How many guys does it take to make a good burger?

Apparently 5 guys! hehehe :P

Five Guys Burger and Fries
13350 Dallas Parkway
Dallas, TX 75240
(972) 239-8470
http://www.fiveguys.com/
Price: $

My boss took the team out for lunch the other day. He’d been hearing people rave about the Five Guys Burgers and Fries at the Galleria for awhile and decided we needed to check it out for ourselves.

It’s on the bottom floor of the Galleria Mall. It was packed when we got there and stayed packed until we left. The place looks just like their website… You’ll know what I’m talking about if you’ve seen both. Haha. You order at the counter and they call your number to pick up at the counter.

Basically you build your own burger. They only have 4 choices of burgers: hamburger, cheeseburger, bacon burger, and bacon cheeseburger (under 2 categories: regular and little) but you get to choose your own toppings for no extra charge. You can get as many toppings as you want.

I ordered the Little Cheeseburger with lettuce, tomatoes, grilled onions, grilled mushrooms, jalapeno peppers and hot sauce on the side…which was a little over $4~ total.

The burger was just the right size…not too big, but packed with toppings! :) To my surprise the burger was not at all greasy. The flavor was great and the buns were soft. My only complaint was the bottom bun was a little too thin and kinda got soggy. I think also because I got so many toppings…haha. I really enjoyed it and it didn’t make me feel too heavy after lunch.

We also got a large order of fries (Cajun style) to share. It was MORE than enough for the 4 of us. The fries were seasoned generously and had a nice kick to it. I also dipped it in my hot sauce for more heat…even though it probably didn’t really need it. It was quite addicting…I couldn’t stop eating it even though I was full. :P

The prices were reasonable. You can get a good size burger for about $5 or so. I definitely recommend this place if you want a good burger with fresh ingredients without paying too much.

Here are some additional facts about Five Guys that I found to be pretty positive:

- They don’t have freezers there. They only have coolers. The beef is fresh and never frozen.
- They only use Idaho potatoes fried in peanut oil…and no trans fat.
- The hamburger and hot dog buns are specially made for them from specially selected bakeries.

Quality of Food:

Service (at the counter):

Cleanliness:

Value:

Overall Experience:



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Healthy Me~

I saw on the Art Institute's online newsletter the other day about a culinary graduate serving up healthy food in Coppell. Since I'm currently going to AI Dallas and I love food...it caught my attention.

Healthy Me Art Cafe
240 North Denton Tap Road #440
Coppell, TX 75019
(972) 745-3900
http://www.healthymecafe.com/
Price: $

They serve healthy and tasty food at a reasonable price. Everything on the menu is under $10. This definitely interested me, and I had to go check it out.

The decor was eh...a small front area that sold healthy snacks and drinks, in the middle were tables and chairs and in the back was a kitchen (they do adult and kids cooking classes apparently). We placed our orders in the front register and sat down to wait for them to bring out our food.

I got the Cranberry Chicken Salad Sandwich (served on whole wheat bread with choice of side). Side: Strawberry Spinach Salad (baby spinach topped with sliced strawberries, crumbled bacon, diced red onion, toasted pecans, and feta cheese with poppy seed vinaigrette) $5.95~
This was a great deal. It wasn't too much food or too little. The portions were just right. The chicken sandwich was pretty good, slightly dry but I guess you can't expect a lot of mayonnaise on a healthy sandwich...hehe. It was very light but had good flavor. I would order it again. The strawberry spinach side salad was really good! The vinaigrette was slightly sweet and did not overpower the salad. The strawberries added a nice sweet contrast in flavor and texture with the crispy bacon and pecans. They use turkey bacon so its leaner and less greasy than regular bacon. I really enjoyed the salad, I would definitely get it again because it was tasty and very healthy. :)

We also got the Asian Shrimp Wrap with choice of side (grilled shrimp, spring mix, green bell peppers, green onion, sliced cucumber served with healthy soy sauce). Side: Sweet Potato Fries (baked sweet potato strips) $5.95~ The wrap wasn't as good. Everything was very fresh but I think they should've seasoned the shrimp more. It was a little bland. The soy dipping sauce was kind of weird, but it was ok. The sweet potato fries were good. I LOVE sweet potato fries and it definitely felt better that these were baked instead of fried. With a little bit of tabasco...they were MmmMmm gooood!

It was a good and healthy lunch. And it was quite filling. We also go the Chocolate Brownie (made with natural/organic ingredients infused with spinach, blueberries and oats) $1.95~ and had to take it to go. The brownie was moist and quite good. You can't taste the spinach and blueberries in it at all but its nice to know they are in there to add extra vitamins and minerals. It is definitely a nice alternative to satisfy that chocolate craving without as much calories and fat.

