Clubhouse Lawyer

Cafe Japone

2007-05-06T15:34:00.000-07:00

I just have a few more weeks in DC, so I'm trying to do as much as I can as time permits. One of my co-workers is also leaving DC soon and this past Friday was her last day in the office. We had a sort of going away at Cafe Japone Saturday night.

Cafe Japone is a Japanese restaurant at 2032 P St NW near Dupont Circle.

As an aside, most of the other circles in DC that are named after people have a statute of the person in the middle of it. However, Dupont has a fountain. I asked my friend who Dupont was, but she didn't know. I wondered if it was named after one of the du Ponts of the chemical company family. Do you know any duPonts not related in some way to that family? I don't ether. Turns out the circle is named after Samuel Francis Du Pont, a Union Admiral during the Civil War.

The sushi at Cafe Japone on Saturday night was decent, but it didn't smell or taste as fresh as at a lot of other places. I ordered the $40 chef's choice sushi for 2 with my friend. There was the usual selection of sushis and sashimis, nothing overly exotic or interesting. There was some octopus, so that was a pleasant surprise.

Now, the reason to go to Cafe Japone is not the food, but for the karaoke that starts at 9:30. My friends were sitting at a corer table and sang a couple songs. I wasn't nearly intoxicated enough to try my hand at it though. The table next to us was a group of guys who sang everything, with or without a mic. They were totally drunk, but a lot of fun too. There were some other people at the restaurant who wanted to try to seriously sing and seemed upset at those guys. The format is an open mic restaurant, not private rooms. Also, there were no scores posted after the performance, so your singing couldn't be electronically rated on its badness. No, there was no Simon Cowell treatment, unfortunately.

It was Cinco de Mayo and the weather was pretty bad, so maybe that's why the place seemed so empty. It was moderately fun, the food was overpriced. I don't think I'd come back personally, but it could be a fun place to go.

Full Kee

2007-05-02T00:00:00.000-07:00

DC's Chinatown is a small place, about 3 blocks long, all right along H Street. While standing beside the Arch at 7th welcoming you to Chinatown, you can look down the street and see the end of it too. Go off H street and then you'll see a bunch of non-Chinese places too. San Francisco or New York, this is not.

I met a friend from school at Full Kee. Now, growing up in Richmond, Full Kee was the name of the only place in town that served Dim Sum. It was bad dim sum, but there wasn't anywhere else to go. Up in DC, this Full Kee specializes in dumpling and noodle soups. Or at least that's probably the only thing that I would eat there. I've been there a few times before, for decent lunches on cold days. The trip from school is just a short walk.

The place is pretty barren. There's a windowed booth at the front of the restaurant where a sole cook works to make dumplings. In the back is a kitchen where other foods are prepared. Decor is minimal, but the price is right.

A bowl costs about 5 bucks. If you order the soup with noodles, you'll get about 5 dumplings. Without noodles, there are about 8 dumplings. The broth is nice and hot. It is a great soup to make you forget the cold weather, albeit for the 15 minutes you might be eating. This isn't a place where you want to linger to enjoy the environment.

I've had much better dumpling soup before, but this wasn't bad. I've certainly frequented Full Kee more than once.

Ben's Chili Bowl

2007-04-28T22:08:00.000-07:00

I noticed a huge spike in my traffic on Friday. Thanks to DCBlogs for linking my last entry and for everyone who clicked to read. However, over 100 readers and no comments?

Anyway, I was feeling a little down tonight and met up with a friend who was also feeling a little down. We went up to U Street to hang out a little and walk around. After talking for a while, we ended up at Ben's Chili Bowl at around midnight. Neither of us were that hungry, but who can't use a hot bowl of chili at that time of night?

The place was absolutely packed, so it had to be good. We split a large bowl of beef chili and I tell you, it was delicious. I totally forgot that I wasn't hungry and really enjoyed it. The bowl comes steaming hot with 2 packages of crackers.

