David "Soccer Dad" F.'s Profile

Went on a Friday for a meeting / happy hour.  I only had beer.  Irish Hound has beer.  Beer is good.  Ergo, Irish Hound is good.  The service was attentive and the atmosphere friendly.  A little noisy and a bit far from the old suburbia homestead, but I would recommend it to someone looking for a casual hang-out.

My wife and I were introduced to this place by another couple and REALLY enjoyed it.  We went on a Saturday night and the place was busy, but not over flowing.  I guess it's sort of a family affair with the host / husband and Shelly / head chef / wife running the place.  Their operation is a little eccentric in terms of their limited hours of operation, but the food was superb.

I don't recall that well what I had (veal maybe?), but it doesn't really matter because:
1) the menu changes constantly so chances are the next time you go you can't have what you had the last time (a good thing! be adventurous!) and
2) between the four of us we had four different entrees and everyone loved what they ordered.

The service was good, the prices fair, the quality high.  But this is not the kind of place you can dash-in / dash-out on your way to something else.  If you go, plan to spend a couple hours and enjoy the bustle of the dining room and open kitchen. It's very much the restaurant experience one enjoys when in Europe, but jammed into an old gas station building in Arvada.

P.S. My wife also went to one of the cooking classes Shelly puts on.  She had a good time, learned some stuff, came home full and brought me a doggie box of leftovers.  Groovy.

We eat here EVERY TIME we go to Omaha to see my wife's family because her dad loves the place, the menu is typically expansive and the prices are rock bottom.  This restaurant will never win any "best of" awards (even in Omaha), but you can cheaply feed a small army.  Last time I had Shanghai Noodles that sort of tasted like SpaghettiOs.  The Sesame Chicken isn't bad and the Hot n' Sour Soup is actually pretty good.  Normally, I try something different every time, eat way too much and end up laying on the floor when we get home in some sort of fat n' carb induced pseudo-coma.  Good times, good times.

I've been here twice for lunch and both times had a pretty good experience (not sure if dinner is different).  The service was speedy, the food tasty and the veggies very fresh... jalapenos, big fat bean sprouts, basil.  Vaguely healthy which is a nice alternative when you stand in front of this restaurant and look at the alternatives around the area for a quick bite (Good Times, Burger King, KFC, Pizza Hut / Wing Street).  I had noodles both times so I can't say much about the breadth of the menu.

We visited on a Saturday evening and found it to be a nicely bustling place.  Grandma joined us for dinner and is a Pad Thai aficionado that walked away satisfied.  My wife tried out the Chicken Peanut Curry (?).  I had Thai Curry Noodles and a couple different sushi items (the sushi was just okay... but I have high standards in this area having lived in the Bay Area). All the portions were large (several take home boxes), hot and pretty tasty, but not outstanding.  

Because of the whole "fusion" thing going on there (i.e. you can get Thai, Japanese, Chinese... even some Vietnamese), the quality suffers a little as there's no real specialization.  Still, the food wasn't bad, the menu has something for everyone (provided everyone at least likes some sort of Asian cuisine), the service pretty good and the prices reasonable: ~$100 w/ tip & drinks for 3 adults and 2 young kids. They also have a bar where you can kick back with a big Sapporo or Kirin and watch the sushi chefs do their thing.

So, my 4 stars rating is a function of relative value vs a score on an absolute scale.  This place felt like a good deal and everyone had fun.

Re: the comments of other reviewers on the location, personally, I think the Bradburn neighborhood is kind of charming.  I don't live there, but I imagine it offers a little urban lifestyle with suburban convenience.  Mostly we like to go to the restaurants for a change of pace from other local spots like FlatIron Crossing when we're not in the mood to drive to Denver or Boulder.

