The French Dip Sandwich at The Lockspot Cafe in Seattle, WA's Ballard Neighborhood Awarded 3 of 5 DeliciScore™ (Fine) on this 5th day of May, 2017 - Nothing too special but not bad either, a classic

The salad's lettuce was brownish but otherwise things were fine.  The flavor of the dip was not to die for but it was good enough.  I feel like maybe it was over-buttered.  Is that even possible?

Here we can see some brown-ness on the lettuce, which is not what we want.

Boundary Bay IPA in the background and some flecks of flavor in the jus, which we like to see and enjoy.

Classic bread and visibly buttered, which is fine.  But it will only get a 3 (passing score).

The dipped sandwich money shot.  Looks good.  Some visible fat in the meat which we actually appreciate as a show of imperfection yet deliciousness.

Setting the Stage

My buddy JD was in town, who I hadn't seen in a while.  Within the last few years he has become an IT person so we got to talk tech.  He showed me a new 'internet in a box' device he and his friend Adam have created.  It is kind of neat and they were looking for input on their globalization / world domination strategy, which I tried to provide.  I met them first at the Ballard Public Library, then we went out for a walk, and I got hungry.  So we went to The Lockspot Cafe by the Ballard Locks.  I ordered the French dip and bought them a beer.  I asked the waitress if the sandwich was better with roast beef or burger (that can be substituted) and she thought the roast beef was fine so I proceeded.  It was about 2 PM on a Friday and I had the day off of work.  We talked about tech, podcasting, the third world and I had a French dip to review.

Tasting Notes

The is a classic French dip sandwich with the standard sandwich roll, buttered and toasted, a pretty good looking jus, okay beef and overall it tasted fine.  It didn't have any frills or anything.

Scoring

Bread 3.  Standard bread, buttered and toasted.  Good job for this.  It could have had too much butter on it but is that even a thing?
Meat 3.  This was a decent amount of pretty good, sometimes chewy roast beef.  Some pieces were a little fatty but I don't mind that; makes it seem more authentic.
Non-meat toppings.  Weren't any.  No problem. We don't mind that.  We are purists who love meat, bread and jus and don't mind when there are more good things on it but don't require it to get our fix.
Jus 4.  It was pretty good jus.  I ran out and asked for more which promptly came.  It was hot enough and had flecks of herbs or pepper in it, which I like.
Overall 3.  This is a classic and can't really go beyond because it is so traditional.  It wasn't perfect but it was good.

Summary

This place is good because of its location but probably not good at all.

3 of 5 DeliciScore™ (Good) Awarded to The Pumphouse for their French Dip Sandwich in Bellevue, WA on this 7th day of December, 2011 - Always a solid, consistent place.

The menu.

The menu items.

The scene from my table.

The large water.  Probably 25 - 30 oz.

The dip.  A classic.  Salad and fries.

Review

1. Which Meal - Lunch on a weekday with my friend Chris W.
2. Establishment - The Pumphouse, a nice local bar in downtown Bellevue.
3. Establishment Type -  Bar.  TVs, crowded.
4. Restaurant Crowdedness - Crowded
5. Menu Description - "French Dip Sandwich - Our fresh cooked thin sliced roast beef on a french roll with au jus or bbq sauce."
6. Price - $10.99, includes salad and fries.
7. Service speed - Fast
8. Service quality - High
9. Helpfulness of Waitress - Helpful.  I asked a question of whether to get the French dip (roast beef) or burger dip and she said that the French dip was "more popular".  French dip it was!!
10. Water size - Large.  Bonus points!!!
11. Sandwich size - Conservative but good enough.
12. Dip Type -  A Classic
13. Meat - 3 of 5.  Basic but good Roast beef.
14. Au Jus - 4 of 5.  Good au jus.  Hot, dark, salty.  
15. Au Jus amount - Good.  Enough au jus.
16. Skewer Type - Fancy toothpicks.
17. Other nice things - Lemon in water. Salad and fries included with the basic order.
18. Salad Size - Good enough
19. Salad taste - Good.  Good croutons, some little carrots.
20. Dressing - Blue cheese.  Good enough.
21. Restaurant Cleanliness - Good.  
22. Bread - 2 of 5.  A basic (but good enough French roll, store bought).
23. Bread toasting - Slightly toasted.
24. Other Sides (French fries) - Good enough, crunchy fries.  Ketchup delivered in little metal container.
25. Overall - 3 of 5.  It's a pretty good basic / classic dip!
26. Reasons to go back - Good, crowded place with good service and very high quality, consistently very good food!  Good beers.

