Category: restaurant reviews

There are twelve Max’s out here in Northern California. Some of them are Opera Cafes, some Diner’s but they all have a New York deli style menu. Our family met for lunch at the one in Palo Alto this week. Max’s has a giant menu. There are daily specials (meat loaf on Wednesday), giant sandwiches, soups, salads, and dinner-type entrees. There’s also an extensive list of desserts but I’ve never had one of those so I can’t comment on their quality. I think at Max’s your experience depends on what you order. For instance, John always gets the cabbage soup and half a corned beef sandwich on rye. He loves it. I think it carries him back to eating deli in Chicago when he was growing up. Jon and Sarah had the Cobb salad which they both seemed to really enjoy. It is a composed salad with avocado, blue cheese, turkey, bacon, egg, tomato and marinated mushrooms sitting atop a mound of dressed lettuce. Ryan had a half turkey sandwich and matzoh ball soup. I noticed that she didn’t eat much of the sandwich. My problem with the turkey sandwich is that they serve it without condiments on floppy white bread. There are condiments on the table but no mayonnaise – mostly mustard based spreads. But maybe she just got full and the sandwich was perfectly okay. I had grilled vegetables on foccacia. Not a good choice. The vegetables were undercooked and cold. It had a nice small Caesar salad with it. My real choice, if I weren’t always concerned with trying to eat lo-cal, would be a corned beef and chopped liver sandwich. I know, sounds gross, but oh so yummy. Unfortunately, Max’s loads their chopped liver with big hard-cooked egg pieces which totally messes it up. So if you’d like to try this combo, find somewhere else to order it.

P.S. Since the bill came to $80 for the five of us, this is not a cheap eats lunch place.

Family grade (I’m guessing) – B
Marymom’s grade – C-

For an up and coming retirement area, St. George has a woeful lack of restaurants. Except for a number of Mexican and Chinese restaurants, there are very few non-chain establishments. Fine dining in St. George usually means Outback Steakhouse or Tony Roma’s. Painted Pony is an exception. It is on the second floor in downtown’s Ancestor Square. The interior has a subtle desert theme. We started by ordering a bottle of wine from a smallish wine list. Sometimes in St. George you are treated like you are some sort of alien when you order a bottle of wine, but the wine service went smoothly. After we ordered our salads and main course, and the wine had come, we waited a while and wondered why no bread had been served. After the salads came, I asked the waiter if we could have some bread and he said they only served bread if people asked for it due to the low carb craze. We thought that it might have been better if the waiter had asked us if we wanted bread. When the bread came it was puffy Parker House rolls like you buy at the grocery store. Actually, I don’t think they should worry about throwing out too much of it.

John and I had the mixed greens to start. This dish was done well with slivered apples, blue cheese and walnuts. Sophie had the spinach salad which included small balls of goat cheese but needed a little more dressing. John’s main course was salmon with a fresh salsa served with a black bean cake. He said the salmon was excellent although cooked to medium instead of medium rare as he had asked. The black bean cake was a weird side to the salmon with tasteless beans and grainy polenta. Sophie had the pork tenderloin. This came with a red chile mole which she said was very good and a lot of baby bok choy which she didn’t like. The pork had an apricot stuffing. The pork itself should have been cooked a little less as it was somewhat dry. I had the Painted Pony’s signature dish, escolar with a sesame crust. It is served with sweet potatoes. Both the fish and the sweet potatoes were excellent although an odd choice to serve together. We shared a bourbon creme brulee for dessert. I like creme brulee better served in a low wide dish so there is more of the crunchy sugar on top but the custard was very good and we all enjoyed it.

So mostly good food from an innovative menu in an attractive restaurant. The downsides were an inattentive waitstaff, entrees cooked a little more than we had asked for, and strange bread service. Sophie adds that the water glasses being metal make your hands freeze!

John – B-
Sophie – B
Mary – B

Oscar’s Cafe, Springdale, Utah

Oscar’s Cafe is situated in the shadow of the towering cliffs of Zion National Park. In the winter, when there are not too many restaurants to choose from, Oscar’s is open. There is indoor and outdoor dining. Unless it is too cold or rainy, I would definitely recommend eating outside. The scenery is incredible. Now, what to eat. I have heard that Oscar’s has the best burgers around, but we have never ordered them. There is one thing that we go there for and that is fish tacos. They are not on the menu, you have to ask for them. A couple of years ago, we went there craving tacos and saw that they had both fish and tacos on their menu, so we asked if they could make up fish tacos. They said sure and we got these great tacos with a fresh salsa and Lake Victoria fish. This dish is served with black beans and rice. It is kind of pricey at $14.95 but it’s good and filling. The service is sometimes slow but, really, you’ve been hiking and it’s good just to sit down and enjoy the view.

