1 W. Flatiron Circle
Broomfield, Colorado
Four of us went to lunch at this restaurant. We were promptly seated and offered drinks. Since it was noon time, none of us wanted beer, but the menu shows a nice selection of brews. We started off sharing Southwest Eggrolls, which contained pulled chicken, blackbeans, corn, red peppers and pepper jack cheese. It came with a roasted jalapeno ranch dressing. Comments ranged from good to not bad but would not order it again. While it did have some spice, I felt it could have used a whole lot more,.
For the main course, 3 of us opted to order burgers, and 1 ordered a grilled cheese and tomato sandwich. The person that ordered the sandwich left 1/2 of it on the plate. Of the remaining 3 people, one ordered the Marzen Barbeque Burger, a 1/2 pound burger with bacon, cheese, and barbeque sauce on it. This person felt that the sauce was thin and watery, and could use more flavor.
Both the remaining companion and myself ordered the Mushroom Swiss Burger. As the menu says that they cook all burgers to 155 degrees, I asked for mine to be cooked as rare as possible and companion asked for it well done. My burger came out medium well done, and as a result was fairly dry.
In evaluating any place that serves burgers, one of my criteria is if the restaurant will cook a burger rare or medium rare. If the restaurant won't, that tells me that they don't trust their meat. If they don't trust it, why should I? The burger was topped with a big slice of tomato and some lettuce, as well as about a tablespoonful of mushrooms. Not at all what I expected for the prices they charge here. Most burgers are $10.95. Companion ordered hers with home cooked chips, which were pronounced very ordinary. Two of us had the garlic fries, which were flaccid and oily though not lacking in flavor, and the other companion ordered the coleslaw, which he pronounced to be with little flavor and extremely crunchy.
Service was adequate, but for what this place charges for items on the menu, it should have been exceptional. Most items on the menu vary from $10.95 to the mid $20.00 range.
Sanitation was as it should have been.
Something that we all found disturbing was the location of the restrooms. One has to walk around the actual kitchen prep area to reach them, where they are located right next to it. This was a bit distasteful to say the least. The restrooms were properly stocked and reasonably clean.
Overall, lunch was a bit of a disappointment. Prices were high, and food preparation was poor to moderate.
I give them 3 stars for service and sanitation.
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Jack-n-Grill
Jack-n-Grill
9310 Sheridan Blvd
Westminster, CO
Since seeing Man vs.
Food on T.V., I have been interested in visiting this restaurant. Their main item
on the T.V. show was their 7 pound burrito, which is about the same size as a
newborn child. My main interest was to find out if the quality of the food
supported all the hype I have heard about it. Our party of 5 arrived about 6:30
in the evening. We had a wait time of about 20 minutes.
When we were seated, we
were greeted reasonably promptly and our drink order was taken.
We were served chips and
a nice salsa which had good flavor, but which I wish was a bit hotter. Our
waiter claimed that the chilies were from Hatch, but if they were, they tasted
like no Hatch Chile I have ever eaten. The table next to ours was rather loud
and boisterous and busy taking flash pictures, which was, unfortunately an
annoying experience.
Companions 1, 3, and 4
ordered a Shredded Beef Burrito smothered in Green Chile, with Sour Cream and
one plate with Guacamole on the side. Companion #2 ordered a Shredded Beef
Enchilada Plate with Red Chile on the side. I ordered a Shredded Chicken Green
Enchilada Plate Sonoran Style, which means it had 2 fried eggs on top. On the
positive side, all portions were of a good size, and would easily satisfy most
appetites.
Comments were as follows
- Companion 1 said the food was just o.k., and didn't know if he would come
back again. Companion 2 said that her plate was fair, but the beans were
underdone and made her mildly sick. Companion 3 said that the plate was o.k.
Companion 4 said the beef was flavorless, and the plate was lukewarm instead of
hot. My plate was lacking in flavor in spite of the supposed Hatch chilies, and
the beans were totally undercooked and crunchy.
