Dempsey's at Oriole Park -- Great (last reviewed Sep 12)

I don't know what Dempsey's replaced but it is definitely a keeper -- nice onsite microbrew and a step-up from typical brewhouse food.  Bonus was that Rick Dempsey was there and he was gracious enough to pose for a couple of pics.  I must say that I thought he was dead when Bo Jackson ran over him at home plate a loooong time ago so its good to see that he is still doing his thing with announcing and now being a restauranteer.  So the microbrew was nice and the nachos with pulled chicken where really well prepared as were the three different kinds of sliders.  And, the price was actually very reasonable especially for an in-the-park restaurant.  As far as pointers, hmmm, I'm stretching here but the place was chaotic due to the big crowd and they had a little of the bar food season-all going on where everything has a bit of a bland, fried taste.  They also could not accommodate a pulled chicken sandwich although they had pulled chicked on the nachos.  Say what.  Overall, way to go Rick!

Pho Van - Blackball (last reviewed April 2012)

I first visited this Vietnamese, low brow restaurant when I was recovering from a cold and needed something more than chicken noodle soup to get me over the hump. I ordered pho (pronounced /fah/) tai chin as a to go order and came with lots of stuff to assemble -- bean sprouts, hot paste, cilantro, lime, noodles and the meat (that's the tai chin part). It was quite the effort and after the fourth ingredient I got frustrated and dumped everything into the bowl. It was very unique and quite tasty although the meat had a funky sweet taste. Round 2 was a disaster. I took my bride back to Pho Booger and it started and ended wrong. We went to seat ourselves and the table nazi grunted for us to sit elsewhere. Next, I tried to make nice with the host by asking him if he knew my Vietnamese buddy and even flashed him a photo. Nope, never heard of him, don't recognize him and he looks Mexican to me. Thanks, for the hook-up, Bach. My wife was seated so that she was facing the kitchen and as it turns out, that was a big mistake. She had a look of horror and I calmly inquired. She said that the kitchen help also most have had a cold. I'll spare my faithful followers some of the details but let's just say this would have been a good time for hand sanitizer. (Note to self -- my policy here is to leave more than enough money for the drinks on the table and just walk out.) Lucky day, he brought out our food. My wife convinced me that only the top layer of beans my have been compromised and the steaming broth would kill any germs. I was hungrier than the Andes plane crash survivors and decided to do what I had to do. Needless to say, I didn't like it but then horror upon horror, my wife spots another picker in the kitchen. We declared it over, paid, rolled out. Blackball.