To the computer, to the internet and to the Yellow Pages to find something…..anything that would tickle my fancy. While searching, the name of a restaurant right in town caught my eye. “Dallimonti’s Italian Restaurant”…hmmm…but no website link in the yellow pages listing…grrrr. OK…I put the name in the search engine and voila! A website! It only took 30 seconds to convince me that we were going to dine there.

Gracie and I, along with her boyfriend(K) and her other friend, who will refer to from this point on as Ms. Fabulous, were on our way. When we reached the address, I noticed that it was kind of a “hole in the wall” in a strip mall. That’s not an insult..I love hole in the wall restaurants..they are usually the best.

So, I dropped Gracie off in front of the place and asked her to check to see what the wait time was for a table. I don’t wait longer than 10 minutes for a table anywhere. I hate waiting! Most of the time, there is NO reason to wait..especially when you go to those larger chain restaurants, there’s a 30 minute wait and half the tables are empty because they need to “stagger” their “guests” because the f#$king wait staff can’t handle more than two customers at a time. I can’t figure that one out….maybe they don’t want to work the staff too hard because they have the mentality of a handball. Maybe it’s because the 5 hosts/greeters don’t want to lift a finger and do anything.  It’s a mystery and a shitty policy for any restaurant to have. And besides, I haven’t found any food worth waiting 30 minutes to sit down for…really!! But I digress..for now…..

No wait for the table..so we head in. The hostess was a lovely young lady that very politely greeted us. As she sat us, she asked if we had ever been there before. Responding that we had not, she explained that Dallimonti’s is a “family-style” restaurant. Soup, salad, bread and dessert is included in the price of each entree, but served family style. I knew that from what I read on their website and that is what initially attracted me to the place. As we sat, our salad plate and soup bowls were already on the table, along with our silverware, napkins and a pitcher of water.

Dallimonti’s is moderately decorated….framed pictures of scenes of Italy pepper the walls, the tables covered in the traditional red and white checked tablecloths, older wooden chairs-the kind that mom and dad had in the dining room back in the 80′s. In the background, good music was playing..songs from Sinatra, Dean Martin, C’e La Luna, Rosemary Clooney and things like that..the stuff I grew up on. Simple, homey and family is the impression I got. I liked it already.

The menu was pretty extensive with items ranging from steak, pasta, chicken and even veal-3 dishes as a matter of fact! YES-VEAL! A rarity these days. I can barely find it in the supermarkets and this is the first time in 7 years that I have ever seen it on a menu in a restaurant. That’s mostly because you have some hippie types that whined and threw their temper tantrums about the way veal was raised and slaughtered….Waaaa! Waaaa! Bunch of whining wimps…don’t like the way they’re raised and slaughtered? Too bad! Don’t eat it..and don’t spoil it for everyone else!! Ever been to a chicken farm or slaughter house? Ever seen what they do to beef cattle? Stop your friggin’ whining and get a life. Spend your time helping human beings instead of crying about delicious veal! But I digress again….

The waitress greeted us, talked about the specials, we ordered our entrees, and she headed off to get our soup. She returns, with a rolling cart, with our tureen, YES – tureen, of Minestrone soup, places it on the table and speeds off to another table. There is enough soup in the tureen for each of us to have 2 servings-very generous. I love minestrone and although it really is a vegetable based soup, I add meat to it when I make it myself. Some restaurants do, most don’t. Dallimonti’s is vegetable based and I must admit, very delicious. The vegetables were fresh and the broth was well seasoned. Gracie and I, being the hardcore Italians that we are, of course sprinkled some grated cheese into our soup. (and for those of you who are not Italian, or who live with your heads in gastronomic sand, “Grated cheese” is a simpler term for grated Parmesan cheese). We were also served a basket of lovely Italian-style sour dough bread….very delicious. Light on the inside, good chewy brown crust on the outside…the way Italian bread should be! Of course, before you knew it, K had killed the entire basket of bread, but luckily Gracie and I had enough to dunk in our soup broth.

A second hostess came to clear the soup bowls from the table, bring us more water, bread and our salad course, all while bantering with K about having eaten all the bread…she was very friendly and fun and gave me a warm impression. We were served a large bowl of salad, with homemade creamy Italian dressing and croutons. The croutons were homemade, from leftover bread, very tasty and crunchy. The salad was the typical salad blend of iceberg lettuce, carrots and red cabbage that you can buy in a bag in any supermarket. Dallimonti’s salad dressing was really good..very flavorful and tangy. And just enough on the salad. There was enough for one serving for each of us, although I wish there had been more. I would have loved a second serving, it was that tasty.

Onto the main course. In the interim, the second hostess, Christy (unbeknownst to me at the time, the owner) refilled our bread and butter again. K and I ordered the special, Seafood Cannelloni. Gracie ordered Linguine with clams and mussels in white sauce. Ms. Fabulous ordered the seafood linguine with red sauce. Everything looked amazing. So..of course, we dug right in. Gracie’s dish was accompanied by a lemon wedge which she squeezed onto her dinner.

I tasted my seafood cannelloni. WOW! In an atmosphere like Dallimonti’s, where the decor is not over the top and the staff is down to earth, one would expect delicious, yet middle of the road tasting dishes. I was blown away by the seafood cannelloni. The pasta was tender, packed with tons of real crab meat and shrimp, topped with a lovely white seafood sauce and melted cheese. My tastebuds were dancing!

I proceeded to taste Gracie’s Linguine with mussels and clams. I don’t like mussels, so I avoided them, But I took a hearty forkful of pasta with clams and dredged it through the lovely sauce. WOW again! I have never tasted clam sauce this delicious. It was not your typical thin “white” clam sauce. The sauce had body to it. Slightly thickened, tons of fresh garlic and full of clams, I could have eaten just a bowl of the sauce as a soup. The best dish on the table!!

And of course, I had to try Ms. Fabulous’ seafood linguine. There was an ample amount of seafood tossed with her pasta in a tasty red sauce. The sauce had a nice, but not overwhelming, background taste of the seafood. The pasta was cooked al dente. Very delicious indeed.

Along with the main courses, came a platter of vegetables and penne pasta with marinara sauce. The marinara sauce was good..the right amount of seasoning, not too sweet and no weird background taste. The penne was a slightly overcooked for my taste…but then again, we all know how finicky I am too. The veggies were steamed and lightly seasoned and I enjoyed them with my seafood cannelloni.

