Betting on a Good Meal at Garduno's? - CLOSED

Garduno's of Mexico

2400 North Rancho Dr.

Las Vegas, NV 89130

We made it to Vegas right in time to have dinner with some family friends. Some of them live in Vegas and some of them live back in Orange County. The ones that were here from OC were here for a bowling trip. They come to Vegas at least two times a year and almost always eat at Garduno's.

Garduno's has won numerous awards for their Mexican food. On their web site, they claim to have won, "Best Mexican Restaurant in Las Vegas", fifteen years running. There is another location in town at the Palms Hotel, and these restaurants are an offshoot of a couple of other restaurants from New Mexico. This location of Garduno's is situated off the beaten track, at the Fiesta Hotel and Casino. This casino has seen its better days, and it caters mostly to locals. I was excited to try this place because most locals know the best places to eat, so I had some high hopes that this would be good.

Above is the lovely Jamie posing in front of the salsa bar at Garduno's. At the salsa bar, they featured five different kinds of salsa. The best of the bunch, in my opinion, was the red salsa, which had a little kick to it. I do wish that it had a little more chunk to it, but it was good nonetheless. The bean dip was also a personal favorite as well. I almost always enjoy bean dip when it is offered. The chips here were pretty good.

Debra Jo does not really like to get crazy when it comes to Mexican food, so she almost always gets a taco plate. She likes this restaurant because they offer ground beef tacos. She finished most of this with no problem but did not make too much of a dent in her rice and beans.

Richard got a little more adventurous in his selection for dinner with the New Mexico Chili Bowl. This chili combined ground beef, refried beans, hatch red chili sauce, melted cheese, and tortilla strips. He was not too happy with the spiciness of this chili, but the bites I snuck of this were full of flavor. This chili was a little soupier than a chili, but it did not diminish my thoughts on this plate.

Jamie must take after her mother when it comes to eating because she chose a basic Closed Quesadilla. At Garduno's, they offer two types of quesadillas, open and closed. The open one is coming up. This closed quesadilla usually comes with sour cream, jalapenos, and pico de gallo. Of course, Jamie reverted to her preschool days and omitted all of these options to come up with a quesadilla that any five years old would envy. She did eat almost half of this though, so maybe she can stay up past when the street lights come on.

Now as promised is the Open Quesadilla. This open version seemed more like a Mexican pizza to me, but whatever they call it, Katie was not too big of a fan of this. This tortilla was covered with cheese, melted, and then dusted with chicken, lettuce, tomatoes, guacamole, and sour cream. The result was a quesadilla that turned out dry. This would have been helped by some refried beans, and some chicken that was not overcooked. Katie would not get this again.

Trinity, the big carnivore of the group tried the Steak Fajitas here. This half-pound serving actually looked like a half-pound of meat. I very rarely order fajitas out because they almost always load you up with onions and peppers, and then they skimp out on the meat. This was not the case here. The meat had a great flavor, and there seemed to be plenty of it. Trinity for once seemed very happy with her meal, and her parents were happy she was eating, so she would stop talking for at least a few minutes. Just kidding T! (not really though!)

Both Denise and I went with Chimichangas for our dinners, and we both had the same mediocre reaction to them. Mine was filled with Machaca that can best be described as dry, (notice a trend here?). The meat was also bland tasting. Mixing the meat with the beans and rice made this better though. Denise's Pollo Chimi presented the same problem, it was desert dry as well. Fitting since we are in Vegas, but not fun to eat dry chicken.

I am sure you can see how this review is going to go by reading it. We were not that impressed by this place. The food was okay, with a lot of the food below average. I am sure there are better Mexican places to eat in Vegas, this is just not one of them. There were a few bright spots here. The bean dip, the New Mexico chili, and the steak fajitas were all good, but could not make up for the dry meats in the other meals. Service was consistent throughout our visit here. Almost all of their prices hover around the $12 mark. Portion sizes were pretty good for what you pay. We are in Vegas, so this place might be a gamble for you to try. Sorry, I could not resist it.