At first you just taste the beef and the beans, but then there's a spicy little kick. Be prepared for that. The spiciness is just the perfect amount for the hotness of the chili. Just like cool chili is no good, bland chili is no good either.

The restaurant seems kind of small initially, but it really is huge. There's 2 back rooms and an upstairs too. The front room has a counter on the right where you order and pay, then a few counter seats further back. On the left are several booths and a few tables. Those fill up fast. The lights in the front room are really bright. It is a lot more muted in the back. Similarly, the music is turned way up in the front, so the chatter is very loud too. In the back rooms, it is a lot quieter, but when they fill up it gets very loud as well.

This is a place you can go with a friend or a group of friends or just by yourself. Next time, I'm going to try the chili dog and maybe chili cheese fries.

Tabard Inn

2007-04-25T10:58:00.000-07:00

Last night, for the final meeting of my workshop class, we had dinner at The Tabard Inn. It was a 2 hour working dinner where we had to discuss our final papers while eating. It was slightly uncomfortable, but at least the food was pretty good.

We were in room 26, pictured above. 14 students and 2 professors sitting around a rectangular table. It was intimidating, to say the least. We all got through though and it was our last day. I actually enjoyed that class a lot.

The Tabard Inn Restaurant is most known for its weekend brunch. In Dupont Circle, it is reputedly one of the better brunch places there. I've personally never been for brunch, so I can't attest to that.

Last night, I had an organic mixed greens salad to start. It was fairly tasty, but the Gruyere really made the dish. The slight saltiness of the cheese really contrasted well with the greens.

Next was a jumbo lump crabcake served over sweet potatoes, fava beans, tasso ham and tomatoes with a crawfish vinaigrette. The crabcake was very good with lots of fresh crabmeat. Every forkful was filled with crab and very little potato or other filling. It held together very well though, even without excess filling. I also have to say, I loved the ham cubes.

The dessert was interesting. White chocolate bread pudding with raspberry sorbet. The scoop of sorbet was far too hard and impossible to eat when it first came out. Even when the heat from the bread pudding melted it a little, the tartness of the sorbet overpowered the bread pudding. The dessert looked and sounded good, but it didn't taste so good.

All in all, it was a good meal in a somewhat uncomfortable situation.

Virginia Tech Shootings

2007-04-17T10:04:00.001-07:00

Please join me in supporting and praying for the victims and their families of the tragic shootings at Virginia Tech. These are such senseless deaths.

A friend of my roommate, a very sweet girl that I've met once, was shot (but thankfully not killed) in the attack. She was shot in the back and underwent surgery for her wounds. I pray for a full recovery.

Etete

2007-04-16T00:38:00.000-07:00

Prior to going to the cafe featured in the last post, I ate at Etete Ethiopian Cuisine. The restaurant is just a few blocks down the street from the cafe, so it was a short walk between them.

Etete is a small, but very bustling restaurant. As you walk in, there are several higher tables on the left and several regular tables on the right. The tables on the left are built into the wall and you sit on backless seats that are the height of barstools. It is an interesting setup.

We arrived at around 9:30 on a Saturday night and the place was still full. We didn't have to wait for a table, but we did sit at the last high table on the left. The table was a half oval shape and barely accommodated the glasses and napkins. I wondered how all the food would fit.

Unfortunately, my dining companion had to sit by the door to a closet. We did not know it at the time or else we would have requested a different table. However, the staff had to access the closet about 3 times over the course of the meal, each time assuring us that it would be the last time. It was definitely a distraction.

We ordered 2 glasses of the Ethiopian honey wine. I think this is the first time I've had it, I've always ordered Ethiopian beer when eating Ethiopian food before. The wine tastes a little sweet, but not in the way Riesling tastes sweet. It certainly has a different flavor, but it works well with the food.

