Stacie's Place II: Foodie Love

Rumbi Island

February 2019

I have been taking photos and posting my food pictures on Instagram. I apologize for not posting any here for all of 2018. Oh gosh! I can play some catch up here though if you are not keen to follow along on Instagram.

I went to Rumbi Island in Utah last week because they were doing a buy one meal get one free. Such a great deal. This is the kalua pork bowl with teriakyi sauce, veggies and white rice. If you are starving, it's the best amoung for a meal but if you are not super hungry, it splits up in to two meals nicely.

Jeanette’s Edelweiss

2017

Tony really wanted to try this German restaurant while we were staying in Point Mugu so one day we went out driving and exploring and found this restaurant in Thousand Oaks.

The decor seemed very authentic

Tony's dish

My dish - dont ask me what I ordered because we ate here in 2017 and I am writing this in 2018, however it was very delicious.

German Chocolate Kisses

"A thin wafer topped with a mound of marshmallow fluff in a thin crispy shell of semi-sweet chocolate mousse custard." I insisted on trying these because they were only $2/each, I love chocolate and marshmallow and well... #treatyoself

Oasis Mexican Restaurant

2017

This place is down the street and around the corner from us basically. They do $1 tacos on Wednesday nights and they are oh-so-good. This time we went though we decided to try something different.

Tony got a chimmi-chonga and liked it alright. I'm posting this review quite awhile later so I dont remember what he rated it but I'm pretty sure he liked it and was a fan.

I got this baked potato - loaded with so much stuff! It was pretty incredible and I know for fact that i would get it again. I picked carne asada meat and it also had guac, sour cream, salsa, cheese...all the good toppings.

Honduras Kitchen

11-2016

We got a Entertainment Book for Southern CA and this was our first time using it. The book does not say if it's coupons are for a sketchy location or not and this area was not the best of town. More industrial and a bar right across the street made me worry so I took 3 bags in to the restaurant with me. We were the only white people in the restaurant but we wanted to try some new food so there we were.

They started us with this, I guess their version of chips and salsa. They were thick corn type chips with a red sauce and cheese on top. Tasty, but we only wanted one round when they offered more.

It took our food a long time to come out and meanwhile there was a guy performing kareoke songs in Spanish. It was quite loud. The screen with the words was behind our heads and he was across the room.

I'm not sure why I didnt take a picture of Tony's food but he started eating it so quickly because we were starving by this point. I ordered Pollo Mesapa which is chicken with a red sauce and it came with dried plaintains and a side of salad (cabbage - I skipped it), beans (skipped those) and rice (so good). The chicken was good but when I got past the first layer, the meat was cold! It looked cooked but it was kind of unsettling so I tried to find any other warm parts I could and called it good.

The service was pretty good (aka, they kept our water glasses filled) and they got our bill wrong at the end but quickly fixed it when Tony took it up to the counter. They have a couple locations and we ate at the one in Huntington Park.

Here's a link to their website with more information as well as a menu.

There were a couple other items on the menu I would have liked to try and I would try this type of food again, just maybe at a different location or during the daytime.

Noodles & Co.

1-2014

Noodles & Co was doing a grand opening over in West Valley one day, super thanks to my friend Aimee who alerted me that there were still sign up spots available.

Here is what Tony got

Wisconsin CheesesteakMarinated steak, our Mac & Cheese sauce, cheddar-jack cheese, red onion, red bell pepper and mushrooms on ciabatta

Steak Stroganoff Marinated is what I got. It was steak, mushroom sherry cream sauce, fresh herbs, cracked pepper, sautéed mushrooms, egg noodles and parmesan. It was very good & I would order it again.

Riley came (with Laura & Rocky of course) to join us for free food

Then I looked outside and saw my car. Then I saw Tony's red truck and asked him, why did we drive separately? Haha! These were not our vehicles but they are what we drive. Too funny that they were parked right next to each other outside.

Kowloon Cafe

10-2013

This place was in our Entertainment Book and we were in the area (West Valley) so we decided to go here for dinner a few nights ago. Started out with some good appetizers..(the coupon was for a buy 1 appetizer get 1 free)

They started us out with some soup and saltine crackers. (no picture)

Tony got the BBQ pork. It was cold. He thought it would be warm. He said, "I dont think of BBQ as being cold." The yellow sauce was really really spicy - we didnt like it. I did like the meat okay though and Tony let me eat most of it.

I got 10 cream cheese wontons - love these -

Then the meal went downhill.

