Deck on Lunchbox Laboratory Part 2 - Seattle Restaurant Review

A couple of months ago I visited Lunchbox Laboratory for the first time.  After a pretty good meal, I dubbed it as probably my number 3 burger in Seattle (#2 for the over $10 category).  But that left me still looking to see if I can find something better than I've had at Sport (over $10) or Red Mill (under $10).  In that time, I've gone to a few different places, but still have not found what I'm looking for, so I decided to head back to the Lunchbox Laboratory.  This time though, I was after the dork patty; a combination of duck and pork, and something that has been bouncing around in my head as something that might be pretty darn good.

This time when I went, it was a little after noon, and the line was much longer than the first time.  Not a problem at all as it gave me time to check things out.  While moving through the line, I stopped in a spot where I could see the burgers being prepared.  It was here that I noticed every single thing is prepared to order.  The burger is not thrown on the heat until it is ordered.  The buns are toasted when they are needed.  Even the fries are not dropped into the fryer until someone asks for them.  This approach definitely created a little bit of an air of hurriedness by the two guys preparing every meal, but at the same time ensures that everything is hot and fresh, offering the best flavor possible. 

When I arrived at the front, I placed my order for a Dork 101 with Sweet Potato Fries to go.  The Burger was a 1/2 lb. patty topped by Havarti, Onion, and a Basil Pesto mayo.  All told, it probably took about 5 minutes from the time that I ordered until my burger arrived.  I took my bag and headed home to watch some baseball and enjoy my burger. 

One thing I can say without a doubt is that Lunchbox Laboratory knows how to cook a burger.  You can cut it in half, squeeze it, and see the juices coming out.  The burger had a very mild taste, though I guess you would expect that with duck and pork.  It was nearly overwhelmed by the toppings (mostly the onion), but still stood up pretty well.  It was flavorful, well seasoned, and a very good burger.  And the sweet potato fries were quite excellent, especially when dipped in the sweet chili mayo.  Nice and crispy on the outside, moist on the inside. 

It took me about two innings to polish off the good, messy burger and side of fries.  I can definitely say that I was much more satisfied eating that burger than some of the others I've had, though I still don't think I can move it up past the Sport burger.  The flavors were good, but not "Wow!"  In fact, I think I like the beef a bit more.  And, I think that Lunchbox Laboratory goes just a little overboard with the toppings.  With the first burger it was the bacon, and with this one it was the onion.  Now, don't get me wrong, I actually prefer a little too much over too little, but it would be nice to find that perfect balance at some point.  Anyway, after this burger, and my other experiences, I'm bumping up Lunchbox Laboratory's final score a bit.

Revised Final Verdict - 3.75 Stars

Deck on The Viking - Seattle Restaurant Review

About a month ago, I was driving through Ballard, and I noticed a small building with a neon sign that caught my attention.  I decided that when I had the opportunity, I would swing by and check the place out. This past weekend ended up being the opportunity.  So, on my way home, I decided to swing by and check out the Viking.

The Viking is a small place nestled under some trees on 24th Ave. NW in Ballard.  In the window is a sign that let's people know that the Viking has been serving Ballard since 1950.  There is also a sign that caught my attention that said "Fresh Smoked Meats, Ribs and Chili".  Now I'm a big fan of the fine dining experience, but at my roots, there is nothing like a great burger or barbeque.  So, I felt compelled to try any place that is advertising it's smoked meats in the window.

Walking in, I noticed that the Viking is the quintessential neighborhood bar.  The bartenders greeted many of the patrons by name, knowing what they liked to drink.  In the back was a shuffleboard table, and various softball trophies lined the wall.  I picked out a seat at the bar, and ordered myself a Manny's.  After taking a sip, I checked out the menu which was a single sided sheet.  I was going to order dinner when I noticed that everything on the menu was available for takeout.  I'm not opposed to eating by myself at a restaurant, but since I'd been traveling for a little while, and had a nice comfortable couch waiting for me, I decided that taking it home with me would be a good idea.  So, I finished my Manny's, ordered a second, and placed a to-go order for a Number One (beef brisket sandwich) and an order of two ribs.  In less than the amount of time it took me to finish my second beer, my dinner was brought to me.  I paid the bill (only $25 with tip), and headed home.

On the drive home, the smell of the barbeque sauce was intoxicating.  By the time I got home, my mouth was watering and I was excited.  I got situated and opened up the two different boxes.  I decided the first place to start was the brisket sandwich.  Biting in, I was pleasantly surprised.  The barbeque sauce was a tangy, not too spicy sauce with a strong tomato taste, and just a hint of sweet.  I would say that it was more of a Texas style sauce in my limited barbeque experience.  The brisket was good too, very flavorful, though a tad less smoky than I'd hoped for.  The whole thing was served on an onion roll that soaked up the sauce, and was the perfect amount of messy.

