Kaya Korean Restaurant – Westminster CO

Friday the 13^th July 13, 2012

I had never been to a Korean Restaurant, but have had Korean food that my mom learned to cook that has always been one of my favorites.  This place was rather confusing the name anyways,  on the menu and yelp it says Kaya Korean Restaurant, the sign outside just said Korean BBQ, the google map says Korean Garden and their business cards and the to-go bag said Dae Gee.

They have some of their tables have grills right in the middle of the tables, but we didn’t really want to cook it ourselves, so we took one of the regular tables.  We were going to just order one of the family dinners but they said we could only order that at the grill tables because I think they only let you cook the Galbi at your table.  So we just ordered 3 different meat dishes Chicken, beef and pork bulgoki as well as Jhob chae (I’ve also seen it spelled chap-chae or jap-chae) which was listed as an appetizer.  We all also got cokes.  The whole place was empty when we got here at about 5:30 but as we waited for our food the place started filling up and there were quite a few Koreans.  After a bit our waitress started to bring out the food. 

First she sat down some small plates that were kind of half bowl half plate.  She also brought out rice in individual bowl type things.  Then she came with a tray of side dishes that she went through the names but went kind of fast, there were probably about 10 of them.  Fish cakes, kimchi cakes, kimchi, spicy cucumber, bean sprouts, beef garlic and peppers, broccoli, mashed potato, a salad with cabbage and carrots and onions.  Some of these like the kimchi and the cucumbers were a little spicy, but not as hot as I would have expected.  The Kimchi I thought was really good, and I didn’t think I liked kimchi before, but the last I had was out of a jar.  This was like the difference between a jar of salsa and fresh salsa.  The potato salad I thought was a little weird how it tasted like normal Asian flavors but in potatoes which I hadn’t had anything like it before.  All of these were pretty good, except I didn’t really care for the fish cakes.  They also brought out a plate of lettuce and some kind of sauce, for eating the meat with but this was harder for me to do than just eating it with a fork.

Right after these came out; the entrees came one at a time.  The last thing to come was the jhob chae which was an appetizer.  Other bulgoki that I’ve had that my mom makes she cooks it longer.  All of these dishes were lighter cooked, and all had very good flavor, but it was the low quality of meat that I didn’t like. 

It was a little tough, chewy, and grisly in places.  The pork was spicy, probably the hottest thing we had that night.  The chicken and the beef were not spicy at all. 

The jhob chae dish was great, the noodles were clear yam noodles  with stir-fried veggies which were carrots, cabbage, onions, mushrooms and spinach with a little bit of beef.  This dish was what I expected it to be and it was delicious.  I really liked how they served the meal with a bunch of side dishes, which is traditional for Korean food. So you would get a lot of variety.   I probably would have given this place a 5 star rating if the meat would have been better.

 7570 Sheridan Blvd  Westminster, CO 80003

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Inca Mexican restaurant – Ft. Collins CO

July 5, 2012

I met a couple of friends Lesley and David here for lunch.  I had previously been here about 8 or 9 years ago, but I didn’t remember much about it.  So I wanted to try this place out again.   We met around 12:30 and went inside.  The whole place seemed kind of empty.  When we were seated they brought out chips and salsa and took our drink orders. 

The chips seemed like ordinary chips and the salsa was kind of a runny type salsa with chunks of onions.  I actually thought it was pretty good.  Soon after they started bringing out the drinks, but they were all brought out one by one from different wait staff.  That was interesting but they got everything right.  Lesley had the enchilada and taco lunch combo both with beef, David had the pork burrito and I had the two beef enchilada combo all of these came with rice, beans and coleslaw.  After a while they brought out the food. 

My plate was I thought was alright, not anything really good or exciting, but nothing bad either.  The enchiladas were basic enchiladas with plenty of sauce on top, and had quite a bit of beef inside mixed with more sauce.  The rice and beans were not the greatest but not bad.  I wasn’t sure about the coleslaw, I don’t know if that is normal thing to have with Mexican food.  I have only seen it a couple of times.  I didn’t really like the coleslaw, but I don’t really like coleslaw to begin with. 