We ordered the vegetarian sampler with fish and one of their specialty Kitfo beef dishes. It came out on an oval plate that did manage to fit on our table (barely) along with the wine. The plate was covered in the special inera bread that Ethiopian food is eaten with. A basket of 6 rolls of bread accompanied the dish. The selection of mixed vegetables ringed the edge of the plate and the beef was in the middle. However, there was one little problem...where was the fish? We tried to figure out if the fish was contained in one of the foods on the plate, but none of them looked or tasted like fish.

We asked and it turns out that the fish comes on a separate plate, but they forgot about it. The fish is served whole. I'm not sure how you eat it with your hands, but we needed a knife to cut it up so we could eat it. It was very tasty, along with all the other food. By the end, we were both stuffed with a lot of food left over.

For 2 people, the bill was quite reasonable. Remember to save room for some dessert down the street.

Love Cafe

2007-04-08T20:02:00.000-07:00

After dinner last night, we walked over to Love Cafe, a cupcake bar. The cupcake phenomenon has finally struck DC. The years I lived in New York, there were cupcake places springing up everywhere, each distinctive in some way, whether the flavor of the buttercream or the richness of the cake itself. My favorite up there was always Billy's. I loved the incredible amounts of buttercream and frosting that Billy's puts on its cupcakes. Vanilla topping on a chocolate cupcake, yummy.

At Love Cafe, I got a chocolate cupcake with raspberry frosting. There was a lot less frosting on this than Billy's. It was more like a Magnolia cupcake, but perhaps smaller. That's certainly a good thing to be compared to the pioneer of NYC cupcake bakeries.

The cake was mist, but not so much so that it stuck to my fingers. Th raspberry also was tasty and you could tell that it was fresh raspberries that went into the mix.

At $3 each, the cupcakes are a bit pricier than the NYC versions, but there's a lot less competition in DC. They also have coffee and a decent amount of seating. You can come here and relax with friends with a coffee and a cupcake after a long day or even to cap off an evening. They're open till midnight.

Legal Sea Foods

2007-04-06T13:40:00.000-07:00

With a name like lethalorlegal, this next restaurant makes a lot of sense, huh?

In my last post, I wrote about a trip to Boston. Boston is known for many things, among them clam chowder. One of the best rated clam chowders in Boston comes from Legal Sea Foods. Last night I had dinner with a friend from college at the Tyson's Corner location. Now, I've been to Legal a few times before. The first time was during a trip to Boston back in 2003. I've also been to the locations in Cambridge, Short Hills and Paramus. They're pretty uniform in quality.

Legal prides itself on having the freshest seafood (I'd add the disclaimer "of any chain restaurant"). I can't really disagree with that statement. The fish really does smell fresh, even if it isn't as fresh as top quality sashimi or fish market fresh, it is still quality seafood.

The weather's been cold here in DC. Yesterday it was in the low 30s for most of the day, so I really had a craving for some warm clam chowder. Legal's hit the spot. The chowder there is great, with lots of clams. Sometimes when you eat clam chowder, you get little bits of shell or sand in your soup, but not in my cup. I could eat that chowder every cold day and be content (at least for a few weeks).

Next up was a special they had on the menu, a tempura sesame encrusted tuna on a bed of baby mixed greens. The waiter said that the standard was a medium rare, but I asked for mine rare. Great tuna should always be eaten rare, if at all possible. I must say, this was a fresh tuna, prepared very well. The tempura was cooked on just right, so only the outside of the tuna was cooked. The inside was a lovely red color (although the lights were a bit dim, so it was hard to tell). It wasn't as good as the fish I had at Blue Water Grill, but still quite delicious.

We capped the night with a slice of chocolate cake. I wasn't really feeling in a dessert mood, but she wanted it. The cake was OK, too much chocolate for me and I was pretty full already anyway.

I'd say this is one of the best, if not the best, chain seafood restaurants around. If you get a chance, try it out.

Scoozi in Boston

2007-04-04T10:59:00.000-07:00

So I've been a bit deficient in updating this recently. I'll be working backwards from here with more frequent updates hopefully.

