Murphy's

They say they're a step down in social clubs. It's a clever play on the fact that their bar is indeed a few steps down from the sidewalk.

On the day, I learned I'm editor for next year's student paper at Westminster, Ava was sweet enough to take me out celebrating. She really likes Murphy's and had been there before with some work friends.

Murphys has some cool stuff. For one thing, it never got too crowded so I always felt like I had plenty of space. They also have a dart board. I totally suck at the aiming and throwing thing. Luckily when I'm the right amount of buzzed, I throw it and hit something.

The Long Islands I had were incredibly strong. The bartender used tequila instead of vodka. They were yummy, but at $8.50 each I probably should've stuck to drinking just one.

Ava ordered a Cape Cod and a Newcastle. I'm not a big fan of Cape Cod's, but as far as I know these are her favorite. The Newcastle is an English beer. It's heavier than most the beer I drink, but it's so smooth you wouldn't know the difference. I wonder if there's a different place to buy it.

For dinner, I had a hamburger and french fries. The food was okay. Pretty much what you would expect from a bar. The hamburger was well-done and I don't think you get to choose. Although it was served open-face there was no mayonnaise, so the bread was a little dry.

The fries were NOT fresh cut. Why do people even bother with these? Seriously, fries are so much better when you cut them. I'm pretty sure they're just as cheap and they make my tummy happier. I was very disappointed by the fries and the lack of fry sauce.

So next time I want to throw back a few drinks and play some darts I probably will go to Murphy's. I'll just have dinner someplace else.

I went through the red door

My mom took me out to dinner last night. She suggested we go somewhere on my list of places to check out, but of course, I know my mother so I had to choose a place that serves fish and chips. The place was MacCool's Public House in Foothill.

It took us forever to get there because I got lost, but once we made it I was happy to see their inviting red door. We were seated immediately in the bar area. The place seemed pretty slow for a Friday night at 9 p.m.

Our waitress took our drink orders very quickly, but then took forever to come back for our dinner order. I know I was starving so everything felt like it was taking ten times longer than it was. But I had to give her the stare down to come ask me what I wanted while she restocked the bar five feet away from me.

The kitchen was kind enough to let my mom substitute the "Finn Skins" for her chips on her fish and chips order. Again, I felt like our food was really slow getting to us. I was starving and the wait with my mother felt forever long.

Plus, I had enough time to finish a Coke. Do you know how long that is for me? Even at my thirstiest it takes me ten minutes to down a soda. I was starving, I needed food immediately. I was past the point of cranky five-year-old-ness.

And then TA-DA! The bus boy showed up with two heaping plates full of warm, Delicious food. I dug right into the "Finn Skins." The dish is made up of deep-fried sliced potatoes topped with sour cream, bacon, cheese and onions. They were delicious! My mom and I both agreed that the potatoes were the best part of the entire meal.

As I said, my mom ordered the fish and chips. Her fish was battered and fried cod. It was kind of mushy and the fish didn't seem as fresh as it should be. The tartar sauce was good. In the end the fish was nothing special, but nothing awful either. Just food.

I ordered the citrus chicken served with salad and toast. The citrus chicken had been marinated for a bit too long so the skins were a little overpowering. My mom really didn't like the lemon flavor. Now you know, I love lemon, but this chicken had too much seasoning.

The salad turned out to be mixed greens with Caesar dressing. A really yummy Caesar dressing. The salad was my favorite part of my plate.

The toast was plain bread toasted on the oven. It was pretty good bread, but bread without butter is a travesty. I know their an Irish pub, but do they have to act like it's a famine and not give me butter?

I left MacCool's with a resolution: to come back later with my friends and order appetizers and beer.

What's your St. Pat's Day hang out?

Love at First Bite

Meditrina

1394 S. West Temple

Lunch : Monday--Friday 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Dinner: Monday--Thursday 5 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.

Friday and Saturday 5 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.

I'm in love! Honestly, the dinner Ava and I had a Meditrina is hands-down one of the best dining experiences I've had in Salt Lake. This place is amazing.

Meditrina is in the house where Mama's Southern Plantation used to be and in every way has improved the place. It was dark, but the outside looked far less sketchy than when it had housed Mama's. Probably because they put up lots of Christmas lights so the area has some lighting.

Inside the owners have vastly improved the interior on a small budget. From the wooden floor to the geometric art to the bright purple ceiling the interior is warm and modern. They also have some cool chandeliers hanging up that add to the feeling.

My only complaint about the decor is the brown couch and that's just because it's not a very nice brown. I would love it if they reupholstered in black, but really they just moved in and they have a couch. That's impressive. It took me four months to get my first couch and it's really my roommates.

Our waiter was Tim and I have a small crush on him. For a couple of reasons, first he's adorable, second he was friendly and willing to make jokes at his own and my expense, and finally he brought me delicious food.

I knew you were wondering when I would get to that. Because we all know a restaurant is only as impressive as their menu, right? Well at Meditrina they've put together a fabulous menu of tapas.

