Worthwhile. Comfort.

One of the places my girlfriend and I wanted to try.

Yep. Yum. Straight up. It was awhile back but definitely still good. I was glad we got a chance to try it because my girlfriend is a busy frickin' bee. Work work and work. Funny 'cause she stresses a lot and it's difficult for her to put that stress aside. However ... when it comes time to eat she's open eyes, open nose, open mouth, indulge.

Bread. Freshly, baked in house. I recall being pretty hungry so we ate a good amount. Plus, Napa is not very close to many things. Butter was salty, creamy goodness. Actually, maybe too salty ... haha.

Tearing up that basket.

Salad with capers and a sweet-ish vinaigrette. Very refreshing, balanced. Except the chickpeas were a bit salty. Good contrast in texture but I could not eat too many of those things due to the salt.

I did not mention but, if you are unaware Ad Hoc is pretty much a set price per person and the food just comes out. Very much family style. So imagine you come home with your friends for dinner. Your mother is surprised to see you brought guests. (Hopefully, your mother did not shun your friends and kick them out). She'll end up deciding to cook more so everyone can enjoy dinner together. Anyway, I like this aspect of Ad Hoc, very warm, very inviting. Very easy to get your elbows dirty on the table and just shove food into your mouth and not care if you smeared all that sauce onto your cheek.

Back to the Flat Iron Steak with bleu cheese. It was good. It was salty. What do you expect from American/French? Salt brings out those flavors that make you salivate in ecstasy. Oh just talking about it while staring at this picture make my tongue crave more. But don't ever forget to down a couple gallons of water during and after the meal. Cooked perfectly. Potatoes and steak are best buds and just so happens the potatoes pick up a good amount of sauce so when you bite into that steak and pair it with the potato. Yum, chew, slight crunch from the potato, cream from the cheese, savory from the reduction sauce (whatever it was). Dang. Your face will be exhausted just from smiling.

Toasted bread, cheese, and honey. You know, I love Northern Californian food. I love Seattle food. The greatest thing about it is wanting to buy food locally. The quality really shines and your tongue can appreciate it. Your wallet might not but who gives a crap, indulge sometimes otherwise you need to .... alright I won't continue with my sentence. This was simplicity. Thick, creamy, savory (cheese) in one hand (or on one utensil) with toasted bread drizzled with a super, slick, non-excessively, sweet honey. I forget the type of cheese but it was a bit dry, breaks off in chunks, easy to bite into. easy to chew, very creamy with a bit of a musky tart outer layer. There is something about tart + sweet + creamy + crunch. It definitely places with all your oral senses ha ha.

The dessert. Fresh Fig Panna Cotta & Citrus Cookies. At least I think it was citrus cookies. Who cares it was good anyway. The fig panna cotta was damn good. I was just nibbling and enjoying how refreshing it was then my girlfriend devours hers and snatches mine and hurls the mini jar at me in disgust as if I wronged the establishment somehow for not releasing my inner beast on the dessert. Just kidding, my girlfriend loved it though, she loved it so much I gave her a bunch of mine. I was a bit full because she did not want too much of the steak.

Thomas Keller. Oh I want to get dirty with French Laundry. That will have to wait until my food savings account is higher though. It's great. My Better Half and I enjoy this place more than Bouchon. Go, you must eat there since it's easier to get in than French Laundry. I really really wish we got a chance to try their famous Fried Chicken but that's usually on ... Mondays I believe? One day, we will go back for whatever they're serving that day and maybe, hopefully, even that Fried Chicken.

Ad Hoc
6476 Washington St.
Yountville, CA 94599
707-944-2487
http://www.adhocrestaurant.com

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Waffles. Late at Night.

So there aren't many places nearby with waffles. Yes, there's the waffle trucks and whatnot but I'm not the type to stalk those trucks on Twitter follow them to the edge of the planet. Found this place randomly when I craving something sweet. Ends up they serve up coffee too, Coffee Bean coffee. Hoorah.

Menu.

 Beans from the Coffee Beans.

Korean shaved ice. Never tried it and had no idea Koreans were into shaved ice. I am not sure if it was their recipe but I was not a fan of this. The ice was literally just ice. I was not expecting snow but I was expecting finely shaved ice. This was like ice chunks. Hahaha. Not a like of mine.