3 Margaritas is a local chain and they seem to be all over the place: their website lists 13 locations with 2 more on the way.  This is our local outlet and we probably visit once a month.  There's always debate if the food is Tex-Mex vs Mex, but I think they straddle the line: try finding Molcajete on the menu at Hacienda Colorado.  Their menu is massive thus you "assume jack of all trades / master of none", but don't be fooled as they do many, many dishes very well.  The portions are ginormous, prices reasonable, service always friendly and swift (especially if you have kids in the party).  My kids LOVE going on mariachi night.  After all these years, we've had most everything on the menu... some of our family's favorites:
* A staple: Chicken Fajitas
* A simple dish: Puerco Azado
* A sampler: Enchiladas Divorciadas
* A taste of Old Mexico: Pollo Poblano
* A certain grandma's favorite: Expresso Burrito
* A risk of cholesterol poisoning (but worth it): Pollo Fundido
* A death defying dish: Pancho Villa Plate (more jalapenos than anything else)

We wandered in to this place at 5.30pm on a Sunday night and found it nearly empty.  By 6.30pm, the place was packed.  It has an interesting interior with half a Jeep in a corner and bunch of stuff like kayaks, hang gliders and tents hanging off the ceiling.  All seemed to be sponsored by a local back country outfitting business of some sort, but it was charming despite the blatant commercialism.  The portions and prices were both reasonable: dinner was about $50 for two adults, two kids. We started with a basket of pretty tasty Beer-Battered Onion Rings, which I followed with the Ortega Jack Burger (could have used more green chiles on it). My wife had the Brewery's Fish Tacos.  Both were decent, in particular the veggie chili that came with the tacos was very tasty. I also enjoyed a pint of Scorpion Pale Ale as well as their amber Derailleur Ale, each was quite respectable.  While this place isn't haute cuisine, we enjoyed it.  Call it a good, safe bet.

In the culinary wasteland that lies alongside America's rural interstate highways, it is nigh on impossible to find a restaurant that's: a) fast, b) reasonably priced, c) not part of the burgeropoly and d) offers food that won't dramatically decrease your life span.  Hidden in the Fina gas station on the north side of town is Santa Fe Grill.  This eatery shares the interior of the building with a micro-Subway and the typical quik mart, but these others are no match for the Grill.  Santa Fe Grill offers a wide range of custom burritos, but we didn't have time to hang around so we snapped up a couple pre-made burritos to go and throughly enjoyed them.  They were not overwhelmed with rice or a myriad of fringe ingredients like certified organic guac or free range goat milk sour cream.  Instead, inside you'll find simple, classic ingredients like frijoles refritos, pork, potatos and the local green chile peppers.  These packets of goodness are then grilled to toast the tortilla.  While I wouldn't recommend you go to Hatch specifically for these burritos, if you find yourself passing through the area for some reason, make sure you give this litte gem a try.

Pancake Haus is just okay.  Despite the "Haus" in the name, there's nothing vaguely German about this place, serving slightly overpriced traditional American-style breakfast: about $40 for two adults, two kids.  More forgettable, then memorable.  Still, the tables were all full on a Sunday morning which tells me it's about the only game in town (we didn't look too hard) or it's the best (gads).

This is a pretty good find right in the middle of town (literally: Main St & Center St... if you know how the streets are laid out across Utah, you'll understand).  The restaurant looks like it sits in what used to be an alley between two other buildings, with some indoor seating and the kitchen in a small building at the end of the alley.  No worries, though, as the outdoor area is covered and has heaters if you're dining in cold weather.  We enjoyed Miguel's on the last night of their 2007 season (they are closed from mid-Nov to mid-Feb).  While the prices were on the high side for Tex-Mex (especially steak dishes), this seems to be a function of a captured market as prices are little expensive all over town: dinner was about $50 for two adults, two kids.  The food, however, was memorable.  My wife had chicken enchiladas with a tasty authentic smoky mole sauce, rather than a sweet sauce like you'll find many other places.  My kids inhaled a chicken taco and chicken enchilada with a tangy green tomatillo sauce.  I had lamb tacos that were tender and came with a range of garnishes.  The refried beans were creamy; the rice flavorful; the grilled jalapenos HOT.  Check out Miguel's during your next warm weather trip to Moab.