Rodney "BurgerJunkies" B.'s Profile

Good food and customer service worth writing about!

Dickey's opened today with a promotion offering a free pulled pork sandwich to the first 100 customers. They opened at 11:00 and I got there about 10:45 and the line was already about 20-30 people deep.

I went with a buddy of mine who is a bbq aficionado originally from Kansas City. When the door opened everyone cheered and the owner and employees came out and started handing out the free sandwich cards. They also talked with the customers and got everyone smiling.

We had the free pulled pork sandwich and we also ordered a 2 meat plate for $10.95. We went with the sliced brisket and ribs. It came with 2 sides and I had the potato salad and the baked potato casserole.

All the employees were engaging, friendly, fun and professional. Even before I tasted the food I was starting to like the place.  One of the stars was just for the fact that they used crushed ice for their soft drinks. What is it about crushed ice that makes it so superior to cubes and those weird oval shapes from your refrigerator?

But I digress...

Overall, the food was very good. The brisket was cooked well and the potato salad had good flavor.

The rib meat  fell off the bone, which I thought was a good thing, but my friend, who I learned today is trained as a BBQ judge, said that technically the ribs should stay on the bone until you pick it up and then easily slide off as you bite it (so the rib meat doesn't fall on the plate leaving you with a bone).  

As long as it tastes good, I'm cool with it and when the owner came around asking how everything was, we said good. We kept talking between ourselves casually about the technical side of BBQ and what gets extra points in competitions and what gets points taken away. Just general foodie table talk.

A little while later one of the representatives from the restaurant came by and said we looked like BBQ'ers and wanted to know our honest opinion.  I said I more of a BBQ eater than a cooker, but my friend will give you the straight dope. My friend talked about how the silverskin should be removed before cooking and they chatted bbq for a bit. Then the owner came back by and wanted to make sure everything was OK.  He seemed really committed to making sure everything was perfect...not just good. They talked about preferences between sliced brisket and chopped and my friend told him about the falling off the bone thing and the silverskin thing, and get this, the owner seemed to actually care!

We were totally OK with our food and both said we would come back again for the brisket, but the owner left and came back by a little with more ribs for us to try! I thought the first ribs were good, but the second ribs were so much better. They didn't fall off the bone, they were cooked better (juicier) and the smoked flavor came through even more than the first batch.

This Dickey's location seems to have a pretty good team behind it. They get 2 stars for the food (I'd really give it 4 stars, but I can only use up so many :), 1 star for the chopped ice, 1 star for the service, and 1 star for having free soft serve ice cream for paying customers. That's just a brilliant idea.

I've been to Ella many times. Each time has generally been better than the last.

Usually, I head there for lunch to try one of their weekly or monthly $15 lunch specials. The burger there was good, but the new chef made it one of the *great* burgers in Sacramento.

I do miss the cauliflower soup, but today I come to you about a different matter.

PSSST. Hey there. Yeah you. Now that I have your attention, might I suggest you make your way to lunch at Ella in Sacramento sometime soon and try their Rustic Lamb Sandwich?

Not sure? Check out the shaved roasted leg of lamb (see my photo for proof). Nice ain't it?! Horseradish dressing is cool and all, but *smoked horesradish dressing* is mo betta.  

Tuck some fries inside and wrap it in a garlic toast and you've got yourself a sandwich you can be proud you ate. Pair it with their basil mint lemonade and you may never leave.

To sum it up, Ella is a great fine dining destination. Perfect for a nice date night or a fun lunch with friends. But the new rustic lamb sandwich on the lunch menu...it's on another level.

I've seen the "coming soon" sign on this place for a few weeks since the old Pho Hua restaurant that used to be here closed.

Today I drove by and they had a new "grand opening" sign, so I swung by, even though I had just had lunch down the street :) I just wanted to take a quick look at their take-out menu for future reference, but I accidentally saw that they had banh mi sandwiches on the menu for $4.50, so I had to give it a try.

They were still getting their phone lines setup, so they didn't have a phone or a connection to process a credit card. Luckily, I had 5 bucks in my pocket. Just enough to pay for their tasty pork bahn mi. They also have chicken and other flavors available.

The sandwich was a good size for the price and the veggies were fresh (although I don't think the carrots were pickled). Nice bites of jalapeño were interspersed with the flavored pork. The baguette used was fresh, but the sandwich was a little dry overall.

This was literally their first few hours open, so I'll definitely cut them some slack. I can see myself coming back for their pho now that I know they also have banh mi on the menu (which the previous place here didn't have).