I ordered the Patatas Bravas and Insideout Chicken Satay. Ava ordered the curry shrimp and steak. Because everything is served tapas style we got to share everything. That's right; it's all delicious food presented beautifully than you go family style and serve yourself. It's like snack time just became dinner time. Yay!

The potatoes were amazing. I'm guessing the bravas part meant the spicy tomatoe sauce the roasted potatoes were served with. As anyone who knows me can tell you: I will eat only potatoes and be happy, but these potatoes were truly amazing. The sauce was so good I would eat it without a potatoe.

The shrimp curry was my favorite of the dishes. I still can't get over the yumminess of the curry. I have decided I must learn how to make curry based on Meditrina's shrimp. It was that good.

Next was the inside out chicken satay. I'm not familiar with a chicken satay, but it was yummy. The almond crust was sweet and good. Ava didn't like this dish, but she doesn't like nuts. So all I can say is if you like chicken, almonds and sweet peanut sauce you will love this dish.

On to the steak. This was probably my least favorite of our four dishes. The steak was served with a pile of mashed potatoes and asparagus--both of which I love. The potatoes were good, not the best mashed potatoes, but obviously freshly prepared and homemade with pleanty of pepper and butter.

The asparagus was fantastic. The roasted spears were cooked perfectly and not to raw or overcooked, just a nice crisp bite. The steak was a little tough to me and not as flavorful as I expected it to be after the potatoes, shrimp and chicken. However, Ava loved this dish and ate most of the steak.

Oh. I almost forgot dessert. Ava and I split the Drunken Oreos Tim suggested based on "popular response." I don't know what that means, but drunken oreos are yummy. The oreos are dunked in red wine than topped with vanilla bean ice cream and drizzled with a port wine reduction sauce. Again, the sauce was fabulous. Plus, it was a good kind of ice cream not a crappy store brand, but actually a quality ice cream where you can see the vanilla bean and taste the cream.

See what happens when I'm in love? I talk way too much. For two beers, four plates of tapas and dessert the bill was right around $45. A little more expensive than my usual, but totally worth it. Plus, massive props to Ava who once again fed me.

What cool, new restaurant have you discovreed lately?

Lunch in Europe

Atlantic Cafe
325 S. Main St.

Hours:
Monday--Thursday
10 a.m.--10 p.m.
Friday and Saturday
10 a.m.--midnight
Sunday
Closed

I've posted about this downtown cafe before, but Ava and I went by on Saturday for another fantastic lunch. We were starving and about two in the afternoon there were only a few other customers in the cafe. For the first time, we sat inside instead of on the patio. Spring is so close, but not quite here. *sigh*

I ordered the Margarita pizza and soda. Ava ordered coffee and the parma prosciutto panini. Our waitress was friendly and spoke in a mix of English and a language I didn't recognize. I've heard the owners are Bosnian so maybe she was speaking Croatian? Like all my experiences with Atlantic the service is prompt and very polite.

As always my pizza was delicious. Atlantic makes an obvious effort to use the freshest and best ingredients in their food. The mozzarella was high quality and melted to just the right amount of stringy. The basil and tomatoes were fresh and flavorful. The pizza really is big enough to serve as lunch for two, but it's so yummy I ate most of it on my own.

Ava's fries were yummy. They are very thin shoe-string french fries cooked just right. I like these fries best with some salt and pepper. Ava prefers them with ketchup. Also Ava is absolutely in love with their coffee. It was served in a very adorable saucer and cup and apparently is some of the best coffee in the city.

The panini was delicious. It was probably big enough to serve as lunch for two, but when the food is that good it's no surprise Ava ate the whole thing. Congrats! It was an amazing feat of tummy stretching.

My favorite part about Atlantic is for a moment you believe you are in a cafe in Europe. The staff is speaking a foreign language, the extra virgin olive oil label is in Arabic, there are chocolates you've never seen before and the other patrons are a wonderful mix of locals and tourists. The atmosphere is very warm and inviting.

In all for a pizza, panini, soda and coffee it came to just under $25. I believe Atlantic has raised their prices since I was there last September. However, they are still reasonably priced for the quality of the food, the portions and the overall experience.

Gallery Stroll and Sushi

OMG! Look, there's pictures!

It's the third Friday of the month, again. The roomies and I have a fabulous tradition of wandering around Gallery Stroll. If you've never made it to downtown around 7 p.m. on the third Friday of the month, you are missing out on one of Salt Lake's best little big city moments. This time before we wandered the local galleries at Broadway and 300 West, we stopped by Sapporo for some sushi.It was an excellent fix to my sushi cravings. Jon was the sushi chef again. He couldn't remember our names, but he did remember Erin had been to Italy. As always he was pleasant and friendly. Jon is an excellent reason to sit at the bar.


My Metropolitan role smiled at me. The Metropolitan is probably my favorite roll from Sapporo. It's a combination of samon, yellotail and tuna with asparagus and eel. Unfortunately, on Friday night the fish wasn't as fresh as I've come to expect from Sapporo.

