Grilling It Up at Big Grill BBQ - CLOSED

Big Grill Mongolian BBQ

28601 Marguerite Pkwy.

Mission Viejo, CA 92692

Before my recent Big Grill Mongolian BBQ trip, I had never been to a Mongolian restaurant, and even after my visit, I still haven't. After doing some research, I found out that Mongolian barbeque was really invented in Taiwan in the mid-to-late 20th century. What a sham! I hope the food is good enough to get me over my disappointment.

Big Grill is not too much to look at. The drab restaurant is located in a Mission Viejo strip mall. On this Saturday night, there were about ten to fifteen people eating here during our visit. There are about five waiters for these six tables, so the service was really good. After being seated, you are handed a menu and asked if you are going to have the buffet. After replying yes, we headed off to the buffet line.

You stuff your bowl with the above curls of beef or pork. They also have chicken and lamb. Next, you add your vegetables. They feature onions, carrots, cucumbers, and more. I also included noodles in my heaping bowl. Lastly, you add the oil. They have three suggested recipes for the cooking oil that you add to your bowl, depending on your mood. These range from spicy to lemony. 

 

Here are the bowls before we handed them to the cook. We sprinkled them with garlic powder and sesame seeds.

Here is the cook preparing our bowls. He does one at a time, so when this place gets busy, the line does get backed up. It takes about three minutes per bowl.

Now, here is the finished product. Mine is on the bottom, and I added Rooster Chili Sauce. It's really great tasting food. It's not too oily, and all of the ingredients were really fresh. Katie really liked hers, too.

The price was right here, too. It was $11 for dinner, and I think I saw that it was $9 for lunch. That is an excellent price for all you can eat. I made two trips through the buffet, and after those two trips, I was stuffed. Rice and rolls are included in the price of the buffet.

Out of five spatulas (in honor of the cooks here), five being best to zero being worst, I give Big Grill Mongolian BBQ three spatulas.

Big Grill does not have a website, but you can find some information here: http://www.yelp.com/biz/big-grill-mongolian-bbq-mission-viejo

P.F. Chang's a Dynasty?

P.F. Chang's

61 Fortune Road

Irvine, CA 92618

I told some people that I was going to blog about P.F. Chang's, and I got a wide array of reactions. Some people really love this place, (my Mom), and some people find their food bland, or "too Americanized". I fit right into the middle of these two places. I never go out of my way to eat here, but I am never really that disappointed with my experiences at P.F. Chang's.

P.F. Chang's has many locations in the US and now they even have two international spots in Mexico City and Kuwait City, both opened last year. The location in Irvine is always humming with activity and the Sunday that we visited was the same. The dark wood of this eatery really gives it a sleek look. Let's see if the food can measure up.

We ordered four dishes to share between the four of us. I am always nervous that we will not have enough food, because I can eat my fair share, and then some, but this seemed like the right amount to start. The picture above is the Chang's Spicy Chicken. Like all of their food, this came out piping hot. It had a good mild flavor, I would not say spicy, but there was a little something there.

Sorry for the blurriness of the next two pictures, but it is difficult to snap pictures of food quickly when you know everyone is ready to eat, oh the life of a food blogger. Above is the Sweet and Sour Pork. This was not my choice, and I have to admit I was disappointed with this selection. The sauce was too heavy and the pineapple and bell peppers tasted awkward. I could not put my finger on what was going on here, but it just did not taste right to me. I used to love sweet and sour pork, but now I think my tastes have shifted to more spicy dishes.

It's funny I just get done writing how my tastes have switched from sweet to spicy, and then I have to tell you that above was my choice for a dish, the Crispy Honey Shrimp. I love shrimp and this plate did not disappoint. The shrimp was not over battered and the sauce was very sweet, but not overly sweet. I also really liked the texture of this, it really did have a crispness to it.

Next up is the Dan Dan Noodles. Garlic, scallions, chili peppers and ground chicken served over noodles, make up this flavorful dish. I really enjoyed the heat that this plate brought. Very tasty, and I highly recommend this. Kind of a Chinese spaghetti.

As you can see from my plate above, I did have plenty to eat, and there was no need to worry about ordering more than four plates. The portions seemed about right.

Lastly, this is the Banana Spring Rolls. I had never had dessert at P.F. Chang's before, and after my Mom told the waiter that I was going to be blogging about this place, he gave us this dessert. The best part of this dessert was the coconut-pineapple ice cream. Very good flavor, maybe because I was expecting vanilla the ice cream really made an impression. The banana spring rolls were okay, and the presentation of this dessert was very good.

So just like all of the times I had been to P.F. Chang's, I liked the meal I had. The service is usually pretty good, considering how busy they are, but I just never really crave P.F. Chang's. Maybe I am just not a Chinese food guy, or maybe I have just not had the right kind of Chinese food. So if you know of a, "must go to", Chinese place, leave me a comment and let me hear about it.