I was not fully convinced at the beginning of the meal that the amount of food would be enough to fill K’s belly. K has a ravenous appetite and given the opportunity, could probably polish off a half dozen hamburgers at a sitting. But, at the end of the meal, everyone was full and satisfied. Our entrees ranged in price from $14.95 to $16.95. There was nothing on the menu over $17.95 and for the price, you get a lot of food. Soup, salad, bread, main course and dessert. Not bad at all.

When it came time to order dessert, we were offered a choice of vanilla ice cream, bread pudding or spumoni. 3 spumoni’s and 1 bread pudding (for K because he HAS to be different). Oh yeah, and 4 coffees(which is not included in the price and is $2.50 per cup..a bit pricey, but I can see the justification for it as one does get a terrific value with the price of the meal). The dessert was small and just enough, which seemed to be the trend throughout the meal…there was “just enough” of everything we were served.

The total with tax, before tip, was $77.75. That works out to $19.43 per person for a 4 course meal with optional coffee. 4 courses of delicious, homemade food, very fairly priced. When we were leaving, I had a chat with the original hostess that seated us and talked to her about my background as a chef, an Italian and a New Yorker. I told her that in the 7 years that I have lived here, I have not been able to find a decent Italian restaurant and that we would be back again, soon.

If you want fancy-shmancey, Dallimonti’s may not be your kind of place. There are plenty of other restaurants in the Bay Area that will give you fancy food at fancy prices, which to me is NOT a good value at all, especially with their stiff and cold decor. But..if you want cozy, homey, warmth and good Italian food at a very reasonable price, then you MUST head over to Dallimonti’s. Take your time, spend some time with people you care about, enjoy a lovely meal together and have some laughs…because when you are at Dallimonti’s, you feel like you’re at home.

Dallimonti’s website

Until next time…Buon Appetito!

Restaurant type: Italian 10/10, Overall 9/10

The restaurant is impressively large, with 2 separate outdoor eating areas, a bar, a huge dining room and a second floor banquet room. The decor is sharp, the restaurant clean and a bubbly atmosphere. We were pleasantly greeted and seated almost immediately. The menu has a mix of Mediterranean foods with a large selection of Italian and Greek dishes, along with American favorites.

After ordering our drinks, we asked the waitress for a few additional minutes as there were so many delicious looking choices, we couldn’t decide immediately. I didn’t pay much attention to it at first, but the return time for the waitress was a bit longer than a few minutes and every time I looked for her, I couldn’t find her. But finally, we ordered.

Gracie and I decided to split the Lettuce Wedge Salad, described as crispy iceberg lettuce, blue cheese dressing, bacon, gorgonzola cheese, green onion, balsamic vinegar reduction, was just that. Every flavor complimented each other. The chef did not drown the lettuce wedge with dressing, but complimented it with a just enough dressing and a very tasty balsamic reduction. Most reductions tend to have a slight background taste of burned sugar, but not in this case, the taste was very smooth. One serving is 4 lettuce wedges and for $8.95, it’s a bargain. There was enough for both Gracie and I.

Along with our water and soft drinks, we also received the complimentary bread dish. The bread was extremely delicious…it was actually real bread. A sourdough loaf, with a deep brown flavorful chewy crust with a light inside..it’s one of the few times since I have lived here that I ate a “real” piece of bread.

Moving on to dinner, which was a tough choice to make, I finally decided on the Mediterranean Plate. Gracie chose the Fish & Chips. There was also a Vegetarian Mediterranean Platter which also looked amazing, but I was in the mood for some meat. (no smart ass remarks, please..lol)

Gracie’s Fish and Chips were traditional, with the fish dipped and deep fried with a traditional beer batter. Three generous pieces of whitefish served with seasoned fries. The pieces of fish were thick and moist and quite tasty. One common problem with fish and chips in most restaurants is that it is always very oily or greasy. Jacks, however, seems to have licked that problem. The fish was not greasy at all..which is quite pleasant on the tongue. Fairly priced at $12.95, for California, it was a good deal, as it is difficult to get good white fish on the West Coast without paying through the nose for it.

For $14.95, my Mediterranean Plate consisted of 2 grilled chicken souvlakia (6 chicken medallions), tzatziki, cilantro-jalapeño hummus, tabouli and grilled pita bread. I think it was a bit overpriced for what you receive, given that tzatziki, hummus and tabouli are quite inexpensive to prepare, however, I forged on.

The chicken was white meat and surprisingly, it was well grilled with lots of flavor and not dry at all. I dipped my pieces of chicken in the delicious tzatziki sauce. The sauce is made with thick greek yogurt, cucumbers and a background of delicious seasonings. I never had tzatziki like this..thick and creamy and lots of flavor. Tzatziki is usually a lot thinner and the flavor is usually a lot weaker, but Jacks’ tzatziki was pretty damn good! I was quite pleased.

The cilantro-jalapeno hummus was different..I was expecting a lot of garlic and lemon flavors, which is how proper hummus is made. The flavor combination is creative and tasty, but if I had a choice, I would prefer traditionally flavored hummus.

I started to dig into my the tabouli which had a really fresh taste from all of the vegetables. Tabouli is traditionally made with bulgar, but Jacks uses something less intrusive. It almost seemed like couscous. It was light and tasty and each item on the platter complimented the taste of everything on the platter. As delicious as it was, it would have been nice if there were more grains, whether it be bulgar or something else.

As I ate my tabouli, however, I noticed something with a rich blue color…there is no blue food, so my interest was piqued. After careful examination, I found that it was a 2 centimeter piece of blue rubber band in the tabouli. Now, generally, I don’t my knickers in a twist over stuff like that. I was a chef for a long time and shit like that happens in extremely busy kitchens. I did, however, decide it would be good to bring it to the waitresses attention, so that she, in turn, could bring it to the chef’s and the management’s attention, so that it doesn’t happen to another customer. It took a few minutes, again, to find our waitress, as she seemed to be quite elusive for most of the evening. When I did spot her, I called her over to the table and showed her the rubber band. She apologized, offered to replace the tabouli and said that she would call it to the attention of management.

I was happy that she showed some concern, and although she was kind enough to offer to replace the tabouli, I declined, as I was almost finished with it. I may have set myself up at this point, expecting that when the waitress did say something to management about it, someone would have come over to the table and at least apologize for the piece of rubber band in the tabouli.

Gracie and I finished dinner, and we waited. We waited for the waitress to come over and check in on us. We waited for someone from management to come over and say something to us about the piece of rubber band in the tabouli. As I sat..and waited…I wondered what they would have done if someone found an insect, or a piece of glass, of dirt or something move obtrusive in their food. The whole experience, until I found a piece of rubber band in my tabouli, had been a pretty pleasurable one. But this was quickly turning into something different.