Ava loved the Manitoc. Ava's Manitoc roll looked beautiful. Although, like me she too had to scrape some of the tabiko off the top. That much wasabi is just too hot for anyone not raised in Korea.


Erin again ordered the Sushi Treat and Jon set her up with a nice array of different sashimi. Erin also mentioned she really enjoyed her chef's choice entree. It looked delicious. Some of the treats included caviar and deep frying, so you know it can't be that bad.


Our service was probably the fastest it has ever been at Sapporo. The waitresses were excellent. They both did a great job of bringing us everything we needed. They were both firendly and chatted with the crowd at the bar as well.

I piad about $15 for my roll and a coke. A fairly reasonable price for sushi in the middle of a landlocked state. Sapporo is open Monday through Saturday for dinner from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m.

Sadly, at the end of this visit I would go back to Sapporo as a good faith visit. But if the fish is unfresh again I may have to go back to the unfriendly staff of Tsunami.

Props to Er-Bear for the camera/photo help. Kudos for Jon and holding still so I could take a picture. And Ava for agreeing that asking Erin if she wanted to add anything was hysterical.

Thanks for reading, how was your food Friday?

Tulie Bakery

Bow to the Cuteness

Last Saturday, Ava was having great psychic connections to all things good food. After eating at Cafe Trio we decided to stop next door at Tulie at 863 East 700 South. Just to check out the cool building and see what the bakery had to offer.

How do you say so adorable you'll want to cry tears of joy?

Tulie is made of cuteness. Really. I promise. I can't show you because I forgot my camera. But their treats are tasty and adorable.

I ordered the lemon cream tart. It was delicious! I have a sweet tooth for lemon. It's a great combination of sweet and sour. The crust was nice and flaky, but thick enough you didn't bite only into cream. It was even garnished with candied lemon rind. Making the tart amazingly adorable and yummy. For $4.25 (if I remember correctly) it was big enough I took it home and polished it off the next day. The yumminess lasted and the adorableness still amazes me.

Ava ordered the chocolate cake. It was also $4.25 a slice. The cake was very rich and chocolaty so I didn't try it. But judging from Ava's excitement about going back to Tulie it was delicious.

We also drank their house coffee. At $1.50 a cup it's reasonable priced for any coffee shop. The coffee was good. Not the worst, not the best. It was a medium bodied roast with a bright finish. (Read a little bitter at the end.)

So that's a wrap. For delectable treats and a great atmosphere, Tulie's is the place for an afternoon snack.

Also be sure to check out some of my reviews and other writings at www.westminsterforum.net.

What amazingly cute place have you been to lately?

Italian, again!

Cafe Trio
680 South 900 East

On Saturday afternoon, Ava and I decided to get out of our food rut. So we went back to an original and enjoyed some Italian. I had been to Cafe Trio once before for a lovely lunch on their patio. And I missed the sunshine Saturday, but I won't blame the restaurant. Silly nature, cursing us with winter!

We waited about five minutes before the host sat us. The wait made me really nervous about how the rest of the meal would go. But it must have been a fluke. Our server, Joshua was fabulous.

Cafe Trio was very clean and it had a nice vibe. We were there at an odd time of day, so there weren't many customers. But it still felt comfortable. The only complaint I have about ambiance is the music. A couple of the songs just didn't fit with the modern European feel.

Off the $7 cocktail menu, I had the Flirtini. It has vodka, raspberry syrup, lemon and sparkling white wine. Turns out the sugar rimmed glass with the sugary beverage was a little too sweet for my taste. The drink was as girly as the name implies.

Ava ordered an Amore. It's made with lemoncello, fresh strawberry puree and sparkling white wine. It was very yummy and definitely the better of the two. So next time, next time: the Amore will be mine.

Hahaha!

I ordered the Trio Club sandwich with the day's soup for $9. The soup was a split pea with sausage. It was a great winter time dish. I really enjoyed it's flavor and texture. It was surpringly creamy and rich.

The sandwich was delcious. The foccia bread was so yummy! I also enjoyed the melty cheese and tomatoes. I would recommend this sandwich to anyone who enjoys a more traditional club, for sure. It's a great example of American Italian cuisine.

Ava ordered the baked penner for $13. She loved it! She said, "I'm so full it hurts to move." The mushroom, cheese, tomatoe sauce and garlic combination looked and smelled delicious.

The best part was the piece of plastic wrap she pulled out of the sauce after eating most of the pasta.It's a still a mystery how the plastic wrap got there. I have some questions about Cafe Trio's food preparation now. How many people would never go back to a restaurant where they found plastic wrap in their food?

Yeah, me either. Maybe it's awful--like eating gum off the floor. But the rest of my Trio experience was so positive, I probably will go back to Cafe Trio someday.

Just not any day soon. They are expensive for my budget. Worth it, but still pricey. A giant thanks to Ava for lunch. I love you!

What's your favorite Italian lunch cafe?

