dave a.'s Profile

Is Mexican Fusion a cuisine?  That's what I would call this place.  Really excellent menu choices and not your typical beans and rice Mexican food.  Not much on Latin atmosphere, as you drive up your headlights illuminate all the customers through the clear glass storefront.  Also, they tend to have some weird hours, close early, or not even open sometimes.  I suppose that happens occasionally with family operations.

What's great is the adults can order surprising but excellent dishes, while the picky kids can still get a bland  quesadilla or chips and salsa.  The other reviewers have pretty much nailed this place - the anti-chain.  I hope they survive.

Pros: Outstanding, cheap, Mexican hybrid dishes.  Not your standard fare

Cons: Nearly unpredictable hours, but worth dropping by just to make sure!

Went here for lunch on a weekday @ about 11:45 and got right in.  I like the spacing of the seating.  There is actually room to feel like you have some relative privacy IF you get a booth.  

Based on the menu and my wife's order, this is another quality restaurant choice in the Tri Cities.  I ordered the Cobb Salad and have to say I was disappointed.  They try to fancy it up somehow, but a Cobb should just be a Cobb - they way you expect all Cobbs to be.  It was decent but chuck full of fresh mushrooms, which might be great if you like mushrooms, but these were the dominant feature of the salad - yuck.  My wife ordered the blackened chicken sandwich which she loved.

Pros: Lots of potential - I need to go back and try something different.

Cons:  Pricey for lunch.  Expect to pay $30+ for two.

Another Tri Cities' surprise, so let's see how long they last.  This is sort of a sushi bar hybrid of several concepts I've seen in my travels.  Several places use a conveyor belt or a floating boat to transport orders along the bar.  This place made the conveyor the feature attraction of the restaurant.  The thing snakes through the entire restaurant space.  The entire menu is cruising along the conveyor in handy color-coded-by-price small plates.  Just grab what you want and they add up your plates at the end.

The first thing you wonder is how long some of those dishes have been circling the entire restaurant.  But then, you taste one of the creations and it melts in your mouth.  I followed my own guidance and set my expectations low, then was pleasantly surprised at how tasty everything I had was.  Portions are small, but also not over-priced like many other places.

The knock for me is the lack of variety.  The name really should be Mizu Roll Sushi, because 90% of the offerings are roll creations.  They are all good, but just know that going in.  That said, we went for lunch and two of us were fully satisfied for about $28.  Subs-n-Jean will run you that much for just one person's lunch - though many times better and more variety by far.

Pros: Good roll sushi at a good price

Cons: Lack of variety, and mystery time on the conveyor...

First of all, the location is wrong on the Yelp map.  The place is actually east of town by half a mile or so, but you can't miss it.  It will be where all the cars and tour buses are parked.

I think this is what happens when the Amish proprietors succeed way beyond their dreams in the retail business.  They go from being "country" to mass market retail.  So, rating this place puts me in a real quandary.

Let me start by stating that this place does in fact make the best fried chicken ever, anywhere, and it is not even close.  Nothing in the deep south or anywhere else can come close to how good the fried chicken is.

BUT, that's where the good ends, and presumably why the lot is full at lunch time and the tour buses are lined up, because the rest of the place is Amish sell-out to mass market retail and your basic all-you-can-eat buffet chain.

I feel a responsibility to recommend Miller's Bread Basket, in of all places South Carolina, for the traditional Amish store/restaurant if that is the experience you are looking for: http://www.yelp.com/bi....

So the 3 stars apply to the fried chicken, which is really 5-star quality, but the rest of the place drags it down.

PROS: Fried chicken is the best in the world

CONS: everything else: Tourist trap, blue hair tour buses, 20 minute wait for lunch on a weekday, who knows on a weekend.

Ditto most of the 3-4 star reviews.  The rating distribution bar chart nails it perfectly.

Basic diner.  Meets diner expectations, but does not blow my socks off.  Just a good tourist town diner.

Wow!  Finally a solid two-star performer.  What is the hype around this chain?  The fish tacos are lame.  They could be great, but are really nothing special unless you like some breaded and deep fried fish tidbits with your tortilla stuffed full of cabbage.

Taco del Mar in Washington State is head and shoulders better than this McDonalds of the fish taco.  Maybe I should have tried something else on the menu?

Once was enough for me.

Having lived in Argentina, I look for these hidden gems around the country.  It may be unfair, but I grade heavily on authenticity, if they are going to feature a specific cuisine like Argentine.  This place nails the atmosphere and does pretty well with the food, too.  

I ordered a couple of appetizer empanadas, the "picante" and the "tuna", which were good, but not great.  Though, I applaud the tuna option, which I had never had before.  I had the Milanesa Neopolitana, which is essentially a veal cutlet that is lightly crusted and pan-fried with ham and mozzarella on top.  Also good and quite authentic.

My server talked me into dessert, which was good, because the options took me back to my days in-country and those amazing single-serving fruit tartas.  I had cherry and it melted in my mouth.

I give them 4.5 stars, but had to round down to 4.  I want to give places like this 5 stars, but in this case the round-down to 4 comes because the empanadas are not authentic.  They are very good, but not what you would be offered at cafes in Buenos Aires.  I would not discount the 5-star reviews offered by others, though, and I will return whenever again in the area - for sure.  Riquisima! Show owner comment »

I am in Denver on business 1-2 times a year and choose sushi if something close looks promising.  For comparison, I've eaten at Banzai Sushi, which is definitely in the next tier up from this place.  Check my other sushi place reviews for my credentials.

Land-o-sushi gets a solid 2.5 stars, but I need to round up or down and choose up because of the spicy tuna roll that comes with the chef special.  They nail that one.  Otherwise I was unimpressed, as the nigiri pieces were small compared to peer establishments.

Another plus, though negated by small piece size is the happy hour $1 a la carte pricing per piece - which may contribute to the reduced size of the pieces.

I can't find the logic in the 4 and 5 star reviews at all.  Not even close.  This place is your basic strip mall sushi place that knows how to make a great spicy tuna roll, but otherwise gets a C-.  They do take AMEX.

This tiny little mom and pop café on Canyon Rd in Provo is indeed a hidden gem of Chilean/Chileno authenticity.  Real aficionados of South American cuisine know that only city slickers bake their empanadas. Real down-home empanadas are deep fried, just like they do it at Pantrucas.

We came here on a Friday night in the 6pm hour and got one of the 5 tables in the place.  Though they cater to dine-in customers, they must do a lot more take out business to keep afloat financially.

I used to live in Argentina and knew what to expect, but the surprise was that my wife and mother-in-law, who are much less into experimenting with other cuisines, also found choices that worked for them including beef empanadas and rotisserie chicken.  I ordered 2 choripans and a beef empanada.  Choripan is nothing more than a beef sausage on french bread complimented with chimichurri, a mildly spicy relish. In South America, these are sold by street vendors like at a hot dog stand in the US.  In all, this quite satisfying order set me back just $11, making a very reasonable dinner.

The husband/wife team have been making it work since coming to the US 11 years ago.  Everything is authentic Chileno which means it also passes for Argentine and Uruguayan. Did I mention they make alfajores also?

This is a truly authentic little café that provides a slice of real southern South American specialties that are hard to find anywhere in this country, and the owners run the place.  I will come back anytime I'm in Provo.

I've been meaning to update this for some time.  Over the last 4 years, this place has morphed into a take-out place with seating and clueless wait staff.  I still think they make great sushi and I think the original chef still runs the kitchen, but it just is not the same as it was after it first opened.  Average.  Subs 'n Jean is the better place now.