I would recommend everything we've tried except maybe the shrimp wrap. When I go again I definitely want to explore more options. I just wish it was a little closer to home... So if you are in the 121/Denton Tap area and you want more healthy options, definitely go check it out. Just don't expect much service...

Quality of Food:

Service:

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May Travels Continue... Austin~

May continues on with more traveling. This time we stayed closer to home. We went down to Austin over Memorial Day weekend.

First night there we decided to go try out Green Mesquite:

1400 Barton Springs Road
Austin, TX 78704
(512) 479-0485
http://www.greenmesquite.net/

Price: $

It was featured on Food Network’s Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives…a show that I LOVE! The food always looks soooooo good on the show! Austin has more local/hole-in-the-wall places unlike Dallas. The Green Mesquite was very casual and had a nice area for outdoor seating with a live band playing.

We ordered a Pork Rib Plate (1/2lb. of Mesquite Smoked Pork Ribs and French Fries, Pinto Beans) $7.99~. It was special of the day so it was $6.99~ The ribs were nice and flavorful, probably the best meat dish of the night. The sides were average.
Next is the 2 Meat Plate (Brisket, Smoked Sausage and Coleslaw, Onion Rings) $8.99~ The brisket was quite dry, I had to put on a lot of their house BBQ sauce (which was pretty awesome, by the way). I’m not a big smoked sausage fan, and it wasn’t too spectacular to make me want to eat more. The onion rings were really good…could’ve been a little more crispy but the flavor was great.

We also had the 3 Meat Plate (3 meats of your choice & 2 sides: Chicken, Pork Ribs, Brisket and Coleslaw, Onion Rings) $9.99~ The chicken was quite good, very tender and flavorful.
I ordered the Veggie Plate (4 veggies of your choice: Green Beans, Potato Salad, Corn on the Cob, Cajun Rice) $4.59~ There was wayyy too much meat so I thought I’d get some veggies. The best thing on this dish was the potato salad but it still doesn’t compare to Red Hot and Blue’s potato salad (which is my FAV!). The rice was ok, the corn was ok (could’ve used some more seasoning), and the green beans were soggy.

Overall, I wasn’t impressed, I thought to be featured in a BBQ episode on the Food Network the food must be pretty awesome. It was decent... I would go back again for the setting, but probably not for the food.

Quality of Food: 3

Service: 3

Cleanliness: 3

Value: 3.5

Overall Experience: 4

The next day we went to Chez Zee:
5406 Balcones Drive
Austin, TX 78731-4906
(512) 454-2666
http://www.chez-zee.com/

Price: $$

Almost everyone we talked to about places to go to eat had mentioned Chez Zee at one point or another. We went around 1pm or so but they were still doing their brunch menu. The place is very eclectic, I liked the feel of the place very much…a lot of character.

After we ordered, the waitress brought us some Warm Croissants with Strawberry butter. The croissants were still warm and buttery and flaky. The strawberry butter was definitely new to me…what a great idea! If you want to make it yourself, it’s basically butter and strawberry jam mixed together.

We ordered the Commodore Sausage Benedict (Grilled Sausage, toasted English muffin, spinach, poached eggs and Hollandaise sauce; served with country potatoes) $11.95~ and the Spinach Salad with Warm Bacon Dressing (fresh spinach leaves, cherry tomatoes, diced bacon, sliced mushrooms, seedless cucumbers, red onion rings, feta cheese, candied walnuts, and toast herb croutons with warm bacon dressing on the side) $10.95~ The eggs benedict was pretty good and went really well with the country potatoes. I liked the dish but I didn’t think it was worth the price. The spinach salad was really good. It had plenty of toppings and was totally fresh. You can’t go wrong with the combination of spinach, tomato, onion, bacon, candied nuts and feta. They also put in cucumbers and mushrooms which I thought made great additions to an already great salad. :)

Chez Zee is also known for their cakes and desserts so of course we had to try something. We ordered Maida’s Cake (Light flourless chocolate cake filled with sweet vanilla cream and generously frosted with a fluffy mocha mousse) $5.95~ We had more places to try later that day so we thought we’d keep it light. The cake was ok… I’m not a fan of just mousse…I like cakes to have more denseness and texture. The layers of mousse and cream were just too close in texture so there wasn’t any contrast to make the cake interesting. It was still a good cake, but just not my style. If you like mousse, then I would recommend you try it.

Quality of Food: 4

Service: 4

Cleanliness: 4

Value: 3.5

Overall Experience: 4.5

Next is Mozart’s!!
Mozart's Coffee Roasters
3825 Lake Austin Blvd
Austin, Texas 78703
(512) 477-2900
http://www.mozartscoffee.com/

Price: $

You cannot go to Austin and not pay a visit to Mozart’s café. It’s located right on Lake Austin where you can sit outside and watch the boats in the water. They sell their own coffee blends and have a huge selection of cakes and pastries. Everything looked soooo good!