I spend the next day
counting the tiles on the bathroom floor. While I had taken a doggy box of
leftovers home, I threw it out the next day because I was not willing to take a
chance on eating any more of it. Sanitation was adequate as far as I could
tell, but the restaurant is a bit cluttered, which makes it hard to truly tell.
The bathrooms were adequately clean and reasonably stocked.
If you want to come to a
Mexican style restaurant that gives you lots of food, and is a bit on the loud
side, this may be the place for you, but if your passion is not to count the
tiles on your bathroom floor, you might not wish to eat here. 2 stars for
portion size and sanitation.
LongHorn Steakhouse
1434 S. Alma School Road
Mesa, Arizona 85210
(Preface) I don't usually like to evaluate chain restaurants, but with more and more people eating at them it seemed proper to evaluate this one. This is part of the Darden chain, which also includes Olive Garden, etc.
I arrived at 6:15, and though told it was a 10 minute wait, I was seated in 3 minutes. My waiter brought a drink and warm bread quickly and handed me the menu as well as explained the specials of the night. The waiter, Tim, was extremely attentive and honest when asked about items on the menu. How refreshing! I was originally going to get the Rib Eye Steak, but Tim suggested that I get the larger Rib Steak on the Bone. He wasn't pushy, but offered good reasons to get it - an excellent job of up-selling for a restaurant. I also ordered a Baked Potato with lots of butter and a salad with Honey Mustard Dressing. Of the Bread, I can only say it was warm. I didn't care for the flavor of it, and it almost seemed to be under baked and lacking in flavor. The Salad was a nice portion with a good dressing, though I didn't care for the diced tomato on it. Diced tomato is a way of a restaurant saving money by not using premium tomatoes. Not a good idea.
In due course my steak appeared. I had ordered it rare, and it came medium. My waiter immediately took it back, apologized, and had a new one cooked properly with a new baked potato in minutes. Great service. The steak was perfectly cooked this time, with perhaps a touch too much of seasoning, but that is an individual preference. The potato was properly presented with lots of butter as I had asked. My biggest criticism is the same one I have in many steak houses - I hate being given oversized knives with serrated edges. If the steak is as tender as steak houses claim, a sharp, plain edged knife will easily do the job without tearing up the meat. My steak had a bit of silver skin still on it, which should have been removed by the butcher.
My waiter kept checking up to make sure my drink was full and I had everything I wanted. I was quite full, and my waiter promptly brought a take home box and even brought a small cruet to put some horse radish sauce in. (I like horse radish on more than just prime rib). Most places make a big deal out of my ordering it, but my waiter didn't bat an eye and even brought extra. Even though I was full, I wanted to try dessert. While many of the desserts are brought in from the outside, I was told that the Caramel Apple Goldrush was made in house. My only comment about it would be to describe it as comfort food. Warm, gooey, comforting apples in a rich sauce with lots of cinnamon and caramel sauce, topped with a very smooth vanilla ice cream slowly melting over it. I could have made a meal just out of this dessert! It's a real winner. I have eaten in some of the top restaurants of the world, from those of the Iron Chef's to the Flagship of Mortons in Hong Kong to Elements in Paradise Valley, and the service I had tonight was right up there if not better than any of them. Service can make or break a meal, and service was absolutely tops tonight. Kudo's to Tim, my waiter, and I hope my tip showed him just how much I appreciated him. 3 1/2 stars for the food, and an extra 1/2 star for service and cleanliness for a total of 4 stars. I will definitely evaluate this restaurant again in the future to see if the service stays up to standard.
Mesa, Arizona 85210
(Preface) I don't usually like to evaluate chain restaurants, but with more and more people eating at them it seemed proper to evaluate this one. This is part of the Darden chain, which also includes Olive Garden, etc.