Here’s another non-restaurant but food-related entry. When we are away from California, I often find the produce to be overpriced and of questionable quality. Too often it is wrapped in plastic, pre-selected for you. Seriously, I’d much rather rummage through a bin and find the best stuff for myself. Here in southwest Utah, the produce is often very sorry looking. You can drive to Utah from California in less than a day. How could the produce have gone so down hill in less than 24 hours? Perhaps it’s because fresh produce isn’t used as much here? One time we picked out an eggplant and at the checkout the woman said,”Is that an eggplant? I’ve been working here for 9 months and no one has ever bought one of those before!” But the point is we have found a great place for produce. It’s called Eisenhauer’s Country Produce and is located in Ivins, Utah. Their motto is,”Affordability for the Family!” Last Friday, we bought asparagus for $.99/lb. and onions were 3 lbs. for $1. There was great looking lettuces, $.79 avocados, red peppers for less than $1 each. We are so pleased to have found this gem.

Louka is a restaurant which is doing the new trendy thing, small plates. We went there with another couple and shared small plates. Now I have a problem with this concept. First of all, I don’t like to share food. Secondly, unless everybody likes all the same things, you or someone else at the table are stuck with a dish that you don’t eat or at least would never have ordered. Lastly, the amount of food on a small plate is about one third the amount you would get on a normal plate for half (or more ) of the price. The service at Louka was abysmal. It took a long time for our first small plate to arrive. There was enough for everyone to have one small bite and then we waited another long time for the next small plate. Thirty seconds of eating and ten minutes or so of waiting was the pace of the evening. We had orders of root vegetable fries, pork ribs, seared skate, roasted lamb, cheese-potato-yam gratine and braised veal. All the dishes were well-cooked and tasty. We complimented the owner on the quality of the food but raised questions concerning the service. He admitted that he was having trouble finding competent waitstaff.

Mary’s grade – C-
John’s grade – C-

For $19.95 a night, this was a surprisingly good experience. The rooms are good size and clean. The casino has low wager tables ($2) and also penny and nickel slots. The biggest downside was the fact that the beds are really, really hard and the showerhead is really low.

We ate at The Steakhouse which is their better restaurant. At The Steakhouse we were met by a supercilious maitre d’ in a tuxedo. This put us at an immediate disadvantage since I was wearing jeans and John had on his hiking pants. But we soldiered on and took a table. The menu had steaks, chops and seafood. One of the entrees was hockey pucks (scallops) in a wine, lemon butter sauce. I, of course, asked for them cooked medium rare so they wouldn’t resemble hockey pucks. The waiter actually told me that they cook all their seafood thoroughly so that the patrons wouldn’t get sick. So we were not off to a good start. But after checking in the kitchen, he discovered from the chef that it was possible not to have them overdone. Both John and I had our meal cooked exactly as we had asked. John had a medium rare veal chop and I had soft, lovely scallops. Except for the fact that everything was very glistening (covered in butter), it was a very good meal at a reasonable price. (My winnings covered it!)

On Friday, all five of our family went out to Left Bank in Menlo Park for dinner to celebrate Jon’s recent birthday and our return from Florida. Left Bank is a bistro type restaurant with a large open seating area and a bar in front. It was pretty crowded and warm on Friday. We were seated at a large octangonal table which, given how noisy it was, did not promote a lot of conversation except with the person nearest you. This may be an older person problem; the kids seemed to have no trouble hearing each other. The waitstaff appeared promptly to take drink and food orders. We were given an interesting pitcher of water to keep our glasses filled. This was much appreciated since we tend to drink a lot of water.

Ryan ordered prawns with Pernod with garlic and citrus butter and Brussel sprouts with bacon. This was very good and everyone enjoyed dipping pieces of bread in her leftover sauce. Jon said it was quite complex. Sarah had tart Camembert and fondue Savoyarde, a fondue of goat, brie and bleu cheeses. So you could say she had a pretty cheesy dinner. Once again everyone enjoyed dipping pieces of bread in her fondue. Jon had the sausage special which he felt was rather bland. However, Jon likes everything pretty spicy. John had steamed mussels with pommes frites and the Brussel sprouts. This was a really big portion at a very reasonable price. I had sea bass with leek fondue and butter braised potatoes. I ordered the fish rare and, guess what, it was cooked exactly as I had asked. I found the potatoes and leeks a little heavy what with the butter and cream.