We shared the combination plate number 3. Chicken chow mein, ham fried rice and ...

.... sweet and sour ribs.

Ok, this just all looked so gross to me. The sweet and sour ribs? Lots of bones and some of the bones were split open. Tony ate the rib part though and said it was ok. It just looked like a hot mess to me and unappetizing.

The jelly type mix of chicken and celery over the crunchy noodles did not look good to me at all. I had a few bites of the fried rice and it was ok but not that good.

So disappointed in the food and our server was not that great.

We waited for her to fill our water cups for a long time.

To see other menu items click here

2055 W 3500 S, SLC 84119

La Fountain

8-2013

There is a restaurant called La Fountain and we get coupons to go there a lot so one day we decided to use a coupon to get some food. It was probably B1G1 or B1G1 1/2 off.

I got the flautas (rolled tacos) one chicken and one beef, with a side of refried beans and rice. I also got some lettuce and guacamole.

Tony's plate - covered with beans, salad, rice, a sauce mixture and a chimmy chonga (sp?) I think is what he got. The food was pretty good. The chips and salsa were yummy. There are a lot of locations ...the best thing to do would probably be to visit their website for locations, menu and coupons too!

El Rocoto

8/2013

I'm a sucker for Peruvian food ever since I went to K'Rico. I bought a deal online and one night Tony & I went for date night. Above is my Lomo Saltado. Good, but not as good as..well...I should not compare. It had too many onions and the meat was more tough than I'm used to but overall it was ok.

Tony got the breaded chicken with salad, fries and rice. So much food we both had leftovers to take home. If you want to go eat here - the menu selection is huge! It's located in West Valley City, 3904 W 3500 S. Check out their menu on their website

Moki's Hawaiian Grill

8/2013

Tony had a groupon and it was time to use it. I love eating Hawaiian food!

This was Tony's food. He got the orange chicken with rice and a side of salad.

I pretty much always order the Kalua Pork. It's my #1 favorite thing. Thanks to my friend Chris Reed in AZ for introducing it to me. Had a side of rice, macaroni salad and pineapple. Mmmm

Grandma's Caramel Chocolate Cake - Tony's order

I got the coconut pineapple ice cream for dessert in a waffle bowl.

Great taste and flavor. I'd order this again!

You can find Moki's menu here http://www.mokis.com/menu.php

Madeline's Steakhouse & Grill

7/2013

Started with an appetizer of chips with spinach and artichoke dip.
Tasty and I would eat this again. The chips were not too salty and neither was the dip.

I ordered the Chicken Lemoncello with a side of veggies.
I thought it was a great choice, very flavorful and not dry at all.

My other side was clam chowder which I picked for Tony because he loves that.
He also got a half rack of ribs (shown above) and said it was really good. I tried a small piece and agreed.

I had a gift certificate to eat here and it covered almost all of our bill.

It was nice that there was a location just down the street from us.

To check out their other locations or their menu & prices, visit their

website

Training Table

7/2013

I have probably written about Training Table before. You sit at a table with a menu and when you are ready to order your food, you pick up a phone and call up to the counter? Well yes, it's a pretty cool concept. The not cool thing about it is that depending on what location you go to, the phones may cut out a lot.

So originally we each ordered a hamburger, a small cheese fries and water. We waited and waited...someone finally came over and gave us a large cheese fry because we still didnt have our order yet. So we said thank you and that we just needed our hamburgers.

Waited again. And waited. It was almost 9pm and they were closing at 9 so we called up to the counter again to see if our burgers were coming and they said, "Sorry we already shut down the grill." They never ever heard we wanted hamburgers even though we told the guy that is what we had ordered when he came to bring us the cheese fries.

They made it up to us with shakes which was nice,

I normally dont order a shake when I'm eating out.

However, it made for a very unhealthy dinner!

Archibald's

5/10/13

I've been wanting to try this restaurant at Gardner Village for awhile and we finally made it happen! Last Friday for date night we drove over there , I had found a coupon in my email ($10 off $30) so we decided to take advantage of using it.

We started with dessert first. $1.99 for a slice of strawberry pie and

99 cents to add the ice cream

Mozzarella sticks with dipping sauce. I think this was $7.99

My stir fry with rice - teriayki flavor - so delicious! $9.99

Tony got country fried steak. He let me eat his veggies :) $9.99

Our waitress said the specials were 2 certain things which were both about $21. Odd to me, I thought a "special" menu item would be a lot less! The most expensive thing on the menu was $18.99 so it was odd to both Tony & I that a special would cost more than any menu item.

