2 of 5 DeliciScore™ (Not Quite There) Awarded to Lee's Brickhouse Pub for their Prime Rib Dip Sandwich in Kirkland, WA on this 10th day of January, 2016 - Open-faced, wet Prime Rib Dip

Setting the stage

I just started helping my friend Leigh with his startup project, FreeMo (for Free Mobile), Leigh and I agreed to meet up at Lee's Brick House (LBH), a newly renovated bar in Juanita Beach, on a Saturday afternoon because Leigh needed food.  I showed up and ordered a Mack & Jack's African Amber beer.  I am on a budget so was not really interested in buying food, plus I'd already had lunch a bit earlier, so I abstained from ordering.  

Leigh and I had been to LBH a few weeks prior and had noted that they offered a French dip.  Sorry, I don't have the description, but this is an open-faced, wet Prime Rib dip.  It sounded fancy and I think it's priced around $15.

We had enjoyed the bar (they have pool tables, it is clean and new-feeling, cozy, modern and dark) the last time 

Leigh ordered the French dip, which caught me off guard.  Had I ever just sat idly by while someone else enjoyed a delicious French dip?  This was new.  I offered the following to Leigh: that I could do something new and review the French dip through him (that he would eat it and I would coach him through the process of reviewing it).  I thought it was funny and he accepted, so that's basically what you see below is pictures that I took of Leigh's food and the commentary (LOL) that Leigh made about his food as he ate it.  Yes, he was gracious enough to share a bite or two with me for verification sake.  And his son, Julian, was there as well, so there is commentary and feedback from him as well.  So this winds up being my first ever three-person review where I am not the primary reviewer (but I do weigh in).  

This was a really fun and cost-efficient way for me to eat and review a French dip.  Enjoy!

The Review

Here's their open-faced, wet french dip, served with fries and a side-sauce.

Here is a close-up of the meat and sandwich.  You can tell that the meat is done medium with no hint of rare.  It did look pretty good and fancy, I must say but just wait.

Here's the jus.  They give you a pretty big quantity and you can see that there are "floating bits" in it, which is good but you can also see through it, which we would later discover is an issue.

Here's their fries.  These were pretty good.

Another pic of their fries.  They are kind of like curly fries.  Kind of fancy.

Here's this side sauce that I originally thought was butter but Leigh liked it and said it was "mustardy" horseradish sauce.  I think it added value and is unique.  It gets points for this.

• Leigh says the sandwich, which is served "wet" is a 3.5 with no jus
• Julian, who had never had a French dip before, tried the sandwich and scored it as a 2.37, which is below the 50% mark (not good)
• Julian scored the jus between a 3.5 and 3.75, which is to say that he liked it.  But I tasted the jus (even drank it) and score it a 1 of 5.  So Julian must really like jus (even when it's not that great), so there is a lot of hope for this boy!
• Leigh said the side sauce of "sweet, mustardy horseradish" was good but I didn't get a point-score out of him.  I originally thought it was butter (it looked to me like butter in the low-light situation).
• I had a bite of the sandwich and gave it a 2 of 5.  It was pretty flavorless and more than anything, I was 100% disappointed with the bread, which I score as a 1.  It disappointed me in that it was soggy "wheat bread" (yes, wheat bread...at least it tasted like it) with SEEDS! (WTF?!?!?!) in it.  NooooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOoooooooo! (Thanks Dan Sims for the ooOOOooO thing...I think its fun and funny).  Why seeds of all things?  (Oh the humanity!)  Since when do I want beef and seeds together?  Not seeds!!!!!!!!!!!!  And as for the jus, I score it as a 1.  It was watery trash. 

So there's my second-hand review of this sandwich.  I'll be sure to try other things on their menu and I hope that they can make their jus richer and get some nice French bread, perhaps with olives baked in.

P.S.  Later that evening, Jessica and I made some really good calzones from Blue Apron that had golden raisins and kale in them.  Yummers!

5 of 5 DeliciScore™ (From Heaven) Awarded to Mr. Beef for their Wet French Dip Sandwich in Chicago, IL on this 14th day of July, 2012 - Mr. Beef in Chicago!

I'd heard about Mr. Beef through Rich Albrecht, a former boss and all around great guy.  I found myself passing through Chicago while on vacation this summer and knew that I had to go to Mr. Beef.  My co-travelers (Jessica and her parents) were good sports and didn't mind having a sandwich.

It was a hot and sunny day and we were on our way to the airport.  Here goes!

Here it is from the outside.  Nothing special but Chicago's a  really cool city.  It was about 90 degrees in the city that day and we were impressed by all of the available and usable waterfront.  (not in front of Mr. Beef but in general).  It's in the heart of Chicago downtown.

A view of the city from in front of Mr. Beef.

The fine guy making my sandwich.  Their menu is impressive yet simple and the place is pretty funny and classic.

Sarcasm gets points for me.  The place is not impressive,  very humble but very famous.

