The Cove - San Antonio, TX

The Cove in San Antonio,  TX was kind of a cool tree hugger, healthy food restaurant with a really great tap beer selection both indoors and out.  It seemed more like an Austin restaurant than San Antonio to me.

It almost has a biergarten sense about it.  The counter where you order the food is kind of small but the outdoor area is really pretty big and the indoor bar area is a fair size as well.  They have an actual vegetable garden in the outdoor seating area as well as a playground for the kids.  Smoking is allowed in the "carcinogen corner."  Pets were welcome outside, too.

There were probably 40 Army soldiers here attending some kind of classroom training when I was here for lunch.

The menu consisted of salads and lots of other healthy choices.  I ordered the seafood sampler.  It had a fish taco, a shrimp taco, and a garden salad.  Hot sauce was provided on the side.  You can really tell that the vegetables and greens were super fresh because of the way that they snapped and were full of flavor.  Very nice!

Everything is locally sourced.  They have a couple of representations to explain to you where your food was coming from.  The map went no further than the borders of the state of Texas.

There was an outdoor stage set up. This would probably be a good place to come after work or on the weekend.  I liked it.  I would rate The Cove an 8.5; worth checking out.

Magnolia Pancake Haus - San Antonio, TX

The Magnolia Pancake Haus in San Antonio was really enjoyable.  It was a very family-friendly, clean restaurant with great service and great food. The thing that made them special was that one of the owners brought back some recipes from Germany but you don't find very often in United States.

For example, I ordered the pfankuchen which is basically an apple pancake.  It is not dry like a typical American pancake. It is more like a big flat apple pie. The edges are let to caramelize slightly .  It has the consistency of a sticky bun and is about as addictive.  I'm afraid to know what the calorie count on something like this. You wouldn't want to eat one of these every week. The serving size in this case was huge. I could not finish even half of this as delicious as it was.

The orange juice was very good.  I think that it may have been fresh squeezed. The syrup came in A small metal beaker which had been heated up.  The pfankuchen was plenty sweet enough for me. I didn't think that the syrup was necessary.

Atmosphere-wise, there were a lot of young families there. If you don't like loud toddlers then this is no place for you. The location was very close to the San Antonio airport. This would be a good place to meet for breakfast before a morning flight.

I would rate the Magnolia Pancake Haus 9.1. It's well worth checking out.

Magnolia Pancake Haus
606 Embassy Oaks #100
San Antonio, TX 78216
www.magnoliapancakehaus.com

Dough Pizzaria Napolitana - San Antonio, TX

The first thing that hits you about Dough Pizzaria Napolitano is that this place smells great. It's all bread making that is going on.  It's almost like stepping into a really good bakery albeit with an italian flavor.   

I ordered a cheese appetizer. The Burrata cheese was outstanding.  It came with a pesto sauce and balsamic vinegar along with some garlic and pickled peppers.  The bread was toasted and coated with olive oil. 

Service was very good. I have my waitress plus a couple of other people checking up on me regularly.

For the main course I ordered a small "Pork Love" pizza. The menu says Sopressata salami, sausage, pancetta, speck, house pulled mozzarella, tomato sauce.  Without exaggeration, this could be some of the best pizza I've ever had. But what was also really interesting was the fact that the pizza arrived no more than three minutes after record it.

I was chatting with my waitress about it. She said the restaurant is certified to call itself Napolitana.  Part of the certification is that they have to have the correct ovens. These ovens are wood-burning and are designed to cause a draft inside so that the temperatures inside will reach 800° F. They sometimes burn as hot as 1000°. So, once the raw pizza hits the oven it's only 90 seconds away from being completely cooked. Evidently some of the cooks have to arrive

very early to get the oven started and to bring them up to temperature.
I saw one of the waiters walked by with a long particular plate of different cheeses that looked really good. My waitress said that it was a sampler plate. I would recommend anyone coming here for the first time to order the sampler plate.

This restaurant was really not a diner, drive-in or a dive.  It was really a very nice place.They had a nice seating area outside also. The location was in a decent neighborhood in North San Antonio. 

I would rate Dough Pizzeria Napoletana a 9.7.  The food and service was that good.

Dough Pizzeria Napoletana

6989 Blanco Rd 

San Antonio, TX 78216

Phone:(210) 979-6565

www.doughpizzeria.com