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)!

4 of 5 DeliciScore™ (Great) Awarded to Ram Restaurant & Brewery for their French Dip Sandwich in Issaquah, WA on this 21st day of May, 2016 - Piled high with tasty beef.

It was Saturday night and Jessica had worked all day while I worked on preparations for her special-needs horse to arrive at our new rental farm location in Preston, WA.  I was ready to get away from the house so we agreed to meet out.  First we thought Thai food, then we agreed that The Ram sounded like more fun.  So I drove out to meet her and when I got there (after taking a long time to park and parking far, far away) she was sitting at the bar.  Looking quite good, I might say.  Anyways, I sat down and we chatted.  I was feeling a bit under the weather (perhaps a cold brewing, uh oh?) so only drank water although many people seemed to rave about the Amber.  Jessica ordered a sampler of it and I tried it and it was quite good.  But I stuck to water.  We were on our way to a movie (goal was to see the new Russell Crowe movie The Nice Guys) so we didn't have a ton of time.  I'd never had the French dip and had noticed that Brian Ashbach had been getting it recently so I figured I'd get in on that action and give it a whirl.

There it is: French Dip.  Roast beef (sure was) on French baguette with au jus.  (no real frills here) but the do have toppings. $1 Cheese $1 Grilled Onions $2 Roasted Mushrooms.  Although it is my custom to only order "as it is listed by the chef" I went out on a limb here and added Cheese and Mushrooms.  For cheese I was given choices by the waitress (bartender): cheddar, Swiss, etc. but I chose Havarti since it seemed to be the most "far out" and abnormal.  Although I later realized I could have things other than fries, I wasn't asked and was fine that I was expecting fries. 

When the sandwich came out I noticed that it was a bit shy on jus so I immediately asked for more, knowing I would be in jeopardy later on.  The lady was super nice and even asked if I wanted it now or to time it when I was further through the first one and and I said now.  I need to be surrounded by jus.  

So there it is, the sandwich.  You can tell that there is a lot of roast beef on this thing.  And I'm happy it's "classic" thin that way.  And they really piled it high, which was a nice feature.  Yes, it did look a bit gray in color but it was fine / good, perhaps even juicy.  

Very nice, these mushrooms they added.  They were good.  Not great, ravingly awesome mushrooms but really good, delicate and nicely prepared.

So I ate on the sandwich for a while without the jus to know what was going on as a standalone unit.  It was pretty good.  I thought maybe the bread was a bit stale but the sandwich was quite hearty (one half considerably larger than the other) but both were quite big.  The sandwich alone was pretty good.  Lots of meat.  The meat was salty but not bad; what you'd expect in sliced, deli roast beef like that.

And of course at some point you have to go all the way with this thing and take the plunge.  I always get butterflies in my stomach before I do because it could either add or subtract and it can be sooooo risky!  "Will it be hot enough?"  "Will it be good enough?"  "How will it taste differently?"  So many thoughts simply race through ones mind as they stare into the abyss of that jus-y potential.  So I did.  And......it was really good.  Hot.  Salty as it should be and just plain good.  So I ate and ate and ate and dipped and dipped and dipped and enjoyed.  Then I got to the fries and they were good, too.  Jessica helped me with the fries. 

Raw notes: (inside the mind of a French dip genius as he types notes into his phone while consuming a French dip)

• Salty
• Crunchy 
• Possibly stale bread 
• Lots of deli meat thin sliced 
• Mushrooms good 
• Jus good and hot, helps 
• Havarti not really noticeable 
• Generous, big size 
• Overall 4 
• Meat 3 in quality 5 in qty 
• Bread 4-5 because of crunchy toasty 
• Jus 4-5 
• Cheese choices nice 
• Crunchy fries 
• Nice the lady asked when to bring out jus too

Conclusions

4 of 5 Overall -  (pretty good!  Possibly stale/overly crunchy bread and the meat is good but not as thrilling as it could have been.  The $15 price tag is a bit high too, but not far fetched in King County)

3 of 5 Meat - Just lots of deli roast beef

5 of 5 Non-meat toppings - Good options here.  Lots of cheese options.  I didn't feel like onions.  The mushrooms were a really nice, gourmet touch. The Havarti was also fine from a lubricating perspective (the bread was also buttered I could see)

4 of 5 Jus - Really good jus that was hot and plentiful upon request.  It definitely added to the sandwich.

4 of 5 Bread - Good bread that may have been stale but thinking back on it, stale bread may be a good secret for a good French dip to make the jus create a larger benefit when dipped and providing some remaining chewiness post-soak.  

The Ram is a fun place.  It was very lively in there, busy.  Food was pretty good.  It's a fancy, trendy, vibrant, family-friendly sports bar.

http://www.theram.com/locations/wa-issaquah/

HOURS
Sunday – Thursday, 11am – 12am
Friday & Saturday, 11am – 2am

965 N.E. Park Drive
Issaquah, Washington 98029
Tel: (425) 313 – 0415

4 of 5 DeliciScore™ (Great) Awarded to Delicatus for their French Dip Sandwich in Seattle, WA on this 16th day of July, 2015 - Don't overdo it.

After a fairly disappointing French dip yesterday, I wanted to give it another go in my Pioneer Square region of Seattle near work.  I'd studied online and looked at my list of French dips in the backlog and selected Delicatus.  I'd never been there before and thoroughly enjoyed my experience.

Delicatus is in the heart of Pioneer Square on 1st Ave.  I was impressed when I walked in: it was busy, looked cool and had a good, bustling vibe.  I was standing in line to order when the sandwich maker asked me what I wanted.  I answered, "The Chief Stealth Bomber", and it was on.  He told me to have a seat and the sandwich would be right out.  I found an empty table and was rapidly greeted by a server, who gave me water and then brought me a diet soda that I ordered.  I later came to find out that the soda was Dry Soda, another local Seattle staple, also located in Pioneer Square.