Maybe the best German Chocolate cake that I've ever had in my whole life. Crazy moist, great icing, the whole package.

Terri, the owner is always very professional and friendly when I go in. The prices are VERY reasonable for the quality of desserts she's serving.

I've also tried the cinnamon rolls (wonderous), carrot cake (had raisins that just wasn't our preference), peanut butter cookies (lovely), and the  red velvet cake (near perfection!)

They also have free wifi and serve coffee (and espressos I think). I'm happy to have a great independent dessert place like this in town.

Just came back from the opening day at this location. I've been to the Citrus Heights and Roseville locations already, and the burger quality was just as juicy and consistent.

If you've never had a Smashburger, it's a must try. Easily one of the best fast food burgers in the area. The meat is fresh and never frozen, they form each patty and cook them to order by literally "smashing" them on the grill to sear the tops and lock in the juices.

On this visit, the fryer was down so the cashiers told us right away that there wouldn't be any fries. After a few grumbles from the opening day crowd, everyone got their orders placed.

Our burgers came out and after taking a few photos for your viewing pleasure, we dug in :) Super juicy, and with the fried egg on top, it was like eating breakfast for lunch!

A few minutes later, the manager and cashier came by offering free fries to every table since they weren't available when the store opened. To me, that's the definition of service. So many places would've just said, "sorry no fries" and that would've been it. It's nice to see the value customer service isn't lost on a chain restaurant.

I hemmed and hawed over whether this should be a 4 star review with a disclaimer about how it should have been 4.5 or a 5 star review. I'm confident on the 5 stars based on my experience this morning.

I actually waited a month after buying my car before writing this review because I wanted to make sure I could give a good overview of my buying and after sale experience.

The initial sales process was pretty seamless. I had been looking for months for just the right minivan. I didn't want to be a minivan guy, but somehow it snuck up on me and I embraced it like a challenge.  I love going on road trips and the extra space that the minivan gave would make sure many more roadtrips would be in our families future. My parents used to have an old 70's chevy van and I have great memories of road trips across states, so I was excited to bring that experience to my own family.

I had setup an alert on the carmax site for a minivan with a navigation system and a rear DVD player. After a few months of alerts and not really being ready to pull the proverbial van trigger, I finally widened my search to 500 miles and found a minvan loaded with every feature I wanted  in Los Angeles (it actually has 2 rear DVD screens. One for each row)

I emailed the Carmax rep on the webpage and the transfer process was quick and painless.

When the car was ready, I called over the phone to start the financing process so we didn't have to sit in the waiting room with our 3 children and Chris the sales consultant called back in a few minutes with the approval.

We drove to the dealership and the entire buying process only took a couple of hours. No bumps or hiccups really. The DVD players were missing remotes (lost in transit) so they ordered them for me.

After I got the car home, we noticed that one of the power door locks didn't work. I called, scheduled a time to bring the car back and they fixed it in one day and lent me a car to use to pick up my kids while they were working on it. No charge. They washed the car and I'm pretty sure they filled it up with gas too.

After a few weeks I noticed the brakes were grinding. After reading a few reviews here, I got worried about a run around, so I posted a question to @carmax on Twitter and they replied with a number to their corporate office to call if I had any problems. The car was *just* over the 30 day Carmax warranty and I didn't want to have to pay for a service that should have been done before they sold me the car.

When I got to the appointment, there was a $41 vehicle diagnostic fee on the estimate and so I called the 800 number to corporate while I was waiting to see what they were going to say about the brakes. I was sure they were going to say they were fine so they didn't have to fix them. Even the first person that took my keys took a brief look while the car was parked and said the "pads don't look worn". The corporate "analyst" was very  nice and said he'd call the service department to make sure it was taken care of, but the service person was calling me back to give me an update before I got off the phone with the corporate office so the guy didn't have a chance to call. The service guy said they found the brake issue and had the part on order. They also found a coolant leak that they were going to fix. They said they'd fix it either under their 30 day warranty or under the manufacturer warranty, but either way, I wouldn't be out of pocket anything.  I called the corporate analyst guy back and said he didn't need to call the shop because they were taking care of everything.  

They got me out of there in time to pick up my daughter from school in the afternoon and this time I'm sure they filled up my car with gas because I went there with the low gas level light on!  No business is perfect.

Every business will mess up from time to time...that's just the nature of people :) We're not perfect. I think they messed up by selling me a car with brakes that weren't 100% and not checking the power door locks.  What matters to me more than mistakes is how a company deals with the issues that come up. Do they try to sweep them under the rug, brush you off, or do they handle the issue head on and wow you with their response. I'm happy to say that Carmax did the latter in my case.

