Five Guys Burgers and Fries

Okay, so I've heard of "Five Guys Burgers and Fries" before, but never really heard about the food itself. Went shopping today, and we saw a Five Guys. Never knew we had those in San Diego. Did you guys know about this and not tell me?

Anyway, I tried it. Here's what I think:

Pros:

1. Choice of "little" burgers

2. Calories are listed on the menu (Yey!!! Helps deter us from getting the "regular" hamburger)

3. The patty is HUGE (so lots of protein), and I loved the crunchiness of the crust

4. All the toppings. I mean, you can choose from the traditional lettuce/tomato, but they also have grilled onions, grilled mushrooms, jalapeno peppers, A1 sauce, etc, etc.

Cons:

1. Portions are HUGE, so calories are HUGE. My "little" burger had 480 calories. It wasn't really little. The little means one patty. Whoa! Good thing the calorie count deterred me from getting the regular burger. I've never been there, so I didn't know what everything on the menu meant. The regular burger is 700 calories, so NO THANK YOU!

2. I shared the regular (620 calories) Cajun fries. We chose Cajun, cause the lady said slightly spicy. UM, no! Extra salty. Not terrible with ketchup, but seriously?! I ate about 1/3 of the serving which again was HUGE!!!!

3. Kinda pricey. Yeah "no filler or preservatives" however, not even remotely close to being as good as IN N OUT.

4. It was a lot of food! I hate wasting, so all was eaten, but for a girl, the little hamburger and 1/3 of the regular fries, was just too much. Stick with a little burger and call it a day.

Ranch House Buffet at Barona Casino

I went to Ranch House Buffet on a Wednesday evening at around 6pm, and there was no line! That was great since I was absolutely starving. I usually go for a salad and chicken, but since this beautifully designed buffet offers a great variety of mouth-watering foods, I decided to start at the Seafood station... The cost of the buffet is $20.99 per person, but if it's your birthday and you have a Barona club card, you can get two FREE buffets. Incredible deal! I love free food. I especially love delicious, free food. ☺

A few of the stations available at the Ranch House Buffet include: Seafood, Mexican, Chinese, Dim Sum, Mongolian, American BBQ, Rotisserie, Soup & Salad, Omelet & Crepe, and Dessert. I loved the yummy shrimp covered with lemon juice and dipped in tangy cocktail sauce (highly recommend the shrimp). You have to peel the shrimp on your own, but it was totally worth it. I also had some Mongolian stir fry (delicious!!), and the dim sum. The dim sum wasn't very good, but it wasn't bad either. I wouldn't fill up on the not so great dim sum and save room for something better. So what should you save room for?

Dessert! The buffet has the best FRUIT TARTLETS. I couldn't believe how delicious they were. I was full by the time I ate one, but I made room for one more. Why were they so great? I fell in love with the light, slightly sweet crust, the sweet and tangy custard and the fresh and delicious fruit on top. The fruit included blue berries, raspberries and mandarin orange slices. I'm not a dessert after a meal person, but this I absolutely loved and I recommend it. I want to go back just for the dessert.

So what is my overall rating?
Price: $$$ (Inexpensive Fine Dining)
Service: **** (Clean, friendly, free buffet on birthday)
Food Presentation: **** (Many choices, fresh and all stations are well stocked)
Taste: *** (Very delicious tartlet)
Overall: **** (Best tip: Get small portions of different dishes, & don't forget to try the fruit tartlet!)

For more information:
Barona Resort & Casino
1932 Wildcat Canyon Road Lakeside, CA 92040
1-888-7-BARONA

Hong Kong East Ocean Restaurant

(Steamed BBQ Pork Buns and Shrimp Dumplings)

Fresh dim sum with a great view of the beautiful bay and the San Francisco cityscape is a great way to spend lunch time in Emeryville, California. This was my very first time trying dim sum, and although some of the locals didn't know anything about this restaurant, I decided to give it a chance with an open mind. Hong Kong East Ocean is discreetly located near the end of Powell street which is by the bay and a yacht dock. I highly recommend taking a nice long walk by the water after enjoying lunch at the restaurant.

I've been told that a typical dim sum restaurant has waiters/waitress pushing food carts throughout the dining room and customers get to look at the food first and decide what they want to eat. For this restaurant, each table receives a copy of the menu and a pencil so that they can indicate how many of each dish they wish to order. You later add more dishes if needed as long as you let your server know that you want to order more food.

The dishes are served in steamer baskets which makes the presentation of the food much more appealing and interesting.

I ordered shrimp dumplings, steamed BBQ pork buns, crispy fried shrimp puffs and siu mai (pork and mushroom dumplings). Everything was absolutely delicious! The shrimp was very fresh, and the pork buns were soft, tender, sweet and they seemed to simply melt in mouth. Mmmm, mouthwatering. The fried shrimp puffs were little shrimp balls that were battered and deep fried. The shrimp was very moist, but a bit oily. I think some sort of sauce would have made these better. Maybe soy sauce? Perhaps, but I'm not a fan of soy sauce, so I opted not to use it.

My favorite? Sigh! I want more pork buns and shrimp dumplings! They are very good, hearty, and simply unforgettable. I can't wait to eat dim sum again. I think that eating at this restaurant is a great way to be introduced to the wonderfulness that dim sum is.

So what is my overall rating?

