Turkey Dip at Pumphouse in Bellevue, WA

I was meeting up for beers with my buddy Dave Niederkrome.  We were talking business.  He knows I'm a French Dip fan, so I indulged in a Turkey Dip from Pumphouse.  I have now had their French Dip, Burger Dip and Turkey Dip, completing the trifecta.  The Turkey Dip is good.  

The sandwich alone was a 4: pretty juicy and pretty good.  It tasted pretty fresh, had a good amount of meat.  The jus was only a 3 that night but it was hot, good and overall it was a 4 above-average. Their salad is great.  It gets a five because of consistency and good blue cheese with nice chunky dressing.

Jus 3 of 5

Meat 4 of 5 plentiful

Non Meat Toppings N/A

Bread 4 good bread, toasted

Overall 4 of 5

5 of 5 DeliciScore™ (From Heaven) Awarded to McMenamins Market Street Pub for their Turkey Dip Sandwich in Portland, OR on this 26th day of November, 2015 -

November 16, 2015

While visiting Portland with a friend of mine, we spent the day exploring and getting stamps on our McMenamin's passports. Our final stop of the day was for lunch at the downtown Portland pub, the Market Street Pub. While I do not share Eric's dedication and enthusiasm for French Dip sandwiches, their Portland Dip sounded like just the thing I wanted on a rainy November day. The menu description sounded promising, and as a general fan of McMenamins restaurants I decided to review this to see if we could redeem them for their lackluster dip Eric and I shared a the new Bothell property. So, without further ado, here goes!

This dip is not a "traditional" dip in that in comes with turkey, instead of beef, but that made it sound that much more appealing to me. The toppings included grilled mushrooms, Swiss chesse, a secret sauce and a garlic jus. As you can appreciate below, the initial presentation was quite pleasing. 

There was a reasonably thick slices of turkey layered among the mushrooms, Swiss cheese and secret sauce which was tasty, and not too plentiful so it didn't overwelm the sandwich. 

Once dipped into the jus, the bread, which was warm, the "right amount" of soft with a gentle golden crust and an absorbent center that soaked up the jus nicely. 

The jus itself was flavorful, served at a nice temperature and there was plenty of it. It had a nicely deep color, moderate fat droplets, and a mild but rich flavor. It didn't have an overwhelming garlic flavor and it was not overly salty, like other jus I have tasted. 

 

The portion size was more than I needed, but probably a good size for most French dip enthusiasts. I chose to finish the green salad  (which was also good) instead of the whole sandwich so I was saddened to leave the remnants behind.They packaged up the rest for me and I finished it up for dinner - as a side note, I had to eat it cold but it was better than I thought it would be!

For someone who is not "into" French Dips, this was a very delicious sandwich that I would happily eat again. It was very tasty, not too heavy, and a perfect warming meal for a cold rainy, pacific northwest day. 

My beverage accompaniment was a selection of McMenamins whiskeys which were all tasty. My personal favorite was the Hogshead whiskey. 

If I had to score this sandwich it would be a 5/5 just because I can't think of anything that would make it better. And probably because a slab of tender beef on a bun isn't what I would normally go after for a meal :)

Bread 4/5

Turkey 4/5

Toppings 5/5

Jus 5/5

In summary, the Market Street Pub fully redeemed the French Dip sandwich with their Portland Dip. I would encourage any French Dip fans who do not require beef on their sandwiches to enjoy this delicious dip. 

5 of 5 DeliciScore™ (From Heaven) Awarded to Tub's Gourmet Subs for their Turkey into BBQ Sandwich in Lynnwood, WA on this 9th day of April, 2015 - The Firecracker (Chicken-Bacon-BBQ Sauce)

I found myself at Tubs Gourmet Subs in Lynnwood, WA on a Saturday with my buddy Brian A.  We were out car shopping (Audi and Nissan that day) and needed to grab some grub.  I searched Foursquare for recommendations nearby and it suggested Tubs and Brian agreed, so we went there.  I'd never been.  I wasn't expecting a French dip extravaganza, but I couldn't help myself.  They have other French-dip and French dip platform-like items on their menu:

Other choices I didn't get that day:
JOKER'S DIP
Mayo, ham, turkey, roast beef, bacon, and cheddar cheese; toasted on a baguette, topped with lettuce and tomato. Served with hot BBQ sauce for dipping.

FRENCH DIP
Roast beef and your choice of cheese; toasted on a buttered baguette. Served with hot au jus.

HOT PEPPER BURGER DIP
Garlic mayo, jalapeños, sautéed onions, housemade black bean patty, fire seasoning, cheddar cheese; toasted on a baguette and served with hot BBQ sauce.

