French Dip Review: The Golf Club at Echo Falls, Snohomish, WA

Setting the Stage

Was out golfing with my buddy Ryan.  After our round we stopped at the club house for a bit to eat and a beer.  They had a French dip so I was obliged.

Raw Notes

3, 4 tops
Beef ok 3
Side 🥗 fine
Size okay
Jus just salty, no real beef flavor

Summary

Bread 2.  Non-standard FD bread.

Meat 3.

Non-Meat Toppings 3.  White cheese ok.  Horseradish cream on side ok. 

Jus 2.  Overly salty with not the correct rich and beefy flavor.

Overall 3.  What a person might expect at a golf course.

French Dip Review: Steve's Bar & Grill, Bellevue, WA

The menu.

The French dip.  I added Swiss since the waitress recommended it.  She also said that they have Prime Rib on Wednesdays, so Thursdays they have a Prime Rib Dip.  I asked if diners could select the "doneness" of the Prime Rib and she said no.  That's okay but not preferred.  You can't get a 5 on a Prime Rib dip, most likely, unless the diner can select doneness.

I got a side salad with Bleu Cheese dressing.  More on that later.

I drank a beer.  Bud Light because I'm classy and high society like that.

Some regulars.

The French dip.  Good meat qty.  Good looking bread.  Orange-frilled wood skewers.  Not a ton of jus and it was orinally only luke (Skywalker).  The swiss was nice and seemed like quality although not overly flavorful.

I was generally pleased with this sandwich.  It gets a 4.

The side salad gets a 3 of 5 because it had good ingredients and dressing but the lettuce was unevenly cut and too wet.

The Review

• Narrative
• So I go out to Steve's where I'd never been on a lark. I was meeting up with my friend there. We were going to go to Daman's, which I like, but Steve's had much higher reviews and was nearby so I went for it. Steve's is a dive bar which I really do enjoy, especially in town like Bellevue that can be so pretentious. The service was pretty good. I ordered a couple of beers while I waited for Kailey to show. And decided that I'd order the French dip. (I was reminded that it was on my French dip to do list.) Eric Veal on July 21, 2017 "@kronny on Reddit says that the French dip is good, served on garlic bread. And strong drinks."

• Bellevue
• So we was in the Overlake area of Bellevue. It was a snow day and cold out!

• Steve's
• Overheard some people who looked like regulars making some racist comments which was somewhat alarming in 2019. But it's nice in some ways to be taken back in time and live like the wild people do.

• French Dip
  • Jus
    • Jus luke, sent back, came back piping hot
    • Au Jus good but only OK not too flavorful or salty
  • Plate
    • Plain white plate
  • Sandwich
    • Bread
      • Bread great, white and buttered, nicely Toasted
      • Skewers
        • Orange frilled toothpicks
    • Meat
      • Roast beef food and plentiful
    • Non-Meat Topping
      • Swiss cheese nice addition
      • Bread was buttered and toasted
  • Sides
    • Salad
      • Dressing
        • Chunky Bleu cheese
      • Black Olives in salad, tomatoes, good croutons
    • Pickle
      • Good long pickle
  • Rating
    • Overall 4, bread 4, beef 4, cheese 4, jus 3

Prime Rib Dip at Issaquah Cafe, Issaquah, WA Awarded 2 of 5 DeliciScore™ (Not great) 6th of May, 2017 - Small size and lackluster cheese spoil a good opportunity

Setting the Stage

It was Saturday and I had been out hiking near North Bend.  I did the Twin Falls trail and it was pretty good.  The morning started foggy and rainy but by lunchtime it was sunny.  I tried going to Dough Zone, a new dumpling place, in Issaquah but the wait was over 15 minutes and I was impatient.  I was going to a meeting and didn't have the time to wait.  I knew I could go next door to Issaquah Cafe and sit at the bar, which I did.  It was the second day in a row I had had a French dip.  The one from the day prior at Lockstep was only okay but passable.  I was hopeful and expecting that Issaquah Cafe would do a good job.  Foursquare even had a review of someone who called their French dip "yum yum" so my hopes were high.  I have been accustomed to thinking of Issaquah Cafe and the related restaurants as good.  I think I even had this French dip in their Bothell location.