Out of five tennis racquets, (because tennis legend, Andre Agassi is from Las Vegas), five being best to zero being worst, Garduno's of Mexico gets 2 tennis racquets.

For more information on Garduno's, click here: http://www.fiestarancholasvegas.com/dining/mexican/

Quick Pit Stop to Freddy's

Freddy's Frozen Custard and Steakburgers

12032 Amargosa Road

Victorville, CA 92392

The food options while driving to Vegas are limited to fast food places, coffee shops, or scavenging to find something to eat at the mini-mart of a gas station. Of course, these options are all fine, because they get you back on the road quicker, and that gets you to Sin City faster. We were leaving Orange County at noon, so that put us in Victorville around 1:30, and that would be a good time to stop and eat. One of the truck drivers at work had heard good things about Freddy's, so that is where we decided to get off of the highway and give this place a try.

Freddy's is a chain fast food joint that specializes in frozen custard and steakburgers. Started in Wichita, Kansas in 2002, this chain has been named one of the fastest-growing burger concepts in the US. They operate over fifty stores in nine states, with 30 more stores slated to open in 2012. With all of this expansion, I was excited to see what they had to offer.

When we walked in the Victorville location it was really hopping. A lot of these people had the bloodshot eyes of a return trip from Las Vegas, but there were also a lot of families sprinkled in the mix as well. Kids were all over the place. After checking out the normal fast food restaurant menu, we ordered at the counter and waited for the food to be brought out to the table. This is how it came out.

Katie will start off Freddy's experience with her lunch, the #6 Combo, otherwise known as the California Steakburger Combo. This differs from a regular steakburger by omitting the usual mustard and pickles that come on their burgers and adding Freddy's sauce, which is more like a thousand island type sauce. Is it just me, or is the California Burger trying to resemble an In-N-Out burger? Anyways, Katie really liked the fresh ingredients here, but this burger lacked juiciness that most burgers have. She called this burger, "good, not great". She also liked these fast food fries. 

Driving the highways makes a guy hungry, so I went with this #4 Combo, a Single Steakburger, and a Hot Dog. First up the burger. Like Katie, I did not note the juiciness that should accompany a burger. The thinness of the patty can be seen in the picture above. I maybe should have gotten a double to make up for the lack of meatiness here. The burger came with pickles, mustard, and onion. The fries at Freddy's were fine, but a little hard to handle because they were so small. I would have liked these more if they had been bigger.

The best part of this meal was the Hot Dog. Not the usual hot dog bun here, they used more of a hybrid, bun/toast, which is buttered and toasted. A very nice touch that adds a slight crunch and enhanced flavor when bitten into. The hot dog itself was not to be outshined here either. They use Vienna Premium Beef Franks here, which have a good snap and a nice beefy flavor. Solid fast food hot dog at Freddy's.

Of course, Freddy's is known for their frozen custards, so we could not leave without splitting a Peanut Butter Cup and Banana Sundae. Truthfully, I wanted this as concrete, which is their version of a shake, but it came out as a sundae. Mistakes happen, so it was not a big deal. I have had a few frozen custards lately and have decided they might not be for me. Custard melts too fast and doesn't hold its consistency. The custard here was kind of bland tasting, but the toppings almost helped make up for that. The banana was very fresh, and you can never go wrong with peanut butter cups. This would have been made better with some hot fudge or chocolate sauce. I will have to make sure to try a concrete next time I am here. 

Freddy's was okay but did not seem better than any other place to stop along the highway to Vegas. The food was good, but not great. The burgers were okay, and the only standout for me was the hot dog. The staff here was really working hard. There was a large staff and it did help get the food out quick, which in turn got people back on the road quicker which is the goal at these roadside eateries. 

Out out of five keys, (because the city of Victorville's motto is, "Key City of the High Desert"), five being best to zero being worst, Freddy's Frozen Custard and Steakburgers get 2.5 keys. 

