Johnny Be Good

December 11, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Johnny’s Navajo Hogan

Johnny's Navajo HoganThe Navajo Hogan has been in town for over 80 years. You can read all about their history on their menu or their website. It’s a super cool building with two crazy wooden domes. As long as I can remember, it’s been a restaurant, although it has changed ownership a number of times.

I went for lunch with a group of friends. Upon looking at the menu my initial reaction was that the appetizers are way overpriced ($8 for fried zucchini, $10 for nachos? Really? I hope they are HUGE orders.) I thought my wallet was in for it for a minute. Thankfully, the rest of the menu is much kinder.

I ordered a chicken avocado burrito ($8.95), and since this place is so well known for its broasted chicken, I had to try that too. I ordered a leg ($1.29). Around the table, my friends ordered various other items - Indian taco, pizza, more chicken, etc.

Johnny's Navajo HoganOur table was strategically positioned so that we could watch the cooks shoving food out of the window from the kitchen. Everything they put out looked terrific, and gigantic! There must have been a backlog of orders, because our food took a very long time. The waitress was friendly and attentive, and kept our drinks full during the wait. Finally, our food arrived.

My burrito looked great, and tasted better. It was chock full of tender chunks of chicken. The avocado added great texture, flavor, and coolness. The burrito was topped with green chile, black olives, and jalapeno’s  I was in heaven! It also came with a side of re-fried beans which I thought were also very good. They were just the right consistency – not soupy and gross, but not like cement either. Good flavor as well.

My broasted chicken leg was also a hit. It was seasoned perfectly and the skin had a nice crunch. The meat was tender and juicy. It was one of the best pieces of chicken I’ve ever eaten. One of the friends I was with had ordered a whole plate of chicken, and now I know why.

Johnny's Navajo HoganThe couple of slices of pizza my friends had looked terrific. I was especially jealous of Tim’s special slice (the D-Hansen) which was loaded with meat. His Indian taco also looked tasty. It reminded me of a tostada, but on thicker (and deep fried?) bread.

Overall, our trip to Johnny’s Navajo Hogan was a wonderful experience. Aside from the too-long wait time, and the pricey appetizers, I found very little to fault with this place. The food and service was top notch. Our table was even visited by a manager to ask us how everything was. These guys really seem to have it together. I’ll definitely be back.

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Murphy’s Law Ruins The Day

May 22, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Back East Bar & Grill – Restaurant Review

Back East Bar & GrillThis review is going to be very hard for me to write, because I LOVE Back East Bar & Grill.

I’ve been eating at the various incarnations of it for over 10 years, and have been to this location dozens of times.  It has always been a great experience.  As dictated by Murphy’s Law, the first time I decide to bring my camera with the intention of writing about it, I have a less than stellar experience.  Do NOT use this review as a reason to avoid Back East Bar & Grill.

Years ago, Back East Pizza & Subs was located at Murray and Airport.  It was pickup or delivery only.  My co-workers and I used to go there for lunch, then eat our food in the parking lot.  There was a bird-poop covered concrete half wall that separated the sidewalk in front of the store from the parking lot we used to sit on.  The food was so good, we didn’t care that we were sitting on a wall covered with bird crap.  After they shut down, I spent a couple of years lamenting the fact that they were gone before I discovered that they had moved up north and changed their name.

The new location is awesome – they have tables and everything!

The restaurant is in a nice area, nestled behind the Salsa Brava on Briargate.  They have many TVs located well enough that no matter where you sit, you will be able to watch one.  There is a sizable bar dividing the dining room into two halves, and baseball caps, football helmets, jerseys, and other sports paraphenlia hang from the ceiling and adorn the walls.

When my friend Mark and I walked in, we stood by the entrance with nobody to greet us.  After a few moments, we asked the bartender if we were supposed to seat ourselves (not normal.)  He said no, and ran off to find someone.  A minute later a hostess arrived and led us to a table.

After looking over the extensive menu, I decided on the parmasan chicken sandwich, with “spicy tater munchers.”

Then we waited – for what seemed like a very long time.  Way longer than usual.  It seemed to take forever to get our food.  The restaurant was quite busy, but it looked like only two waitresses were on duty.  Actually just one.  The second one was a trainee who was either following the primary one around observing, or tentatively venturing off on her own to do an occasional drink refill.  They were both very friendly, and did an adequate job keeping our drinks topped off, but the food took abnormally long to arrive.

We finally received our lunch, and the first thing I noticed was that my parmasan chicken sandwich seemed awfully light on the mozzerella.  When I bit into it, the chicken seemed a bit dry and perhaps a tad rubbery – as if it had been sitting in a warming drawer for too long.  I have to say, it was a fairly disappointing sandwich.