Since the cake from lunch was kinda disappointing, I decided to order another cake. I got the Chocolate Decadence Cake (decadent chocolate layer cake with a rich and creamy chocolate frosting) $5.75~

Now this is the kind of cake I like! I like a denser cake, and all chocolate is another plus! The cake was super moist and, of course, chocolatey. It was a great dessert with some tea and coffee and to just sit back, relax, and savor!

Quality of Food: 4.5

Service: 4

Cleanliness: 3.5

Value: 3.5

Overall Experience: 4.5

For dinner, my sister recommended Malaga Tapas & Bar:
440 W 2nd St
Austin, TX 78701
(512) 236-8020
http://www.malagatapasbar.com/

Price: $-$$

It was a pretty hip place packed with people. However, they forgot our order so we waited a really long time for our food.

While we were waiting, they gave us some Herb bread with olive oil – free~ The bread was quite good. Lots of herbs and flavor.
Finally the food came. It comes on this cute little carrier.

We ordered the Tortilla Catalana (The catalan version of the traditional Spanish tortilla, baked with potatoes, onions, eggs, and piquillo peppers Drizzled with garlic aioli and Romesco Sauce, and topped with shredded Iberico cheese) $8.50~, Albondigas en Salsa de Tomate (Six baked beef and pork meatballs bathed in a cumin-coriander spiced tomato sauce, and topped with three month old Iberico cheese and chopped parsley. Served with freshly baked herb bread) $8.75~, Empanadas Salamanca (Two freshly baked spinach turnovers with Mahon cheese, garlic, shallots, and mushrooms filling. Served with a side of spicy tomato sauce and grilled peppers, and topped with roasted garlic-herb aioli) $7.50~ (. Add up to 2 extra empanadas for $1.50 each). We also got the Pincho Moruno (Pork bites marinated in olive oil infused with Moorish spices, cumin, red pepper, garlic, parsley and fresh lemon juice. Served with freshly baked pita bread) $8.50~

Starting from the top, the Tortilla was one of my favorites out of the 4. It was full of flavor and different textures. The aioli was awesome on top of it all. The meatballs were moist, flavorful, and cheesy. The bread was really good dipped in the sauce of the meatballs. The empanadas were pretty good. I would’ve liked the crust to be thinner and flakier but that’s the only negative thing I have to say. The flavors were great! My other favorite was the pork bites. They were super tender and lots of flavor. The pita bread could’ve been softer but that’s not important. I could eat those pork bites all day.

The food was definitely delicious and I guess it was worth the wait. Plus they took the most expensive item off our bill so it was definitely worth the money! :P

Quality of Food: 4.5

Service: 3

Cleanliness: 4

Value (after the discount): 4

Overall Experience: 4

The last day we went to Zen for lunch:
1303 South Congress Avenue
Austin, TX 78704-2432
(512) 444-8081
http://www.eatzen.com/

Price: $

It’s a cheap and healthy choice for some Asian fusion food. They use fresh and healthy ingredients in a fast, order at the counter restaurant.

We got the Side Salad (Romaine lettuce, julienne carrots and red cabbage served with our homemade ginger dressing) $0.90~ and Seaweed Salad (Wakame, green onion and cucumber marinated in our sesame sambal vinaigrette) $1.49~ We actually could’ve done without these 2 because we had enough food just with our entrees. The salads were ok…not too special.

For the main entrees we got the Spicy Shrimp Bowl (Regular Bowl - Black tiger shrimp sautéed with white onion, broccoli and green onion batons in spicy sauce) $5.85~ and Dynamite Chicken (Regular Bowl – Udon noodles sautéed with fiery dynamite sauce with crimini mushrooms, broccoli, red bell peppers, seared chicken and crisp carrots) $4.95~. The bowls were pretty big…I can’t imagine ordering the large size. The spicy shrimp bowl was quite good. It’s definitely not authentic Asian flavors but it was still tasty. The shrimp was cooked nicely with lots of flavor. It wasn’t spicy though. It had lots of shrimp and veggies in the bowl…it definitely felt like we were eating healthier! The noodles were not as good. It still had lots of chicken and veggies but the noodle was overcooked and a little too soft. And if you wanna call something ‘dynamite’ then I need to feel that kick….there was none. :(

Overall the flavors were not bad…but I would definitely go back because of the health factor and the low prices.

