Girl's night out- BHAM

[hlsess]

Looking for a new place to go in BHAM- under $20- OTM area- any ideas???

[Dax]

Have you considered Mafiaoza's? Yes, it can be overrun with kids and the pizza is good but not great. However, the real draw to me is the piccolo morsi/anti-pasti. I love to get the pick 5 with two meats, two cheeses, plus the tapenade and share with someone (or the pick everthing is nuts). On Tuesdays it can be a zoo but beers and slices are 1/2 priced. They also seem to have a decent wine list. I like sitting outside too.

Or maybe the small plates at Fire on Thursday nights. Think very small portions but bottles of wine are half priced too.

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Mafiaoza
2 Dexter Ave, Birmingham, AL 35213

[hlsess]

wow- Fire looks perfect- $10 for all 3- how small are the portions that's incredible!! I like Mafiaoza's and will mention it also- just don't want to be around a bunch of kids!

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Mafiaoza
2 Dexter Ave, Birmingham, AL 35213

[Dax]

I always caveat the Mafiaoza's rec because of all of the screaming kids. I think some MB parents use the place as a daycare center and let their kids run wild.

Fire's Thirsty Thursday was $12 when I went a few weeks ago. I thought the crab claws were pretty good if nothing particularly special (mmm butter) especially with some of their bread to soak up some of the juices. The oyster was probably one apalachicola cut in half and breaded. And the "ribeye" was probably 1.5 ounces. Yes, that small. My girlfriend's salmon was laughable it was so small. But again, it was only $12 and you can supplement from the main menu. The portions are definitely pretty small.

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Mafiaoza
2 Dexter Ave, Birmingham, AL 35213

[hlsess]

I am thinking Fire won't work if servings are so small- I wish i could get them to branch out and to to Mr chen's or something but we like to stay close to home(crestline)
we all really like Pita Stop so maybe there- wonder if there's anywhere in southside we could try?

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Pita Stop Cafe
1106 12th St S, Birmingham, AL 35205

[sheilal]

You could probably get out of Surin or 26 for $20 or so.

[hlsess]

I looked at 26 and entrees are over $20

[sheilal]

Didn't realize they'd gone up so significantly. It's been a while since I've been.

If you like seafood, how about the Fish Market? Parking is easy and you can eat outside on the patio in the evening. The patio is where you can do sit down service instead of the pay-and-pick-up routine.

[hlsess]

I actually just read back thru some threads and have come up with the following:
Ore
Slice
Rojo
Zona Rosa
Fish Market
Trattoria centrale- never heard of it and don't know where it si though

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Rojo
2921 Highland Ave S, Birmingham, AL 35205

Zona Rosa Cafe
3732 River Run Dr, Birmingham, AL 35243

[Dax]

I see you found TC from another thread. I think the place is great but it's tiny, order at the counter, and is only open Friday nights for dinner (I think?) so dinner is uber-busy. However the food is a good value so I overlook all of that to go there.

I like Slice but did not bring it up because you said OTM. It is not particularly cheap but if you split a pizza (they only sell 12 inch pizzas, priced $11-$20), and get one of the $5 salads you may make it out of there for around $20.

I like Rojo's patio but their food is blah.

Zona Rosa is the Mexican joint out at Liberty Park? I only ate there for lunch with co-workers once and thought it was just typical cheesey Mexican and nothing special. But I have not really spent much time there, so ...

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Rojo
2921 Highland Ave S, Birmingham, AL 35205

Zona Rosa Cafe
3732 River Run Dr, Birmingham, AL 35243

[Big Daddy]

Zona Rosa is in Liberty Park. It is pretty good Mexican more upscale than your typical Tex-Mex. Most entrees are in the teens, combos around $10. Plenty of room, which would be good for the GNO purpose.

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Zona Rosa Cafe
3732 River Run Dr, Birmingham, AL 35243

[hlsess]

thanks- we are going to try ORE

[sheilal]

Please post your experience. It's a pretty new place and hasn't really been talked about/reviewed much.

[curej]

Reviews of ORE are overall pretty positive on Urbanspoon.

[hlsess]

Went to ORE last night- stopped by during day to see the menu and made a reservation which was nice EXCEP that we were put in a side room that had terrible noise problems- we could not even hear each other- We saw Taylor Hicks walking in so we told the waitress to go and get him and we told him about the problem-
of course he said that they were fixing it on Monday - a friend of ours was also there- he is a co-owner (didn't know that) and told him also. Crowds were good- food was all good-service was pretty good- Billing was strange- gratuity was listed twice but only addded once- very confusing

[sheilal]

What did you guys order? And more importantly . . . how did Taylor look? He's a cutie pie!

[hlsess]

I did the chicken cobb salad- rather small though
some did the wedge with grouper on it
fried green tomatoes- sauce was spicy- good
burger -all was good
He looked good -much thinner though then when he was on idol- very nice- we even got a photo with him- glad Ore is doing well
There was a small 50th b'day party in the bar also

[Dax]

How big was your party? They added the auto-grat?

[hlsess]

yes auto grat- we had 8 in our party- another friend that went said they added it automatically to their group of 4

[Dax]

I thought 6 was typically the norm but it has always been up to the discretion of the server to my knowledge. 4 is way low. I realize this is getting off-topic for Birmingham now ...