Shade Bar and Grill

Shade Bar And Grill

Nashua, New Hampshire

Shade Website

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**First off, i would like to apologize, I had forgotten my camera in my rush out the door to get to this one, so I have to use pictures off the website, so the pictures of the food won't completely match, sorry for that.**

Now, about a month ago, I was watching the local news broadcast at noon, and normally i dismiss their cooking segment, I never really understood the point of a cooking segment on a local news program, it doesn't make sense like weather or sports report, its just a local restaurant chef rushed through showing you how to cook a dish from their restaurant, it normally doesn't make much sense, and normally they're from the same few places, popular eateries in Manchester or Portsmouth or the lakes region or something, but this day, they had a chef from a place that wasn't to far from me, a place called Shade, and upon a quick googling, it turns out its literally right nextdoor to where my mother works, which instantly put it on the must check out list for both her and me alike. So after about a month of research and discussion, today was the day I decided to check out Shade, and I must tell you, I am so very glad i did.

Shade Bar and Grill is located in the western wing of the Radison Hotel in Nashua, above the Atlantis Sports Bar, its important to note that though the name is on the side of the building, and the entrance to Atlantis is clearly marked, the main doorway that leads to Shade, does not have the name on the door, but it is right inside on the right side, I found it slightly confusing personally, but maybe thats just because it was my first time there. Shade, like most american bar and grills is basically a sports bar/pub with better quality food and less we'll kick your ass if you don't like the local team feel. Seriously, we need to stop that. Anyway, the dining room is roomy and bright and honestly, has the most comfortable chairs I have ever sat in at a restaurant ever, seriously, i didn't wanna get out of them they were so comfortable. The staff, though only two girls on duty when I went in, seemed polite and friendly, my waitress, who's name I couldn't make out on her name tag, and forgot to ask for, was very friendly and talkitive, even talking to me and my mom after we'd paid and were leaving, some might find such things abit annoying, but, i love a friendly waitstaff, they make you feel like friends and like you matter, thats a big thing to me, but maybe I'm weird, I dunno, stuff like that leaves an impression on me, a good one normally.

As for the food, its actually alot better then i was expecting. Normally when you see a restaurant thats latched onto a hotel, you tend to get hotel level food, you know that its passable but not something you would travel to where ever you're staying just for. Let me be clear on this, Shade's food is phenomenally good, my only issues would be personal taste nit-picky stuff, but I'll get to that as i explain what we ate.  We had to start, an order of potato skins, fried mozzarella wedges, and barbecue chicken wings. Now, the potato skins, though they were very large, there was only 4 of them on the plate, and though they were nice and crispy and full of cheese and bacon and chives, and tasted lovely covered in sour cream, i did find myself wishing for atleast 6 of them on the plate for the price they were, and similarly with the fried mozzarella wedges, I wish for the price there was maybe afew more, five not so large wedges really isn't enough of how good they are, but again thats small personal nitpicks, they were over all delightful. The highlight of the starters, and really the whole meal over all, was the barbecue chicken wings, I ordered a large, which was 12 wings, that could be served either hot or mild buffalo, barbecue, or teriyaki, thinking first they they'd be those microscopically small wings that most places serve you, you know the kind that look like they came off a baby chicken or something, and then thinking you can get buffalo wings and teriyaki wings just about anywhere, i'd go for the barbecue, and let me tell you, that was the RIGHT choice, now let me be clear on this, these chicken wings, not only where they amazingly flavored, and fried to a nice crispy outside and a juicy tender inside, but they were HUGE, seriously, as i said to my mom, i could see a group of friends going there and ordering a large of each of the three flavors you can get and that filling them all, these things were so big i almost asked for an order to go, and i'm thinking the next time we go, i just might get one to go after we eat, because they are simply amazing and a must try, i don't say that lightly either, so you know its gotta be a true statement.

As for our main courses, I, being the burger guy i am, got the Shade Burger and my mother got a Chicken Parmesan, both are made completely in house, my burger's meat is ground in the kitchen, and the chicken for the chicken parm is pounded out and prepped to order, and the sauce and pasta that go with it are also made on properly as well, you have to love that sort of detail. The Shade Burger was rather good, you could tell it was freshly ground, freshly ground meat has a certain flavor to it when its cooked right after grinding that is unmistakable, it was topped with some swiss cheese, really crispy bacon, and served with some delightful double fried fries, i love when a burger is so juicy when you bite it, the juice runs down your arm, this was one of thoe burgers, i enjoyed it a great deal. As for the chicken parm, it was giant, it was a whole large chicken breast, not the little kind you find at a grocery store, a the larger, free range ones that you find at butcher shops size breast, breaded, seasoned, and fried to a nice crisp, then covered in mozzarella and provolone cheese, placed ontop of in house made noodles, and covered in a house made thick and chunky marinara sauce. Now i will admit i tried a bite of the chicken and the noodles, and they were amazing, but sadly, the sauce, though i'm not a fan of thick and chunky tomato based sauces in general, was slightly bland and abit watery, my mom said she could probably get better out of a can, or that the sauce made by our local pizza delivery we order from alot was exceptionally better then the one she had on her meal. But as I've said with other negatively aimed things, they are just personal nitpicking things, and by all means, try them yourself and make up your own mind.

The prices aren't all that bad if i'm being honest, all together with drinks it cost me just abit over $65.oo for three apps, two meals and afew sodas each, which really isn't all that bad for a non-fast food type meal, and honestly is good enough that i would happily come back over and over, I mean the wings alone were enough to make me wanna go back to Shade, and knowing that its really not that far away from home is ofcourse a plus as well, so is that the staff is friendly and fun and enjoyable. If there was anything that i had to find as an over all downside about my time there, i would say the service was slightly slow, but, to be fair, we did show up on a saturday afternoon in that downtime between the lunch and the evening crowds, so maybe that had an effect on it, and also, that they don't list their deserts on their website, they have a chocolate cake that looks like passing it up might be a criminal offense, had I known about it before i went, i would have made sure I had room leftover to eat some, because, hey, house made chocolate cake, the simplest looking, but hardest to perfect thing there is. No, seriously try to make one, you'll see what i mean.

See what i mean? Look at that, and the hot fudge caramel moose next to it, don't those look just amazing? Seriously though, if you are ever in the Nashua area, or are up for a drive to the area for any reason or another, Shade really is a must try, you will leave so full that you'll get home and slip into a happy food coma, but it will be so very very worth it, i honestly am planning on returning soon, even if just for those wings, because seriously they are a must try.

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Chris