Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Chicken House

Chicken House
2625 Old Denton Rd., Ste 620
Carrollton, TX 75007
(972) 242-5500
Price: $$

This past Sunday, I went with a couple of people to check out the new Chicken House in Carrollton, in the H-Mart Shopping Center (Old Denton and 191). It's located next to the new frozen yogurt place, My Cherry-o.

Initially we thought it was a Korean fried chicken place (which we got sooo excited over cuz it's SOOOO good!) but were told that it was different. Still wanted to check it out though.

Walking in, the decor was pretty cool, and every table had this giant pan/skillet thing in the middle. Not your typical Korean BBQ grills. There's also seating on one side of the restaurant where you sit on a platform...like Japanese style. :) We chose to sit there.

The menu was pretty small and located on the walls. They only offered chicken...hence this name "CHICKEN House". We weren't quite sure how things worked but we looked around and saw all the other tables cooking things in that pan. Looked sooo yummy! We let the waitress advise us on how to order. She was super nice. Initially
we thought it was charged per person (since that's what was stated on the menus), but it's actually "per order". She told us that for 4 people it was enough to get 3 orders of their Chicken Galbi $14.88~ (per order). Then we also added Rice Cakes and Sweet Potatoe $1.88~ (each order).

Usually in Korean restaurants they give you a lot of small plates. Here we only got kimchi and spicy daikon. Which is fine, since kimchee's my favorite thing anyways. We also got some lettuce leaves and bean sauce.
The waiter (I think also part owner?) showed up with a giant plate of raw ingredients: cabbage, sesame leaves, chili paste, chicken, rice cake, sweet potato, onion, and green onions. He dumped the whole thing into the pan. We waited for the pan to heat up and I started mixing all the ingredients with the giant spatulas. Man...it was hard work!! And super hot from the heat of the pan.

A few minutes later, he came back to help stir for us. While doing that, he told us that this was the first one of this kind of restaurant in the US (although I found on Google today that there's one in Hawaii...). Also, he said the pan weighs 17 kilograms. It's pretty massive. Being the professional, he was doing a much better job mixing it all than me. hahaha. Soon the flavors and colors from the sauce/paste was infused into everything and the smell was just fantastic. After about 15 minutes of mixing, he told us that the veggies and rice cakes were ready. And once the sweet potatoes were done, then the chicken is done too. Usually takes about 20 minutes for the chicken to cook through.

It was delicious. I really liked how there were so much veggies in the dish. With the lettuce wrap and bean sauce it was even better. The kimchi was also very good, nice and crisp, good flavor. When everything is almost done, they bring over a big bowl of rice with sliced veggies in it. They dump it into the pan with some more chili paste and mix it up to be fried rice. The rice gets a nice crispy crust on the pan, it was great!! (I was too busy eating to take a picture of the rice...sorries. :P)

We also tried their special cold noodles (Chun Chun noodles?). I normally don't like Korean cold noodles, but this was super light and refreshing. Really balanced the hot chicken bbq very well.

It was a great meal, and fun too! I was sooo full after. Definitely will be going back in the future. I recommend everyone to go check it out. It's something different! :)

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~~ CHOMP CHOMP ~~

FruiTEAlicious! :)

FruiTEAlicious
2150 N Josey Ln., Ste 100
Carrollton, TX 75006
(972) 245-3000
www.fruitealicious.com
Price: $

I recently went to go check out this drink/boba place, Fruitealicious, in Carrollton. It's located on Keller Springs and Josey. Apparently, they have been open for 2 years now, but for some reason I've only been hearing about it a lot in the past few weeks. I checked out their facebook page and it looked like they have some pretty unique items on their menu.

I was intrigued by their "popping bobas" as well as their waffle desserts and rice crispy treats. I decided to go there to do some work and check out what they got!

I asked for a sample of the strawberry popping boba. It was definitely interesting. It was like a mini juice bubble. When you bite it, it bursts and the juice pops out. The texture is different than a normal tapioca boba, so it can't really replace that chewy texture of a tapioca boba. I ordered a small Strawberry/Peach frozen tea with strawberry boba. Came out to be a little over $4 after taxes. It was yum!! Very well done! There were chunks of strawberries and peach inside the drink as well. I liked that they used fresh ingredients.