I arrived at 6:15, and though told it was a 10 minute wait, I was seated in 3 minutes. My waiter brought a drink and warm bread quickly and handed me the menu as well as explained the specials of the night. The waiter, Tim, was extremely attentive and honest when asked about items on the menu. How refreshing! I was originally going to get the Rib Eye Steak, but Tim suggested that I get the larger Rib Steak on the Bone. He wasn't pushy, but offered good reasons to get it - an excellent job of up-selling for a restaurant. I also ordered a Baked Potato with lots of butter and a salad with Honey Mustard Dressing. Of the Bread, I can only say it was warm. I didn't care for the flavor of it, and it almost seemed to be under baked and lacking in flavor. The Salad was a nice portion with a good dressing, though I didn't care for the diced tomato on it. Diced tomato is a way of a restaurant saving money by not using premium tomatoes. Not a good idea.
In due course my steak appeared. I had ordered it rare, and it came medium. My waiter immediately took it back, apologized, and had a new one cooked properly with a new baked potato in minutes. Great service. The steak was perfectly cooked this time, with perhaps a touch too much of seasoning, but that is an individual preference. The potato was properly presented with lots of butter as I had asked. My biggest criticism is the same one I have in many steak houses - I hate being given oversized knives with serrated edges. If the steak is as tender as steak houses claim, a sharp, plain edged knife will easily do the job without tearing up the meat. My steak had a bit of silver skin still on it, which should have been removed by the butcher.
My waiter kept checking up to make sure my drink was full and I had everything I wanted. I was quite full, and my waiter promptly brought a take home box and even brought a small cruet to put some horse radish sauce in. (I like horse radish on more than just prime rib). Most places make a big deal out of my ordering it, but my waiter didn't bat an eye and even brought extra. Even though I was full, I wanted to try dessert. While many of the desserts are brought in from the outside, I was told that the Caramel Apple Goldrush was made in house. My only comment about it would be to describe it as comfort food. Warm, gooey, comforting apples in a rich sauce with lots of cinnamon and caramel sauce, topped with a very smooth vanilla ice cream slowly melting over it. I could have made a meal just out of this dessert! It's a real winner. I have eaten in some of the top restaurants of the world, from those of the Iron Chef's to the Flagship of Mortons in Hong Kong to Elements in Paradise Valley, and the service I had tonight was right up there if not better than any of them. Service can make or break a meal, and service was absolutely tops tonight. Kudo's to Tim, my waiter, and I hope my tip showed him just how much I appreciated him. 3 1/2 stars for the food, and an extra 1/2 star for service and cleanliness for a total of 4 stars. I will definitely evaluate this restaurant again in the future to see if the service stays up to standard.
Riazzi's Italian Garden- CLOSED
Riazzi’s
2700 S Mill Ave
Tempe, AZ 85282
(480) 731-9464
CLOSED
I've eaten at Riazzi's
for many years, and sad to say, the food is not what it used to be.
I went with a party of
20, and even though they knew we were coming with plenty of advanced notice,
they were overwhelmed.
Service aside, the food
just wasn't on point. Red sauces were bland, and seemed in short supply.
I asked for Pasta
Carbonara, and it was so salty as to be virtually inedible. There was so much
pancetta in it that it overwhelmed completely the rest of the dish.
One of our party had
pizza, and found it to be just ordinary.
Most of the dishes were
not enjoyed with the one exception of the calamari, which was perfectly fried.
I realize that times are
hard all over, but the temperature in the restaurant was unbelievably warm, and
members of our party kept having to get up and go outside to cool off.
I hope they go back to
the fine food they used to serve, because this was a not what I remembered from
the past. 2 stars
VinciTorio's
VinciTorio's
1835 E. Elliot Road
Tempe, Arizona
We arrived at
VinciTorio's on a Saturday evening at 6:00 with reservations. We were seated in
about 5 minutes. Companion and I skipped the appetizers and started with salad.