Anyways. Our food was delicious and I hope we get to eat here again! I definitley want to go back.

Located: 1100 W 7800 S West Jordan, UT 84084 Website

El Rocoto

I tried a new Peruvian restaurant last week with my friends Aimee and Lindsay Lindsay is moving to Portland for the summer with her husband and baby boy so we wanted to get together one more time before she leaves!

This is what I ordered.

Tallarin verde con bisteck which is spaghetti noodles sauteed in

spinach basil sauce with tender friend steak and fried potato
$11.99

I've had this at K'Rico Peru before and it is my #1 favorite (up there with the lomo saltado) but K'Rico didnt make this every day so I only was able to order it once in awhile. This dish at El Rocoto was decent...I thought the noodles with the green sauce was okay, I like the flavor from K'Rico better. The meat was good, somewhat tender, but a bit too salty for my taste. The potatoes were yummy with the light yellow sauce I tried with it. We got a plate of about 5 sauces to try. 2 were very hot/spicy though.

I do want to go back again and take Tony with me. Their menu had quite a lot of items on it and I'd love to try some of their other dishes.

Located: 3904 W 3500 S, West Valley City

Website

Zaika - Grill 'N' Kebab
4/21/13

New place opened on State Street and we drove by awhile ago and I caught the word "kebab" which is right up my alley of foods I love! So on Saturday we were driving to use one of our Entertainment Book coupons at a Mexican Restaurant but I saw this place first so we decided to check it out for reals this time.

This is what Tony ordered. I wish I had taken a picture of the menu of it was listed online somewhere. It is basically homemade tortilla with ground beef with seasoning inside + some sauce to dip it in. I tried a few bites and it was really good.

I got the kebab plate which included rice, chick peas?, 3 kinds of meat. Well, 2 were chicken but flavored differently. The top two on the right were beef and very very spicy. I was happy to eat a few bites with the plain yogurt that they brought out for us.

The owners were really friendly and explained what the food was and how to eat it. The woman made us a big type of tortilla which we used to scoop up some of the food.

I think overall we both really liked the food but will say 0 or -1 for level of spiciness next time we go. It was really fun to try a different kind of food than our usual Mexican-Italian-American :) Looking forward to going back here again sometime!

Located in South SLC. See business card on top for exact address

Sammy's Cafe at the Grill | Cedar Hills
4/21/13

Sammy's Cafe had their grand opening in Cedar Hills on Friday and when I heard the food was all half off I knew we had to go check it out! There was music & a couple comedians late in the evening but we just went for the dinner part. We waited almost an hour for our food but I think that is because it was the grand opening and there were so many people there.

Sammy's famous for their pie shakes. We got the mint oreo one to share

My burger - Chicken Poly Style

Chicken breast, swiss cheese, grilled onions, grilled pineapple, guacamole, teriyaki sauce, mayo , lettuce and tomato. SO GOOD. I love that the sides are free so I added mushrooms too!

Side view of my burger. NOM

The burger Tony got + fries & fry sauce

Tony's Big Budah Burger

hamburger, swiss cheese, grilled pineapple, grilled onions, bacon, mayo, lettuce, tomato and teriyaki sauce

I'm looking forward to eating here again, they have a location in SLC as well as Provo. They also have one in Rexburg, Idaho!

Located here: 10640 N Clubhouse Drive, Cedar Hills, Utah

Menu here

Cravings Bistro

4/21/2013

National Grilled Cheese Day happened recently & you gotta celebrate it, right? Well , maybe not if you have grilled cheese but! Tony & I happen to LOVE grilled cheese and this is our #1 place to go. Wish it was closer to us but the drive is worth it! Cravings Bistro is located in American Fork.

Tony & I ordered the same thing, the ABC - apple (Granny Smith!), bacon & chedder

The delicious insides

Omgoodness my mouth waters just thinking about it

Then for dessert we got the Smores dessert 'grilled cheese' even though there was no cheese in it.

Just strawberries, marshmallow cream, Nutella and powdered sugar on top!

It was so sweet I'm glad we just got 1 and split it. Totally worth getting it though - super super good!

Here I am getting messy eating the dessert. Nutella on my face. haha

Here's their

Facebook

Website

Puro Peru

4/10/13

So in case you were not aware, K'Rico Peru no longer exists but the people who bought it kept it a Peruvian restaurant and it's now named Puro Peru. My friend Aimee & I went to lunch there and this is what I got.

The lunch special.

