RUTHIE'S BAR & GRILL,

A cursory look over the lunch menu shows mostly the usual suspects, from burgers to sausage and pepper sandwiches. But ask and you'll find that the $3.50 burger is eight ounces of Black Angus. Look at how that the last pasta item, at $4.95, is under a decidedly un-diner-like pink vodka sauce. When you notice the proclamation, "Tripe every Saturday," you know this is not your-ordinary bar and grill. Bar snacks dominate the list of appetizers on the evening menu as well: nachos and potato skins, cheese fries. and "Johnny's famous" chicken wings, sautéed in olive oil, as well as the traditional Buffalo wings. But go at dinnertime, as we did, and get a real treat -- or four or five. That's the modest number of entrées that were offered one recent Monday. Not too many for a single chef in the kitchen, not so much that the place would go broke throwing out the leftovers after slow nights. When we got there about 7, something called chicken Joseph and a couple of other items had already been rubbed off the chalkboard, but three seafood dishes remained, so we had them all. (You can also get three kinds of pastas, with three different sauces, plus meatballs, cutlets, etc.) . . .

Full review.