4 of 5 DeliciScore™ (Great) Awarded to Hector's Restaurant for their Prime Rib Dip Sandwich in Kirkland, WA on this 16th day of November, 2011 - Not too bad, Hector.

SETTING THE SCENE

The scene from our table.

Hector's is a pretty good little bar and place to eat in downtown Kirkland.  I've been there quite a few times and not sure that I had experienced their French dip before.  My buddy Matt had been there within the last few months and had let me know about their dip.  I like the ambiance in there overall: TVs, low light, cool tables and chairs, a nice bar.  I believe they recently lost their cook, however, to Redmond's Bar & Grill, who also has a dip that is on my list.

I was out with my buddy Leigh for a business conversation at dinnertime and decided I needed to go with the dip.  I was a bit distracted in conversation and drinks so didn't take copious notes on this dip but did demonstrate to Leigh and Jessica the review method: prepare, observe and smell, taste alone, taste with au jus, enjoy, review.

Prime Rib dip.  Caramelized onions, pepper jack cheese on a French roll with au jus.  $14.  I didn't get the fries.

THE DIP

Here it is.  I got a salad with Bleu Cheese on the side.  They added bleu cheese but forgot dressing!!??   The dip looked pretty good overall.  The bread looked so-so, kinda plain.  The au jus wasn't all that filled up; I think I'd like it 'teaming'.  You can see the caramelized onions hanging off the side; I think they were red onions.

Salad, 2, not that good, lettuce wasn't all that good.  They forgot the dressing at first.
Bread, 3, basic bread, nothing special at all here.
Au jus, 3, was fine, wasn't overly hot.  Had enough, though for bread that was reasonably absorbent.
Bread absorbency, 2, soaked up more au jus than I wanted.  Sloppy and wet sandwich is good but not exactly the goal.
Skewers, 4, Fancy toothpicks
Meat, 3, good enough Prime Rib but nothing that special, fresh-looking or fancy.
Cheese, 3, didn't really notice that it was Pepperjack or spicy.
Non-meat toppings (caramelized onions), 4, these were good and tasty onions and really added something to the sandwich; they made the sandwich taste good alone.
Value, 3, for $14 this was okay but not great value.  They make it "fancy" with the caramelized onions and pepperjack cheese.
Overall, a generous 4.  This is a good sandwich overall but not the best dip.  Eating it without the au jus was good.  It tastes good alone.  The au jus wasn't overly hot but good enough and added something but not a ton.  The salad's look detracted from the sandwich; they might want to consider plating the salad separately.  The bread was fine but nothing really fancy in any way so kind of detracted.  I recommend that they put more au jus in the cup to show their confidence in their juice.

Here's a closer up pic of the sandwich.  You can see it's simple and tasty.  The cheese wasn't obvious but the onions were quite good.  The bread was wide but very simple.

REASON TO GO BACK
Downtown Kirkland is fun!!!

5 of 5 DeliciScore™ (From Heaven) Awarded to Pine Lake Ale House for their Prime Rib Dip Sandwich in Sammamish, WA on this 11th day of November, 2011 - This one is really good.

INTRODUCTION
I wanted to write this review slightly differently and less anal than my previous ones.  This is my "short form" blog format for a French dip review.  My basic review method is to eat the thing, take pictures, and make short notes onto my phone.  I then clean up the text producing the more verbose and descriptive language below and then rate the sandwich on a variety of dimensions.  I like to end with the overall rating to assess the sandwich and experience overall.

Setting, Ambiance and Other
Good selection of cold beers, crowded with a very good vibe, nice neighborhoody spot, a great and entertaining server named Sarah.

The dip.  See the sesame seeds.  Good job of filling the au jus cup.  The bread is  whitish and the  meat and cheese are bursting out of the sandwich.  It looked and smelled really good!!

Sides, etc.:
Excellent starter bleu cheese salad with very great, juicy tasty red tomatoes, very thin and nice sliced onions, very nice big and soft, "forkable" croutons, and nice chunky bleu that was very well pre-tossed and the greens themselves were fancy and nice.

THE DIP:
First Impressions: The sights, smells, and sizes.  
Au jus smelled good and was dark.  The bun had sesame seeds and the bread was semi-whitish.  The sandwich portion was just right and looked juicy with melted cheese and a hint of the aioli!

The eating of the dip.
Good white chewy crunchy bread.  Good and not greasy melted cheddar cheese.  Tangy, even nutty-tasting juice of a dark color, correct temperature.  Roast beef was crispy and slighty chewy but good.  It didn't seem like "fine" Prime Rib and was very thinly sliced and maybe even looked processed but still good.  Overall, the dip was juicy and not fatty and you could taste the garlic aioli if ever so slightly.  If you tried hard enough, sometimes you could taste the toasted sesame seeds.  The bread was chewy, crunchy, and very light colored.  I thought at one point that it could have been sourdough but I don't think it was.  Overall, the portion was perfect and I only used 3/4 of the good jus, which is nice to have some left behind (and not have to order three (see J. Michael's Pub)).


Place, 4, Nice place, crowded, good ambiance, nice server.
Salad, 5, great.
Sandwich Presentation and Impressions, 5, great, looked good.
Bread, 5, really good, the toasted sesame seeds, chewiness, and crunchiness were very nice touches.
Jus Availability, 5, only used 3/4 of the jus.  Good job!
Meat, 4, okay, crunchy.
Non-Meat Toppings, 5, nice cheese and aioli added something, sesame seeds on bread good.
Au Jus, 4, good solid jus.
Portion, 5, perfectly sized, not too big or small.
Overall, 5, very solid dip and the salad and ambiance were really good.

