Now, back to the point.  I’ve really enjoyed these last two visits to Cyclo Pho without the chili oil.  The broth is heartier than most and the flavors work really well.

’nuff said.

This trip to Sushi Land was with a good friend of mine.  We usually get together once a week or so to talk strategy about his business.  I won’t go into the conversation on this blog, but will do a little writing about it at Department of Search.  I told him that I really enjoy our talks because it gives me great things to write about.  Talking with him keeps me grounded to how people who aren’t in my business, think about my

So about the meal.  The food was status quo (really good).  It went down way to easy and the plates really started to stack up.  Whenever I go there, I tend to focus on the salmon sashimi plates.  They’re worth the two bucks.  I leaned towards the Katsu dishes a little more than usual too.  They’re always good.

I’m trying something a little new.  Here is a link to Yelp about Sushi reviews in Queen Anne Seattle.

Apparently business has been good because they opened second location which is right down the street from my work. So I reluctantly went and got some pho because even bad pho can still be good pho. It kind of works like pizza. There is no such thing as bad, there are only varying shades of good. (reminds me of a joke I heard once. hehe)

Long story short, these days I’ll grab a to go order of the Large #5 (large beef) and bring it back to the office and throw in a hearty helping of chili oil I got from Uwajimaya. The right chili oil makes all the difference in the world when eating pho.

Anywho, I definitely recommend Pho Cyclo Cafe as long as you bring your own chili oil.

All of this is happening while the solo parent just sits there with a glazed look on their face. Granted, the parent is doing a half-assed job of telling the kids to be quiet and behave themselves, but it lasts for about 2.5 seconds before the kids forget and start the cycle all over again.

As the two little kids are tearing through the crowd and are about to run by me, I think to myself “Self, would it be wrong for me to”:

1. Trip the the little turds -or-
2. Gently body check them to get their attention -or-
3. Say something to the parent about how rude their children are being -or-
4. Just let it slide

I decided to let it slide. The little hellions weren’t interrupting my meal because I hadn’t been seated yet. If anyone else around me was feeling put out, it’s up to them to say something.

There are a couple of morals to this story. The first moral is that birth control is a beautiful thing. The second moral is when I’m a parent I will do my darndest to make sure my kids act appropriately in public (damn, that means I have to set the example).

Well, I feel better now.

When I got there, the place appeared to be pretty busy. I found a spot and the bar and ordered a soda water with lime. After looking at the menu, I decided to start with the Ginger Beef appetizer. It took a little while for the food to find it’s way to me but it was worth the wait. (not that the wait was all that bad, Joey’s has always done at outstanding job of hiring)

I saw they had a peppercorn steak on the menu and asked Loren the bartender (I hope I’m spelling her name right) her opinion about the steak and she gave it. I asked another server that was there waiting for her drinks to come up at the service well what she thought about the peppercorn steak and she gave me her opinion. I decided to take a chance on the peppercorn steak.

I ordered the peppercorn steak medium rare with the peppercorn sauce on the side. When it was delivered (faster than the Ginger Beef by the way), the steak was prepared perfectly. I cut my first piece and dipped it into the sauce. Now don’t get me wrong! The sauce was good. But it could have been much, much better. The only thing that was lacking was more peppercorn flavor. When I order a peppercorn steak, I want to taste some pepper.

This entree was also delivered with asparagus and potato. I’m not much of a fan of asparagus, so those didn’t get touched. However, the potato was served in an extremely delicious way. Joey’s takes a skinned potato, probably mashed, and wraps them egg roll style. They take this and flash fry it. The finished product is an extremely delicous potato served with all the fixings you would expect.

At the end of the day, I would definitely recommend the food at Joey’s. I’m looking forward to trying the rest of the menu.

*Disclaimer: When it comes to ordering a peppercorn steak at any restaurant, I have yet to find one that compares to the peppercorn steak served at Cedars in Kennewick. I shall endeavor to prove this wrong.

As soon as we were sat, we were met by our server who took our initial drink order. My parents started with a bottle of chardonnay and I stuck with the iced tea. Now, something that I was pleasantly surprised with was the wine sommelier. He was very knowledgeable and even recommended the 2005 Cold Creek Chardonnay which ended up being better than their first choice. The whole reason why I was pleasantly surprised is because that was the first time I had seen a restaurant in the Tri-Cities use a sommelier.

We started dinner with a couple order of their clams. They were excellent. These clams were on the bigger side and the sauce was perfect. Also, the sauce was a simple lemon and garlic concoction that had butter on the side.

After the clams, we moved on to the soup salad. My Caesar salad was perfect. The plate was chilled and the crisp lettuce was perfectly coated in dressing. After we finished our salads is where the meal took a slight turn.

Since the table was in perfect position to see the kitchen, I was able to see the kitchen push out food and not a single server to run it. Long story short, our food died a little in the window. Don’t get me wrong, the food was still good. But it could have been perfect if the timing had been on.

I had the Sturgeon. It was a little tough (see food dieing above). Overall, it was tasty but a little tough. I would probably order something different next time.

At any rate, I really enjoy eating at Anthony’s in Richland. The dining experience is top notch most of the time and it’s hard to expect a restaurant to bat a thousand.

From the appearance of the menu, they offer a respectable selection. Yesterday’s menu sported their southwestern egg rolls, a personal pizza, bruschetta, glazed wings, and maybe a couple more items. All of these items where priced at $4.95.

They also had some drink specials going. I believe that had dollar off beers or something to that effect.

I decided on the pepperoni pizza and some bruschetta. Now, I was expecting a tiny pizza and a tiny plate of brushetta. This was not the case. The pizza was at least 7″ in size with plenty of cheese and pepperoni and there was brushetta for days. Both plates of food exceeded my expectations for quantity. I knew I didn’t have to worry about quality because Gordon Biersch always puts out quality food that tastes great.

I was in the mood for something on the lighter side and settled on the Tijuana Chicken Caesar Salad. After I had almost stuffed myself on their chips and salsa, the salad came out. It was a pretty good salad. The dressing was unique and very tastey and the chicken was moist and tender. The only negative thing was the salad hadn’t actually been tossed with the dressing.

Would I order the salad again, probably so.

At any rate, a couple of days ago I was seriously jonesing for some sushi and I made a run down the street.  This was the perfect trip because even though they were busy and had people waiting to be seated, I was flying solo so I could just squeeze right in at the bar.

From the minute I sat down, I was in heaven.  Sushi Land uses a conveyor belt to deliver all of the sushi.  All I had to do was sit there and pick which delectable dishes I wanted and just grab them.  I think I had 5 dishes down before they had even delivered my Iced-Tea.

After I had gorged myself on multiple Spicy Tuna Rolls, Salmon Sashimi, and calamari, I called it a day and walked home feeling very content.