Here's what I ordered--and was happy with:

FIRECRACKER

Garlic mayo, firecracker seasoning, jalapeños, chicken, bacon, and jack cheese; toasted on a baguette, topped with lettuce, tomato and ranch dressing. Served with hot (temperature) BBQ sauce for dipping. 

This is a VERY LARGE sandwich and needs to be for the > $10.00 price tag at a deli sandwich place!

Very good, hearty tomatoes.  The garlic mayo was good.  Good chicken.  Tasty sandwich!!!

Jalepeno, lettuce, good (and lots of) bread

The BBQ sauce for dipping.  Nothing to write home about but it was served hot so this qualifies as a French dip platform sandwich.

The chicken, cheese.

Comments:

Sandwich
The bread was great.
The sandwich alone was a 5 of 5 and then you dip it into BBQ sauce caliente and it is just great.  So flavorful!!!  Tomatoes were good and big.  It was spicy with the jalepenos but not too spicy.  It definitely had a garlicky flavor (which was very good in this case).  There was mayo on in it and Brian thought maybe too much.  -1 point for that but I'm not complaining.  The overall size of the sandwich was HUGE.  It had bacon, lettuce and cheese on it and was doused with some really tasty--and attractive--seasoning salt that added to the flavor.  Lots of sodium here but not a complaint for an FD fan.

Dipping
BBQ sauce was temperature hot and served in Styrofoam, so that was nice.  The BBQ sauce was good and zesty.


The Meat: 5 -- Didn't really think about it, just overall great taste
The Bread: 4 -- Lots and it was good
The Au Jus: 4 -- It was BBQ sauce so I really can't brag on it too much
The Portion: 5 -- Huge
Overall: 5 -- This is a really great sandwich with or without the BBQ sauce for dipping.  Jalepenos and garlic mayo make it great.

4 of 5 DeliciScore™ (Great) Awarded to Wilde Rover for their Turkey Dip Sandwich in Kirkland, WA on this 2nd day of October, 2012 - Turkey Dipper

I was meeting my friend Rob for lunch at the Wilde Rover today.  I decided to enjoy a beer while I was waiting for him to show him.  I had a Newcastle Brown Ale which is good, but it's no Mac & Jack's African Amber, which Rob had when he showed up.  Oh well, a beer's a beer.

They have a lunch menu.  That's nice.

I had thought about Fish and Chips but then I saw the "Weekday Lunch Trio" option, which was pretty nice.  And one of the options was the Turkey Dipper.  I have to have the dipper.  So I asked the waiter what was on or with the dipper and he said that it had cheese and mushrooms on it and a poultry broth that you dipped it into and that it was popular so I was interested in getting it.  I got that and a cup of the Northwest Seafood Chowder.

Here's my Newcastle Brown Ale in a Guinness mug.  I don't really like Guinness (too thick) but I did have it once with Blackcurrant syrup at Fado in Seattle and it was quite good.  (FYI)

This picture might not do it justice but overall I was pretty impressed when this was served.  It was on a shiny, clean, nice plate.  It came with soda bread and my soup looked pretty good.  The sandwich looks kind of small from this angle but it was actually pretty good-sized for being a half size.  The jus impressed me as well.  This may be the first non-beef jus I've even had!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  The meat looked fine and the mushrooms were good, too (mushrooms not overly fancy but good, especially for a mushroom lover like me).

The bread they served it on was very nice; it seemed home made.  It was perfectly absorbent.  The meat was not overly dry like turkey can be, nor was it overly salty or deli-like.  The bread was finished with a dusting of flour, which made it seem fancy and substantial.

The color and flavor of the semi-thick jus was quite good.  It was very fun to be dipping and dunking my sandwich into a non-standard juice.  

The cup of Northwest Seafood Chowder was also quite good.  The cute little baby potatoes in it were excellent and the flavor was very good as well.  It may have been just slightly too salty but I was very pleased with it overall.

You can see that the bread soaked up the jus well and has a nice texture.  The mushrooms were pretty good but could possibly have been made to look better.  The turkey was fine and mild, a good break from beef, beef, beef.

Summary

4 of 5.  This was very good.  It wasn't a 5 because it was just not quite gourmet enough but it was a very excellent, fine sandwich.

Points for: mushrooms, great bread, a healthy serving size for a half, good turkey, non-beef jus, that they went out on a limb with a non-standard dip option that people apparently like, nice lunch options, serving it alongside good soda bread and soft butter.

Negative points for: the mushrooms could have been prettier, thicker, meatier; the turkey could have been more thick or robust; the jus should have been a little hotter but I could have just been talking for too long before I dove into it; the cheese if it was there wasn't really noticeable but it was fine.

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...: ) )