5 of 5 DeliciScore™ (From Heaven) Awarded to Georgetown Liquor Company for their Vegetarian Dip Sandwich in Seattle, WA on this 14th day of July, 2016 - The Picard - God, it's good!

It was a Friday and I had the day off of work because I had been on call the previous weekend (see the Cowiche French Dip review from my trip to Yakima).  It was a lazy and fun day and I didn't have much going on.  So I figured a French dip would be a good treat.  So I looked on my French Dip To Do List on Foursquare for my next adventure and I found the Georgetown Liquor Piccard.  I had been told about this French dip years ago by my old pal Charlotte who is a food stylist, foodie, cook, artist, etc.  And I knew it was vegetarian but she said it was delicious so I knew I had to hit it up. And I had not had a vegetarian French dip before so this was fascinating and exciting to me.  I was intrigued.

I showed up at Georgetown Liquor at lunchtime on a Friday and there weren't too many people there but I immediately liked the place.  I sat at the bar and enjoyed the company of the bartender.  A few others were there but it wasn't very crowded.  

So here's the menu.  I ordered an IPA while I waited. I asked the waiter (LOL) what beverage paired best with a French dip and he didn't have a good answer.  (Not surprisingly). : )

So there's the Picard, "Lentil Sage Field Roast, roasted red onions, fresh mozzarella, creamy roasted garlic spread, toasted on ciabatta.  Served with vegan au jus.  $10.45.  Pretty intriguing, right?  I was definitely intrigued.

Here's the picture of the plate, served.  The mozzarella is visible.  The jus is dark.  The salad is composed of nice greens.

Again, dark and very good jus.

And this salad, you will note, unfolded into a PLATEFUL of salad, which was a nice treat afterwards.  I ordered the vegan ranch dressing (this place only serves vegetarian stuff, btw, if you hadn't picked up on that nuance yet).

Not too impressive AND blurry image of the expanding salad that was so good.  Note the shaved parm and chunky, skinned cukes!

So I went through two au jus cups. Do you hate me?

Here were my tasting notes so you can get the full effect:

• Small size - yes, small but not terribly small.  Sufficient, we shall say
• Limited jus - this is true but I asked for more and it came right out, piping hot, deliverd by the cook!
• Unique - yes indeed it sure was.  What a fun, interesting, delicious sandwich
• Toasted - yep, good job.  Gotta have it toasted.
• Great taste - Sure it was.
• Quality - Yep, it really was a tasty unit!
• Good bread - Yep
• The sandwich alone had no problems without the jus and was good alone, which is a great sign.  But you have to dip of course.
• Great, peppery jus flavor - I "pre-tasted" the jus (sipped some) to gauge its caliber and was basically delighted.
• Didn't need or want beef/ meat - Yeah, the lentil safe Field Roast was extremely tasty and din't make me feel like I needed real beef.  This is a true statement is that some of the meatless proteins can be soooooooooo good and delicious you'd really never need or want meet again.  Until you have meat again and it's really good.
• Very satisfying and delicious - Yep, thank you Georgetown Liquor for an excellent sandwich. The barkeep said it is indeed their most popular and I can fully understand why.  How great was this thing?!?!
• Smaller size not bothersome - Yeah, I'm over this.  You wouldn't want to overdo it with immensity.
• Onions, basically delicious - Yep, I really enjoy delicious things, like the roasted red onions, it turns out.
• Field roast really tasty, almost meat like - Yep. Good stuff.  Thank you.
• More jus promptly delivered by cook - That was a really nice touch and impressed me.
• Crust on field roast crispy, chewy and delicious, great flavor - Yep
• 5 of 5 across the board. Delicious.  God this was good.
• Good, nice, big salad with fresh greens - Yeah, and this was a huge added benefit.  Note that there's no bleu cheese dressing here but the vegan ranch was extremely good
• Delicious fresh salad with dry, excellent greens, shaved Parmesan, delicious dressing, good cucumber, Cherry tomatoes - God, I need to go back now!!!! : )
• Served in a red plastic basket with checkered paper - Why not?