The baseball season just started this week. I took Monday off from work to watch the Phillies play the Braves. The Phillies had a 3-2 lead late, but they managed to blow it and lost 5-3 in extra innings. I'm still hopeful of a good season though.

On another note, I'm involved in a few fantasy leagues, which I'll write about on occasion.

The last order of pre-restaurant business is that I'm moving again, for the 5th consecutive summer. I think the last time I didn't move over the summer was back in 2001. In fact, I think in my entire adult life, 2000 and 2001 were the only two years where I spent the entire year in the same residence.

A few weeks ago, I visited Boston on business. There wasn't much time to really eat out any, but I did have dinner at this little Italian place in Back Bay. Scoozi is on Newberry St. and bills itself as a "Gourmet Pizzeria + Sandwich Bar." The space is underground, but they have a great patio where you can sit, eat and watch people walking past headed for the little boutiques lining that part of Newberry St.

The space, aside from underground is very small. It seats maybe 30 people and there's a large column in the middle, blocking the view from the front to the back. I suppose that's necessary or else the building might collapse on the restaurant.

There's also a counter in the back where people can order take out. The restaurant also delivers.

The evening was a bit chilly, so I ordered the Risotto with shrimp. It was nice and hot when it came out. There were ample shrimp and you could tell the freshness of them (as this is Boston, it should have come fresh). The rice was not overdone. There's nothing I could say bad about the dish. I ate outside, watching the people. I really do enjoy people watching.

This was a Thursday evening, so you had a mix of people who came out to Back Bay to shop and eat and you had people leaving work late or people walking home. Some people were in a hurry to get where they were going or in a hurry to leave where they had come from, you never know. You saw single people walking alone and others talking on their phone. Other people were with groups of friends or walking hand in hand as a couple. Most were younger. I like this part of town. It feels very vibrant and alive.

Later it started drizzling and I decided to call it a night. As I was walking home, I saw one of those R2D2 mailboxes that the USPS is decorating to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Star Wars. That's the picture I took with my camera phone.

Boston is a nice place. I love it every time I visit and it also seems like a great place to live.

Happy Tet!

2007-02-16T23:23:00.000-08:00

Happy Tết everyone! This weekend is Vietnamese New Year. Since it is based on the Lunar Calendar, it changes each year. This year, Tết is on February 17th in Vietnam. The Chinese New Year is February 18th, due to the time zone differences between Hanoi and Beijing. It happens once every couple decades. In America, we celebrate on the 18th. So Chúc mừng năm mới everyone!

OK, finishing off Chicago since I'm very backlogged, we'll talk about the other 3 restaurants from many months ago: Tango Sur, Corner Bakery and Lou Malnati's Pizza.

Tango Sur is an Argentinian steak place. We arrived and had a wait of about an hour and a half. It is in a nice neighborhood, so we could afford to take a little walk around. As this is Chicago, it was a little bit cold and windy that night. The neighborhood is very nice though with many bars, restaurants, shops and a movie theater. Also, there are many seemingly nice houses right near there too. It seems like a pretty decent place to live. About 10 blocks down is historic Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs baseball team.

We started out with a most excellent appetizer, one that I tried to recreate at home a few weeks later. It was scallops atop spinach in a red sauce. Excellent and highly recommended. It might've been a special for that night, but if it is ever on the menu, I'd get it again. I had a Bife Ancho (cooked medium rare) for my main course. It came with a salad. This is a rib eye, cooked on the grill. My recollection of the steam was that it was a tad dry, but the portion was absolutely huge! For $20, you got the salad and a inch and a half thick steak weighing at least 16 ounces. I ate about half of it and took the rest home, it was so much. Good steak though and a place that I would go to again. It was great value and excellent food. A warning though, the lines are long (although the hostess will take your phone number and call when a table is available) and the restaurant is very loud.

