STOCKTON BURGER
It is better than Ford's. When I moved here some friends said Ford's was the best, but I disagree. Stockton is good, old fashioned, big bun, meat patty the same size and juicy. Just plain ole' cheddar cheese, iceburg lettuce, tomato, and thousand island dressing. Perfect. Steak cut fries only tops it off. No nonsense interior area to dine and at lunch it was filled with a true mix of people. They serve a teriyaki chicken plate that I will have to try sometime, it looked good and a lot of people were ordering it.
Cranky thinkgs Stockton Burger deserves 4 happy faces.
Thursday, March 16, 2006
Saturday, March 11, 2006
Dining at the Kasbah Lounge
kasbah
Now that is more like it!
After a stressful week, I just wanted to go someplace peaceful and forget the week. We ate here on March 10, 2006
The link above takes you to the website. The decor is not as glamorous as, say Dar Maghreb in Los Angeles, the restaurant itself is not very large, but this is one pleasant place. Various seating available, from tall tables and stools (with backs), bar seating, table seating, or the best of all, row type seating on a low cushioned bench, with cushions for your back and a low table for two. The only draw back is those little tables, they seem wobbly, and there isn't much room if you have more than two dishes of food going at once, plus your drinks. We chose the comfy seats where we could lean back and just watch. There are light sconces everywhere, projecting soft light, the seating along the walls has drapes of material overhead to give a tent-like feeling. The items along the walls fit in with my perception of what a Moroccan eatery would look like. There are small votive candles on the tables (one per table) but the lighting is soft to the point it makes reading the menu difficult. Perhaps bigger print, certainly I would hate to have more light spoil the atmosphere.
WAIT STAFF:
Prompt, not overly intrusive when they check on you, and offering suggestions on drink and food, friendly (young, my gosh).
DRINKS:
The menu listed 5 foreign beers, but only two were on hand. My partner tried the lager from Morocco and, although it was yellow beer, said it wasn't too bad. I had one of the Kasbah's signature drinks, an aged rum from Brazil with mashed up lemons and limes. It was perfect, and served in a large round goblet, so one was plenty - and at $8.50 I didn't want to pay for two.
FOOD:
Of course, we want to try a little of everything, so we had Fatima's Palette, which was three 'dips,' hummus (very good), lebne (a yogurt based dip, also very good), and baba ganoush. The baba ganoush was strange, it tasted like an avocado dip and I think I would have preferred something different like tabouli. There was never ending pita bread wedges. This dish was $9.
We also had Merguez, for $9.50, it was 4 skewers of lamb sausages, red onion, red pepper, and lime and kumquats (or lowquats). The mix of a bite of sausage and kumquat was delicious, and 4 skewers was plentiful, glad to see a good amount of food.
Lastly, we had B'stella rolls. Usually B'stella is more like a pie, but this was the same crust, with almonds and cinnamon sugar mix sprinkled atop, and filled with chicken and egg. $8 for 4 fat rolls was a great value. It tasted delicious.
CRANKY RATING:
Overall - this place gets 4 happy faces from ole cranky. Price was right, food plentiful and tasty. I will definitely be sharing this spot with friends and out of town visitors.
Incidentally, this is the place with hukas I spoke of a couple of critiques back. Tonight it was too chilly to sit outside and enjoy one - of course, with hot sweetened mint tea... maybe in a future trip.
Now that is more like it!
After a stressful week, I just wanted to go someplace peaceful and forget the week. We ate here on March 10, 2006
The link above takes you to the website. The decor is not as glamorous as, say Dar Maghreb in Los Angeles, the restaurant itself is not very large, but this is one pleasant place. Various seating available, from tall tables and stools (with backs), bar seating, table seating, or the best of all, row type seating on a low cushioned bench, with cushions for your back and a low table for two. The only draw back is those little tables, they seem wobbly, and there isn't much room if you have more than two dishes of food going at once, plus your drinks. We chose the comfy seats where we could lean back and just watch. There are light sconces everywhere, projecting soft light, the seating along the walls has drapes of material overhead to give a tent-like feeling. The items along the walls fit in with my perception of what a Moroccan eatery would look like. There are small votive candles on the tables (one per table) but the lighting is soft to the point it makes reading the menu difficult. Perhaps bigger print, certainly I would hate to have more light spoil the atmosphere.
WAIT STAFF:
Prompt, not overly intrusive when they check on you, and offering suggestions on drink and food, friendly (young, my gosh).
