The Steak & Everything Grill - A little piece of Mayberry

Location:

  1650 W. Center
  Provo, UT, 84604

Price of Meal:

  $8.02 - Includes: Philly & Everything + additional add-on (cream cheese), onion rings and a drink.

Critique:

Today the lunch crew decided to go to "The Steak & Everything Grill" aka. "The Great Steak Sandwich co." The restaurant had a Mayberry feel to it, the kind where you could have a "my usual please" order. Our server was very friendly and helpful. We had a large group of guys with us today, all with strange requests but she handled it with grace.  She had no problem when one of the lunch crew ordered a shake and told her to bring him something tasty. I think I have tried this at other places only to have them make me pick it myself.  I actually swapped out my order of fries for an order of onion rings well after I had already placed my order, but once again it was no problem for our server. 

There was a bottle of ketchup and fry-sauce on almost every table, which apparently is becoming one of my eating out experiences pet peeves when sauces are not provided for free, and in abundance.

The onion rings were great, the cheese steak was dry for my liking (makes me wish I would have added some marinara sauce.) The taste was eerily familiar to the Italian places Philly 'n' Everything, which is not a bad thing.

The bun was fresh and had a good heavy feel to it, but I felt it could have been cut a little deeper and the toppings could have been stuffed more into the bun.  The whole time eating my sandwich I had to keep stuffing the toppings back into the bun.

Even though the portions appeared to be smaller than I would expect I walked away very full, and remained full for most of the day.  I guess sometimes your eyes are smaller than your stomach.

Rating:


Today's Sandwich: 6
Overall Sandwich: 6
Customer Service: 9
Overall Satisfaction: 7

URL:

The Steak & Everything Grill

Additional reviews:

Everything-on-great-steak

Chubby's Cafe

Location:

 670 West State Road
 Pleasant Grove, UT
 84062

Price of meal:

  $8.37 - Includes: Chubby Cheese Steak and Beer batter fries.

Critique:

After driving by Chubby's Cafe a few time and always saying "Hey we should eat there", it was time for the lunch crew to finally give it a try. I love greasy spoon like establishments, and from the outside it appeared that is what we were going to expect.

The inside was a modern but rustic environment with an atmosphere that I would expect from a place called Chubby's. There were at least four items on the menu that I wanted to try, but today I went with the Chubby Cheese steak and for $.50 cents more I got the beer battered fries. (The Reuben, American cheeseburger and Chubby classics buffalo wings will have to wait for another day.)

The service was quick and the cashier was very friendly and helpful when trying to decide what to eat. One of the coolest things I saw there was a fork and spoon dispenser. I love the idea of this because I am one of those guys that doesn't mind his own germs or hands touching things, but the idea of someone else touching my fork, or spoon just creeps me out. Plus being a kid at heart I loved pressing that button and seeing a fork pop out.

The first thing I noticed when my food arrived was that it was greasy, but being a greasy spoon it was perfect. I tend to always eat my fries first because I don't want them to get cold. The fries were very good and they provided fry sauce (for free might I mention).
The cheese steak bun was toasted (always a nice touch) and the contents were your typical cheese steak. Steak, a variety of grille bell peppers, possibly some grilled onions, swiss cheese, pepper jack cheese, and for a twist horse radish sauce.

The meat was large enough that I actually had to chew it which I feel is absolutely needed in a cheese steak, I had a nice mixture of red and green bell peppers. I am not sure if there were any grilled onions on the sandwich, maybe I should have looked harder before I ate it. My number one complaint though, this is a biggie in my book, was that the cheese tasted like a processed cheese. The kind of cheese that you would buy from the store, pre-sliced and individually wrapped. I absolutely do not like this kind of cheese and it made it very difficult for me to eat my sandwich. This in my opinion was a fatal flaw that will keep me from purchasing this sandwich again. To make this sandwich better, I would suggest using a different cheese (not flavor of cheese), adding more grilled onions and peppers and spicing it up with fresh ground black pepper.

I look forward to coming back to Chubby's Cafe and trying some of their other items on the menu, but I won't be getting the cheese steak again. Look for my next review which will be on their Chubby's classic buffalo chicken wings.

