French Dip Review: Rosewood Cafe in Tacoma, WA

I was driving around burning time on a Sunday and got hungry.  I looked for eateries in Tacoma and found this place, Rosewood Cafe, that was highly rated on Foursquare so I went.  It was a cute, nice, clean neighborhood joint with a good vibe and good food.  The French dip, unfortunately was good mayonnaise-y.  I should no by now to always get the mayo on the side.  Some people can do it right (very rare) and others ruin a good sandwich and turn it into a creampile.

Jus 4 light color, good flavor, hot
Meat 3 fine roast beef
Non meat toppings 4 red onion sautéed, cheese, mayo
Sandwich 4
Bread 4 good, Toasted, but Smallish
Overall 4 for size and too much Mayo

In general, the smallish size hurts it.  It is good but mayo-forward (is that a thing?), onions were  fine, the havarti cheese was not noticeable.  The jus was light colored jus (chicken broth?) but good overall.  Quality food but too much Mayo and not much focus on beef or beef taste.

2 of 5 DeliciScore™ (Not Quite There) Awarded to Matts’ Rotisserie & Oyster Lounge for their French Dip Sandwich in Redmond, WA on this 11th day of January, 2012 - Give me a break.

Background
Went out to lunch with some coworker friends, Joel and Leo, today.  Went to Matt's Rotisserie at Redmond Town Center because I hadn't had their French dip yet and was able to talk my guys into sitting through the review with me.  


About a month ago, I did go to lunch here with another coworker, Hansen, and he had the French dip, so I'd seen it and had the impression that he didn't think it was all that great, but I had to know for myself (and write a review!!!) 

The view from our table.  They originally sat us by the door, where this picture was taken, on a 35 degree day and we asked to be seated elsewhere away from the draft during busy lunchtime, which they promptly obliged.

Matt's is a nice little spot with a good vibe at Redmond Town Center.  I've been here for drinks and happy hour countless times and have had a lot of good times here.  They have good cocktails, wait staff, bartenders, and oysters.


Ordering

The menu.

French Dip: Applewood rotisserie beef, sauteed red onion, swiss (forgot to capitalize) cheese and horseradish mayo on a sourdough roll with au jus for dipping.  Half $9 ~ Whole ~14.  I got the Whole based on the recommendation from the waitress that "she always gets the Whole".

Meat 
Waitress said that it all comes "Medium well" and that it's the same beef product that they use for their tacos.  I was immediately not impressed.  I wondered if it would taste like taco meat, for example!!!


Sandwich
This sandwich is "fully loaded" (added this new term to the glossary): it has mayo, onions, Swiss cheese, and sourdough bread.  Due to the sourdough, and fancy toppings I would also refer to this sandwich as "gourmet".  The price for the whole (which wasn't all that huge of a sandwich, it turns out) is $14, pricey for non-Prime Rib.


Appetizers
They provide good, soft, salty, nicely-textured bread and butter as a free appetizer, which was a nice touch.

The bread and butter appetizer, which comes with all meals.  Great, fresh, soft bread and good butter.

Served


Salad

The side salad with Bleu cheese dressing.  This picture makes it look like it might be good but I didn't even have a bite.  The lettuce was flaccid and you can see that the tomatoes are kind of translucent, which I wasn't digging and asked for it to be comped.  ...looks too moist and wet...ugh...

The salad was ok-looking at first glance but the lettuce was pretty white and "pithy" (Leo's word).  We were fairly critical of this salad and I decided not to eat it.  The greens look nearly fancy but I think they seemed old and didn't look all that fresh.  Flacid, aged.  Bad.




A warning about their pepper mill
Although a nice touch, their pepper mill was more like a pepper SHOWER that blasted pepper out at a wildly rapid rate.  If you weren't careful, you got way too much pepper on your food.  So, be ready to say "that's enough"!!!  ...Joel stammered and wound up with a ton on his salad.

The French dip, plated.  Good looking overall with the exception of the meat.  You can see the melted cheese.  The ratio of meat to bread was too much bread.  Fancy toothpicks.  The gray color of the meat and the out of whack ratio of meat to bread was off-putting and I immediately got a negative vibe.

Au Jus
The au jus was steaming when it came out, which is always important but the taste of it overall was ho-hum due to the the too-powerful flavor of the sourdough and horseradish.  Jus Score = 3.

The au jus: dark, steaming on arrival, had enough for the dense bread.

Bread
The bread looked really good: it was a nice, fancy golden brown color with little bubbles in it, perhaps a shimmer of being brushed with oil or butter.  It came skewered with fancy toothpicks.  The taste of the bread on the other hand was way too much for what should be a delicate sandwich.  The sourdough really made the sandwich taste sour and not all that good.  In fact, the overwhelming flavor of this sandwich is SOUR between the sourdough bread and horseradish mayo.  Fail.  Bread Score = 2.