Next up was Corner Bakery. This is a chain that can be found in many places, including one very close to where I live now, so I won't talk much about it. I had a ham sandwich on pretzel bread. I want to rave about this pretzel bread though, it was soft and just salty enough to form the perfect taste combination with the ham. I truly felt that I was eating a ham sandwich between two soft pretzels. Very well done.

Lastly is Lou Malnati's Pizza. Lou Malnati's is rated among the best pizza places in Chicago, a city known for its deep dish pizza. Deluxe pizza with a Coke, pretty close to a heavenly taste. Suffice to say, it is the best pizza I've ever had outside of NYC. Even then it is hard to compare since the cooking styles are different. The Chicago crusts are thicker and the slices aren't as large, so you don't have to fold them. Still though, the crust was crunchy and the ingredients were fresh. Definitely worth it.

All in all, Chicago had some memorable food and it'd be worth another trip to taste even more favorites.

Mulan Chicago

2006-12-27T23:12:00.000-08:00

My first afternoon in Chicago, I dined at Mulan. Mulan is a Kee Chan restaurant, meaning that it is an upscale, hip dining experience.

I ate a late lunch, or what seemed to be late because when I walked in, the restaurant was completely empty. There was no one sitting at any table nor was there anyone at the bar. I surmise that it is due to the location. Mulan is upstairs in the Chinatown Square Mall, at the very east end. The foot traffic at the ends is minimal and the restaurant just seems out of place there. Chinatown is mostly composed of little mom and pop Chinese places with little decor, but authentic food prepared fresh. Here, the decor was totally upscale and the food was fusion. It would be better served in a more downtown or him neighborhood location I think.

For lunch we ordered a spicy seafood sampler and a lobster over udon noodles. The kitchen somehow accidentally brought out an udon noodle soup instead of the lobster over udon (even though there were no other diners). They realized their mistake before bringing the food to the table, so they informed us and gave us the udon soup at no charge as well as telling us the lobster was on its way. That was nice of them.

The lobster over udon was a touch salty. The cold lobster over the warm noodles made for a nice contrast though. I may try to recreate that dish sometime if I make it back to the DC fish market that I blogged about earlier to buy some fresh lobster meat.

The udon soup was average. There was nothing particularly special about it.

The spicy seafood was also average. It wasn't as spicy as I thought it might be (in fact, I couldn't taste the spiciness at all, but I have a high tolerance for it). I can't recall anything noteworthy.

Kee Chan's first Chicago restaurant, Heat, has garnered more general acclaim. I think I'd try there before venturing back to Mulan.

Chicago

2006-12-09T14:41:00.000-08:00

I was fortunate enough to be able to visit Chicago on business a few weeks ago. I'd only been to Chicago once before (aside from several layovers at the airport), for the 2005 NAPABA Convention. Walking around, I found the city to be quite nice. It seems like a good place to live (aside from the cold, wind and snow).

In Chicago, I had some time to myself and sampled some of the local fare and got a little sightseeing in. I ate at Mulan, Tango Sur, Corner Bakery and Lou Malnati's Pizza. I'll write a review for each individually in the coming days as time permits.

Anita's

2006-12-07T20:22:00.000-08:00

Today as I was driving to class, I got stuck in traffic. I had no idea why until the traffic report came on and noted the lighting of the White House Christmas Tree. Luckily, I was on Constitution Ave. at the time and just before 6, I was right in front of the White House. I couldn't have timed it better if I had known about it and tried. I got to see the tree light up. It was much better than when I sat out in the cold and crowd at Rockefeller Center when I saw that tree light up. I felt bad for the people who sat through the cold and wind and flurries tonight.

A few days ago, I went to one of the Anita's Restaurants nearby. Before going, I had read rave reviews about the food and how inexpensive it was. Anita's describes itself as New Mexico style Mexican food. I had the Tres Amigos, "One beef, one chicken, one veggie enchilada smothered with your choice of red or green chile. Served with one beef taco." Wouldn't that make it quatro amigos?

