Mr. Mac's Macaroni and Cheese

Mr. Mac's Macaroni and Cheese

Manchester, New Hampshire

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if you were to tell me afew months ago, that i'd be sitting here so full that it might be bordering on a lethal dose of macaroni and cheese, i would have laughed at you and said you're crazy. but yet, here i am, only afew hours off from a visit to Mr. Mac's Macaroni and Cheese in Manchester, one of the bigger cities here in New Hampshire, and I feel as if i have finally, for the first time in my life, truly had the American classic that is Mac and Cheese. Now most will laugh and ofcourse think of their love or hate of growing up with the ready made in the box stuff that either has powder cheese or that pre-melted stuff in a silver container, but thankfully, none of that stuff is found here. Mr. Mac's is all natural, all made on the spot, and made the way Mac and Cheese is ment to be made, and oh my god is ever so damn good.

Mr. Mac's is a tucked away at the end of a business district outside of downtown Manchester, next to a UPS Store and an Auto Repair and Tire shop, but that sort of fits, the whole down home, hidden away little jewel type of place that not many know about unless you are aware what it is about or are adventurous with your food, its served, what i like to call high end cafeteria style, where you order at the counter where you get your drinks from the ice box next to it, you can also grab one of their desserts they offer too, but i'll get to those later. Once you've given your order, you are given a little standie with a number on and asked to find your seat, once your food is ready, normally between 15 to 20 minutes or so, because this is after all made to order, not scooped out of buckets and put on a plate and called dinner mac and cheese, when its ready a server or two will bring our your food like at any non-fast food restaurant, they then make sure you have all you need, and will leave you to it. The food is served in the cast iron skillet homestyle will a wooden plate and a pot holder on the handle to keep you from getting burned, i seriously love the fact they serve it in the skillet old school style, thats a touch I will never get tired of, ever.

Now after doing my research about Mr. Mac's before going, I found out the best way to spend your first time eating there, is to have yourself and whoever is with you, order afew small skillets and everyone pick and choose trying abit of everything, sort of like what they do with tapas in spanish food culture, or how American pub food works with nachos and chicken wings and such. Its rather fun and adventurous, which is really always fun. We ordered five different types, American Chop Suey, Chicken Cordon Bleu, Blazing Buffalo Chicken, with Blu Cheese on the side, Cheeseburger Mac and Cheese, and Pulled Pork Mac And Cheese, thinking this covered the gambit of what their menu is all about pretty nicely, both of us had a nice cold Ice Tea, cuz, well, thats just how we roll when it comes to cold beverages and such around here.

Now for the sake of those that just love details, lets break down what each of these lovely skillets of lovely goodness before i get into how they taste shall we? Lets start with the good, the two best, by far, where the pulled pork and the chicken cordon bleu, the pulled pork is your basic southern style pulled pork with barbecue sauce mixed in to macaroni and served with american and cabot white sharp cheddar mixed in, under a nice torched to a crisp top of both cheeses, its by far the best, the pork was sweet and tender and melt in your mouth, and the barbecue sauce was just so very good, and the cheese was so melty and oozing it was just amazing, i could eat this all day long and not once get tired of it. The chicken cordon bleu, is made of shredded chicken, candian bacon chunks, dijon mustard and American and Gruyere cheeses, I wouldn't have though this would be nearly as good as it truly is, because, for serious, this was amazingly good, I could eat this as much as i could the pulled pork honestly, sense they do full menu take out, i almost ordered one of each to go, but realized honestly, i would be far to full to ever venture more mac and cheese today. The Cheeseburger Mac is what you'd expect, its ground up hamburger seasoned with salt and pepper, mixed with american and cheddar cheese, its not anything amazing, but its what most people would consider a great traditional mac and cheese type meal, its very flavorful though, so, really, its worth a try.

