always served with kimchi.  The furthest plate is what most think of as kimchi, but they all are kimchi.

10 different kimchi were served. This is not the record of 14 we were served once at another place, but it was a very nice array. There were also two different soups served. My favorite was the kimchi second to the right in the photo above. It was a green chili pepper in some kind of bean/ sesame paste. All of them were unique and delicious. My least favorite the one I pointed out in the last photo. It was delicious, but just typical.

Our entree was a meal for two. I cannot tell you the name, but it was billed as "baby squid and pork". It also contained cabbage, jalapeños, and cellophane noodles along with the baby squid and sliced pork belly. A lady cooked it all right in front of us on the table and unlike those NASTY Japanese places that cook it in front of you, A) it tasted great. B) the cook did not throw it at me, missing and hitting my shirt instead of my mouth. C) make a big show of cooking flavorless nasty food. This food tasted great as I pointed out in "A".

This photo speaks for itself. A big stack of empty plates and a big empty beer. The bill, $50 w/ tip and two big beers. Very reasonable if you ask me. 

Rating 9

Would I return? Yes, but there are so many other places I want to try. The Korean population is huge in Ellicott City/ Catonsville and there are a bunch of very obscure places we want to try.