After a couple bites of the sandwich, I set it down, and turned my attention to the beef ribs.  They were coated in what appeared to be the same barbeque sauces as the brisket.  Biting in, the flavors definitely exploded in my mouth.  The meat was very flavorful, and again complemented nicely by the barbeque sauce.  The ribs were very good, and honestly a bit unexpected coming from the little place in Seattle.  Compared to the Kansas City Ribs that I had, the spice rub was a little less powerful, and they weren't quite "bite clean off the bone"tender, but I was very pleased.

The Viking was a great little find for a neighborhood bar with great food.  I will definitely be back, especially because there is a Southern Style pork sandwich that I absolutely want to try.

Final Verdict - 3.5 Stars

Bringing the Family Together

Growing up, one of the things that I always remember is our family meals.  Every night we would sit down together as a family for dinner.  Each of the children had a chore; be it setting the table, clearing the table or feeding the dog.  And every evening my mom would come home from work and cook us a very nice, simple meal.  We would sit down, talk about our day, enjoy a little bit of family time without the television on, and inevitably laugh as my youngest sister always seemed to get up having sat on something (Jello seemed to be the most common).  It's been almost ten years since I officially left home, and while some things have changed, one remains the same: we always sit down to family meals together, though the meal itself has evolved.

In the years past, it would always be my mom making dinner, with my dad occasionally do some cooking if it involved the grill.  But the past few times, as I've gotten more into cooking (and also one of my sisters), the preparation of the meal has become a much more family oriented affair.  Take this recent trip home.  We decided that we were going to cook dinner, and that the main protein would be trout.  This meant my dad would take on the grilling duties.  For a vegetable we opted for asparagus because it is in season.   I volunteered to work on the asparagus because I had a couple of Michael Chiarello recipes in mind (pesto for the fish, roasted bundles for the vegetable).  And my mom took on the dessert and the cornbread, pretty much a staple in our house when serving trout.  Plus, it gave her an opportunity to try a new recipe as she continues her search for the best cornbread recipe ever.  

About an hour before dinner, we all set to work.  I got started on the bread crumbs for the roasted asparagus as well as the pesto while my mom worked on the dessert.  We were able to talk about different flavor combinations, techniques and recipes that she had never done (or had the time to do) while we were at home.  Then we poured ourselves a glass of wine and just talked about food; different chefs, different recipes, different nutritional facts that we'd learned and different places that we'd eaten.  The entire prep time dedicated to talking about food (and giving my grandma a little bit of a hard time being that she's less adventurous than the rest of us), and not once did we feel bored.  As dinner time approached, my dad fired up the grill.  We had talked about different fish cooking techniques, and decided to give low and slow a try this time.  Previously we had both cooked fish at medium, but after a recent fish taco party with friends where I had referred to a Bobby Flay recipe, I had dropped the heat even further in an attempt to maintain the moisture in the fish.  To go with the fish, he whipped up a little lemon butter sauce, and seasoned the fish simply with salt and pepper.

While my dad was grilling the fish, I put the roasted asparagus in and pulled out the cornbread (in our talking we let it go about two minutes too long; whoops!).  We also sauteed up some regular asparagus for Grandma just to make sure that everyone was happy.  About this time, my dad brought in the first of the trout to see how it was, and we decided it just needed a minute or so more on the grill, assuming he could keep it lit in the wind (one of the disadvantages of gas).  When he brought in the second batch, it was perfect.  Instead of really have to peel it off the bone, I simply had to start it, and it just fell off onto the plate (and I'm not just saying this because I know he's reading my post).  It was very moist and tender, quite possibly the best trout I've had.

In the end, our timing was a little off, having finished the pesto and the roasted asparagus a little ahead of the fish, and having to reheat the pesto, but all in all everything came together.  My mom commented that if I had decided I'd liked to cook (and learned about different foods) earlier in life, we definitely would have eaten "better".  I don't think it was necessarily better, but we definitely ate differently than we had when growing up, with things like asparagus pesto, roasted asparagus bundles, cornbread muffins from scratch and slowly grilled rainbow trout.  Though, I don't know if any of us picky kids would have been interested anyway.  But when it was all said and done, no matter what food was put out, we all once again sat down at the table together, and shared a wonderful meal.

