Best 2015 #6-10

#10 Margherita and Pepperoni pizza at A-Town Pizza 2 - Aurora CO Full Review coming soon

 

 

#9 Ham and cheese waffle at Magnolia Pancake Haus – San Antonio, Texas Full Review coming soon

 

#8 Margherita pizza at Dough Pizzeria Napoletana Full Review

 #7 “Christmas Style” breakfast burrito at Chris’ Café Santa Fe New Mexico Full Review

 

#6 Margherita and Peppino pizza at Pomo Pizzeria Napoletana Scottsdale Arizona Full Review

 

Earl Abel's Restaurant - San Antonio, TX

October 22, 2015

We arrived here for an early dinner so the place wasn’t too busy and we were seated right away. Our waitress came in just a bit my parents both ordered coffee I just had a water. We looked at the menu for a while.  I had read online they were famous for their fried chicken so I already pretty much knew what I was going to get. The menu did say they had regular or spicy. But when I ordered the waitress didn’t ask and I forgot to specify spicy so I just got regular. I had the regular fried chicken breast and leg $10.25 and for my two sides I picked Sautéed Cabbage and mashed potatoes with cracklin’ gravy. Mom and dad both have the special the day which was Salisbury steak $10.95. Our meals came with dinner rolls as well.

I thought this was pretty good fried chicken but I definitely have had better. I really enjoyed the sides which were all homemade the cabbage even had bacon in it and the cracklin’ gravy on top of the potatoes was excellent.

 

After we were all done eating I was full and couldn’t eat much more. But mom and dad both decided to get pie. Dad got the chocolate ice box pie and mom had the lemon meringue pie.  I tasted on both and thought the chocolate was the better of the two but they were both very good.

Earl Abel’s restaurant in San Antonio was quite tasty and while they may not have the best food ever, they have very good homemade food that’s a bit on the fattening side but it tastes so good.

 

 

 

 

 website: http://www.earlabelssa.com/


 

1201 Austin Hwy #175, San Antonio, TX 78209

 

 

Dough Pizzeria Napoletana - San Antonio TX

Dough Pizzeria Napoletana October 22, 2015

This was our first day in San Antonio after 2 long travel days and a nice margarita pizza sound like just the thing.  When we walked in there was a strong smell of garlic and we had to wait a few minutes while they got the table for us ready. Once we were seated our waitress asked if we wanted sparkling water or regular water we just took regular and we all three ordered cokes, and also asked about the pizza sizes since the menu just said small or large.  She showed us with her hands about 10 inch and a 12 inch maybe sizes. So we all three just ordered three different small pizzas for ourselves.  

 

Both mom and I ordered a small margarita pizza ($7.50)

 

 

and dad ordered the pork love pizza ($11). This was an excellent margarita pizza as it should be since it’s a certified Neapolitan pizza place and I keep finding all the certified ones are very similar which would make sense. This was an excellent pizza and so was my dad’s he said.  This was a great way to start off my San Antonio food journey.
 

 

 

6989 Blanco Rd.
San Antonio, TX 78216

   



Whataburger - Lubbock Texas

October 21, 2015

 

We were in Texas so I figured we better stop at a Whataburger and try it out. I ordered a number one combo with cheese this was an okay burger but still fast food.  Maybe one of the better fast food places though, but definitely no In-N-Out.

The fries were okay and when they brought the food out they brought out a tray of condiments I took a couple of spicy ketchups and thought it was really good ketchup and a bit spicy.

8226 University Ave, Lubbock, TX

Coming soon: San Antonio TX

Recently I took a trip to San Antonio, so starting next week I'll start posting about some of the Good Eats I found along the way!

28th Annual MDA Chili Cook Off - Larimer Square Historic District Denver, Colorado

October 2, 2015

 

Recently I was able to attend the 28^th Annual MDA Chili Cook Off which is a fundraiser to benefit the Muscular Dystrophy Association.  This was held at Larimer Square in Denver.  The whole street was shut down and filled with tents for each of the participating fire stations.  There were way too many to try each one, so I ended up sampling 4 different ones plus 2 bowls.  4 of them were green chili.  One of the Denver stations was my favorite and the one from Westminster was the hottest I had and made my nose run.  The most different one was from a Fort Worth Texas station which of course had no beans.  My overall favorite was an elk chili from Mountain View fire, which was a red chili.  This was a great event and a lot of fun to try all the different chili’s and most importantly it raised a lot of money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.   

