Metro Pizza

We finally went and tried out Metro Pizza, which has come highly-recommended by a few of my co-workers (none of them have ever been to Grimaldi's, so I guess they don't know what pizza perfection is like). Anyways, we tried it out last night, and while it was good, it's not up to par with Grimaldi's. Here's what we got:

Appetizers:

Jack - Tuscan Salad

Katie - Garlic fries (A Metro Pizza original, and they can keep it that way :)

Pizza - Sunspot Specialty Pizza

Jack's Tuscan Salad was pretty awesome. Pears, blue cheese, awesome flavored tomatoes, walnuts, etc. with a vinaigrette dressing. The ingredients seemed really quality, and Jack really liked it. It just wasn't my type of salad, so I'd take the Grimaldi's house salad over this one any day.

Garlic fries - Was there supposed to be garlic flavoring on these? And Romano cheese? You could barely taste either. They really just tasted like french fries. They seemed to be pretty good as far as fries go, but I'm not a huge fried food fan, and they didn't sit well with me.

Sunspot Specialty Pizza - This was pretty good. It had chicken, tomatoes, and artichoke hearts. The chicken was really good, and the crust of the pizza was pretty good, too. Just not my favorite, like... (let's all say it together!) Grimaldi's. And both of us felt a little sick this morning. Could have been from this food, but who knows.

Our waitress was great, and we didn't have to wait for a table which was nice. The atmosphere was fine, too. A typical pizzeria, but nothing special.

Food: 3 stars

Atmosphere: 3 stars

Service: 4 stars

Would I go back? No, because any time I want pizza I would go to Grimaldi's. :)

Bernard's Bistro

I know I haven't done many restaurant reviews on here lately. I have tons from our California trip that I need to do, but I'm skipping ahead and reviewing this restaurant we ate at on Friday night. It's Bernard's Bistro, located at Lake Las Vegas (love this area). It's Mediterranean food, and was really good. We started off with the escargot, which was probably the best escargot I've ever had. The garlic sauce was awesome, and the escargot weren't super chewy like they usually are.

I ordered the seafood in lobster creole sauce, and it was so good! The seafood was prawns (huge!), oysters, and scallops. It came with yellow squash ravioli, which were also really good. The lobster sauce was over everything, and it is what really made the dish. I was even dipping the bread in it! Jack ordered the filet mignon which came with fries. The steak was pretty good, but not the best ever. The portion size for both dishes, but particularly Jack's, seemed fairly small to me, but in a way it was just perfect. Enough to fill you up, but not a tons of food like most restaurants give you these days.

The atmosphere was great. We ate out on the patio (weather was good), and there was live music (Fab, a Beatles tribute band). So that was fun. That's why we went in the first place - to hear the band, so we picked this restaurant since they had outdoor seating and you could listen while you ate. And I love the Lake Las Vegas area - it's made to look like a little Italian village, plus it's on an inlet of Lake Mead.

The service, however, was HORRIBLE. They got slammed with a huge party of 50 before we came, so we had to wait a little while for a table even though there were open ones. This was no big deal, but then our waiter was just plain bad. I think the service is usually better, though.

Food: 4.5 stars (because of Jack's steak; if it was all about my food, I'd have given it 5 stars)

Atmosphere: 4.5 stars

Service: 2 stars

Would I got back? Yes, and I'd just hope for better service. :)

Brio Tuscan Grille

(pic from Vegas.com)

A few weeks ago, Jack and I ate at the Brio Tuscan Grille at Town Square Mall. It was so good! I got the Shrimp Scampi with Angel Hair, and Jack got the Pasta Fra Diavolo with chicken. My shrimp was so good! Maybe the best shrimp I've ever had. The actual pasta paled in comparison with the shrimp, but it was still good. And the creamy tomato sauce on Jack's pasta was different than anything I've had before, but really good. The inside of this restaurant is super nice and fancy, too. They have some outdoor seating around fires that would be nice in the winter, not so much in this 100+ degree heat. And our waiter was great. All around a great dining experience.

Food: 4.5 stars

Atmosphere: 5 stars

Would I go back? Yes, but not often (it's a bit pricey)

Beijing Noodle No. 9

While in Vegas last week, we ate at this cool place called Beijing Noodle No. 9 in Caesar's Palace.

What a cool atmosphere! (Those are fish tanks in the background.)



The actual noodle bar, and all their spices/pastas/beans.


Chef in the back cooking. Most of us ordered dumplings - I got the pork dumplings, and they were really good. Still, nothing is as good as those pork soup dumplings at Joe's Shanghai in Chinatown NYC. Sometimes I wonder if I remember them better than they were....I guess I'll have to back and have them again! Somebody else ordered some sort of shrimp (I can't remember what the sauce was), but it was really good. The food was a little pricey, but what isn't in Vegas?

Food: 4 stars

Atmosphere: 5 stars

Would I go back? Maybe, but it's not at the top of my list.