We seemed to have had a bit of an excessive wait before we saw our waitress again. We still needed to have Graice’s leftovers put in a to go container and get the check. Finally, the waitress appeared, took Gracie’s food to put in a doggie bag and to get the check. We seemed to have waited excessively again before she returned.  All this time, I was still waiting to see if anyone from management would come over to the table and chat with me about the rubber band I found in my tabouli.

The check finally arrived. I paid, waited again, the waitress came back, said thanks, I signed the credit card slip and left. No management. No return of the waitress. No nothing.

Did I expect special treatment…NO. Did I expect a freebie…NO. What I did expect, for the prices they charge, the chic atmosphere of the place and since there was a foreign object in the food, was for it to be recognized. An apology from management has a major impact, far more than an apology from a waitress. And it’s just plain old good business!

So with all of that, combined with slow and spotty service, unfortunately, I don’t think I will return to Jacks. Who’s to say that I won’t find something even bigger or more intrusive in my next meal..sorry…it’s not a chance I am willing to take.

Restaurant experience- 5/10, Overall score- 5/10

Until next time…Kali Orexi!

There is an interesting article on Yahoo! entitled, “Fight, Fight! Paula Deen Tells Anthony Bourdain To ‘Get a Life’”. And I give credit to Yahoo! for the quotes from the article included in this blog.

Finally..someone besides me has had the balls to speak out about these talentless assholes on the FoodNetwork!!!!

Before I start to rip apart Paula Deen and the rest of the circus monkeys on the FoodNetwork, let’s talk about who Anthony Bourdain is. Chef, author of several books and host of “No Reservations” on the TravelChannel, Mr. Bourdain, formerly executive chef at Brasserie Les Halles in New York City, is characterized as the “anti-celebrity chef”. Born and raised in the NYC Tri-State area, he can be crass and offensive. He never wore a starched, white jacket or fancy hat. Mr. Bourdain is a great chef, a great writer, and has an infectious passion for food of every kind. This passion is what has created millions of gourmet fans around the world and he has turned more people onto good food than any five-star, fancy-hat chef out there, or any of the FoodNetwork circus monkeys.

I became aware of Mr. Bourdain when my dear friends Dave & Tippy, gave me his book, “Kitchen Confidential”. Halfway into the book, I was amazed at what incredible insight and talent this man possesses. His spirit, his talent, his passion for food, and his non-obnoxious approach, make him a food industry hero in my book. You all know that I revere Julia Child as the all time, most talented chef that has ever lived, who changed the way we eat, but Mr. Bourdain runs a close second!! And if you have never watched his show, please do so. And if you have never read any of his books, buy them and read them!!

Although you may not like him because he acts like a civilized human being, rather than a FoodNetwork circus monkey, and he speaks the truth about the food industry, rather than sugarcoats what he says as to not offend anyone. Ya know what…you don’t like the truth, then you’re a fool!!

While reading the above-mentioned article on Yahoo! yesterday, Mr. Bourdain made several remarks that are the culmination of what is wrong with 99% of the moron celebrity chefs on TV today. “She (Paula Deen) is the worst, most dangerous person to America. She revels in unholy connections with evil corporations, and she’s proud of the fact that her food is f—ing bad for you. I would think twice before telling an already obese nation that it is OK to eat food that is killing us. Plus, her food sucks.”

AMEN BROTHER!!

The woman is a talentless, loud-mouthed moron, that cooks shit that I wouldn’t serve to my dog (if I had one). For the life of me, I can’t figure out what her appeal is…what, just because she says “Hey y’all” with that whiny loud voice of hers? Because she uses a pound of butter in everything she cooks? In my opinion, it’s a WASTE of good butter. And don’t even get me started on those two talentless, loser sons of hers that appear on her shows from time to time. ISH! ISH! ISH! The only reason she is popular, is for the same reason all of the other “celebrity chefs” are popular: Most of the American public has the IQ of a fucking handball and enjoys stupid, obnoxious, rude, talentless tripe.

There is no other way to describe what television has degraded into these days. Look around…almost everything on mainstream TV is a reality show. Reality shows that show that BAD behavior is ACCEPTABLE behavior. Every single one of the reality chef shows on TV today is the culmination of the WORST and most OFFENSIVE behavior by the talentless hosts and chef judges. HOW DARE these chefs treat the contestants the way they do! By force only, I watched Master Chef a few weeks ago, as my mother would not change the channel, and one of the chef judges, Joe Bastianich, tasted a contestant’s food, and without saying a word, took the entire dish and threw it in the garbage, then stating that it was disgusting.

WTF?!?! WTF?!? How can anyone treat another human being that way?? How does this help an aspiring chef? And who the fuck does Joe Bastianich think he is?!?! There are more than enough chefs and wine experts in the world that know as much or more as this loser does and I’ll bet you any money that they don’t mentor aspiring chefs the way he does.

And don’t even get me started about Gordon Ramsey..as far as I’m concerned, the man is a total fucking buffoon. He is a gutless, talentless scumbag of the worst sort that is only famous because the handball-level IQed American public enjoys the abuse that he heaps on anyone he comes into contact with. It’s a sad note about our society when people enjoy this kind of tripe and verbally abusing other people!!!!!

Back to the subject at hand….In the same article, “Bourdain also criticized Food Network personalities Rachael Ray (“Does she even cook anymore?), Sandra Lee (“I hate her works on this planet”) and Guy Fieri (“I look at Guy and I just think, ‘Jesus, I’m glad that’s not me.’”) “

AMEN AGAIN BROTHER! And once again I question why American public enjoys the garbage that spews from these people. None of them have an ounce of talent. They’re obnoxious; they’re stupid and couldn’t cook a decent meal if their lives depended on it.

Paula Deen responds to Mr. Bourdain’s remarks by stating, “Anthony Bourdain needs to get a life. You don’t have to like my food, or Rachael’s, Sandra’s and Guy’s. But it’s another thing to attack our character…” “Get a Life”??? Excuse me Paula Deen…he has one! And is infinitely more successful and talented that you and your fellow circus monkeys will EVER be!

But I don’t think that the entire issue is about the food. I think Paula Deen misses the point….Paula, Rachel, Sandra and Guy (and all the others) are MORONS! They’re show people..not chefs. I’ve already stated what I think of Paula’s cooking…Rachel Ray is a loud mouth who cooks shit that you can find in a box, Sandra is even worse because she cooks FROM the box and we all know how I feel about Guy Fieri…he thinks that everything should be cooked the way it is cooked in California…California, where everything tastes like shit, they use the blandest ingredients and they put mustard on Tuna and tomatoes on hot dogs.