Rating:

Today's Sandwich: 5
Customer Service: 8
Overall Satisfaction: 7

URL:

Chubby's Cafe

the Wing Coop - We do wings right?

Location:

  3971 Wasatch Boulevard
  Salt Lake City, UT 84124

Critique:

I needed to go to SLC today to run some errands, so part of the lunch crew decided to come with me so we could try out the Wing Coop (Today is almost a national holiday when it comes to work, so the other half of the lunch crew were all gone on holiday already.)

Ovi Maps couldn't find the place, so I had to rely on good old google maps to get there.  Once we were pointed in the right direction finding the place was not hard at all as it is off of a major road, all be it in a small strip mall.   The place from the outside appeared to be a hole in the wall, which for me is how it should be for wings. (A fancy wing place, just makes me think I am paying to much for my wings.)  The inside of the restaurant is decked out in what I would call an "extreme sports" motif and once again I think this goes well with wings.  After checking out the menu and seeing what they offered (17 sauces) we decided to go with the Wednesday special. 20 wings, 2 drinks and a large fry.  We were able to choose 4 different sauces with our 20 wings, so we were able to try a few of them out.

When it came time to order we did end up standing at the cash register for quite some time, while the employees were doing something.  Not sure if they were filling an order, or reading a book but it took some time to actually place the order.   Two things that I noticed right away about the wing coop. 1st, all dipping sauces cost .50 cents (no dipping sauce for free) and 2nd, there was no sauce for the fries (ketchup or fry-sauce, or anything) For a place that prides itself on their wings sauce, they seem to forget about the staples (fries) and the sauce they need.  Eventually I was able to find a container of ketchup packets.

Sauce flavors from top to bottom:
Confucius, Kansas City BBQ, Honey Habenero,
and  Spicy Garlic.

Our wings came out in a pretty timely manner on a large tray, with four containers of wings, one for each sauce.  After attempting to determine what sauce was what, we ended up asking one of the employees, who also had to make a best guess.  Even after asking the employee we still took a few minutes to figure out the flavors. I am not certain how they cook their wings, but I would prefer them a little more crunchy. Of the four sauces I tried today, I think I liked the Confucius sauce the best. It is described as "Our Asian sauce with citrus, sweet and spicy zest." which adequately describes the sauce. The sauce was lite, tangy and had a wonderful ginger flavor (unfortunately I didn't order these, so I was only able to sample one wing). I was only able to taste the sauce of the Kansas City BBQ and it tasted as I would expect. The two wing sauces I was able to eat a lot of were the Spicy Garlic and Honey Habanero. The later of the two having won them the National Buffalo Chicken Wing Festival winners award in 2007. I always love a sauce that portrays opposite flavors well. The sweetness of the honey coupled with the spiciness of the habanero blended well and I could see how this was an award winning sauce. The Spicy Garlic sauce was about what I expected, it was very simular in flavor to other spicy garlic wings that I have had elsewhere. They are listed as being almost the hottest wings they sell, but I honestly though the honey habanero were spicier and they are only listed as mild.

Overall my experience at the wing Coop was very pleasant, the food was good and the atmosphere was good. Would I eat there again? Yes. Would I recommend it to others? Yes. Are they the best wings I have ever had? Well I will answer that with a ?.

I am looking forward to trying some of their other sauces to see what flavorful concoctions they have come up with, and perhaps I will find myself a new favorite wing sauce, and in the process a new favorite wing shop.

Rating:

Today's Wings: 7
Overall Wings: 7
Customer Service: 7
Overall Satisfaction: 7

URL:

The Wing Coop

    "Urbanspoon rocks"

Magleby's Fresh

Location:

  135 S. State Street
  Lindon, UT 84042

Critique:

Today's choice for lunch was Magleby's Fresh in Lindon. My first impression upon walking into the restaurant was "Wow there are a lot women who eat here" (for some reason there was an abundance of women, most with kids, eating there for lunch today.)