All the food was mostly very good and the bill, including two glasses of wine, only came to about $100. It’s not easy to go to a restaurant and get this quantity and quality of food for five people at such a reasonable price.

Pluses – well-cooked and interesting dishes, good service and reasonable prices
Minuses – noisy and warm; some of the dishes were too buttered, baconed or creamed (for me)

Mary – B+
John – A- (John thought his meal was really great but agreed about the noise and the warm)

Cafe de Marco, Marco Island, FL

Where do I begin? I guess with the article in the newspaper that Peg read to me extolling this restaurant’s many virtues and awards. Ted said, “maybe they wrote it themselves.” We should have listened.

The place, billed as a bistro, had the decor of glitzy, aging grand dame. Pink walls, swags at the windows, and fake, sparkly flowers above the lighting fixtures. I couldn’t figure out whether it was left over from Christmas.

The menu was primarily fish and seafood and the prices were in the $20-$25 per entree range. We ordered a bottle of wine and oysters Rockefeller to start. Other people had a basket of bread. Not us. When we finally asked the waitress to bring some bread, she feigned surprise at the oversight. In the oysters Rockefeller the bacon was tasty, the oyster almost non-existent and I think I was lucky enough to get a piece of shell (or maybe it was a pearl.) Next came a salad with lots of dressing.

For our main courses, John ordered the sea bass special and I ordered prawns and scallops. There was some confusion at first because I called them shrimp. duh. I guess if I were a waitress I’d know that shrimp and prawns are about the same thing. Both of us stressed that we wanted the fish and seafood cooked rare. Then we had a long wait. We drank most of our wine. Ate the three little rolls. (No more bread was ever offered.) Looked at the decor. Finally the order came.

John’s fish was cooked perfectly. I had scallop hockey pucks and dried out shrimp. So we sent mine back. We order more wine because we’ve gone through the bottle during the long wait. The waitress seems surprised. More people from the restaurant come to our table because we’ve complained. We explain that the dish was ordered cooked rare. We are told that most people like it cooked through. We explain that that is the reason we specified “rare.” I change my order to the sea bass. A new dish comes almost immediately. It was someone else’s. I feel sorry for the person who is not getting his dinner. The fish is good. The green beans are very crunchy. They really needed more cooking. It seems strange that they think that their clientele would like overcooked seafood and undercooked green beans.

To cap the whole experience off, the waitress makes a snide comment about the additional wine. And so, we celebrated our last night in Marco Island (or tried to.)

Mary’s rating – D- (this was only saved from an F by getting a piece of adequately prepared fish fairly quickly)
John’s rating – B- for his dinner and F for the whole experience.

RESTAURANT REVIEWS – KEY WEST

ROOF TOP CAFE
After enduring the boat ride from Marco Island to Key West, we stopped for lunch at the Roof Top Cafe. There is both indoor and outdoor dining. We were able to watch the boarding of the Key West Conch Train from our vantage point and listen to its shrill whistle, which is something you might keep in mind when choosing a table. As in so many restaurants here, there was the inevitable grouper sandwich served fried, blackened or grilled. I had it grilled. The fish was cooked perfectly. Not overdone. But once again it was served on an uninspired squishy bun. The coleslaw that it came with was gingery and light. It was made without mayonnaise. Jim felt it tasted a little like kimchee. John had picadillo that was was served with black beans and yellow rice. He gave it high marks. We also had a tasty Lolonis fume blanc. John had a Pilsner Urquell.

Pluses – pleasant outdoor dining (although a little noisy), friendly but not overbearing waitstaff, tasty wine, well-cooked fish and piquant picadillo.
Minuses – Noisy Conch Train, small portions and uninspired rolls.
Grades – John, B; Mary, B; Eileen, B-; Jim, B

CAFE DES ARTISTES -Key West, FL

I haven’t eaten at this restuarant in years, but after 20 years it is still in business. The one thing I remember the most is really excellent vegetables. It serves a Continental/Caribbean cuisine. Both times we ate here it was excellent.

Mary and John both give this restaurant A!