Summary:

Bread: 5 of 5

"Meat": 4 of 5 - I love that it's not meat and so good.  But it's not meat and can't beat excellent beef so I"m going to pull out the penalty flag here but an excellent use of delicious protein.

Au Jus: 5 of 5 - And done with out meat so that's awesome

Overall: 5 of 5 - Absolutely delicous sandwich and salad at an affordable place at a funky place with friendly people

4 of 5 DeliciScore™ (Great) Awarded to Cowiche Canyon Kitchen & Ice House for their Prime Rib Dip Sandwich in Yakima, WA on this 14th day of July, 2016 - Risky service.

Jessica had some horse-related event in Yakima on Saturday and I was on call that weekend.  I wanted to hang out with her, I like "Eastern" Washington (East of the Cascades), so I tagged along.  The issue was that I was on call and had to be tethered to civilization in case tragedy struck.  We were graciously hosted by Barry Bernfeld, a family friend in Yakima.  We stayed out his house on Friday night, Jessica left early Saturday morning and I was quite bored the next day, wondering what to do with myself.  I had a car that had been loaned to me from Barry, which was a really nice perk.  Around lunch time I had decided I would entertain myself with a French Dip at a place that was ranked quite high in Foursquare.  To be honest, Yakima does not, I repeat does not, have a lot going on there including not too many hoity toity restaurants like a person might see in a major metropolitan area like Seattle.  

It was 90 out that day so a nice little heat spell for me; a little mini-vacation.

So anywho, I showed up at this place and it was really hard to find the door to get into it.  WTH?  So I eventually found the door and walked inside.  It was nice and fancy and modern and such and there were a few people and the vibe was quite good.  

So here's the menu.  Looking fine.

And there's the quite high-priced Prime Rib Dip at $16.50.  "Thinly sliced prime rib, Cowiche roll, served with [note the use of with next to "au", the French word for with] au jus, horseradish sauce and thin-cut fries. 

So I ordered it and waited while I gazed deeply into my flower vase.

And I also studied and enjoyed my ice water.

And I appreciated my person pepper mill and laundered napkin.

Now you might expect at this point that I got somethign good.  But I didn't.  And I am ashamed to say, I do not have photographic evidence of the failure pile.  But here were my notes of it:

• Radishes and Julienned carrot on salad
• Meat is pink 
• Good looking bread
• Lots of horseradish provided 
• Not a lot of jus
• Ok but not huge size
• Jus not streaming
• Sandwich and meat not hot nor toasted much
• Fresh good, unique bread
• High quality meat
• Pre tossed salad
• Complained after eating the first cold half 
• Bitter but fresh greens
• Salad needed salt and pepper, lacked flavor bitter 
• Dowell skewers 

So at this point I was totally dejected and sad.  They brought me out a lukewarm sandwhich that wasn't toasted very well and the jus wasn't hot.  I felt like I was eating a normal roast beef sandwich and was super sad.  And surprised that they would have served it to me.  It clearly had all quality ingredients but it was served cold.  It was some kind of mistake, some kind of mystery.  Why had they given me THAT sandwiches, of all sandwiches?  Please, people, you NEED to pay attention to your quality and not ship shit out of the kitchen.

So anyways, I complained and the brought me a new one:

Looking good now, yeah?  Nice looking jus, nice toasted bread, good looking meat (which by the way was now medium since I complained about the medium rare meat being too cold.  It looks solid and professionally done.

There's the evidence that I ate it all and that they gave me a heavy, professional-grade steak knife for my sandwich, a nice touch.

