Archive for the choicest

eatin’ good

November 1, 2007 at 9:35 pm · Filed under american, the choicest

House of Prime Rib
1906 Van Ness Ave. (x Washington)

When you name your restaurant “House of Prime Rib” there are a couple things that come with the title. Firstly, you better have the best freakin prime rib in town. Next, if you’re successful with that first part, you can go ahead and offer nothing else at your restaurant.

House of Prime Rib meets both of these requirements.

Interestingly at a fancy-pants place like this one, there’s not a lot of choice. You can choose prime rib or fresh fish… But obviously you didn’t come here for the fish. Next, you can select the quantity of prime rib you will consume: a lot, a whole lot, or a freakin whole lot. Your pick. Then, how would you liked it cooked? Regular meat cooking choices apply.

Your entree comes with an array of side dishes. While you’re waiting with your drinks, there’s warm sourdough bread with butter. Next, a salad mixed right before your eyes. When your meat comes you also get your potatoes (baked potato with all the fixins or mashed potatoes with gravy), Yorkshire pudding, and creamed corn or creamed spinach. Whew, a lot. Let’s break it down.

The Meat: The main event, really. In a word, excellent. The meat is very tender and juicy. My knife slid through my city cut super easily. There was also a couple large veins of fat running through my cut, hence a premium piece of prime rib. The meat was flavorful and sort of melted in my mouth (if that’s even possible). It wasn’t tough or chewy, and my medium-well was still very moist. They offer mild and strong horseradish. Not sure I’d be able to handle strong, I asked for mild and the server quickly plopped a very large dollop on my bread plate. I swear, I could probably eat three large pieces of prime rib to use up all that horseradish. Sadly, it was too mild for my liking and I ended up slathering the stuff on to get a bit of that bite. Still good, though.

The meat is sliced at your table. It comes in a large, silver, torpedo shaped warmer/server thingy with your very own chef! He reads your order and fixes your plate with the appropriate cut and cook of meat, plus the sides you requested. It’s all about the show here, especially with the first course…

The Salad: Moving backwards, the first course is made right in front of you so you know it’s as fresh as it can be. The server brings out a little cart with everything she’ll need for the next five minutes. She shows you what’s in the large bowl she’s about to serve: iceberg lettuce, mixed greens, beets, red cabbage, and probably some other stuff I couldn’t taste. She shows it as if she’s asking for your approval, which is sort of silly, but you get into it.

She hands you chilled forks. That’s right, folks, chilled. They’re laid out on a plate and you pick yours up. She then spins the bowl of salad in a larger bowl of ice and pours the contents of a silver gravy boat on the salad. She adds some special seasoning and a bit of ground pepper (all as the bowl is spinning), gives it a toss, and divvies up the salad for the table on chilled plates. Yes, the plates are chilled, too.

Wow, two graphs and I haven’t talked about the taste yet. The salad is your typical American style salad. The dressing is thousand island and it smothers the lettuce. But, true to what the server tells you, the veggies are absolutely fresh and delicious. Gobbled that stuff up right quick.

The Potatoes: I opted for the mashed potatoes, but I’ll talk about the baked potato, too. The baked potato is served at your table on yet another little cart. The cart is wheeled out when the torpedo comes and it’s packed with all the fixings. The server slices up your potato and slops on two heaving spoonfuls of sour cream. You also can get butter, bacon, and chives on your potato. The result is a vegetable that is no longer a vegetable. It’s a heart attack on a plate.

My mashed potatoes were just fine. They come on the same plate as your meat and taste like butter. The gravy is thick and tasty and the potatoes manage to soak up some of the meat juices. MMmMmMMmmMMMm.

The Creamed Side: One person in my party got the creamed spinach. Looked gross. The creamed corn was so much better. The kernels were mostly whole or slightly mashed. Funny enough they actually came in a cream sort of mixture that was creamy and buttery flavored. That was tasty and I ate it up pretty quickly.

The Yorkshire Pudding: I’m not sure I’ve ever had this before, but I wouldn’t mind having it again. It’s like… a savory pancake/crepe. Somewhere in between the two in terms of thickness, it’s kind of like a soft, fluffy, flat bread. It’s baked in an oven in a shallow frying pan. The server whips it out fresh from the oven and divides one pan’s worth amongst two or three people. It’s a bit salty and fried tasting, and it’s meant to soak up the meat juices so you don’t miss any of the flavors. Personally, I didn’t like that use. It was nice all by itself.

