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| Here's the outside of their fancy menu. It was nighttime and we missed happy hour so prices were high. |
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| You'll see the Prime Rib Dip in there. I did. (And do). Squint your eyes if you're having a hard time. |
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| Prime Rib Dip. $16. Mamma Lil's peppers (so that's what those are called!) and onion relish (god it was great, an absolute highlight, almost requirement for a great French dip. The French baguette was really good too. |
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| The plated unit with the Mamma lil peppers, twisted bamboo skewers, a nice white plate and a nice white porcelain ramekin. The salad didn't look wonderful but I was generally impressed with the looks of the sandwich and the smell of the jus caught my nose in the most enjoyable of ways. |
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| Close-up of the sandwich indeed. Good bread. The Prime rib was not rare in any way (medium to medium well but it was good and not too chewy or anything like that.) |
I met up with my buddy Berry last night for drinks and a business conversation. It was 6:30 and I was starving. At first I thought I was going to get an appetizer to hold myself over for a real dinner but I realized I was just too hungry that I had to go all in. ...And they had a French dip (Prime rib dip) on the menu...so I threw down...all in.
I told Berry about my French dip eating and reviewing hobby (habit) so I got to entertain him with the process of photographing it, reviewing it and eating it like a freak. It was fun. I used to be embarrassed, quite literally, of doing my French dip reviewing in front of others but now I am pretty proud of it and think it's funny. I have fun with it and can still engage while going through the reviewing motions. It's a fun and silly hobby. Berry had to endure the note-taking I was doing into my phone but that was fine.
So the Prime rib dip came out while I sat there talking to Berry. The smell of the jus immediately permeated my nose and I was stoked and simply enjoyed the aroma, adding to my conversation. It looked really good, too, so I felt like I would be in good shape. I tasted the sandwich, standalone, and it was very good. The beef was medium or beyond (which scores it a points lower) but was overall good. The onion jam flavor was very delightful and I'd never experienced it on a French dip. It was a wonderful condiment and accompaniment. I sipped the jus, standalone, and it was salty and rich. It was perhaps overly salty but that's what a French dip is about, right? The salt?
The dipping was good and as I enjoyed consuming the whole sandwich, what impressed me more than anything was the crunchy toasted quality bread, the rich jus, and the extremely delicious onion jam. Onion jam!
After I devoured the sandwich, I moved onto the salad, which was good but not really notable. Some of the lettuce had wilted some due to its close proximity to the hot sandwich and jus. Overall, it was fine, had croutons and okay dressing but nothing too wonderful.
The presentation of the meal overall was nice with good Mamma lil's peppers on top of the twisted bamboo skewers, handsome bread and good dishes.
Raw tasting notes:
- Smell of jus is good to start
- Looks good
- White sourdough, dense hearty looking bread
- Topped with a pepper on skewer I've never seen
- Very dense bread
- Nicely spicy
- Very salty but good, rich jus
- Onion jam excellent and spicy?
- Crunchy bread
- Good salad with some wiltedness caused by the proximity of the lettuce to the hot stuff
- topped with a round pickled pepper on each half of the sandwich.
- The onion jam was a real hit with me
- the bread was really dense and had some good crunch to it that could be overridden by the jus.
- i might even like stale, very chewy french dip bread. The last thing you want is wonder bread.
The scoring:
Bread: 5
Meat: 3
Non-Meat Toppings: 5 (Onion jam, yes!!!!)
Jus: 4 (A bit too salty but good)
Overall: 5 (The onion jam and great bread brought this thing home. It was a delight to eat.)