Squatters

Squatters
147 West Broadway

So uhh...I want to start by saying I do not enjoy giving negative reviews. In fact, if you read any my previous reviews you'll probably notice I am easily impressed and amused. So most places I go I enjoy. Squatters is an exception to this rule.

Maybe it was the expectations. I've heard many good things about Squatters. The beer is good and blah, blah, blah. Yeah, these people lie. Here's the real story.

#1 Squatters is a male dominated world. I grew up with five boys, I'm used to the room being testosterone heavy. But Squatters is overwhelming in the number of middle-aged men. Not being of the middle-aged and male persuasion, it was not my pint of beer.

#2 Service is slow. Although we were seated immediately and our drink orders taken quickly. I was forced to give the stare down to a busboy and our waitress to get the check. It's a pet peeve I have. Otherwise, Missy was a decent server and answered all my usual obnoxious questions about most popular/favorite dishes.

#3 The food is mediocre. Seriously, not very good. I ordered a burger with fries ($9). The fries are the frozen then fried kind, which I'm not a big fan of. Amazingly Squatters is a Utah restaurant that doesn't serve fry sauce. Instead they offer a chipotle aioli. It was way yummy and made me feel better about the whole not-fresh fries situation.

The bun was way too big for the burger. I ordered my burger well-done and by the time I finally found the center it was somewhere between well-done and medium rare. Did you know there was a middle stage to the grilling?

Me either.

To be fair, Ava did enjoy her chicken chimichanga ($12-ish). "I'm really lovin' this rice," she said. The rice was tender and fluffy with a nice amount of seasoning. The bite I had of chimichanga wasn't overly impressive, but it was good.

#4 The beer. I know this is the big one, the reason people go to Squatters. I ordered the Full Suspension ($4.79 on tap), which is not a good choice for a woman who would rather drink a cocktail. It's a bitter beer and left a very acidic after taste in the back of my throat.

On the other hand, the Provo Girl Ava ordered was very yummy. It was smooth and "good for what ales you" without Ava or me making yucky faces.

I apologize if you are a middle-aged man who loves Squatters. Maybe someday when I am a middle-aged man we can all love Squatters together. Until then, happy eating.

Market Street Grill

Seafood, anyone? Market Street Grill offers a variety of seafood with a menu that is updated daily. Judging from the prices I would say they fly the fish in fresh from California. Judging from the flavor they don't fly it in on Fridays.

Market Street has gone to the effort making the interior of their restaurant as sea-friendly as possible. The white paneling coupled with the dark wood accents makes me think of Boston. They've also put up fake fish with neon back lighting, it's a little different, but fits the place.

I should also note the soft background music wasn't total crap. It wasn't my favorite music, but I remember hearing three songs in a row I actually liked. Pretty amazing for a chain restaurant.

Our waiter was competent. Although, she was friendly I was surprised by the bantering between her and the other wait staff on the floor. I felt like she forgot we were there whenever she commented about how much she had in tips and what a slow day it was to other waiters. Maybe, it's slow because people know they will be treated like they don't exist there. On another note, for some inexplicable reason they had six or so waiters for Friday lunch on a cold snowy day.

The menu is expensive. I would even say more expensive than their quality of food merits. I ordered the crab and artichoke dip as an appetizer for about $10. The dip was very yummy. If you like crab and artichoke it's delicious. It was creamy and hot with a nice bread crumble across the top. If you don't like crab or artichoke you probably won't like it.

They also serve a complimentary loaf of sour dough bread. The bread was nice and crusty. It was sourdough without being too sour. I'm not usually a big fan of sourdough, but this was fantastic! I loved the bread. As did Ava, I think it's safe to say that if we ever go back we will most anticipate the bread.

For our entrees Ava ordered Cajun Seafood Pasta for about $23 and I ordered the Fisherman's Platter for about $20. Both entrees were served with a side salad. The salad essentially ended up being greens, three tomatoes and three slices of onion. Umm...I know it's a side salad, but are the tomatoes supposed to be the side to the salad?

Our entrees soon came looking delicious. The Cajun pasta was supposed to be served with a fettucine pasta, but came with spaghetti pasta instead. The fisherman's platter came with everything deep-fried (how could I resist?) scallops, calamari, halibut and shrimp along with a side of cheesy potatoes. At this point both Ava and I were stuffed.

So I ended up sampling my dish. In the end, calamari is chewy, but good. Scallops are better when they aren't deep-fried, I could deep fry my own shrimp and they would be just as good and the halibut was not the level I expected it to be. But the potatoes were delicious. Not just because I love potatoes either. They were nicely seasoned, covered with cheese and had plenty of parsley to contrast with the cheddar. Seriously, good.

Ava's pasta was a little spicier than she had bargained for, but it looked great. And from her efforts to eat it I'm going to say it was good. Of course, she can let you know in the comments. It had andouille sausage along with the usual scallops and shrimp seafood.

So in all lunch was about $60. Way, way too much for what it was. Even though we ate a ton of food I don't think lunch should ever be that expensive. Luckily, I had a $50 gift card so it only cost me $10. It was definitely worth the ten bucks.