Deck on Mattie Sopranos Pizzeria - Denver Restaurant Review

One of the fun things about getting more into new restaurants and cooking is that it is rubbing off on my family members.  Coming into Denver, my folks came to pick me up prior to going to a Rockies' game.  Our usual game time approach is to head down near the stadium and go to a bar like Jackson's.  But this time, my dad decided to take some time and search out something different, a place that we have never gone to before.  He came up with Mattie Sopranos Pizzeria.

Mattie Sopranos is located out near DIA in a small strip mall type place.  It seems to be fairly new as Denver continues to expand out toward the airport.  It's a quant little Italian place that was pretty wide open.  There is a small bar, a small salad bar on the back wall, and plenty of seating.  When we walked in, there were not a lot of people.  Of course it was 5 o'clock on a Friday, so I didn't anticipate a lot of people out away from the city. 

We sat at a booth off to the side and ordered our drinks, and then started looking through the menu.  There were a lot of different options to work our way through.  I found a couple of things that looked interesting, but coudn't really narrow it down.  So, I waited until the waitress came back around and just asked her what she liked.  The first thing she asked was for me to narrow it down so I decided on pasta.  She said that it would probably be Chicken Marsala or the Pasta Alla Mattie.  Since, I'm not a huge mushrooom fan, I opted for the Pasta Alla Mattie; a linguinie with a cream sauce, sun-dried tomatoes, artichoke hearts and sausage.  My dad went with a stromboli and my mom with a penne with a vodka sauce and chicken.  We also opted for the cheesy garlic bread as an appetizer.

When the garlic bread arrived a short time later we dove in (as you can see from the picture, someone was awful excited...).  The garlic bread was nice.  The bottom was crispy, the bread soft, but not overly mushy and the cheese was browned nicely on top.  It came with a simple marinera sauce that had some chunks of fresh tomatoes.  Not a bad way to start.  While we were still working on the garlic bread, enjoying our conversation, the entrees arrived.  It became pretty obvious that Mattie's doesn't skimp on portion size.  The small stromboli looked like a foot long sub.  And both plates were heaping with pasta.  The flavor was pretty good.  The sauce was mild and when you got a bite of the tomato and artichoke with it, it was a nice flavor.  The only negative was that there wasn't enough of the tomato, artichoke, and sausage to balance out the large portion of the pasta.  I ended up making my way through about half of the portion before I finally had to put my fork down.

At the end of the meal we decided to opt out of dessert and make our way to the game.  For a little neighborhood Italian, Mattie Sopranos wasn't bad.  I would say that there was nothing that really stood out, but there wasn't anything that really fell flat.  It was what I had come to expect from a local Italian joint (a little different than the local Italian I've found in Seattle).  All in all, I think it was a good step into the non-usual Denver cuisine.

Final Verdict - 2.75 Stars

Deck on Pappadeaux's - Dallas Restaurant Review

On my very first work trip, I found myself in Houston. When I told one of my friends that grew up in Louisiana that I was going on the trip he told me to make a trip to Pappadeaux’s. I did, and I was blown away. That was a year and a half ago. Now every time I fly through Houston, I make sure to place an order at the Bush International Pappadeaux’s and pick it up before my next flight leaves. Why do I tell that story? Because on this trip to Dallas as we were trying to figure out where we wanted to go to dinner, someone mentioned Pappadeaux’s. My ears perked up and my mouth started to water a little bit. I know it is a place I’ve been before, but I haven’t written about it yet, and I knew it would deliver the goods.

After a short deliberation, it was concluded that Pappadeaux’s was the place to go, and we headed out. When we got there, I was excited. It’s the type of place that is really designed to hold a lot of people that are interested in eating a lot of good food. Our waiter (Chris I believe) was one of those guys that’s just friendly and full of energy, offering suggestions while convincing you to get more than you could possibly eat. Looking at the menu, I decided I would try an appetizer this evening and placed my order for Boudin, a dish that seemed uniquely Cajun (with a description that read “sausage stuffed with rice”…I was curious to say the least). Chris then gave us a few minutes to look over the dinner menu, but I knew I didn’t need to. There was one thing I wanted, the reason for going to Pappadeaux’s; the crawfish etouffee served over dirty rice. It was the recommendation from my first trip there, and it is still the only thing I order…well, until I saw the crawfish platter that combines the etoufee with fried crawfish. Double the crawfish on one plate?? Why not!?