Fried chicken, rice and salad.

Funny that my salad was just 1 piece of lettuce and the rest of it is beets. Beet salad? I did not eat that part. A little of the purple got on my rice & I managed to eat it okay but I dont think I could have managed eating actual beets. No thanks. The chicken flavor was really good though and the rice was delicious too.

Then they brought me out soup. I wasn't aware that came with my lunch. It was steak, noodles, carrots, garbonzo (?) beans and a little bit of potato.

Also - Peruvian corn it looks like. So pretty - like a flower.

The broth tasted like one of my favorite dishes that K'Rico used to have...spaghetti type noodles with a green sauce except this time it was in my soup as liquid form. Very delicious.

Sweet Tomatoes

Still one of our favorite places to go and it helps that it is less than 5 minutes from our house + I get emails with coupons all the time. The picture above was of my salad, er , what was left of it.

If I have room I always get 2 red Jello's and chocolate mousse. This time they had peanut butter cookie bars - sooo delicious!

Tony got ice cream with chocolate topping

Gecko's Mexican Grill

I know we have eaten here before but I had another Entertainment Book coupon so we decided to go again one night.

I love it when they bring out free salsa and chips.

I got a buritto that you cant even see because it is smothered in sauce! Refried beans, rice and salad. Very filling and I most def. had leftovers to eat the next day.

Wingers
3/4/13

I have not eaten at Wingers since my family moved to Idaho back in 2005. Maybe it was 2006 I tried it for the first time but yea, it's been a super long time! Tony & I were driving down State St. after eating dessert first at Nitro Freeze and decided to go here. I dont think Tony had ever been.

I'm at fan of the popcorn they bring you to eat while you wait. They brought us 2 bowls :) Mmm

This is Tony's burger..it had something to do with blue cheese. Crazy that there was a big pickle stuck on a stick into our burgers! The sauce for the fries looks like Fry Sauce but it def. did not taste like it. It was a lot sweeter. I'm not sure that I cared for it that much but it was interesting to try.

I got the 1/4lb hamburger (it was a $1 cheaper) and chips and salsa on the side. SO nice to have another option for a side besides fries all the time. I don't mind fries but I do love chips and salsa!

Here's a bit closer up picture. The lighting was not very good and I'm a little self-conscious of taking pictures of my food out in public, esp. if I have to turn on my flash. I guess I dont want to get in to trouble but I'm not sure what kind of trouble there could be.

Most food items on the menu were $8.99 and up. I felt it was kind of expensive for what we got. My hamburger was alright but it wasn't fantastic. The meat seemed a little dry on my burger but overall tasty enough to eat at least half before getting full. It made a nice lunch the rest of the day today :)

Texas Roadhouse
2/2013

I know it's been awhile since I posted about Texas Roadhouse but a few Friday's ago, Tony & I went to a class in Mapleton about beekeeping and we were the only ones that showed up. The guy talked to us/taught us for 2-1/2 hours! I was hungry on our way, there was no time to get food, so by the time the class was over I was STARVING! Almost 10pm at night but thank goodness Texas Roadhouse was still open.

We stuffed our faces full of their yummy rolls. To die for. You are missing out if you have not had them!

Then we shared the kabob plate (my favorite) with a bed of rice, side of mashed potatoes and a side of gravy. Totally hit the spot and made going to the bee class with Tony worth it :)

We went to the Texas Roadhouse out in the Orem/Provo area and I feel like for 10pm at night the service was good and our waiter was so so nice, genuine and down to earth. I even wrote that to her on our bill. I'm so silly.

Dickeys BBQ Pit

We had gone to Gardner Village to walk around the shops and so I could use some coupons from the blogger night out + eat at a restaurant there called Archibald's. By the time we went in there we were told it was as 40 minute wait :( so we decided to go somewhere else to eat and try Archibald's another time. Driving around town trying to decide where to go, found out that Fuddruckers closed down. Sad day! So we ended up at Dickeys BBQ, a place we have never tried before. Tony loves BBQ though so he convinced me to have it for dinner. I'm not a huge fan of the smoke flavor I guess.

We didnt have a coupon this time but Tony got 2 meats and 2 sides.

I got turkey breast and 2 sides of mashed potatoes and salad. They came in small cardboard style cups. My meal came with a roll as well (so did Tony's). The roll was SO good that I stole his away when he went up to fill my drink. I gave it back to him later..well, part of the roll ;-) since my meal was on their 'deal of the day' it came with a drink. Everyone gets complimentary ice-cream cones so we made an orange float with their soda and ice cream.

