4 of 5 DeliciScore™ (Great) Awarded to King Deli & Sundries for their French Dip Sandwich in Seattle, WA on this 6th day of June, 2015 - Convenience has its virtues.

Last week during a very busy day at work I went in and got the French dip from the deli in my office, King Deli and Espresso, and ate it at my desk.  Going into this experience I had very low expectations; the deli is half-deli, half-convenience-store and serves pretty basic things but the people there all seem really nice and I enjoy watching the workers prepare food.  It has a really nice, family-oriented vibe to it and just seems simple and unpretentious, even wholesome.  I have a sense of "prepared with love" when I go to this place and that's a nice feeling.

I started working in this building about a month ago and since then, I've enjoyed their chicken teriyaki and spicy chicken teriyaki.  I also had their "Pizzini" sandwich, a panini with pizza-like fillings, and that was pretty good as well.  The portion sizes provided are all rather generous, too.  I had assumed that the French dip would be bland and lackluster without any unique or distinguishing features but I was wrong.

After ordering and selecting a side salad as my accompaniment, I went back upstairs to my desk to eat.  I unboxed the dip and it looked way better and fancier than I had anticipated.  It had nice provalone on it, the size was good, and you could see a pretty heavy dousing of black pepper, which is not common and was indeed a nice feature to behold.  The bread was of type classic French.  There was not a ton of roast beef on it (it could have used more in fact) but overall I was pretty pleased with the presentation.  The bread was toasted as well, probably by their panini machine but it was not flat.  The bread wound up being quite absorbent and in the end, my last two bites were without jus.  The jus came in a small styrofoam cup and was hot and good.  There was a nice deli pickle spear that I immediately ate.

As I like to do for starters, I ate the sandwich alone without jus so I could know what that with which I was working.  I was happy.  Not overwhelmed but happy.  The cheese and buttered bread made it a a good taste.  I gave the sandwich a jus-plunge and took a bite: it was even better, so I was really happy with that which I would enjoy.  I made my way through the dip and finished it all, pleased.

The provolone had its expected mild but good flavor and contributed a bit of depth to the sandwich, which I enjoyed.  While ordering, I was given the option of a potato salad but opted for a side green salad.  The salad was very simple (iceberg lettuce with ranch) yet overall was pretty good, cold and made a nice complement to the hot sandwich.

Overall, I rate this French dip sandwich and meal a 4 of 5.  Yes, it's a pretty high score for a rather basic unit under $10 but the provalone and pepper made it stand out.  To boot, this sandwich is in my building and easily acceptable so I get my dip-fix if necessary.  I'm really happy that I bit the bullet,  ordered, ate and reviewed this dip.

My apologies for not having any pictures here but you'll have to take my word that this is a good, solid, satisfying French dip that is enhanced by a nice, peppery taste with some nice cheese and portion size for under $10.

French dip review: Redmond's Bar and Grill, Redmond, WA Smoked Onions Prime Rib Swiss, 4.5 of 5

The Redmond's Bar and Grill Menu cover.

The bar with big screens above.  Our friendly bartender Charlie was good and reportedly heading back to Hawaii.  Good luck, Charlie!!!

Behind the stranger's head in the bottom left of the frame you will see "Christmas Lights", which is actually a stage where musical talent can play.  Pretty cool.  I guess the building that this restaurant is in is 108 years old!!!

The French Prime Dip: French roll, smoked  (NICE TOUCH)  onions, seared (NICE  TOUCH) Prime Rib and Swiss served with au jus and fries or salad.  $13.  I went with the salad.

Here's the dip and you can see part of the salad.  Medium rare Prime Rib, and you can see that the greens are nice and dry.

Another view of the sandwich.  Sorry, my other pictures of the plate didn't turn out.

I was a real fan of this pen, BTW.  I honestly thought about either stealing it or asking the owners if I could have it.  Here they are on Amazon for your enjoyment.

The Review of the French dip sandwich and such:

Au jus amount: 5.  Very large.  They gave me a bowl of it.  Great (see Adam's bowl at Gere-a-Deli for comparison's sake. 

Bread color: Whitish

Bread texture: 4.  Absorbent

Overall sandwich size: 4.  Big

Bread toasting: 4. Well-toasted

Salad comments: Nice looking with very cute--extremely thin--sliced carrots

Salad dressing: Bleu cheese that was really garlicky, great and flavorful.

Salad greens: Very great.  Dry greens.  Gourmet greens.  

Other salad toppings:  Cukes and HALF-GRAPES!!

Au jus temp:  2.5.  Additional jus was not steaming.

Bread/bun size:  Wide

Meat done-ness:  5.  Medium rare with visible pink.  I prefer to see some pink on my Prime Rib...

Sandwich characteristics:  Soft, good, not greasy

Bread characteristics:  Really good 

Au jus characteristics:  "Oilyish" but good, authentic jus

Salad description:  4.5.  Sweet good, half-Grapes on salad, nice, dry, fresh, hearty, and CHEWY (which I think is something you want!!!) greens...lots of red (which I think of as nice and fancy/gourmet) greens.

Other sides:  A nice Kosher-style pickle spear that was good.  I think this is a good addition to every French dip meal is a nice pickle.  As if the sandwich and jus weren't salty enough, right?!!  But I think because it is cool and crisp, it is very refreshing...as is the salad and that's why I typically choose it instead of fries, BTW.

Skewer type:  Fancy toothpicks

Other comments:  Smoked onions are a nice addition, had to order hot jus, which they brought out rapidly.  Jus can be TOO hot, BTW...  I burnt my tongue/mouth but it was better hot, so I was grateful.

Cheese comments:  Mild but good Swiss

Overall sandwich comments: 4.5.  GREAT flavor, the smokiness is a real winner.  Overall it's really good with big, soft, absorbent but not too soft bread.  The side-salad also really made this meal with its garlicky, creamy bleu cheese dressing, good greens, and cukes.  There were no "crunchies" (like croutons or sunflower seeds) on the salad but they were not needed with such good lettuce and cukes and thin carrots shreds.  Oh! and there was just a little bit of feta cheese on top of the salad which made it really good.  More salt but hey!  Hotter initial jus may have made this a five.  Additionally it is not exactly a "fancy" French dip like that at The Keg but it's real good and the smoked onions really make it interesting and unique.

Overall:  4.5.  Great experience, pretty crowded in there.  Friendly owner Tim and bartender Charlie.  Patrons seemed happy to be there and there was good ambiance.  It was crowded on a Wednesday night and my date and I had fun.

Editor's note about the score.  After later reflection, this sandwich really is as good as the dip at Canyon's restaurant that got a 5, maybe better.  We are in the process of recalibrating our scoring system.