Big Pizza and Garlic

So a friend was taking me out, because I am awesome, and she adores me. I was trying to get some pho out of her, but she chose pizza, and defeated my will.
And I'm glad she did.
Off to Metro Pizza we went. We went on a Tuesday night, and it was pretty busy, but we had no

wait.

To start, the Garlic Romano Fries. It's this huge serving and salted, garlic-ed, and just yumtastic fries. Between these and the free bread, I was almost done before I even saw a pizza.

My friend ordered, for us, the Four Corners. This is a combo of all of their "East Side" pizzas. On a large we got 2 slices of: Sausage, peppers and onions, sausage and garlic, eggplant and ricotta, and spinach, ricotta, and garlic.

After all the fries I was able to make it through two pieces (I had the egg plant and ricotta, and the sausage and garlic). Both were freaking delicious, even considering I'm normally a "Give me some pepperoni and cheese and I'm good" guy.

This place has a lot of regulars, and considering they have a calendar full of specials and events, it's easy to tell why. They have pizza making classes, as well.

Over all? It's a little pricey, but for the amount of food and quality, I'm ok with that once in a while.
---------------

PS
I'm still looking for a cheap, good pizza where the staff isn't disgusting (Curse you Rebel Pizza), if anyone knows of one, shout it out.

Mmm BBQ

So Wednesday is "Family Dinner Night 1.5" for my house. We catch up with my dad and eat. Normally my dad or I cook, being we both cook rather well. My father is an official "Fattie," being at 5'10" he weights a whopping 173lbs. Those 3 lbs matter. He's been in manual labor all his life and can probably still kick my ass. So in order to keep him happy, we feed him (or let him feed us, he's old and likes to).

This week we didn't want to cook, and started for a Jack in the Box. Along the way I smelt something good while driving down Las Vegas Blvd. So we continue down, down to funky town To Here .. ok so they don't have a website that I can see but they are awesome.

Me and my dad are fans of good soul food and BBQ. My dad has family from Oklahoma, so he calls Southern Roots Rights, while I.. Well hell I figure I can pull the same card, so it's fair. We step up to the walk up window of this not too big a shack and get in line. We're behind two people, one getting his food and this little old black dude who eats there twice a week, at least. At this point we are intrigued. Our ears perk up like a small dogs, and we're in.

The menu? Totally reasonable. Sammiches for $5-$6, meat by the pound, slabs of ribs, it's all there and smells wonderful. Their sides include greats like fried okra, fried pickels, and slaw. Sitting behind the joint is, on a trailer, a smoker the size of a freaking dumpster. Heck it might even be a converted dumpster, but I'm still good for this.
So we order, and we're told about 7 minutes, since the fish is cooked to order.

I ordered the Catfish Po' Boy, my dad the Pulled Pork Sammich.

About 10 minutes later we get our food, mine with slaw and okra, his with slaw (it's a default for the sammiches) and Ranch Beans. Now, these aren't ranch like sauce but ranch like where cows live. As in Ranchers Beans. As in good. We get back to my Dads and open up. The food is reasonable sized, and good. My catfish was fried, and still nice and fall apart in your mouth, with a good flavor. For those of you that have had catfish, you know what I mean. Those of you that haven't, Catfish comes 2 ways: Good flavor or ass. Mine was not ass. The Okra? OMFG. I was pealing the breading off to eat the still firm not over cooked okra, and then eating the breading. I'm not even sure what kind it was, but it was spiced and mouth wateringly good. The slaw was not overly sauced and fit well on the sammich.

Dads pulled pork? I'd punch somebody for it. It had enough sauce to make a mess, but not enough to over power the smoked, and damn good, pork. The beans had some of the smokey flavor and a bit of kick, but they were awesome as well.
If you're over in old North Las Vegas, hit this place up. Do it. Now.

