LA Burger

School is finally done! Where did I go the last day of class to celebrate? LA Burger! :) I always leave happy and full there.

I love this place. It is my favorite burger spot in Dallas. All my friends love it too so I chose it to have my celebratory dinner. hehe.

LA Burger - Carrollton
1017 E Trinity Mills Rd. Ste 104
Carrollton, TX 75007
http://www.la-burger.com/
Price: $

I usually always get the LA Burger with the K-Fries. But I had hit up a happy hour earlier and wasn't too hungry. Booze first, then eat, right? :P So my fiance and I shared some stuff.

K-Fries (loaded with sauteed kimchi, onions, bulgogi, cheese and cilantro) $5.99~ Last time I was there, I asked for sweet potato fries instead, and they were even better. This time I went a step above and asked for a fried egg on top. What what?! :) Not sure if they charged extra for it but it was so worth it. Pure awesomeness. I suggest you do the same. The yolk was still runny and burst when I cut into it. And it was fantastical... as always.

My fiance got the Bulgogi Hogi, his favorite. $5.99~ Always good, but I still like the LA burger best. :)

A friend of mine got the Seoul Dog (all-beef hot dog topped with bulgogi and sauteed kimchi) $4.99~ It looks amazing. I've never had it before and I got to try it. It's absolutely loaded. I dunno if I can finish one on my own! MMmmmmmm.

I'm usually super stuffed after my food so I've never tried their shakes. One of my friends got one. Chocolate Oreo Shake. It was delicious!! Very rich and sinful.

Never disappoints. We had an amazing meal. Until next time! Tell them CHOMP! sent ya. :)

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~~ CHOMP CHOMP ~~

Ramen Hakata

Finally getting around to posting again. You'd think being done with school would give me all this free time. But hasn't happened yet! :-/

Anyhoo, I finally got around to checking out the new ramen place in Addison about a month ago. We had a group of 5 people. 3 of my friends go there around 12:15PMish. I was running late. They were able to get a table with no problem, no wait!

Ramen Hakata
3720 Belt Line Rd #3714
Addison, TX 75001
(972) 247-2401
http://ramenhakata.com/
Price: $$

We got there about 12:30 or so and it was almost all filled. My friends had just ordered. The place is cute! Pretty small space. There's bar seating which looks into the kitchen where they prep the food and maybe like 10 other small tables/booths? I liked the decor a lot. The waiter takes the order at your table and brings it out to you.

They have part of the menu still unavailable. I really want to try their cold ramen whenever they release it.

I got the Chashu Bun (steamed buns filled with grilled pork belly served with spicy sauce) 2 pcs. $5~ 

 

Even though I ordered later, this came out before any of the noodles. But the food came out at a decent time after being ordered. The pork in this was so tender... almost a little TOO soft? But it was good. Heavy handed on the sauce, which is creamy and slightly sweet. But I liked that it was loaded to the brim and more! The buns were steamed nicely. I would get it again, but maybe ask them to hold back on the sauce.

Then the noodles came. It was served on a tray with a giant spoon (a ladle is more like it), and reminded me of places in Japan. This is pretty typical. It was a good portion size too.

Spicy Miso Ramen (pork based broth with special spicy miso sauce, chashu, soft-boiled egg, green onion, black mushroom, bean sprouts, corn, fragrant garlic oil) $9~ 

 

I got the spicy. It came with 2 slices of pork whereas everyone else's came with only 1. Woot! The meat was super tender and the noodles were cooked well. Personally they could've been a tad more al dente, but I also like really chewy noodles. The noodles weren't the typical curly ones.. I was a bit disappointed. I did love the corn and the black mushrooms and bean sprouts that added extra texture. Now to the flavor. It was ok. It was not spicy at all. The noodles didn't really absorb any of the flavor. The broth started out a little bland, but the more you ate, the saltier it got. I wouldn't recommend drinking all the broth. Too much sodium!

Hakata Miso Ramen (pork based broth with special miso sauce, chashu, soft-boiled egg, green onion, black mushroom, bean sprouts, corn, fragrant garlic oil) $8.50~ (no picture. Just imagine the Garlic Miso without the garlic flakes on top.) 2 people got this. It was their namesake dish so I expected it to be more special. It tasted very similar to mine, with just 1 piece of pork.

Garlic Miso Ramen (pork based broth with special miso sauce, chashu, soft-boiled egg, green onion, black mushroom, bean sprouts, corn, fragrant garlic oil, garlic flake) $9.50~ The other 2 got this. The only difference between this and the Hakata is the garlic flakes on top. -___- Really? And for an extra dollar?

