Living in the burbs, there are plenty of places to eat. But for whatever reason, I don’t venture out much. I have my favorite haunts and I stick to them. Last week, I took a trip to Plate, in Suburban Square. I’d only been there once before, and that was years ago. But I remember liking my food that time.

Complimentary rolls… freakin tasty. It comes with a hunk of butter and some mysterious dipping concoction. I loved it. We eventually asked what it was, and it turned out to be hummus. But I don’t buy it. I think it was something else. It wasn’t nearly chickpea enough and a bit too smooth, but whatever, it was good.

F got this tempura maki roll thing. I couldn’t find it on the menu so I don’t have a spot-on description for it. But it was a maki roll with black rice and other things on the inside and deep fried. We thought it would have something tempura’d on the inside, not be entirely tempura’d. Not bad though. Just strange.

F also got the farfalle with smoked chicken. The waitress warned that this was an extremely smokey dish. That some people couldn’t handle the smokiness of it all. As if describing the dish as smokey couldn’t actually do the justice of how really smoky it really was. Well, in the end, it was quite smokey, but not extraordinarily so. So the chicken tasted a bit like ham, is that bad? Not if you like ham!

I got some mussels as an appetizer. These came in a roasted garlic and spicy tomato sauce. The mussels themselves were teeny tiny, but the sauce was good.

I wasn’t all that hungry, so I also got a little side of mac and cheese. This mac and cheese was friggin good! The melted and charred cheddar on top I could have done away with, but otherwise, a very fine mac and cheese.

The service was good, our waitress was cute as a button and very helpful. They also did not rush us at all and let us stay as long as we wanted to. We ended up pretty much closing up the place. All in all, a nice suburban dining experience.

It ended up being a crazy week of pasta for me. We stopped by Tony and Joe’s for lunch during the week. You wouldn’t know it from the outside, but it’s not just a pick-up joint here… they actually have an adorable little dining area inside.

T went with the eggplant parm. Biggest plate of eggplant parm I’ve ever witnessed in my life. HA! Those veggies aren’t just plain… they were loaded with garlicky and buttery goodness!

R went with her trusty old standby – ravioli.

I ordered the rigatoni. The only rigatoni on the menu was rigatoni abruzzi… which was supposed to come with sausage in a spicy sauce. I ended up with plain old rigatoni with a red sauce. It was fine and all, but plain as all get out. I don’t know what happened… You also get garlic bread, which was pretty good. And soup or salad… we all got salad. My russian dressing was really really weird. Service was pretty good. All the pasta was made to order so it took a bit of time, but not tremendously long. It’s a nice hidden option on Conshy’s main strip.