Here are my tasting notes from the second half of the sandwich (after they had corrected the initial error):

Second jus and sandwich hot and good, near 5 in simplicity and quality
The bread was much better toasted the second time (thank you!)
Meat was served medium and much hotter the second time
Peppery taste
Salad was a 3 for quality but did have really bitter greens and required salt
The plate was plain and boring.  They could have added more flare to it like garnish
The price was quite high, especially in Yakima but it was also high quality and I can understand why they priced it so high because of the high quality ingredients.  $13 could have been better and may sell more.
Once I had wrapped it up, they never did ask if I liked my original meal and didn't clear my plate when I was finished, which I thought was rude.
They did comp me on 1/2 off the sandwich and I tipped well.
The first sandwich that I returned was was white, soft and basically cold (not hot enough)

Summary:

Sandwich Half #1:

Bread: 3 - wasn't toasted sufficiently
Meat: 3 - nice quality but wasn't hot enough
Jus: 3 - good but wasn't hot enough
Overall: 2 - too cold

Sandwich Half #2: (Revised version after I complained about the first)

Bread: 5 - Good local bread, toasted well.  Firm
Meat: 4 - Good prime rib but they made it medium to get it hot
Jus: 4 - good and not, no complaints
Overall: 4 - I can't give it a 5 because I fear their inconsistency

4 of 5 DeliciScore™ (Great) Awarded to Ram Restaurant & Brewery for their French Dip Sandwich in Issaquah, WA on this 21st day of May, 2016 - Piled high with tasty beef.

It was Saturday night and Jessica had worked all day while I worked on preparations for her special-needs horse to arrive at our new rental farm location in Preston, WA.  I was ready to get away from the house so we agreed to meet out.  First we thought Thai food, then we agreed that The Ram sounded like more fun.  So I drove out to meet her and when I got there (after taking a long time to park and parking far, far away) she was sitting at the bar.  Looking quite good, I might say.  Anyways, I sat down and we chatted.  I was feeling a bit under the weather (perhaps a cold brewing, uh oh?) so only drank water although many people seemed to rave about the Amber.  Jessica ordered a sampler of it and I tried it and it was quite good.  But I stuck to water.  We were on our way to a movie (goal was to see the new Russell Crowe movie The Nice Guys) so we didn't have a ton of time.  I'd never had the French dip and had noticed that Brian Ashbach had been getting it recently so I figured I'd get in on that action and give it a whirl.

There it is: French Dip.  Roast beef (sure was) on French baguette with au jus.  (no real frills here) but the do have toppings. $1 Cheese $1 Grilled Onions $2 Roasted Mushrooms.  Although it is my custom to only order "as it is listed by the chef" I went out on a limb here and added Cheese and Mushrooms.  For cheese I was given choices by the waitress (bartender): cheddar, Swiss, etc. but I chose Havarti since it seemed to be the most "far out" and abnormal.  Although I later realized I could have things other than fries, I wasn't asked and was fine that I was expecting fries. 

When the sandwich came out I noticed that it was a bit shy on jus so I immediately asked for more, knowing I would be in jeopardy later on.  The lady was super nice and even asked if I wanted it now or to time it when I was further through the first one and and I said now.  I need to be surrounded by jus.  

So there it is, the sandwich.  You can tell that there is a lot of roast beef on this thing.  And I'm happy it's "classic" thin that way.  And they really piled it high, which was a nice feature.  Yes, it did look a bit gray in color but it was fine / good, perhaps even juicy.  

Very nice, these mushrooms they added.  They were good.  Not great, ravingly awesome mushrooms but really good, delicate and nicely prepared.

So I ate on the sandwich for a while without the jus to know what was going on as a standalone unit.  It was pretty good.  I thought maybe the bread was a bit stale but the sandwich was quite hearty (one half considerably larger than the other) but both were quite big.  The sandwich alone was pretty good.  Lots of meat.  The meat was salty but not bad; what you'd expect in sliced, deli roast beef like that.

And of course at some point you have to go all the way with this thing and take the plunge.  I always get butterflies in my stomach before I do because it could either add or subtract and it can be sooooo risky!  "Will it be hot enough?"  "Will it be good enough?"  "How will it taste differently?"  So many thoughts simply race through ones mind as they stare into the abyss of that jus-y potential.  So I did.  And......it was really good.  Hot.  Salty as it should be and just plain good.  So I ate and ate and ate and dipped and dipped and dipped and enjoyed.  Then I got to the fries and they were good, too.  Jessica helped me with the fries. 