Tony didnt care for the place that much and neither did I (food-wise mostly for me) but their rolls are so worth going back for. And another orange float. I think if we go again we will share 1 meal and call it good. I guess it is priced $7-10+ depending on what you get. Their website with a menu can be found here

Iggys

Tony had a football game to watch so I went downtown with him and we had food and I played on the ipad while he watched Boise State play. I love it when the sports bars have free wifi ;-)

We ordered chips and salsa and Tony got a burger with fries a bit later in the game and I had spaghetti with meatballs which Tony thinks is silly that I order that because it's something we can make at home. Haha. It was pretty tasty but I didnt care for the meatballs :( They just didnt taste that great to me. We were also brought out little loaves of bread with seasoning on it. Delicious and I was stuffed by the time we left.

Salt City Burger

Had a coupon in our Entertainment Book and we were in the area, and hungry, so we decided to go in and see what they had to offer and we were not disappointed.

Tony's burger - of course he got a blue cheese burger! Their fries were skinny ones. We like those.

I got cheesy fries, not too exciting ( I still think Leatherby's cheese fries are better ) and my hamburger was a swiss & mushroom burger with soo many mushrooms on the side to add in to my burger. We got to add our own condiments so I got some lettuce, tomatoes and a bit of ketchup in there too.

It's a bit on the expensive side so I recommend going with a coupon. I think ours was buy 1 get 1 free. They have some interesting burgers on their menu. Check it out on their website

Blue Plate Diner

Met up with my friends from New Zealand who have been traveling around the USA for the past 90 days. Tony & I had never been to this restaurant before but I love trying new places! The menu had so many items on it that it took me quite awhile to decide what I wanted to get to eat.

Tony got quesadillas. I got to try a bite. They were good but he went through them pretty fast and had to watch the rest of us eat our food while he had cleaned his plate

I got a turkey cranberry sandwich with criss cross cut fries and fry sauce. It was all tasty...the turkey was a bit dry but other than that it was a good dinner.

To see their menu, location & more info, check out their website

Zupas Cafe

Always a good eat when we go here and I'm super excited they are opening one even closer to our house on Quarry Bend, in the shopping center there. Super sweet. Here's what we got for dinner one night when we went recently...

You can order a salad with ingrediants picked for you on their board or you can create your own. Up to 6 toppings! This is Tony's pictured above and of course it includes blue cheese - his favorite. He also got chicken, strawberries and mandarin oranges.

My mushroom bisque soup! Mmmm

The salad I created got so much fruit in it - pineapple, mandarin oranges, strawberries, cranberries and chicken. Delicious goodness in my mouth!

Magic Wok

Tony and I see this place in Taylorsville from time to time and our friends have eaten there and like it so last night for dinner Tony surprised me by saying, "Let's go out to eat" so I texted Steph and she and her family met us here.

I got the Mushroom Beef. It was in a sauce that was ok and it had carrots, mushrooms, white broccoli (cauliflower?) , carrots, broccoli and beef. It tasted pretty good

They dont really have a website but they are located at

3770 W 5400 S

Kearns, UT 84118

Cravings Bistro

My friend @LuckyRedHen on Twitter introduced me to this place whenever she tweeted about it. It sounded so good that I really wanted to go check it out and finally on Saturday Tony & I did go!

This was the inside of mine - turkey, tomato and avocado. I opted for no bacon but it is the BLT Grilled Cheese. It was so so delicious. I would get it again!

The outside of my BLT minus the bacon

Tony got the sampler which was $8.50 and came with dipping sauce and 6 different kinds of grilled cheese. He let me try a bite of each one and they were so good! One even had granny smith apple in it. Tony said he liked them all pretty much.

I'm excited that Tony liked this place, that means we will go back again :)

When you text the bistro you get a code that gets you a free cookie. Their chalkboard menu's up on the left hand side of the wall had salads, grilled cheese, drinks, kids menu - so many delicious looking things.

Location is 63 East Main Street American Fork, UT 84003

Iceberg Drive-In

This fast food joint is semi-newly opened to where we live. They let us use a coupon from our Entertainment Book so that was nice! I really liked the fries, not too skinny, not too fat. The fry sauce tasted really good as well. We shared a small (see how "small" it is compared to the cup of water?!) Not small at all! We got rootbeer flavor and it was good at first but about half way down it wasn't mixed as well and it didnt

taste so good so I let Tony finish it up.