I have to say, I was expecting a little bit better. The chicken enchilada was kinda dry and the beef wasn't that good. The taco was OK though. All in all, it was an OK meal and a great value for the money, but I think I miss the psuedo Mexican food in California. Nothing out here can really compare.

Viridian

2006-12-06T18:54:00.000-08:00

Back to food.

A friend of mine visited over the weekend and we had brunch at Viridian. The place is interesting, it is part art gallery, part restaurant. The temperature outside was in the low 40s and it was seemingly about as chilly indoors. That was probably the effect of the very high ceilings. There was art on display along the walls, just like in a gallery.

We arrived shortly after noon on a Sunday and the place was about 2/3s full. There were 2 smaller tables in the middle of the room and we sat at one of them. The restaurant apparently seats from the front to the back.

The brunch menu seemed innovative with some local specialties and other favorites. I had the "poached eggs with serrano ham, pimento hollandaise atop a house-made biscuit." My friend had the "blue crab with cheese grits, thyme, old bay lemon butter sauce." The crab did sound better and I haven't had good grits in a long time. However, I just wasn't in the mood for that right then.

The poached eggs came out with fries. There were 2 eggs on biscuits. The presentation was great and the dish looked very picture perfect. It tasted OK, but it wasn't especially memorable. The eggs were cooked perfectly. It just didn't taste as good as I had hoped. Also, the servers were a little slow. The crab dish didn't look as nice, but it tasted much better.

All in all, I'd suggest Viridian for brunch, as much for the decor as for the food.

Afterwards, we went to the Jefferson Memorial. I'd never been there before, but I like it. The area is very quiet and not overrun with tourists. The Memorial itself sits right on the water and Jefferson is looking out at the White House across the basin. I like the solitude of this monument.

From here, we walked over to the DC Fish Market, something of a hidden gem. It is on Maine and 9th. I had some Maryland Crab soup, perfect for this cold day. The fish and crabs and lobsters are fresh and definitely a bargain. Stop by if you have the chance. I certainly will next time I want some fresh seafood.

Dress Boxers

2006-12-05T01:05:00.000-08:00

This post will have nothing to do with food, sports or the law.

I love Vineyard Vines. I remember the first time I heard of them was on a trip to Martha's Vineyard. They were just opening their first brick and mortar store in Edgartown.

I own several of their ties and am contemplating a purchase of a few other items. However, I was browsing through their catalog and came upon something called "Dress Boxers." I've never heard of the concept before. Now, would you pay $125 for a 3 pack of boxers? I sure wouldn't.

I'm published!

2006-12-04T06:18:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm sort of published.

The NJ Superior Court, Appellate Division published an opinion of a case I worked on over the summer and wrote the memo for. The judge actually used some of the language of my memo too!

The case is Papergraphics International, Inc. v. Juan "J.J." Correa and Liquidation Direct, Inc.

The Convention

2006-11-15T14:29:00.000-08:00

I guess this will be sort of a law related post.

If you talk to most any Asian American attorney, the phrase "The Convention" has a special meaning to many. Every year we gather and see people we only see once a year, we network and listen to speakers, we eat together and we party like there's no tomorrow.

Over the weekend I was in Philadelphia for the annual NAPABA Convention. This is when a large number of Asian American attorneys and law students come together to talk about issues in the profession, hear speakers, have a few banquets and party the night away.

I met a ton of new people, as I did last year at the Convention. Now I wonder why I didn't go in prior years. Everyone was friendly and we all had a great time. Saturday night, after the last official events, the President's Dinner and Party, a bunch of us headed out to a Noraebang, also known as a Korean Karaoke place with private rooms. All we had was a name and address. We left the hotel around 12:30 or so and the cab driver had no idea where he was going. We drove around some not so great parts of Philly. However, I sort of knew the area and we finally made it after something like 45 minutes in the cab.

