Tim's Texas Bar-B-Q 8($)

Tim’s Texas Bar-B-Q

This restaurant was rated to have the best burger in town by This Week Magazine. Kris ordered the Classic Burger plus cheese, and I ordered Pork Ribs and Texas Chile. The burger was very good, just like home. It came on an egg bread bun, with lettuce, onions and tomatoes; cheese was added to make it a cheese burger. My ribs were cooked till they were nearly falling off the bone and drenched in barbecue sauce. The only complain I have about the ribs it that they were a Chinese cut, meaning, extremely fatty. The fat of the pork holds all of the flavor in Chinese cooking, but in this case because the sauce was pored over the ribs after being cooked the fat did not absorb any of the barbecue favors. The Texas Chile was very good. Just the right amount of spice and chilies, it also came with cornbread that was a little dry and denser than it needed to be. I suspect the cornbread batter was not made with two parts wheat flour and one part corn meal which is what makes corn bread fluffy and light. Somehow the ratio was off and it just didn’t taste quite right.

For taste I give Texas Bar-B-Q an 8 out of 10. For the most part everything was enjoyable. The Burger and the Chile were very good and only the cut of rib and the corn bread were disappointing.

For Price Tim’s TBQ receives $ for two people in US dollars including beer.

Overall I give Tim’s Texas Bar-B-Q a 9 out of 10. The food was good, the beer was cold. There is a bar and a dart board in the back and it was just over all fun.

My Humble Home 7 ($$$$)

My Humble Home.

My Humble Home, is a very over priced restaurant in the Sky Ave. of the Oriental Plaza. It is known for its Chinese fusion cuisine and modern image. On this occasion Kris and I chose My Humble Home out of convenience, our apartment in Beijing it located directly above the restaurant.

MHH has an extensive menu and wine list. There are three set menus and also an al a carte menu. We ordered beef tri-tip salad, seafood soup cooked inside a coconut, fried rice, and Chinese pork belly. I was not able to take any pictures inside the restaurant because I got in trouble taking this picture of the salad.

The best part of the meal was the soup: a crab broth, with chunks of crab, lobster, clams, sea sponge and vegetables. It came out inside of a peeled coconut piping hot. It was delicious. The broth was very flavorful, and all the sea food was fresh and tender, it had just a hint of coconut flavor but nothing too milky.

The pork belly was very rich. Traditionally Chinese means very fatty to retain the most flavor. It was delicious but way too much for two people, the dish would have been better divided between six people. The fried rice was too oily and the oil and the wok was too hot when the rice was added. It had a distinctive burnt sesame seed oil taste. The only redeeming quality was that it had pine nuts in it.

For taste I give HMM a 7. It was ok, definitely was not worth the cost.

For service I have to give HMM a 4, for some reason it took forever to get the check and we had to ask more than a few times. It seems that more important people who were ordering more came in right when we wanted to leave and for some reason everyone just stopped and stared at the new dinner party.

Overall I give My Humble Home a 7 out of 10. In this instance the soup saved the day.

South Silk Road, Beijing 10 ($$)

What can I say about restaurants in China? The first thing everyone should know is that the restaurants you go to while on a tour are not very good. In fact they may be terrible. And the restaurants that are available if you go out on your own can be excellent. This should be obvious, but isn’t always because many times the restaurants that they take you to on tour are in fact famous, and can be pretty good. But you’re not Chinese and you don’t speak the language so they make you the dishes that Americans usually expect from their limited experience from home and they give you the poorest quality because you won’t notice the difference. There are no greater critics than the Chinese when it comes to food. Restaurants want to please the locals first, who have a much greater chance of becoming loyal customers.

The first restaurant of not is South Silk Road located in Houhai. All the food cooked here is from the Yunnan region or is influenced by the spices of this region. The Yunnan region is in the south of china located along the ocean and largely tropical. Food from this region tends to be very spicy and uses many more herbs not found in other Chinese dishes.

This being our third anniversary Kris and I went all out on dinner and ordered Rice cooked inside a bamboo pole, a roast quail, fried rice cake with roasted sesame seed butter and honey, and a banana wrapped tilapia.

