A Paramedic's Guide to Hartford Take-out

Capitol Lunch

510 Main Street

New Britain, CT 06051

(860) 229-8237

This place is awesome if you like hot dogs. It is a great quick stop on your way back to Hartford from New Britain. The hot dogs are all ready to go. $1.80 each and that includes the famous meat sauce. They also have hamburgers and fries.

Panderia - Pan Del Cielo

340 Prospect Ave
Hartford, CT 06106
(860) 233-0170

I love the sandwiches here. I get El Cielo, which is pork, pastrami and beef on a toasted flatbread for $6. One sandwich is so big, it would last all day if I could control myself. The only problem is it takes about 5 minutes to get a sandwich. Great, easy to access location. Very friendly people. I usually try to get a sandwich here early in the morning when my chances of getting called away are slimer. I did get called out once, and they just kept my sanwich in the bread warmer for me. Lots of great bakery treats here also. This place is more expensive than Los Cubanitos, but the portions are bigger.

Oh all the places I eat at in Hartford, this is my favorite place to come when I am off-duty. I bring my daughters here for sandwiches quite frequently.

Chef's Dog House

337 Willard Avenue
Newington, CT 06111
(860) 667-3700

Monday-Friday 7am-8pm
Saturday 9am-8pm
Closed Sunday

This place is in the 7-11 Plaza on Willard Avenue.
These are excellent grilled hot dogs that take three or four minutes to make.

I like the bacon-wrapped dog with avocado.

The Junkyard Dog is a bacon-wrapped dog, topped with chili, nacho cheese and grilled onions. I have always been a plain hot dog guy so this was my first chiili cheese dog, and I have to admit that I did not know what I was missing. It was great!

Junkyard Dog

The Prairie Dog is a bacon wrapped dog, topped with Onion Dip, and frizzled Potato. I thought it was interesting. I'm not crazy for onion dip.

Prairie Dog

Southern Dog

Swiss Pastrami Dog (with fries)

Chef's also serves hamburgers, sandwiches, soups and salads, as well as breakfast.

Los Cubanitos

867 Park Street
Hartford
(860) 247-7844

This is the cheapest place in the city to fill your belly. Start with the sandwiches. Here for $ 2.00 is a pork sandwich. They have a refrigerator full of freshly premade sandwiches, which they quickly reheat in the microwave and then toast with a pull down toasting machine. Takes only a couple minutes. For $2.25 you can get chicken, for $1.50 you can get a Cuban (Ham, cheese and Pork) or a Ham and Cheese.

While there the other day, I got a pork tamale for $1.25. The tamale made of cornmeal and pork comes steaming hot, cooked in a corn stalk. They also have pastries here. There is aways a line of people waiting to get sandwiches, but the line moves fast.

75 cents will get you this Guava filled pastry.

Milagro's Spanish Restaurant

Milagros is a new restaurant at the corner of Albany and Garden. Very convinient to Saint Francis. I don't think the food is as good as Aqui me Quedo, but due to the convience I eat there quite a bit. Very nice people with quick service.

Lena's First and Last Pizzeria

This place has great slices in a wide variety of styles and flavors, as well as excellent stromboli, calzones and soups. Choose your slice, they will put in the oven to heat it up for you, and you are good to go. You can also get sauce heaped on it or in a side dish to go. The meat lover’s thick slice cost about $5 and will last you for the day. They also have thin crust and stuffed pizza slices. It is my favorite pizza place in Hartford.

2053 Park Street
Hartford
(860) 232-4481

Sun 12-6 PM, Mon-Thurs, Sat 11-10, Friday, 11-1

Piolin Peruvian Restaurant

Piolin Restaurant
417 New Britain Avenue
Hartford
(860) 293-1255
Monday to Saturday 11:00 AM - 10:00 PM
Sunday 9:00 AM - 10:00 PM

They run a lunch special here. For $9 you get an entre, soup and a soda. The food is ready to go in a couple minutes. I got chicken, potatoes and rice, meat soup (noodles, potatos, a big hunk of meat, celery, I think small bits of orange and some other indgrediants) and an Inca Diet Cola. The soup was a full quart. I ate at one in the afternoon, and was not hungry for the rest of the shift. They had a choice of chicken or meat for the main entre. The chicken was cooked in a delicious sauce.

I will definately try this place again.

The Lion's Den

Lion's Den Vegetarian Restaurant
3347 Main Street
Hartford, CT 06120
(860) 241-0220
Mon-Thursday 7 am to 11 PM, Friday and Saturday 7 am until very late.

The Lion's Den is a vegetarian Jamaican Restaurant run by Rastafarians. No meat products, but they do serve fish. They used to be on Woodland Street, by relocated to North Main after the old place burned down. Try the Ital Stew or the Rasta Pasta. Have a soy patty. They serve breakfast, lunch and dinner. They also make great fruit and vegetable smoothies.

Seashore Jamaican Restaurant

Seashore is on Garden Street just off Albany Avenue. It has excellent seafood soup and conk soup – great to have in the winter. It comes in a Styrofoam cup. Careful of inhaling little flakes of scotch bonnet pepper which give the soup a strong kick.

They have some excellent fish dishes (Jamaican’s love whole fried fish), but fish in general should be avoided when working on the ambulance as unless eaten quickly and disposed of, it can significantly stink up the ambulance. I go here quite reguarly. The service is fast, the food very good. It's location makes it very convinient to hit from Saint Francis.

Royal Masala

391 Main Street Hartford, CT (860) 882-0900 This is a Indian restaurant on Main Street. They have a buffet where you pay a set price and then can fill your styrofoam container to its brim. The food is good -- it is a little more than I want to eat, but a good value if you plan on getting it at lunch and having it for your dinner as well.