The sandwich, which you can see isn't overly meaty with a lot of pretty dense bread.  There was enough au jus provided.

Meat
The meat by itself was fine.  It was good and crunchy, kind of chewy meat that seemed, if a bit greasy, probably from the cheese and mayo on it.  It's color was grayish brown and I wished that there was more of it ratio-wise (or less bread) and that it could be provided medium-rare.  Meat Score = 2.

Non-meat toppings
The horseradish mayo on this thing wasn't any good.  It tasted sour.  The grilled red onions were useless and not all that tasty.  The Swiss cheese also added nothing but grease.  Non-Meat Topping Score = - 4.



Overall rating, taste and texture
The horseradish and bread made it sour and the cheese and mayo made it greasy.  No one wants a sour, greasy sandwich; Joel only ate half of his and sent the rest back.  There was too much bread and not enough meat.  The au jus was fine.  The sandwich overall wasn't that good and I'm giving it a generous 2 for its fanciness and fine bread.  Overall Score = 2.  

	Score (0-5)	Comments
Bread	2	Good bread but too dense, sour for this sandwich.
Meat	2	Not juicy, chewy, crunchy, well done.
Au Jus	3	Was fine, came out steaming, which is good.
Overall	2	It's a gourmet dip with too much sourness and bitter, bad flavor.

Reason to go back:  Matt's has fun drinks, a good vibe, nice oyster selection, and a good happy hour.

3 of 5 DeliciScore™ (Good) Awarded to Crossroads Bar and Grill for their French Dip Sandwich in Bellevue, WA on this 26th day of September, 2011 - Angus beef with Horseradish Mayo on Ciabatta

Setting the scene

Met up with my buddy, JP, for Happy Hour after work at Crossroads Bar & Grill.  Was planning on just having drinks, but low and behold, I started talking about French Dip Reviews and I felt inclined to review one.  It’s becoming quite an anti-social endeavor: I geek out reviewing the thing and wind up having to take pictures and notes while I’m also trying to engage in conversation.  Oh well, the woes of a working stiff!

I’d seen this dip on the menu a few weeks back and wanted to try it.  I like this place in general and their deep seemed fancy.

 

 

 

 

 

    

Menu and Ordering

No problems here.  “"Thinly sliced certified Angus beef stacked high on a Ciabatta roll with melted provolone cheese, horseradish mayo and au jus for dipping.  $14.99"  Seemed a bit steep and it’s not prime rib, just Angus, which I figured would be good.  The Ciabatta was new and the horseradish mayo added an exciting flare to it.

Plate

The salad was pretty good: good greens and a “balsamic bleu cheese” dressing that was quite good, although I put too much on accidentally…be warned.

Looked like a good dip, the au jus smelled good, the portion not the largest, especially for $15.

Skewer method

First of my reviewed dips with a classic “frilly toothpick” skewer.

Bread

The Ciabatta was interesting.  Don’t feel like I’ve ever had a dip on Ciabatta.  It was a reasonable soft bread with no crunch but it did a good job of sopping up the jus. 

Meat

The Angus beef was fine.  Definitely served medium.  JP suggested that I ask the wait staff “when was the meat cooked” so I can get a sense of how fresh / important the meet is.  I agree.  The meat was a bit chewy and course but not bad.

Non-meat toppings

This had the horseradish mayo on it with added some flavor although not overpowering and it also had provolone on it.  I didn’t taste the provolone, although it probably added moisture, which wasn’t necessary.

Au Jus

The jus was good and hot.  Good taste, rather dark in color.  No complaints.

Portion

The portion was rather small (like the size of a small hamburger) and for $15 I might complain.

Overall dip

Overall, the dip was good.  It was tasty.  The horseradish mayo was very faint although added some degree of interestingness.

Other (fun?) stuff while there

Got to drink a couple of Boundary Bay IPAs, which are very good and had great conversation with JP about French Dips, technology, Microsoft, relationships, travel, The 4 Hour Work Week, and entrepreneurship.

Summary

It’s a pretty good dip overall but the horseradish may isn’t interesting enough and the size is a bit small.

	Score (0-5)	Comments
Bread	3	Ciabatta was an interesting touch but too small.  Absorbed the jus well, though.
Meat	2	Angus beef but so what.  It was kind of dry and tough and well done.
Au Jus	4	Good, dark, flavorful.
Overall	3	Pricy, small size, some interesting tweaks in the Ciabatta and horseradish mayo but just average in total.

Reason to go back: Not for this sandwich.  They have good beers and the ambiance in here is pretty good generally.  Nice to have a good old bar around Bellevue with pretty good eats.  JP liked his macaroni and cheese with bacon pasta.