The location we went to is located here: 9645 South State Street, Sandy, UT

Purple Turtle

Tony & I have eaten here before but it's been quite awhile. We were leaving a party at our friend's house in Lindon, a party we missed out on getting any food because by the time we got there it was pretty much over. Sad day. So we went to the Purple Turtle for dinner instead.

Here is my chicken sandwich and my pile of fries! So many fries.

Tony ate his hamburger before I was able to get a picture of it. He was that fast.

The strawberry-chocolate shake we shared. So much shake! Strawberry shake with bits of chocolate pieces in it. Pretty tasty.

Chili's

Since it was tax day lots of restaurants were having deals. First we got another free Artisan pizza from Domino's. Then we went to Panda Express and tried their new steak which actually agreed with my stomach so that was nice. Then we went to Chili's for dinner, a place we have not eaten at in quite awhile.

Our nachos were interesting. Not like how I expected. Each chip had cheese and beans on it. Piled in the middle was lettuce, tomatoes and sour cream. All in all not too bad and pretty tasty.

Ordered the sliders and asked for 2 on wheat bread and 2 with seeded bun. This is what we got. Every meat was on bread! So weird!? We took a few bites and the meat was still pretty pink inside. We ended up flagging down our server and sending the plate back. The meat came back better but slightly pink. Oh well, we didnt get sick at least. They put hamburger buns with seeds on instead of bread. I dont even know why they thought we wanted bread in the first place! Funny but strange.

Lion House Pantry Restaurant

On our SLC Pass of All Passes, which we are furiously trying to use up before they expire June 1st, we got 1 free meal each at the Lion House Pantry. So one evening after we went to the Red Butte Gardens we decided to check it out and have dinner.

The food looks good, right?

Tony ordered a pork chop, mashed potatoes, veggies and we got one of their famous rolls.

I picked chicken soup in a bread bowl, salad, jello (my 2 sides) and I got a roll too.

WELL!

We could not have been more disappointed with our food.

Tony's pork chop was dry and not that tasty.
The mashed potatoes were really salty. I think it was the gravy.

The veggies, some of them were really really mushy.
I tried one bite of each of his items and it did not taste fresh at all.

My food...

Chicken soup in a breadbowl doesnt make for the best turnout because the liquid from the soup soaks into the bread really fast , making it very soggy. The soup had some veggies and chicken and tasted alright. The bread my soup was in was not good. The top tiny piece was so hard I couldnt even squish it and I didnt dare eat it because it was rock hard. The rest of the bread bowl was pretty dried out and I didnt each much except a bit of the soggy bottom. Sad day because the bread bowls at Disneyland and other times I've had them (YSA break-the-fast) the bread has been so good and I've eaten it all up!

My salad was farely good, no rotten pieces of lettuce but when I ate the cucumber it tasted so bad that I spit it out in my napkin. Tony tried a bite of salad and said it tasted watered down.

My jello was okay minus at least 5 pieces that had gotten hard on the top. Kind of like a top crust. I'm not sure what it is called or how it happens but its disgusting! I ate the bottom part of the jello and left the dry stuff behind.

Now, I've heard great reviews about the Lion House rolls but was greatly disappointed as our rolls were hard on the outside like they had been sitting out all day. Tony had to peel layers off until he got to anything even remotely soft and worth eating.

All in all it was a bad experience, I'm not sure if it was just the day/time we went (dinner time on a Saturday) or what but we dont plan on going back again.

Address: 63 East South Temple, Salt Lake City, UT 84150

A&W

While we were in Lava Hot Springs, Idaho over the weekend to celebrate our 1 year anniversary we were trying to figure out where to go for dinner. There was a chuckwagon place that looked neat but we decided to go there the next day (ended up not going at all this trip) and since I'd never had A&W before we decided to go there instead. We were just looking up on the GPS what places to eat were in the area. Didnt realize the A&W was connected to a gas station! Sad to say the food was terrible but my rootbeer float was FANTASTIC

The delish rootbeer float! Mmmm

My mushroom burger with the cheese barely melted. The worst mushroom burger ever

These were 'mozzarella bites' but they taste just about as bad as they look in the picture

We drove about 10 minutes to get to the A&W and the only other option was a Subway. I wish we had turned around and gone to the chuckwagon place. Ah well, better luck next time!

Nacho Libre

Ever since I saw this restaurant in SLC I've wanted to eat here because I like the movie so much! So Saturday inbetween sessions of General Conference, we went here to eat because I had a Google Offer that I'd bought that we needed to use.