I had heard that the Philly Cheese steaks at Magleby's Fresh were pretty good, so I decided it was time to try one out. Once I arrived and was inside the restaurant the pictures of different menu items, that were on the walls, kept making me want to change my mind about what I wanted to eat. The fish and chips kept calling my name, and I had to constantly remind myself that I was here for the Cheese steak.

Their Philly Cheese steak came with all my favorite toppings for a cheese steak: Peppers, onions, tomatoes, mushrooms and of course, cream cheese.  All of their sandwiches also came with a choice of one of the follow side dishes: Fries, mashed potatoes, coleslaw, sauteed vegetables, or fresh fruit.

I went with their fries, which are battered before being fried, giving them an additional crispiness that I thoroughly enjoyed.  The sandwich itself was of a good size, and was visually appetizing. The first thing that I noticed with my first bite was that the hoagie bun was slightly toasted which added a new degree of texture to the sandwich that I was not expecting, but liked a lot.  The meat was cut up in small enough pieces so I didn't have to tear it with my teeth in order to take a bite, but big enough to give it some substance when chewing. The vegetables were also cut into larger sizes, which I prefer. I felt it gave them more of a presence in the sandwich, where as with many cheese steaks that I have eaten they seem to get lost in the over all build of the sandwich, and to top it all off it was smothered with cream cheese. I am a cream cheese kind of guy, so for it to be offered as part of the sandwich without me having to order it special, I think that is top notch.  One of the key touches to the sandwich though was the fresh cracked black pepper which in my opinion just makes the sandwich that much better.


So to sum up my experience.  The fries were good, the sandwich was great, and I walked away very full, all for eight dollars and seven cents.

Now for the tough questions:

Would I go back to Magleby's Fresh to eat another Philly Cheese steak? Yes.
Was the food worth they money? Yes.
Would I go back to Magleby's Fresh to eat? Yes.

I would recommend this restaurant to any person, regardless of what you like to eat you can find something on their menu you are going to love.


Rating:


Today's Sandwich: 8
Overall Sandwich: 8
Customer Service: 8
Overall Satisfaction: 8


URL:


Magleby's Fresh

For an additional review, check out my buddies blog.
Big John Reviews: Good Carrot Cake Average Food

Little Caesars Sells Wings?

Location: 

  787 South Us Highway 198
  Payson, UT 84651

Critique:

Yes I said it.  Little Caesars sells wings.  I guess one would have to expect this seeing as wings and pizza are like peas in a pod.  Now to put you in the right frame of mind here, I had been cutting wood all day long and was pretty hungry when I pulled up to Little Caesars Pizza. After ordering my family's usual two pizzas, I decided to also pick up some wings. (Those pictures on the windows are how they sell to a hungry man, remember that, it is always the pictures that sell).  First problem with the wings, and I consider this to be a big one, they charged me .75 cents for a small thing of ranch dipping sauce. No sauce was provided for free. So basically you get 8 wings for $5.99 plus tax, plus if you actually like to dip your wings in some sort of sauce (like I do) then another .75 cents for that. So for around $7.15 you get 8 wings with sauce.

OK now onto the actual wings.  I personally like my wings to be more on the crunchy side, which to me is a sign of being cooked (baked or broiled). My first problem with the Caesars wings was the slimy texture of the wing, which tells my brain "Not cooked". I am not saying that the wings were not cooked, I am just saying that is how it appeared.  I am not sure how these wings are cooked, maybe boiled. Once I was able to get past the problem of the texture, the wings were actually not bad, not awesome but not bad. Probably something I would expect from a fast food joint serving wings.  They are definitely not homemade.  The sauce is claimed to be a "buffalo style sauce" but I would probably say it was more of the Louisiana wings style, or maybe a mix of the two, which is where the problem lies, the sauce doesn't know who it is and it does nether of the two well.  Ether be 100% buffalo style, or 100% Louisiana style.  With that said, the wings were good enough to feed a hungry man, but would I ever go there just to get some wings, more than likely not.

