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)