Raw notes: (inside the mind of a French dip genius as he types notes into his phone while consuming a French dip)

• Salty
• Crunchy 
• Possibly stale bread 
• Lots of deli meat thin sliced 
• Mushrooms good 
• Jus good and hot, helps 
• Havarti not really noticeable 
• Generous, big size 
• Overall 4 
• Meat 3 in quality 5 in qty 
• Bread 4-5 because of crunchy toasty 
• Jus 4-5 
• Cheese choices nice 
• Crunchy fries 
• Nice the lady asked when to bring out jus too

Conclusions

4 of 5 Overall -  (pretty good!  Possibly stale/overly crunchy bread and the meat is good but not as thrilling as it could have been.  The $15 price tag is a bit high too, but not far fetched in King County)

3 of 5 Meat - Just lots of deli roast beef

5 of 5 Non-meat toppings - Good options here.  Lots of cheese options.  I didn't feel like onions.  The mushrooms were a really nice, gourmet touch. The Havarti was also fine from a lubricating perspective (the bread was also buttered I could see)

4 of 5 Jus - Really good jus that was hot and plentiful upon request.  It definitely added to the sandwich.

4 of 5 Bread - Good bread that may have been stale but thinking back on it, stale bread may be a good secret for a good French dip to make the jus create a larger benefit when dipped and providing some remaining chewiness post-soak.  

The Ram is a fun place.  It was very lively in there, busy.  Food was pretty good.  It's a fancy, trendy, vibrant, family-friendly sports bar.

http://www.theram.com/locations/wa-issaquah/

HOURS
Sunday – Thursday, 11am – 12am
Friday & Saturday, 11am – 2am

965 N.E. Park Drive
Issaquah, Washington 98029
Tel: (425) 313 – 0415

3 of 5 DeliciScore™ (Good) Awarded to Le Grand Bistro Américain for their Prime Rib Dip Sandwich in Kirkland, WA on this 28th day of March, 2016 - Good service makes a big difference.

Yes, yes, y'all!  I started a new--and my first ever--diet two Saturdays ago.  On this diet, I had to wait eight whole days to eat carbs so I was pretty sure that this French dip would be really good or a major let-down.   

We were at Le Grand Bistro Americain, an upper-end bistro type of place at Carillon Point in South Kirkland with views out to Lake Washington.  It was Sunday brunch, I was with Jessica, and we were celebrating some friends' birthdays.  Probably 12 others joined our so we had a good time.  And I got to eat my favorite meal.  

On arrival, I asked the hostess if they had a French Dip and she said yes.  I felt fortunate.  I was fairly stoked and anticipatory while waiting to be seated, ordering, etc.  It had been eight whole days since carbs or butter.  I was going to eat that and fries.  Yum yum.  

So here's my review.  Pictures are below.  

• Garlicky taste.  The french dip had a definitive garlic taste to it and I don't necessarily mean that as a compliment, just that it was garlicky.  
• Good jus but not enough or hot enough.  The jus that they gave me was in a very small container and had a nice wine taste to it but it was neither enough nor was it hot enough.  I was pleased that the nice (but not warm enough) wine-flavored jus helped a little but again because it wasn't hot nor sufficient enough we had a problem.  
• There is a chance my lack of satisfaction was caused by the cooks trying to feed my large party at once.  Some of the lack of quality in this dip may have been caused by the size of our large party and their need to time the arrival of all things at once but I was still disappointed.  
• Give real horseradish.  The meal came with a side of "horseradish cream" which was no big whoop; I prefer the authentic horseradish.  
• Great crispy fries.  I order fries as a side and they were very good and crispy fries, strongly recommended.  
• Meat.  I was disappointed while ordering the dip that while it was prime rib, I was not able to select the rareness of it.  The meat itself did wind up being quite dry and there were no slabs of prime rib so I wasn't impressed by the meat.  
• Fair size.  The size was okay/pretty good.  
• Pretty good bread.  The bread was nice and toasted but it wasn't to die for.  
• Sandwich not to die for.  The sandwich by itself was only a 3 of 5 at best so I was disappointed there, especially for the $17 price tag.  
• There is hope.  Overall, this French dip scored a 3 of 5 overall and I would not recommend it unless the waiter could guarantee hot and ample jus.  