Also ordered a banana/nutella waffle. The first topping is included then any additional toppings are $0.50. Also came out to be around $4.50 or so.
The waffle was DELICIOUS! Nice and crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. I LOVEEEE nutella! And they slathered it on there. The bananas were nice and fresh too. LOVED IT!!!

My only complaint was that it took a while for them to make the drinks and food. At least the girls at the register were really nice.

It's a bit far for me...around 30 min drive... :( But I will definitely go back in the future. It's a great place to work too! :)

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~~ CHOMP CHOMP ~~

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Cowboy Chow

This past weekend me, my sister, and a few of our friends took my parents out for dinner. My parents were a great help in planning our recent Asia trip so we wanted to thank them with dinner.

Cowboy Chow
2801 Commerce Street
Dallas, TX 75226
(214) 742-2469
http://www.cowboychow.net/

Price: $$

We decided on Cowboy Chow in Deep Ellum. It was highly recommended by one of my sister's friends, and we thought it would be cool to show my parents the ways of the West, when they helped with our trip to the East. hehehe.

So we made a reservation for 7PM on Saturday and arrived right on time. Walking in, the restaurant was bigger than I expected. I think I was hoping to see a hole in the wall. And there were cowboy-ish decor but I wanted to see more. And none of the waiters/hostess there were dressed to fit the name. There were no cowboy hats, or boots, or big belt buckles. They were just in regular clothes. Kinda sloppy clothes too if you ask me. I was immediately underwhelmed by it all...

We were seated at a long table in the bar area. We ordered drinks as well as appetizers. The prices seemed pretty cheap so we got one of everything.

My sister ordered the Watermelon Iced Tea $2~ It was no good. It tasted like watermelon flavored water, and wasn't sweet enough.

Fried Green Tomato Lollipop (served with 3 cheese ranch) $1~
I really wanted to try this so I got one for myself. It was cute... The tomato was nice and thick and the crust was good. But there was ZERO flavor....you really needed the dip. Meh...

3 Braised Beef Sloppy Joe Sliders (with cheddar) $6~ The sliders were ok. I think they looked better than they tasted. The buns were the best part for me. The meat was slightly dry and could've used more spices or something. It was just lacking...

Cowboy Nachos (homemade potato chips with queso fresco, ancho pepper salt, pico and a southwestern ranch drizzle on top) $4~ This was pretty good. The presentation was nice as well. The chips were nice and crispy and the sauce was pretty tasty. I would eat this again.

Navajo Fry Bread (with 2 sauces for dipping: spicy black bean and clover honey) $4~ This was probably one of the best dishes of the night. The bread was interesting and was slightly salted and sweet. The honey dip was a little too sweet but the bean dip was awesome!! I put that bean dip on everything! The theme of the restaurant carried through in this dish.

BTW....service was pretty bad. SUPER slow and not very attentive. At least the waiter was nice. The appetizers took forever to come out, so the waiter said he would comp one of them. And they never came to refill our waters or to clear out the dirty/empty plates. The table wasn't that big and we were running out of room w/ the dirty plates all over it.

For entrees we got...
Jalapeno Brisket Tacos (2 in each order) (fresh grilled jalapenos on beer braised brisket with cheddar & Jack cheeses, cowboy pico, sliced avocado, and lime cream) $10~ Comes with side of whole grain wild rice and refried beans. I ordered this mainly because of the word "jalapeno". haha. But it wasn't spicy...sigh~ There was too much "stuff" in the tacos along with too much meat. The brisket was dry and there's a huge chunk of it in each taco. I had to open it up and take some meat out... As far as flavor goes...there's nothing memorable about it. I quite liked the wild rice though. It was cooked nicely and had a really unique spice to it. And of course the beans were nice.