Mici Handcrafted Italian- Stapleton Denver Colorado

After waiting in the parking lot for a while and waiting out the rain we had an early dinner here.  After finding a break in the rain we went in. We headed up to the counter I ordered a pepperoni pizza, mom and dad both got the lasagna.  After we ordered we took our drink cups and a number to our table and waited a bit.  shortly our food arrived

the pizza was very good it wasn’t the best and it was a step below the best pizzas I’ve had, but still very good I didn’t particularly like the cornmeal on the crust but the rest was very good it was quite a bit greasy as well it dripped all over my hand.

The lasagna seemed pretty good with two pieces of ciabatta bread. Mom and dad both liked this very much. Throughout our meal multiple people came by to see how everything was including a guy who told us how good everything else on their menu was and that he liked the lasagna the most and also he told us how good the desserts were. So after we were done eating I took my last piece in a box and we all decided to try it cannoli which I have never had before.

They were mini cannoli’s, so they were kind of small but I wasn’t too hungry so I thought it was the perfect size. These were excellent.  I don’t exactly know how they stack up against others but all I know is these were great.

2373 Central Park Blvd, Denver, CO 80238

Chris’ Café Santa Fe New Mexico

March 12, 2015

Driving home from phoenix and Albuquerque each year we find a different place to stop for lunch in Santa Fe. This year we picked Chris’ Café. This place is owned by Chris who was formerly from Tecolote café which was on diners drive-ins and dives years ago. So we stopped in around lunchtime this place is small and very crowded and not all tables were wheelchair accessible there was only one available which was rather small for the three of us. First we were all three ordered cokes and shortly thereafter our waitress was back to take our orders. I had the bacon breakfast burrito and I had it Christmas style because I can never figure out which to choose, so I just got both.  Dad had the sausage burrito and did the same thing with the chili.

 

 

And mom got an omelet with green chili.

 

 I thought this burrito was very good and was an all right size not the biggest one I’ve ever had but decent size it also had beans and hash browns on the side. This was a perfect meal for our last day of our trip and I couldn’t stop thinking about how great my burrito was all the way home and I never could figure out which chili I liked best because they were both delicious.

 

 

 

 

 

 

3568 Cerrillos Rd, Santa Fe, NM 87507

 

 

Hot bagels Phoenix Arizona

March 11, 2015 

This place was in a little strip mall with some various other stores so we went for lunch before we left Phoenix.

 

I had the honey turkey sandwich and I picked a jalapeno bagel for the bread this came with onion, tomato, lettuce, mayo and spicy brown mustard this all tasted good but the bagel was tough and chewy which made it very hard for me at least to eat it.  This came with the chips, but you had no choice of chips just lays chips. Mom had a BLT

 

and dad the Reuben sandwich both thought they were okay, but I don’t think they were too excited.

 Tramonto Marketplace, 34640 North Valley Parkway, Phoenix, AZ 85086

Beaver Choice Mesa Arizona

March 10, 2015

This place has intrigued me for a few years now, the first year on our last day in Phoenix we were planning to go there on a Sunday until we realized they close early on Sundays.  The next year when we were in town they were in the middle of moving to a new location, the old one was closed and the new one wasn’t quite open yet so we’ve never been able to make it, but this year we were finally able to. When we entered the building they told us to sit wherever. We were early so there were plenty of tables except for the ones they said that were reserved. After this were brought menus and also were brought a cheese and potato pierogi for each of us to try.  These were delicious and I almost had to change and order these for dinner. Also we had time to check out the menu which was rather large with many things; Scandinavian food, Polish food, Canadian food, all kinds of food. I was already thinking to get Swedish meatballs I haven’t had real ones in a restaurant before just ones that my mom makes that are good, but I don’t know how they stack up against others and I didn’t change my mind even though the pierogis were so good. This came with a side dish which I picked the mashed potatoes and also with three side salads I picked coleslaw, Broccoli, and the tomato basil salad. Mom ordered the Danish meatballs or Frikadellers, she had the mashed potatoes, coleslaw, peas and a green salad.

 

Dad had some Swedish thing never heard of, called a shoemakers box that he thought the description sounded good. This came with pickles and the tomato basil salad and mashed potatoes under a pork loin and gravy. It seemed like our food came pretty soon which was all right with me.

 

This was all good stuff which came with two scoops of the mashed potatoes and plenty of gravy and the balls had good flavor and were soft in texture and the Lingon berries you can’t forget these, they pretty good. I tried some one of mom’s Danish meatballs and they were way too sweet for me. Mom liked them though and dad seemed to think his was pretty good too. It Seemed like after we ate that’s when the service started to go slow, but eventually we were brought a dessert menu and our waitress said they were out of the cheesecake pierogis which I wanted to try. So after we waited for a while, not our waitress but the owner who seemed like a very friendly person came and took our dessert order my dad mentioned something about the cheesecake pierogis being gone so we would just get the regular cheesecake. The lady said that they didn’t run out of them that she just didn’t have time to make them today.