I and companion had house salads; mine with a house Italian dressing, and companion's
with a Balsamic dressing that didn't appear to have any balsamic in it.. The
salads were fresh with some nice frisee, but lacked tomato.
Main courses were
ordered. I ordered Linguini with clam sauce with extra garlic. Flavor was
satisfactory, but it would have been much better with a less watery sauce. The
clams appeared to have been from a can rather than fresh. While my personal
preference would have been a slightly thickened sauce, it was properly prepared
and could be easily sopped up with lots of the excellent garlic bread.
Companion ordered
ravioli, which when brought out were sitting in pools of water in the sauce.
They obviously were not properly drained and/or leaked in the hot water bath.
Again, my personal preference would have been to have the sauce thicker so that
it adhered more to the pasta, but that is a matter for debate among chefs.
On to desserts, the
absolute high point of the meal. I ordered the Panna Cotta which came with
macerated raspberries on top and blueberries on the plate. It was smooth and
silky and just melted on your palate. It was just as good as the last time I
ate here. Companion had the same dessert and pronounced it wonderful.
Service was at a bit of
a rushed pace. The restaurant was reasonably clean. Compared to the last review
I did of this restaurant, this was not as good an experience. The food seemed
to be downgraded as compared to my last review, though the Panna Cotta was
every bit as good as I remembered it being.
Service could use some
polish as well as slowing down a bit. I felt like they just wanted to serve us
and get us out of the place. One less star than the last review. 3 stars
Pier de Orleans - CLOSED
Pier de Orleans
61 E University St
Mesa, AZ 85201
We went to dinner at
6:00 on a Saturday night. After cocktails at the bar, which were decent, we
were seated at our table. I hate to make generalizations, but this place
reminded me of someplace from back in the 60's. It seemed old, with music from
the 50's and 60's playing in the background.
I started out with 2
appetizers - the gulf oysters (5.95) and the escargot (5.95). Oysters were
supposed to be 80 cents each, yet I was charged the $5.95 for a half dozen. I
don't mind paying the price for a good oyster, but these were not plump or very
tasty. I had to really doctor them up with a bunch of horseradish and Tabasco
sauce.
The escargot were nicely
cooked and served with a nice piece of Parmesan bread, but here again, the menu
calls them Large, Meaty Snails in Garlic Butter, but what I got were anything
but large, though they were, to be fair, very tasty.
One of my companions got
the pecan shrimp (5.95) and said they were o.k. while another companion had the
calamari, which she pronounced was pre-frozen and off tasting. To its credit,
the restaurant took it off the bill. I had the seafood gumbo supreme (13.95),
which had shrimp, bay scallops, oysters and one small crab claw in it. For me,
the gumbo did not have the kind of seasoning that one would expect to be in a
real gumbo, and again, I ended up doctoring it up a lot to make it suit my
tastes. After doctoring it, the taste was fine, though the crab claw was
definitely not fresh and tasted off. I ended up placing it on a plate on the
side and abandoning it there. The meal also came with a cup (they call it a
bowl) of soup. I elected to have the clam chowder. To their credit, the clams
were nice sized and not overcooked, but on the down side, the broth was a bit
thin and watery.
Other companions had
seafood d'Orleans (12.95), Cajun sampler (11.95), and Cajun jambalaya (12.95).
Comments made by our companion from New Orleans, was that it tasted exactly
like Zatarains and they would be surprised if it wasn't. Other companions
mentioned that the food lacked seasoning and seemed quite bland to them.
Sanitation was,
unfortunately, not up to quality standards. While the tableware and table were
clean, none of the tables in the room were cleared while we were there. The
dirty dishes were left on the tables from their "Early Bird" diners.
While we were there, no other diners entered the restaurant, so I would have to
assume the dirty dishes were there for at least an hour and a half or more,
waiting to be cleared.
The restroom was clean
and mostly stocked. In all, I would say that this was a bit of a
disappointment. Serving previously frozen food does nothing to help a
restaurant gain customers, nor does serving food that is off do much. Two
stars.