DRINKS:
The menu listed 5 foreign beers, but only two were on hand. My partner tried the lager from Morocco and, although it was yellow beer, said it wasn't too bad. I had one of the Kasbah's signature drinks, an aged rum from Brazil with mashed up lemons and limes. It was perfect, and served in a large round goblet, so one was plenty - and at $8.50 I didn't want to pay for two.
FOOD:
Of course, we want to try a little of everything, so we had Fatima's Palette, which was three 'dips,' hummus (very good), lebne (a yogurt based dip, also very good), and baba ganoush. The baba ganoush was strange, it tasted like an avocado dip and I think I would have preferred something different like tabouli. There was never ending pita bread wedges. This dish was $9.
We also had Merguez, for $9.50, it was 4 skewers of lamb sausages, red onion, red pepper, and lime and kumquats (or lowquats). The mix of a bite of sausage and kumquat was delicious, and 4 skewers was plentiful, glad to see a good amount of food.
Lastly, we had B'stella rolls. Usually B'stella is more like a pie, but this was the same crust, with almonds and cinnamon sugar mix sprinkled atop, and filled with chicken and egg. $8 for 4 fat rolls was a great value. It tasted delicious.
CRANKY RATING:
Overall - this place gets 4 happy faces from ole cranky. Price was right, food plentiful and tasty. I will definitely be sharing this spot with friends and out of town visitors.
Incidentally, this is the place with hukas I spoke of a couple of critiques back. Tonight it was too chilly to sit outside and enjoy one - of course, with hot sweetened mint tea... maybe in a future trip.
Friday, March 03, 2006
Tapa The World/index
Tapa The World/index
February 24, 2006
Click on the above link, and see the next place we dined at.
TAPA THE WORLD, cafe and bar, Spanish and World Cuisine. Right next door is Kasbah Lounge. Tapa has beer and wine and the bar staff has to duck next door to the Kasbah to access a full bar. Just before we left, Tapa had live music, a fella playing Spanish-style guitar; pleasant. There was outside seating, that would be small tables on the sidewalk (fenced in with a short iron fence). It was cold, so we went inside. It was packed, but there were openings at the bar, so... Once again, we were at the bar and, of course, that means appetizers for us.
HELP STAFF:
Staff was cheerful, the bar guys were busy, but the did not do too bad a job of getting to us. The only problem with staff was catching their eye for a refill and the bill. The host was very cheerful and really drew us in.
DRINKS:
I had the beer of the month, Lagunitas' Hairy Eye. Not normally a fan of Lagunitas, this one was good, so I had two. Naomi had one as well, and some other beer that I can't remember.
FOOD:
Overall, Tapa the World gets only 1 happy face from ole cranky pants here.
February 24, 2006
Click on the above link, and see the next place we dined at.
TAPA THE WORLD, cafe and bar, Spanish and World Cuisine. Right next door is Kasbah Lounge. Tapa has beer and wine and the bar staff has to duck next door to the Kasbah to access a full bar. Just before we left, Tapa had live music, a fella playing Spanish-style guitar; pleasant. There was outside seating, that would be small tables on the sidewalk (fenced in with a short iron fence). It was cold, so we went inside. It was packed, but there were openings at the bar, so... Once again, we were at the bar and, of course, that means appetizers for us.
HELP STAFF:
Staff was cheerful, the bar guys were busy, but the did not do too bad a job of getting to us. The only problem with staff was catching their eye for a refill and the bill. The host was very cheerful and really drew us in.
DRINKS:
I had the beer of the month, Lagunitas' Hairy Eye. Not normally a fan of Lagunitas, this one was good, so I had two. Naomi had one as well, and some other beer that I can't remember.
FOOD:
Doesn't cheese of the day from Spain sound good? I thought so, but what we got when we ordered Queso Español del DÃa was 4 not too thin slices and some greens. That was it, 4 thin slices. What was strange is, the bread served (kinda like chips and salsa). Which one complimented the cheese? You would have to try both to figure it out, and one didn't. There was a baguette cut up and some peppery, soft bread. The peppery bread, good as it was, did not compliment the cheese, it hid it. Patatas Bravas, potato cubes with a spicketchupup, exactly what the bartender said it was, and it was tasty. Pinchos Morunos, a pork skewer with a dry rub ochiliesis and cumin. It was good, but very dry and should have come with a sauce. Kobe beef was very good. We had desert, Chocolate Strawberry Addiction, well worth the price.
PRICE: I was very surprised at the high price. The cheese dish was $5.50, probably the worse ratio of satisfaction for the money. We dropped over $70 there, so I am certain we had other appetizers that I can't remember. I think they charged for the extra bread.Overall, Tapa the World gets only 1 happy face from ole cranky pants here.
