I found out through some food blog surfing about a local dive bar. A true local Main Line dive bar in Haverford – Roach’s! Roach & O’Briens, officially, on Lancaster Ave, right across from Wendy’s. It’s about postage stamp sized. You walk in and there’s a jukebox, a phone booth, a dartboard, a bar, and some tables and booths. Maybe some video games in the back? There were about 5 locals in there and they have $2 moosehead every day as well as an ok selection of domestic beer. This isn’t a classy, extensive imported beer list, mussels and pommes frites kind of a joint. People said they had great burgers, and that’s what they got. Burgers, sandwiches, and fries. We got a couple of cheeseburgers, his with bacon, and a basket of cheese fries. These burgers were rather large. The bartender said 8 oz before being cooked. They came on kaiser rolls and were quite good. Piled with lettuce, tomato, and such, they were very tall burgers. And the fries are a thicker kind, and were served with cheese whiz. Overall it was a good time. I have a few other pubs around in my neighborhood, even within walking distance, but this one is really a great little divey one with personality. No pretense about it whatsoever. Two burgers, fries, and 3 beers later, it wasn’t even $20. Not bad, eh?

We then headed over to Yeats just to round out the local Route 30 pub crawl. I’d passed by it thousands of times but never went in. It looked divey from the outside. Strangely enough, Yeats Pub is actually quite nice! It has a long bar taking up one entire side of the restaurant and then all tables and booths. Their menu looked quite good (even had buffalo burger) and their beer, booze, and wine selection is quite extensive. No dart board, no pool, no nothing. Just drinks and food. It was a Monday night and there was almost no people in there. The staff outnumbered the patrons about 2 to one. We just grabbed a beer (I had a hoegaarden on tap) and then skidaddled. I think I’ll have to go back and have some food!

Roach & O’Brien
560 W Lancaster Ave
Haverford, PA 19041
610-527-6308

So the night of the crazy snow storm (not really crazy at all) we finally ended up going to Sang Kee Asian Bistro for dinner. It’s been open for awhile and it’s just around the corner and next to Whole Foods, but I’d never been. Maybe because I thought it would be all PF Chang’s like. Well, it does actually LOOK like PF Chang’s on the inside. It’s swanky and nicely decorated. But it has an Asian staff, so you know it’s not some crazy chain.

We had a short wait, surprisingly. They don’t take reservations, and it was Feb 14th after all. And with people probably not willing to drive into the city or elsewhere for a nice “romantic” dinner, we figured it would be more crowded. It was packed, but we only had about a 10 minute wait. NICE! While waiting, I had a local celebrity moment, as I spotted Denise Nakano dining with her husband. She soon left, and guess what? We got seated at the same booth! Ha!

So Sang Kee does have a liquor license, but they recently got it. Now the strange thing is that they still allow you to BYOB of wine, but they charge a $10 corkage fee. If you bring your own beer, they charge $3 a beer, or something to that affect. The alcohol that they sell is actually quite reasonably priced, so it might not really be all that bad to buy their’s.

They serve Chinese food, albeit Chinese food in a bistro-like setting. They also serve some big noodle bowls and have fixed priced chef’s dinners. For the next few weeks, they also have some special $30 per person deals for Lunar New Year. Sang Kee also has their Duck House in Chinatown, and also a spot in Reading Terminal Market.

Z ordered some veggie spring rolls and they were pretty good. I had hot and sour soup, because I love hot and sour soup. Their’s was actually not quite spicy or sour enough for my usual liking, but I still enjoyed it. It was
different, but good. I ordered Sauteed Seafood Udon Noodles, which came with gigantic shrimp, scallops, and squid. It wasn’t a wet noodle dish, it seemed just quickly stir fried. The squid was a tad bit overdone, but still good. The scallops were not overcooked at all. Z ordered Four Seasons, which had much more sauce and was also quite good. It had some delicious bbq’d pork. Yum!

I was BEYOND stuffed by the end of it all, but we ordered some green tea ice cream. I don’t like green tea, but this ice cream was very good. It was incredibly creamy and it didn’t taste like green tea at all (this is a good thing). It was great! I’m not sure if they make it on their own or buy it, but if I could buy it, I would have! All in all, it was a really nice dinner. The service was also great and the food came out in about 2 winks. I was very surprised! I wouldn’t switch to Sang Kee as my local take-out place (that’s Pak Yue, hands down), but I would definitely go there again.