5 of 5 DeliciScore™ (From Heaven) Awarded to Ruth's Chris Steak House for their Prime Rib Dip Sandwich in Bellevue, WA on this 22nd day of May, 2012 - What a fun and delicious treat on my 35th birthday!

The menu at Ruth's Chris Stakehouse in downtown Bellevue, WA on May 17, 2012.  My birthday!  I was there with my friend Chris Wirkkala on business matters: eating a French dip (one of my favorite things) for my birthday.  I had been looking forward to enjoying this expensive French dip for some time.

There it is: the Prime French Dip: Toasted French bread with au jus and creamy horseradish sauce.  $15.  This was for lunch.  They also gave me REAL horseradish, which made the experience even more enjoyable.

I told them that it was my birthday, so the very kind waitress, NY, brought cute little table-confetti for me.  Awwwwwwww.  How nice of them....

This is what I look like as a blurry version of myself on my 35th birthday.  Wow.  35.  I don't look too old and wrinkly, I don't believe.  : )

Here is the dip served, au jus and a side Caesar salad.  As you can see from the picture, the portion is quite nice.  The beef is thinly sliced; I was able to select medium-rare, which is my preference.  The salad was pretty good.  I had a Heineken with it.  The bun is nicely toasted and they do nearly give you a bowl of au jus (see Adam's recommendation) with it, which is nice.

A close-up of the jus.  It was steaming and has its very own doily.  Chris and I joked about how we should mark points off for it being made of paper rather than hand-knit or something absurd like that...

Here's the horseradish a plenty...On the left is the real-deal, which I (toward the end of my meal) added to my au jus, based on the recommendation of our very kind waiter, Erich.  Erich and I got to talk about our names being similar and he said that he was getting "the last laugh" having a more unique name than mine although growing up with that strange spelling was hard, he said.  The creamy horseradish was good and very light tasting.  I like the *punch* of the real thing although it is nice to have both as options.

The salad close-up.  Grape tomatoes, okay croutons, light Caesar dressing, pretty good lettuce, totally fair portion, nicely thin-sliced Parmesan cheese.  I don't recall being offered pepper.

A close-up of the meat and bread.  You can see that it's pretty rare but don't let that scare you: it was good.  Nicely toasted, quality bread.

Thin-sliced yet plentiful meat.  It was a good, big portion, firing on all cylinders.

Awwwwwwwwwwww.  Thanks, people.  That was really nice of you....and delicious.

Overall
This was a great meal and dining experience.  We had great service.  The music and ambiance were nice.  It was a nice sunny day out.  The French dip was good and exactly what I wanted on my birthday.  After the dinner and dessert I enjoyed a good coffee with plentiful refills.

• Dip :  5 of 5
• Au jus :   4 of 5
• Meat :   4 of 5
• Bread :   5 of 5

This dip is not as good as the Jak's dip and is not as fancy as The Keg dip but the service was really great and the overall dining experience and quality of food is quite high.  The portion is very large as well.

Other

• Salad 4 of 5
• Not being offered pepper -1 
• Horseradish options +1
• Real horseradish +1
• Salad options +1
• *Bowl* of jus +1
• Big size +1
• Great birthday treatment and friendly staff +2

5 of 5 DeliciScore™ (From Heaven) Awarded to Gilbert's Main Street Bagel Deli for their French Dip Sandwich in Bellevue, WA on this 15th day of April, 2012 - Really great and I hear they have varieties, too.

Here's Gilbert's.  It's a nice, expensive little place in old Bellevue on Main.  My aunt and uncle (hey, we're got to get together soon!) live close by.  They serve bagels and sandwiches and have live jazz on the weekends.

It was a very nice, sunny, early Spring day.  I ordered from the line inside but then sat in the great outdoors with  my shades on.  It was glorious.

My seat outside.  Very nice.  Sunny.  Water with orange slices = bonus!!  I took the menu outside to study it and took lots of pictures of it but I won't bore you with it.  Overall, you should go to Gilbert's if you can stomach (no pun) the high prices.

Alright!  Here's my meal served.  You can see the the jus is actually French Onion soup.  And I got a side salad with spinach, a fine cheddar, pears, and almonds!  The bread looks very good and fresh-baked.

Close-up of my salad, which was really great and fresh.  And a bird's-eye view of the jus.

Here's the toasted bread and another close-up of the jus.  It's really good looking.  I added Swiss cheese to my sandwich for free.  It doesn't come by default but I do like Swiss on it: especially if it's free!!!  The jus is delicious and presently making my mouth water!

There's the sandwich (fancy toothpick) and pickle.  I only got a half of a sandwich and it was more than enough with the salad.  It was $14.99, so pricey!!!

The sandwich has caramelized onions on it (which was a surprise) but they were good.  The final bite is taken by loading up a bunch of really great-tasting French onion soup onions on their really good bread!

