Finding lunch for the day quickly became a fighting match. Originally we all headed down to Olive Garden for what we hoped to be some decent Italian food. However upon arrival we were greeted by a 45 minute wait and what looked to be like a flock of snow birds. No worries, we decided to head across the street to Red Lobster. Unfortunately we ran into the same problem as Olive Garden, a terribly long wait and a crowd full of the elderly.

Eventually the idea of going to Fuddrucker’s was thrown out and immediately we all jumped on it. (more…)

First Impressions

Fuddrucker’s definitely goes overboard with the decor. Novelty antique gas pumps with clocks in the middle are propped randomly through the dining hall, and you’d be hard-pressed to find two square feet of contiguous wall space that wasn’t covered with a photograph, mirror, or old record. I suppose they’re trying for a rock-and-roll theme, but they also have random celebrities, and various sports-themed sculptures in the mix.

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Background:
I have kind of a skewed view of this restaurant. I use to work with a couple of guys who would go to Fuddruckers every friday as some sort of “right of passage” to bring in their weekend. It was made known to everyone in the office that THEY were going to Fuddruckers. They posted flyer’s, sent out text messages and occasionally announced their departure over a microphone and speaker. Using these methods it garnered a lot of attention, but I never grabbed on to their bait.

By the time they got back to the office with their food, the excitement in the air lowered to a minimum. The only thing that was exciting, was the smell of deep fried French fries in the air. One day I took an adventure to their cubicle to get an eye of the feast I heard so much about. I could not believe my eyes. There before me stood cups and cups full of cheese. I wish I could say there were one or two ounce cups, but no there were two, eight ounce cups full of some type of nacho cheese. I never came back to that area ever again.

Secondly, I have seen the movie Idiocracy. Go watch it if you have a sense of humor similar to a two year old, like me.

First Impression:
The architecture is styled as any other American restaurant. It has its walls full of vintage signs, vintage boats and areas dedicated to musicians such as Elvis Presley and the Rolling Stones. In other words it has got a good “American Feel”. I visually searched the place to see if I could locate the “build-yer-own” burger bar. I was hoping to find the nacho cheese pump. Luckily my eyes locked with another customer as he put 5 squirts of nacho cheese into his basket. At this time I knew all of my preconceived notions were true. This is in fact a All-American Restaurant.

The Num Nums (Food):
I ordered their “number one” which is a 1/2 lb burger (I got it cooked medium), fries and a soda. The soda area is self serve like most eateries and that makes it awfully convenient when I want to get a refill. Our group consisted of eleven people and there were plenty of seats to accommodate our group. We received one of those vibrating tokens that shakes and flashes red LED lights uncontrollably when the food is ready. As soon as the whole group was sat down comfortably our little token friend was vibrating all around the table. Let’s just say the token was excited for me to eat this food.

I went up, grabbed my burger and proceeded to the condiment bar. It was filled with fresh lettuce, tomatoes and other assorted vegetables a person usually puts on a burger. Being the type of person who I am, I went straight for the mustard and piled it on. But lo’ and behold in front of me stood me 4 different types of mustard. I’m no mustard aficionado but, I was perplexed for a few seconds. If you must know I went with the traditional yellow mustard, a fan favorite. Then I got two squirts of cheese in my basket to dip my fries in and walked toward our seats.

It was finally time to gorge down this beautiful hunk of greasy meat and to be completely honest, I couldn’t wait. I grabbed ahold of the burger (who’s bun was soggy) and took the first bite; but guess what? It was a lot of pink instead of a little pink. Right now I must say I rarely am “that guy” when it comes to taking back food that wasn’t served promptly. It wasn’t really a BIG deal so I just kind of dealt with it. After eating all of the fries and eating all of the hamburger I sat back and chit-chatted for awhile. About mid sentence into the next dialog of conversation it then hit me like a ton of bricks, I was full.