The spicy tater munchers were great!  They are basically differently shaped tater tots, with a little bit of cheese (I think) and something spicy (maybe jalapenos) mixed in.  I love them.  They were hot in the middle, and crispy on the outside.  I only wish I could say the same about my chicken!

For today, I have to give my visit a mediocre rating of 2 stars.  It pains me greatly to do it, and I’m hoping to re-visit soon to bring that rating up!  I always have a wonderful time here, but I’m afraid I happened to catch them on an off shift.

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Pretentious But Friendly

January 15, 2010 By Leave a Comment
This restaurant is no longer in business.
Piazza Wine Bar And Pizzeria – Restaurant Review

Piazza opened up about 7 weeks ago where Slayton’s BBQ used to be. My friend Mark and I finally got around to trying it. I have to admit, my first impression wasn’t great. It seemed like they were trying too hard to be elegant, but it came off as pretentious. It seemed like they were trying to be a more upscale version of Il Vicino, but not succeeding. Some of these initial thoughts turned out to be true, but not all of them.

First – Piazza IS a ripoff of Il Vicino. It is a wine bar / gourmet pizza place. It differentiates itself by offering full service dining. The pizzas are slightly pricier than Il Vicino and, unfortunately, more limited. There are only a handful of pizzas on the menu, and none of them seemed particularly adventurous. They do have a lot of spaghetti options, and a few well priced sandwiches, however.

Our waitress defied the atmosphere by being very smiley and friendly – not stuffy at all. Mark ordered a Rustica pizza, and I went with a chicken parmesan sandwich and a bowl of minestrone soup. It took a while to get our order, but just as I was getting antsy, it arrived.

Mark’s pizza was huge – it was literally hanging off the sides of the plate. When the waitress put it down, I exclaimed, “Wow, that’s big!”. Our waitress smiled and said, “It’s my favorite. Don’t tell anybody, but I can eat a whole one by myself!” I laughed, and told her that I was going to tell everybody. I’ll withhold her name, since I’m a gentleman. Or something.

The minestrone soup was average. There were lots of ingredients, but nothing stood out – it all kind of melded into the same flavor. Next time I’ll try the salad.

My chicken Parmesan sandwich was awesome. The bread was delicious, and had been grilled a bit on the inside. The chicken breast was tender and flavorful and slightly breaded and topped with tons of gooey mozzarella cheese and tomato sauce. I loved it. My iced tea was well priced, at only $1.25, which is very unusual – usually drinks are a huge profit margin for restaurants.Chicken Parmesan Sandwich

Overall, I thought it was a good experience. Il Vicino has them beat when it comes to options and quality of pizza, but if you are in the area, you won’t be disappointed by Piazza. The sandwich was fantastic, and the service was good. We paid about twelve dollars each for lunch, which is acceptable.

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Not What I Remember

June 11, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Roman Villa Pizza – Restaurant Review

Roman Villa PizzaI’ve been trying to visit this place for a few weeks, but it is deceptively difficult. Its closed for lunch. It’s also closed on Mondays. Finally, I brought my family here on a Thursday night, right after work. We tried to beat the dinner rush, but the place was packed. We were lucky, and were sat at one of the last tables. I had come here once before, a long time ago (approximately 18 years), and I remembered it being a nice quite, good dining experience. Either my memory is faulty (hey, I’m getting old), or it has changed significantly.

There were no kids options on the menu, so I asked the waitress if they had anything for children. They do. You can get a kids sized cheese pizza for cheap ($3.00), and add toppings for only fifty cents. They will also do a child portion of pasta. There is nothing written down about this, you have to ask for it.

The service was bad. It several minutes for us to be acknowledged after we were sat, and longer for drinks, and longer still for our order to be taken. Every time our waitress came to our table, she apologized profusely about the level of service, but that of course does nothing to change it.

My son went for the kids pepperoni pizza, my daughter and I decided to share a 12″ pizza, and my wife ordered the Roman Villa Chicken, which sounded great on the menu.

From the time we arrived, to the time we received our food, nearly an hour had elapsed.

The pizza looked good, and honestly I didn’t have a lot of complaints about its quality. It was good pizza. It took us a few seconds to find our pepperonis (they were under the cheese), but they were there in abundance. I had mushrooms on my half, and they were plentiful and fresh. The pizza was good, but honestly, I didn’t think it was better than Il Vicino. It was a pretty big step up from Dominos or Pizza Hut though, and seemed like a good value ($12.00).