The good pickle is ridiculously big.  (Note size in comparison to fork.)

Other notes:

The price was high but worth it.  It's quality food!
I only got a half and that was enough.
They have a lot of really good looking soups on their menu:

It was a slow, sunny Friday for lunch.  And it wasn't very crowded but the service was pretty slow.  The food was really good.

Orange slices in water gets bonus points!

They have a very broad, fresh-looking menu

Their sandwiches (I saw several others delivered while I was waiting for mine) are really great looking!

The French dip sandwich, sans jus, was very juicy and delicious with medium rare roast beef and perfect bread.

The sandwich is an easy 5 of 0 to 5.

The jus was thickish and almost even gravy-like but tangy and great.

The spinach side salad was a 4: fresh, simple.  Good cheese almonds, pears.

2 of 5 DeliciScore™ (Not Quite There) Awarded to The Game Neighborhood Grill for their Prime Rib Dip Sandwich in Kirkland, WA on this 15th day of April, 2012 - Not my favorite.

Here we are.  The Game is a sports-bar in a strip mall type of place in the not-so-cute part of Juanita.
Jessica and I were out driving around and had to go somewhere and figured we'd hit this place up.

First, the Onion Fried Green Beans that we had for an appetizer.  They were pretty good.  Pretty tasty.
Fried, yes, but good.

Here they are.  Not terribly fancy but good.  Foursquare people had left a Tip about these so we got them.
They are served on a bed of iceberg (not the best way to present food!!!) and served with a side of
spiced up (Chipotle) ranch.  Jessica and I liked them but they were a fried indulgent thing.

Here's a close-up of what the beans look like.  Again, not the iceberg.  It really takes any hope of these  being fancy
out of the equation but again, we were at a sports-bar so what am I talking about?!

Okay.  Now.  Onto the French Dip.  It's a prime rib dip, even.  And their #1 Seller...so my hopes were high
but I would soon be very disappointed.  "No better around".  What a claim.  They are very wrong in this claim: there are a LOT of better Prime Rib Dips around: The Keg, for example.  I ordered a salad.  I didn't add cheese.

Okay, here it is served: the bread is too white and looks cheap (fancy toothpicks).  It came with a side of real horseradish but this didn't save it for me.  The jus looks a bit low but I'm pretty sure it was enough because the size of the sandwich was pretty small overall.  The salad looks fine from afar but wasn't all that good.

Here's a (blurry) close-up of the salad.  Iceberg again, nothing great here.  Pre-tossed with bleu cheese.

Here's a close-up of the sandwich.  You can see that they're not too generous with the prime rib.  And the bread really does look plain and terrible.  Bread = 2.  Prime rib = 1, probably.

So apparently I did order a backup jus that came rapidly.  I knew from the get-go I'd be doomed with the small amount in jus #1.  Again, look at that unattractive bread!!

A close-up of the jus.  Not steaming.  Probably a 2

Here's what's left of the sandwich.  You can see that the meat was maybe not even medium rare.  It just doesn't look good.

Other notes:

The bread was too soft.  1 of 5.

The jus was not hot enough, not steaming, and tasted non-descript.  2 of 5.

The prime rib meat was okay but too soft and not chewy and was possibly even mushy!!!  2 of 5.

Overall this gets a 2.

It was nice that they had real horseradish.

The side salad was no good.

I wasn't impressed.

4 of 5 DeliciScore™ (Great) Awarded to Ramblin Jacks for their French Dip Sandwich in Olympia, WA on this 15th day of April, 2012 - I miss you, Harbor Wholesale Foods!

Really rainy day in Olympia with my coworker and friend, Liz.  

Here it is: "THE FRENCH DIP.  Alder smoked beef and jack cheese served on a french roll with hales cream stout au jus."

I ordered it with a side of grilled vegetables and good horseradish that I didn't use.  The veggies were pretty good
the overall size of the dip was pretty generous.  It was served with a nice Kosher pickle.  The jus was plentiful.
Note the fancy toothpicks.

Here's a view of the bread and beef.  The beef is well done, probably not very juicy.
The bread is about right for a French dip although may have been overly absorbent.

Here's another view of the beef.  From here it looks a bit dry.

A close-up of the jus (note the oil separated) and grilled vegetables: zucchinis, carrots, onions, peppers.

The good pickle.

Here it is half-eaten.  You can see that I used up a LOT of the jus.  So it was not enough.  But jus is pretty easy
to come by and I've never met a wait person (to this point) that is stingy or slow with supplemental jus.

Overall this is a pretty good dip.  I give it a 4 on the scale of 0 to 5.  The waitress here was really great and she even tried to sell us on dessert (at lunch) really early on.  I took the second half to go.  I didn't really notice the jack cheese.  The bread was a 3 of 5.  The jus, probably a 4+ of 5, and the meat was about a 4 of 5 although a bit dry.  The pickle was good and it was nice to get grilled veggies on the side and real horseradish.