4 of 5 DeliciScore™ (Great) Awarded to Grim’s Provisions & Spirits for their French Dip Sandwich in Seattle, WA on this 7th day of November, 2011 - Jessica's 30th birthday party!

Setting the scene

Jessica's 30th birthday party!!!  The theme was 1981!

It was my girlfriend Jessica's 30th birthday party and we rented The Butterfly Lounge at Grim's on Capitol Hill in Seattle.  A friend, Lisa, had told me about the Grim's fancy-sounding French dip: "roast beef, havarti, horseradish aioli & au jus on giuseppe $7.95.  Includes green salad dressed with balsamic viniagrette and parmesan cheese." about a month ago and I wanted to try it.  But I don't really like to review Dips when others are present but I had to!   If you find this review incomplete, inaccurate, or misrepresentative, sorry...we were partyin'!!!!

Menu and Ordering

Grim's French dip: roast beef, havarti, horseradish aioli & au jus on giuseppe $7.95.  Includes green salad dressed with balsamic viniagrette and parmesan cheese.

Grim's menu has a lot of hearty, comfort-style foods.  I got to sample some other things that were quite nice.


Plate

Looks pretty good and semi-fancy. Small amount of jus provided but sufficient.

Medium rare roast beef, havarti which I couldn't taste.

The salad.  Kinda looks brown maybe but could have just been the balsamic staining the lettuce.  Tasted fine overall; good, simple dressing.

Overall, the plate was quite simple: a simple salad, a smallish sandwich and a very small portion of au jus.


Skewer method
Not used.


Bread
I think the 'giuseppe' is fancy and from the Macrina Bakery in Seattle ("Our classic, crusty Italian loaf. Leavened with biga (traditional sponge starter) and unbleached flour. Lighter in salt and perfect for dipping in your favorite olive oil.").  Recall that Maggie Bluff's (their French dip review) uses Macrina bread on their dip.  I think the Maggie Bluffs bread is better, more absorbent and better suited for a French dip.



Meat
Not a ton of pretty good, medium rare roast beef.



Non-meat toppings
They claim to have havarti and horseradish aioli on this thing but I didn't taste either; could have been the booze!!



Au jus
Very little (but enough) provided.  I think it tasted like Goat Cheese?  (It had a gamey flavor?!!!)



Portion
Smallish.  Very non-pillowy bread.



Value
$7.95 for this semi-fancy dip is a pretty good deal.



Overall dip
It was fine but not that delicious to me.



Other (fun?) stuff while there
We had a great time celebrating Jessica's birthday and entertaining our guests.  The Butterfly Lounge is a pretty nice area!  ....Oh! and I took pictures with a REAL (non SmartPhone) camera for once!!



Summary

	Score (0-5)	Comments
Bread	3	Nice bread but not much of it.
Meat	3	Medium rare roast beef but not much of it.
Au Jus	3	Interesting.  Small but sufficient amount.  Goat cheese flavor?
Overall	4	Pretty fancy dip.  Kind of smallish.

Reason to go back:  Grim's has a pretty good dance floor and some of their other food, like the truffle pasta with bacon is really good!

French dip review: J. Michael's Pub in Redmond, WA, 3 of 5

Setting the scene

J. Michael's Pub & Eatery in Redmond, WA.

I had had the dip at J. Michael's a couple of times before and knew that I needed to review it for the blog; I was getting down to the nitty gritty of dips left to review on the east side, so it was off to J. Michael's after work on a Monday.

J. Michael's is a sports bar in Redmond that primarily serves to the blue collar working class.  They have a pretty simple menu, lots of TVs, pool, video games, pull tabs and a very relaxed, easy going feel.  

Menu and Ordering
Diners order at the bar from a board with the menu items posted.  The dip is $7.00 and fries are $1.50.  I added a salad and got a Coors Light.

Plate

The French dip.  You can see that it's quite large.  The au jus looks funny in this picture bat  it was fine.

The dip is quite large; lots of bread.  As you can see in the picture the au jus is not enough for the sandwich's extreme amount of absorbent bread.  The salad that it came with was quite plain: just cheese and a few tomatoes.

Skewer method
Fancy toothpicks.


Bread
They provide a LOT of bread.  It was fine, classic sandwich roll French bread.  The bread had a slightly burnt grilled flavor.


Meat
Enough very salty, fine-tasting roast beef.  

Quite a bit of rather salty roast beef on some very thick, bulky bread.

Non-meat toppings
None


Au jus
The au jus was hot and salty and fine.  I had to order three bowls to make it through all of the bread!!!


Portion
Large


Value
Not bad


Overall dip
This was a classic French dip that was pretty large.  It was very salty and "good" but just a lot of it and at some point the sodium quantity kind of bothered me.  Since I'd had so many fancy Prime Rib dips lately, this kind of dip paled in comparison for me, although it was a totally valid, fine Classic.


Other (fun?) stuff while there

They appear to have a penchant for many toilet paper rolls.  Take your pick!!!

Redundancy is the name of the game in this mens room at J. Michael's!!

The bathoom at J. Michael's made me laugh.  It was kind of dirty and had some silly oddities.

Summary

	Score (0-5)	Comments
Bread	3	Lots of very absorbent French bread, which ultimately required 2+ au juses to knock it down!
Meat	2	Quite a bit of very salty roast beef.
Au Jus	3	Fine, salty au jus.
Overall	3	A pretty big and very salty classic French dip.

Reason to go back:  beer, pool, video games, and very basic, standard bar food.  None of that fancy gourmet crap!