The long-awaited Filipino restaurant on Cantley Drive in Charleston has opened.

Barkadas features Philippine island staples, as well as blends of Spanish, United States and Southeast Asian influences into meals.

"Barkadas" is "Filipino street slang meaning a group of friends getting together, which in turn is how the restaurant was developed. It all started by four friends getting together and deciding to collaborate to build a new concept for Charleston, West Virginia. Our goal is to be the most customer centric restaurant in the area and reinventing the neighborhood pub & restaurant." One of my friends and local chef extraordinaire Paul Smith is at the helm of this new restaurant.

Located at the bottom of Cantley Drive near Dominoes, Barkadas is a medium-sized space that has been chocked full since the day it announced its grand opening. So full, in fact, that the parking lot was packed and customers were parking along the road.

The interior features beautiful dark-hued hardwoods, greenery, recessed lighting and metal fixtures and chairs that give off an industrial vibe. It's modern, but cozy, and has a very cool vibe. When I opened the doors, there was a hostess immediately there to greet me and seat me. I spent some time looking over the menu, which includes fried spam, nachos, bao buns, burritos, burgers, and more.

For starters, I ordered lumpia. What's that?  Lumpia - Six, crispy Filipino style pork egg rolls. Served with house pickled veggies and dipping sauces. My former coworker's mother used to make these for us, and I still crave them. So good. These lumpia were perfectly crisp and delicious. Plus that dipping sauce? Perfection.

Then, I ordered a few bao buns. Bao Buns - Soft, pillowy, steamed buns with your choice of filling: Glazed Pork Belly and Chicken Karaage. I love bao buns and I don't know of any other place in town you can get them. The buns were perfectly steamed, the crisp meat and colorful veggies all blended beautifully. The Chicken Karaage was my favorite here.



Finally, I ordered an Adobo Bowl - Avocado, scallion, tomato, pickled onion. I got mine with pancit noodles - very thin rice noodles.

Tucked away in a One Stop gas station in Kanawha City, Hotdogs R Us is a bare bones hot dog stop.

They serve hot dogs, sides of chips, and a few canned sodas. That's it - and just a single sign to indicate that it is a hot dog shop.


I ordered two hotdogs, chips and a drink for $7. One hot dog had ketchup, while the other had chili, slaw, mustard and onions.



At first, I wasn't impressed. They were a little sloppy looking. But after a bite or two of the West Virginia dog, I took a liking to the chili - which was very dark and slightly sweet. The slaw was nice and finely chopped. Overall, a pretty good dog - if not a bit too many toppings.

Grade: B

The Kanawha Valley is home to a new food truck: Joey's Rockin' Dogs and Tacos.

This area is no stranger to hot dogs or tacos, so I'll be honest - I wasn't overly excited to check it out. However, I was driving through the area and caught the bright red and yellow food truck and decided to give it a go. It was very cold on this day, so I did a little turnabout and pulled up alongside the truck. Convenient and warm? I'll take it.

So tacos include carne asada, pulled pollo, and grilled mahi. You can also get pulled pork, chicken wraps and quesadilla. On the hot dog side, there is a Chicago dog, a baked bean dog, a chili dog and more.

And I had to try a little of column A and a little from column B: Pulled pollo taco with homemade marinade, fresco cheese, avocado, fresh cilantro and lime juice. And then a classic dog with sweet green relish, raw diced white onions and yellow mustard.

Both of these were delicious. I was absolutely blown away by the quality of the taco. That fresh cheese, the fresh avocado, the tender chicken. The bold flavors blended beautifully. It was really, really good. I could've eaten like five of these.

But don't sleep on the hot dog! I'm not usually a relish person. But I liked this sweet relish with the mustard and onion and the dog was like fried. All these flavors together made for a dang good hot dog. I would eat both of these again, hands down.

Grade: A

Bubblefish is a new bubble tea and poke bowl restaurant in downtown Morgantown.

What are those, you may be asking.



"Bubble tea is a Taiwanese tea-based drink. Recipes contain tea of some kind, flavors of milk, and sugar. Toppings, known as "pearls", such as chewy tapioca balls, popping boba, fruit jelly, grass jelly, agar jelly, alovera jelly, sago and puddings are often added." Wikipedia



"Poke is diced raw fish served either as an appetizer or as a main course and is one of the main dishes of Native Hawaiian cuisine. It is often served over rice with soy sauce, green onions, and sesame oil. Others include furikake (mix of dried fish, sesame seeds, and dried seaweed), chopped dried or fresh chili pepper, limu (seaweed), fish eggs, wasabi, and Maui onions." Wikipedia
 

I ordered brown sugar milk tea with boba (which the folks working said was the most popular). And, yes, it does taste like tea, with sugar, and tons of delicious tapioca boba at the bottom. And it comes in the cutest cup with a little heart on top.

 

And I made my own poke bowl: sushi rice, crab, shrimp, edamame, corn, pineapple, teriyaki sauce, yum yum sauce, masago eggs, nori, tempura crisps and avocado. Feel free to copy this combination because it was delish.



Grade: A

Rounding out my trio of brand-new BBQ spots in Charleston is Smoked Up, Sauced Out.

Located in South Charleston, this restaurant replaced Lem's Meat Varnish - but it is still selling their sauces. 


It is takeout only, which I didn't realize, so make sure you have somewhere to go to chow down on your lunch.

For my entree, I went with pulled pork nachos and got sides of the tangy gold, and sweet & smokey BBQ. I think putting the actual BBQ on this will make it a bit saucier and delicious, but this was still solid. I wouldn't hate the cheese to be melted and more sour cream. But not bad.

Grade: B