All in all, it was good. The best in Dallas? Eh... there's not much competition.. but I still can't say it's the best. A little disappointed, but I really didn't have high expectations to get a phenomenal ramen place in Dallas. Sigh... The noodles all pretty much tasted the same. So don't spend too much time deciding what you want. I'd say still give it a shot. I think I'm spoiled by having ramen in LA, NY, and Japan. I do still want to go try their cold ramen sometime though.

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~~ CHOMP CHOMP ~~

Taipei Station Cafe

I've been hearing rave reviews about this place from multiple people. However, I've also heard bad reviews... mainly my sister and my parents, who I totally trust when it comes to Chinese food. So I was skeptical, but I needed to try it for myself. I also heard that there's always a line, the service is really slow (and not very good), and that they're closed on Sundays and Mondays. Well... that doesn't really work for me since I'm not in the area on the weekdays, and Saturdays are usually already packed with other activities.

Taipei Station Cafe
930 W. Parker Rd. Ste. 410
Plano, Texas 75075
(972) 423-7576
Price: $-$$

One Saturday, my fiance's morning plans fell through so we were able to go check this place out right before it opened its doors. We arrived at around 10:55AM. There were already 2 people waiting in front. I think we waited for at least 20 minutes before they opened the door. Their listed hours says 11AM but according to the 2 people in front of us, they never open on time. By the time we went in, there were around 4-5 other parties waiting to go in. We were seated immediately. The place is more like a hole in the wall. Random decor, the chairs and tables were not anything fancy. But I wasn't expecting it to be anything more anyways. I'm here for the food! :P

We looked through the menu. I liked that they showed a lot of pictures of the different dishes. I wanted to try a bunch of different things, but 11AM is way too early for lunch typically so neither of us were really that hungry. We decided to be good and just order one thing each. 

OH YEA... it's CASH only!! So make sure you hit up the ATM before going.

#R03 Marinated Chicken Over Rice. He wanted to try a rice dish but didn't want anything fried, so I said this was a good choice. It was a big plate, lots of chicken. The chicken was a tad greasy but very tender and juicy. Careful of the bones! :P It was pretty good and definitely very filling.

#N03 Spicy Beef Stewed Noodle. 

 

This was at the top of my list. My next choice was the Chinese Style Bean Paste noodle, which is usually one of my favorites. But everyone hyped up the beef noodle soup, saying how legit it is, so I had to try it. It was a big bowl, with lots of tender beef. I liked the texture of the beef a lot. The noodles were the wide, hand-pulled kind. My favorite. It was slightly softer than I would've liked but just slightly. I enjoyed the noodles a lot. As far as flavor goes... it was good! Comparable to King's Noodle and Mian Cuisine (I can't say anyone is better than the other.) I don't know why my family would say it was terrible (although both my mom and sister are a lot more picky than I am...). My sister had said the soup was too sweet, which I can kind of see. The tomatoes made the broth slightly sweet. And she doesn't like the sweet and savory combo. But I do. I could taste the spiciness, which was important. My only complaint (aside from the slightly softer noodles) is that it's quite greasy. I could feel a layer of greasy developing inside my mouth the more I ate. Definitely drank a lot of tea during this meal! But I would eat this again.

So... pretty good experience here. Not the most fantastic food, but with limited Taiwanese food in Dallas, I'd say it's up there. I definitely have to go back and try other dishes though.

Now to the other aspects of the meal. The waiters are hit or miss. There seemed to be one guy that knew more than others. We had ordered hot waters at first, which they brought out in mugs. When we ordered the food, we also ordered a pot of tea. They brought the tea with no cups and wanted to dump out the hot water and give us back our existing mugs. I said I wanted to keep my water. They took that as me saying I don't want tea. They never brought me another cup. I had to go up to the counter later and ask them to pour the water out... Really? No extra cups to spare? But again, it's a Chinese place... can't say I'm surprised. -__- Sigh...

I was also excited to know that they do an afternoon tea thing between lunch and dinner. All the desserts looked so amazing on the menu. However, I went up to the counter where they kept all the desserts and it looked terrible. The place just opened but all the desserts look like they've been there for several days. I'm assuming they keep the cakes until they sell out. Ew... I guess I won't be doing afternoon tea there anytime soon.

Oh well, some pluses and some negatives. The main thing is the food was good. Not sure when's the next opportunity is to go and not have to wait in line, but I'll probably go again.

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~~ CHOMP CHOMP ~~