The atmosphere is much like the food: classic and very showy. The interior is like an old English something or other, I’m not really sure. It’s dark inside, with dark red wood panels on the walls and low ceilings. Knick knacks are everywhere: fancy-ish, fake champagne bottles, impressionist paintings of farms and general countryside, and even a fireplace with a faux, but rustic-looking fire. You get the feel that you’re in a very important place.

While the surroundings are visually pleasing and the food superior, the company isn’t always so positive. We sat next to a table full of lawyers… Probably a bunch of litigators. Loud, obnoxious, not even really funny, and the wine was flowing like crazy. The result is you shouting across the table for conversation. The whole setup is nice, but not very great in terms of acoustics – you hear everything and everyone. The restaurant is pretty large, so that just means a ton of noise. Since it’s a popular restaurant, you’re always going to be at capacity. Bummer.

Let’s talk about price.  You’re crazy if you think you’ll be eating meat and paying less than $35+ per person.  So unless you’re just eating salad and a baked potato, you better shell out the cash.  Sum it up: worth it.

Overall: A really superb meal, but a costly one.  Worth it, though.

Rating: 10/10!

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the choicest!

June 7, 2007 at 10:10 pm · Filed under the choicest, vietnamese

Cordon Bleu
1574 California St. (x Polk St.)

photo: top is yelp.com, rest are mine

When bbg and I first started dating he told me about this hole-in-the-wall place and how it was his favorite restaurant EVAH! So of course, the right of passage into the relationship involved a trip out there. We BARTed over, went to a baseball game, then cable car-ed it up California St. to the restaurant.

I was impressed when we ate there together for the first time. It defined “dive” and the food was good. It holds a spot in my heart, so it’s the choicest.

What you see in the photo to the right is about all there is in the restaurant, if you can even call it that. The place seats a total of about 10 people – no joke! There’s a counter and behind it is the grill where everything is made. Since the grill is so massive and the counter is so close to it, you can actually feel a great deal of heat radiate off the thing. It gets pretty hot, especially if you’re not sitting by the door.

About three feet from the counter is the wall, so it’s a tight squeeze if you ever want to make it to the rear of the place. Towards the back are two small tables with a few chairs, but more than likely there’s stuff on the tables so you can’t really sit there (sometimes they’re empty, but I’ve seen large bags of meat on them once, and also a large meat slicer you see in delis). There’s also a bathroom that’s the size of an airplane’s bathroom. It’s usually pretty clean. Cordon Bleu overall is all about the food, so there’s nothing interesting about the interior besides the fact that it’s so damn small. I went there today and they had some photos on the wall, framed pictures of brightly colored flowers. Something you’d buy in a pack at Ikea. Otherwise, it’s just painted brick as far as the eye can see.

The staff is pretty quick to serve you. There are usually two people working the counter, and they’re always the same people! No matter when you go, there they are, so obviously a family business. There’s also an old guy who comes in and out of the mysterious back room with vats of meat and other supplies. It’s fascinating to observe.

There are 5 meals which include some combination of the following: beef, chicken, and imperial roll. All the meals come with rice topped with meat sauce and “country salad”. They have other stuff, like noodle salad and I swear I saw someone eat soup there one time, but it wasn’t on the menu today so I don’t know if that’s even close to correct. They’ve added veggie items like garlicky tofu and such, but seriously, eat the meat. Everything is cooked where meat has been cooked, so it’s not like it’s pure or anything anyway.