As I sat and waited for my French dip, I studied the art on the walls and people around me.  It was a very vibrant place and they have very large canvases of the cuts of beef, pork, and lamb.  I thought it was a nice touch.  My sandwich was delivered after not too long and I was pleasantly surprised by its appearance.

It was plated nearly open-faced, with hinge, and visible, wide-sliced dark caramelized onions on top of nice looking pink meat that was indeed roast beef.  The bread was a classic French roll nicely toasted.  The roast beef wound up being very nice and was peppery albeit not juicy like a good prime rib could be.  There was a lot of roast beef.  I couldn't see the cheese or horseradish mayo at first but discovered it later.  What is roast beef, btw?  Is roast beef necessarily brined or is that just roast beef cold cuts?

At first I just ate the sandwich to see how it was.  It was good.  It was not a buttery sandwich and instead had quite a bit of mayonnaise-heavy horseradish on it.  The sharp provolone was not prevalent.  During the course of my meal I only noticed the cheese's slightly gummy texture once.

The sandwich tasted very good, with a prominent and good onion taste.  The roast beef had a really nice pepper flavor.  The horseradish mayo was indeed good but it wasn't something that I really like; I'd rather control my own horseradish and I'd rather have it delivered in pure form rather than as a cream.  That said, dipping the pretty horseradish and onion-forward sandwich into the jus helped and made the whole experience a good one.  There was too much mayo for my taste and that made the sandwich seem heavier than necessary.

I liked the presentation of the sandwich: although served open-faced, when in hand, it folded perfectly onto itself and was an ideal size.

The jus (initially in particular) was salty, good and hot.  It made the sandwich better overall and neutralized the horseradish.  But over time, there was not enough jus and it became a somewhat gray palor caused by the mayo.  So I bottomed out and wasn't getting any jus goodness in the end, which made me sad.  Please serve people enough jus!

The caramelized onions, in my opinion, were the star of this sandwich.

It was a nice portion and served with potato chips that were just fine.

• Bread
• Bread: 4 of 5.  It was the right French bread.  Toasted well.
• Horseradish Mayo: 2 of 5.  I didn't enjoy this, although it was central to the composition of the sandwich.  Less would have been good.  
• Cheese: 3 of 5.  Didn't really play much of a role.  Nice that it was melted sharp provolone...not a common cheese.

• Inner
• Meat: 4 of 5.  Good roast beef, presented nicely and plenty of it. Nice pepper taste.
• Caramelized Onions: 5 of 5.  These were really great, nicely done and very flavorful.

• Jus: 4 of 5.  Good just in the beginning but there wasn't enough in the end.  Didn't have any special properties, per se, (like herbs) but it was good.

• Overall: 4 of 5.  This was a good sandwich and needed less horseradish mayo.

Delicatus is serious about sandwiches and their French dip, The Chief Stealth Bomber, is pretty good.  Fun environment and nice, responsive wait staff.  I'll go back for a good sandwich.

5 of 5 DeliciScore™ (From Heaven) Awarded to Bellevue Brewing Company for their French Dip Sandwich in Bellevue, WA on this 26th day of April, 2014 - Amazing meat, unique and high quality.

Shaky photo of the item on the menu.

Bird's eye view of the meal.  You can tell from here that the jus is too weak / mild / light.

A beautiful sandwich with lots of meat, red onions, a tomato, horseradish.  Most excellent.

Look at all of that good meat.

You can see the well-done, crunchy/crispy, beef from here.

The money shot

Great meat that's crunchy! (in a good way) 5
Light jus 2
Horseradish flavor is good
The meat really is great, even "fun"!
Excellent sandwich overall:  5
The meat really is perfect
This meal is a 5 overall, regardless of the so so (too light) jus
Fantastic sandwich overall

4 of 5 DeliciScore™ (Great) Awarded to Yard House for their French Dip Sandwich in Seattle, WA on this 20th day of December, 2013 - A traditional but good Roast Beef Dip

Yard House is a newer place in downtown Seattle near Westlake Center.  I went there for lunch with coworkers Chris and Brian S. today.  We called our order in.  They said 15-20 minutes and it took 23 minutes.  Tolerable, I suppose.

A picture of the bar at Yard House.  They have many fine beers on tap.  We were not able to imbibe today.

Back left: Jus cup.  Back right: salad with bleu cheese.  Front: ROAST BEEF DIP: swiss on garlic french bread with au jus, horseradish cream (cal 930)  $11.85

You can see from this picture of the jus that it is very "faint".  Weak.  It would be clear soon that it was sub-par jus.  It was only a 1+ or 2 out of 5.  Needs more richness, wasn't hot enough.

Eater's eye view of the jus, sandwich and horseradish cream.  A LOT of (probably too much) plastic was used in this packaging...

Here's the sandwich with cream.  You can tell that the roast beef is very light colored: pink even.  Pretty nice, tender meat.

The sandwich has a good ratio of bread to meat (lots of meat) but good bread, too.  Toasting was good "garlic bread" made it nice.  Slightly chewy.  Cheese was mild but good. The sandwich was pretty delicious on its own.

Rating:

• Bread: 4 of 5.  Good flavor, nice texture.
• Meat: 4 of 5
• Non-Meat Toppings: 3 of 5.  Good cheese
• Salad: 3 of 5.  Some wilted lettuce.  Nice touch of pickled onion on top.  OK bleu cheese.
• Jus: 1+ to 2.  Way too watery, no flavor, not hot enough.
• Non-jus alternate dip option: 4 of 5.  The horseradish cream was rather nice.
• Sandwich: 4 of 5.  Good size, solid flavor.

OVERALL: 4 of 5

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.