What's up in the Neighborhood

The NeighborhoodAmong the topics in this most recent spin around the Capital Region's online neighborhood: pizza, frozen yogurt, the Pig Out, a tasteplosion, Schenectady, sushi, Schroon Lake, trivia, Jacob's Pillow, wild blueberries and iced coffee.

Rochelle braved the opening of the new Cici's pizza buffet location in Colonie.

Two reports on Plum Dandy, the new frozen yogurt place in Saratoga: Michelle is predicting Plum Dandy will be a success -- and Rebecca got a $7.16 bowl of fro-yo.

Albany Jane got some "comically large" pints of ice cream at The Snowman (and checked out the Troy Pig Out).

Nicole says the soup dumplings at Ala Shanghai were a "tastesplosion."

CAPow had breakfast in "a sweet booth" at Compton's in Saratoga. (And Jessica interview CAPow.)

Rebecca attended a Capital District Eat Drink Blog get together.

Carey and Rob had some fun in Schenectady.

Steve had his first Saso sushi in a year at the new Tai in downtown Albany.

Bandit had a blast at Schroon Lake.

Chuck's trivia team completed the rare Capital Region trivia triple crown.

Silvia "really loved" the Troy Farmers' Market's temporary setup on River Street.

The Exiles had a "wonderful" evening at Jacob's Pillow.

Jackie came across wild blueberries.

And Matt had some special iced coffee in Averill Park.

Comments

Thanks for the link love! :-)

Here's a second opinion on CiCi's - I visited yesterday.

The good news is: The staff is very friendly and attentive. The salad tasted like salad. The cinnamon rolls are tasty. The bad news is: Everything else.

Everything tasted like what you might expect from the world's cheapest microwavable meal. The pizza slices are tiny and are mostly crust which I assume is done to fill people up quicker. They did had one sicilian pizza which, I admit, was much better than all the other varieties... but not even up to a Pizza Hut level of quality. The garlic breadsticks were very cardboard-y. The sauce on the pasta seemed like the same sauce from the pizza although maybe watered down? The chicken they had on the BBQ chicken pizza was what you would expect from Campbell's Chicken Noodle soup. The original soup w/ the tiny cubes of unidentifiable meat, not the 'Chunky' varieties.

The first slice I bit into came with a complimentary baked-in hair as a topping. Yum! The other patrons seemed to have no problem enjoying their meals because they were stacking their plates with 5, 6, or many more slices with each trip to the buffet bar. Speaking of the buffet, it is oddly positioned very close to the main entrance and causes a traffic jam between new diners coming in the door and people returning to the buffet. It's a lot easier to look for a slow, elderly person in line and budge in front of them if you decide to go up for a second helping.

As I was leaving, we noticed the some people rustling their chairs and a few kids laughing... turns out their friend had lost his lunch in the front of the restaurant. I've never seen a person produce their own weight in vomit before. Everyone I went with regretted the decision a few hours later. Even the low price isn't that much of a deal. For the same $7 (a drink is not included in the $5 buffet), you could go to an I Love NY and get two giant slices and a drink and not feel horrible later.

Today, CiCi's distributed velcro wallets around the nearby parking lots with coupons for a free buffet inside. I kept the wallet but threw out the coupon.

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For a decade All Over Albany was a place for interested and interesting people in New York's Capital Region. It was kind of like having a smart, savvy friend who could help you find out what's up. AOA stopped publishing at the end of 2018.

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