The meat sauce is tasty. It’s a little spicy and has bits of ground beef in it. You could make a meal with only rice and meat sauce, it stands well on its own, very hearty. The country salad is really just pickled shredded cabbage, but good if you like that stuff. The beef is sliced very thin and so it tastes like teriyaki beef jerky. It’s full of flavor and a little tough, but I like beef jerky so it’s pretty good chow. The 5 spice chicken is also good, but a bit dry since you get the upper part of the chicken (a breast and the wing, all attached). The imperial rolls are massive. They’re filled with meat, rice noodles, and pickled carrots. The rolls are wrapped in a crunchy on the outside, chewy on the inside wrapper and deep fried. With the sweet dipping sauce, it’s heaven.

cordon bleu #5!We usually order the #5, which has a few slices of beef, a big piece of chicken, imperial roll, meat sauce with rice, and country salad. I can never finish more than half of the meal, so for $8 I get two meals! Not a bad deal at all. Like most of bbg’s favorite places, Cordon Bleu is big on quantity. But, it’s also very big on quality. While it lacks in atmosphere, it’s a meal I’m always up for and often crave. Sure, it may not be authentic Vietnamese food (I hear the owners are Chinese), but quit judging! They make good food and they’re nice people, I like giving them my money.

Like I said before, it’s really cheap and they only take cash. And it’s popular. Sure, it’s incredibly small, hell, two people is crowded… but I’ve seen people wait in line to order take-out, as well as a dozen or so people call in orders and pick them up while I sat for an hour and ate.

Overall: Maybe not date night quality in terms of setting, but still quality food… Maybe take out? Not for veggie people, but if you like meat and starch, this is your place! They do it right.

Rating: 10/10

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the choicest

April 17, 2007 at 9:09 am · Filed under burrito, mexican, the choicest

Gordo Taqueriasooooooo good!
*1239 9th Ave. (x Lincoln Way) – Show me!
2252 Clement St. (x 24th Ave.) – Show me!
5450 Geary Ave. (x 19th Ave.) – Show me!
*2989 College Ave. (x Webster St.) in Berkeley – Show me!
*1423 Solano Ave. (x San Carlos Ave.) in Albany – Show me!

Cuisine: Mexican

(*I’ve been to these locations)
Photo: yelp.com of the taqueria on 9th Ave.

I looooooove Mexican food. I’ve been to all sorts of places, but Gordo Taqueria will always have a special place in my heart. If you just want simple, great-tasting food, this is the place.

BBG introduced me to this place when we lived in Berkeley. I was interested since there’s a taqueria called Gordos in Aptos (where I went to high school…the one south of Santa Cruz) and I wanted to see if it was similar at all.

It’s not. And that’s the end of that tangent.

Anyway, Gordo is a small, no frills sort of place. There’s a large mural-type painting on the wall of a Mexican village, plus a large corkboard with tons of random flyers posted… for example, people looking for band mates, people offering Chinese language tutoring, support groups, and new age-ish courses. There are few tables and the line moves pretty quickly. Most customers seem to know the place and get take-out.

What’s great about the taqueria is that they steam a big slice of cheese in the tortillas for your burrito. So, not only is the cheese freshly melted, but you’ll get a bit in every bite. Excellent.

The grilled chicken for your burrito is a great choice, very tasty not not too dry. There’s the regular burrito with just meat, cheese, and beans. Then there’s the super burrito, which is a regular burrito but with rice, guac, salsa, and sour cream. The guacamole, salsa, sour cream, and pinto beans are average. You can choose to leave out any of these items, or pick black beans. There’s carne asada, another type of chicken, and beef, but I always get grilled chicken.

The food is made right in front of you, so you are in full control of what you’re eating. The hot sauce is GREAT. Very spicy, but not so much that you can’t taste it. After they wrap it up, your burrito is the size of a small child, I dare you to finish it.

There are other items, like soft tacos with either corn or flour tortillas. They’re basically mini burritos since the servers stuff them with so much meat. Lately I’ve been favoring quesadillas, especially since they’re also like burritos but with a crispy flour tortilla rather than one that’s just steamed.

Ok, ok, I’ll admit there’s not a lot of variety at the place, but I think that’s one of the reasons why I like it so much. Why make things so complicated and fancy when the simple stuff satisfies you just as well, if not better?

Anyway, burritos are about $6 a piece. You can pick up a Jarrito, if that’s your thing. A great thing about the Sunset location (on 9th Ave.) is that there are two lines!! The Berkeley spot only has one. Other than that, the places are identical in looks and in great taste.

Overall: THE CHOICEST! I’d recommend this place over and over again for great Mexican food.
Rating: 10/10, obviously.

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