What really puzzles me about the whole situation is why Paula Deen is shocked by Mr. Bourdain’s comments. Everything he said is true. Everything I have said here about these moronic celebrity chefs is true. Of course, one has to look at the situation objectively and be willing to accept the truth, something that most people can’t handle.

When you bottom line the situation, ask yourself something: Would you rather eat something from a seasoned chef like Mr. Bourdain, who was trained at the Culinary Institute of America and was executive chef at one of NYC’s most prestigious restaurants or would you rather eat something from a talentless, loud-mouthed, obnoxious asshole? Filet Mignon or Turkey on a stale “french roll” with avocado and mustard?

Would you rather have someone constructively criticize your cooking to help you cook better, or would you rather have someone curse at you, berate you and throw your food in the trashcan?

The choice is yours!

Until next time…..Bon Appetit!

PS To be fair, here is the link to the original Yahoo! article Paula and Anthony Bourdain  And of course, the mainstream media agrees with the talentless, moronic Paula Deen. So much for the truth!

In part 1 of this blog, I extensively ranted about the disgusting sludge called coffee at Starbucks. Do any of you buy Starbucks coffee and make it at home? Whenever I buy any quality brand coffee, I tend to buy the whole beans and grind them at home..it gives me, and I am sure you as well, the delusion that the coffee is fresher and will taste better. I’m not sure if that is true, but there is a trend that I have noticed when purchasing coffee beans for home consumption.

Starbucks’, along with Peats’ and many other brands, coffee beans tend to look oily and shiny. Especially with beans that are dark or extra roasted..why is that? And when you brew the coffee, there seems to be an oil slick ON the top of the coffee. Do you know why that is? Because the beans are OVER ROASTED!!

Now let’s look at this logically….would you over cook a roast? When making toast, do you toast the bread to the point that it is almost black? Of course you wouldn’t, so why would over roast and practically burn the coffee beans? I’ll tell you why…..Because it is easier to burn the beans and have exactly the same charred flavor than to bother with different tastes in different stores. Starbucks and Peats (among many other coffee chains) seem more concerned with quantity, rather than quality. I went to a Starbucks in Osaka, Japan in 2002 and the coffee tasted EXACTLY like the coffee at a Starbucks in New York. Now..while some of you may like “consistency”, if I am in another country, I don’t want to taste things exactly the same as they are in the USA. It’s a simply STUPID idea. I want to taste the DIFFERENCES!!

Enough about Starbucks…I could on and on because I simply despise what they have done to the coffee industry and how they have ruined so many peoples’ pallets. Funny that….many Americans prefer the taste of burned, over roasted coffee….hmmmm…what does that tell you about their pallets? Hmmmm……? And please DON’T make any remarks about the fact that it is “Dark Roasted” coffee..IT IS NOT! NOT! NOT! I drink dark roasted coffee all the time and it tastes nothing like Starbucks. IT IS BURNED!!

I was fortunate to have a date last week….yes, it does happen once in a while, and we decided to take a stroll in the Rockridge section of Oakland, Ca. While strolling, we happened upon a small coffee shop, The Bica Coffeehouse, and my date suggested that we stop in for a coffee, giving us the opportunity to sit, sip and people watch. It is a small coffee house, several people sitting in the windows, working on their laptops and sipping their coffees. As stated previously, I am not big on coffee that isn’t coffee..no flavors, no mocha, bla bla bla. But I do love a cup of Cappuccino. I mean, really..I’m Italian..all Italians are supposed drink espresso and Cappuccino!!

So, I ordered a Cappuccino…for $3.50..ISH! With, only one person working behind the counter, it seemed like it took forever for him to finish making the coffees. While I was waiting, I had time to chat with my date a bit more and took a phone call. Finally..the coffee was done. We sat at a table outside the shop, proceeded to people watch and sip our coffee. First sip…a lot of foam and very little coffee. Second sip, coffee…and much to my surprise, the coffee was delicious. I was expecting the typical, hippie over-roasted, oil-slick laded burned beyond belief coffee that is so popular among uneducated pallets these day. But much to my surprise, the flavor of this Cappuccino was amazing! Smooth, yet bold with no burned coffee bean taste, the proportion of milk to espresso was perfect and served at just the right temperature that you didn’t burn the inside of your mouth when sipping. Truly worth the $3.50. I recommend a visit to this lovely little coffee house. You can find them at www.bicacoffeehouse.com It’s not much of a site, but you can get their address there. And also, don’t forget to visit my friend Joe at The Celtic Coffee Company in San Francisco for a really lovely cup of coffee. www.celticcoffeecompany.com

Now..I know I’ll get a lot of comments about my favorite place to buy coffee, in California. But since most people here have C.U.P.S. (California Uneducated Palate Syndrome) and buy their morning coffee at those places mentioned above that I shan’t mention again, I have been forced to find a decent cup of morning coffee. I happened to have a craving one morning for an Egg McMuffin..yes, on occasion, I do crave a greasy, calorie-filled breakfast sandwich. So while ordering, I thought that I would give McDonald’s coffee a try. Much to my surprise, it was delicious! Smooth, not burned, tasty and the server made my coffee exactly the way I like it. I was impressed! McDonald’s has also jumped on the coffee band wagon, making all sorts of crazy coffee combinations, to satisfy the ridiculous trend of coffee drinks that so many people crave these days. (And that are also making people FATTER than they already are). So they are buying better quality coffee than they used to. I will give McDonald’s kudos on their coffee for two reasons..it tastes like coffee AND it is NOT consistent, depending on where you are in the country. McDonald’s uses coffee from more local sources than just over roasting their beans to taste the same in each location, giving you the opportunity to enjoy the subtle taste differences. But no matter which McDonald’s I visit, the coffee is always delicious. And I am happy to say, that I have converted some doubting Thomases.  Even Dunkin Donuts, the best coffee in the world, uses beans from different coffee suppliers, depending on location. Quality is always better than quantity, in my book.

So..what have we learned? Over roasted burned coffee beans, when brewed, makes a brown liquid that should be poured into your crankshaft. Properly roasted coffee beans, when brewed, make coffee the way it should be made! If you like those places that burn their coffee..well, that’s your loss, but I dare anyone to justify why it is ok to burn the coffee beans! If you really do, come on over to my place, and I’ll burn a meal for you.

Until next time…buon appetito!