Grind Burger - part deux

All right, all right - I know, we've covered Grind Burger before (and bought their swag and been there at least three more times since we've reviewed it the first time) but I have to tell you, I have NEVER had any sort of burger this damned good. It makes me want to punch multiple babies. MULTIPLE!

Ghryc, Kobold and I headed down there as the general cry for the evening was "give me red meat!" This time instead of a turkey burger, I had cow (as did Kobold) and as Ghryc was feeling a little disinclined to be quite as big a fatty as the other two of us, he chose the meatless patty.

But first!

We had the appetizer. It was nom-tastic. Calamari in thai sweet sauce? Can we haz moar pleeeze?! Kobold said he might just order the appetizer as a meal next time we came, it was that damned good.

Even the meatless patty was good (according to Ghryc, neither Kobold nor I dared try it) and the toppings/sauces were as always, amazing.

I'm beginning to think that there are subliminal messages in the rockin' music they play at this place because aside from the 'meh' caliber of the dessert, I have yet to try anything here that was not 'hurt infants' good.

Seriously.

You guys have got to try this place!

The Deli Den

Once upon a time, Ms. Rabbit and Mr. Kobold drove allllllll the way out to never-never-land to find a papasan that was barely used and on the cheap. Whilst out on their adventure, they hungered. Deciding to see what sort of delectable edibles were available out in knobby-ville, they drove to the Durango and 215 area and found a place called The Deli Den. Seeing the prices were reasonable, and being that Rabbit is a big fan of delis in general and more specifically, New York style delis, they decided to nom at this place.

Ms. Rabbit chose the Philly Cheesesteak sandwich and Kobold chose the special (which we unfortunately cannot remember the name of) with corned beef, provolone and yum-tastic bread. Both were excellent, the meat had good flavor and the portions were huge. The service was mediocre at best, but the staff was friendly enough. It definitely had a family-owned feel and the decor was functional and non-fancy (odd, for that side of town).

The two adventurers nom-ed their gigantic sandwiches and eyed dessert but thought better of it, as the balaclava was bigger than Rabbit's hand. Yikes! Portions here are out of control big.

The only sticking point that was while Kobold was digesting, the tummy started to churn and do unhappy things. We're not sure if it was the sandwich, the corned beef or the combination of the two, but it did not end well for Kobold's bathroom or his stash of TP.

So if you're ever waaaaaaaaaaay out in never-never-land, give it a try but beware the corned beef.

Why we don't review chains

As you've noticed we try to stick to local joints, places that we can chill at and not stress what is going down around us. We're pretty easy going kind of fatties. We eat at chains, we eat our fast food, normal things. We like Chile's and Applebeas, we don't mind some pancakes from IHOP.
When I'm in Arizona, I hit up Whataburger. We're not snobbish fatties. Now personally I don't see the point in reviewing a place everyone in the country can easily go to, or large parts of the country for that matter. But I do see a point in reviewing smaller places, or places not many people know about, all around the places that I happen to be.

As me and Rabbit are moving here soon, that will be another part of town, and it will lead to a whole new world of experiences.

To ramble around, today we hit Denny's for a quick sandwich. There are other places we could go for this, there was a Jersey Mikes right there, for example, but I like burgers and Ms. Rabbit likes patty melts. There was a lot wrong with our choice. Did you know Denny's is now expensive? It was, with an appetizer, $16 a person! I got a burger, seasoned fries, and an ice tea. Rabbit got her patty melt, seasoned fries, a coke, and we shared some cheese sticks. Now to me, this should be, at a chain like Denny's, maybe $25 total.. Nope, our drinks were freaking $2.30 each. Our food was crap. I would rather goto a place like Grind Burger, that we reviewed, and get a great burger for the same freaking price.

So yeah, we have become a bit snobbish. We'll spend the money for good food and service. But when the food sucks, and the service is only tolerable, it reminds us of why we don't review chains.

Because they are there for a convenience, but over all, kind of suck.