Out of five fortune cookies, five being best to zero being worst, P.F. Chang's gets 2.5 fortune cookies.

For more information and the locations of the many P.F. Chang's, click here: https://www.pfchangs.com/

Checking Out at the Pizza Store

The Pizza Store

2091 E. Orangethorpe Ave.

Placentia, CA 92870

My family has been going to the Pizza Store for years, even my sister worked there for a brief stint in the mid-'90s, man that seems like a long time ago! But really not too much has changed with the place, it is a quiet pizza place, you will not find video games, big screen TVs, or animated mice anywhere here. In fact on the Saturday night we visited, we were the only ones in the place. The waiter said it has been hit and miss, in terms of being busy, so this was definitely a slow time for them, let's hope it is not because of the food. 

Katie and my Dad both opted for pasta dishes and they both included the salad above. The salad was okay. I liked the fact that it had a lot of mozzarella cheese on it, but it was really just a basic dinner salad, nothing to rave about here.

Here is the appetizer that my Mom always gets when they go to the Pizza Store, the Garlic Sticks. They actually have two extra, for a total of six, but I could not snap the picture quick enough before the other two mysteriously disappeared. I think that these are okay, they are good dipped in ranch.

Here is Katie's Cheese Ravioli. This dish was covered with marinara sauce and mozzarella cheese. It really came out hot. I liked the taste of this dish and really enjoyed the $8.95 price tag. Great value for the money. 

This is my Dad's lasagna. I tried a bite of this dish and there was a lot of sauce on it, way too much for my taste. This was less a lasagna and more of a sloppy river of sauce over a few noodles. I did not get a hint of ricotta or meat. My Dad of course cleaned his plate, with no complaints.

This is my meatball sandwich. It was my first time ever ordering this here. Four large meatballs covered with cheese and sauce, a very good scene. On this sandwich, unlike the lasagna, they got the sauce-to-meat ratio perfect. This sandwich was $6, a very decent price.

Here is my favorite item on the Pizza Store menu, the Sausage Roll. This is a sausage cooked in beer, wrapped in dough, baked, and then brushed with garlic butter and parmesan cheese. Really a tasty dish, the sausage is cooked perfectly, and there is plenty of mozzarella cheese. I also like to have this with ranch.

So this review would not be complete if we did not talk about the pizza here, I mean this place is called the Pizza Store after all. The pizza here is pretty good, a little greasy, but good. Sometimes there is not enough cheese, but overall I like the pizza well enough.

Lastly, above is their Buffalo Wings. I really like the flavor of the wings here. The hot wings are not too hot but have a good amount of spice. I would rather have ordered the suicide wings, but this was my sister's pick. The wings are not that big, and some of them are lacking meat, but you can get 25 of them for $11. That works out to 44 cents a wing, a real steal.

I like the Pizza Store. Do not be fooled by other places that call themselves The Pizza Store. These include places in Laguna Hills and Orange. Not sure if they used to be owned by the same people, but the menus are very similar, if not identical. I recently went to the Pizza Store in Laguna Hills, and it was not the same. The sausage roll was not nearly as good. The Pizza Store in Placentia does list two other locations on their menu, San Giovanni's in Dove Canyon, and Grascio's in Brea.

All right, so Pizza Store gets big points for the value that you get for your money. Their prices are very good, and you get a decent meal. So out of five cash registers, (because you can not have a store without a cash register), five being best to zero being worst, Pizza Store gets 3 cash registers.

For more information about the Pizza Store, head to their website by clicking here: https://www.thepizza.store/

Smoking in Dana Point - CLOSED

Smokey's House of BBQ

32860 PCH #4

 Dana Point CA 92629

I just stumbled upon this place on our way to Laguna for an overnight stay at my girlfriend's cousin's house. I had never heard of Smokey's before, but the couple we were with had, and they seemed to think it was worth a try. I am always up for a good piece of barbeque, so that is where we headed.

Smokey's has two locations, (the other is in Oxnard), and according to their web site, they plan on opening fifty more in the next three years. A very ambitious goal in these tough economic times. We arrived at about 7 on a Saturday night. The place was busy, but we only had to wait about ten minutes. The barbeque smell hits you at the door of the place and is very good. Let's see if the food is as good as it smells. 

 

This is the Pulled Smoked Chicken Po-Boy with sweet potato fries. Sara really liked this sandwich and thought that they had just the right amount of BBQ sauce on it. The bite that I had was okay, I like a little more sauce than Sara though, also this sandwich usually comes with coleslaw on it, so that can be why I thought it was a little dry. She rated this sandwich, "a five out of five!". There were no complaints about the sweet potato fries, but I did not try them. I am not really too big of a fan of sweet potato fries.