For more information about Freddy's, click here: https://freddysusa.com/

Is It Wise to Go to Sage? CLOSED

Sage

2531 East Bluff Dr.

Newport Beach, CA 92660

Orange County Restaurant Week feels like Christmas to food bloggers. I love plotting out where we are going to dine, perusing the menus, and of course eating. I usually pick restaurants that I have never been to and also offer some of the greatest amounts of food. This year, due to a week full of obligations and an impending vacation we were only going to be able to make it to one restaurant. It always seems to work out this way for us during restaurant week. So I carefully chose where we were going, and the choice was Sage.

I have wanted to try Sage for some time now. I have heard good things and their restaurant week menu looked good. Sage is slipped into the corner of an out of place shopping center in Newport Beach. Sandwiched between a CVS and a Ralph's, it could be easy to miss this place.

Sage has been around since 1997. Opened by Chef Rich Mead, former employee at the IRS, he came back to his true passion of creating food using local sourced ingredients. The dining room at Sage is dominated by the color white, and is made very comfortable by the attentive wait staff. Off to one edge of the dining room is a tiny bar that is filled from our 6pm arrival until we left at 7:30. The dining room fills up with people throughout our visit as well, so I am really expecting the food to be good. Lets see how it came out.

I always like a unique bread basket to start off, and we were presented with a different one here at Sage. There was some pretty good bread here, and a cracker type bread that resembled cheesy naan. No butter was used here either. We were given a tomato humus, which was a nice variation from the normal bread and butter used in many restaurants.

Katie started off her three course meal with this Blue Crab Spring Roll appetizer. This was served with a green papaya salad and a spicy dijon dipping sauce. Unfortunately the salad or the dijon sauce really over powered the taste of the spring roll. It also did not help that the spring roll lacked big crab flavor. The plus side of this appetizer was that it was made with very fresh ingriedients.

For my starter I went for the soup option, the Roast Weiser Farm's Butternut Squash Soup. This soup was playfully topped with creme fraiche and pomegranate molasses. The result was a smooth, mellow soup that had little spoonfuls of surprise flavor from the creme fraiche and the molasses. Not overly rich, but a satisfying soup.

Katie had no problem choosing an entree out of the three that were offered on the restaurant week menu. She selected the Roast Goat Cheese and Garlic Stuffed Half Chicken. This chicken was moist and tender. There was a mustard au jus that added a mellower flavor than its name would suggest. Katie really enjoyed that this was paired with goat cheese. She was also excited by the broccolini with garlic, but was less enthused by the egg noodles. She felt these added nothing to this plate.

If you are a consistent reader of this blog, you are not surprised by my dinner selection this night, the Grilled Hanger Steak with Chimichurri Sauce. If there is a steak on a restaurant week menu, I will almost always gravitate towards it. This dish had many layers to it. First off, the steak was cooked a wonderful medium rare.  The chimichurri sauce had a nice little tang to it. I felt the serving size of this was a little on the small side, but after seeing Katie's large serving of chicken I just expected more. The steak was served with grilled vegetables and curried Israeli cous cous. The veggies were fine, but the cous cous was just okay. I would have liked a side item with a little more substance.

The Meyer Lemon and Meringue Tart really surprised Katie pleasantly. The meringue was light and fluffy and the lemon flavor really refreshed her. Even not being a lemon fan, I found this to be a delightful dessert.

The Warm Chocolate Truffle Cake was calling my name. I really enjoyed the cake portion of this dessert. It was made even better when I mixed it with the sauce that was drizzled on the plate. The other component of this dessert was a spiced cherry port compote. I am not too big on cherries, but this worked here. Kind of made this dessert more of a black forest type dessert.

How to sum up our dinner at Sage? First off you should know that none of the items above are available on their regular dinner menu. These items were made for restaurant week only. With that being said, I would like to come back and try some of their regular dinners. The items we had on this night were very solid, but nothing that really blew us away. Katie really liked her choices a lot better than I liked mine, and after trying bites of hers I can admit that she did a better job of ordering the better items. I will get her back though, restaurant week is only 11 months away!

Out of five comic books, (because in X-Men there is a mutant character named Sage, who has perfect memory skills), five being best to zero being worst, Sage gets 3 comic books.