7 Hour Baby Back Ribs (with Chef Quincy's root beer BBQ sauce, with side of roasted corn/cheddar mash taters) half rack $12~ I ordered this for my dad. The ribs were ok...not super tender... Maybe they should make them 9 Hour Ribs...and cook them longer. haha. I did like the BBQ sauce though. And the mash taters were quite good.

Southwest Caesar (with queso fresco, pepitas, cowboy pico and Texas toast croutons) $9~ Add buffalo for $3~ My mom is pretty picky...and she usually doesn't eat really heavy foods, so we opted for the salad. And I added the buffalo because it's pretty lean. This was in no way healthy... The salad was suffocated by a giant layer of meat and dressing. The whole thing looked like it was just drowning in sauce. The dressing was pretty tasty though, just wayyy too much. And truthfully, I couldn't tell the difference between the brisket and the buffalo...both were equally dry and lacked flavor.

Bacon & Texas Toast Crusted Mac & Cheese Casserole (cheesy macaroni filled with black beans and pico de gallo topped with a crispy texas toast crust) $10~ My sister ordered this since we wanted to get a variety of dishes to try. It sounded SOOO good on the menu, and LOOKED delicious in the skillet. First bite was great, I really liked it. But the more you eat, the worse it gets. First of all, the combo with the beans and pico didn't work with the macaroni. Second, the crust was too much...my sister said she felt like she was eating a bowl of croutons... And I tasted NO bacon! That was a big fail!

Chicken Fried Steak (hand breaded with roasted jalapeno gravy and our roasted corn/cheddar mash taters) $13~ My bf ordered this and didn't care for it too much. The steak was severely overcooked and the gravy had no jalapeno flavor. It's pretty sad when you pride yourself in 'cowboy fare' and fail on chicken fried anything...

Ranch Cigars (pulled chicken and cheddar rolled in a flour tortilla, flash fried and served with a 3 cheese ranch and mashed taters) $8~ One of my friends got this. I didn't get to try it, but she said it was pretty good. The dish was pretty heavy though, so she wasn't able to finish it.

We also got a couple sides:
Fried Okra $3~ I love fried okra but not theirs... It was fried really nicely but had no flavor. You really needed to depend on the ranch dip which was also just ok...

Mac and Cheese $3~ It looked really good, and was so cute in that little cast iron bowl. But it was just ok. Lacked flavor as well...

We also asked for tabasco during our meal because everything was just a bit lacking in spices. They came over with a large bottle of their "homemade hot sauce". Tabasco would've been much better. Their hot sauce wasn't hot, and didn't have that much distinctive flavor either. Sigh~

I still decided to order dessert because they sounded so good on the menu.
Fresh Baked Chocolate Chip Cookie (with vanilla ice cream; enough for 2) $6~ Need to preorder with the entrees. This was pretty good since the cookie was nice and warm. But it wasn't nearly as big as I imagined. BJ's Restaurant has a wayyyy better Pizookie dessert.

Homemade Marshmallow & Brownie S'more (with graham cracker fried ice cream and warm fudge) $7~ This was also one of the best dishes of the night. Too bad it was teeny. I could've killed this thing on my own! It was super tasty. The brownie was nice and hot on the skillet and the melted marshmallow with a nice crust was great. The fried ice cream wasn't covered with graham cracker but watever. It was a great dessert. But a little expensive for the size...

One of the things that enticed me about this place when my sister was telling me about it was that you can bet your appetizer. Basically the waiter brings a deck of cards and whoever has the highest card wins. If I win, I get one app for free. If the waiter wins, then we have to pay double on the app. We decided to give it a try. I asked if I could shuffle them first. You never know if they have it in some certain order! He drew a 3 and I drew a 5. HAHA! What a lucky win! So he took one app off the check. Also, we noticed that they forgot to take the other app off the check and had to point it out to him. He took the bread and the nachos off.

The bill was more expensive than we imagined. Split among 6 people we still paid almost $30 a person. For the food and service we just received...this was too expensive. I will never go back and will not be recommending it to anyone. The service is lacking, the food/flavors/quality were lacking as well. And doing a half assed job of carrying through the theme of the restaurant.... Nice concept...bad execution... And we left feeling unsatisfied and heavy.