Thursday, March 02, 2006
My restaurant adventures in Sacramento
Background: I once lived in a suburban part of Los Angeles. It is hard not to think of the whole LA basin as anything but one city because everything looks the same. The cities blend together. I had moved to one of these cities and began, what came to be known by me and my girlfriend, as the TEN WORSE RESTAURANT TOUR. I had similar experiences in San Francisco, as well. So, why not share my critiques of Sacramento (my new home town). This doesn't mean that all the places I've been have been bad.
Late January, 2006-
"CELESTIN'S restaurant and voodou lounge" - cute spelling of voodoo and all. I dined with my partner on a Friday.
Celestin's has a full bar and patio. I saw sidewalk seating, behind low iron fencing, so I can't say if this is the patio (I did not check out back... next time I will be more thorough).
HELP STAFF/BAR STAFF
It was cold out and not many were sitting outside. There was friendly staff to greet us. The crowd was young and I believe I was the only over-50 person there. We sat at the bar as most tables were already filled at 7 pm. The bar help was attentive and my only complaint would be we had to wait for a while to get refills on drinks as the passing of an hour and a half meant more customers ordering drinks; it took a while to get the final tab, well after the time we wanted to leave and our drinks were empty.
DRINKS
I had the mojito - ok, I had two. There were excellent
My partner had a draft beer, Jamaican Red, which was good, then she had a sangria, which she also liked. I agree with her assessment.
FOOD
We felt the best thing for us would be appetizer and one of the many gumbos on the menu. We went with the house gumbo, a mix of shrimp, scallops, tilapia (whatever that is) chicken and kielbasa sausage. It was quite good, just spicy enough and I was happy that the scallops were big enough to tell they were scallops. The appetizers we chose were: sweet potato fries which were awesome, grio (marinated chunks of pork, served with an interesting sauce) which was tasty, and fritailles (a combo of grio, the fries, crispy fried plantains, and lamb fritters) which we enjoyed.
PRICE: Appetizers were all under $10 and ranged from $9.5 for the most expensive fritailles, to the $6 for the sweet potatoes. The house gumbo is their most expensive, at $16.50 (the other versions featuring only two of the meats in combination are $12 and $14). For the food, and the clean cheerful atmosphere, the people watching opportunity (for them and me), good drinks - more than I like to pay, but it is cheaper than getting an airport beer - I would say the expense was a good trade.
CELESTIN'S gets 3 "happys" on the Cranky scale . That would be 3 smiley faces, but I can't seem to make those in the blog :-) :-) :-) .
Late January, 2006-
"CELESTIN'S restaurant and voodou lounge" - cute spelling of voodoo and all. I dined with my partner on a Friday.
Celestin's has a full bar and patio. I saw sidewalk seating, behind low iron fencing, so I can't say if this is the patio (I did not check out back... next time I will be more thorough).
HELP STAFF/BAR STAFF
It was cold out and not many were sitting outside. There was friendly staff to greet us. The crowd was young and I believe I was the only over-50 person there. We sat at the bar as most tables were already filled at 7 pm. The bar help was attentive and my only complaint would be we had to wait for a while to get refills on drinks as the passing of an hour and a half meant more customers ordering drinks; it took a while to get the final tab, well after the time we wanted to leave and our drinks were empty.
DRINKS
I had the mojito - ok, I had two. There were excellent
My partner had a draft beer, Jamaican Red, which was good, then she had a sangria, which she also liked. I agree with her assessment.
FOOD
We felt the best thing for us would be appetizer and one of the many gumbos on the menu. We went with the house gumbo, a mix of shrimp, scallops, tilapia (whatever that is) chicken and kielbasa sausage. It was quite good, just spicy enough and I was happy that the scallops were big enough to tell they were scallops. The appetizers we chose were: sweet potato fries which were awesome, grio (marinated chunks of pork, served with an interesting sauce) which was tasty, and fritailles (a combo of grio, the fries, crispy fried plantains, and lamb fritters) which we enjoyed.
PRICE: Appetizers were all under $10 and ranged from $9.5 for the most expensive fritailles, to the $6 for the sweet potatoes. The house gumbo is their most expensive, at $16.50 (the other versions featuring only two of the meats in combination are $12 and $14). For the food, and the clean cheerful atmosphere, the people watching opportunity (for them and me), good drinks - more than I like to pay, but it is cheaper than getting an airport beer - I would say the expense was a good trade.
CELESTIN'S gets 3 "happys" on the Cranky scale . That would be 3 smiley faces, but I can't seem to make those in the blog :-) :-) :-) .
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