Quality of Food: 4

Service: 3.5

Cleanliness: 3

Value: 4

Overall Experience: 4

Finally this post is coming to an end…but not without a BANG!! I cannot go to Austin without going to Hey Cupcake!
1600 South Congress Avenue
Austin, TX 78704
(512) 476-2253
http://www.heycupcakeaustin.com/
Price: $

It is my all time FAVORITE cupcake place EVER!!! They operate out of a mobile home with really friendly workers. I haven’t tried all of their flavors yet but one day I definitely will. This time we got my favorite kind of cupcakes: Red Velvet with cream cheese frosting and red sugar sprinkles and also the Chocolate with Chocolate buttercream icing and chocolate sprinkles. Each $2.50~

Red velvet is my cupcake flavor of choice but the chocolate buttercream definitely gave it its run for the money. Both cupcakes were super moist with AMAZING frosting. The cream cheese frosting on the red velvet was just as good as I remembered from the first time. The chocolate buttercream frosting was DIVINE!! Soooo creamy and chocolaty on top of the moist chocolate cupcake... O.M.G….I wanted to get another one and stuff it in my mouth!!!

If you ever go to Austin, definitely check out Hey Cupcake!…you won’t be disappointed!!! :D

Quality of Food: 5
Service: 5
Cleanliness: n/a
Value: 3.5
Overall Experience: 5


~~ CHOMP CHOMP ~~

CHOMP! goes International!! ^.~

Wow…I’ve been so behind on updating this blog…

Well, May has been a busy month! It turned out to be “vacation” month…full of fun, sun, and eating!!

I went on a 3 night cruise to the Bahamas at the beginning of May. It was my first cruise and I was definitely excited that food was all-inclusive! :P

There’s wayyyy too many pictures to post so I’ll keep the text to a minimum. A description of the dish and what I thought of it overall…

Mambo Café – Miami:
- Vaca Frita (flank steak grilled and smothered with onions served with white rice, beans and yucca) $11.95~ SUPER delicious…tender meat, sweet yucca, great combinations of flavors!

Royal Caribbean – Majesty of the Seas:
- Windjammer Marketplace – Buffet
o Build your own salad bar – fresh ingredients, not bad at all
o Breadstick, steak, sautéed veggies, garlic bread, fried rice, tomato salad, pasta salad, grilled Portobello, pasta with sundried tomatoes – pretty good for buffet food
o Build your own Risotto bar (mushroom, tomato, spinach, corn, parmesan, broccoli) – FREAKING awesome! Creamy, flavorful, delicious!
o Pound cake, chocolate/peanut butter cake with toasted almonds, tiramisu, chocolate mousse cake, chocolate layer cake - looked SOOOO good…yet they were a huge disappointment… :( all of them…
o Coffee ice cream with chocolate shavings - creamy and very tasty!

- Room Service
o Pizza Florentine – just ok…it was a little too doughy and the texture was kinda weird
o Bacon Cheeseburger with coleslaw - pretty dang good…we finished all of it :P
o Raspberry Cheesecake – not good; didn’t have texture of cheesecake, more like mousse, but BAD mousse…
o Chocolate Chip Cookies – stale, stale, stale…like they put it out for a couple days before serving it to people

- Main Dining Room – Formal Night
o Caesar Salad – good but average
o Shrimp Cocktail - seemed fresh and was cooked nicely
o Lobster Bisque – not good at all, no lobster in it
o Medium Rare Sirloin with mushrooms, asparagus and mashed potatoes – meat was tender and cooked nicely but sauce tasted like cafeteria food…blah!
o Roast duck with red cabbage and potatoes – nice flavor combinations; duck was not too fatty, my favorite dish of the night
o Sea Bass with spinach and capers – fish cooked nicely but sauce, again, was no good…
o Grand Marnier Souffle - not bad…definitely not as good as the one’s I’ve had around Dallas, but I enjoyed it
o Strawberry Cheesecake – really good! creamy but not too heavy
o Cherries Jubilee with Vanilla Ice Cream – meh…
o Chocolate Ice Cream with biscuit – really creamy and yummy

- Midnight Poolside Buffet
o Assorted cakes – again…BAD desserts…dry, wrong textures… Sigh~
o Chocolate and Pecan Praline ice cream – YUM, they can get rid of all other desserts except the ice cream :P

- Compass Deli – best food place on the ship!
o Chocolate Banana Crepe – made on the spot, delicious! Can’t go wrong with bananas and chocolate!
o Build your own salad bar – fresh ingredients, lots of options
o Smoked Salmon Crepe – also made on the spot, fresh ingredients

- Main Dining Room – Last Night
o Spinach Dip with Tortilla Chips – not bad
o Potato Gnocchi with ham and peas in cream sauce – gnocchi was overcooked and too soft, cream sauce was quite heavy, but overall the flavors were good
o Chef Special: Shrimp and Mahi Mahi Tempura – best dish of the night! Nicely battered and cooked, sauce was slightly sweet, great pairing with the seafood
o Sirloin with tomato, mushroom and mashed potato – generic steak, nothing special, needed more flavor
o Vegetarian Biryani with yogurt sauce – not bad, a little dry
o Chocolate Brownie Sandwich – really tasty, rich brownie with creamy mousse middle
o Banana Parfait with nuts – not really a parfait but very very good; light, layers of different textures

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