As I mentioned in the post earlier, I got home pretty late on Wednesday night. I got home rather late because I made the rare weekday visit to Queens, NY to hang out with some friends.
The reason for the pilgrimage into Queens was to revisit our childhood by seeing “The Expendables,” but to also eat at Darryl Strawberry’s new restaurant, conveniently called Strawberry’s.
Before I get to a review of Strawberry’s, let me just tell you “The Expendables” was terrible. There was no plot and the fight scenes were poorly constructed. You know it was bad when “Stone Cold” Steve Austin gave the best performance.
Now onto a review of Strawberry’s.
Location: B
If you take the Long Island Railroad from Douglaston, NY, then Strawberry’s is the place for you. It’s right next to the train station, so if you want to stop in and get a beer, it’s pretty convenient.
However, the Douglaston stop on the LIRR is really in the middle of nowhere, so parking is not the best and they won’t get much walk-in traffic.
Decor: B-
As you could imagine, Strawberry’s was filled with New York Mets and New York Yankees memorabilia. There were a lot of tributes to the 1986 Mets team and of course, Strawberry himself. There were also plenty of TVs, so you could watch any game from any seat in the house.
Why I gave it a B- instead of a B+ is because of something I saw when we were leaving. Right when you walk in, there is a picture of all of Strawberry’s Sports Illustrated covers on the wall.
Strawberry appeared on the cover of SI a total of six times, but what killed me was that the magazines had someone else’s address on the cover. The magazines were addressed to a Don Smith or something. Very odd.
I would think Strawberry would be able to call SI and ask for the magazines he was on.
Menu: A-
I thought it was a pretty good menu. It had your classic pub fare along with some more upscale stuff like salmon. I also liked the fact that you could choose your bun when ordering a burger or sandwich.
Food: C
Remember the scene in “Tommy Boy” when Zolinsky was in the elevator and told Tommy that he went a little heavy on the pine-scented air freshener? Well, I think someone should tell Strawberry that he went a little heavy on the barbecue sauce.
They put BBQ sauce on nachos, quesadillas, you name it. There was even a HUGE bottle of BBQ sauce on the table just in case you didn’t get enough.
My buddy John ordered the macaroni and cheese and it was less than impressive. It was served in a cereal bowl and looked more like mac n’ cheese soup than anything else.
My friend Tom ordered the portabello mushroom sandwich, and when it first came out, it was just a small mushroom on a big bun. It was like White Castle-made portobello mushroom sandwiches.
The waiter came over and was in amazement of how feeble this thing looked. To his credit, the waiter did take it back and came out with a bigger portion meal. Of course, that bigger portion probably came out with some extra special sauce on it, but hey, what can you expect?
I had the lamb burger, which I thought was very good, to be honest. I had no complaints at all, and would order it again.
My other friend, Justin, had the BBQ chicken and didn’t think it was bad at all.
Overall: C
Overall, I think it was as good as we could have expected. Usually, these athlete restaurants are middle of the road and Strawberry’s was no exception.
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com