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)!

"Beef Dip" French Dip Sandwich at JJ Mahoney's in Redmond, WA Awarded 4 of 5 DeliciScore™ (Pretty Good) on this 22nd day of April, 2017 - I liked, cheese and provolone

It was later on a Saturday evening and we sat at the bar.

Looks good.  $13.50 not cheap but I'll do it.  I *need* to do it!

Orange-frilled skewer and melted provolone.

I stupidly forgot to take a picture of it initially.  I must have been hungry.  He's 1/2 of it. :)

The salad, as a I mention below, was unruly but good.

The money shot indicates that the jus is not very dark.  Although the taste of the jus was quite good, I want to personally see its color applied to the bread.  Maybe just use blue food die?  Could be fun...

Here we can see the onions some.

Setting the Stage

Jessica and I had gone to a political event and needed dinner afterwards.  It was a Saturday night and we went to the "Bella Botega" area in Redmond.  We like JJ Mahoney's and I had never formally reviewed their French dip.  Jessica claims (can I really trust this woman?!) that I have had it before but I clearly had not formally reviewed it, so it was time.

One time (unrelated story) we went to JJ's with Jessica's parents before a James Bond movie.  I had two gin martinis and slept through most of the movie. :)  Must have been good gin martinis and sometimes action movies can indeed put me to sleep.

Raw Tasting Notes

• Was not overly impressed initially with the bread: it looks like a 2 to 2.5.  Soft bread which is not my favorite type for a French dip.
• Meat: they claim "steak" and it looks more like roast beef, so I was not overly impressed.  It was thin-sliced and medium to well.
• Non meat toppings: provolone cheese, grilled onions, cheese looks processed, Jessica liked the cheese.  The onions were fine, overall, the non-meat toppings were indeed additive.
• Jus was nice tasting and gets a 3-4.  It was light in color and not visible once dipped, which should make it lose points.  We want to see the jus in action.  No stealth jus!
• Overall this unit was size medium, salty, had good taste and gets a 3-4.  It came with orange-frilled toothpick skewers and had some degree of black pepper taste.
• The side salad was good and fresh although the lettuce leaves looked unruly and maybe needed to be trimmed down to size for uniformity and presentation.
• Top recommendation to supplier: get a fancier cheese, harder bread, and try to get that beef into more of a medium-rare state.

Scoring

Bread 3.  It was acceptable but shouldn't be so soft.  I suppose soft bread makes for a tasty treat but for a French dip I really do prefer it to be more firm bread that softens when combined with the jus.
Meat 3.  For claiming steak, this was not overly impressive.  I had a roast beef dip yesterday at Lockspot (review to follow) and its meat was about the same.
Non-meat toppings 4.  These are good and additive indeed.  The onions were good.  There was a slight black pepper flavor going on, which was nice.  The cheese looked processed to me and made the sandwich seem cheap (the too-soft bread also did not make it seem overly fancy) but did add some flavor and Jessica liked itt.
Jus 4. Was good and I'll give it a 4.
Overall 4.  I will give it a 4 because they have a pepper taste, cheese and onions standard and good jus.  This thing is not out of the world but if you were incredibly drunk or high you would probably like it.

Conclusion

Jessica and I like going to JJ Mahoney.  This part of Redmond still feels fun and new even though it's a couple of decades old now.  The food and drinks are consistent and good.  Jessica drank a Harp since her parents were in Ireland.

French dip review: Palmer's in downtown Redmond WA

11 AM last Saturday after I got up at 5 AM and water-skied in the rain (thanks, Pete, that was a blast, and Ryan, you are my water-ski hero) I was aching for Mexican food from El Toreador (had never been there but had heard that they have very thick, homemade tortilla chips that I wanted to try) but after parking and getting out of the car in the rain and all that, I realized that El T didn't open until 11:30 AM.  Panicked, I walked next door to a dive bar called Palmer's to use their restroom and enjoy a drink while I waited for El T to get its act together.

Yet lo and behold, part-way into my beer as I perused their menu and studied the gentleman next to me who was eating a French dip, I realized I had to eat.  They have a Turkey dip with Pepper Jack option on the menu, so I figured I'd be stupid not to get it.  I knew while ordering that it would come with beef juice and not turkey juice but oh well.  Palmer's also offers classic roast beef with Swiss and burger dip choices.

My apologies but I wasn't in the mood to take pictures of the location or dip so you'll have to go off of my wonderful, descriptive prose.

A quick rant about juice pairing: it makes me absolutely livid (kidding) that restaurants haven't figured out that they need to make a jus that pairs with the meat.  For example, Palmer's serves regular beef jus with their turkey dip.  Really?  Why?  And even Philippe's, the original, uses beef jus on their lamb and turkey sandwiches.  Shame on you, people!!!

Okay, back to it.  So I got my Turkey dip with Pepper Jack and a side salad with bleu cheese served.  The style of the sandwich was very classic, bar-style: simple French bread roll from the likes of a Franz Bakery (store bought, nothing fancy) and a very mediocre salad on the side.  The meat and cheese were fine, no big whoop there.  The Pepper Jack may have even been processed cheese, which would be a failure if I took the time to study it.  The jus was way too watery and extremely disappointing but I didn't complain since I had enough.  The salad was quite poor, definitely nothing special there: boring iceberg-style lettuce and no interesting toppings to write about.

