Pizza Pi - Seattle, WA - Field Roast Dip

We're expecting snow.  Oh joy.  Nov 4th.  Hopefully a good ski year here.

Went to a place called Pizza Pi because it was on my list and it was intriguing to me that a pizza place had a French dip.  I would soon be very disappointed.

I always wanted to write "gangster" but never really learned.  How do the gangsters train themselves to write in such cool, embellished fonts when they are probably otherwise of limited talent?

So I go into this place and the lady asks if I need a menu and to sit anywhere.  It's pretty empty in there and poorly decorated.

Sure enough, there's a sandwiches page in the menu and they have a French dip.  But it's a field roast French dip.  I had previously had an excellent vegetarian French dip from Georgetown Liquor Company so was generally hopeful that this place would do something nice, given they were not playing with a full deck.  (Nope) 

The order counter.  Uninspiring.

Two young workers on a Saturday.  7 people may have showed up to the place while I waited and ate.

Here's my table, all marked up.  Just kind of ugly.  I had a lot of "vegan thoughts" while there as I listened to the hipster indy music and wondered and hoped if they'd be able to make a good French dip.  They had a hot oven, I was hopeful.

Savory Field Roast slices, grilled onions and cheese (they don't say what kind but it was some flavorless mozarella like substance, I would come to find) on an oven toasted hoagy roll - Served with our house made au jus.  Seems like they had thought it through to a degree and one review on Foursquare had recommended it.  That's why I was there.  And I was in the neighborhood because I was returning our friend's cat to her, which my wife and I had been watching.

When I ordered, the fellow suggested the Caesar salad.  It was the star of the meal but still lackluster.  I do give it a 4 of 5 in overall quality and tastiness, so that's quite good.  It was a very simple salad in too small of a bowl with the dressing on the side and perhaps too many very herby and very crunchy croutons.

Zoomed in on that there salad.  

So when the French dip came out, I was basically like "WTF?"  why is it all white?  Where the meat.  And the jus, also WTF.  That's a bunch of floating garlic.  I was by no means impressed and here I am two hours later writing up the review and still smell the garlic on me and I'm not impressed.  Very angry in fact!  This sandwich was coyote ugly bad.  I wanted to eat my own arm off to get out of the situation but instead I ate the whole sandwich.  But it was a punishment like that I hadn't experienced in some time.

Let's see: a French dip sandwich that physically looks like it's oozing coleslaw.  In fact it was flavorless and under-melted (probably vegan) cheese.  The vegans might not know food.  I was also affeared that there would be no use of butter and those fears were fully confirmed.  My rage is growing.

Seriously.  Why does it look like this?

I feel ashamed to hold it in my hand.

I feel like I am eating a Seafood Delight sandwich from Subway.  But it doesn't taste good.

I chew some and believe that the sandwich is under-flavored.

The sandwich dipped into the jus in incrementally better but I am still not impressed.  That is was not greasy is perhaps its only saving grace but other than that this sandwich had about zero redeeming qualities.

Just sorrow.

Here's the second half.  I dreaded eating it.  I wanted to leave.  I was so sad, so disillusioned, so alone.

But I plowed on because I am a man.  But god it wasn't good.  It was extremely oniony and garlicky tasting.  And that cheese just looks so horrible and out of place.  Unpleasing.

This is the failed jus at the end.  I didn't want it.

Just not good.  A pile of mess.

Raw Tasting Notes:

Weird place
Vegan
Salad came first
Small salad bowl
Simple Caesar
Good
Cold lettuce 4 in quality and flavor
In Seattle to drop off Tak at brie's
Good, herby croutons
Very crunchy croutons
Nice to start with a salad
Music playing
Definitely hippie
Stark interior
Too many croutons?
Will there be butter?
What kind of cheese (not disclosed)?
Slow water dispenser
Fine in a pizza oven
Hopeful
Weird color
Flavor of sandwich 3
Jus flavor 3, hot, garlic flavor
Cheese not melted, looks like Coleslaw
Predominant onion and garlic taste
Traditional hoagie probably not buttered
Size average
Didn't even want to eat 2nd half
Flavor 2
Jus improves and moistens
2 overall, maybe even 1. Not being greasy saved it.
Too Garlicky
Bland flavor
Commentating

Summary

Bread 2 - It was fine and of okay size but because vegan, not buttered and just plain.

Meat 0 - The Field Roast was salty and probably not enough of it.  Very forgettable.

Non-Meat Toppings 0 - The onions were fine but too predominant.  The cheese was an awful and ugly failure.

Au Jus 0 - Visible garlic floating.  Causes indigestion.  Flavor maybe 2 but overall on the jus, a zero.

Overall 0 - Terrible sandwich.  Never go back.

0 of 5 DeliciScore™ (Terrible) Awarded to Monsieur Benjamin for their French Dip Sandwich in San Francisco, CA on this 15th day of April, 2015 -

Now, I know a French Dip isn't actually French at all - it originated in Los Angeles. But after arriving at one of my favorite restaurants in San Francisco (Absinthe) to find that there was an hour long wait to be seated, I decided to peruse the neighborhood on the south end of Market Street to see if there was somewhere else worth a try. Right across the street, there just so happened to be a French restaurant called Monsieur Benjamin, and as I browsed the menu...well, you know what I found - a French Dip sandwich. Done and done - I had my restaurant picked out.

"The portion was just disappointing..."

I wanted an appetizer to start out with, and chose the leek, potato and gruyere croquettes. They came with a dill/herb creme fraiche, and though quite delicious, consisted of 4 or 5 small bites of potatoes for $7.50. The portion was just disappointing, but I still had my hopes up for the French Dip.

Potato and Leek Croquettes. Yes, this is a $7.50 portion.

"When it arrived, the small sandwich, which cost $18.50, was just that - a sandwich."