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~~ CHOMP CHOMP ~~

Friday, September 10, 2010

RW #4: Bijoux

Bijoux
5450 W Lovers Ln # 225
Dallas, TX 75209-4296
(214) 350-6100
www.bijouxrestaurant.com
Price: $$$$

Another year, another Restaurant Week over... Our last destination for RW 2010 was Bijoux, an upscale French restaurant tucked behind the Inwood Theater on Inwood and Lovers.

They usually only offer prix fixe menus starting at around $90+ a person, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to go without paying so much $$. I was excited about going, but had my hesitations. I've heard that the food was good, but not worth the full price. So I guess it's good I was able to get a reservation for RW. Availability was limited. I called the first day RW reservations opened up and was only able to get 8:30PM for a party of 8. A little late than I wanted, but oh well.

A week before going, I went online and read some reviews. I got scared... The reviews from this year were all pretty terrible. Basically, the food is pretty good, and the service was horrid....slow, inconsistent, and snooty. The average age of the clientele is like 50+...my group and I are all at least 25 years younger... We'll see what happens I guess! :/

Also, every review says that even with reservations, they make you wait 20-30 minutes to be seated. Our reservation is already pretty late, at 8:30, so I made sure we got there earlier to hopefully not wait as long. Didn't really work. We arrived at 8:20...10 minutes before the reservation. The hostess says our table is not ready yet and we should wait at the bar. I use the term "bar" loosely....it was REALLY tiny...we were basically standing in a skinny little hallway. I asked her how long it would be, and she tersely replied "I really can't say"....and that was it! NOT really friendly at all.

So we stood around and waited...several groups walked in while we waited, some got seated immediately...and others also had to wait. But no one waited as long as we did. I went back to the hostess around 8:35 and asked for an update. Again, wasn't so nice, then ran off to talk to someone about something else. WTF...

So I take a look around the room. Obviously they were waiting for the big table in the middle to open up, but there
were several smaller tables open next to each other. After she returned I asked if they can put some tables together. She didn't seem happy but ran off to check. Came back and said "No. We can't put anything together." Period. WOW....WHAT friendly service! Seriously, at least be a little nicer!

Finally, we were seated...23 minutes after our reservation time. I was pretty starving by this time. It took them another 10 minutes to bring us menus and pour water. Geez! And the service was inconsistent...only 1 guy out of our group ordered sparkling water and everyone else just wanted flat. A different waiter came out and started pouring sparkling water for ALL! I was like WHOA ...no no.

We finally ordered...
and the bread came...


We were also served an Amuse Bouche:
Cous cous, pecans, citrus balsamic sauce. The presentation was very pretty and the cous cous was cooked well. I liked the flavors as well. But it was sooo difficult to eat! Hard to get all the cous cous onto a fork...should've put it all into a spoon and then serve. And no one got pecans on their plate. Weird...

First course:
White Corn Soup (Divine Goat Cheese Froth, Chive, Togarashi). The soup was poured at the table. It was delicious! Smooth, creamy, and sweet from the corn. I wish there were corn bits in it, but it was still very tasty.

Crispy Pork Belly (English Peas, Baby Carrots, Sauce Chasseur). This was my appetizer. I had decided on this weeks ago when the menu was posted online. Love me some pork belly! It was awesome. Crispy, fatty, juicy, tender...the flavor was great. Definitely the best appetizer of the night. The only complaint was that the peas were undercooked and kind of hard.

Tagliolini (Grape Tomatoes, Eggplant, Zucchini). This was some sort of pasta. To tell you the truth, I don't really remember what it tasted like...not memorable. But I remember thinking the pasta was cooked pretty well.

The optional (Central Market 4th Course):
Sauteed Gnocchi (Tomato Fondue, Haricots Verts, Basil Air). Just FYI...Haricots Verts is just the fancy way of saying string beans...hahaha.I had 1 more coupon so I got the gnocchi. I really liked the tomato sauce. My friend compared it to the sauce in a pizza roll. hahaha. In a good way! It was yummy. The gnocchi was very light but a little too soft for my preference. The basil air was totally cool. Lots of basil flavor.

