Miguel's Restaurant and Lounge

If you are 60 or older you might enjoy it and get treated better!  We had a guest sitting at the bar tell us to seat ourselves after waiting 5 minutes without seeing anyone. Then after 10-15 minutes of still not seeing anyone the guy who was eating there ran to find someone to serve us. The food was very good and hot but the service was terrible! I love checking out small, local businesses but I was not impressed and probably won't come back.

We went here using a Living Social deal and were so happy with out experience.  The food was just absolutely delicious and the service was amazing!  Our server, Kurt, was funny and personable.  He, and the great food, are sure to have made Miguel's a new favorite.

While in Bethlehem on business, I had some down time and decided to head out to Jacobsburg State Park to take in all of its 1,168 acre goodness and live my life a little bit more "deliberately" as fate would have it. I came away with two things from this experience: 1) always bring a flashlight if you're attempting to cover 1,168 acres in one day, and 2) Bring some damn food! Shit can get real, and not in some Walden Pond existential kind of way, no, more like the I'm starving and if I see another human being, this might turn into an Alive type of situation. But I digress...

(Enter stage, left) Miguel's Restaurant and Lounge, you saved the day! Famished from my arduous afternoon of Thoreau-ing myself to the wilds, I wondered if small plates would do the trick. No matter, I'll just get many of them, maybe 20, and have a drink, or ten at the bar. Now I'm blushing... This bar is beautiful! The whole building, really, transports you back to well, a simpler time, an era when one would "... rather be happy than dignified" - I later learned that the site used to serve as a Victorian Hotel, quite fitting.

Of all the bar bites and snacks, which are reasonably priced at a mere $5 and apps at around $8-$10, the Gambas al Ajillio stole the show. Who doesn't love shrimp sauteed in a peppery garlic, tomato, and brandy broth? Simple and refreshing. The goat cheese and escargot were also nice compliments and were prepared with careful attention to subtle detail. For my entree I was curiously drawn to the Pork Osso Bocu as in most occasions this calls for veal shanks, but nonetheless, I am not one to shy away from innovation.

I am glad that I made that call because Miguel's take on this classic Italian dish was delicioso! By the end of my meal I had slain my beastly hunger and wished for a minute that the hotel was still operational. I needed a stiff drink and while that quench would go unsatisfied, it was probably for the best as my drive would continue for a bit back to the city and back to a reality I had long forgotten during this adventure. It's a poor sort of memory that only works backwards... I didn't know where I was going, but somehow knew that any road would get me there. In the morning I was nostalgic about my meal the night before. I can't go back to yesterday - because I was a different person then... a person without Penn's Woods, a person without Miguel's.