Daman's Bar and Grill French Dip in Redmond, WA

It was a sunny stretch of weather in December in Seattle.  Here we see steam emanating from some local fence-posts.

I've been to Daman's quite a few times.  It's a traditional sports bar near Microsoft headquarters in a strip mall.

I was greeted by a very friendly and fun waitress, Andrea, and provided the menu.  I had a bit of a cold and had the day off work.  Daman's was on my French Dip To Do List and it sounded comforting, so why not.

There is is.  Under $15.  Came with tots.  Was asked if I wanted cheese on it.  They have a turkey dip option as well.  

I wait.  But not for long.  There's a view of the kitchen so I knew if progress was being made.

Here it is.  Looks really good.  Jus looks really rich, tots good, big size.  Colored, frilled skewers.  And a side of horseradish FTW.  

The side of good horseradish (not the creamy kind).  And you can see the good pickle spear in the bottom left of this picture as well.

Was provided with the necessary ketchup and yellow mustard as well for my tots but I wound up not using it.  My cold was getting in the way.  But horseradish and that fun, intense "nasal hit" would come to the rescue.

Jus looks good with some marbling from beef bits.

I opened the sandwich and slathered it with horseradish.  Why not?!

The money shot.  Was great.

Good bread, nice melted cheese, skewer.  Life is good.

$16.77 total.  I just went with water as a beverage.  It was worth it.  Good value, I'd say.

Detailed Tasting Notes and Scores

Perfect horseradish side was offered and I slathered it onto the sandwich thickly.
Swiss cheese was nicely melted and got a 4 of 5.
The beef was somewhat chewy at times but still good and gets a 4 of 5.  Good flavor and plentiful.
Tots were good and hot but only get a 3 of 5.  Weren't especially salty. Still good.
The jus was good, rich and hot and had a somewhat but not in a bad way texture 5
Overall this thing gets a 5 of 5.
Good size.
Orange and blue frilly toothpicks add a nice touch of care and concern for the eater.
Good looking, nice toasted, large bread.

Good, high quality dill pickle spear.

Conclusions

I'll be back and this was a great French dip.  They took care and it was really good.  They have a turkey dip, too, Daman's should stay on the French Dip To Do list.  Thanks to Andrea for her friendly and fun service.  Go Daman's (yelp)!

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!