Famous Daves: A true American Pig out

                Recently my wife and I had occasion to visit famous Daves in our area and I have to say…It was one of the best BBQ lunches I have had in a long time.  The newly renovated block buster off Lagemodier is now the Famous Daves expansion into Winterpeg from the states, and I have to say…it kind of snuck in silently. I have not seen much in the way of advertising and it does not seem to match up with our Canadian way of thinking. We are not normally heavy meat eaters up north, we tend to make meat a PART of our meal, not the focus…and dare I say it….WHOLE MEAL. But to be frank, it was an experience I would soon look forward to repeating.

First off the waitress was funny, had a killer personality and was a great representative of what a server/host should be. The whole set up with the different bbq sauces was fantastic and fun and the meal, well I will get to that.

                The Chips they bring you at the start of your meal was about my only “not great” experience. They were set up to try the different dipping sauces and they were okay for that, but bland as hell and a tad over cooked and the powdery stuff they threw on them was kind of nasty.

                That aside the sauces were fantastic, from a sweet but smoky number to something that probably would have ate the lining of my stomach it was so hot!  They had so many and brought them to the table in a basket for us to use if we wanted.  And we used a lot of them, I even made the mistake of using the super killer hot one and it tasted great…I think…my mouth kind of went numb for a minute but it still had a nice taste…till the heat kicked in.  That was however my fault and entertained my wife for the rest of the lunch.

                We ordered two lunch “taster” platters, I had the wings and Ribs and my wife had the chopped pork and Brisket.  We shared around and also got a few sides, the potato salad, corn on the cob, beans and coleslaw.  The Ribs were surprisingly my favorite.  They were big ass meaty ribs and kind of fell off the bone.  My wife had to wrestle the last one away they were so good.  Normally when I get a Rib platter they have this kind of “frozen fresh” look to them and they are doused in some slimy cover up sauce, these however were cooked perfectly and unlike the “mostly bone” counterparts they were wrapped in some very juicy meat and the sauce was perfect.

                The Wings were excellent as well and looked like they were touched in the sauce and not dropped into a bucket of the stuff after they were cooked.  I mean I used to say you cannot screw up chicken wins, now I say you SHOULD not screw up chicken wins and Dave’s did their best to make sure that the four or five you get will make you come back for more.  They were juicy to and the sauce they used for mine was not the hot one, I asked for the tangy one and it worked perfectly. 

                The copped pork was the only meat that I would say was not so good that you had to say “ummmm” when eating. It was good, but I have had similar pork dishes at other places. The sauce was great and the meet was juicy, but the meat lacked that Smokey flavor that I was expecting.  I have been told by others that they loved the chopped pork and it was great, I am “chopping” this experience with the pork up to an off day for the cooks on the chopped pork.  But its still worth the money and it was still passable, just not a home run like the ribs and brisket!

                Speaking of the brisket….I am normally a steak guy, and on occasion a roast guy…little did I know I would soon become a Brisket guy! The Brisket was juicy, sauce was perfect and the whole thing was smoked or cooked so well that you simply had to bite into it and it melted in your mouth…this was a “ummmm” moment for me…or as my buddy Mel say “numb nomb nomb” moment.  My wife and I had four strips to split between us, which does not sound like much but they were a half inch thick each and a hand long!  Excellent meat and I can not say enough good things about it.

                The sides were fantastic too. The potato salad was good, not something that made my wife say “Damn I need that recipe” but good, the coleslaw was passable for sure and not doused in the cream sauce that always kills it.  But the high lights of our meal were the corn and beans. The corn, as I am a corn guy, was perfect…if not a tad small.  Two pieces of corn on the cob were gone in seconds and I was thankful that the meat in my belly was filling me up so I was not looking for more. I tried the beans, even though I am not a brown bean guy, and to be frank…my wife is lucky she has the look on her side and just flashed the “Stay away from my beans” look…which if you have never seen one is the same as the “I may have to kill you and hide the body look” she normally gives me.

                The whole experience was ALMOST topped off with a desert that when passing the booth looked so good we were sad we had to go…and by go I mean that even my wifes buffet pants were not happy with our indulgence.  The food was excellent and we have sent family to this joint since and I rave about the food…being  2/3 carnivore I loved the meat especially. 

                Oh, almost forgot, the corn bread muffins….my wife’s eyes rolled as she bit into one like she just had a bite of something holy!  The whole experience, again, Awesome.  I always suggest this for a night out with a friend or family, but not really the upscale joint my single friends would take a date…just the right kind of food for a husband and wife to get down and enjoy some good BBQ!

The good, the ugly and the just plane gross!

Welcome to the opulent and complex world of food blogs.  I am by no means a “Foody”  however! I don’t pretend to be the best at this and its an experiment I hope goes very wrong at some point!  So, why create this little blog….well For far to long I have followed a few food blogs that have suggested places, raved about them and the outcome was LESS Than impressive.  The blog stated “Best ever” and when my wife and I showed up…not impressed at all…actually in one case GROSSED RIGHT OUT!  So, from here on out I am going to give the blue color version of the events, give you the skinny on were to avoid, and some hidden gems that will help you find a dinning experience that is both worth the money and time to go and eat…and ones that wont make you sick to your stomach for what ever reasons. 

This week two wrongs to find a right!.....