Here is the Georgia Pulled Pork Po-Boy. Kevin said that this sandwich was as good as it was before. It again usually comes with coleslaw on it, but he ordered it without. This sandwich actually looked the best and would be what I would get when I get back to Smokey's.

Now, here is my plate. I ordered the Smokey's BBQ Combo Platter. This included four types of meat and two sides. From left to right are; the spicy Cajun hotlink, 1/4 rack of baby back ribs, 1/4 rack St. Louis ribs, and then barely visible in this picture is the Texas-style beef brisket. All of the meats were very good. I added a little BBQ sauce to all of them. They had a very interesting apple pie barbeque sauce on the table, that I really liked. The brisket and the hotlink were the best out of the meats. The coleslaw and fries were boring. They only offer a choice of four sides with a combo, the two above and BBQ beans, and sweet potato fries. For the $21.99 price tag, they should really let you choose from their Signature Sides. These include Mac and cheese, Cajun creamed corn, scalloped potatoes, and grilled veggies. All of these I am sure are better than the coleslaw and fries that I had.  Also, sorry I did not get a close up of this plate, I was really hungry and wanted to eat. So I only took one picture, my bad.

I thought that this place was going to be a little more expensive than it was, because of where it was. The Po-Boy sandwiches were only $9.99, and I thought the other prices on the menu were competitive as well. The service on the night we were there was not too good. Our Skillet Cornbread never made it to our table, and our server was MIA for most of the night. Maybe we just got the wrong guy.

Still, this place was good, not as good as Lucille's, but still good. I am still looking for a barbeque place that is going to knock my socks off, so if you know of any, leave me a comment. Out of five bull's horns, (check out their mascot), five being best to zero being worst, Smokey's gets 2.5 bull's horns.

You can get more information about Smokeys from their web site right here: http://www.smokeyshouseofbbq.com/index.html

Tapped Out at The Four Kegs

Four Kegs

276 North Jones Boulevard

Las Vegas, NV 89107

This is part two of my trip to Vegas, and the second of two places that have been featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives with Guy Fieri. This joint is definitely off the beaten track of Vegas. This sports bar/ family restaurant is located in one of the most rundown strip malls I have ever been to. Lets hope the food livens the place up.

The restaurant is pretty busy at noon on a Thursday, but the four of us have no trouble finding a table. From what I can tell they only have one waitress for the whole place, but there are only about 12 to fifteen tables in this small restaurant. The waitress is not pleased when we ask for two separate checks, and says that she is far too busy to accommodate us. She storms off after taking our order. Lets take a look at the food now.

This, no joke, was our order of onion rings that we got for an appetizer. We counted about twelve rings. Not wanting to ruffle the feather of our waitress any further, we did not mention the stingy portion. The onion rings were average tasting, nothing that you could not get at a decent coffee shop.

This is the Steak sandwich. The bite that I had was a little fatty, but I liked this well enough, and the seven dollars you paid for this sandwich was worth it. The bread was not the best and the fries were just okay.

Here is the French Dip. Again nothing too fantastic here. The meat seemed a little over done to me, nothing that you could not get from Coco's or Carrow's.

Alright, so this what they talked about on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, the Stromboli. This is the Original large Stromboli. This was large enough to split, even with my big appetite. This had pepperoni, and other meats in it, not sure which ones, because the menu did not give a description, and I was not going to tempt fate and ask the waitress anymore questions than I had to. The meats were bland tasting, I should have gone for the combo boli, or the meatball boli. The crust was good and buttery. The marinara was alright.

This is Katie's more manageable small Vegetable Stromboli. She liked this boli, better than I liked mine, and it really helped her hangover from the night before.

So how should this place be judged? I did have high hopes going into it, because it was featured on TV. The place did not live up to those expectations. Guy lived in Vegas while he was in school and this was one his favorite spots to hangout, so of course he has an affinity for it. I can understand that, I love Bob's Big Boy, but I know that it is not the worlds best place. I can not give the same amount of love that Guy gave this place. It is just average to below average food, with bad service. They just got lucky that one of their regulars became famous and put them on TV, or they would be like the rest of their strip mall, out of business.

So out of five taps, (because kegs have taps), five being best to zero being worst, this place gets one tap.

For more information on the Four Kegs, there web site is here: http://www.fourkegs.com/index.html

Greeceing It Up In the Desert

Mad Greek

72112 Baker Blvd.

Baker, CA 92309

I know that this food blog is called Eating My Way Through OC, but I wanted to share my food adventures from the road also. Katie and I decided to take a few days before Valentine's day and get out of town, so we headed for Las Vegas. So this will be the first of two posts from the road. Hope you enjoy it.

