Jake's over the top located near Weber State University may perhaps served the best shakes in the state of Utah. They use Farr's Ice Cream and carry a plethora of fresh fruits or candy to mix with it. Tonight for dessert I chose a Banana Cream Pie Shake. Jake's is known for it's generous servings where the ice cream literally goes over the top of the cup by 2-3inches. I ordered a "Jr." sized shake which is their smallest, but it will fill anyone up. Definitely not part of my or any diet, but I deserve it after a hard day of work on a Saturday.
This is probably the best Banana Cream Pie shake I've ever had. The best part is the fresh banana because it really brings out the taste that it should have. Most places the taste is more cream than banana, but not at Jake's. The ice cream compliments the fresh fruit very well and is not runny at all. It also comes with crumbled Vanilla Wafers mixed in and a wafer on top of a small pile of whipped cream. The combination of all the ingredients is perfect. A great banana taste and good texture to it.
Jake's is the place, in Ogden, for great shakes. They also serve burgers and fries which always go great with ice cream.
Grades:
Banana Cream Pie Shake: A
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Friday, September 26, 2008
Golden Corral
Well, we went out to Golden Corral for dinner tonight with family. For those of you that don't know, Golden Corral is a buffet. This one is located in Ogden, UT. I've eaten here many times, mainly 'cause of the choices and amount you can get for $10. I didn't chose to go on this particular night, but i wasn't complaining either.
On my first plate I started the night off with a nice salad. I piled tomatoes, cheese, bacon bits, crumbled eggs, cucumbers, baby shrimps, and a tiny scoop of caesar dressing on top of my lettuce. It was pretty tasty and was actually one of the highlights of my dining experience. The lettuce was crisp and toppings tasted fresh-like. On the same plate I had one piece of fried chicken(which happens to be my favorite dish. I was pretty decent, no complaints here, might of been a tad overcooked, but that would just be nit-picking. I was excited to have some of their clam chowder, but it fell flat on it's face. It was really simple-tasting. That sadly happened to be the theme for the rest of the night.
My second plate included: a small piece of steak, cooked to medium, a crab cake, 2 deep fried jumbo shrimps, and tilapia with rice and a lemon cream sauce. The steak started of great as it was very tender, especially by buffet standards, but as it entered my mouth I noticed it severely lacked any seasoning. I added salt and pepper, but even that didn't help and had to resort to A1 steak sauce. The crab cake was mediocre at best and the tilapia was disappointing as well. Like the steak before them, they lacked any hint of seasoning or spice. The lemon cream sauce over the tilapia didn't do it any favors. The jumbo shrimps were easily the best thing on my plate, maybe i just like fried food though. They weren't anything special either, but they tasted decent.
After the poor showing on plate number two i decided it was time for desert and a slab of roast beef...and a bite of bourbon street chicken. The roast beef was a little tough, a little over-cooked, but it still had a good taste to it. The bourbon street chicken was actually pretty good. It had flavor to it, something that was missing in most everything else before it.
Desert wise I grabbed a small sample of bread pudding and banana cream pie. I also had a tiny chocolate chip cookie and vanilla soft-serve yogurt w/ hot caramel on a cone. Desert was winner of the night. I wasn't very optimistic about the bread pudding and banana cream pie, but surprisingly they were good. They were not too sweet and seemed to fill me up in the small samples I had. My cookie was soft and chewy, but taste wise, Mrs. Fields has nothing to worry about. And lastly, I should not have eaten that soft-serve yogurt, but i felt it was my duty to let you know what i thought of it. Yes, I did it for you guys. It was definitely not worth it. It was plain jane vanilla, nothing exciting. Maybe I've been spoiled by Jake's Over the Top, but this wasn't even close to Jake's(Farr's) ice cream.
Overall I was slightly disappointed. I wasn't expecting great cuisine at Golden Corral, but they could have done better. Compared to other buffets I've been to they are still in my top ten, but i was happy to go home tonight.