Pan Seared Prawns (Heirloom Tomato, Chorizo Vinaigrette, Watercress). A friend of mine ordered this as an extra dish. The plating was really pretty and the prawns were huge! I got to sample a bite. The prawns were a little fishy tasting and slightly overcooked, but the tomato and chorizo were really good.

Entrees:
Braised Short Rib (Roasted Garlic Pomme Puree, Asparagus, Veal Jus). I decided on this instead of the pork tenderloin. It was super tender and paired really well with the asparagus. I wasn't a huge fan of the pomme puree, it kind of made a hard shell on the outside and wasn't anything amazing. The crust on the short rib was a little salty but the puree was able to balance that a little bit. I liked the short rib...but I should've gotten the pork...

Smoked Salmon (Peach Glaze, Creamy Polenta, Snap Peas). This was a nice size piece of fish, cooked well. I'm just not a fan of smoked salmon...it's the smoky flavor or something. But on the whole it was a good dish. The polenta was quite light, didn't feel heavy like it normally does. The peach glaze was super sweet...I think they need to tweak that a bit...tone it down.

Roasted Pork Tenderloin (Red Potato Salad, Stone Ground Mustard, Pickled Red Onion). This was definitely the best dish of the night. The pork was cooked perfectly...tender and juicy. The mustard sauce was just right, not overpowering the rest of the food. The pickled onions were a great touch, the combination with the pork was amazing! And the potato salad was definitely better than my pomme puree. This was delicious!!

Pesto Risotto (Basil, Pine Nuts, Parmigiano-Reggiano). I find risotto to be too heavy for an entree...it should only be allowed to be an appetizer. It's just wayyy too heavy. This had tons of basil flavor which was good. But the rice was undercooked and too much garlic and just wayy too much cheese and cream. It was too much. I think it would've been better as a side dish or something.

After dinner we were served an intermezzo of fruit sorbet. It was a little strange to have it AFTER the entree but I guess they wanted us to cleanse our palates before dessert. It was either guava or papaya sorbet with some sort of cracker/biscotti crumbles. Everyone had their own opinions on it, but I liked guava better. The papaya tasted weird to me.

The service has been pretty slow...by the time the desserts arrived it was around 10:30PM.

Valrhona Chocolate Dome (Cherries, Lime Gastrique, Pistachio Ice Cream). I got the chocolate of course. The dome was pretty cool looking. It was a chocolate mousse dome on top of some sort of cookie and covered with chocolate ganache. The cookie was a bit hard, but the mousse and ganache was fantastic! Thick and creamy and super chocolatey. I liked it a lot. The pairing with the pistachio ice cream was also really nice. The only thing I didn't like was the cherries...that's that dark smear you see on the plate. It was sooo sour...i didn't care for it at all.

Caramel Cheesecake (Black Mission Figs, Vanilla Caramel, Honey Ice Cream). The size was pretty big. I liked it....the texture and flavors were all very good. It wasn't super sweet, in fact, it had a hint of saltiness. The salt with the caramel was a lovely combination. The ice cream however was disgusting, I thought it tasted like feet? blehhh...

Overall, it was true to all the reviews I read online. Good food, bad service. I do have to say that the service wasn't super terrible, but for an upscale restaurant, they really need to do MUCH better. For example, a friend of mine asked for a straw at the beginning of the dinner and never got it... Also, the waiter came out and filled my friend's glass (with the sparkling water) with flat at one point. He had to tell them to give him a new glass. And the bathroom wasn't kept up well...that was a big no no.

The food was excellent for the most part, but yea, I would not pay full price for it. They split our checks with no problems, that's always a plus now. haha. And they also gave us more goodies with our check. From right to left: Russian tea cookie, caramel candy, mint chocolate truffle, sugar cookie, peach jelly, madeleine.
If you don't really care for good service, I would say go try it out for RW next year. Otherwise, I wouldn't waste my time...

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~~ CHOMP CHOMP ~~