Here's their "Elegant Dining Room" which is really just a long shared table with the Blues Brothers at the far end.  They have video games behind me in the same room.  It makes it feel very fun.  It wasn't very busy there that day but we didn't mind.  The place still felt clean enough and nice.

Here's the video games looking the other way.  It's a really long table.

By default, they make their sandwiches "wet", which means pre-dipped.  I didn't mind.  They also have the option for Sweet, Spicy, or both.  This refers to the peppers that they add to the top of it.  I went with Sweet & Hot because I'm just like that.

Here's what you're working with.  It has really good beef.  The bread is not so sloppy that it's a problem and the peppers are really good.  Overall, it's a great sandwich.

Here it is in its raw form.  You see the green peppers.  It also has celery and carrots on it, which makes it fun.  The size is pretty good.

They have a ton of signed celebrity art on the wall and the place is clearly famous.  Note Andrew Dice Clay.  (I don't mean this sarcastically, but he's the only one I recognize from this smaller pic.)

Sign of Mr. Beef.

The Review

• Bread.  4 of 5.  The bread's good.  Nothing wrong with it.  It absorbs the juice well and didn't get overly sloppy since it was pre-dipped.
• Meat.  4 of 5.  Nothing wrong here.  Good meat.
• Non-Meat Toppings.  5 of 5.  The sweet and hot peppers were really good.  They made the sandwich.  I especially enjoyed the celery and carrot in there!
• Juice.  4 of 5.  Nothing wrong here.  I liked this as a 'wet' sandwich.  It was good.
• Overall sandwich.  5 of 5.  Best wet dip I've had so far.  The peppers made it fun.  It's not gourmet, it's just good!
• Overall Location and Experience.  5 of 5.  This was a really neat place.  A very classic French dip.  

2 of 5 DeliciScore™ (Not Quite There) Awarded to Taste of Chicago for their Wet French Dip Sandwich in Seattle, WA on this 2nd day of January, 2012 - Pre-dipped (wet) Italian Beef

Taste of Chicago from the outside.

Note on the style of this review: I decided to use italics in this review to call out my opinions and commentary.  All commentary and opinion is tagged as italic.


Location: Taste of Chicago, University District, Seattle (on Yelp)

Type of Place: Fast food place serving authentic Chicago-style fare...I am not from Chicago and have been once.  This was recommended by my friend Lisa, who's from Chicago and loves the Italian Beef sandwich served here.

What I ordered: Vienna beef

A poster on the wall dedicated to the Italian Beef sandwich.  ...lots of fanfare for this sandwich here!!!

Another tabletop advertisement for the Italian Beef.  Hot and juicy, I guess that sounds pretty good!!!

Italian Beef Sandwich on the menu: "This savory sandwich comes with marinated beef on a French roll dipped in Au Jus.  Options include: marinara, Giardiniera, sweet peppers, mild peppers, sport peppers, or cheese (thinly shredded mix of white and cheddar).  $8.75

 
Notes on place/vibe:  Has a college vibe, football on tv, definitely casual, not very fancy at all



Notes on ordering:  Exotic toppings for the Italian beef like marinara, "sport peppers", "Giardiniera", etc.
I ordered the sandwich as "how you, the cook, would eat it" since there were so many options.

The getting of and eating of the Dip meal (dip-meal's a new term in the glossary)

The beef as it's served.  You see the carrots and peppers on the right.  It has lots of beef in it.  The beef was okay.

A view of the "medium wet" bun.  Not overly wet so it is a total mess but still wet.  You can see celery if you look at the bottom on the foil.

He told me that he did it "medium wet", which means a single dip of the bread/bun into au jus.  It resulted in a semi-but not overly wet bun.  For me, this was fine but didn't create enough moisture for me.  That's one thing that I really like about DIPPING the dip into the au jus is that *I* can control how much jus I get.  Additionally, having the au jus pre-applied makes it sloppy and I think get colder faster from the jus cooling.

Eating the dip:
Had this pickled mixture called "Giardenero" on it, which made it spicy.  The mixture included pickled celery, carrots, olives, and red pepper and made the sandwhich semi-sweet and semi-spicy.  The guy also included shredded cheese on the sandwich that I did not taste at all.  It came with fries.

Overall: I missed dipping the French dip but I got to have my first-ever "wet" (medium-wet in this case because that's how the cook preferred it) dip.  The peppers made it different and kinda good.  It was too dry for my liking and messy to eat as well.  The fries that it came with were only okay.

	Score (0-5)	Comments
Bread	2	Standard French bread.  Not fancy at all.
Meat	3	It was fine.  Nothing to write home about.
Au Jus	2	Didn't really taste / notice it on this "wet" sandwich.
Overall	2	The giardineira topping was good and made this interesting but not enough.

Reason to go back: I would prefer to the the au jus on the side for dipping and try some of the other interesting toppings for the Italian beef that they provide.