Blue Plate Diner

Since we were going up to General Conference for the Saturday morning session, we decided to stop somewhere for lunch in Salt Lake. My sister Alisa recommended the Blue Plate Diner, and I love trying out new places, so we gave it a go.

Luckily Alisa had warned me that the place looks dumpy, so we were prepared (and we'd looked up pictures online). But the place was packed, and we even had to wait a few minutes for a seat. You know you're at a good place when it's that busy! The place has a lot of character, so although it looks like a dive it's still kinda cool. And the food was great. I ordered the chicken fried steak dinner (came with seasonal vegetables, garlic mashed potatoes, a roll, and a salad). Talk about a lot of food! Jack got the chicken fried steak with eggs (also came with toast and fried potato cubes). My little side salad was great with fresh cucumbers, sprouts, mushrooms, and tomatoes, so we knew we were in for some good food. We really liked everything else, except I wasn't a huge fan of my veggies. It was squash, carrots, zucchini, and broccoli. I just didn't think they had a whole lot of flavor, but not a big deal. The chicken fried steak and potatoes were really good, and the gravy even had bits of chicken fried steak in it. The roll was great, too. Plus, it's a great deal because you get tons of food! So I got two meals for the price of one (I ate my leftovers for lunch today). :) I'd definitely recommend this place.

Food: 4 stars

Atmosphere: 3 stars

Would I go back? Yes, if I have the chance

The Pizza Factory

My dentist gave me a gift certificate to the Pizza Factory (for making me wait 30 min to be seen, then telling me it would be another 30 min if I wanted to wait, but I guess I'm not reviewing dentists here which is a good thing...) Anyways, on Friday night we went and got dinner there, and surprisingly enough, this was our first time eating at the Pizza Factory even though we've lived in Provo for years.

I saw everyone getting their twisty breadsticks, so we ordered a garlic parmesan one to share. I'm glad I learned from everyone else, because this was definitely the best part of our meal. It was really good. We also got some garlic cheese bread. I love this stuff, but their version wasn't a standout. My favorite is at the Brick Oven. Yum! Anyways, for our pizza we got a triple topping: pepperoni, Canadian bacon, and sausage. Jack put it best as we were eating it: "This tastes like Red Baron pizza." Yeah, the frozen stuff. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't really good either. We had three pieces left over when we were done, and we didn't even get a box. And that's saying a lot for us! I think we should have ordered one of their specialty pizzas - I have to assume that would have been better than what we got, but I'm still skeptical because our pizza was just not very good. I don't think we'll ever go back, unless I'm really wanting their breadsticks or want to try out their cinnamon breadstick. But a return visit would definitely not be for the pizza! Maybe I can just order a few breadsticks to go. :)

Food: 2 stars
Atmosphere: 3 stars
Would I go back? Maybe, but only for the breadsticks

Wallaby's

We recently tried out the new Wallaby's in Provo. This is a chain, and I think they have a location in Lindon. It's a barbecue restaurant, but more of a "fast food" version of barbecue. We ordered the pulled pork and brisket platter, and our sides were mashed potatoes with cheese and black beans with rice. I really liked the potatoes, and the black beans and rice were pretty good. My problem was the meat. When I get barbecue, I want the restaurant to serve it with sauce on it already. I think that's part of what you're paying for - their expertise in putting the sauce/flavoring on the meat. This was the "dip your meat in the barbecue sauce" style, so I wasn't a huge fan. But that being said, their barbecue sauce was really good, and the pulled pork was good, too. The brisket was also good, but had lots of fat on it.

Food: 3 stars
Atmosphere: 1 star
Would I go back? Maybe

Terra Mia

Terra Mia is a new Italian restaurant in Orem in the new development behind the University Mall. I'd seen it and wanted to try it out, so we went last weekend. I really like certain Italian foods, so I had high hopes. We ordered the Margarita pizza and the lasagna. The lasagna was a little different than I'm used to - more sausagy. But it was still pretty good. The pizza was pretty disappointing, though. It was thin crust, and there just wasn't much to it in the way of toppings. Maybe that's the real Italian way of doing pizza, and although it was good, I just wasn't impressed. Not my cup of tea. They also have a little gelato shop inside this restaurant, but we didn't get any. Maybe the gelato's good, but I don't think I'll ever be going back to this restaurant.

I'm going to start a rating system to make my reviews more usable. I'll rate the food and the atmosphere, each on a scale of 1 star to 5 stars.

