Stew Leonard’s

I’ve mentioned Stew Leonard’s a few times before in various instances but never really posted about the cooked food they offer there (aside from their New England clam chowder, which I’ve raved about plenty).  Well, a few weeks ago, the BFF and I took a trip up to the outlets (where I fell in love with this awesome handbag… sigh!) and on our way up, swung by Stew’s for lunch.  There’s a pay-by-the-lb. ‘buffet’ serve-yourself area, a deli counter where you can order goodies (like we did), and a soup serve-yourself area too (which we also did, but I didn’t take pictures because I always have this soup and have talked about it enough!). 

Saucy BBQ wings.  Really yummy, sticky, sweet, lovely. 

Mac & cheese… pretty good, and I’m really picky about my mac & cheese from outside of the home. 

Corn nuggets – Ambitious Delicious(ness) had told me the last time I’d gone to Stew’s to pick these up cuz they’re awesome.  They are indeed awesome (think: creamed corn formed into nuggets then deep fried… mmm), though I do prefer Roll-n-Roaster’s just a tad bit more.  (Of course RnR is also MUCH closer… haha)

Last but not least, I had to order broccoli-cheddar-fritters.  Why did I HAVE to?  Well, a long time ago, BF and I stayed in this quaint little town on the Jersey Shore called Spring Lake at an awesome bed & breakfast that has since closed (which sucks, because we talked about how, if the economy were really bad / our wallets too light to afford an international honeymoon, we would go there for our honeymoon, even though it’s ridiculously expensive – think $450/night, back in 2003-2005).  We borrowed bicycles one morning and biked over to the neighboring town just for fun and wound up stumbling into this pub type place for lunch, ordered too much food, and took leftovers back on our bicycles.  I don’t know how we balanced since I’m awful at ‘sports’ and that type of stuff.  But anyway, one of the things we had with us was ‘broccoli fritters’ which were cheddar and broccoli deep fried like the above bits.  We were both incredibly… not sober is how I’ll phrase that… and kept shoving them in our mouths.  We actually wound up ordering more later because they were THAT good, even cold. 

I never saw them on another menu since then (admittedly, I don’t really frequent the style of place that might offer them, but still).  So I was especially excited to see these after so many years not eating them!  Unfortunately, the breading was way too thick and chewy… and insides were good, but the exterior never crisped up, even after extensive toasting, and was just… not that good.  I didn’t even try to share them with the BF (bear in mind, he doesn’t really like broccoli, so the fact that he’d liked those long ago is either testament to how… not sober he was, or how good they were.  Take your pick!).  Sadface. 

In good weather, there’s also a counter from which you can order pizza, hot dogs, french fries, etc. and eat at picnic tables outside, right when you walk into the open area in front.  However, this was closed/blocked off in November… it was open in October when I’d gone to pick up lobsters, though, so I’m not sure exactly when they open or close for the season.

Yvo says: If you’ve never gone to Stew’s, I would go just for the fun of it, it’s actually a huge grocery store that is a lot of fun to walk through at least once, with a lot to see (and sometimes stuff to sample, if you’re into that sort of thing, and you probably are, since you’re on my site!), and some bargains to be had (though beware, sometimes things seem cheap but if you don’t know the real price for sure, you may get ripped off… which has happened to me a couple of times…).  I’ve also had the fried chicken here before, and certain other kinds of soup, and haven’t really had much problems with the food and its yumminess (besides those broccoli cheddar fritters).  Love this place. 
recommended

Stew Leonard’s
1 Stew Leonard Drive
Yonkers, NY 10710