Roman Villa PizzaMy wife’s Roman Villa Chicken was another matter. It sounded great – cheese, artichoke hearts, and a chicken breast baked in some kind of yummy sauce. In practice, the chicken was a bit dry, and tasted a touch like fish. She was not impressed, and by the couple bites I stole from her, neither was I. The cheese and artichokes were good at least.

While we were eating, my son noticed a spider hanging from the ceiling by a strand of web, about 8 inches from his head. He pointed it out, and my wife and daughter freaked out. My son and I thought it was kind of funny, but the arachnophobes in my family sure didn’t. We ended up crushing it in a napkin and setting it aside.

Overall, I can’t give this experience more than an average rating. Stay away from the house dishes, and stick with the pizza. If you are going to take your family out to Pizza Hut anyway, this is a good alternative. It is not a small romantic Italian eatery that you would want to take a date to. It is crowded, slow, and loud and they really only do pizza well. And there are spiders.

I’m a believer in second chances, but when I told my family that we should come back some other time and see if it was a fluke, I was met with a resounding “NO!”

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Cinco de Mayo Letdown

May 5, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Jorge’s Mexican Restaurant – Restaurant Review

Jorge’s Mexican RestaurantMy buddy Sean asked if I wanted to try out Jorge’s Mexican Restaraunt – in the old Henri’s location. I’d never been there, so I readily accepted.

Considering its location, parking was surprisingly plentiful and easy to find. We parked around back. The front door kind of sticks, so it was little bit hard for me to open – I actually thought it might be closed, but one of the diners inside noticed and got up to help push the door open. My friends and I came in and stood there for a few minutes while we were ignored by the one waitress on duty. Finally, we decided to grab a table, and hope somebody noticed us.

Eventually, an apologetic waitress came to help us. Mark ordered cheese enchiladas, Sean got the chicken taquitos. I wanted the tostadas, but couldn’t decide if I wanted chicken, beef, or chorizo. I asked if I could get different meats on them, and was told that it costs “a dollar extra per meat.” Ouch! Talk about nickel and diming you for no real extra work. I went ahead and just got two chicken tostadas. I ordered mine with beans instead of rice.

When it arrived, the first, obvious thing I noticed was that I had rice. I told the waitress, and she rushed back to get me a side of beans. Mark was happy to take the rice off my hands.

The food was really just ok. The chips and salsa we ordered were good – the salsa has a kick, so if you’re a wuss, be careful! My tostadas were pretty plain, and the chicken was fairly dry, and very bland. Sean agreed that the chicken in his taquitos was nothing special. It was certainly edible, but it didn’t knock our socks off.

Mark, on the other hand, was very happy. He claims to personally make the best enchiladas in town, and whenever we eat at a new (to us) Mexican place, he always tests the waters with cheese enchiladas. Inevitably, he complains that they aren’t as good as his own – especially the sauce. At Jorge’s, however, he was content. Their enchiladas and sauce was the closest to his own that he’s found. He gave Sean and I each a bite, and I have to admit – it was very good. Definitely better than my chicken tostada!

The price here is about average, unfortunately, so is the food. The bright side is that its right next door to the chocolate factory, which is a great place to go for dessert – which we did!

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Chicken Made Of Beef

March 6, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Stevie Ray’s Eastside Grill – Restaurant Review

Stevie Ray's Eastside GrillI was taking my family to dinner but had no idea where to go, when my daughter suggested we try Stevie Ray’s, which had just opened up where Ruby’s Diner used to be.

With a name like Stevie Ray’s, I had high hopes. Unfortunately, after asking the hostess, it turned out that this restaurant had nothing to do with Stevie Ray Vaughan. Apparently Stevie Ray is the nickname of the owner. Major letdown. And no cool blues music in the restaurant either.

One super cool thing we noticed right away were the train tracks. Suspended from the ceiling and forming a large oval around the dining room are two train tracks, each with trains traveling the opposite direction of each other. Very neat, and my kids were entranced throughout our entire dinner.

The restaurant in general felt very classy, and I honestly expected it to be fairly expensive. I was pleasantly surprised by the menu. It’s only slightly more expensive than Denny’s or Village Inn. A typical entree is around 10 bucks – very affordable. I ordered a Mushroom Swiss Chicken Burger (with Clam Chowder instead of fries), and my wife went with the Pot Roast Dinner.

The chowder came out first, and it was awesome. It was the perfect thickness, not watered down and runny. It had plenty of potatoes, and they didn’t skimp on the clam, like most places. Also, it had bacon in it, and lots of it! This was, quite frankly, the best New England style clam chowder I’ve ever eaten. It was amazing.