The waffle. Yum. It was pretty good. I do not like the whipped cream but I usually just sort of push aside all the cream. This waffle is Asian, that should mean something. Not too crispy, not too fluffy, not too sweet. One thing I really must say: the pink scoop of ice cream is divine. I love this ice cream. YUM! It has a slight sweetness to it. Texture is a good balance between creamy and icey. I have no idea where they get this stuff but I want to buy gallons worth. My taste buds love excitement so eating this waffle with a cup of black coffee was just great. Late night snack. Win. Lastly, service is very friendly and eager to help out.

Cafe Haus
20627 Golden Springs
Diamond Bar, CA 91789
909-598-0815

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Vietnamese. Nearby.

This will be a very brief post. Close to where I live the choices for food are very slim. There's not a whole lot of variety. There's a ton of the larger shopping centers with all those typical crap chain/franchise restaurants: Red Robin, Mimi's Cafe, Islands. Nothing too great. The Vietnamese restaurants nearby usually disappoint too. I'll usually only go to the ones nearby if I'm hurting for it and I don't have a choice or don't have a car to drive myself to a better restaurant. When I do have a choice I drive some miles to the neighboring city to Pho Super Bowl. At least it's not Pho <insert number here>. The interesting about Vietnamese places when I've gone to Westminster is this: if there is a specialty (which is usually indicated in the restaurants name) then all the other entree items will suck. For example, if a place is known for their broken rice (the name will have something like Com Tam) then their soup noodles or noodles in general will be crap or average at best. But Pho Super Bowl does everything not too shabby. Not the greatest but above average for their Pho and rice dishes. Sadly, no broken rice here.

I tend to just get Rare Steak in my pho. Not too much lime, MSG ... I think it's pretty balanced. I like this place. Obviously, there's way better in Westminster or San Jose but both are far and when I'm hungry I don't want to take up so much time away from eating and digesting. Haha. I believe the regular bowl is $5.50 or so. Pretty fair price.

Charbroiled Pork with Egg Roll. Usually my chosen dish. It's good. I mix in a bunch of chili paste into the fish sauce. Yum. The only issue with this dish is the portion size; however, a lot of places outside of the Vietnamese community just do not slap on a decent portion of the actual charbroiled meat. I guess I can't complain since I should not be eating a lot. The other thing I like about this restaurant is the mom and pa feel of it. The owners are actually nice too. Go check out this place if you're want some Vietnamese food.

Pho Super Bowl

329 S Diamond Bar Blvd
Diamond Bar, CA 91765

909-860-2704 

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P.S. Please forgive me for any typos. My Better Half is the one who usually points them out to me since she's a perfectionist but uh ... yeah she's busy so deal with my stupidity until she has time to let me know I need to fix stuff. Haha, thanks.

Coffee? (Scoffffff)

This is where we found ourselves after finishing up at The Stinking Rose.

Friend suggested we just go up the street (about a block) to try out this little Cafe and get some coffee. Clean up our palates and get some sweets. Seemed pretty busy, lot of people outside (but I come to realize maybe it was for the Cafe right next door) and a couple people inside.

I realized not many places serve good coffee. Starbucks isn't good. Coffee Bean isn't too great either. Had their Brazilian Light Roast the other day, black, no sugar or cream. Acidity was low, not a very full bodied coffee and the beans were fried to hell. How do I know they went to hell and managed to come back in this dark liquid form, the bitterness that screamed "I was a decent bean whose family, along with self, were kidnapped, grounded, and burnt by scolding water temperatures only to have all our flavors stripped from us."

Back to what I LOVE to emphasize: service. Here's our conversation:
Me: "So what kind of beans do you use to brew your coffee?"
Man: "Illy"
Me: "Oh right, duh (finally realizing their little canisters with Illy written all over them)"
Man: (waiting with notepad)
Me: "Are there different types of Illy beans or you use the same beans for everything?"
Man: "Illy"
Me: "Okay ..."
Me: "I guess I'll try a cup of that"

Yeah......

Here's the coffee. Full bodied, high acidity, mild bitterness. Not great but better than Starbucks.

My better half and friend got the hot chocolate. It was fine. Upgrade from a packet of Swiss Miss. Didn't use great chocolate though but overall not half bad. Can actually taste the chocolate ... milk chocolate I think. Some mint chocolate chip gelato was also ordered and it was fine. Just nice to get a little bit of flavor on the tongue since The Stinking Rose was just superb ....

Would I come here again? Never. Would I suggest you visit? Sure why the hell not if you need some coffee, little goodies, and just so happen to be in the neighborhood. Do I agree with the Yelpers on this place? Hell no. 

Caffe Greco
423 Columbus Ave.
San Francisco, CA 94133
415-397-6261

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Coffee. Breakfast. More Coffee.

