Skepticism Put to Rest or... You so crazy, Lil!

By Xani and Erin

Tonight we went to Crazy Lil's in Federal Hill (on Cross St.) for dinner. Before tonight, I had only experienced Crazy Lil's as a crowded bar which on Saturday nights is filled with your typical Federal Hill crowd: basically like every frat party you ever went to, but the crowd is (slightly) older. So, when Xani said the food was good there, I was skeptical to say the least. Also, when Xani had this so-called "good" food there, it was on St. Patrick's Day, when her judgement may have been very slightly skewed by alcohol. VERY slightly, she insisted. So, even after being convinced to go, I was still skeptical.

How wrong I was! Our meal there was sensational! As per our usual, we got a few things and shared everything. First, we had the Crabcake Sliders.

They were good but definitely the weakest dish of the meal. We loved this idea for mini crabcake sandwiches (Xani especially, loving all things tiny- a story for another time), and their little buns were toasted on the grill, but they weren't oh-my-goodness-can-we-have-a-moment-of-silence-for-how-good-these-are good. You know?

The next dish was the Crazy Skins, and these, my friends, were AMAZING. They were potato skins filled with pulled pork and covered with cheese, and they were crispy and crunchy, and sweet and salty all at the same time. These could also vie for the title of Least Kosher Dish Ever. (Note: best line of the night, when the waiter took our order for these, he asked, "do you want those with pork or bacon?")

Finally, we got a burger.

You are probably thinking, "those girls are so boring - they call themselves food experts and then they order a stupid burger?!" First off, we never claimed to be experts in anything (except in maybe laughing at our own jokes). Second, we deliberately chose something simple to see how they could pull it off! To see their technique!! And it WORKED. The burger was great - delicious, juicy, toasted bun, and cooked to a perfect medium rare. (Here we reach another Food Rule of Dating: Men worth dating order their burgers/steaks to be medium rare or rare - anything more cooked is OVERCOOKED and therefore WRONG. We stick firmly by the following creed by Anthony Bourdain: "I carefully select my friends according to the doneness of their meat." We concur.)

Also, the fries that came with the burger were good. They were like boardwalk fries, but they had a few red pepper flakes on them! What a pleasant surprise.

In all, it was a lovely meal - good food, good beer, and of course good company. We love Lil!

Happy eating,

E & X