For more information on Sage, click here: http://www.sagerestaurant.com/

Zipping Down to Zip Fusion - CLOSED

Zip Fusion

2560 Tuscany St. Ste 102

Corona, CA 92881

In the last year, I have become more accustomed to having sushi. It has been a tough lesson, but I have learned that quality will always trump quantity. So it was with some trepidation that I went to Zip Fusion to try their all-you-can-eat sushi deal. I was prepared for a Hometown Buffet-like experience, where everything is subpar. However, my Aunt, Uncle, and Cousins are really into this place, so I was hoping for the best.

Zip Fusion comes to us from Jason Ha. This young Korean went by the name Zip because it means home in Korean. Many people think of this place as home because there are now three other Zip Fusion Restaurants, not including this one. The others are in San Diego, Mira Loma, and Downtown LA.

We arrived at Zip Fusion at 6 on a Saturday, and I was surprised that we did not have to wait for a table. The restaurant is more significant than it appears from the outside and is all spread out. When they say fusion, they really mean it.  In the back, they have teppan tables (think Benihana-style eating), the sushi bar is located near the front of the restaurant, and there are plenty of booths and a large patio for when the weather gets a little warmer.

At Zip Fusion, you can order items singularly off of the menu, or they also have an all-you-can-eat menu that is not publicized on their website. Not sure if they are trying to keep this a secret, but I am here to let the cat out of the bag. This was the option that the four of us in our party took.

Here is a quick shot of the AYCE menu. I really liked the variety offered here. 23 different rolls, 12 kinds of sushi, and 15 appetizers. Some of the restrictions they speak of are; no sharing, no to-go containers, and you must eat what you order.

We each ordered one item from each menu section to start. Some of the standouts for me in this round were the Las Vegas Roll (avocado, crab meat, three kinds of fish, and cream cheese), the Spicy Tuna Roll, and the Pork Gyoza. I ordered the Oyster Shooter because of its novelty of it. It was not bad, but I limited myself to one of these. The Spicy Edamame was basic but good.

The next four appetizers for round two were all pretty solid. The best of the bunch by a long shot was the Baked Mussels. Jenny and I ordered this numerous times throughout our stay at Zip Fusion. They had multiple layers of flavor in each bite. The Fried Calamari was lightly battered and served with a delicate sauce, but the calamari kind of got lost here. The Teriyaki Chicken with Rice was a pretty generous portion for an appetizer. The Crab Cream Cheese Wonton was okay, but I am not too much of a cream cheese fan, and the cheese really overwhelmed the crab taste.

When I saw a limit of one Baked Lobster on the menu, I had to take advantage of it. This plate was vibrant and had a great lobster taste. Unfortunately, the night's worst two things were the Rainbow Roll and the Crab Sushi. The crab was stringy and not very good. It almost tasted like imitation crab. The rainbow roll sounded good with assorted fish and avocado placed on top of a California roll, but this roll could not deliver a great taste.

Chris and Jerry are not into sushi, so they ordered off of the traditional menu at Zip Fusion. Chris started with the Miso Soup, which he called "good." Very descriptive, Chris! The Shrimp and Vegetable Tempura was his choice for dinner. There were no complaints from him with this straightforward plate.

As you can see from this picture, Jerry's dinner, the Bulgoki Special Bowl, came out steaming hot. This bowl consisted of marinated beef and assorted veggies. This is the meal that Jerry gets almost every time he comes here. His old standby. He really enjoys the "hot air" that comes with this. Sorry, inside joke there.

The food at Zip Fusion was not all hits. There were some misses on the menu here. I will not tell you this is the best, freshest sushi you will ever have, but it was still above average in my limited sushi opinion. For the money, I felt this was a great value. The all-you-can-eat dinner is $23.95, and I can guarantee you will not leave hungry. Our waitress was really on top of things during our visit. Glasses were full, and our orders were taken promptly. She seemed genuinely upset when we announced that we were all done with the all-you-can-eat meal. We told her we would be back, though.

Out of five pieces of mail (because all pieces of mail include a Zip code), five being best to zero being worst, Zip Fusion gets 3 pieces of mail.

For more information about Zip Fusion, click here: http://www.zipfusion.com/index.html