Summary

Bread 3 of 5
Meat 3 of 5
Jus 4 of 5 but needed to be more and hotter
Overall 3 of 5 expensive, no prime rib wellness selection, not enough or hot enough jus.  Really good fries.  Should be served with (at least an option for) *real* horseradish if they are serious about their prime rib

I went with a glass of champagne, since I could and since there was celebration going on.  It was rainy outside.

Here's the fellow showing us the specials.  Note at the bottom the French Dip for $17.00.  I went with that.

In case you really wanted to see the writing, here's a closer shot.  Note the black trumpet mushrooms that came with the Steelhead.  Next time maybe I'll get that instead.

Here's the French dip (FD), plated.  You can see the horseradish mayo.  The fries were quite delicious (excellent, I might say).  The jus was too small in volume.  The sandwich itself looked good but was served medium to medium-well, which is not really the way to glory.   There were blue-tasseled toothpicks.   

The bread was nicely toasted.  I have no idea why anyone would think that that little jus is justified.  I paid $17.  I should get more jus.  I like jus.

Enjoy

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!

3 of 5 DeliciScore™ (Good) Awarded to Varsity Inn for their Burger Dip Sandwich in Seattle, WA on this 27th day of December, 2015 - Chuckwagon Dip

I started a new job in late September and hadn't yet been out to lunch with my new boss, Peter.  I was looking forward to the lunch (with some apprehension) but in general I was excited for it.  We settled on the Varsity Inn, which is a very American breakfast and lunch place within a block of our office building in Seattle.  We walked up to the place--if I recall, it was raining--and entered the restaurant.  It was lunchtime and not too full.  It was a classic American, booth-style place.

I had recently had a French dip in Pete's presence and had told him about my French dip review hobby so I figured it would be fun to do a review over our first lunch.  He doesn't seem like much of a foodie so I'm not sure just how enamored he is with my hobby, but I didn't care and I wanted a French dip.

I was impressed that when I went to order, they had an entire section on their menu for "Dip Sandwiches".  They had a classic French dip, a BBQ Chicken Dip, and the Dagwood Dip, which was  a burger dip with Swiss.

The Chuckwagon Dip: 2 burgers with swiss cheese on a French roll, served with au jus, & choice of tossed salad, soup or fries

I ordered the Chuckwagon dip because I was feeling like it and I really like burger dips with Swiss.  Kidd Valley has one that is notably good.  Burger dip with Swiss, really is a category unto itself.  With my dip, I ordered a side salad with bleu cheese.

Plated, the dip was a true classic.  The cheese was processed and a bit too creamy but overall good.

Bread: 3 - classic bread, buttered and toasted
Meat: 3 - Decent beef and a good quantity
Jus: 3 - Good enough jus
Non-meat topping: 2 - processed Swiss cheese isn't my thing and it definitely degrades the value of the sandwich
Overall: 3 of 5 - It's a hearty big sandwich that is good enough and comes with a salad, all for a price under 10.  I probably won't be going back for this sandwich in particular but it's good enough in a pinch or if you are Jonesin' for beef, salty jus and creamy cheese.

Another quick note: the salad with Bleu cheese wasn't all that great.  Maybe just get the fries next time.

5 of 5 DeliciScore™ (From Heaven) Awarded to The Fremont Dock for their Prime Rib Dip Sandwich in Seattle, WA on this 30th day of November, 2015 - These people put some love into their Prime Rib Dip.

