game, game. repeat. » eating out

Best Ribs

Scott Bonds — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 16:26:09 +0000

The meat falls off the bone. They taste like ribs should taste. And I’m not the only one who thinks so.

Best Chicken Maharaja

Scott Bonds — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 22:17:56 +0000

Sneha rolls buffet style, all you can eat. All I can eat when I go is the Chicken Maharaja.

Best Deep Dish Pizza

Scott Bonds — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 20:12:05 +0000

Try the Chicken Pizza and order a large so you can take some home.

Best Pastrami Sandwich

Scott Bonds — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 20:30:32 +0000

The Refuge in San Carlos, CA makes their pastrami in-house and its amazing. You’ll wonder how you ever put up with the conventional, mass-produced pastrami you get pretty much everywhere else.

Best Burrito

Scott Bonds — Thu, 21 May 2009 22:40:07 +0000

They won’t be serving these at the Ritz Carlton any time soon, but don’t let it’s commonplace appearance fool you. Chavez Supermarket makes a tasty Super Carnitas Burrito packed with lots of pork and other burrito essentials. But if that’s not fancy enough for you, you can always ask for it ‘Au Jus’.

Best Ice Cream

Scott Bonds — Fri, 20 Jan 2006 03:20:04 +0000

There’s Hagen Daz, Dryers, and a whole lot of other companies making ice cream. Coldstone’s the latest craze and gelato has enjoyed a recent surge in the Berkeley, CA area. But they’re all pretenders to the Double Rainbow throne.

Double Rainbow makes the best ice cream I’ve had outside of homemade. Gelato’s great and all, but I’ll take a scoop of DR over any gelato I’ve ever had as well. Try the chocolate chip.

Best Hamburger

Scott Bonds — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 07:54:21 +0000

This is old hat to California natives, but if you haven’t visited in say, the last 15 years, you may not have heard of In-N-Out. It’s a family owned chain that’s known for it’s simple menu, good service, and excellent hamburgers (the fries are really good too). I’ve had burgers at joints across the country, from McDonald’s to mom-and-pop burger stands and I always come back to In-N-Out.

What sets In-N-Out apart from most fast food restaurants are their quality, health conscious ingredients. You can, for example, watch them make your fries as you drive up. How do they make them? They chop up the potatoes, fry them in vegetable oil, and add salt. That’s it. Like everything they make the fries are made of fresh, not frozen, ingredients. The freshness comes through in the taste and avoiding preservative is probably a lot better for you too.

If you want to be on the inside, you should know about some of the stuff they do just for people that notice that kind of stuff, aka crazy detail oriented fans. First is the hidden menu of items you can order, but which they do not advertise. I recommend the 4×4. Second when you order a drink, look on the bottom of the cup. They print a bible verse there. Why? Who knows. Makes their cups seem more important somehow. So, you know, recycle them or something.

Best Seafood Pasta

Scott Bonds — Tue, 03 Jan 2006 00:32:58 +0000

It’s not as good as homemade but Michelangelo’s has had the same special for 5 years: linguini with baby clams, shrimp, and mussels; and it’s really good.

The place has a fun atmosphere, there’s rarely a long wait, and they serve gummy bears for desert. Oh, and if there is a wait, ask them to break you off a chunk of parmesan from their 20 lb. block of cheese or grab some yourself, it’s usually near the entrance.

Best Fish and Chips

Scott Bonds — Sun, 01 Jan 2006 21:52:56 +0000

My girlfriend introduced me to this joint last time we were in Malibu–I ordered a 3 piece fish and chips and Malibu Seafood gave me the biggest chunks of fried fish I’d ever seen.

I’m accustom to the frozen variety and the bar food variety of fish and chips, and let me tell you this is different. They take good, fresh, gourmet quality fish and fry it up. Add some tartar sauce and you’re ready to go. Oh–and order just 2 pieces, any more and you risk an oil induced heart attack. But it tastes really good.

Best Corned Beef Hash

Scott Bonds — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 21:05:30 +0000

Whenever I visit my family in the LA area I try to find my way to Billy’s in Glendale for an order of corned beef hash and an order of hash brown potatoes (with plenty of ketchup).

Billy’s makes their own corned beef hash and it’s excellent. I have tried corned beef hash at many other restaurants trying to find something this good closer to my home in San Francisco; I’ve searched high and low, but I’ve yet to find a comparable hash.