It’s always hard trying to decide what to get when you walk into a food establishment you’ve never been to.

Do you go for something you know you’ll enjoy that is on your list of favorite foods? Do you try something out of your comfort zone and hope for the best? Or do you go for one of the specials?

Now you see our dilemma when we walked into Washington Street Cafe last week for lunch.

We had heard great things about their specialty sandwiches that include ones named after former U.S. Senator from New Hampshire Warren Rudman, and Franklin Pierce, who if you didn’t know, was the only president to come from the Granite State.

There was the make-your-own sandwich option, as well as a variety of salads and soups. Washington Street Cafe is also known for its Lebanese and Mediterranean specialties.

What to do? What to do?

So after staring at the menu for some time, we kept going back to the special boards. It included veggie lasagna, spanakopita and barbecue and bacon meatloaf, but we just couldn’t pass up the teriyaki chicken stir fry with house-made rice pilaf special.

Right off the bat, the decision seemed like a good one. The smells coming from the kitchen were fantastic and it didn’t take long for the plate to be put in front of us

All that was left was for the taste to match the presentation, which as you can see was quite appetizing.

Good thing it did. The veggies, which included the likes of zuccini, squash, and green and red peppers, were a nice mixture, and the rice, which we found out after had been mixed with orzo, was cooked perfectly. The chunks of chicken were well saturated with teriyaki flavor and maintained a nice moist texture.

Each bite consisted of a little bit of each element because let’s face it, that’s really how you want to eat a stir fry.

The two different slices of bread was something we had never seen with a stir fry before, and seemed a bit out of place, but in actuality, was a nice compliment to the dish. And it didn’t hurt that both were soft and warm.

Outside of a few mushrooms and water chestnuts, the plate was polished off in no time and even though we were more than full, we definitely would have taken another helping, it was so tasty.

The cafe offers an ice water station so we didn’t have to buy a drink, which allowed for us to sneak in a dessert.

With cookies, brownies and muffins to choose from, we opted for the seven-layer bar. It consists of a graham cracker base with chocolate, peanut butter and butterscotch chips, nuts, coconut and condensed milk, which holds it all together.

While it seemed like a good idea to dive right into it, we resisted the urge and saved it for later. The bar was really tasty and would be a reason to go back by itself.

If you’ve never checked out Washington Street Cafe, you should. Now that we’ve been, it’s safe to say we waited too long.

For more on the menu, visit washingtonstreetcatering.com.