Ratings:

 Wings: 5
 Customer Service: 7
 Satisfaction: 6

URL:


Little Caesars Pizza

Welcome to YuppyVille - Pizzeria 712

Location: 


320 S. State St. #185
Orem, UT 84058
(801) 623-6712

Critique: 


When I first walked in I immediately felt like I needed an iPhone just to fit in. My friend and I just stood there in the middle of the restaurant looking confused as to if we were to seat ourselves or if someone was going to come and seat us, maybe we just needed an app for that. Finally after 4 or so minutes we were put out of our confusion by a waiter finally seating us.  Once seated we were poured water from a fancy bottle to give the illusions of something nice, yet it was still just culinary water as noticed by the taste of chlorine.  We were given paper lunch menus that were completely lacking in coherency. There were no titles given to the dishes, just descriptions of the ingredients, leaving me to guess as to what it really was.  When our waiter finally came to take our order I had to ask what each dish was, the one dish I was looking at ordering actually was a sandwich even though it was no where to be found in the description.

Once I was able to order my food, I felt that it came out in a timely fashion.    The particular dish I ordered was a sandwich with pastrami and well, I cannot remember what else was on it because it was just that memorable. My first thought upon seeing it was "Did they cook this with the George Foreman Grill?"  The sandwich had a one dimensional taste, each flavor blended into the next leaving me with a forgettable sandwich.  It was so greasy that the grease was literally running off my hands. Needless to say I was very disappointed in my $9 sandwich.

My friend who was with me ordered the Sausage Pizza, and gave me a piece.  OK now here is something to remember.  The pizza was a Brick oven style pizza, the first thing you notice when you take a bite is the freshness of the sauce.  You can actually taste the real tomatoes that were used to make the sauce.  The sausage was good, and I welcomed the splash of roasted green peppers.  Had it not been for this slice of pizza, my experience at Pizzeria 712 would have been so negative that I would not have been able to in my right mind ever referred or even referenced this place for another to eat there.  The pizza, which was about 14" was priced around $13 bucks, which was on par with what I would expect from a non-chained restaurant.

Once we were done with our meal and we had thrown in the towel (The napkins on the table), it took the waiter over 5 minutes or so to even recognize that we were finished.  When he came to clean our table, he could/should have brought our checks, but instead we waited what seemed like another 10 minutes for the check. My overall time to eat lunch there (mind you it didn't seem that busy) was a little over an hour.

Over all, I was not impressed at all by the sandwich, but I did enjoy the pizza.  The service was on par with the worst I have had. I have a simple rule on how to gauge the service of a restaurant. If my glass is empty that is poor service, if my glass remains empty that is bad service, if my glass is never filled, it is terrible service. To sum up how my glass was when I left, I actually left the establishment parched and needed to go get a drink.

The environment reminded me of nothing less than a trendy little downtown shop, ran by the straight legged skinny jean community.  I don't think I would eat there again for lunch, possibly for dinner, but only if I ordered a pizza.  The $10 bucks spent for lunch vs. the taste, vs the amount of food just doesn't make eating there worth it. 

Rating: 

Today's Food: 3
Overall Food: 6 (Saved by the pizza, had it not been for the sandwich it would have been an 8)
Customer Service: 3
Overall Satisfaction:4

URL:

Pizzeria 712

The Italian Place

Location:

 569 N State St.
 Lindon, UT 84042
 801-796-5622
Critque:

The Italian Place serves up some great sandwiches and salads, with the Steak & Cheese being their speciality. Their sandwiches come in 3 different sizes: Half ($4.79) Full ($6.99) and The Monster ($9.29). I usually order a Full and a water which brings my bill to about $7.50, but I think in the future (because the full is so filling) I might cut back to only the half sandwich and get it in the combo meal for the same price. The combo meal comes with a drink and your choice of a salad or potato chips. Today I had a Full Philly `n' Everything, slightly modified to my liking. The Philly `n' Everything comes with: Steak, mushrooms, cream cheese, green peppers, onions & tomatoes. I like to add marinara sauce to the mix to give it that little extra bit a flavor. Today's sandwich was good as always, my only complaint being the roll (bun, hero) that they use is always on the dry and on the brittle side (I believe this is probably a roll that is close to what is used in the boroughs of New York City). If they were to change the roll to something more of egg style roll (I like the heavier feel of the bread) I think that the overall sandwich will benefit from it and would be better. The meat in today's sandwich seemed to be chopped up a bit finer than normal and I prefer larger chunks of meat to give the sandwich more texture which my mouth seems to enjoy. Overall I quite enjoy The Italian Place, and I frequent the establishment often, which says a lot because I have rarely found a place out West that serves a Philly style cheese steak that is worth eating at more than once.

