“Best Forgotten” 1 out of 5 stars
Article & Lead photos by Fitz
(Above: Order up at Some da Eat, Yak-a-Mein + Hunter, Estero & Scheidt having Some da Eat at Lakewood Park)
It’s 11 pm. I’ve got 24 hours left to get this magazine to print. There is still a lot to do. I just got off from my second job. I’m tired. I smell bad. I’m at Stella’s gulping caffeine. Even in this state I still could probably throw together food better than what was served to me at Some da Eat.
Disclaimer: This review is my opinion alone. It does not necessarily reflect the views of those that had Some da Eat with me.
A few weeks ago I saw a Facebook post from Charles Burnell, the co-conspirator with Careyann Weinberg behind the prominence that is Norfolk’s hottest spot, Work Release. He posted on Facebook that he was grabbing ‘Some da Eat’. He seemed excited in his post. Back in the day during the inception of this publication Burnell steered me towards Dorothy Lovell and Island Krave and, to this day, I have a food crush on the cheeky Lovell. I consider Island Krave a Norfolk soul food institution. So my curiosity was peaked. What in the world was this Some Da Eat my fellow fat man was posting about? Could it be another place to get delicious soul food?
No! Absolutely not even in the slightest. I’m a bit embarrassed I dragged two chefs and a studied food writer with me. From badly souped up canned candy yams to elementary-school-grade meatloaf (with maybe one of the worst ketchup based glazes on top of it that I’ve ever had), the adventurous food eater in me is more than a bit disappointed that from this restaurant my first exposure to yak-a-mein was had. And yeah, you guessed it: the Yak, also not good. Coated in a thick layer of oil, this boiled, gangrene-ous chicken sat atop tired noodles drowned in soy sauce and – yes, wait for it – more ketchup. The spaghetti was college dorm room at its worst. I guess hiding more limp noodles under a mound of processed cheeses and a cruel pseudo-gravy could qualify as Some da Eat in my college days but they are well behind me. I would need to be hungry drunk to ignore this amateur pasta. The only thing that wasn’t “Some da Avoid” was the fried chicken.
In a food environment and time in Hampton Roads in which places like Island Krave, My Mamma’s Kitchen, Handsome Biscuit and, hell, even a damn gas station, Sam’s Stop N’ Shop, are offering up inventive plays on tried-and-true southern comfort food staples- Some da Eat immediately needs to find some renewed inspiration. This type of disappointing, prepackaged, ready to order offerings scream of the past, and simply are not going to cut it anymore.
Some da Eat is online at
And located at 6586 Tidewater Dr in Norfolk
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