The place was called New World. When we got there, we were told to go into this room, which turned out to be a huge place. There were already about 20 people there and food and drinks were readily available and free. As the night went one, more and more people came by and we all sang and danced the night away. I finally left at about 4:30 and got back to my hotel a little after 5, exhausted, but in great spirits. I want to thank the person who put it all together and paid for everything.

Unfortunately, I had a breakfast meeting in 4 hours. I did manage to wake up for it and stay awake for the meeting after that at 11. The drive home was tough and I had to pull over into a rest area to sleep for a little bit.

I think the Convention schedule messed me up. Staying up late every night and waking up early with no time to rest. Oh well, no worries.

My involvement with NAPABA remains consistent over the years as part of the Thomas Tang National Moot Court Competition. It is one of the showcase events of the Convention and I'm happy to be a part of it.

This year, 71 Teams Competed in 6 regions nationally. The regional competitions all took place simultaneously and the top 2 teams from each region advanced to the national finals along with 2 wild card teams from the 2 largest regions. Here are this year's results:

In a 2-1 decision in the Final,
Respondents Joy Park and Nick Lee of Loyola University - Chicago defeated Petitioners Lynda Lao and Zafreen Husain of Loyola University - Chicago.

The 3rd place team, as determined by the oral scores of both prelim rounds and the semifinal round as well as the brief score was:
Gavin Masuda and Saori Kaji of the University of California, Hastings College of the Law

Also competing in the semi-finals and finishing 4th was:
Andrew Bugman and Tom Vogele of Chapman University

The best oralist was Joy Park of Loyola - Chicago.
2nd was Gavin Masuda of UC - Hastings

The best brief was a tie:
Billy Frey and Robyn Rosen of the University of Houston
Joy Park and Nick Lee of Loyola - Chicago

I want to congratulate all off the competitors for doing a great job and to the above named people for excelling above all the rest.

Election Day

2006-11-06T22:52:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone performs their civic duty and votes.

Ray's the Steaks

2006-11-03T09:56:00.000-08:00

Last week my brother and I went to Ray's the Steaks in Arlington to celebrate his new job at KPMG. He's moving out to Los Angeles to start work at the end of the month.

Ray's doesn't have a web page, but it was recently rated as the top steakhouse in the DC area by the Post.

We each had their signature steak, the "Cowboy Cut," a 28 ounce bone-in rib eye. That's almost 2 pounds of beef! I had mine medium rare while my brother went with a straight medium.

The restaurant starts off with a complementary bowl of spiced nuts. Then we each had a glass of some red. I had the Syrah, which I liked a lot because it was a lighter tasting red wine.

The steaks came out next. I cut the steak and it was so soft that the knife went straight through, but oh it was so thick! The cut was almost 2 inches thick! One minor issue for me was that the outside of a little part of the edge of the steak was a little charred. I know it is designed to be that way, but my first couple bites tasted a little smokey. I'll make sure to order a different cut next time.

The steaks were served with complementary creamed spinach and mashed potatoes. They complemented the steaks perfectly. If you don't finish your steak and take it home, they'll give you fresh spinach and potatoes too.

One thing you will not find is fancy decor or reservations. They don't have either. The lack of decor keeps the prices down. The Cowboy Cut is the signature steak and it costs only a shade over 30 bucks. That's about half the price of the big name steak places.

Service was decent. They were fairly attentive but not overly intrusive. I did have to get the attention of one to take my wine order, but that's no big deal. The place isn't big, so the wait might be somewhat lengthy and again, they don't take reservations. There's a parking lot in front with free parking.

All in all, it was a great steak that I'd highly recommended again. It wasn't as good as the porterhouse that I had at Peter Luger in NYC. I'd try to compare it to the steak from House of Prime Rib in SF, but it has been over 5 years since I've been there. Before Luger, that was my previous favorite steak place though.

2005-04-27T03:13:00.000-07:00

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

Blog Migration

2005-04-27T02:59:00.000-07:00

Hi. This is a test post for my first post.

This blog is a migration from my old Xanga. Feel free to explore my postings over there.