As of today, my blog is now called “The Cynical Chef”.

More appropriate, don’t you think? Pretty funny!!

Coffee, Part 2, later this week and a side by side review of 2 steak houses in Contra Costa County, Ca.

Stay tuned!

My cousins Jen and Stephanie inspired this one…Stephanie, because she insulted my favorite coffee and Jen because she thinks she’s actually going to change my opinion…HA! All I can say is that I love my cousins and good luck to them!!

Who doesn’t drink coffee? I can’t even wake up without at least one cup every morning, but usually end up drinking 2 or 3 more cups at work. I really love a good hot cup of coffee, light with cream, one sugar or with some of the new flavored creamers that you can find in the diary case at most supermarkets, although I do prefer my coffee to taste like…coffee.

Over the past 15 years, the coffee industry has exploded…there’s a coffee shop on every corner and the quality of some coffee has actually improved over what I grew up with in the 70′s and 80′s. More than likely the reason that the coffee industry has exploded the way it has is probably because some hippies thought that motor-oil like coffee was tasty and trendy, spreading the word to their other hippie friends, and they told two friends, and they told two friends, and so on, and so on and so on.

You may have noticed that I have already insulted one group and one coffee chain…he he he…I haven’t even begun…hang on..there’s more…..

I have to default back to my move to California in 2004, as I have in many previous blogs, as a point of reference for my contempt toward current trends in coffee. After arriving here, I discovered that there are NO Dunkin’ Donuts within at least 500 miles of the San Francisco Bay area! WTF!! WTF!! You mean…I have to drink Starbucks…or Pete’s…or something else?!?!?! ISH!!! Do these people here have absolutely no taste whatsoever?!?! No Dunkin’ Donuts?!?!?!?!

So I tried Starbucks. There seems to be a Starbucks on almost every corner in California and each one of them has a line of people waiting for a cup of coffee….Now there’s something I had never seen before..a line for a cup of coffee…wow, that must be some good coffee if people are willing to wait in for it!!! I never saw more than two people at the counter at Dunkin’s Donuts waiting for coffee(probably because the staff at dunkin donuts doesn’t want to hear about each customer’s life story as is done so often in Cali, thus holding up the line for everyone else!!)…even in midtown Manhattan…this must be some good shit!! I can’t wait to try it…I may even shun Dunkin’ Donuts when I taste this fabulous brew from Starbucks.

I get out of my car, I proceed to Starbucks, I see that they have an almost lounge type atmosphere with big chairs, tables, people hanging out, chatting with each other, the aroma of fresh ground coffee lingers in the air, I hear an espresso machine in the background, ooh that sounds cool..then there is the line of people waiting to order…ooh..another line of people at the other end of the counter…can you order in both places? This is going to be a fun experience…Dunkin’s Donuts officially sucks at this point.

Then I heard it……….”Can I please have venti, double shot, low-fat, caramel macchiato with just a hint of cinnamon and at 130 degrees?” WTF??? Am I in the f@#king Twilight Zone?!?!? I thought this was a coffee shop…not a side show from a Fire Island Cabaret!!! What the hell is a “venti”??? What the hell is a “double shot”??? “Caramel Macchiato”??? “130 degrees”??? I thought that you took a pot of coffee, poured it into a cup, put in some milk and sugar and went on your merry way. OH NO!!!! Not at Starbucks! No..at Starbucks, you can order a coffee with 850 different ingredients in it, brewed to whatever temperature your cute little heart desires, get it in 4 different sizes, which are in Italian or some side show language AND then…then…you get to wait up to 5 or 6 minutes to get your coffee AFTER you’ve paid for it!!! Hell must be better fun than this!! Something doesn’t quite compute here.

So it was my turn. After waiting 7 minutes for only 3 people to order their “hmmm…I’m not sure what I want today even though I have been standing in line for over 5 minutes and have had ample time to decide…perhaps I’ll have venti double shot low fat soy milk Brazilian save the rain forest grown on a fair trade co-op while over roasting the beans so badly they leave an oil slick on the top of the cup caramel mocha americano macchiato with a wisp of cinnamon and no foam, oh and my son graduated yesterday from high school and I have so much to do before his party next week, while my spouse is away on a business trip this week making it harder for me to do everything, did I show you a pic of my son, isn’t he handsome and he graduated with a D+ average, we’re so proud of him especially since he spends all of his spare time listening to hip-hop and dressing like a thug so that he ensures himself of having a productive future” coffee, I asked the server if they had any regular coffee. She responded that they had some kind of “save the rain forest hippies and lentils and tree hugging” coffee or dark roast. I like dark roast coffee, so I decided that I would have a medium size dark roast coffee. “Room for cream”, she asked. Uh…they don’t put the cream in the coffee for you? “Sure”, I said. “$2.35″ she responded. $2.35?!?!? For what? A cup of coffee? Do I get a happy ending with that?? It’s coffee…not liquid gold!! She left about 1/4″ of space between the coffee and the top of the cup, for cream. I sprinkled in what looked to be the amount of sugar in a sugar packet and proceeded to pour in some half and half, to bring the coffee to the rim of the cup. The color of the coffee barely changed even after stirring it. Ok..I dumped a little out and poured in more half and half…suffice it to say that it took 4 tries before my coffee was the color that I like it. Then I tasted it. EWW! The shit tasted like motor oil. I have never tasted such disgusting coffee in my life.

Enough about Starbucks, for now…it’s just another example of how trends in the food industry sometimes take a wrong turn. I’m waiting for them to come up with an “Artisan” coffee…then I’m really going to have a field day ripping Starbucks a new one!

For the lack of Dunkin Donuts, what about your small coffee shops? Most small coffee shops offer a blend of coffee that they buy from their local coffee distributor or roaster? The coffee is usually ok, but most of these shops, when you ask for cream, put milk in the coffee, which is totally offensive to my taste buds. Half and half is the only way to go! You see, there is a small amount of natural oils in coffee, which tend to lend themselves to the slight natural bitterness of coffee. If these oils are left alone, they tend to give the coffee a slightly nutty and earthy flavor, which takes away from the pure coffee taste. I don’t want to taste earth or nuts (quiet Brent!), I want to taste coffee. There is enough fat in half and half to bond to the oil molecules in the coffee and subdue those unwanted tastes.

A great example of a small coffee shop that offers good coffee at good prices, along with a great variety of delicious home made goodies, is the Celtic Coffee Company in San Francisco. Stop by there sometime, say hello to my lovely friend Joe, and have a GREAT cup of coffee. The coffee tastes like coffee and not something you put in your engine block to make your car operate. And try one of his scones…they are delish!!