Grades:
Salad: B
Fried CHicken: B
Clam Chowder: C-
Steak: C
Crab Cake: D
Tilapia: D
Fried Jumbo Shrimp: B
Roast Beef: C+
Bourbon Street Chicken: B
Bread Pudding: C+
Bannana Cream Pie: B-
Choc. Chip Cookie: C
Vanilla Soft-Serve: C
On my first plate I started the night off with a nice salad. I piled tomatoes, cheese, bacon bits, crumbled eggs, cucumbers, baby shrimps, and a tiny scoop of caesar dressing on top of my lettuce. It was pretty tasty and was actually one of the highlights of my dining experience. The lettuce was crisp and toppings tasted fresh-like. On the same plate I had one piece of fried chicken(which happens to be my favorite dish. I was pretty decent, no complaints here, might of been a tad overcooked, but that would just be nit-picking. I was excited to have some of their clam chowder, but it fell flat on it's face. It was really simple-tasting. That sadly happened to be the theme for the rest of the night.
My second plate included: a small piece of steak, cooked to medium, a crab cake, 2 deep fried jumbo shrimps, and tilapia with rice and a lemon cream sauce. The steak started of great as it was very tender, especially by buffet standards, but as it entered my mouth I noticed it severely lacked any seasoning. I added salt and pepper, but even that didn't help and had to resort to A1 steak sauce. The crab cake was mediocre at best and the tilapia was disappointing as well. Like the steak before them, they lacked any hint of seasoning or spice. The lemon cream sauce over the tilapia didn't do it any favors. The jumbo shrimps were easily the best thing on my plate, maybe i just like fried food though. They weren't anything special either, but they tasted decent.
After the poor showing on plate number two i decided it was time for desert and a slab of roast beef...and a bite of bourbon street chicken. The roast beef was a little tough, a little over-cooked, but it still had a good taste to it. The bourbon street chicken was actually pretty good. It had flavor to it, something that was missing in most everything else before it.
Desert wise I grabbed a small sample of bread pudding and banana cream pie. I also had a tiny chocolate chip cookie and vanilla soft-serve yogurt w/ hot caramel on a cone. Desert was winner of the night. I wasn't very optimistic about the bread pudding and banana cream pie, but surprisingly they were good. They were not too sweet and seemed to fill me up in the small samples I had. My cookie was soft and chewy, but taste wise, Mrs. Fields has nothing to worry about. And lastly, I should not have eaten that soft-serve yogurt, but i felt it was my duty to let you know what i thought of it. Yes, I did it for you guys. It was definitely not worth it. It was plain jane vanilla, nothing exciting. Maybe I've been spoiled by Jake's Over the Top, but this wasn't even close to Jake's(Farr's) ice cream.
Overall I was slightly disappointed. I wasn't expecting great cuisine at Golden Corral, but they could have done better. Compared to other buffets I've been to they are still in my top ten, but i was happy to go home tonight.
Grades:
Salad: B
Fried CHicken: B
Clam Chowder: C-
Steak: C
Crab Cake: D
Tilapia: D
Fried Jumbo Shrimp: B
Roast Beef: C+
Bourbon Street Chicken: B
Bread Pudding: C+
Bannana Cream Pie: B-
Choc. Chip Cookie: C
Vanilla Soft-Serve: C
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
T.G.I. Friday's Dragon Fire Chicken & Chocolate Angel Swirl Cake
Bryn(my wife) and I had gift certificates to TGI Friday's So we decided to go out for lunch. We had gone there once before a several months ago and were disappointed, but we were giving them one last chance(only because Guy Fieri is so convincing). I have been on a diet for about three weeks now and have lost 21.5 lbs. It's been pretty amazing to know that i can cut back on a lot of the foods i thought i could not live without. So, going through the menu i found a lot of foods that really tempted me to cheat, but finally I decided to choose the Dragonfire Chicken which is listed under the "Lighter Side of Friday's" section.
Here is the description straight from the menu:
Dragonfire Chicken: Low Fat
A fire–grilled chicken breast glazed with Chinese Kung Pao sauce, served over stir–fried brown rice with pineapple pico de gallo, Mandarin oranges and broccoli.