Here's the bottom line. If you go to Market Street Grill, pray for a decent waiter, skip the appetizer and only order entrees. And to save money, ask the nice people you know hook you up with a gift card.

Port O'Call

Port O'Call
75 West 400 South

For New Year's Eve, Ava and I went to Port O'Call in Downtown. It's a great bar that has been recommended by a few different friends. So we went ahead and took the opportunity to see what it was all about before the city demolishes the building.

We arrived early because I was starving and couldn't wait to devour something. The main floor was packed, but we found a nice little table upstairs on the year-round patio. Our waitress was friendly and efficient. We ordered from the regular menu. Ava had the chicken pasta a.k.a Big Ass Pasta and I ordered a cheeseburger and fries a.k.a Classic Port Burger.

The food was delicious. People say hunger is the best sauce and maybe that's true, but fry sauce with beer-battered, fresh-cut fries is AMAZING! The hamburger was served open-faced. I would have liked more cheese. They also didn't serve any mayonnaise on the side or on the bun which I thought was odd, but not a great loss. It was fantastic bar food and totally worth the $7 price.

I also had an Electric Long Island. As I said, "It's just the way I like them not enough alcohol I can taste it, but enough that I can feel it." I also tried a Tequila Sunrise and a Cape Cod. Although, Ava loves Cape Cod I think I'll stick with the Long Island. Again, our waitress was spectacular and brought us refills before we realized we needed them and made sure we were well taken care of.

I really enjoyed the atmosphere at Port. They've done a great job of making it feel like you are at a friend's home. I also noticed that the patrons of Port seemed like a big family. There were a lot of large groups of friends around. For a club it seemed more like a pub. And the bathrooms are clean. In my limited experience of clubs in Salt Lake City that is unique.

I would love to go back to Port, but with a $10 cover charge and cocktails running at about $6 each it ended up being a pricey evening for a poor, starving college student. Luckily, Ava is amazing and paid for dinner and drinks. So I got away with paying only $20 for the cover charge. It was totally worth it.

How was your New Year's Eve?

Happy New Year's

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. And that's all I'm going to say about that. After four days of being snowed in and living in Medieval like conditions I'm not really feeling the holiday cheer.

But I'm super excited for New Year's. I'm old enough to actually go out. As always my friends and I are looking for a laid-back place with great food and a fun atmosphere. The small amount of online searching I've done has only revealed clubs. Not exactly what I'm looking for--the hip-hop, grinding scene is so not me.

Any suggestions?

Big E's

In this holiday season, it's easy to spend a lot of time with family and friends. So I spent the weekend with my super-awesome sister and her adorable family. Her husband, Big E requested I write a post on them. So here it is!

Over at Big E's they've done a lot of work to teach me about food. We have them to thank for my love of alcohol, too. Big E has loved to cook since the first day I met him and he made me a fabulous steak dinner. (Six years later and I still remember it.)

Well, this weekend they treated me to some delicious chili. It simmered for about three hours in the crock-pot and was full of flavor. The recipe calls for hamburger and sausage which blend really well with the spicy tomato sauce. I also saw some beer go into the pot and it was delicious.

Oh we also had some delicious margaritas. These guys are so good they even have margarita salt in their cupboards. Plus, they're more than happy to cut the alcohol content for the light-weights in the room.

Let's see what other yummy goodness did we have? Oh yeah, lemon spaghetti and salmon. I'll post the recipe for lemon spaghetti shortly. It's very good, it's a nice taste of summer in the middle of a snowstorm. I don't have the recipe for the salmon or the sauce that goes with, but I promise they were very good. The salmon was flaky and moist while the sauce added a nice kick of flavor.

Well, that sums up my weekend at Big E's. And with a promise of financial backing they might open up a restaurant so everyone can enjoy their hospitality and excellent food.

Big City Soup

Chicken Curry Soup
Who knew chicken curry would make such a wonderful soup? Not me. But apparently the guys at Big City were already knew it would be an excellent combination of flavor and texture.

My experience at Big City Soup was at the original location (235 South 400 West) proved to me why I love Salt Lake Lake City and food. Big City is just around the corner from my office and an easy walking distance in four inch heels. Always, a giant plus!

The staff was very friendly and more than helpful. Once I explained I had never been there before the server was more than happy to give me free samples of all the soups available. As soon as I sampled the chicken curry I knew it was the soup I wanted.

Layered with flavors including curry, scallions and chicken. The soup was full of delicious chunks of chicken, onion and carrot. I can't get over how delicious this soup was. I'm having difficulty coming up with the words to describe the blend of sweet, sour and spicy, but it was there and it was perfect.

The one downfall of the food was the ciabatta roll. Umm...I'm not sure, but even for ciabatta it seemed stale and hard. Plus it was definitely lacking flavor. I'll admit I haven't eaten a whole lot of ciabatta in my time. And I don't think I'll be eating a whole lot more in the future.