Here is my food - chicken enchiladas - so freekin good! Came with refried beans , rice and a chip ;-)

Tony got a buritto and it was pretty big! I tried a few bites and it was very tasty. Came with a little side of lettuce, sour cream, guacamole all sitting in a green sauce.

Melissa and I with Nacho Libre before we dropped Mel off again at Temple Square.

I give it a thumbs up and would like to eat here again. There was only 1 other family eating in there when we went. It's not a huge place but it's set up nicely. There is some Nacho Libre memorabilia from the movie hanging on the walls which was fun to look at.

1280 South 300 west, Salt Lake City, UT

They dont have a website but they have a Facebook page here

Rumbi Island

Utah, Idaho, Arizona and Colorado is where you can find this restaurant which features rice bowls, noodle bowls, salads, burgers and sandwiches. My sister and I went to eat here last week for a late lunch and here is what I got:

Pineapple Coconut Curry

This is a newer dish so I had not tried it before. It was a lot spicer (the curry) than I thought it would be and I didnt care for the flavor much. I probably would not order it again. I do have to say that there was a good amount of chicken and pineapple in the dish. The noodles tasted great. There was not that much coconut so I think they just sprinkle a little bit on top. For the price of $6.49 (plus we used a buy 1 get 1 free coupon) it was a good deal.

The only other complaint I have (more about the restaurant than the food) is that they close at 9pm every night. I wish they would be open until 9:30 or even 10pm because especially in AZ I'd pull up with a craving, only to find they had closed for the night. Bummer!

Click here to go to their website and find a location near you!

Ab's Drive-In

This meal was provided courtesty of the Entertainment Book. It was after the Priesthood session of General Conference and we were going to eat in downtown SLC but knew every place would be super packed and we were starving. So we went to West Jordan and ordered food. It was buy 1 burger get 1 free. I wish I had checked in on time on Foursquare, if I had, our meal would have been only $5 instead of $10 and that was with getting a burger for free! Such a bummer - I was so mad at myself.

We ordered a strawberry banana shake which was really yummy. The flavor was a perfect balance of strawberry and banana. The fries were good but you had to pay extra for fry sauce.

The hamburger looked good but did not taste good to me. I'm not sure what it was. I ate some of the meat by itself and it was fine so I'm not sure if it was a sauce on the burger, bad lettuce, or what. I didnt care for it at all and only ate about half of it.

Overall I wasnt super impressed by the food but the shake was worth it. The employees were nice and friendly. If you'd like to check it out ,find their location, their menu and a coupon at http://www.absdrivein.com/

Zupa's

I LOVE LOVE Zupa's from the moment I walked in the door a couple years ago now and ate their food. So much deliciousness in every bite and I have yet to be disappointed by what I order. Even though I love this place I think I had only been 2-3 times in the past. Tony & I went to use a Groupon a week or so ago but the place had closed for the evening. I've been trying to get Tony to go to Zupa's with me for awhile and luckily there was one right in the place we were at so he agreed to try it - we were both starving!

This is the salad I ordered. They have different combinations of food you can get - choose between soup , salad and a sandwich. You can mix it up and pick 2 out of the 3 options. So my salad above was SO GOOD!! Had chicken, mandarin oranges, coconut and possibly even dried cranberries in it. Oh my it was fantastic and I could have just eaten that and been good!

This is Tony's soup - it was a clam chowder that he actually approved of and he finished it so fast I had barely eaten half my salad.

This is the sandwich Tony got. Pulled pork maybe?

I dont remember because I only had eyes for mine.

This is my sandwich! Turkey breast with cucumbers, sprouts (yes Mom, I ate sprouts) and cranberry sauce. The bread was ciabatta type and is one of my favorites. I could only eat 1/2 my sandwich because I was getting filled up pretty fast.

They also give everyone a complimentary slice of oh-so-soft (french?) bread and a chocolate dipped strawberry.

I cant wait to go here again, def. recommend it if you havent tried it yet! Tony liked his food so much and agreed we can go here again. Hooray!

Right now they are only in Arizona (recently opened!) and Utah (tons of locations)

so if you are in town, check it out :)

http://www.zupas.com/

Penny Ann's Cafe

Since March 14th was Pi(e) Day, I really wanted to eat some pie! Thought about making one but Tony and I dont need to be eating a whole pie. I tweeted out to my friends if they knew of any good places to just go get a slice of pie without having to buy a meal and my friend Aimee suggested Penny Ann's Cafe in SLC. So after work my friend Celeste met up with me and we drove downtown. Tony & my sister Laura and her lil Mr. Riley met us there.