The first wrong was a lunch date I had with my wife at a local new restaurant that did NOT rock my socks off.  The place in question…JC’s Tacos and more…or just JC’s it all tastes the same and none of it is great.  It was Okay, the café style lunch room is kind of quant, it has a flair that is South American/Mexican and the decor was kind of neat….But the food was run of the mill fair that was not fantastic to say the least. The lettuce in the lettuce bowl and the Enchelada I had was bland, and not seasoned, it had a sour minerally kind of taste to it. The beef that was the signature of the dish was all stuffed to one end so all you ate for the first part of the meal was soft Tortilla and a bland tomato sauce with some bad lettuce.  $14.00 may not seem like much, but I would have rather saved money and went next door to Subway to be frank.

The JC bowl is basically the guts of an Enchelada……for $8.99.  it was beef, Lettice and rice…and not that great. The table had different kinds of hot sauces to use, but you should never have to fall back on spicing up food to make it better.  My wife was so disappointed that we did not finish the meal and we did not take any home. Trust me we don’t waste food…but that was a waste of our time!

The room was filled with knick knacks and the most obvious thing was they wanted you to leave after buying things other than food. It was a mish mash and we kind of chuckle when we go by their in the car now!  Not one I would recommend to friends, especially those that like Mexican food.

So about two weeks back, on one of my days off, we figured we would hit up a greasy spoon and have a burger, and that is kind of were this blog actually starts off…..I read 3 blogs about the best damn burgers in town and one that was so recommended was Charlies on Stratacona in EK, near my place.  We actually were aiming for Sonias on Henderson but it was closed and the guy at the door said they ran out of food…..wait…what…that’s for another blog! So, I remember about Charlies and we zip over to the joint.  First off the parking, while ample sucks! We actually got boxing in by a delivery truck in a parking lot that was fairly empty…my bad!

The restaurant was nice, kind of run of the mill with a big section not being used and we were the only ones in the place.  The wait staff was very nice and the young lady knew her stuff and was attentive, which was nice because it would have looked horrid if she was not attentive to the ONLY people in the joint.  We ordered what the Burger blogs promised would be a burger-gazm in our mouths, the BBQ Texas burger.  Both my wife and I ordered fries and the burger, a nice platter for about $8-$12 each.  And we sat back and waited for the mouthwatering burger to come out….

First off I have high standards when it comes to burgers, I am not taking any blog at face value here. I want a big juicy patty that is cooked so its well-done but juicy and has a crispy crust on it, the bun has to be fresh and depending on the bun it has to give the proper flavor to the burger that goes with the patty and the idea behind the burger…if you have an upscale burger then a Kaizer bun, a texas burger would be good on a sour dough bun ext and so on.  The lettuce and tomato or other fixings should also be fresh and ample, better to have the fixing fall off then not be noticed.

I am also a French fry snob so I was happy to see that the plate came with a fair amount of them…and they were not bad…run of the mill…but ample.

The burger itself had good fix’ins, lots of lettuce that was not bitter, good tomato on the bun and they get you to add your own condiments which are good.  But the patty was AWFULL! I cannot say how much we did not like the patty. It was basically beef patty soaked in a horrible BBQ sauce! That’s it. Not imagination at all!  It also had a sour kind of aftertaste that came from the wrong choice in BBQ sauce!

Again I found myself getting about half way through the burger and thinking it just was not worth it.  The burger…was foul!  I can not say anything nice about this burger and have to ask WHAT THE HECK WAS THE OTHER BLOGS SAYING.  Now I am not going to pan Charlies completely, we both ate the same burger and both thought it was horrible…..but they had a great looking menu with other items that had promise, but I will leave it up to the rest of you to dig in and see if the joint has any redeeming qualities.

The last place I will comment on this blog is the Magic sushi and walk on McPhillips…and to be frank I was not sure at all about this joint, any place that says “all you can eat Sushi” is kind of on my radar of places NOT TO GO TO….and I would have been SO DAMN WRONG! One of my students suggested the joint for a quick bite and I was a bit hesitant to eat at a place that had “EMERGENCY ROOM” written all over it from the outside, but I can tell you that the Magic Sushi and walk on McPhillips is more than just worth a try!

We stopped off and I watched the staff hustle us and everyone else to their seats, the staff may or may not speak enough English to get by…but they were pleasant and very polite. ….I did not try my horrible Japanese on them by the way!  The Gyoza were different, more like Egg roll shaped than dumpling, but damn if they were not tasty!  The sauces were incredible and really made the dish jump out at you and the appetizer was perfect if not a bit salty, which by the way is the traditional way they are made and no hit to the restaurant at all!

The whole point to the visit was to get some Sushi on and we did that in a BIG way.  First off you order using a order slip and you request numbers, and the staff…again not saying much, swings buy and grabs the numbered slip and within minutes you have a line of sushi in front of you.  The nice thing about this is that you can try a variety of sushi and we did….california roll, dynamite roll..the bad things that I found with the sushi were to much Panko, which kind of make them need as they were crunchy…not something you associate with sushi…and the rice…way to much rice and the fillings were slim pickings…aside from that the other thing was the Mayo…on everything that we ate that had the mayo on it….it had the MAYO ON IT!  The mayo was horrible…so I ordered with out mayo and enjoyed the sushi very much. 

Now I am not saying this joint is the bomb when it comes to sushi, I have had better sushi at other places, but this place, for the money we paid was dead on after a good hard Karate work out. 

Until next time…Masticators!