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To say the least, all the food was amazing! This lighting in the restaurant was very poor but even in my badly taken photos of the evening you can see the color and the spice incorporated into everything. The Tilapia was a little spicy and we ended up pushing most of the herbs and pepper to the side, but its juices were so good. It was so moist and had such a cool burn to the spice. The rice cake was such a treat, the interpretation in the menu was very bad so we took and chance when we ordered it. The rice cake was warm and crunchy on the outside and so soft and sweet inside, then you get to the sesame seed butter filling and it just pops with warmth in your mouth. It doesn’t really need the honey that it comes with but even the honey has a floral taste to it. The quail was very gamy and tough, the toughness did not allow the flavor to penetrate very far into the meat so I was rather disappointed in the quail. But it was likely caught wild and I do support free range. The last little fun treat was the bamboo rice. Kris did not like this dish very much due to the very nutty flavor. It almost had a cashew and snap peas flavor to it. It was mixed with some kind of nut or bean and some green onion. This mixture is dry when it is poured into the bamboo pole and then capped with water. To cook it the whole thing is put directly into the fire. When the green bamboo slips the rice is cooked and ready.

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Over all I give South Silk Road a 10

Price $$ for two people

For taste 10

For atmosphere 10

For service a 9. Service in china is very different than in America, bordering on servitude rather than service. In China you do not leave a tip, good service is simply part of the job if you want to keep your job. In a city of 13 million the competition for jobs is huge; and every establishment can hire huge amounts of employees because they can pay their works so little; this mean there is often one employee for every customer sometimes two or three and they all wait upon you hand and foot. This often feels uncomfortable it you are not used to someone hovering over you wail you decide what to order, but you never have to wait for the check or hail someone for a refill. There is always someone there waiting to help you before you ask. In comparison to many places that I have eaten Silk Road surpasses any American restaurants but did not do as well compared to restaurants here.

Foreign Cinema 10 ($$$)

Foreign Cinema

Foreign Cinema is located in the heart of the Castro district of San Francisco. You would not know if from the street but this restaurant is the trendiest and ritziest restaurant in San Francisco. The restaraunt consist of four district features. In the front there is a small oyster bar that seats only about six but they will serve to any table. The main dinning hall has an open view of the kitchen, a bar in the back and a wall of high windows which look out into the covered patio. The patio tent is clean so that on a good night sitting outside you might see the stars shining. On one wall of the open courtyard the restaurant will project a old foreign film, thus the name. On this particular night we watched the Diving Bell and the Butterfly. This restaurant also houses balcony seating, is attached to a bar, club and an art gallery.

All their menus are updated and printed daily to reflect the very best of the market and what is in season. So on any given day you may have a different menu then any other day. On this occasion I had fried chicken on rice and stewed vegetables, my husband had lavender beef, and our friends each had duck in cherry port reduction. But of course we started out with oysters and a 2003 California chardonnay. We finished with Opera cake and North Beach coffee. Everything was wonderful! It was a perfect night!

My fried chicken was very good. Nearly half a bird the chicken looked really imposing on my plate and turned out to be more breast meant than I had expected. It was spiced and breaded but it didn’t feel heavy or oily to eat. It was really very good and I ended up sharing it will everyone because there was so much.

10 taste

10 service

10 atmosphere, romantic location

Price $$$$ for two people eating moderately, wine or champagne will add more to the price.

10 overall. I could eat here over and over I love Foreign Cinema

Goldy's Breakfast Bistro 10 ($)

Goldy’s Breakfast Bistro

Goldy’s is the best breakfast in America, according the Idaho attractions website. I haven’t eaten everywhere in America yet, but I can say that it was the best I have ever had in America.

Located in an unassuming brick building in Boise’s downtown district it would be very easy to miss. In fact my husband and I did walk right past it when we explored downtown the day before. Goldy’s has about 14 tables all together, six tables on the indoor balcony level and about eight more on the fist floor. There is usually at least a ten minute wait because the tables are always full for breakfast. At Goldy’s breakfast is served until 2pm.

I had heard that the salmon hash was excellent so I started with that and then one biscuit and gravy. Kris ordered the A dark forest ham breakfast sandwich.

Everything was exceptional! The salmon hash was made with diced potatoes, red bell peppers, onions and capers and of course salmon smoked to tender perfection and salted before being added to the hash. It was covered in hollandaise sauce and came with an egg. After the salted salmon and the capers the hash was really very salty even for me, a salt lover but eaten with the egg and possibly a piece of toast it was really very good. I give Goldy’s a 10 out of 10 for taste.

