Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

I'm not a fan of "meat on meat", unless it's a little bit of chili without beans. If the hot dog in the picture was set before me, my first instinct would be to ask for 2 pieces of rye bread for the pastrami.

There was a very popular place in Jersey called Amazing Hot Dog. While I'm not a toppings guy, this place had the widest variety of toppings and combinations I've seen at a hot dog establishment. Most I didn't care for, but some were ok. I usually had just mustard on mine because they served a high quality beef dog that tasted fine this way. But one of my favorite combinations here was the Reuben Dog. It was a deep fried quarter pound natural casing all beef dog (at times they used Sabrett, Best, or Pearl) with Swiss cheese, Sauerkraut, Russian dressing, and Caraway Seeds topped with paper thin Hot Dog shavings. No corned beef.

Katz's has perhaps the best pastrami on the planet and one of the best hot dogs. When I've gone, I've sampled both, but not together. To do so in my opinion would lessen each.

Katz's hot dogs (Sabrett natural casing 9 to a lb) are perfect with just their deli mustard. When I went with a newspaper panel to judge hot dogs in New York, I was the only one (out of 8) to sample my dog with just mustard. Everyone else had chili on theirs. All 7 said it was the worst chili they ever had.

Der Weinerschnitzel is in my future.

Thank you! It is a peeve of mine up there with "veggies" which marginalizes the most important part of out diet.

@ALRUI: It's possible that the griddle wasn't hot enough, but the medium rare buffalo burger was also mushy.

@RossS: I agree that the problems are with the work Hackney's does, not with the quality of their ingredients. But Hackney's took good ingredients and failed to season them well and then failed to cook them well. How does my writing about that make the review unfair?

I think that Ken's has a nice blend of the Neapolitan style with the bold American palate. Honestly, on pizzas like the margarita, I think the sauce tends to be too much and overpower the crust and cheese. It's when you put some spicy sausage and peppers on it that it works best (though then the crust begins to disappear). That's why it's my third favorite in Portland behind Scholls and Nostrana. I think those tend to be more balanced -- though all three have great ingredients and execution.

@LA Maven
You keep threatening to come up here and eat some 'za yet never do. Put our pizza where your mouth is. ;-) And email me if you do make your way.

@Daniel: they definitely have some interesting offerings. I've tried the bacon cheeseburger, the taco, the BBQ chicken, and the baked potato pies. While they all accomplish the flavor combinations they seek to attain, none of them ever strike a craving in me quite like the Pizza Pub Special. In fact, I'm craving one right now!

I liked the review, and especially the pics! Nice job, Daniel. The pictures remind me of the thick braided crust pizzas you would find at places like Pyramid Pizza in Lawrence, KS or Beau Jo's in Colorado. http://slice.seriouseats.com/archives/2009/05/beau-jos-colorado-mountain-style-pizza-denver-idaho-springs-colorado-co-review.html

@travpard- I think they look really cheesy because they're pictures of the "double decker" pizzas mentioned in the article. As someone who spends her whole day making pizza, that much cheese does seem very extreme. I think the crust is the most important part, and theirs is a little doughy looking. but this was a really fun article to find- my dad is from mundelein. Dont know if he ever ate here though.

Peanuts on the table is a definite plus--reminds me of my favorite chain restaurant as a little kid, The Ground Round, which had bowls of popcorn on the table.

However, that slice looks like a pizza from a box that has been dropped on the floor.

been goin there for a good 20 years and i agree with what DinnerDuJour said... nicely put Z-man! if you're ever back up in the area, give me a holler. you need to try the Hawaiian pizza there (i know, not to traditional but it's awesome) and there is a place right down the street for some great carne asada tacos...

Ken's is one of my desert island pizzas. For all the awesome pizza that we have in SF, I still go to Ken's every single time I'm in Portland.

I just saw these at my local co-op the other week and believed them to be either alien food or actual aliens lying in wait for an unsuspecting hippie to take them home. I suppose I'm somewhat of a newbie when it comes to "unusual" ingredients, although I do have a 23-year-old co-worker who had never heard of or seen a fig until a few weeks ago when I brought in your delicious fig and almond cookies. At any rate, I'm going to go hunting for these tonight -- alien or not, if it gets an endorsement from Gina, I'll definitely try it!

I don't think it's creepy either. It's beautiful.