Hi, I am wondering what your prices are for a dinner party for 10-15 guests. It would be in the Dallas Area.
Thanks. Mike L.
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The venerable Olive Garden (AKA “OG”), often dismissed as a punch line, I stand by its food. Hey, it’s not fine dinning, but it's somewhere to go to have decent Italian food. The food is solid, a bargain really. $12.95 for bread sticks, salad, pasta, and egg plant parmesan? You kidding me? It’s a night out, convenient, and comfortable. For any doubters I leave you with the words of Top Chef under-performer and executive sous chef at Jean-Georges (obviously she’s no slouch), Lia Bardeen: “Everyone thinks the olive garden is hilarious. And I can understand where they are coming from. But I think for what the category it is in they do a really good job. People don’t realize or don’t think about it, but everything is done fresh every day. They have a saucier that does all the soups and sauces in the morning. However cheesy Olive garden is in some ways, the kitchen is no joke.”
A foodie’s delight? No. But don’t be such a snob.
Pinks is a LA institution. No
In addition to the classic hot dogs, Pinks has a variety of
I also enjoyed a chili hot dog with cheese. So bad that it’s good. Processed pork, chili with a kick and gooey cheese. What could be more heavenly?
The fries are also a treat. Seasoned very well.
So what’s the bottom line? Pinks is a solid place for dogs, chili dogs, and to stop your heart. I don’t think, however, it’s worth a detour. There’s simply no “wow” factor to the food. If you are in the area and in the mood, then it’s great. But the chili dog at tommy’s is comparable to Pinks and the lines at tommy’s is not nearly as long. I do also feel that the prices at pinks are a bit high. Lines are outrageous as well.
I love Suppenkuche. The place is elite in my books. Suppenkuche isn’t find dining but casual dinning with a younger crowd. The place gets noisy and crowded but the atmosphere is fun.
At Suppenkuche the wait is long. You typically have to share tables with strangers, which I am not a fan of. Often the patrons at the bar overflow into the dinning area. And there may be a group of 20 people drinking 5 feet from your chair. Having said that, the place has a woodsy homely feeling. The mood is intense and loud in a good way; people having fun and enjoying beers and food.
The food at Suppenkuche is great. Most of the entrees are basically the same. One meat of your choice, spatzle, and cabbage. Sure they all taste the same, but it’s comfort food done well. Plus, you wash it down with a great selection of German beer. Good food, beer, loud conversations with your friends; what could be better? Entrees are typically in the $14-$22 range.
Pictured is venison, spatzle and red cabbage. A real hearty meal. The venison isn’t very gamey. The wild boar sausages was also great. It came with Bavarian Kraut. Let me just say the bacon made the Bavarian Kraut amazing. So soulful and rich, you thought you died and gone to bacon heaven.
Suppenkuche is outstanding if you want a loud night out for some great food and German beer.
After watching a review of Pacific Cafe on the Food Network and Check Please! Bay Area, I had Pacific Cafe in my head. Fresh fish is all I could think of for weeks. What a bust. I should have known better when I heard they give you free wine while you wait. No restaurant worth its salt would do this. It’s a gimmick; I was blinded by the fools on Check Please Bay Area. I wish I didn’t go, I wish I had my $30 back… I got hoodwinked.
Fresh Fish? Not when I ate here. I had the seared tuna cooked rare. I had that itchy feeling all over my body that indicates something is afoul. The tuna completely lacked flavor. I could have done a better job buying suspect tuna at the UN Plaza farmer’s market and cooking it myself. The wasabi dipping sauce tasted like green butter with wasabi you get from a tube. This place is a real joke; the food taste funny.
The wait is unbearable. It really kills me that a place like this has a line out the door starting at
Star Wok is Chinese fast food at it’s best. Star wok is in the style of panda express. One typically chooses from a one, two, or three item combo that includes rice and/or chow mein.
The portions at Star Wok are surprisingly generous; you won’t feel ripped off in terms of quantity.
In terms of quality, Star Wok, similarly, does not fail. In my opinion it is a step-above Panda Express in terms of authenticity and taste.
Nothing noteworthy about the items they have. It’s your typical Chinese fast food fare, e.g. bbq pork and kung pao chicken. But if you are in the mood for Chinese Fast food and you are in the area, Star Wok is one of the better ones in the area.
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Ah, yes, the classic Chinese lunch specials. If you’re unfamiliar with “lunch specials” you’re really missing out: soup, Rice, and an entrée at a rock bottom price. If you are spending more than $7 per entrée, you’re really getting ripped off.
The prices range from 3.95, 4.95 and if you really want to splurge, 5.95 for seafood dishes for your usual Chinese food. Menu is littered w/ your kung pao beef and clams in black bean sauce type dishes. Pictured are beef with Chinese broccoli and basil fish. Both dishes are authentic tasting, tasty, and well-executed.
I would come back. Dinner is pricier, about $10 for the same dish. I recommend the lunch specials. Their fried pork chops is especially good. Not really a seafood place, despite their name. Just a regular Chinese place you will be happy giving them $7 for a meal.