Goldy’s also gets a 10 for service. For price Goldy’s rates $ for two people and coffee.

Overall I give Goldy’s a 10 out of 10 for breakfast. Even though I ate a lot of food, I was completely satisfied without being overly full and felt satisfied all day until about seven at night. It was very hearty without being too fried or buttered tasting.

108 S Capitol Blvd
Boise, ID 83702
208-345-4100

Jack's Urban Eats 7 ($$)

Jack’s has two locations one in midtown and the other in Lomman’s Plaza. I have eaten at the one in midtown once and the one in Lomman’s Plaza twice, there isn’t really and difference between the two that I can tell. They are both always busy. The first time that I ate at Jack’s Urban Eats, I have a club sandwich and cheese mashed potatoes. The sandwich was not really that impressive. The bread seemed stale, the lettuce and tomato was really not the ripe or fresh and I over all was not impressed. I was further disappointed by the gritty, plastic cheese flavored potatoes. They were horrible. It tasted like who ever had made them had not first mixed the powdered milk cheese flavor with boiling water but had instead, poured the powder directly into the mashed potatoes. It was atrocious.

I have since tried it twice more, because I always give a place a second change. The second time I took my mother in law out to lunch, she likes a lot of chicken and a lot of American food so this place is perfect for her. All that stands out in my mind about that experience was that it was better than the first time I went.

So today when I Kris and I went for lunch I was not really expecting more than a slightly better than fast food sandwich and a mostly lettuce salad. I am happy to say that my expectations were not met. I ordered the Chicken wings sandwich. I had crispy friend strips of chicken with house wing sauce that was neither too mild nor too tangy, with blue cheese, tomato and lettuce. I also ordered macaroni and cheese as the side. My sandwich was so good. It really hit the spot for a hungry meat eater on a hot summer day.

For taste I give Jack’s Urban Eats a 7 out of 10. It is a great lunch or light meal kind of restaurant. All their dishes are Cali-American, American food taken to the next level. Their meats are carved strait from the bone and put directly on your sandwich or salad. This means that the meat is moist, fresh and slow roasted or cooked in its own fats and juices to retain its favor.

For atmosphere it gets a 7 out of 10. It is cafeteria style to order but your plates are served to you after you pay. Jack’s is more casual than many restaurants, but it has a fun, young attitude and is often full of young professionals, and students.

For the price of two people to eat lunch order a side dish and get a soft drink Jack’s gets a $$. It is possible though to get out of there with just $. The salad plates are large enough to share or you could easily skip the side dishes and still feel full at the end of the meal.

Arioli Bodega Espanola 9 ($$$)

Arioli Bodega Esanola

A Spanish restaurant in midtown well known for its wine!

On this occasion out Kris and myself invited two of out friends out to a wine bar. We had planned on visiting 58 degrees but when we got there and found out they didn’t serve appetizers or anything we walked back to Arioli. Arioli is a little Spanish restaurant. They serve excellent wine, and authentic Spanish cuisine. I ordered mussels in white garlic and wine sauce, calamari in spicy tomato and capers sauce and the pork loin in balsamic and port reduction with figs and onions. It was all very good.

I give Arioli a 10 out of 10 for taste. It was authentic, cooked very well, balanced to perfection, familiar and still exotic. The pork loin was the best, and while I could barely eat any more I finished the entire dish it was that good. The color and spice were so rich and thick. The aroma was sweet and tangy. The pork cut was on the fatty side but it was cooked to perfection.

The service here is very homey. The owner is a very gruff friendly neighbor sort of man. He often stays late to keep his customers happy, he makes excellent wine recommendations and usually comes and greets each table at some point during the night.

Arioli keeps a very nice table, but I would rate the atmosphere at an 9. It is a very romantic restaurant; quiet and cozy. In the summer they have a secluded garden patio that is very nice in the evenings. If you go for a nice summer night plan on spending the entire night talking and drinking very good wine.

For price I believe we paid $$ for dinner but I was the only person eating and then another $$$ for the wine.

Over all I give Arioli a 9. Delicious, colorful, and full of character; the flavor will seduce you.

1800 L Street
Sacramento, CA 95814
(916) 447-9440