Price: $$$ (Inexpensive Fine Dining)
Service: *** (Adequate service)
Food Presentation: **** (Simple, but beautiful)
Taste:**** (Very delicious)
Overall: **** (Anything with shrimp is pretty good)

For more information:
3199 Powell St
Emeryville, CA 94608
(510) 655-3388

Ici Ice Cream

How long was the line for this oh so famous ice cream parlor in Berkeley? Fortunately for me, I went on a Wednesday evening at 6pm before dinner, and I truly lucked out because there were only about 10 people in line. The line wasn't even outside the shop yet! Sweetness.

Ici (pronounced ee, cee) sells ice cream, bombes, sorbet, cookies, brittle, and other sweet treats. I decided to try a scoop of their chocolate chip ice cream and a scoop of the raspberry on one of their hand-rolled cones with chocolate at the tip. The cones are at an extra cost (less than $1 extra), but totally worth it. The chocolate chip ice cream was very creamy, smooth and only slightly chocolaty which is the way I like it. This flavor complimented the slightly sweet/tangy raspberry ice cream. The raspberry was light and crisp and incredibly delicious. Even though the two flavors that I picked are very simple and somewhat generic, they were incredibly delicious. What about the hand-rolled cones? Crispy, buttery and yummy. My only negative would be that the tip had too much chocolate for my liking, but then again I've been told that it's weird that I don't LOVE chocolate.

Ice cream is made in small batches, so the menu changes frequently. Here's an example of what the menu looked like when I first tried their ice cream. I have been told that the flavors tend to sell out quickly, so the later in the evening that you go to Ici, the fewer choices you'll have to choose from. Some of the flavors are quite unique, but you don't have to decide what flavor you want to buy until you've had a chance to taste them. They will gladly give you samples to try, and if you're unsure of what to get, I highly recommend that get a few samples.

I look forward to the next time that I get to go back to Ici and be more adventurous and try some of those unique flavors. What sounds better? Ginger spiced walnut ice cream, Irish Whiskey ice cream or Sweet corn-chili ice cream?

Not a big fan of ice cream? Try some macaroons, meringues, brittle, cookies, gingersnaps, bon bons, affogato, or a root beer float!

So what is my overall rating?
Price: $ (Cheap Eats)
Service: *** (Friendly and fast service)
Food Presentation: **** (Perfectly round scoops on a beautiful crisp cone)
Taste:**** (Best ice cream ever? I think so.)
Overall: **** (Superb! Try as many flavors as possible.)

For more information:
2948 College Ave.
Berkeley, CA 94705
(510) 665-6054

Zachary's Chicago Pizza

This award winning restaurant was recommend by a former Berkeley student that mentioned that Zachary's had some of the best Chicago deep dish pizza in the bay area. The first thing that I noticed when I first walked in was that the place was packed on a Tuesday night. That was a good sign since it makes the statement that the food is good. We only had to wait a few minutes to be seated and the waitress was very friendly. We got our drinks immediately and started on a baby spinach salad within minutes of ordering it. The salad was good, but nothing special. I really enjoyed the mild, tangy feta cheese even though my boyfriend complained that the salad had a bit too much cheese. Who complains about too much cheese?

As I waited for the pizza to arrive to our table, I was glancing around at the the awards and paintings on the walls. It was very impressive to see all the happy eaters truly enjoying their food. It seemed like a very, very long time before our pizza arrived, almost 30 minutes, but I was hoping that the long wait would be totally worth it. When the pizza finally arrived at our table, the waitress served everyone their first slice. I liked that.

I've never had Chicago deep dish pizza in Chicago, so I'm not what was is considered great Chicago pizza, but I can definitely tell you that this wasn't the best deep dish pizza I've had. I've had better. Although it wasn't stellar, it was still good. I liked it because I absolutely LOVE tomatoes. As you can tell from the picture above, the pizza/tomato sauce is very thick and chunky, and I loved that. We ordered a chicken and artichoke pizza, but I couldn't taste either of those ingredients since the tomato completely dominated the taste. I was however, able to enjoy the wonderfully thick, flaky crust.

So what is my overall rating?
Price: $$ (Moderately Priced)
Service: *** (Friendly, Relaxing ambiance, long wait)
Food Presentation: ** (Covered in tomatoes. Where are the other ingredients?)
Taste:*** (Perfectly seasoned tomatoes on flaky warm crust. Delish)
Overall: *** (Definitely worth a try.)

For more information:
1853 Solano Ave
Berkeley, CA 94707
(510) 525-5950
www.zacharys.com

A Newbie California Foodie

I absolutely love food, and whenever I find a new place that happens to have great food, I think its my responsibility to share it with everyone that loves food. I'm by no means an expert in food, but I have been eating for nearly 30 years! :-) Most of my reviews will be on restaurants in California since I live in Southern Cali, but when I travel on my time off, I'll have the pleasure of reviewing restaurants from wherever I go.

Last week I was on vacation in Northern California, so my very first reviews are from resturants in Emeryville, Oakland, Berkeley and San Francisco.

My first restaurant: Zachary's Chicago Pizza in Berkeley, California.

Here's my review scale:

Pricing:
$ Cheap Eats ($5 or under per entree)
$$ Moderately Priced ($10-15 per entree)
$$$ Inexpensive Fine Dining ($15-25 per entree)
$$$$ Fine Dining ($25 and over per entree)

Service, Food Presentation, Taste, Overall rating:
* Poor (definitely not recommended)
** Fair
*** Good
**** Heavenly! Delish! (A must try)