Ratings:


Today's Sandwich: 7
Overall Sandwich: 7
Customer Service: 8
Overall Satisfaction: 7

URL: 
The Italian Place

Smokehouse Pizza & BBQ

Location:

  214 E University Pkwy
  Orem, UT 84058-7601

Critique:


Today the lunch crew and I went to Smokehouse off of a recommendation of a friend of mine, he recommend the pizza, but being a lover of a good cheese steak I had to give their cheese steak a try.

The atmosphere had a typical BBQ feel to it, large bench like tables, and a wonderful smell of smoked meat. Our waitress was friendly when she greeted us and was cheerful about helping us to decide what side dish we wanted with our food.  They provided a number of different side dishes ranging from baked beans, to fries.  I ended up choosing coleslaw.

The cheese steak featured slow roasted smoke meat, with a house BBQ sauce green peppers and grilled onions. So far so good.

Usually when talking about food one would pretty much describe the taste and that description alone would be enough to determine if the food was good or bad, but in this instance I am going to have to bring in texture.  The cheese steak had a wonderful BBQ flavor and the meat was very tender, but here lies the problem I had with it.  The meat was too tender. Yes I said it the meat was too tender.  This might not be a problem with most people, but with me it made it very difficult to eat.  In my mind I already have an idea of what I think a sandwich should be like, so I am expecting to chew my meat, but in this case the meat was so tender it came across as more of a meat paste than meat. The only way I can describe this is the difference between eating a banana and eating a mushed up banana.  If you have ever had to eat a mushed up banana then you know what I am talking about.

The cost of my sandwich and coleslaw after tax was nine bucks and seven cents.  It was a filling meal, but defiantly was a little more than I like to spend on lunch.

After eating my Philly cheese steak, I had wished I would have gone with the known classic, their pulled pork sandwich, where the tenderness of the meat could have been fully appreciated.  The next time I eat here, I will be ordering the pulled pork sandwich or a pizza.

Rating:

Today's Sandwich: 6
Customer Service: 8
Overall Satisfaction: 6

URL:

Smokehouse Pizza & BBQ

Rocky Mountain Wingshak

The Wingshak (as I call it because saying "Rocky Mountain Wingshak, just takes to long) provides some tasty wings at a slightly high cost. For around 9 bucks you get 8 wings of one flavor, fries or tots (I love the tots choice) and a drink. 9 bucks is a little more than I like to spend for lunch, but I do like the wings so I usually end up eating here frequently.


The Wingshak provides 12 different flavor of wings. 8 flavors of the buffalo style, and 4 of the sweet style.

Buffalo Style

· Mild · Medium · Hot · XX ·

· Garlic Pepper · Hot Garlic Pepper ·

· XX Garlic Pepper · Lemon Pepper ·

Sweet Style

· BBQ · Pineapple BBQ · Hot BBQ · Teriyaki ·

Today I ordered the garlic pepper wings, which in the past have been my favorites but today they seemed to be a little closer to the mild wings. They were lacking in pepper and garlic. Will I order them again? Of course, I have had them before and usually they are excellent.

Customer service was great. We were greeted warmly by the cashier, and at multiple times were asked how things were by both the cashier and the cook.

The most important thing behind taste (obviously) is for the money did I get my fill or do I feel like I need to eat again after I leave. The answer to this question is no.  I always leave full, which makes the 9 bucks easier to swallow.

Ratings:

Today's Wings: 7
Overall Wings: 8
Customer Service: 9
Overall Satisfaction: 8


URL:
http://wingshak.com/