Tasting Notes

• I ordered a side salad with Bleu Cheese (as is the norm with me) and it came out right away.  It was a much fresher salad (chilled lettuce and place) than Lockstop the previous day.  It had a little cherry tomato, fresh and cold carrot stick and was otherwise good and enjoyable.  Good job on the salad, Issaquah Cafe.
• The salad dressing was served in cold aluminum cup, which I thought was also a night, even cute, touch.
• I give the salad a 4 of 5 for its fresh taste, coldness, speed of delivery and good croutons.
• I sat by a friendly mother of college-aged kids and we struck up a conversation about dining room tables. Ha.
• When I ordered the prime rib dip, it came by default with cheddar cheese which should perhaps give us immediate pause.  Who would put cheddar cheese on prime rib?  Also, there was no option for selecting the 'doneness' of the prime rib, which is also usually a sign of "meat" but not freshly sliced meat.  
• When the meal was served, it was clearly a small size, so that alone was not impressive or fun.   
• The meat was unimpressive.  One of the pictures above makes it look like there was a lot of meat in this sandwich but there really wasn't.
• I give this sandwich a 2 overall.  It was not tasty as a standalone sandwich and also didn't really blow your mind when dipped.
• There were visible bits of stuff in jus, which I think makes it seem nice and fancy and the jus as a standalone feature gets a 3 or 4.
• The sandwich was served with pickle chips, which I like. 
• They had a nice little feature was that one half of the sandwich had a green-frilled skewer and the other half had a blue-frilled skewer.  Go Seahawks!  But this didn't make the sandwich taste or seem any better.
• The cheddar cheese was melted and "embedded" with the rest of the meat and I did not find it to be additive or complementary. 
• Their burger dip comes with grilled onions.  Maybe this needed those again.  I wasn't a fan.

Conclusions

• Meat 2 - Not that great of prime rib, also not much of it, also no choice of done-ness.
• Bread 3 - Small size, toasted and buttered but just not impressed.
• Non-meat toppings 2 - Cheddar cheese that was not additive.
• Jus 4 - Visible bits but it alone could not save the lackluster sandwich.
• Overall 2 - Sorry to score this so low but I was not happy or impressed.  The cheddar cheese didn't make it much better and the jus, although good, was not good enough to bring the mediocre sandwich to the promise land.

"The Dip" French Dip Sandwich at Issaquah, WA's Chicago Pastrami Awarded a 5 of 5 DeliciScore™ (Great) on this 16th day of March, 2017 - A temperature hot delight

Raw Tasting Notes

1. The restaurant location is clean inside and smells good.  It smelled a little bit like Indian food to me but it was a pleasing food smell. 
2. The sandwich was expensive at $12 for the sandwich only and I found the sides to be quite pricy as well.   
3. I was not given a choice of cheese type but I was okay with that.  I later came to find out it was Swiss cheese and it was very good and very complimentary, very well melted and mixed in with the beef.
4. I got the sandwich only with a can of Diet Dr. Pepper, which was good and cold. 
5. The reason I was down there was that my wife didn't want to stay and "watch me eat a sandwich", so she went grocery shopping while I participated in my hobby.  Thanks, Jessica!
6. The location is downtown old town Issaquah and easy to find although I must say I had never previously noticed it and the place had been open for years. 
7. The sandwich alone is a 4-5 score for its size, good beef and really nice, temperature hot flavor. 
8. There was tons of beef on this thing; very impressed with the size and amount of beef. 
9. The darkly caramelized onions were also very good and complimentary. 5 to the non-meat toppings. 
10. The au jus was scalding hot like I had never experienced.  Molten lava hot but also very good.  5 of 5.
11. The sandwich was not greasy at all even with the cheese in there. 
12. The sandwich was indeed quite salty but I don't want to take points away from it for this issue.  The flavor really was nice.
13. The bread was very absorbent bread and since the jus was soooo hot, it kind of was hard to eat but hot food is not a problem unto itself, that is the problem of the eater.  The hotter, the better for most things, I say. 
14. The sandwich had a great, unique and delicious flavor. 

Also while there

I asked a couple of guys who sat near me if the Reuben sandwiches they ordered were any good and the guy said, "this jew approves", which must have been a very good sign.

Summary

Meat 5 of 5 for its crispiness and amount.
Non-Meat Toppings 5 of 5 for adding something really good to the sandwich.
Bread 4 of 5.  All you needed, nothing overly special but good enough and complimentary.
Jus 5 of 5.  Peppery, temperature hot, delicious.
Overall 5 of 5.  A really great sandwich with a really big portion.  Temperature hot, peppery, good cheese, great jus, salty delight.