Sadly though, the Blazing Buffalo Chicken, and the American Chop Suey really weren't that great, they were ok, but honestly i wouldn't try them again. The Blazing Buffalo Chicken is shredded chicken mixed with American and cheddar cheese and served with either bleu cheese or ranch dressing on the side that you can put on it, they say you can get it hot or mild, but I was never asked which I'd like, so I'm guessing i was given mild, which sadly, is not that great at all, the chicken and the cheese combo was great, but the spice honestly tasted like a watered down tabasco sauce was lightly sprinkled onto the mix, it was sparse and really not to good, it was however tolerable with the bleu cheese dressing on it, though i wish it could have been more chunky bleu cheese then the smooth kind, but thats just splitting hairs. The American Chop Suey, which to those that don't know what this is, its macaroni, ground hamburger, marinara sauce, and whatever the maker chooses to add, Mr. Mac's consists of, Macaroni, a thick chunky marinara sauce, and lots of peppers and onions, and though there are many that are big fans of such, i'm not personally, but by all means don't let my picky eating habits sway you from giving it a try if its your kind of thing, even though i never did truly know where the term American Chop Suey comes from, but thats a ponderance for another time.

As for deserts, they have four, they are kept at the counter and you can either buy it right off and take it with you to your table, or buy it after you've eaten, or do what i did and buy and take them home, my guess is most people take them home with their leftovers, seeing as I didn't see many people leaving with out a take home box. They offer locally made Moon pies, in house made chocolate fudge brownies, in house made giant chocolate chip cookies, and something called a waffle cookie, which i guess is a cookie made inside a waffle maker, the moon pie, my personal favorite, and a massive favorite all around new england, is what you would expect it to be, two beautiful chocolate sticky cakes with an almost oreo filling like thick cream in the middle, its just amazing no matter where you get it, sure you can get them anywhere, but, hey, anytime, anywhere, when its right its right, right? Their inhouse made fudge brownies are surprisingly good, they're a nice big and thick chocolate and fudge brownie topped with sea salt, its heavenly honestly, it truly is. The chocolate chip cookies are giant and full of chunks, big chunks of chocolate, and a nice gooey soft cookie, i love a nice soft cookie, they're just so damn good. Sadly, they were out of the waffle cookies when we were there, so i wasn't able to try one, they did try to offer me some gluten free cookies, but after explaining to the lovely girl behind the counter that I am a meat eating heterosexual, there was no longer any talk of that.

Overall we greatly enjoyed our meal, and exploring their menu, i would however suggest that if you plan on going to study the menu, they had afew lovely skillets we didn't try simply because we didn't have the room to fit them on the table, or in our stomachs, they also have a create your own special order option, where you can customize your own skillet full of whatever you like, which i think is a lovely idea. The prices aren't all that bad really, for 5 different types of mac and cheese and two drinks, we paid alittle under $50.oo, which is about average for any dinner out that isn't fast food, and about the same level as Five Guys which i reviewed before as you all know, I would say quality wise the two places are the same, though one is a national chain and the other is a place thats just starting to look for a second location to open, which i hope leads to a state wide or region wide chain, this stuff is so good you wanna share it with as many as you can. The place itself is also decorated rather well, its got that local/sports bar feel to it, having tons of pictures of local sports legends and locations both national and state level, i always get a kick out of such things.

So the big question, is it truly worth the trip? Honestly? Ofcourse it is, Mr. Mac's was voted as one of the best places to eat in the state, and has recently been featured on local food review television, as well as working with many local media outlets to get their name and how good they are out there, and the hype truly is deserved, this stuff is amazing, and is just beyond good, remember, even though i found afew not so great, that doesn't mean you or anyone else won't enjoy it, and when you add in the fact you can custom make, and take out your custom or any other type they make, it just makes you want to go back for more and more and more, truly i've not been this full and happy to be full in a long time. So if you can, make it down to their little corner of the world, order yourself afew skillets to try it all out, open up a nice cold Gold Peak Iced Tea and enjoy yourself a great hidden treasure tucked away on the outer edge of Manchester New Hampshire.

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Chris