 

So my parents just got the regular cheesecake to share. In a bit this was brought out with an extra spoon for me to try it and I thought it was very good, so did my parents. Eventually we got our check paid and left and I was very impressed and happy with my meal.

 Baseline Mercado, 745 W Baseline Rd, Mesa, AZ 85210

Pomo Pizzeria Napoletana Scottsdale Arizona

March 10, 2015

This place is a certified Neapolitan pizza place and since I’ve been to a couple others in other places I figured let’s try this one out too. They have an Italian menu so I wasn’t exactly sure what some things were, but we figured out a few things like Fior di Latte was mozzarella which helped a lot. I was thinking that a margarita type pizza would be good and dad thought one of them with spicy salami on it would be good to. So we decided to order those two pizzas for the three of us as well as three cokes. Our waiter was nice and was on top of things and was even complete with a nice Italian accent.

 

The one pizza had spicy salami, mozzarella, tomato sauce and ricotta on top it was kind of different than anything I’ve had before but it was kind of like a pepperoni pizza but with better ingredients and the salami was better than any pepperoni I’ve ever had and was delicious.

 

 

The margarita pizza was simple with just mozzarella, tomato sauce and basil and was simple just like it should be and was excellent. This was a very good pizza place and I’ll be sure to visit it again.

Pomo Pizzeria Napoletana

8977 N Scottsdale Rd

Scottsdale, AZ 85253

 

 

Casa Ramos Mesa Arizona

March 9, 2015

We arrived here for a bit of an early dinner and the place is pretty empty when we arrived on a Monday night. When we went in we waited for a while before anyone noticed us and seated us, but after that It didn’t seem too slow of service.

 

We were brought chips and salsa right away, the salsa was in a jar like thing with two bowls to fill yourself. Also we had our drink orders taken they serve Pepsi products or Mexican Coke in bottles. While we enjoyed the chips and salsa we had some time to check out the menu I picked the combo with a green chili pork chimichanga and a chicken enchilada mom picked a cheese enchilada and chili relleno and dad had a green chili pork chimichanga with a cheese enchilada. These all came with rice and beans. The chips were good and the salsa was the best of the three places we ate at in Phoenix on our trip. It was fresh tasting and had a bit of heat, but not too much. After a little bit of waiting our food arrived with the normal warning of the plate is hot.

 

 

The Chimichanga had a good fried tortilla which was filled with pork with some green chilies but mostly pork this was not like a smothered with green chili thing it was different than what I’ve had, but it was quite good. The pork inside was very good and fell apart. The beans and rice with this were really just all right, on my plate was also tomato and lettuce, but it was more like a salad with decent lettuce better than the normal shredded lettuce you  would normally get. I thought the enchilada was all right but I would’ve liked to have more sauce. Everyone else also seem to enjoy their meal as well mom’s plate also had a coleslaw on it which she thought was very good. I enjoyed this Mexican restaurant it wasn’t maybe the best Mexican restaurant been to but everything was very good.

1526 E Main St, Mesa, AZ 85203

Bobby Q Phoenix Arizona

March 8, 2015

I’ve recently been getting in to smoking a little bit and want to someday do a brisket. I haven’t had too much brisket before so I wanted to get some at a barbecue place to see what they’re like. It was a Sunday night and it was pretty packed in the place we had a little bit of a wait. Inside was kind of dark and it was kind of loud inside as well.

I ordered the brisket platter which came with two sides I chose mac & cheese and pecan coleslaw. Dad had the sausage with mac & cheese and beans and mom had the brisket sandwich with the pecan coleslaw. The brisket seemed a little pricey but when the plate came out I could see why a cost that much because it was a ton of food. Dad want to try brisket out to, so I shared with him. The Brisket was rather tasty with a good amount of fat on top. And while it might not be my favorite barbecued smoked meat sure was quite delicious. The mac & cheese was gooey and rather filling and tasted really good and the coleslaw was also fairly good and not really heavy. My dad enjoyed his sausage platter and part of my brisket as well.  He thought the brisket was really good and we can’t wait to smoke one ourselves. Here some of the barbecue platters are a little on the expensive side but they give you a lot of food.