Lesley’s plate was basically like mine but had a taco instead of a second enchilada.  David’s pork burrito looked like there were big chunks of pork inside and looked good. they both seemed to like their food.

I wasn’t exactly turning cartwheels, but I did have a decent lunch that did its job of filling me up.

2413 South College Avenue  Fort Collins, CO 80525

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Celestino's New York Pizza - Ft. Collins CO

June 11, 2012

I was meeting a friend for lunch and we decided to stop by Celestinos and try it out.  My friend and I used to go to a pizza place quite often that had a chicken ranch pizza with chicken, ranch, tomatoes, bacon and jalapenos.  The place closed so we couldn’t get our favorite pizza anymore.  So when we saw that this place had a very similar pizza with green onions instead of jalapenos we had to order it.

The menu said their mediums were 14 inch, which I thought was a normal large.  We went ahead and ordered it at the counter and filled our own drinks and picked a table.  The table was kind of slanted, one end was high and one end quite a bit lower, but it still worked.  They brought plates out and after a while they brought out the pizza and asked if we needed anything else which we didn’t. 

The pizza was very good, not as good of a chicken ranch pizza that we used to get, but still very good.  I really liked the crust and the toppings were fresh and tasted pretty good.  I do want to go back sometime and try a more traditional pizza; I think it would be really good. 

We both enjoyed the pizza very much and had about half of it to take home since it was a rather large medium pizza.

 

306 West Laurel Street #113  Fort Collins, CO 80521

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Castillons family Mexican restaurant - Fort Collins Colorado

May 31, 2012

I felt like Mexican food again which is a normal occurrence for me.  I knew I wanted a chile relleno and thought why not try a new place.

We arrived about 12:30 and they said they would be with us in a moment, so in a moment they took us to a table and I think gave us the biggest one they could find for my mom and I. 

Not right away but in a few minutes the waitress brought a basket of chips and a bowl of salsa, I thought it was pretty good, nothing wild or different than a basic salsa.  But I also really like chips and salsa just about everywhere.  So we enjoyed the chips and salsa as we looked over the menu.  This didn’t take too long to decide what to get.  They had their lunch special in the menu, which was pick two items and came with rice and frijoles borachos (drunken beans).  We both ordered this with a chile relleno and a cheese enchilada (5.95) as well as two cokes which we ordered at the same time as the food and not before.   Right after our waitress left she was back with the cokes just in time since I just hit a hot spot in the salsa.  They were huge cups and I wondered how much they charged since I didn’t look.  I did find out later it was only $ 1.95 which I thought was a bargain and I definitely did not need a refill.  It didn’t seem to take too long until our waitress came back with the food. 

The chili relleno was an egg roll wrapper type relleno that was fried and crispy which is how I like them.  This was smothered in green chile, which tasted pretty good.  It had good flavor but wasn’t too hot.  The cheese enchilada was basic the enchilada part anyways, but the sauce was quite different than a normal enchilada sauce.  It was chili con carne and also tasted good.  I can’t remember ever having any kind of sauce with meat on top of enchiladas before, but it was the best part of the cheese enchilada.  The rice was good and the beans were actually more of a soup than the beans at most Mexican places.  They also had bacon in with the beans they were really quite good.  I put mixed some of my rice into the beans after a while and thought that was really good.

 

 

4010 South College Avenue  Fort Collins, CO 80525

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Stuft a burger bar - Windsor CO

I decided that maybe I should check out some of the local restaurants especially in Windsor.  My dad and I headed out wanting a nice burger.   We were very excited about this place after reading their menu online and seeing how many different options you had to build your own burger. We were on the late end of lunch, there were still some tables full but by the time we left it was pretty empty. 

 We were seated and the waitress came and explained that we have to fill out the form with all the choices we have and if we had any questions.  We thought we could handle it so we looked over our choices. I filled out my form choosing a third pound ground chuck burger with smoked cheddar, tomato, onions, pickles and green chilies along with chipotle ketchup which came on the side and I did not put it on the burger.  I got onion rings to go with it with buttermilk ranch. My dad had his burger with french fries so we could try both of them. The waitress came back with a highlighter to mark our selections and to make sure they were what we wanted and asked if it being cooked medium was okay because that's what they recommend. I typically would want my burger cooked more, but I thought since they recommended it that way I would try it out.