Oh and did I mention gift certificates? That's right. Oh yeah, it was free to me! YAY! Does a place get any better? I was lucky enough to have a $10 gift certificate from my work so I was happy to pay their $6.50 for the soup and bread.

In all honesty I thought it was a little expensive, but completely worth it. The soup was amazing! The help was incredible! And being so close to my office I will definitely be back.

After all, I still have $3.50 on my gift card. What are you soup stories?

Salt Lake Pizza & Pasta

Pub Food, Beer and Air

This week, Giggles and I went to Salt Lake Pizza and Pasta. I've been here a few times before and am always impressed by the atmosphere. The decor is modern, warm and comfortable. It feels a lot like Red Rock Brewery, but has a different flair.

Giggles and I waited and waited and waited. Finally, after 15 minutes of "please wait to be seated" sign obedience our server, Cami sat us. I was appalled to see that nearly all the tables were dirty and empty. 9 o'clock at night? And the house was empty? That's not a good sign.

Admittedly, Pizza and Pasta is the family side of Fiddler's Elbow and we were avoiding membership fees by sitting with the little ones, but still. Empty and dirty? Not good.

After we were seated at a nice clean booth, the whole experience was much better. Our server made some drink suggestions including a Raspberry Beer, Blue Moon and an apricot heifweizen. I ordered the apricot ($4.25), while giggles got the Blue Moon ($4.25) . They were great suggestion for two lovers of girl beer.

The apricot had great flavor and was nice and light. So I didn't feel like I'd gained 5 pounds after drinking one beer. Always, a plus! The Blue Moon was a little frothy for me. I'm not sure exactly what was different, but it seemed to carbonated. The flavor was a little less full than the apricot.

Giggles order mushroom gravy pork chops. I order seafood perciatelli ($14.50). Perciatelli are a thick hollow noodle shaped like spaghetti. The seafood included clams, mussels, salmon and shrimp.

As always the food was delicious, but the portions were gargantuan. I loved my pasta dish it had the right amount of heat with lots of flavor. The pesto sauces was great flavor, but a little too oily for me. If I made this dish at home I would cut the EVO in half and let the flavor of the spice stand out more.

The seafood as a whole was great. The salmon was moist, flaky and fresh. The mussels were cooked perfectly and not chewy at all. The shrimp were good, not the freshest I've had, but cooked well and mixed nicely with everything else in the dish. The clams could have been fresher, but they were cooked perfectly. This far from the ocean and at a pub I can't complain too much.

Unfortunately, I can't tell you how cheap this place was. Because Giggles is an awesome friend and she bought me dinner. I will tell you this: next time, you're at Pizza and Pasta ask for Cami, order some beer and bring good friends. You will definitely feel like it's worth it.

In the end, it was a great dinner. Cami kept us well-stocked on our beer, but was careful we didn't drink ourselves to the floor. Plus, they let us hang out for a couple hours. In the world of waiting tables, that's pretty good service.

Salt Lake Pizza and Pasta is next to Wells Fargo on the corner of 2100 South and Highland Drive (1100 East).

Sushi, sushi, sushi

Recently, I've been craving sushi. I love the melody of flavors in sushi, the dedication to the freshest ingredients and the beautiful presentation. Our craving for fresh, beautiful sushi led Mrs. Michael Scofield and I have to test out Salt Lake's sushi scene.

Sapporo
The first place we went to was Sapporo. They have no Internet presence that I can find, but they have great sushi. The restaurant is on Broadway (300 South) right next to the Broadway Theater. The restaurant has never appeared very busy to me and it certainly wasn't the night we stopped by. There was a couple at the sushi bar with us and another couple joined the four of us later.

The sushi chef was pretty young. (My guess is 17-ish.) But he was friendly and talked to us as he prepared our rolls. So while the chef didn't know what Kobe beef was, I have to give him props for making some excellent sushi. I really enjoyed the bar, the other guests were friendly and the chef did a great job of involving everyone in the conversation. Our waitress was very good. She saw immediately when drinks needed refilled and carefully made sure everyone was happy.

The sushi itself was incredible! I was stuffed after four pieces, but it was so good I had to keep eating. The ingredients were all fresh and everything went together so nicely. Plus, it was the most beautiful sushi I have seen.

I really enjoyed Sapporo and am looking forward to a return visit. For two sodas and two sushi rolls it was about $25. All the fish was incredibly fresh and even the pickled ginger looked amazing! It's definitely worth a visit.

Tsunami
I've posted about Tsunami before, so I'll be brief. They serve some of the best, freshest sushi in the valley. The Tokyo Cowboy is an excellent sushi roll and the prices are great for what you get. But I can't get over the atmosphere. The Sugar House location just isn't as friendly and warm as I would expect from any restaurant. The servers also seem a little stand-offish. I will go back to this place...if someone else is paying!

I Love Sushi
The last place we visited in our sushi sovereign was this little shop in Downtown. The place is known for excellent prices and great sushi. Mrs. Scofield and I have been meaning to go here forever and we finally made it with Jess.