Today was my first time trying the Rib Shack after their grand opening about a week ago.

I was a little bummed out to find out they are only accepting cash -- for now, they are supposed to get their credit card setup in about a week -- but I really wanted some BBQ and was excited to have a non-chain place so close with some good ol' fashioned BBQ.

I ordered the tri-tip and a rib tip boat (sandwich). I then drove down the street to Nugget Market to get some cash to pay for my meal.

The rib tips were good, but not amazing. I'm not a big rib fan in general, but I now a good rib when I taste one :) If I had a craving for ribs, I'd probably drive way out to Big Al's BBQ on Grantline.

The tri-tip, on the other hand, was freakin' bananas. Perfectly cooked, perfectly seasoned and the meat had that fresh of the BBQ flavor that you usually get from your back yard grill. They have two BBQ sauce varieties: hot or mild. I went with the hot and it complimented the tri tip like a warm coat in the winter.

I'll be back many times for the tri tip, and I'll probably try a few of their other sides and sammiches down the road.

I've been using Alhambra Mail and Parcel for over 5 years now and I couldn't be happier.

I used to work in the area, so originally I picked them out because they were close. When I moved to the suburbs, I decided to stick with them because they forward my mail to me whenever I request it so I don't have to drive in.  I also like that I can call and talk to the owner and ask what type of mail is in my box to see if there's something important that I've been waiting for.

Since I have my mail forwarded to me, I don't need to go into the store too often, but the times I have gone in, they remember who I am, which box is mine, and always have a kind word for my kids (always a big plus in my book).

I was excited when I heard that this location opened up nearby. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of walking in to place my order instead of calling ahead or ordering online.

They make all their wings to order, so if you walk in, the wait could be up to a half hour as they cook and coat your tasty wings. Since this was a new location, there were a few hiccups taking my order, but things got smoothed out and I got my wings and fries home while they were still hot and fresh.

The Atomic wings lived up to their name. I had to have a glass of milk nearby to eat these!

The Hawaiian wings were OK. The Cajun and BBQ wings were both delicious and I'd get them again.  The french fries were very salty, but had a good flavor and were freshly cut.

I'll definitely be going back to this Wingstop again, but my biggest tip would be to call ahead and place your order over the phone or via their website.  

They do have one of those cool new digital freestyle Coke soda fountains that has like a 100+ drink flavor combinations, so that's worth a trip inside so you can push the buttons and make up crazy drinks :)

Summary: The food was mostly good, the service...not so much.

I've eaten at this BJ's several times since it opened. They have a delicious clam chowder and a great wedge salad.

We decided to stop here for a Mother's Day brunch and were surprised how short the wait time was.  Our party of 5 was seated pretty quickly and we ordered right away.

The Service:

The waitress didn't want to put in my "spicy bloody mary" order in with the bartender since she said "it's comes from a mix and it already comes spicy" (I've had spicy bloody marys there before). They were supposed to be featuring a white berry tini for May (Mother's Day) and when my wife ordered it the waitress said they were "out". When I asked which ingredient was out, she said "it comes premixed, so I'm not sure. I'll ask the manager". Later she came back and said the manager would be coming by to talk to us and that they "found" the ingredients to the white berry tini.

The manager came by and poured the cocktail, but didn't say a word to us. I asked what happened with the berry tini and he said they were out of the monin syrup, but they just got some in.  My wife tasted the drink and it tasted like cough syrup.

My meal came out with less than half the eggs it was supposed to have. I waited for about 10 minutes for the waitress to come by and check us with no luck.  I was pretty surprised by the lackadaisical attitude showed by the waitress and manager. Even when they were made aware of issues, they didn't seem to want to actually engage. Just a quick "I don't know" or waiting for us to ask for an update.

The Food:

The french toast itself was delicious. Crisp on the outside and perfectly cinnamony. My wife loved her salad and my kids ate all of the dishes they ordered (captain crunch crusted french toast sticks, macaroni and cheese, and a grilled cheese sandwich). We ordered pizookies for dessert and they were all great....except for my wife's which was overcooked and hard as a rock (instead of chewy and gooey like the description). Even then, she said the flavor of the pizookie was great, but it was just way overcooked.

By the end of the meal we just had to laugh at how bad the service was and how lackadaisical our waitress (and manager) seemed. I'd probably still go back for the food but I'd order it to go to avoid the service. I think I've spoiled myself by eating at so many of the great  non-chain restaurants here in Sacramento.