Sarina's Pizza & Italian Restaurant

Sarina's is definitely a fun place to eat. There are two TV's, one on either side of the seating area. One of the booths has a coin game where if you can flip quarter into the hole, you get a free 14" pizza. Also I spotted breathalyzer in the restaurant, just in case you wanted to check. Besides the fun and games, the inside is very similar to what you'd expect to find in a typical pizza place. The staff is friendly and the food is good. The menu resembles a general quick pizza place combined with an Italian restaurant. There is a wide variety of sandwiches, pizzas and pastas. The bread is made each day inside the restaurant, and it is very soft and wholesome.

The food came out fairly quick, and is definitely reasonable to get in between class.

They are open until 10pm on the weekdays, and 11pm on Friday and Saturday.

The price is definitely reasonable; it seems to be about average for what you'd expect to find anywhere else in state college for that type of food.

As the others so far, they accept LionCash and deliver.

They have two different specials. For lunch, you can get two cheese slices or Sicilian slices and a drink for $4.99 or you can get a small Stromboli for $4.99. For dinner, the special is either penne or spaghetti, a loaf of bread and a tossed salad for $7.99

The first time I ever ate at Sarina’s; I ordered a chicken cheese steak. The chef begged me to get the buffalo sauce on it. He told me he made it special. I agreed, and I haven't looked back since. The buffalo sauce is absolutely delicious. The chicken is very moist, and the cheese is melted throughout. Most importantly, the bread is soft, warm and makes the sandwich so much better. For a cheese steak, curly fries and a drink, I paid $11.49, which is normal for what I've had here in State College.

The chicken parmigiana sub is another great sandwich offered from Sarina’s. The chicken is cooked just right and sauce they use is just awesome. Combined with cheese and their soft bread you have a great meal. The bread is really what makes theses sandwiches so good. It cost about $5.35 for just the sandwich.

The fry selection is definitely a refreshing change. Most restaurants have their own style of fries, naturally. Sarina's takes this to a whole new level by adding curly fries as a selection. This is a rare find, and a refreshing one at that. If you ever are craving some curly fries in the Happy Valley, come to Sarina's because I don't believe I've seen them anywhere else so far. The portions are small, but definitely enough.

Rotelli's

Originally, we set out to review non-chain restaurants for Penn State students and potentially some State College residents. I broke the form today when I went to Rotelli's for lunch. I decided that I'd review it since there is only a handful of locations total, and State College being the only one in Pennsylvania. Located on the corner of Calder and McAllister, this place hardly goes unnoticed. If you happen to be walking by during the lunch hour, it's hard to miss the enticing sign advertising their 1/2 sub, soup or salad and slice of pizza for $5.99. While I have had this special and it is a great deal, I had other plans today.

The whole process was fairly quick. My lunch today was from 11 to 12:30 and I had no problem getting there and back in time.

The lunch menu is great. The prices are very fair. I ordered a sub and a drink and I paid roughly $8.

The meal is definitely filling.

While they do not accept LionCash, they do deliver. They also offer a rewards card. You get a free entree on your birthday and half birthday. You also get a reward after you earn 100 points (generally, if you spend $12.51 you get 12.51 points, but some days are double points).

I knew going in that I was going to skip the special and get the chicken parm sub. For the same price, you get a full sub and a healthy side of fries. The inside contains fried chicken strips and ricotta cheese. On top of the heaping pile of chicken is a layer of marinara sauce and a layer of cheese that is melted over top of the delicious toasted bread. The presentation is simply beautiful.

The menu is also filled with other gourmet pizzas, pastas, and other delicious subs. I highly recommend this restaurant.

Gingerbread Man

What is there to say about the G-Man? The first thing we noticed upon entering was the conflicting sports jersey interests. You can see memorabilia hanging on the walls from the New Jersey Devils, Philadelphia Flyers, New York Rangers, Miami Dolphins, Philadelphia Phillies and other random teams and sports. This, however, was not about to deter our eating experience. The menu seems to be pretty vast, and after debating for several minutes on what to get, I decided to leave it up to the waitress. To no surprise, she suggested the infamous wedge. A pizza crust folded over an assortment of sandwich combinations and cooked to perfection.

If you get the wedge, don't expect it to come out fast. Pizza crust isn't an instant type of food, so a between class meal may be hard to pull off.

As for the price, everything seemed pretty fair, considering the burgers were about $6.50. The wedges kind of expensive at $8.99, but they were worth it.

We collectively felt full after this meal, but it didn't last for a very long time. I recommend upgrading the complimentary chips to an order of fries for full effect.