Jess, Ava and I each ordered a sushi roll. They were a little thinner than the rolls served a Tsunami and Sabbarro, but with more pieces. The smaller pieces were easier to eat because they fit in my mouth easily.

I ordered something with yellow tail. The yellow tail was very fresh and flavorful. Unfortunately, the vegetables were not as fresh as I expected. The chef added some sauce and sesame seeds to the top. It made for an interesting texture and a fun presentation, but all the flavor didn't quite go together. I think a little too much was happening for a single roll

The atmosphere here was great. I felt like we were in the home of a good friend and was perfectly at ease to ignore my non-chop stick skills and eat with my fingers. It's a little bit of a sushi diner, restaurant implies no whiteboards with the daily special listed.

Our server was friendly and made great dessert recommendations for the green tea and plum ice cream. The deep-fried banana was great. Tempura does very well on fruit. I loved the green tea ice cream and will definitely eat more in the future.

Three sushi rolls, two desserts and three sodas later the bill came to about $35. Not bad, for all that food. Next time, I will try their bento boxes and branch out into other Japanese foods like ramen.

While there's a lot to love about each of these locations. The first sushi stop is my first love. It has great sushi, a great chef, fun decor and comfortable prices.

What are your favorite Salt Lake sushi places?

Is it just me?

Or has food gone downhill in quality lately. But really? How hard is it to make a good sandwich? And where can you find this horrible sandwich I had the joy of tasting?

Why at East Coast Subs in Downtown Salt Lake City! I spent a gorgeous afternoon strolling the streets of Downtown taking photos. When I was hungry, I found myself faced with East Coast Subs or crossing the street and going to Esther's. I had never been to either so I chose convenience and went inside East Coast.

I should have been warned by the sole table of two at one in the afternoon. A sandwich shop on a weekday with two customers just shortly after regular lunch time is not a good sign. But, I put my faith in the woman behind the counter and the easy to read menu.

Between greeting the woman at the counter (I assume she is the owner) and placing my order, the owner passed me off to an employee. She was friendly and waited patiently as I read the menu.

I ordered a small BLT sandwich, a small fountain drink and a small side of onion rings. The easy-to-read menu lead me to believe the meal would cost about $7 plus tax, it was closer to $10. Apparently, the addition of a combo for $2.79 only applies if you get medium size, but the girl behind the counter failed to mention it, as does the menu, when she asked what I wanted with my sandwich.

$10 is more than I ever want to pay for lunch, especially a sandwich. But I figure if you make it good enough you can charge a little more and I won't mind. So my expectations were raised with the price tag.

My order was ready to go in about 5 minutes. I decided to eat over at Gallivan Plaza next to the fountains. The setting was great. My first bite was the exact opposite. It went something like this: bite, chew, chew, umm, is that stale bread?, eww!

Yes, people. Not only was the sandwich constructed in such a way that the first mouthful was entirely bread it was also stale bread. The contents of the sandwich didn't fare much better in freshness.

The lettuce was browned and the tomato looked extra smooshed, like it had sat at the bottom of a container of tomatoes for a few too many hours. No condiments were given, so I had no mayonnaise. The bacon was the best part of the sandwich. It had been taken off the grill just seconds before topping my stale bread. So while, it may have been a lower quality meat it was a least edible.

I turned to the onion rings, hoping to recover some of my faith in sandwich shops. What I found were freshly baked onion rings straight from your grocer's freezer. You know, the Ore-Ida kind you grab when you have kids and want to make dinner in a hurry.

If that's what they really serve on the East Coast, I'm moving farther west. Sorry East Coast Subs, next time I'm crossing the street to Esther's.

Wow! Lemonade?

Thanks for the comments of love. In case I haven't mentioned it yet, I have the absolute best friends anyone could ask for. Guys and girls, y'all are amazing! The Race was Amazing has suggested I start having guest bloggers. An excellent idea, by the way so once again. I'm asking all of my amazing friends to help me out. If you would like to blog let me know in person, through text or online and we can figure out what you would talk about.

Now on to the yummy!

No Brow Coffee

This great little shop at 300 South 300 East was introduced to me by the fabulous irelandsgem in the early days of summer. The eclectic art gallery meets coffee shop is run by the owner. He's a great guy who is very invested in his business, which means you and I reap the benefits of excellent service.

No Brow resides in an unfinished warehouse and feels very much like what it is. A home away from home for the artistic and creative crowd who also happen to enjoy a good cup of coffee with their art. But the secret of their success is in the lemonade.

Yes, my friends, lemonade. I love the sour. But this lemonade is delicious, sweet, tart and perfect. I cannot up sell the house speciality enough.

The No Brow owner said it was taken from a recipe his wife found and they have only tweaked it a little bit. I don't know the recipe, but I want it.

This lemonade is the right blend of sweet and lemony, served in a recycled, recyclable, corn oil cup letting your Eco-conscious rest easy, too. A small (12 oz.) is about $4 and worth it.