Food: 2 stars
Atmosphere: 3 stars
Would I go back? No

Maestro's

Maestro's is a gelato cafe on Center St. - have I mentioned that I really like the atmosphere of downtown Provo? :) Anyways, I've been wanting to try out this place for awhile. We finally went and got a crepe there. We got the crepe with nutella and strawberries filling, with chocolate chip gelato on top. They actually gave us the wrong gelato at first, but we got that ironed out. Anyways, it was really good, but not anything special compared to the crepes we make at home. It was about $8 and was plenty of dessert for us, but not worth the money when we can make pretty much the same thing ourselves. And honestly, I can't tell a huge difference between gelato and ice cream. So make a crepe, slap some nutella on it, and put a scoop of your favorite ice cream on top. And you'll have one of the best desserts ever (for a fraction of the price of this place!)

Spicy Corea

Last weekend Jack and I tried out Spicy Korea (formerly Touch of Seoul) on University Ave. in Provo (near Center Street). This is me with KimPop (like California Roll sushi). I love this stuff. It was really good here, as was all our food.

Jack eating Bibing Pop. It's some sort of rice/egg/veggie dish, and it was good (but not my favorite Korean food). I love how Korean restaurants always bring you out these complimentary side dishes. They gave us kimchee, seasoned potatoes, Korean pizza, bean sprouts, some sort of lettuce and kimchee thing, and some cucumber thing. I love the seasoned potatoes! We also got Mandu. It's basically a type of dumpling, and I really liked it.

We usually go to SamHawk for Korean food, but I think this place has won us over. The food was great, atmosphere was great, and the service was awesome. Next time we go back we'll have to try their Bulgogi (soooo goood) and Pot Bing Su (some sort of bean ice cream thing that Jack says is really good). I love Korean food, and I would recommend this place to everyone!

El Salvadorian Restaurant

There's this great El Salvadorian Restaurant on Center St. in Provo (and really I think that's the name of it). My sister and her husband introduced us to it, and we ate there again just a few weeks ago. It's great because you can get such good food for a cheap price.

My favorite is the pork and cheese papusa. Yum! It's a great corn tortilla filled with...pork and cheese of course! It's only like $1.60, and you could eat two and be filled. They also have something similar to an empanada (I think they call it a pastelito). It's really good, but a little heavy.

When we went last time, we got a few papusas (always a good idea), a chicken tamale which was good, and a carne asada steak dinner. We'd never had the carne asada before, and I thought the flavoring was really good. The meat was a little tough and dry, but still good. The papusas are still my favorite!

In summary: great value, good food (great papusas)

Chef's Table

Last night Jack and I went to eat at Chef's Table with one of his helicopter students and his family (to celebrate the student getting his Private License). I'd heard of this restaurant but had never been. The atmosphere was great - I liked the decor, and they had huge windows looking out over the valley. The service was also awesome. This is the type of place where they put your napkins in your lap for you, and sometimes the chef comes out and talks to people. The waitors were great - they were very polite and didn't linger.

This student's family is quite wealthy, so they ordered every single appetizer on the menu! Kind of crazy. I've never eaten out with people like this! So I can give my critique of each appetizer they have. :) Here's the rundown:

Coconut Crusted Shrimp - great. And I don't usually like sweet mixed with non-sweet.
New England Crab Cakes - Pretty good, but not the best I've ever had.
Marinated Tomatoes and Balsamic Roasted Artichoke Hearts - I didn't get any of the tomatoes, but the artichoke hearts and toast were good.
Bacon Wrapped Sea Scallops - These were small, but really good.
Wild Mushrooms in an Asiago Tuile - I didn't have any of this, but Jack's student really liked it.
Carpaccio of Beef Tenderloin - I don't think I had any of this, either, but I'm sure it was good since Jack got the beef tenderloin for his entree and loved it.
Thyme Roasted Duck in Phyllo - This was really good. Very tender, and tasted a lot like chicken. :)
Gulf Shrimp Cocktail - I don't think we got this. I'm looking of the internet menu, so this may not have been on the menu in the restaurant last night.

You can choose soup or salad with your entree, and I've heard their soup is really good. Jack and I both got the Cream of Broccoli soup, and it was really good. I ordered the Atlantic Salmon and Potato Gratin. Honestly, I was so extremely full at this point that I couldn't really enjoy the entree to the fullest. :) The salmon was good - the sauce on it was okay but not my favorite. I was disappointed with the potatoes - the preparation seemed dry. Jack got the Bacon Wrapped Beef Tenderloin, and he loved it.

THEN, for dessert we got the Creme Brulee. It wasn't great. I've only had this once before, so I'm not the best critic, but the people who took us were disappointed in it. The consistency was more like pudding than custard (according to them), and I thought it was a little grainy. It was still good, but I'm realizing I'm not a huge brulee fan. The layer on top tastes burnt to me.

This was quite the meal, and the people who took us were so kind and generous. I don't know if I'd go here if I was the one footing the bill (our meal - just Jack and I - would have been about $85). I think I like more down-home good food, and sometimes fancy food isn't my favorite. But the atmosphere was great, and it would be a good place to go if you had something to celebrate. I think I'll initiate a star rating system for restauarants now. :) So on a scale of five stars, I'd give this place 4 stars.