I guess my point here, is the same point I have been making in other blogs. Why do we need to cover the taste of something with a shitload of artificial flavors and garbage when the taste of coffee is delicious on its own?!?!

Part 2 of my coffee dissertation will cover other places that have crappy coffee and good coffee and explore a little more deeply the need for Starbucks (and other coffee brands) to over-roast their beans.

Until next time…

Are we ready? Let’s begin, shall we………

There are more than an ample variety of hot dogs on the market these days. There are chicken dogs – gross! Turkey dogs – I didn’t know turkeys like hot dogs! Veggie and tofu dogs – Do I even need to say anything about those…FEH! These hot dogs taste like ass!

The only good hot dog, is a beef hot dog!! Several superior hot dog manufacturers only make beef hot dogs and are worth a mention: Nathans, Sabrett(East Coast), Boar’s Head, Kaspers (West Coast), Caspers (West Coast), Best’s (East Coast) and Hebrew National. There are other beef hot dog makers, but the aforementioned hot dogs are the best that money can buy. Now don’t get your knickers in a twist, I will explain.

A good all beef hot dog should be firm and not mushy as other types of hot dogs are. When you bite into a beef hot dog, the natural casing should *snap*, releasing the juicy goodness. The taste of the hot dog should always have a background hint of garlic and NO overly smokey flavor! Each of the mentioned brands of hot dog stand up to these standards. A good hot dog has a slightly tangy flavor, which compliments the mustard you will put on your hot dog………YES, I do enjoy mustard on a hot dog….spicy brown or dijon…not that nasty yellow crap!

A little description, for your reading pleasure of my experience with hot dogs:

New York Dog- Hot dog with mustard and/or sauerkraut, and maybe some red onions from the dirty water hot dog carts in NYC. Nothing else..that’s it! And for those of you that are not from the NY tri-sate area, that is exactly what we call them..”Dirty Water Hot Dog Carts”. You can find them on almost every street corner of NYC and they are THE BEST hot dogs in the world!!!

Chicago Dog – Hot dogs, served on a seeded bun (vomit), with yellow mustard, white onions, tomato slices, a dill pickle spear, neon-green relish, celery salt and pickled peppers. Uh…WTF is that?!?!?!? If I want salad, I’ll order a side dish of salad! How in the world can anyone eat something like that???!!!??? I mean, really…a dill pickle spear…on a hot dog? Tomatoes??? I feel the nausea coming on now.

West Coast Dog- Anything goes…tomato slices, mayonnaise, ketchup, avacado..you name it, they’ll put anything disgusting on a hot dog here. GROSS!!!!! Mayo…on a hot dog?!!?? Avacado?!?!?!?! WTF?!?!?! WTF?!?!!??!

There is a constant debate in my house about whether ketchup belongs on a hot dog. I think it is sacrilege, but Gracie and her BF seem to enjoy it. Hmmm…I admit, when I was a kid, I ate ketchup on hot dogs..and most kids do, mainly because their taste buds have not developed enough to enjoy the special taste of mustard. However…once you pass puberty, ketchup on a hot dog should be forbidden!!! The sweet taste of ketchup does not blend well with the tanginess of a hot dog…plain and simple! I can’t even imagine what it would taste like…simple vile!

And what about the bun? Seeded??? I don’t think so! Steamed or boiled hot dogs, deserve a steamed bun. Grilled hot dogs deserve a grilled and toasty bun. The texture of how the bun is prepared actually compliments how the hot dog is cooked…..think about that…..imagine it…and it’ll make sense to you too!

Along with pizza, hot dogs are my favorite food in the world (no smart ass comments please). There are so many ways to dress a hot dog – bacon wrapped, chili, chili-n-cheese, and the list goes on and on. Our discussion today was about basic hot dogs and the do and don’t of eating a hot dog. I am hopeful that you learned some useful information and that you will also eat your hot dogs properly!!

Until next time….Kali Orexi!

So..I was watching American version of “Iron Chef” the other night and came close to vomiting again. I’m really getting tired of almost vomiting so often. One could say that I should stop watching these channels and I could avoid the whole vomit thing. But why should I? There is so much absurdity on these channels that I could write a book. Ooh…idea!

Back to the Iron Chef….Bobby Flay was the Iron Chef in competition, and he was searing a piece of swordfish. And although I love swordfish, I don’t eat it because it is full of parasites. Sometimes the parasites are so large in size, that they have to be pulled out of the flesh with a pair of pliers and can be 2-3 feet long. Yeah…pretty gross, eh. Hence, no more swordfish for me. Anyway….This is what I heard Alton Brown (the host or narrator) say about the piece of swordfish that was being cooked, “Those grill marks really look great”.

Until that remark, I had a lot of respect for Mr. Brown. I really enjoyed his show, “Good Eats” and have learned quite a bit from it. But…WTF?!?!? Grill marks?! WTF?!?!? Uh..do grill marks make the food taste good? If Bobby Flay were grilling a dog turd, would Alton Brown think the grill marks look good? If I were to sear my arm on my grill in my backyard, would the grill marks still look good? Why do people criss-cross grill marks when they grill something? Does it make it taste better? Point is, if the food tastes terrible, what difference do the grill marks make or how it looks!!!!!???!!!! Concentrate on the taste and flavoring…everything else will take care of itself!!

Next…ooh…my skin is crawling already…..

What is Artisan? Artisinal? This word is popping up everywhere! The new trend on the food industry is “Artisinal”! Wow…new food! New types of breads! Cheeses! Cakes! Stews! Etc.! Yaaay!

Oh damn….it’s just another stupid word to describe stuff….stumped again! So WTF does it mean????

Artisan: a person skilled in an applied art; a craftsperson.

Ah..that must mean that someone who is skilled in making items or a “specialist”, is making them. Cool…..wait…..don’t people have to already know what they are doing in order to do it? An example: If a new employee starts to work in the bakery of the local supermarket, he/she usually lacks the skills of a baker. This person is trained and eventually learns the craft. WHEN does this person become an “Artisan”? Why doesn’t the supermarket recognize this and change the name of the bread that he/she bakes to “Pre-Artisan” until he/she becomes an “Artisan”? Most chefs in restaurants are skilled in their craft, so does that make them all “Artisans”? If that is the case, all the dishes on the menu should be “Artisinal”, shouldn’t they? What about the short order cook at your local diner? This person has usually been slinging hash for years, are his/her grilled cheese sandwiches “Artisinal”? Am I getting really ridiculous here?

