Wednesday, December 15, 2010

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

Steak & Everything Grill on Urbanspoon

Monday, December 6, 2010

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

Chubby's Cafe‎ on Urbanspoon