LionCash and delivery are accepted here making this another convenient location. The kitchen is open until 11 pm, but they have a late night menu from 11 to 1am that includes nachos, chips with salsa, chicken fingers, mac and cheese, cheese fries, wings, pizza slices, and egg rolls.

G-Man offers different daily dollar off days. Monday is wedge day, Tuesday is cheese steak day, Wednesday is burger day, Thursday is chicken day and Friday is salad day. For weekdays from 11:30 to 5, they offer two slices of pizza and a soda for $2.50.

So, there really isn't much to be said for the Gingerbread Man's chicken parm wedge. You get a personal sized pizza crust, folded over on itself containing a few chicken fingers, some mozzarella cheese and sauce. The wedge brings along a handful of chips to accompany the plate. Overall, the "sandwich" is great. The chicken fingers are very crispy and very moist. The sauce on top is an overall great sauce, and there is just the right amount of cheese on it. Let's not forget the delicious pizza crust, which just adds to the flavor.

The other wedge ordered was BBQ chicken. It came with lettuce, tomato and cheese on it. The chicken was chopped up and tender. The BBQ sauce really added to the flavor of the chicken. This wedge was a quality dinner; it tasted great and was satisfying.

The presentation is nice, and the service was great. The G-Man brings overall good food with a good atmosphere, despite conflicting sports team interests. 

Bradley's Steaks and Hoagies

Our first stop for this blog was Bradley's Steaks and Hoagies. This humble place is located on the corner of Calder and Pugh Street. If there's any advice we can give before going; it's go hungry. The portions are heaping, but delicious nonetheless. The rolls are freshly baked each day at a nearby bakery, which gives each sandwich an extra boost of flavor. The fries are freshly cut from potatoes, and are not frozen. The chicken for the chicken cheese steaks is marinated before served. The beef for the cheese steaks is shipped from Philadelphia, the home of this staple sandwich.

The food comes out very fast, so if you're trying to get a bite in between classes it's completely possible.

It is open late (3 am on the weekends), and would definitely satisfy those late night cravings.

They accept LionCash and deliver too, which makes it very convenient.

The price may be a bit higher than what you might normally pay for a cheese steak in State College, but it is in its own league, and is definitely worth the money.

For a cheese steak and a drink, you should expect to pay around $8, add in some fries and you'll pay around $11. The small fries are no small portion as we have pictured in this blog. The sandwich will surely fill you up on its own. Bradley's does in fact deliver, and Thursday through Saturday, they are open until 3am.

For the sake of the blog, four of us went and each got something different. At the table we had an order of fries, a buffalo chicken cheese steak, a cheese steak with fried onions, a pizza steak, and a pepperoni pizza steak, and each of them were delicious.

The buffalo chicken cheese steak is accompanied by bleu cheese that some call amazing. This only helps boost the amazing flavor of the marinated chicken and the delicious buffalo sauce. The chicken is not as finely chopped as a regular cheese steak, but that does not take away from the flavor. This is truly a force to be reckoned with. (For a smaller portion, Bradley's also offers the Buffalo Chicken Grilled Cheese sandwich).

The cheese steak, it's what keeps us going back here. The meat is delicious and the bread makes it so much better. The beef is very tender and is never gritty. When you bite into the sandwich, you get a clean bite and aren't left pulling out strands of fatty beef from the bread. Everything about their cheese steak is simply amazing. That's what brings us to try the pizza steaks.

The pizza steak introduces a nice helping of pizza sauce to the sandwich. The sauce really compliments the flavor of the cheese steak. When you add some pepperoni though, it takes it to a whole new level. I was skeptical about trying it, because I wasn't sure if beef and pepperoni would really go together off of a pizza. I'm now a believer. The combination is perfect together, especially from Bradley's.

Welcome

   So it's lunch time at Penn State, the lines for food in the HUB are too long. You're tired of the dining hall foods. So where do you go? Maybe you're just craving something, but not sure exactly where to go to get it. Possibly your parents are in for Parents Weekend and you want to make the most their money and get the best food. It could also be that you find yourself at 2am roaming the streets with an insatiable hunger, but what's open?
    Where do you go for these places. As incoming students, we wondered the same things and were determined to eat at every place so we'd know where the best places to eat were. Also, we wanted to find out the best deals.
    As we journey to eat at these places, we found that the information will be just as useful to other Penn State students.
   If you have any comments as to where you'd like us to go, or any opinions on the best of State College, send us a message here or at PSUFoodReview@gmail.com
  Enjoy the PSU Food Review