Food is ok. Too expensive for what it is. You have very few options in
I think you are better off at Heros or the press.
Too me, Walters is one of those places where you take out-of-town guests to somewhere "nice" in
Tapas and beer, ah yes, living the high life. Located near the Moscone center and a few blocks from the metreon, Thirsty Bear offers “nine distinct beer styles on any given day. Seven of the beers are house standards and two are rotating seasonal specials.”
Thirsty Bear adheres to the
The atmosphere is casual with a tint of coolness to it. Jeans and a nice t-shirt is sufficient.
The food:
I would return to Thirsty Bear. You don’t go to this place for the tapas, you come here to drink beer. And if you are hungry, they happen to have decent tapas such as the pork tenderloin. But I wouldn’t make a trip just to go to Thirsty Bear. A pre-movie snack before heading over to the metreon seems appropriate.
When the French occupied
So what is Le Colonial? Think Slanted Doors. A Vietnamese place where one could say “they use organic vegetables, have good meat, great service, and a decent wine list.” Yes, this isn’t one of those Larkin Vietnamese places, it’s in
On a happy birthday I gorged on a variety of appetizers, splattering of entrees, and beverages. I’ll leave the beverages to your imagination because as Marcel Vigneron says, it’s all about the food.
The tempera was well executed, crispy and seasoned. The filet mignon with lemon grass was delicious. Meat extraordinary tender and the lemongrass flavor there. Nothing irks me more than a Vietnamese restaurant that doesn’t know how to properly extract flavor from lemongrass. Le Colonial does the job right. The crispy rolls were not very avant-garde but very well executed with quality ingredients you would expect. I could go on, but the dishes were as expected for the price. Le Colonial definitely delivers on the promise of a swanky Vietnamese restaurant.
Worth the hype? Maybe. But if one were to go for fancy Vietnamese food, Le Colonial is probably one of the better ones in the city. Dishes are much more imaginative, better presented, and better executed than that other place in the
Chinese buffets are their own beast.
Like most buffets in this category, you aren’t looking for quality, but a lot of decent Chinese food.
The Chinese food is your typical Chinese buffet food: Salt and pepper shrimp, chow mien, stir fried beef.
The Fried section offers sweet and sour chicken, egg rolls, “lobster roll” (i.e. a fried roll with imitation crab), and the classic crab
At
Their “sushi” is of a solid quality and they use little rice, which means you can pound a lot of it.
As far as Chinese buffets go
Fu-Shing is a real oddball in the Chinese restaurant landscape; a quiet, yet authentic Chinese restaurant. They offer
Sorry for the lack of pictures, but I was at Fu-Shing with some special guests for the Chinese version of a tasting menu.
Cold appetizer was the first course. Followed by salt and pepper crab, peking duck, lobster in garlic sauce, stir-fried black cod, stir-fried sea cumbers, stir-fried halibut, and a stir-fried mystery meat dish. The meal ended with a sticky rice dessert.
Service was top notch for a Chinese restaurant. The servers were attentive, refilled our drinks, changed out our plates, and were very accommodating. No, they were not friendly, talkative, or explained the dishes, but this is a Chinese restaurant. The atmosphere was even more surprising. Quiet, spacious, and clanks of dishes were at a minimum.
The food was above average. The dishes didn’t surprise me but they were classic dishes made from fresh products that were properly executed.
I would return to Fu-Shing.
Slanted Doors. What can I say, but go somewhere else. If you’re going to drop 60 bucks a head on a meal, you’re better off at Le Colonial. If you are hurting for V-Food and feeling like Tony Bourdain, Tu Lan’s is the place for you. I have been there three times and there’s just something I don’t like about the place. (Don’t even get me started on “out the door.”) Maybe it’s the transformation from the elegance of the old slanted doors to the new chic and trendy location. Maybe it’s the fact that I can get the same quality of food for a quarter of the price on Larkin. There just not anything special about the food or dinning experience.
So what’s good about Slanted Doors?
L & L Hawaiian Barbecue is Hawaiian fast food. They offer a variety of meats including chicken and pork katsu, fried shrimp, and thinly sliced grilled short ribs. On my trip, I went for the “mini” chicken katsu plate. The “mini” plate is $4.59 and the “regular” plate is $6.69 at this location. The mini plate comes with a side of steamed rice and macaroni salad. The “mini” plate is plenty of food, I recommend the “mini” especially since their food is so heavy.
I was the only person in L & L and it took them about 10 minutes for them to prepare the food. Having watched them put the chicken in the fryer, I appreciate the fact that the food is cooked to order.
The chicken katsu is good. It was nicely fried and crispy. They use dark meat for their katsu, as a result the katsu is juicy and moist on the inside. One thing I didn’t like is that the meat did seem a bit greasy. There seemed to be a layer of grease oozing in between the meat and the panko breading. But, hey, it’s fried chicken.
Is this the best chicken katsu I ever had? Probably not. But it’s a solid piece of chicken and I would go back.