Papa's Pizza

54 Union Place
Hartford
860-727-9930

Sunday to Thursday 6 AM-4 PM
Friday and Saturday Open ALL Night

Papa's Pizza is an all-purpose open most hours place for breakfast, sandwiches or pizza slices. I buy breakfast there frequently. It takes about five minutes for my order of bacon, potatoes and rye toast.

I used to eat here all the time when I worked nights.

Golden Crust

Golden Crust Bakery
1170 Albany Avenue
Hartford, CT 06112
(860) 724-7983

Located at Albany and Woodland, the Golden Crust has great patties. I personally prefer the patties at Golden Crust, which comes in a lighter pastry than Scott's. A beef or chicken patty costs $1.80. You can get coco bread for 90 cents. Golden Crust also has regular Jamaican food for take out.

Scott's Bakery

Scott’s Bakery 1344 Albany Avenue is Open Monday through Saturday 8 M to 7:30 PM and Sunday 8-5.

Scott’s on Albany Avenue is a bakery that does not offer the full array of foods that other restaurants do. What Scott’s does offer are beef patties, coco-bites, and an arry of Jamaican baked goods such as duck bread and carrot cake.

Beef, chicken or vegetable patties are a traditional dish, the filling in a lightly pastry that is often eaten alone or in the middle of a piece of sliced coconut bread. Patties are $1.75 each and 0.95 cents for the coco bread.

A coco-bite is a hot dog with cheese cooked into a piece of coco bread. It will cost you $3.10.

Scott’s also has a restaurant at 3381 Main Street that offers traditional takeout such as curry goat, ox tails and jerk chicken, as well as another storefront on Blue Hill’s Avenue close to Mt Sinai, they have another small restaurant where you can get patties, regular meals and they have jerk chicken wings for $3.00 that are particularly good.

Sister's Restaurant

Sister's Restaurant
2756 Main Street
Hartford, CT 06120
(860) 527-1234

Ate some ackee and saltfish at Sister's Jamaican Restaurant. They also had american breakfasts on the menu. Food was greeat, mon!

Cracovia

Cracovia Restaurant

60 Broad Street

New Britain, CT 06051

(860) 223-4443

Open 7 Days a week. 8-8

http://cracovia.homestead.com/index.html

This place is a great Polish American restaurant in New Britain. Call in your order from New Briatin General and then pick it up on your way back to the city. I ordered goulash and potatoes. Excellent!

El Salvador Restaurant

514 Burnside Avenue, East Hartford, CT 06108

(860) 528-2442

Stopped here after dropping off a transfer in East Hartford. I had a tamale that was excellent. Next time I will try the papusas. The place advertises as Salvadoran and Mexican Food.

Pan Del Sinai

Pan Del Sinai
Willimantic, CT
(860) 423-9931

On a transfer to Willimantic, stopped in here and had a pernil (pork) sandwich. Nice big sandwich, only $5.

Adolf's Meat and Sausage Market

Adolf's Meat and Sausage Market
35 New Britain Avenue
Hartford, CT 06106
(860) 522-1588

I have driven by this place for years but never gone in until recently. It is an old world sausage market. You can by uncooked sausage, bratwurst, keilbasa, weiners, as well as smoked meats and cold cuts. I bought some meats for the grille that were excellent, and also bought a half pound of head cheese, which I have seen Andrew Zimmer eat on Bizzare Foods. Head cheese is a cold cut made from the head of a pig. It contains nose, brains, tongue, ears, etc.

It was tasty.

Kien Asian Market

1801 Park Street

Hartford, CT 06106
(860) 236-7952

Until recently I had never had the Vietnamese sandwich known as a Banh Mi. The Banh Mi has cold cuts, pickled carrots, crispy cucumber, bean sprouts and cilantro, along with some unknown spices on a bagguette type sandwich. The first one I had was at the A. Dong Market. It was delicious. I had never had something with so many different flavors that all seemed to work together. Recently I heard from a person from Vietnam say that the best sandwiches were from another Asian Market -- this one on Park Street. I went there today. A Vietnamese lady made it for me in just two minutes. I got the Pork Banh Mi. $3.75. Here is a picture of it:

It was great! Fresher and even better tasting than the ones I had been getting at A Dong, which are made in mass quantity at the beginning of the day. They have a small food counter at the back of the store. The woman told me to come back again and try her soup. I am planning on it. There is a little counter in the back that seats four.

The Dawg House

The Dawg House
1360 East Street
New Britain, CT
(860) 224-2636

Open 9:00 A.M. to 8:00 P.M.

Great place for a quick hot dog right on the New Britain/Newington line.

Sweeney's

Sweeney's Hot Dog Truck
Long Wharf Exit Ramp I-95
New Haven

Sweeney's Hot Dog truck is nestled among the Mexican Food trucks on the Long Wharf Exit Ramp off I-95 in New Haven. If you are coming back from a West haven run and don't want Mexican, Sweeney's provides a great hot dog and cheap. He's been there over 20 years.

Woody's

Woody's
915 Main Street
Hartford
(860) 278-5499
Monday & Tuesday 11:30-3:00 PM
Wed: 11:30-4:00 PM
Thursday, Friday & Saturday 11:30 AM-6:00 PM
Sunday During Football Season at 12:00 noon.
Open late on event nights.

This is an outstanding hot dog restaurant located in the office building at 915 main.
Walk in and keep going and you will see Woody's on your left.

They offer a wide variety of specialty hot dogs, as well as burgers and other sandwiches. I like the basic foot long, but you can get hot dogs such as "The Dogfather" - Marinara, peppers and mozzarella), New England Baked Bean Dog, NYC Pushcart Dog (Cheese, mushrooms, grilled oinions and peppers) and many others. These are classically delicious hot dogs in New England style grilled buns.