Above is Tony's food. He got grilled cheese and a salad because once we got there, the food menu looked so good we couldn't resist. So we got food AND pie. So many food choices on the menu (which you can see online) made it hard to decide what to get. It took us quite awhile to figure out what we wanted to order.

Mine was a pasta alfredo bowl with a breadstick. It was pretty good.

THE PIE! This one above was my favorite. Lemon Raspberry Cream and all pie slices were $1 because of the 'holiday.' Tony got this one and it was so so good. He let me have a few bites.

This is Celeste's pie and she got the cookies and cream. Looks so good!

This was my pie and all you can see is the whipped cream but trust me when I say there really was pie underneath! I got the coconut cream and it was delicious. Laura got her pie boxed to go and she had a Lemon Raspberry Cream and I cant remember the other slice she got.

This is a place I'd love to go back to and eat at again. Plus include a piece of pie ;-)

http://pennyannscafe.com/

Location: 1810 S. Main Street SLC, UT 84115

Chin Wah Restaurant

The picture of my food turned out blurry so you get a picture of Tony's food. I'm sad, I went to look at the menu to see what his was called and we cant remember! Basically it was like a curry sauce (he doesnt like curry but thought this was good) and it had tomatoes (which he doesnt like either but he ate them all!) , peas, carrots, green peppers and meat. Very tasty, I tried a bite :)

We went here because it was a buy 1 meal get 1 free from our Entertainment Book so last Friday for date night (Mar 2) we decided to check it out. It's off the main street and tucked back in a shopping type of center so it was hard to find at first.

There was hardly anyone else in this restaurant and the waitress was very friendly and talkative to the other people in there.

The menu is located on their website and if you take a look, there are lots of choices so it took us awhile to decide.

I believe what I got was the beef soup and it had potatoes and vegetables in it in a curry type of sauce with chicken as my meat. It was very tasty!

The price is a little on the expensive side (to me) but if you have a coupon it is worth going.

Their website is:

http://www.chinwahrestaurant.com/

Their location is: 849 E 9400 S , Sandy UT

Joy Luck Restaurant (again!)

We ate here again a little while ago , Tony really really really wanted to try the sampler platter. I believe it was $12 but it came with a lot of 'samples' on it! In the middle there was a little pot of fire with blue and sometimes orange flames. I guess you could cook your meat on there longer if you wanted to? Not really sure but it added a cool flair to the order.

This is what I ordered and it was fried rice with a fish thing that I gave to Tony (bottom left) and the top left was an eggroll type thing that I also gave to Tony. The sauce my vegetables and chicken came in were so super good. I re-realized I do not like baby corns. Other than that - it was very very tasty!

Charlie Chow's Dragon Grill

Tony and I ate here a long time ago, while we were still dating and my sister Laura came too. My friend Aimee recommended we go here and so Saturday I told Tony I'd treat him to lunch. When we arrived we were both like, "We know this place!" I'd been asking to go back sometime so lucky us it was the place I'd been wanting to go to!

Tony's food is on the top and he ordered the buffet which is Mongolian style. He tried 3 different dishes with different flavors. I didnt take pictures of all 3, just the first one. Mine on the bottom is the Teriakyi Chicken Noodles. Mmm everything about it was so so good! The perfect amount of chicken and noodles. I wish there was a few more green peppers but thats okay.

So many yummy choices on the menu & I cant wait to eat here again!

You can see the full menu on their website: http://www.charliechows.com/

255 East 400 South, Salt Lake City, Utah 84111

Call (801) 328-3663 for dining reservations, carry-out, delivery, or catering.

Joy Luck Restaurant

Strawberry Chicken

Mongolian Beef

We pass by this place often on the way to Costco but dont always notice it even though it is a fairly good sized place.

Their menu was so fantastic it was hard to pick just one item to try! Tony got the strawberry chicken and I tried a piece and it was really tasty! Not too overwhelmingly strawberry tasting. There are pieces of strawberries cut up in among the chicken with a sweet sauce.

I cant seem to find on their menu what I got exactly but it had onions, mushrooms , a green veggie and beef (or I could have had chicken). I really liked the way mine tasted. We got a small pot of rice to share to eat with our food.

I cant wait to go back again and try some more items on the menu such as the soups, noodles, Hawaiian rice and the pineapple chicken!

http://www.joyluckfoods.com/

They are located in Bountiful and Sandy