I went out to lunch today with some coworkers at a place called The Dock which is really near our office in Fremont.  I typically work out of our Kirkland office but find myself in Seattle at least weekly where I can get to know the crew over there.  The purpose of our lunch out today was to welcome two new hires to the company: Mimi from Austin, TX and Todd from Vancouver BC.  We made nice chit-chat with them and welcomed them hartily to the company.  We got to learn about each of their commutes, more about their stays and training plans, and Todd's history as a long-haul trucker turned data boss. (He's driven in all 50 states except Hawaii and all Canadian provinces.)  Internally, I felt happy to see that new people are getting added to our group and I would therefore not be "the new guy" for too much longer.

The Dock is a neighborhood bar and grill in Fremont that's really close to our offices there.  I'd been twice before (it's impossible to resist going there, since it's so close and the food is reliably good).  Our boss Peter today referred to it as our cafeteria, jokingly.  There were five in our party and we arrived before 11 so there was no crowd.  I had to run to the restroom when we arrived and I was pleased that it smelled like bleach and/or Clorox, a sign of cleanly freshness.

We were greeted by a friendly waitress and promptly offered cold ice waters.  Another quick point of note is that A1 Steak Sauce lives on the table, which pleases me, innately.

When it came time to order I said I'd have "the French dip" (I wanted to be all nonchalant about it but was immediately called out by Mike who knows of my blog and hobby doing this).  I intentionally didn't call it the Prime Rib dip since that sounded pretty highfalutin for a company lunch even though it is just a sandwich.  Mike made me share about my hobby with the rest of the table and encouraged me to take pictures, too.  I was embarrassed of my hobby but that was fine.

Here's The Dock from the outside.  I lifted this picture off of Google Images.  My apologies, Internet and its citizens.

More internet robbery, their logo.

Thank you, The Dock website for this graphic.

So here's there dips on the menu.  Note they have two.  I ordered the Prime Rib French but only said out loud that I would like the French Dip since that seemed safer than getting something too "all high and mighty".  Note the thinly sliced herb roasted prime rib (I'm not sure that they cut it fresh, though so the meat gets a 4 of 5).  Aged Swiss was nice.  And French baguette.  They weren't messing around with the bread, it was great. 

Here it is served.  Note i had already added A1 Steaksauce for my fries and I was excited about that.  The sandwich itself is a very generous portion with delicious and beautiful bread.  Jus comes in the standard jus cup.  Fries were plentiful.  Everything looked really good.  I was immediately impressed.  Perhaps not as fancy or as refined as a Ruth's Chris dip but this thing was looking pretty good, especially from the bread.

A closer shot of the sandwich proper.

And an even closer shot of the sandwiches innerds.  They're looking prettty good.  Not too much cheese.  The cheese was a really nice compliment and the bread was nicely toasted and buttered as it should be.

Here's the jus.  I let it get a bit cold since I started with my fries but it was good at a 3 of 5.

Overall this dip scores a 5 of 5 for the quality of its bread which is toasted and buttered, good meat, fancy cheese and a good jus.  Nothing wrong with this dip.  Hopefully it is a staple in the diets of the Fremontians.

• Bread 5 of 5
• Meat 4 of 5 (could have been sliced there and offered medium rare as is done at Wedgwood Broiler)
• Non-Meat Toppings 5 of 5 (they didn't go overboard here and offered a fancy, fine cheese that complimented the sandwich)
• Sandwich itself 5 of 5 (not blow your socks off delicious but really solid; what a French dip should be with good bread, buttery, good meat and a nice, edible sandwich)
• Jus 4 of 5 (wasn't overly blown out but was plenty good)
• Portion 5 of 5 (really nice portion.  Big but not huge, definitely a meal)
• Overall 5 of 5 (really good execution and special kudos for good cheese and care in their bread and meat.  Consider fancying up your meat just a little bit more and giving your customers an option of how done do they want it but I can see how that could get trick and wasteful perhaps.)