Los Reyes De La Torta
Los Reyes De La Torta
1528 E. Southern Avenue
Tempe, AZ 85282
I arrived at the restaurant at 11:30, and was seated immediately. The girl seating me noted that the sun was coming in through the windows at the front of the place, and she opted to seat me at a table that would not be in the direct sun light. This was to be the beginning of a nice lunch!
Within a few minutes of my sitting down, I was greeted by my waiter, provided with what I think were homemade chips and two different salsas, as well as 3 different menus. The first menu was the lunch special menu, the second menu was an assortment of drinks on one side and desserts on the other side, and the third menu was their regular menu. The waiter was prepared for me to take my time ordering, but I opted to order immediately, asking for an item that was not on the menu.
I ordered a Lengua Burrito enchilada style with green chili on it. My waiter didn't bat an eye, but did compliment me on my Spanish! LOL.
I started in on the chips, and found them to be delicious, as were both of the salsas. While both exhibited some heat, one was definitely a bit hotter than the other, though both had excellent flavor and body. None of that thin, watery stuff here.
In short order, my burrito arrived. Large, soft, and swimming in a pool of green chili with a little crema squirted over it. It was so good I emptied my entire plate. I also ordered a Tostada de Ceviche in the appetizer size just to try it. As with the burrito, it too was excellent and a nice size .
Of interest is that the menu contains proteins that are not usually found in most Mexican/American restaurants, including Lengua (tongue), Buche (pork belly), Cabeza (beef head), and Pierna (pork sirloin). I found that the way the menu was designed, every dish was listed both with a full English description as well as a Spanish description.
The only thing I did not care for was the televisions all tuned to a different Spanish language station. They took away from the atmosphere, which would have been a lot nicer had there been some good mariachi music in the background instead.
The place was spotlessly clean, and service was excellent. I hope they continue to keep up this level of food and service, because this is one of the very best Mexican style restaurants I have eaten in in this state.
4 stars for excellent food, good cleanliness, and good service
1528 E. Southern Avenue
Tempe, AZ 85282
I arrived at the restaurant at 11:30, and was seated immediately. The girl seating me noted that the sun was coming in through the windows at the front of the place, and she opted to seat me at a table that would not be in the direct sun light. This was to be the beginning of a nice lunch!
Within a few minutes of my sitting down, I was greeted by my waiter, provided with what I think were homemade chips and two different salsas, as well as 3 different menus. The first menu was the lunch special menu, the second menu was an assortment of drinks on one side and desserts on the other side, and the third menu was their regular menu. The waiter was prepared for me to take my time ordering, but I opted to order immediately, asking for an item that was not on the menu.
I ordered a Lengua Burrito enchilada style with green chili on it. My waiter didn't bat an eye, but did compliment me on my Spanish! LOL.
I started in on the chips, and found them to be delicious, as were both of the salsas. While both exhibited some heat, one was definitely a bit hotter than the other, though both had excellent flavor and body. None of that thin, watery stuff here.
In short order, my burrito arrived. Large, soft, and swimming in a pool of green chili with a little crema squirted over it. It was so good I emptied my entire plate. I also ordered a Tostada de Ceviche in the appetizer size just to try it. As with the burrito, it too was excellent and a nice size .
Of interest is that the menu contains proteins that are not usually found in most Mexican/American restaurants, including Lengua (tongue), Buche (pork belly), Cabeza (beef head), and Pierna (pork sirloin). I found that the way the menu was designed, every dish was listed both with a full English description as well as a Spanish description.
The only thing I did not care for was the televisions all tuned to a different Spanish language station. They took away from the atmosphere, which would have been a lot nicer had there been some good mariachi music in the background instead.
The place was spotlessly clean, and service was excellent. I hope they continue to keep up this level of food and service, because this is one of the very best Mexican style restaurants I have eaten in in this state.
4 stars for excellent food, good cleanliness, and good service
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