Concluding thoughts:

The fries were tasty, the burgers were juicy and the drinks were well, soft. It was everything a 21st Century american chain restaurant should be, tasty. All in all the trip to Fuddruckers I think was hilarious. But a lot of it had to with my preconceived thoughts. If I had to honestly ask myself if I would ever Fuddruckers again, the answer would be….maybe. But probably not before a date (laugh).

Scale from one to ten:
Atmosphere: 8
Self-Service Accessibility: 8
Num-Num (Food) Tastiness: 8
Satisfaction of Fullness: 8.5

Conclusion the sequel:
“I’m so full It hurts when I lean forward” -Alex

First Impressions

Chuy’s can’t decide if it wants to be a bar or a family restaurant. On one side of the facility, there are arcade games and a salsa-and-chips station, ideally suited for kids. On the other, you find foosball tables, touch-screen psuedo-gambling machines, and a long bar with announcements of ‘killer margaritas’
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First Impressions

Mariscos Sinaloa sits in the corner of an older strip mall in a fairly prosperous neighbourhood of northeast Mesa.  However, inside is ripped straight from the barrio.  The entry contains several child-oriented vending machines, and a small lounge with jukebox is set off to the right.   Most striking is the bright murals of sea life on all walls.   Although it’s bright and cheerful, the decor does not successfully mask the small details– tears in tablecloths and an overall look of wear.  The table was set with a basket of chips and salsa.  While the salsa was chunky and fresh, the chips were a touch thick, and not very warm.
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First Impressions

We arrived earlier than the rest of our party at Kabuki Japanese Restaurant. They steered us to a lounge area engineered to showcase six-high shelves of sake bottles and the obligatory large, flat-screen television. A bit of a shame, because the main restaurant is more impressive. The walls are painted with traditional-looking murals and the windows are carefully done with small panes to resemble screenwork.

The Menu

You’re presented the usual Japanese-restaurant dilemma at Kabuki: do you order from the sushi menu (approximately 20 types), or from the list of lunch combinations? Although they offer about a dozen and a half lunch combinations, many are slight variations on others, so you’re looking at closer to six entrees and four soups. These cover the usual teriyaki and udon bowl options, as well as a few less common choices– miso with clams, and tonkatsu (breaded pork) stood out as distinctive.

Food

I ordered the teriyaki salmon lunch. This was a moderately-sized grilled slab of fish, in a remarkably well-balanced sauce– neither too smoky nor too sweet. It was accompanied with a bowl of sticky-rice and an unusually large salad portion with citrusy dressing. While the dressing was pleasant, the salad could have used more varied greens. The dish itself would also have benefitted from a vegetable.

I personally found it highly unusual that the fish was served in a single portion– resulting in poor attempts to shred it for eating with chopsticks. The salmon was tender enough to do so, but it seemed like something was forgotten.

Service

Here is where the Kabuki act turns into a tragedy. After being seated, it took about ten minutes for a waiter to acknowledge the presence of our party of eight. This could be forgiven if the restaurant was hectic and overcrowded, but there seemed to be entirely ample staffing. I say “seemed to be”, because we could only hear their occasional toasts of ‘arigato’ in the distance.

Finally, a manager managed to wrestle someone to take our orders. While they did a servicable job of getting our food out as a group, it did take longer than would be expected, and the waiter seemed to delay offering forks and asking how we felt about the meal until the last possible second.

Conclusion

I was a bit concerned going into Kabuki, having seen their advertisements and concluding it would probably be catering to a stylish market. In other words, gorgeous decor, mediocre food, and galactic prices. However, I was pleasantly surprised at the value they delivered at lunch– the food was priced reasonably (for Japanese), and the portions and taste were presentable. However, it’s simply not suitable for a business lunch if you’re going to have to spend half your time waiting instead of eating.

Chuy’s Mesquite Broiler is a small Tex-Mex restaurant chain with locations through out the Southwest. For lunch today we went to the Mesa, AZ location. I have been to Chuy’s a few times before and needless to say I wasn’t very excited about going today. (more…)