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.

4 of 5 DeliciScore™ (Great) Awarded to Philippe The Original for their Wet French Dip Sandwich in Los Angeles, CA on this 11th day of February, 2012 - Home of the French Dip Sandwich

Background
I went to Philippe the Original, which purports to be Home of the French Dip sandwich.  According to Wikipedia, "Two restaurants in Los Angeles have claimed to be the birthplace of the French dip: Cole's Pacific Electric Buffet and Philippe The Original."  Although I really wanted to go to Cole's as well so I could do a head-to-head comparison/showdown, time didn't permit, so I'll have to hit it up next time!!!

Philippe is in LA and we had a great time visiting.  What follows is a mostly photo-based review of the experience, which truly is enjoyable.  I hope you enjoy the slide show and commentary!!!

There she is...from the front driving in.  It's located just short of Chinatown in Los Angeles.  We had great weather; it was mid-seventies down there in early February.  We went the day before Super Bowl XLVI when the New York Giants beat the New England Patriots by a score of 21-17 in Indianapolis.

Here's a closer view of the front of the building.  You can see the Chinatown sign if you look closely.  It's a quaint little place...

Here's more of a beautiful view of the front.  I used my real digital camera, a Panasonic with Lumix lenses, instead of my typical (not very high quality) smartphone camera.  Remember you can click on these images for originally-sized versions!!!

The Philippe sign.  French Dipped Sandwiches.  Classic.  There's a really large parking lot and tons of people appear to descend upon this place.  We went there at lunchtime on Saturday and it was busy!!!

So we walk into the place.  Note the people standing and waiting in line.  You can also see sawdust on the ground...not sure why it's there, but it definitely adds some interesting ambiance!!!  The dining is picnic-table-style places with lots of seating up and downstairs.  You can see the stairs if you look far to the back going up from left to right.  The ordering counter can be seen in the upper right.

Here we are walking into the many long lines.  It's bright with the beer neon signs and has a great, interesting, busy, authentic feel to it.  It's a real experience!!!

Here's a close-up of the sawdust shavings on the floor.  Again, I am not sure why they are there, but they're there...

Here's the view of "standing in line".  There's tons of people and everyone seems anxiously awaiting.  There's lots to look at and it's very good people-watching!!!

The fine-looking back of Jessica's head in the foreground (green sweater), looking at the menus and such as we wait in line.

There's even people lined up going up the stairs (more seating at the top of the stairs).  We decided on our order (we were in a group of four) and Jessica and I opted to wait in line while the other two in our party (Nicole and Jeremy) went upstairs to secure us a table.  Jessica stayed to help me carry the trays for all of us!!

A view of the menus from which you in order, which you see as you stand in line.   In this picture, you can see four Spanish-looking women behind the counter.  Beer on tap, chips, and they're standing in front of a long, refrigerated case where the many side-dishes and desserts live.  Philippe is known for its inexpensive coffee, lemonade, and iced tea.  Jessica said the iced tea was quite good and refreshing.

A picture of some pies that someone ordered.  In reading their reviews on Yelp, the pies are quite popular and enjoyed.  We didn't order pie...maybe next time.

I noticed this guy in a room behind the counter taking fresh bread out of the oven.  

I spotted many jars of their famous (and spicy) mustard among other supplies behind the counter.

The purple jar here is of their pickled eggs, which we ordered and were quite good.  Another famous place in the Long Beach, CA area (south of LA) that has pickled eggs is Joe Jost's.  We didn't go there, but it's recommended as an experience and I believe they have really cheap Pabst Blue Ribbon beer (PBR to the wise).

We've made it up to the counter at this place.  It's exciting; our time has almost come for service from our server.  Note the number of dark-skinned, middle-aged women behind the counter in their same uniform.  It is super cute and looks very professional, authentic, and delicious!!

Okay...now...the important part: ordering!!!  We chose to get 1 beef (double-dipped), 1 pork (double-dipped), 1 lamb (single-dipped), and 1 turkey (single-dipped).  I did not get cheese on any of them, although they offer America, Swiss, Bleu, and Jack for a marginal additional cost.  I asked for "jus on the side", which is NOT offered.  I found this surprising but understood....you will eat it as they intend it to be, not as you want it.  I love this policy!!!!!!!  It turns out that the double-dipped sandwiches were better and tastier, and our favorite was the beef.  The lamb was good, but I didn't think great, the turkey was pretty good but Jessica thought it was bland, and the pork was good but there's nothing of note in  it.  Our "sharing method" was that between four of us, we each got a quarter of each meat-type so we got a taste of all.  Me being so excited to be at Philippe's, I ate 1/2 of the beef one so kind of messed up the agreement...but people understood because I'm obsessed.... : )  We ordered 1 of many of the sides as well to know how they taste.  Oh, and another note, the au jus is ONLY BEEF JUS.  So if you get lamb, you get beef jus...which I think is not optimal at all.  When I open my chain, I will have juses of each type, which will allow me to really dominate the market.  : )

Here's a look into the case at the front of the lines.  The server-woman uses the case to get stuff.  In the case, you can see macaroni salad, brownies, potato salad, cold slaw and really good, really crunchy pickles!!!  You can also see fresh pies sitting on top of the case and some French Dipped Sandwiches sitting on the cutting surface behind.

Here's a shot through the case of my lunch lady cutting my fresh bread.  In the foreground of this picture are ice cream scoops that are used to dish out the mayonaise-based salads (cole slaw, potato, pasta).  The lunch lady hand-makes each sandwich in front of you and DOES NOT touch the money for cleanliness purposes.  Instead, you place your money on a little plate that she brings back to the centralized cashier lady.

Here's a shot of my lady (left side) bringing my money to the centralized cashier lady.  In the foreground is another lunch lady making someone's order.  It's bustling with activity behind the counter and fun to watch, but do not delay because this is an OPERATION and many people are behind you.  Be efficient and know what you need to order!

Okay, here's our four sandwiches (1 pork, 1 beef, 1 turkey, 1 lamb).  They were delicious.  You can see the purple pickled eggs (purple is due to beet juice, FYI), and the very crispy and delicious Claussen-style pickles.  All of the sandwiches are medium sized.  The bread is very fresh and good.  The pre-dipping is fun.  The double-dipping is better and provides more flavor.  The ability to get many types of meat between your sandwiches makes for fun and variety and the option to play with cheese makes it enjoyable as well.

This is a picture of the turkey French Dipped Sandwich on a white paper plate.  The turkey is good (cut fresh by the lunch lady right in front of you) and the bread is really good.

Here's one of the rooms upstairs where you can sit (overflow seating).  It's humble quarters but sufficient and communal: our party of four sat next to another party of four and we shared the spicy mustard.  Oh, a quick comment about the mustard: it's delicious with horseradish/wasabi-style heat.

The table on the right is where we sat.  It's bright in this simple, no flair room.  Get to eatin'!

So of course I had to buy a t-shirt souvenir and wore it proudly.  This was a really fun experience for me and the food's really good.  I give the sandwiches a 4 of 5 points, which is the best that a non-gourmet French Dipped Sandwich can do.  I'll definitely go back and really do feel lucky to have visited (one of) the Mecca of French Dipped Sandwiches.  I have arrived!!!!!!!!!