*After I'd eaten my plate* (I could complain about this if I wanted but I won't) the bartender gal asked me if I liked it.  I paused for a while and asked her if she wanted to know its score.  She said, "What?" and I explained to her that I reviewed French dips and this was about a 2 of 5.  I told her that the jus was very watery.  She apologized and immediately went back to the cook to tell him to remedy that.  I saw several dips go out after mine with a much darker, richer juice.  So kudos to the waitress for jumping on that.

Palmer's appears to move a lot of French dips (I saw four of them before 11:30 am on a Saturday so that says something), so apparently some people order it, and possibly enjoy it.  And with three dips on the menu, I guess the odds are good.

Overall, this dip and Palmer's were not my style.  That said, I'll still have to review their burger dip and regular French dip to see if they're any better.  Also, I need to test their more robust jus to see where it lands.  Perhaps, with a bolder, more reasonable juice, they'll be fine and score a 3 of 5 instead of a 2.

Bread: 2
Meat (turkey): 3
Cheese (Pepper Jack): 3
Jus: 1 (maybe even a zero?)
Waitress: 4 (very nice, helpful, apologetic, friendly, promised to change and improve things)
Overall dip: 2
Bloody Mary: 3 (it was quite good and spicy yet they had pathetically small green olives in it)
Dip selection: 4 (nice to have three options, I want 300 options...: ) )

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.

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.

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!

0 of 5 DeliciScore™ (Terrible) Awarded to Red Robin Gourmet Burgers for their Prime Rib Dip Sandwich in Redmond, WA on this 5th day of October, 2011 - A terrible and expensive prime rib dip.

Setting the scene

The faithful Red Robin sign

I found myself at Red Robin: I was going to meet a friend there for beers but he missed his bus and couldn’t make it so I was left sitting solo.  It was dinner time and since I have this very big responsibility to review French dips for you (man it is stressful!! ; )), and Red Robin has one on their menu (Prime Rib, Provolone, Grilled Onions, on French baguette), I figured I’d have and review it.
I thought to myself as I ordered that I might have sworn off the Red Robin Dip before for it not being good but I figured I needed to have it again and get the knowledge of this French dip out to my peeps.  So here it goes: the Red Robin Prime Rib Dip!

Menu and Ordering

I like Red Robin’s menu and burgers.  Their steak fries are good and I really like to dip my fries into “Buzz Sauce”, which is the stuff they brine/cook their hot wings in: zesty and delicious, garlicky.

Looks like a pretty tasty unit!

Plate

It has very small bread, very little au jus, and the meat is gray!

No, really, it is GRAY!!!

The dip came with coleslaw that tasted okay and I ordered a salad (Bleu Cheese) instead of the steak fries (figured I’d save on some calories).  The salad was pretty good overall: good croutons, larger than normal (in a good way) cabbage bits, and reasonable hearty carrot shards.  My first impression of the plate, though, was that ‘the meat and jus are GRAY!’

Skewer method

Fancy toothpick with yellow frills.

Bread

The bread was soft, not crunchy, and very small.  It was a French baguette but very soft and even greasy from the onions. 

Meat

There was plenty of medium-done, gray prime rib on it, and a limited amount of visible fat.  It had a good beefy flavor and was semi--probably overly--salty.  The portion of meat was rather large compared to bun size.

Non-meat toppings

This sandwich had greasy grilled onions on it that were pretty flavorful and also provolone cheese that I didn’t really notice except that it seemed unnecessary to me: even more unnecessary fat/grease.

Au jus

The amount of gray au jus that arrived was very small but I was kind of happy in the end that there wasn’t more because it had no flavor.  It could have been ‘authentic’ (pan drippings) but overall it was flavorless and watery.

Portion

The bread portion of the sandwich was about the (quite small) size of the Arby’s bread and this disappointed me for a $14 sandwich.  The meat and other toppings were plentiful although flowing out of the small bun, which created a sloppy mess.

Overall dip

The sandwich portion was greasy and okay.  The beef had good—yet salty—flavor.  The non-meat toppings were greasy, which leached into the small bun.  The au jus ruined the sandwich.  It was bad—and like the meat—gray.

Other (fun?) stuff while there

This is fun

And nice that they have these options

I sat next to a guy named Paul who tested Nintendo games professionally and liked dipping his burger into his milk shake.

Summary

This expensive and fancy-sounding dip is greasy and has a grayish-colored, very light-in-flavor au jus for dipping.  The bun is the size of the $3.99 Arby’s dip but for $10 more.   

	Score (0-5)	Comments
Bread	2	Soft, not enough, got greasy.
Meat	1	Gray, medium, lots, beefy, salty.
Au Jus	0	Gray, very little provided, flavorless.
Overall	0	Greasy, Arby's-sized bread, flavorless au jus.

Reason to go back: Fun-ish ambiance, very good steak fries, and dip the fries into the Buzz Sauce if you like spicy!