 Not very long after, out came the burgers.  I started out trying to pick up my burger up trying to eat the whole thing but I was having trouble getting my mouth around it, so I cut it in half which made it easier to handle. 

I thought the burger was okay but not really anything great, but I really liked the smoked cheddar and thought it was really good combined with the green chilies.  The other toppings were just ordinary toppings. If I would go back I would have them cook my burger well but that's just a personal preference. The onion rings I ordered were kind of hard to eat, when you would bite them the onion would pullout and the breading would crumble all over the place.  These did taste okay, not the best or worst but they were a little hard to eat. My two sauces I had were the buttermilk ranch which was a good ranch dressing and the chipotle ketchup which was what I was really excited about was just okay.  I thought it tasted alright but I didn’t taste much chipotle and seemed like it could use some more chipotle.  

 The French fries were also okay but I didn't think they were all that special. My dad said he thought the burger was pretty average he also thought he would like to cook more. He also didn't like how they didn’t have salt on the table and you have to ask for it. They also didn't really ask if we wanted refills, but I didn't really want one anyway.

1294 Main Street Windsor, CO 80550

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Sol de Jalisco - Windsor CO

3/28/2012

I had been here previously when it was a different restaurant and I was kind of wondering if they just changed their name or if it was a completely new restaurant. When we got there my dad and I figured out quickly that it was a completely new place. They brought out chips and salsa as well as a bean dip right away.  The chips were okay but nothing special and I thought the salsa was all right but definitely not the best salsa ever had.  My dad really didn't like it at all nor did he like the bean dip which I also didn't care for. We both decided to get the beef enchiladas plate with rice and beans. I really didn't like the enchiladas too much and the rice and beans were not too exciting either. We did have a coupon for five dollars off which made the meal quite cheap ($15.03 w/ tip for 2) but we also did not like the meal very much. Our waitress was nice and did a good job. I was quite disappointed that they didn't just change the name because I thought the previous place was really really good and this place not so much.

1345 Water Valley Pkwy #300

Windsor, CO 80550

Harrys Roadhouse - Santa Fe, NM

March 13, 2012

We were headed back home and thought we would just eat lunch in Santa Fe.  This Place was featured on Diners Drive Ins and Dives. I knew it was right off the interstate and not too hard to find. When we got there they said it will be a little bit of a wait. While we were waiting more people kept coming in behind us and getting their names on the waiting list. It actually took quite a while to get a table because there were limited tables that were easy to get a wheelchair to. But while we were waiting a manager looking type was kind of actually quite entertaining to watch him talking to employees and to other customers. After we were seated it seemed like the service was kind of slow but not necessarily bad. It took a little while to figure out what I wanted to from the menu. There were choices on the menu from vegetarian and vegan type things, which if you read my blog often you know that I'm not going there, to choices with meat, light choices to more filling items. I did finally decide to get the half grilled cheese sandwich which I added ham along with the chicken noodle soup.  My mom had the same thing without the ham. My dad decided to try the turkey Reuben which I was kind of surprised by that, but he wanted to see if it would be any good compared to a normal Reuben which is one of his favorites.                                                                                 

The grilled cheese sandwich also had caramelized onions in it along with Tillamook cheddar this sandwich was really good.  It tasted kind of like French onion soup in a sandwich and the ham was a nice addition to it. The soup was really good as well.   It had a very good broth with noodles and vegetables which included peas which I thought was a little different but was still okay.

My dad thought his sandwich was good, but would prefer a traditional Reuben.  This place felt a lot different than most places I’ve been, but the food tasted really good.

My parents both decided to get pie, a piece of lemon meringue and a piece of chocolate cream pie.  I tasted both and thought both were pretty good, but I think I liked the chocolate slightly better.  They were both good pies but I think the crust could've been better.

If you can handle a long wait this would be a place for a very good meal.

96 Old Las Vegas Highway # B  Santa Fe, NM 87505