When it arrived, the small sandwich, which cost $18.50, was just that - a sandwich. No fries or any side items. "Oh, you wanted french fries with that? I'll have them right up," the waiter said. I probably had them within 90 seconds of ordering that, but didn't realize at the time that a side of fries was $5. So being that I expect a sandwich to come with a side - whether it's fries, chips, veggies, a salad...whatever - that basically brings the French Dip at this place was really $23.50, very much on the pricey side. 

"a side of fries was $5."

The meat was medium rare to medium, but lacked any flavor whatsoever.

What a puny little sandwich! And that meat doesn't look all that appealing...

Gosh, what a disappointment this place was. The meat was medium rare to medium, but lacked any flavor whatsoever. The creamy horseradish was tame enough for a small child to eat. The French bread nothing to write home about (c'mon, it's a French restaurant for goodness sakes!). The Gruyere cheese - well, you just can't go wrong with Gruyere. That was the only redeeming quality of the sandwich.

"The Au Jus: It wasn't salty. It wasn't beefy. It was just sweet, and full of onions." 

So on to the au jus, what I consider the most important part of a French Dip. I can't begin to describe how much of a disappointment that was. It wasn't salty. It wasn't beefy. It was just sweet, and full of onions. Now, I know that the broth for French Onion soup can very closely resemble a perfect au jus for a French Dip. But they must have used Vidalia onions. Or a pound of sugar. Not sure which, but the jus was just way too sweet. it also had a bit of thickness to it that I just don't like in an au jus. It reminded me of what you get at Quizno's or Arby's in consistency. And Quizno's and Arby's au jus is much better than what I had at Monsieur Benjamin.

"...Arby's au jus is much better than what I had at Monsieur Benjamin."

Puny sandwich, meet puny au jus ramekin.

The fries were good, served with an aioli and ketchup. But not great. Overall, there really wasn't any part of this meal that I loved. In fact, it all pretty much was below average or average. And the centerpiece of the meal, the sandwich itself, was just a plain disappointment. Not recommended if you are in San Fran and looking for a French Dip fix.

This might just be the worst French Dip I've ever had.

The Bread: 3
The Meat: 2
The Au Jus: 0
The Price: 0
Overall Score: 0 out of 5

0 of 5 DeliciScore™ (Terrible) Awarded to Red Robin Gourmet Burgers for their Prime Rib Dip Sandwich in Redmond, WA on this 5th day of October, 2011 - A terrible and expensive prime rib dip.

Setting the scene

The faithful Red Robin sign

I found myself at Red Robin: I was going to meet a friend there for beers but he missed his bus and couldn’t make it so I was left sitting solo.  It was dinner time and since I have this very big responsibility to review French dips for you (man it is stressful!! ; )), and Red Robin has one on their menu (Prime Rib, Provolone, Grilled Onions, on French baguette), I figured I’d have and review it.
I thought to myself as I ordered that I might have sworn off the Red Robin Dip before for it not being good but I figured I needed to have it again and get the knowledge of this French dip out to my peeps.  So here it goes: the Red Robin Prime Rib Dip!

Menu and Ordering

I like Red Robin’s menu and burgers.  Their steak fries are good and I really like to dip my fries into “Buzz Sauce”, which is the stuff they brine/cook their hot wings in: zesty and delicious, garlicky.

Looks like a pretty tasty unit!

Plate

It has very small bread, very little au jus, and the meat is gray!

No, really, it is GRAY!!!

The dip came with coleslaw that tasted okay and I ordered a salad (Bleu Cheese) instead of the steak fries (figured I’d save on some calories).  The salad was pretty good overall: good croutons, larger than normal (in a good way) cabbage bits, and reasonable hearty carrot shards.  My first impression of the plate, though, was that ‘the meat and jus are GRAY!’

Skewer method

Fancy toothpick with yellow frills.

Bread

The bread was soft, not crunchy, and very small.  It was a French baguette but very soft and even greasy from the onions. 

Meat

There was plenty of medium-done, gray prime rib on it, and a limited amount of visible fat.  It had a good beefy flavor and was semi--probably overly--salty.  The portion of meat was rather large compared to bun size.

Non-meat toppings

This sandwich had greasy grilled onions on it that were pretty flavorful and also provolone cheese that I didn’t really notice except that it seemed unnecessary to me: even more unnecessary fat/grease.

Au jus

The amount of gray au jus that arrived was very small but I was kind of happy in the end that there wasn’t more because it had no flavor.  It could have been ‘authentic’ (pan drippings) but overall it was flavorless and watery.

Portion

The bread portion of the sandwich was about the (quite small) size of the Arby’s bread and this disappointed me for a $14 sandwich.  The meat and other toppings were plentiful although flowing out of the small bun, which created a sloppy mess.

Overall dip

The sandwich portion was greasy and okay.  The beef had good—yet salty—flavor.  The non-meat toppings were greasy, which leached into the small bun.  The au jus ruined the sandwich.  It was bad—and like the meat—gray.

Other (fun?) stuff while there

This is fun

And nice that they have these options

I sat next to a guy named Paul who tested Nintendo games professionally and liked dipping his burger into his milk shake.

Summary

This expensive and fancy-sounding dip is greasy and has a grayish-colored, very light-in-flavor au jus for dipping.  The bun is the size of the $3.99 Arby’s dip but for $10 more.   

	Score (0-5)	Comments
Bread	2	Soft, not enough, got greasy.
Meat	1	Gray, medium, lots, beefy, salty.
Au Jus	0	Gray, very little provided, flavorless.
Overall	0	Greasy, Arby's-sized bread, flavorless au jus.

Reason to go back: Fun-ish ambiance, very good steak fries, and dip the fries into the Buzz Sauce if you like spicy!