Stevie Ray's Eastside Grill

My chicken arrived, and apparently it was made of beef. What are they feeding chickens these days?! Ok, so my order got screwed up, and I got a hamburger, instead of a chicken burger. They got the swiss and mushrooms right though. The burger looked so good (and I was hungry enough) that I didn’t bother complaining, and just ate it anyways. It was delicious, although I would have ordered it medium rare given the choice.

My wife let me try her roast and it was great too. Very tender and flavorful, topped with delicious gravy. There were no complaints at our table.

Despite the amazing food and nice atmosphere, I was going to give Stevie Ray’s a mere three and a half stars. Primarily because a) They screwed up my order, and b) There was no awesome blues music. However, because the clam chowder was so good, I’m going to bump em back up to four. Still very good by my reckoning, but they could have done better.

Hopefully this place fares better than Ruby’s Diner and stays in business long enough for more people to come enjoy it!

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I’m eating… WHAT?

February 18, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Trivelli’s Hoagies – Restaurant Review

Trivelli’s HoagiesIt has been many months since my last post, but I’ve finally figured out my hosting, so hopefully I’ll fix this site up and carry on as if nothing happened!

Trivelli’s. Ahh, what more can I say? I love this place. Trivelli’s Hoagies has been in town for as long as I can remember (the original shop on Nevada & Fillmore). They’ve opened up a couple of extra stores (not all of them survived), and the one on Austin Bluffs has even gone through an ownership change. But the quality of their food hasn’t deteriorated.

The restaurant is tiny – maybe 6 tables. I think they survive on Doherty High lunch business. If you can, you want to time your visit around that, or you may have a hard time finding a table, or find yourself in a crowded dining room full of rowdy teenagers. When Z and I got here, the place was dead.

I almost always go for the cheesesteak (because its sooo good), but today, I decided to live on the edge, and try something different. I ordered the Italian Chicken. As long as I was being daring, I decided to try a pickled egg that I saw floating in a jar full of yellowish liquid on the counter.

While I was waiting for my sandwich, I dug into the egg. I’ve never eaten a pickled egg before, so it was a rather strange experience. It was pretty firm, and resilient – I had to be careful not to break my plastic fork taking a chunk off of it. I’m a fan of pickled things, so I enjoyed it. It was pickly and eggy. After I was done eating it, Z commented that he doesn’t often feel never feels the urge to eat things that look like they are floating in a jar of toilet water. I looked up at the jar on the counter, and decided that he was right.. It DID look like a jar of toilet water. Upon reflection, I guess thats why I write this site – not him :p

The Italian Chicken was awesome. It had provolone on the bun, with the chicken thinly cut and spread on top of the cheese. Marinara sauce was heaped on the chicken, and the whole deal was topped with parmesan. The chicken was super tender, and tasted amazing. The sandwich was pretty hard to eat, having been heavily doused with sauce, but I managed.

Overall, I was extremely glad to have taken a little step outside my box. I would definitely recommend the Italian Chicken at Trivelli’s, and I’m sure I’ll have it again in the future!

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The Price Is Rite At Rong Cheng

August 26, 2008 By 2 Comments

Rong Cheng – Restaurant Review

Rong ChengZ isn’t much for Chinese food, so when he told me he’d be willing to give Rong Cheng a try, I jumped at the opportunity!

Rong Cheng has a tough legacy to live up to. It’s located in the King Soopers Strip mall at Academy and Woodman, in the spot where Hong Kong used to be – and Hong Kong was awesome, and was one of the best Chinese restaurants in town (especially their Mongolian beef!). Rong Cheng has been at this location for a few years, but in my mourning for Hong Kong’s demise, I just never made it over to try.

I loved Hong Kong’s Mongolian beef so much, I didn’t think it would be fair to get it at Rong Cheng on my first visit – my judgment would be compromised – so I decided to go with General Tso’s Chicken.

Our server was great – she obviously spoke very little English, but it added to her charm. When she brought us waters, she said “Watie! Watie! very rapidly, as she sat them down. She seemed to understand us well enough though, because she brought us exactly what we ordered.

Originally, I didn’t realize just how quiet the restaurant was, but when our waitress sat our food down, the music came on. It was was a hilarious contrast with the setting – the Jackson Five. I guess it was a CD, because they were playing for the rest of the time we were there – it wasn’t bad, just bizarre :)

The food was great! I was pleasantly surprised at how good it was. The fried rice was good, the chicken was good, and the eggroll was good. I would have preferred more meat in the eggroll, but it wasn’t abnormal for a restaurant eggroll.

In addition to being surprisingly good, the meal was super cheap. My lunch combo cost $5.25 plus tax and tip. You can easily get out of here for 7 or 8 bucks.

Overall, I liked it a lot. I’ll be back!

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