8501 N 27th Ave, Phoenix, AZ 85051


 

Haus Murphy’s Glendale Arizona

March 5, 2015

This is one of my favorites in Arizona and my favorite German place anywhere.  I had my usual Paprika Schnitzel.  Which is a pork schnitzel with an onion and bacon infused Paprika Sauce on top.  This also came with German Fried Potatoes and Wirsing (a creamy cabbage side) and a cup of Chef's Soup, the soup this day was beef cabbage.

 

5739 W Glendale Ave

Glendale, AZ 85301

 

 



Peoria Stadium - Peoria Arizona

March 8, 2015

This Stadium always has a ton of choices for food and after checking all the places to see what they had I decided on the Sonoran dog. This was a hot dog with jalapeno ranch, bacon, pico de gallo and an avocado. This was a decent hot dog not the greatest, but all right for a ballpark and the toppings weren’t bad either.

 

 

We also decided to get some garlic fries which were decent and had a ton of herbs and garlic but were just not as good as last year’s version which was a little different.

Roberto's Authentic Mexican Food - Anthem Arizona

March 5, 2015

I’ve always been kind of on the fence about tamales I’ve had a few decent ones and some that were awful. We had been to Roberto’s previously and saw them on Diners Drive-ins and Dives making tamales and figured this would be a good place to try them since they’re homemade. They are however only available on Thursdays so when we were in Phoenix on Thursday we had to make a stop. Also it sounds like there tamales are very popular so since we drove so far and wanted to make sure we got some we called ahead to reserve some and the guy said they had two kinds red chili beef and green chile corn tamales and they were both mild in spice. So all three of us decided to get one of each. Once we arrived we told them we reserved some tamales and that we want to eat there.  They asked us if we wanted to add rice and beans to them for their special.  Dad did this, but neither mom nor I did. We also ordered some chips and salsa as well as three drinks. The tamales also came with a couple little cups of salsa. In just a few minutes they brought all our food out and Roger the owner of the place we met a couple years earlier saw us and made sure to stop by and say hello as well as get my address to send me a shirt.

 

 

And when the tamales arrived I started in to the beef and thought oh my God this was delicious then I took a bite of the green corn chili and thought it might even better than the beef, but good thing I got one of each because I never could figure out which one was better. The beef was shredded beef with red chili inside the Masa and the green chile corn had green chile and corn with some cheese. Usually my problem with tamales has been them being dry and these definitely were not in were very moist and both the fillings were excellent and even though we had salsa these did not need anything on they were so delicious just by themselves. I also liked the chips and salsa the salsa tasted very good but was a little runny so it made a little difficult to dip the chips in not get stuff dripped all over the place.

Now I know tamales can be really good, but I think they just have to be fresh and made the right way and Roberto’s definitely does that.

Anthem Crossroads, 39510 W Daisy Mountain Dr #170, Anthem, AZ 85086

 

Leff T’s steakhouse - Dewey Arizona

March 6, 2015

We took a drive from Phoenix up to Prescott and after taking a hike we stopped at Leff t’s steakhouse in Dewey Arizona. When we arrived just after 5pm on a Friday night the parking lot was full except for a spot or two. So we went inside the place and were told it would be about a 25 minute wait, so we figured we would wait. As we waited the front area got little crowded. Then in probably about 25 minutes we were seated. After we had our drink orders taken we had time to look over the menu and we were ready to order pretty quickly. We all three ordered a 10 ounce ribeye ($21.99). this came with a choice of potato and a soup or salad I had mashed potatoes and gravy and a salad, mom had the mashed potatoes and gravy along with clam chowder which the soup of the day. Dad got his with fries and a salad.

 

 

So after a bit our waitress brought out our salads and soup along with bread on a cutting board with butter and apple butter. The bread was a small loaf of I think pumpernickel.  The salad had Jícama, cilantro and tomatoes which made it kind of different than most salads I’ve ever had. Mom really enjoyed her clam chowder.  I kind of wished I would have got the clam chowder as well after she said how good it was. In a few when our waitress came back past she noticed our bread  was gone and she asked if we wanted some more bread it was so good I figured why not. So right away she brought out another piece of bread.  Shortly after we were done with our salad and bread out came the steaks.

 Dad and I both ordered our steaks medium and it came out perfect and mom had hers well done.  This steak was perfectly cooked and was very tender and had great flavor. This was so delicious I even finished the whole thing. The mashed potatoes and gravy were quite good. As we left there were still quite a few people waiting to get their excellent steak. This place was excellent and whenever we’re back close, I’ll be sure to stop in again for a delicious steak at really not too bad of a price.  

 

 

Leff T's Steak House & Grill

150 AZ-69, Dewey, AZ 86327