This wonderfully decorated place is the Mad Greek. If you have ever been on the road to Vegas, you have undoubtedly seen the billboards for this place. In Baker there seem to be three choices for eats; Bun Boy, Bob's Big Boy, and this place the Mad Greek, guess they did not get the memo to include Boy in their name.

We got to the Mad Greek at about nine o'clock on a Wednesday night. The place was moderately busy with about thirty customers enjoying their food. When you walk into the place you are immediately struck by the blue and white decoration and the anatomically correct Greek statues that adorn all corners of the place. Driving through the dark desert is like a feast for the eyes. Let's hope it is a feast for our stomachs as well.

The sign on the Mad Greek says,  "Best Gyros USA". After having one, I think they are telling the truth. If you have never had a gyro, they are made from ground lamb and beef with onions, tzatziki sauce, (cucumber and yogurt sauce), and wrapped around a pita. These were delicious, yet a little overpriced at $9, but when your pockets are full of money that you plan on doubling in Vegas, it is worth it. The rice that came with this was okay, a little bland for my taste.

The little novelty above is a Pita Dog. It really is just a hot dog wrapped around a pita. The hot dog was actually very good and had a snap when you bit into it. I liked this and the $3 that I paid for this was well worth it, remember I was going to double my money in Vegas!

Here are the Chili Cheese Fries. These look better than they actually were. The fries were not cooked enough, and the chili was bland tasting. I also did not like the onions being off to the side by themselves, maybe they do this because a lot of people don't like onions, not sure but I thought it was odd.

For dessert, we split baklava. This is phyllo dough layered with pistachios and sweetened with syrup. I really did not like this. I thought it was chalky tasting, very dry. Not sweet enough for me. Maybe I am just not a baklava guy though, because Katie liked this. 

 

The Mad Greek is the first of two places on this trip that we went to that had been featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives, with Guy Fieri. This place really is a novelty, and maybe that is why he chose to come here. I mean Greek food in the middle of the California desert? Crazy, but the gyro is really good, and I have heard that the other Greek dishes are good too.

It seems like a rite of passage for the travelers along the 15 to stop and cure their gyro hankerings.  So out of  5 fraternities, you know because they are also known as the Greeks, five being best to zero being worst, the Mad Greek gets 2.5 fraternities.

For more information about The Mad Greek, head to their website by clicking  here: https://www.madgreekcafe.com/

Tiptoeing to Tiffy's! - CLOSED

Tiffy's Family Restaurant

1060 W. Katella Ave

Anaheim, CA 92802

A week ago I reviewed Farrell's in Mission Viejo. As you recall I was not a real fan of their food, but the ice cream tasted great and it really brought back a lot of memories.  Farrell's reminded me of Tiffy's Family Restaurant, which is located right across the street from Disneyland. I had been there one time about a year ago, and since both Katie and I were renewing our Disney passes,  and both of us wanted to eat outside of the park it seemed like an ideal time to see what was going on there.

So the picture above shows how empty the place was. We were one of three tables that had people at them in this huge restaurant. I thought that was funny at seven o'clock on a Sunday night, but Disneyland was not too crazy packed either, so hopefully, it is not because the place has bad food, let's see how everything turned out.

Here is Katie's Tuna Croissant Sandwich. She really enjoyed this sandwich. I thought it was okay, I'm not really too much of a fan of tuna, but the bread was soft and the tuna tasted like it should. The fries really came out hot and crispy. Pretty average-tasting plate though.

Here was my San Franciscan burger. This burger was served on sourdough bread and had lots of onions. Very good and greasy half-pound burger. The cheese somehow got lost on this burger and was almost unnoticeable. This burger is a decent coffee shop burger.

This tasty morsel above is the main reason to make the trip to Tiffy's. The owners of Tiffy's are dairy farmers in Oregon, and they make their own ice cream. This was a brownie sundae with chocolate/peanut butter ice cream and vanilla.  They were far more generous with the hot fudge than Farrell's was. The ice cream tasted rich and creamy and had a great consistency. Well worth the $8 price tag for this dessert, enough for three people to share.

So Tiffy's is an okay coffee shop, but a really good place for dessert. I read a lot of reviews on Yelp about this place and a good majority of them were negative. But to be fair to Tiffy's a lot of those people were getting prime rib and fish entrees, not exactly coffee shop fare. I say if you are going to have a meal at Tiffy's, stick with a burger or sandwich and definitely save room for dessert.

Out of five globs of hot fudge, five being best to zero being worst, Tiffy's Family Restaurant receives 2.5 globs of hot fudge.

Tiffy's does not have a website, but you can find their menu here:http://www.themouseforless.com/tripplanning/menus/dl/Tiffys.shtml