So for a lazy afternoon or early morning stop by No Brow.

Brookside Broiler and Grill

I want to apologize to my few loyal fans for being so slow. I have an excellent excuse. Getting to the library is too much work! See, I told you it was good.

On to the review, Brookside has an excellent patio. This little place sits right on the edge of the Sugar House Commons. Your typical suburban shopping center. The local eatery in the center is its own anomaly. The patio overlooks Hidden Hollow--a beautiful natural forest protected by local environmentalist groups.

Brookside has a really great looking menu. It's actual content is less than informative. We asked our waitress a lot of questions. She seemed less than knowledgeable and was a little shy. We finally ordered kabobs and salad. The portions were HUGE! I ordered the half kabob plate because I wasn't very hungry and it was twice the amount of food I thought it would be.

The beef kabobs were very good. The marinade they use is full of flavor and the mix of peppers and onions is just what I would expect. The meat was cooked perfectly, but was a poor cut so it was tougher than I like.

The vegetables on the side ended up being about a cup of cooked carrots and about a cup of cooked broccoli. I'm pretty sure the broccoli started off in their freezer than moved to the microwave where it was steamed with the baby cut carrots. Although, cooked to an expected state of crisp tender the quality was a little below what I expected after the great patio, the wonderful view and the expensive looking menu.

Brookside makes up for their pretentious appearance with fairly approachable prices. My dinner was $7.50 with a soda for $2. Not bad for a place that looks like it's easily $15 a plate. R's dinner was $9.50 for the extra $2 she ordered another kabob. J ordered the Asian Chicken Salad. It was gigantic and delicious. For $8.95 it fit comfortably with the rest of our ticket.

I probably won't ever be a Brookside regular, but for an elegant feeling dinner without the price tag at the last minute, I would eat there again. Although, I may request a different waitress.

O'FALAFEL, ETC.

Is it more fun to say than schwarma? I think not, but falafel will have to do. I was really excited about the opening of this Mediterranean cuisine restaurant on 790 East and 2100 South in the old Saltimbocca location.

My friends were kind enough to humor me and we checked it out last weekend. Although, we arrived at 8:50 p.m. (they close at 9 p.m.). The guy at the cash register was in no hurry. The line in front of us was long and slow moving.

We placed our orders for Caesar salad, falafel, chicken and kefir. For the uninitiated falafel is essentially deep fried beans. It's surprisingly good. Served with pita bread and a cool yogurt dipping sauce. I found it very yummy. Although, the bright green color inside is surprising.

I was feeling adventurous so I also tried the kefir. It turned out it was grilled spicy beef strips. Although, it was good. It wasn't great and I'll probably order something else next time. The tomato sauce served with the meat was delicious. The rice was cooked perfectly, but it did need a little salt.

All of the vegetables were fresh and good, Goomba's salad looked amazing. The sauces were all delicious, I especially like the cucumber sauce Mrs. WP was served with her chicken. It was refreshing and cool and paired perfectly with the spice of the rest of the dish.

So although the kitchen was incredibly slow and we didn't even begin to think about leaving until 10 p.m. The family who runs the place was very kind. They were attentive to our table as they tried to figure out their own system for ordering.

The owner apologized personally to us for the wait. I think for being open for three days they have learned a lot. I'll give the wait staff and kitchen a couple of weeks to learn the ropes, but then I'll be back for more.

Plus, it's amazinly cheap. It was $5.49 for a falafel appetizer that was big enough to serve as one person's meal. For just under $7 Mrs. WP and I ordered our entrees and Goomba paid about $6 for his salad. Good food, a different experience, great people and cheap...the recipe for my kind of restaurant.

El Menos

Ah...Mexican! My love of Mexican food is great. In fact, I would say anything that is cheesy, greasy, spicy and cheap is delicious. I love Mexico, the food, the people, the culture and the soaps.

El Menos is a little family restaurant on 1700 South at about 300 East. The atmosphere is amazing. The little girls are playing tag with each other in the restaurant while the parents are in the back cooking. The glass bottles of Pepsi, the mismatched tiled table tops and the cement floor make you feel like you've stepped into Mexico.

There is something about this place that makes me want to go back. Perhaps, it's the old men lazily watching futbol on the TV or the little girls running through the tables. I'm not sure, but there is something about El Menos that makes me feel at home.

Our service was decent. Our waitress is the owner's 14 year old daughter. She was very patient with my gringo friends and I as we struggled to ask questions about the all Spanish menu. She was also very shy, but give her some time and she will be an excellent waitress.

The food is cheap expect to pay about $8 for an entree, arroz, frijoles y cola. The have a small market of Mexican treats and toys at the front counter as well. So if you'd like to pick up some plastic tops or ancho chiles you can.

El Menos food is hardy, delicious Mexican. The family feeds you like you are one of their kids home for a visit. The experience is unmatched by any other restaurant I have been in Salt Lake. El Menos makes you feel right at home even when you can barley say, "no hablo espanol." I can't wait to go back. See you there!