When Chris returned, I happily placed my order (after convincing two of the people with me that they too needed to order it), and then turned to my Sam Adams and conversation. It wasn’t too long until a plate was placed in front of me with two full sausages, rice, dipping sauce and bread. I wondered if Chris realized that I wanted the appetizer portion of the Boudin, and not the meal portion. Then I looked at the other appetizers, remembered where I was, and knew that I wouldn’t be leaving hungry (and that I had a date with the gym in the morning). The Boudin was very interesting, and very good; kind of a shredded meat in the sausage casing with a great kick to it that was balanced very nicely by the rice. The sauce was a little bit of a cream based sauce that again added a little heat and a little cool. But, what stood out was the flavor of the meat, which was very moist and flavorful, definitely not overwhelmed by the spice.

I ended up eating 1 full sausage, and giving away a bit of the second one knowing that my etouffee was still en route, and I wanted to make sure I had plenty of room for that. Shortly after we finished our appetizers and ordered another round of drinks, the entrees started to arrive. There was some fish with sauces and the like at the other end of the table, but all I noticed was the plate set in front of me. I decided to first take a bite of the fried crawfish, which was great; kind of like popcorn shrimp but with more flavor. The thing is after that first bite of the fried, I realized that I had made a mistake. By ordering the platter, I got a half order of the etouffee!! And it wasn’t that the fried crawfish wasn’t good, it’s that the etoufee is great. It has this wonderful spicy kick to it, the kind that sneaks up on you and just slowly spreads across your tongue, but not in an unpleasant way. The spice is complimented by a rich roux based sauce, with the crawfish adding a hint of sweetness, and the dirty rice is there pretty much just to soak everything up. I was definitely pleased, and I could tell from the chorus of “Oh wow!” and “Oh my gosh!” that the others that ordered it were pleased as well. In fact one of the guys kept saying “I can’t eat any more” as he continued to work his way through the etoufee. In the end, we all finished off all of the etouffee, leaving some of the fried crawfish behind.

At this point, we were all sufficiently filled to the gills. That’s when Chris offered dessert. But he didn’t just bring us a menu. No, he brought a tray with each of the desserts and set it in the middle of the table. How do you say no to that? We definitely couldn’t, though we did talk ourselves into only splitting a banana pudding. And while I’ve never had the banana pudding before, you can bet that every time I fly through Houston, it will be added to my order. It was ridiculously good, not too sweet, and not too overwhelmed by the banana which I found to be surprising (I can’t order smoothies with banana because the flavor is so strong and distinct). It was topped with some whipped cream and had Nilla Wafers in the middle. And of course it was served in a Mason jar.

The one thing to remember though is that it's about ordering the right thing. If you are from Seattle, don't order the Salmon or crab because you know you will be disappointed. But for us, we all left the meal very satisfied, without a doubt, and it is a place that I will go back to. I’m sure it’s not the greatest Cajun food in the world, but for me, it’s the best I’ve ever had. Maybe next time I’m in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, or somewhere in Louisiana, I’ll give something else a try (in fact I know I will). But for sure, every time I fly through Houston I will be going to Pappadeaux’s for the incredibly delicious crawfish etouffee (now with banana pudding)!

Final Verdict – 4.5 Stars

Deck on Maximo Cocina Mexicana - Dallas Restaurant Review

This week I find myself in Dallas for work.  Ok, not quite in Dallas, but out in the 'burbs in Addison.  When we met up with our work colleagues for dinner, we suggested Mexican or Barbeque since these are things that aren't as common in Seattle.  After a little discussion we decided on Mexican and headed over to Maximo Cocina Mexicana which happened to be conveniently located near the Hilton where we are staying.

As we walked up, the first thing I noticed was that it was a little fancier than I had anticipated (maybe it was my preconceived notion of "Mexican" and "Texas").  I was wearing a t-shirt and jeans and felt that I was a little underdressed.  The door was a very large, very heavy wooden door that opened into a little foyer.  On the right was a nice, swanky looking bar, and on the left was a very open dining room.  For some reason, the outdoor seating was not available at this time.  We took our seat and started looking through the menu.

While we were deciding on our drinks, a tray with three different salsas and a batch of tortilla chips arrived.  Before diving in, we pretty much unanimously decided on margaritas, especially after we were told that it was a homemade recipe that simply included lime, alcohol free triple sec and one other ingredient that shamefully I cannot remember.  After the waiter left, we dove into the chips.  They were very nice and crispy, more in the form of strips, and appeared to be tortillas that were placed into a fryer and then lightly salted which made them quite crispy and tasty.  The salsas ended up being a bit of a surprise.  On the right, was a sauce that I had thought would be more of a salsa verde, but ended up being very sweet; made with pineapple, ginger and tomatillo.  The middle salsa was more expected, an ancho chile based traditional salsa.  And on the left was one that I thought was an avocado crema type sauce, but ended up being jalapeno with a little kick.  It was unexpected and a very good start to the meal.