I obviously haven't written anything so I figure the best way to start is with a restaurant I frequent weekly. Unfortunately, for some strange reason I only have a couple pictures of entrees. I'll start off from the best thing there. Coffee and service. The majority of the staff knows their beans and they want to spill it. They want to give you any information you want to ask about coffee. If you're a fan of Starbucks, you'll come here thinking a few of the following:

a) where is my cream/half & half/milk
b) where is my sugar
c) are there frappuccinos
d) why isn't my latte loaded with sugar and sweetener

I'll be honest. Starbucks is crap. I refuse to pay for that rubbish anymore; however, I do get some Starbucks gift cards on occasion and always hand 'em to coworkers or friends who get Starbucks because it's around the corner, down the street, in your nose, under your foot, and surprisingly there's a location hidden in the darkest regions of your pants. I didn't know anything about coffee but I realized my taste buds have grown a likely to a lot of different things. Coffee is one of them. I didn't know much about coffee, only that good coffee should be tasted without anything ... heck it's the purest form and you should be able to taste the beans. Intelligista Beans to be exactly. When I first started going to Sugar Rush they were carrying Intelligista Beans from New Guinea. Oh, light in acidity, slight sweetness, smooth going down. Since then there's been a lot of beans I've enjoyed. Whenever I pick up a cup of coffee I want some good pastries to go along with it. No pastries here though. Anyway, most recently they have the usual Black Cat, House Blend, and Ecuador. Ecuador is very good, I'd have to describe it as having a stronger acidity and hint of citrus. This Cafe has great coffee and if you're willing to give it a try in its raw form you might find you enjoy it and love it to death. If  not, just ask for soy milk/half & half/milk/cream/tofu paste whatever you like to put in there. The greatest part is they serve your coffee table side.

Here's a picture of their latte. Owner was nice enough to let me snap some shots. Very nice, social person. First photo is the shot of coffee that goes into the concoction

Here's after the milk & love is added.

Very nice. Everyone there takes pride in their "joe."

So the food. This place is open from 8AM-4PM and they serve breakfast all day. My favorite meal is breakfast so being able to get it late is great. I enjoy their french toast (not using the cinnamon toast). I've tried both and while the cinnamon toast is good, I guess it gets overly sweet after awhile. French toast doesn't get consumed in a barbaric manner as with other entrees. A side of sausage is enjoyed with the toast so I like to get the fresh fruit syrup on the side so I can dip the sausage and toast together. This starts a nice party in my mouth. Unfortunately, I forgot to snap a picture of the pork sausages but they're decently sized (about inch in diameter and five inches in length), not too salty, have a slight crispness on the outside skin is tender and oozing with juices once you bite in. Yes, read that last line again then get the filth out of your mind. LoL. Besides that, I like the omelet that you get to choose with three toppings.

What else do I enjoy here? The Club is huge with fries piled high. But I haven't personally tried it nor the Roast Beef. I have tried the Chicken Spinach Melt and I enjoy it. My better half loves it. Spinach isn't that great cold but the sandwich is still good cold. Had it cold on a flight to Taiwan before and it was still really good ... way better than airplane food. Little salty, I'd assume it'd be the enhanced flavor from the chicken seasoning and the provolone cheese melting on it. Anyway, I'll just hurry up to what I have a picture of: BBQ Rush Burger (I forgot the name)

Probably my favorite lunch item. Very reasonable in price. $8.75 I think. Butter lettuce, lightly toasted buns, tomatoes, provolone, grilled onions & mushrooms, and a gentle squeeze of BBQ sauce. What I enjoy the most about this sauce is that it's not obnoxious in the sense that it's too sweet, tangy, or spicy. It's mild in sweetness, not much tang, and no spice. It just compliments the burger very very well. Can't go wrong with this. Their regular Bacon & Avocado Burger is good too but I enjoy this much more. Here's a picture of their Chicken Caesar with Bacon. I'm not a huge fan of Caesar salads but the dressing is a little tangy for my taste so I don't enjoy it that much but I hear a lot of patrons order it.

That's about all I have to rant about. When I go back I'll try and remember to bring my camera. One of the coolest things about the place is the free WiFi. You can relax like it's some coffee joint but there's food. I could imagine it cuts into their profits and it makes some customers angry because they have to wait but I think if you have the patience the staff will deliver you some pretty good food, great coffee, awesome service and a smile.

Sugar Rush Cafe
3900 Valley Blvd., Suite A
Walnut, CA 91789
909-869-7969

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