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!

2 of 5 DeliciScore™ (Not Quite There) Awarded to Turf Restaurant for their French Dip Sandwich in Seattle, WA on this 22nd day of October, 2011 - I meet Misty of @FrenchDipSEA at The Turf, Seattle for a (Ham and Roast Beef) Dip

Setting the scene

The outside of Turf Restaurant and Lounge, Seattle downtown.  There's a lot of rather seedy foot traffic around here.  I believe I witnessed drug deals while waiting. : )

When I started the French Dip Reviews blog, got a Twitter account and soon thereafter was very surprised to learn of @FrenchDipSEA, who is owned by Misty, a great gal who I've since gotten to know.  This was our first time meeting in person and we had a very fun lunch and got to talk about the dip.
Turf's dip was recommended to me by my good friend Charlotte's brother Owen.  Owen is in the food industry and told Charlotte that Turf had a good dip.  I was about to find out!
When I showed up, I pretty much laughed at the place.  It was in a pretty seedy part of Seattle (2nd and Pike) and while I waited for my dining partner for lunch, believe I witnessed drug deals even.  The place looked pretty seedy and the clientele were in some cases homeless.  A far cry from Bellevue and the eastside but good for your soul!!!

Postage Stamps, Air Conditioned (it was probably 45 degrees and raining), and Scratch Tickets.  What more could a person want?

Menu and Ordering

French dip (beef or ham) w/ fries, choice of soup (they had clam chowder that day) or salad....for $7.95...(PRETTY GOOD VALUE!!!)

I knew what I was going to get so this was no big whoop.  I was surprised and happy that they had a Ham Dip.  Misty ordered the regular roast beef French dip and I got the Ham dip, so I'd know.  Each meal came with a salad (only dressing options are Ranch and Thousand Island, believe it or not!!!!!) and crinkle cut French fries.

Plate

The starter salad.  Although the iceberg lettuce tasted fine, it was probably the saddest looking lettuce I'd seen in a while!!!

The Ham dip at Turf, Seattle.  Looks pretty good overall.  Fried ham is yummy in general.  I had to order more au jus but that's okay. 

Skewer method
No skewer


Non-meat toppings
None: this was a VERY classic French (ham) dip.


Portion
Fair portion.  They did have the ham WILDLY LOPSIDED in terms of portion between the two halves.


Other (fun?) stuff while there

Although this picture's not clear, they have a very wide variety on their menu and specials.

The experience of going to this pretty funny, quaint dive and meeting Misty, another (the only other?!) French dip fanatic, was very fun.  Our middle-aged, Latino waitress was also very cute and nice; the service was pretty good overall.


Summary
A great time at a place I wouldn't frequent again.

	Score (0-5)	Comments
Bread	2	Fair, standard French dip roll.  They grilled it on the grill and slightly burned it even.
Meat	1	The ham was okay.  Misty didn't like it, though.  The roast beef was chewy and well.
Au Jus	3	This was pretty good jus overall.  It had good color, wasn't too salty and looked pretty good.
Overall	2	This was a fun experience just because it was so run down and "classic".

Reason to go back:  I think I'd try some of their other stuff.  They had Lumpia and a really wide array of menu items.  If I happened to be in downtown Seattle and wanted a greasy spoon, totally down to earth place to grab a cup of (probably just good enough) coffee and some greasy hashbrowns with ketchup, I'd drop in.