YES I AM! Ya know why??? Because this whole “Artisinal” thing if just as f#$king ridiculous!! I’ve been a friggin CFO for the past 21 years, am I an Artisinal CFO? My mechanic is very skilled at changing tires…does that make my new tires “artisinal”? Gimme a friggin break!

I’ve lived in California for 7 years…since then, I have shopped at a supermarket chain named “Safeway”. Most Safeway locations have an in-house bakery. Although I am not fond of supermarket bakeries or Safeway for that matter, Safeway bakeries make a pretty decent fresh baguette and french bread. When I started buying these items 7 years ago, they were called just that..”Baguettes” and “French Bread” and “Sour Dough Baguette”. In the past 7 years, nothing has changed with these breads, and their quality has remained consistent….so why did they recently change the wrapper to include the word “Artisinal”?? NOTHING HAS CHANGED!! When and why did these ordinary loaves of bread go from being homemade to “Artisinal”??????  Were they always “Artisinal”???? What if the load of bread that I buy was baked by someone who has only been training in the bakery for a month? Is that particular loaf of bread still “artisinal”?????

IT’S ALL SHOW! NO SUBSTANCE..JUST SHOW! Remember the old days when “Artisinal” things were just called “homemade”? BECAUSE THAT IS ALL THAT IT IS!! More bullshit names for the same old stuff!

Why? Why? Why?

Oh..I’ll tell ya why….as I stated in a previous post, it’s because the chefs of today, and people in the food industry, don’t have the bloody skills to think or create on their own. They need to depend on something irrelevant to add substance; they need a crutch for their lack of skills, hence the fancy new names!

I started working as an assistant chef when I was 13 years old. If anyone from my hometown remembers it, I worked in a French restaurant named Herbal Gardens. This is where I was trained in classical French Cooking and by the time I was 17, I was running the Sunday Brunch kitchen on my own. After high school, I continued in the industry for several additional years but eventually moved into a different line of work because, frankly, the money was better. But I have always cooked. I cooked throughout my entire 19 years of marriage, and continue to this day. Over the years, I have developed a respect for the art…Yes, cooking IS an art..and I don’t mean it’s an art because some whacko chef creates a fancy looking dish with only 3 bites of food for $39.95…It is an art because there are chefs out there who can take a leather boot and create a meal fit for royalty from it….THAT is art!!

I don’t take cooking for granted although most people don’t give it a second thought. It is my art….some people dabble in oils, or sculpture, my artistic skill is in cooking. While I trained, I learned that a sauce, is a sauce. I learned the difference between bechamel sauce and a veloute sauce….but they were still both sauces! I learned how to puree fruits and veggies. I learned how to make a coulis. I learned what the REAL difference between the two are. I learned how to cook and how apply my skills to food…not how to rename something.

When I look at a chicken breast in the butcher case, I think of the hundreds of ways I can prepare it…I don’t think of another name I can give it. It is a chicken breast..nothing more, nothing less. I understand terms like “farm-raised”, “free range” and “organic” are important, especially in this day and age when the government is allowing Monsanto to genetically engineer fruits and veggies and they are allowing farmers to pump sick animals full of antibiotics to compensate for the filthy conditions in which the animals are raised. Those terms are important to people who care about where their food comes from.

The new breed of chefs need to get their heads our of their collective asses and go back to chef school and learn how to cook, or get out of the industry completely. They should stop worrying about their “advertising to cover up my ineptness in the kitchen skills” and start worrying about cooking!!!

Once again, I beg the question, “Is all this really necessary?” And we all know what the answer is!!!!

Until next time….Bon Appetit!

——————————————————————————————————————————-

Living in Pleasant Hill, Ca has its advantages. It’s a quiet little town in Northern California, in the East Bay area. Very family-oriented with some really nice places to eat. Since I moved to California in 2004, I haven’t really had any decent Chinese food in the East Bay, but I found a great Chinese restaurant right down the street from my house. As a matter of fact, there are several great eateries within 10 blocks of my house, one of them being Giant Chef Burger.

A small, out of the way place, if you didn’t know where it was, you might drive right past it. Fortunately, I have a penchant for sniffing out good diners, and that’s exactly what Giant Chef Burger is…not a “burger joint” despite it’s name, but a diner. And a great one, at that.

I have this thing about diners…being from the East Coast, namely the New York City area, there are diners all over the place. One thing that is unique to a good diner, is good seasoned wait staff…gals that have been doing it for years…they make a diner what it is…they add the charm and personality to the diner…Giant Chef Burger has a perfect set of well seasoned wait staff. I’m all about good service and I really can’t sing the praises of Giant Chef’s wait staff enough.

Being regular customers at Giant Chef, we’ve eaten most things on the menu. There are several yummy specials every day, and breakfast is served all day long. This particular trip was for breakfast…or so it seemed. As we entered, we were happily greeted by Paula, one of the owners. Paula’s bright and cheerful greeting set the mood for our meal. Giant Chef Burger is always crowded, but despite the Sunday morning breakfast crowd, we were cheerfully seated within 2 minutes, which is great considering I have the patience of a rattlesnake!

One of the morning specials was Chicken Fried Steak and Eggs, which Gracie’s BF ordered. I had the standard Eggs & Bacon Breakfast and Gracie had a Bacon Cheeseburger (yes, Gracie will eat a cheeseburger at any time of the day!!) The food arrived fairly quickly considering how busy they were and we dug right in!

I had to try the Chicken Fried Steak…as common a dish as it is, I find that it is often mediocre at best, either too soggy, not meaty enough, no seasoning…Chicken Fried Steak is a “dime a dozen” dish-you can find it almost everywhere, but it rarely tastes good. Being cautiously optimistic, I tried it. OMG…well-seasoned, crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside and tender. The gravy was just as delicious, creamy, well-seasoned, a bit peppery (as it should be) with no floury background taste. Enough to feed two skinny people, a huge portion of Chicken Fried Steak, with 3 eggs, hash browns and toast at $9.50 was a bargain!!

I had 3 eggs over easy, 4 slices of thick bacon, hash browns, REAL rye toast with butter (most of the rye bread on the west coast is some kind of nasty nonsensical marble rye stuff-YUCK!), for about $7…who can go wrong with that!?! I get this breakfast every time I go to Chef Burger and it is consistently delicious!