After snacking on chips and salsa, our drinks arrived.  Mine ended up being a hot margarita (apparently things got mixed up) meaning that it had some jalapeno pieces in it to add heat.  The thing is that they weren't muddled in any way, and were just finely diced peppers with no seeds or veins, so really didn't add any flavor, and was a little annoying.  My second one later I made sure was just a regular margarita which was much better.  For dinner, after much deliberation, I decided to go with what they called the Pollo Al Mole.  I was a little nervous because the only mole I've had to date was at Rick Bayless' Frontera Grill in Chicago and when I asked if it was a traditional mole poblano, I didn't really get a yes/no answer that I was expecting.

To satiate us while waiting for the food (which took like 20-30 minutes to arrive) we also got some guacamole.  It was made tableside for us with just some avocado, lime, tomatoes and jalapenos.  It was ok, but I'm also not a huge guacamole fan, so take my opinion with a grain of salt.  It definitely wasn't something that was going to convert me to a guacamole fan.  When the meals finally arrived, I was ready to dive in.  It looked and smelled good with the mole served over the top of some rice and the corn tortillas on the side.  The mole was actually pretty good and pretty flavorful.  There wasn't one flavor that really jumped out at me, but the whole thing work together to have sort of a mild but rich flavor.  Unfortunately I was a little let down by the chicken which was very dry and couldn't even be saved by the mole.  Also, I couldn't really tell if the tortillas were handmade, but the flavor was reminicent of those that I've purchased before.

The restaurant was definitely more along the lines of traditional Mexican (or at least what I understand to be traditional Mexican) which was different than I had expected.  And the food was good, but considering that my baseline is the Frontera Grill, Maximo started the night behind the 8-ball, and just wasn't able to push past.  Next time in Texas, I think I'd like to go more in the direction of Tex-Mex rather than traditional Mexican; looking for a little more spice and heat.  Overall, I wasn't underwhelmed, but neither was I overwhelmed.  Just kind of middle of the road.

Final Verdict - 3.5 Stars

Deck on Bakery Nouveau - Seattle Restaurant Review

On Sunday morning, I was playing in a volleyball tournament at Alki Beach in West Seattle. As I was heading out there, I was thinking about what to do for breakfast. My normal ritual when heading out there is to either stop at Starbucks, or possibly get there and walk down to the Alki Bakery. This time though, realizing I had a little time, I decided to check out a place that I’d read and heard a little about; Bakery Nouveau. This turned out to be a great decision all at the same time.


Bakery Nouveau is a small bakery located on California Avenue, tucked in amongst some other shops. Had I not been using my GPS, the chances were pretty good that I would have driven right past it and not even noticed. As fate would have it, I noticed just in time, and got a parking spot right by the front door. The first thing I noticed when I stepped out of my car was the smell drifting toward, almost like a finger just beckoning me to come in. And so I obliged.

Walking in, I took in as much as I could. The interior was pretty simple, with a few seats for people. But the display cases were quite the opposite. Complex and delicious looking desserts and candies filled the first case. Breads were in the second area. And then in the third were the pastries. It was here that I focused my attention on. After a short amount of deliberation I opted for the Pineapple Croissant along with the Almond Croissant, probably the most famous pastry to come out of this quaint little shop. I figured that since I was playing volleyball all day, I could splurge on two pastries. I also got a cup of coffee, the entire bill coming to about $10. I paid, and then took my bad of croissants with me to the beach.

Once I got to the beach and got myself situated, I dove into my breakfast. The pineapple croissant was delicious. Very flaky crust, but still soft and moist on the inside. The pineapple maintained its texture and integrity, and added that perfect amount of balanced sweetness. Not to mention the entire thing was in the shape of a pineapple. But, as good as the pineapple croissant was, it couldn’t stand up to the Almond croissant. Talk about delicious and fantastic and incredible and all of those other adjectives. The first bite was one of just flaky, melt-in-your-mouth deliciousness. The flavors just explode in your mouth, the butteriness of the croissant with the just right almond flavor. It was just right, a perfect breakfast to start the morning.

Without a doubt the almond croissants are as good if not better than advertised. I will be planning on making a stop at Bakery Nouveau pretty much every time we go to West Seattle for at least one croissant. And if we ever end up moving to West Seattle (which isn’t out of the question), it is going to be incredible difficult to not stop by every morning on my way to the office. Guess that means I better figure out a workout plan now…

Final Verdict – 5 Stars