It sounded pretty good and was "Low Fat". Low Fat on the menu is any entree with approximately 10g of fat and 500 calories. So it's not totally great for my diet, but it is better than most of the other menu options.
The presentation was pretty good, as it looked delicious on my plate with the different colors.
First I took a bite of my broccoli which tasted pretty bland without any seasoning or butter. I dashed some sea-salt and peppercorn on it and it didn't help much. I moved on to the chicken. It was pretty tasty. Not dry at all and the glaze was perfectly spread over it. I was expecting the Kung Pao sauce to have more kick to it, but it was probably better that it didn't overpower the taste of everything else. The mandarin oranges and pineapple pico de gallo was a nice, sweet compliment to the tangy sauce.
Overall it is a nice choice for someone looking for a good lower fat choice when eating out. At only 500 calories it is easily less than many of the 1500 cal.+ options on restaurant menus. It has a sweet and tangy taste to it and the portion size will fill most people up.
For dessert I choose the Chocolate Angel Swirl Cake, here is the menu description:
Chocolate Angel Swirl Cake:
Angel food cake swirled with chocolate mousse and served with fresh pineapple and strawberries. Drizzled with fudge sauce.
It is also listed as "Low Fat" in the sign on the tables. So that definitely caught my eye, though i hardly believe its low-fattyness. Friday's usually has fancy presentations for their desserts and this was no different. The fudge sauce was drizzled artistically. The Strawberries were great esecially with the fudge. The pineapple's were dissapointing, the seemed to be canned pineapple tidbits, instead of fresh ones. The angel food cake with swirled chocolate mousse was good and had the right balance of cake and mousse.
It was a good dessert,but something was missing. If i wasn't on a diet i would definitely have chosen the Brownie Obsession instead.
Grades:
DragonFire Chicken: B
Chocolate Angel Swirl Cake: B-
Today's expierience has taken TGI Friday's off my endangered Resturaunts list...for now.
Here is the description straight from the menu:
Dragonfire Chicken: Low Fat
A fire–grilled chicken breast glazed with Chinese Kung Pao sauce, served over stir–fried brown rice with pineapple pico de gallo, Mandarin oranges and broccoli.
It sounded pretty good and was "Low Fat". Low Fat on the menu is any entree with approximately 10g of fat and 500 calories. So it's not totally great for my diet, but it is better than most of the other menu options.
The presentation was pretty good, as it looked delicious on my plate with the different colors.
First I took a bite of my broccoli which tasted pretty bland without any seasoning or butter. I dashed some sea-salt and peppercorn on it and it didn't help much. I moved on to the chicken. It was pretty tasty. Not dry at all and the glaze was perfectly spread over it. I was expecting the Kung Pao sauce to have more kick to it, but it was probably better that it didn't overpower the taste of everything else. The mandarin oranges and pineapple pico de gallo was a nice, sweet compliment to the tangy sauce.
Overall it is a nice choice for someone looking for a good lower fat choice when eating out. At only 500 calories it is easily less than many of the 1500 cal.+ options on restaurant menus. It has a sweet and tangy taste to it and the portion size will fill most people up.
For dessert I choose the Chocolate Angel Swirl Cake, here is the menu description:
Chocolate Angel Swirl Cake:
Angel food cake swirled with chocolate mousse and served with fresh pineapple and strawberries. Drizzled with fudge sauce.
It is also listed as "Low Fat" in the sign on the tables. So that definitely caught my eye, though i hardly believe its low-fattyness. Friday's usually has fancy presentations for their desserts and this was no different. The fudge sauce was drizzled artistically. The Strawberries were great esecially with the fudge. The pineapple's were dissapointing, the seemed to be canned pineapple tidbits, instead of fresh ones. The angel food cake with swirled chocolate mousse was good and had the right balance of cake and mousse.
It was a good dessert,but something was missing. If i wasn't on a diet i would definitely have chosen the Brownie Obsession instead.
Grades:
DragonFire Chicken: B
Chocolate Angel Swirl Cake: B-
Today's expierience has taken TGI Friday's off my endangered Resturaunts list...for now.
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