Beer, Beef and Brownies

Steiner's website proclaims that it "is a Nevada style pub and (...) is the best bet for cared-for service, inspired cuisine and an abundant selection of beer and spirits."



Kobold and I were wandering South on Las Vegas Boulevard, past the Town Square mall, past Fry's.. just sort of headed in a direction, when I saw the "Nevada style pub" sign and got curious. We pulled yet another shell world (are we seeing a pattern here?) and popped in. First, let me say: Staff.. you did an excellent job! Kobold gives you females extra points for being attractive, but his scale is a little different than mine. As far as ambiance and service go, you guys get an A+ from me.. or .. a smiley face sticker.. or a pony.

We skipped the appetizers, electing to try and save enough room for a listing on the desert menu that looked absolutely sumptuous. We did note that the prices throughout the menu were absolutely reasonable - and the menu is gigantic. There are 24 beers on tap and more in bottles, a whole page dedicated to sangwiches (hot and cold) and.. yeah. Foodgasm.

Kobold had a sandwich called "The Palms" which is best described as a patty melt, on marble rye with swiss, onions and a side of 1,000 island dressing - take note, restaurants: THIS IS THE ONLY WAY PATTY MELTS SHOULD BE PREPARED! Kobold likes his cow medium rare and that's exactly how it was prepared. He also elected for a side of the home-made potato chips. Yum-tastic, kids. I promise you this.

I had a PhilEly Melt (aka: philly cheesesteak), which was gigantic and had excellent quality of beef (you may also order it with chicken instead), filling, full of onions, peppers and REAL cheese served on a hoagie. I had the beer battered fries which were neither too big nor too small and were nice and crisp but not over done. I'm starting to sound like golide locks at this point, so I'll stop. Seriously, though. Amazing.


For dessert, we had been eyeballing the Hot Bourbon Brownie Sundae and were squeeing in our pants by the time we each had our first bites. Warm, soft brownie, hot fudge, vanilla bean bits on top of vanilla ice cream, smothered in a bourbon sauce? We were happy little fatties and devoured all that we could before the prospect of being carted out of the place on a hand truck presented itself.

Seriously, people. Go south on the boulevard. I promise it's absolutely worth the trip.

Burgers Part 2

CreAte. Just the name makes you think "Eat your Face." This place has custard, so it gets extra points in my book. It's another very modern place. I've spoken to the owner, who is a great, chill kind of guy, and I like a lot of what they are going for here. They are all for the environment, so the plates, utensils, and cups are all washable, the napkins are recycled, and they recycle what they can. As for atmosphere, it's almost like Starbucks meets Industrial. The walls are decorated, there is a lot of seating, and it's mostly chill to be at.

Walk in and look at the columns of burger choices, and things are happy to start with. I normally go with the Medieval, which is apple smoked bacon, burger, and BBQ sauce. I go sans tomatoes since I believe they are still, at least while uncooked, poisonous death apples.

Rabbit quite often makes her own, using their supplied paper with more circling of choices, to mix and match what ever is filling her pretty little head at the time. This often leads to interesting flavors and happiness, in her pants. Don't ask, she squees and I don't want details, most of the time.

Throw in some sweet potato fries, and fresh ice tea, and I'm good to dance and eat and eat and eat and eat.

The thing that wins this place over (besides the custard, because who doesn't love rich frozen custard!?), is just the pure amount of choices. Seriously this place has some 30+ choice of sauces alone. Throw on the 20+ choices of toppings, something like 8 cheeses, and you can make a LOT of decisions about something horribly simple: Charred Animal Flesh In your Mouth!

Up until I tried the Grind this was my favorite burger joint, and now it's a toss up between the two. CreAte loses out, for me, because it's across town off Lake Mead and Tenaya, way out in North West land, while I'm fairly central.

So far the sweet potato fries are beyond compare, and the staff is always happy and fun. Another great place to nom burgers and be a happy carnivore. Potatoes count as meat, don't forget it.