3 of 5 DeliciScore™ (Good) Awarded to Mt. Baker Ski Area for their French Dip Sandwich in Glacier, WA on this 28th day of March, 2012 - Smoked Brisket Sandwich

Meat: 5.  Great, smokey taste, excellent.
Non-Meat Toppings: 5.  Good crispy onions.
Au Jus: 5.  Nice, dark, hot, ample.
Bread: 2.  WTH!  Pretzel bread, not absorbent, circular so you can't dip effectively.  Fail.
Overall Sandwich: 3.

Fix the bun, Baker!!!!  (and I love your mountain)

4 of 5 DeliciScore™ (Great) Awarded to The Pumphouse for their Burger Dip Sandwich in Bellevue, WA on this 28th day of March, 2012 - Always a solid, consistent product in Bellevue.

Le menu.

El Burger dip.  $9.99.  Au Jus.  No cheese.

My view from my bar seat.  That's a Mack & Jack's African Amber on the right.  And yes, it was great.

There it is, served, in classic style from Pump House with a good simple salad and fries.  Fancy toothpicks
ketchup in a tin, good croutons.  Hot, dark au jus.

Here's the burger.  It's good.  Cooked medium well.

A view of the somewhat overly toasted french roll.  It's still good.

Here's the tail-end of my dip.  Just the perfect amount of sandwich to jus.

I really like putting Malt Vinegar on my fries.

Even the salad gets a fancy toothpick.  Bonus points for that!!!

Mack & Jack's African Amber.  It's great.

I really like burger dips.  I might even say that I typically like them better than a roast beef dip....it just depends on the quality of the meat.  The Pump House makes a really solid burger dip.  It's not as good as the Burger Dip from Kidd Valley, but it's still good.

I found the sandwich to be really juicy with good beef.  It is medium-small in size but Jessica thinks that it looks like it has a lot of meat.  It's $10.  There's no cheese or other topings with it so in that way it's a classic.  The au jus was hot and good.  The buns were buttered, which added soemthing.  The au jus was the perfect amount.

Overall, I give this Burger dip a 4.  It has a good beefy flavor and is salty but the au jus is not overly salty.  This meal really hit the spot for me during lunchtime.

The salad has really great lettuce.  The bleu cheese dressing is good and simple, neither thick nor runny.  The overall meal could be a 5:  It's a simple, perfect balanced lunch with the fries and salad.

About the experience in total, I would say that the Pump House is operationally excellent and perfectly consistent in their delivery. This wins big points in my book.

The Kidd Valley burger dip beats the Pump House dip because the Swiss cheese and garlic butter are great.   If you take the meal overall, this is a better meal.

Lemon in water in wide cup is real good.

4 of 5 DeliciScore™ (Great) Awarded to Grand Cru Mixologie Lounge for their French Dip Sandwich in Bellevue, WA on this 5th day of March, 2012 - Meh.

The cover of the menu.  This place is in downtown Bellevue; pretty cute, kind of tucked away in a slower part of Bellevue downtown...

Here's looking out from our SW corner seat at the night street.

There's the French Dip on the menu.  $10.  I got a salad with strawberries for an extra $2.  Odd that there is ABSOLUTELY NO description of what the French Dip is, but it turns out that it's prime rib with provolone on French bread, pressed in the panini press.

Their happy hour menu is pretty good and the place seemed pretty popular on Foursquare.

They have "Wine Flights" which are pretty fun.  I got the White Sampler and enjoyed it.  Jessica had the Bubble Up! and enjoyed it.  We were using a coupon we had received from Restaurant.com.

The view from our table.  It's nice inside, kind of fancy, clean.  The patrons seemed "cool" and happy.  The waitress, Krystal, was very helpful and nice.

There's the French Dip.  You can see the cheese, grill marks, "fancy toothpicks", herbed au jus (think of The Keg), and the nice-looking salad with gourmet greens and strawberries on top.  I am basically pleased with the dip although it is about the size of the Arby's French dip, which is smallish.

A closer (and blurry) look at the sandwich.  Sorry for the bad pic.  You can see the grilled bread and melted cheese.  The meat was a bit too salty but it was good.

The herbed jus, which was very good.  It has oil-sheen to it, which is good and a very nice, delicate flavor.

THE REVIEW


Bread -  Good, semi-soft but not too soft bread, grilled with panini marks.  4 of 5.
Meat - Thin, cold-cut style salty prime rib, not too much of it.  3 of 5.
Non-Meat Toppings - Provolone cheese that didn't add or subtract.  3 of 5.
Au Jus - 5 of 5.  Really good jus, herby, nice.
Overall - 4 of 5.  Nice sandwich, good, too small.  Too salty of prime rib and too thin-cut, reminding me of deli meat.