Gracie’s Bacon Cheeseburger was splendid, as are all of Giant Chef’s hamburgers. Burgers are 1/3 pound before cooking, always juicy and cooked to order, of course. Every type of burger they serve is served on a fresh, soft roll with mayo, mustard (yuck! I get mine without), lettuce, tomato and onion. I can’t figure it out…but Giant Chef’s burgers are amazing. You all know how I feel about hamburgers….nothing but ketchup for me! But Giant Chef has tantalized my very picky tastebuds…maybe it’s the way they assemble the hamburger, or the grease or the meat or how they shred the lettuce…I’m not sure, but what I am sure of is that their burgers, even with mayo, are consistently absolutely fabulous! Served with fries or a different side, for around $7, it is well worth the money.

In reviewing what I wrote here, I found that I used the word “consistent” several times. I guess that what we’ll call Giant Chef Burger. Consistently delicious, clean, friendly and inexpensive. You can’t go many places where a large burger, fries and a bottomless soda cost less than $9, but you can at Giant Chef Burger.

As objective as I am and ready to slam anything that doesn’t suit my fancy, I can’t think of anything negative to say about Giant Chef Burger. It is a marvelous little place, plain and simple! If you are in the Pleasant Hill area, hell..even if you’re not..make the trip to Giant Chef Burger at 10 Golf Club Rd…the menu is simple and limited, but everything is so delicious, you’ll want to order your favorite dishes over and over again.

Until next time….Buon Appetito!

Rating: Diner 10, Overall 10

As this is a review, I won’t go into the very interesting history of sushi, but I preface a bit by telling you that sushi is different in the USA, as opposed to how it is in Japan. In Japan, your typical sushi is considered a snack or light meal, whereas we make an entire meal of it. Which is fine, in and of itself, but when the Japanese “go out for Sushi”, they go out in style. None of this cheap-o Maguro or Hirame. When they go out for a sushi meal, they eat all of the things that we would classify as high priced. Toro (fatty tuna), blowfish, and the like is what they make a meal of. A night out for a sushi dinner in Japan will cost anywhere from $125.00-$250.00 per person, whereas in the US, you can get away with a sushi meal costing around $20.00-$25.00 per person. Don’t misinterpret, there are plenty of sushi joints all over Japan, but most people stop in for a snack and a beer or two after a long day at work. It’s almost the same as when we would go to a bar for a cocktail or two and eat some of the pretzels or chips on the bar. And in Japan, going to a sushi bar is truly a memorable experience. On my first trip to Osaka, in 2002, one of my first meals was sushi. Anyone remember the movie, “Defending your Life” with Albert Books and Meryl Streep? Remember when Albert Brooks goes into a sushi bar, and the sushi chefs yell and repeat everything he says.……?

Onto Yokoso. Located in Pleasant Hill, Ca, Yokoso is your average sushi restaurant offering a wide range of sushi choices, as most places do, and also a range of fairly priced non-sushi dishes. I am super-critical of sushi…I’ll be upfront and honest about that immediately. Being immersed in Japanese culture for the past 10 years, making 7 trip to Japan since 2002 and having a Japanese partner for over 5 years, I’ve become a bit spoiled. And I’ve also learned how to tell whether you’re getting good sushi or not.

We were promptly seated and asked if we were ready to order, before we even looked at the menu. I suggested to the waitress that she bring us something to drink and allow us a few moments to peruse the menu so that we could decide what we wanted to eat. The waitress politely acquiesced and it took her about 6 or 7 minutes to return to our table with our drinks. (If anyone knows me well enough..that was waaayyyy too long!)

Gracie and I ordered directly from the sushi menu, skipping the appetizers and the usual dinner items like “Chicken Teriyaki”, etc. (BTW, you’ll never find Chicken Teriyaki in Japan) As is typical for me, I ordered Maguro (tuna), Hamachi (yellowtail), Saba (mackerel), Negihama Roll (small roll of hamachi and scallion), Unagi (eel) and Tamago (egg).

Tamago you ask? Why would anyone order “egg sushi” in a sushi restaurant? Seems ridiculous, right? Not only have I read it in several books on sushi, but have also been told by sushi chefs and Japanese folks; You can judge the quality of a sushi restaurant by eating the Tamago. Tamago should be creamy with a background hint of sweetness. It should be yellow, throughout, with no brown spots where the egg may have overcooked. It should not break apart when you bite it, as scrambled eggs do. If the Tamago is not this way when you eat it, the quality of the sushi and the restaurant itself, will not be up to par.

So was the case at Yokoso. After biting into the egg, it broke off in my mouth as if I were eating overcooked scrambled eggs. It was a bad sign to start my meal with, however I tried to keep an open mind. As I started on my fish, I noticed that there was no wasabi between the fish and the rice. If sushi is correctly made (made by a chef that has trained in the Japanese method of making sushi) there will ALWAYS be a slight dab of wasabi between the fish and the rice. My philosophy is this: if you’re not trained properly, the food will not be as good as it should be. But again, I was keeping an open mind.

While the Maguro and the Negihama roll were tasty, the Hamachi was a bit tough to the bite. Hamachi should NEVER be tough. Hamachi, if sliced properly, will have an almost creamy texture and practically melt in your mouth. The Hamachi at Yokoso had neither of those qualities so I was guessing that it was not as fresh as it could be. Moving onto the Unagi, the Ungai was slightly tough, meaning that it was undercooked. Unagi MUST be thoroughly cooked in order to enjoy it. Eel is generally very tough and chewy if not cooked properly and a bit of an unpleasant sensory experience. Properly cooked Unagi should flake in your mouth, like a cooked white fleshed fish.

I always save my Saba until last. Mackerel is a very oily fish and fishy tasting, and not for everyone. Another test for a sushi restaurant is the quality of Saba. When fresh, sushi Saba should smell like the ocean mixed with a slight odor of cooked fish in the background. Saba cannot be eaten raw and always arrives in sushi form cooked. The skin is usually left on the fish, which is another indicator of the quality of the sushi. With proper, fresh Saba, you can bite through the skin and it presents no problems in your mouth. In the case of Saba at Yokoso, the skin was a bit chewy, indicating that it was not as fresh as it should be.

After we had finished our meal we were ready to leave, but it took the waitress 13 minutes to bring us a check, even after asking for it when she cleared our plates. Guess what…not good!! The service was mediocre, at best.

Yokoso was not a terrible dining experience, but it was not a 100% pleasurable experience either. I think that with a little more attention to customer service and to the quality of their food, Yokoso could be a really good restaurant. In it’s present form, however, it is not a place that I would revisit any time soon.

Until next time…..Douzo Meshiagare! どうぞめしあがれ！

Sushi Restaurant: 5; Overall: 5