Aug 07

Chopan Kabob

9105 Bruceville Rd

Elk Grove, CA 95758

Rating: ★★★★☆ 

In search for something different to eat, we stumbled upon Chopan Kabob to try out some Afghan cuisine. We arrived shortly after their opening time, and there was already someone picking up a to-go order. We were directed to take a seat at any table, and then a gentleman provided us with menus. The restaurant is in the dining room, so you can see the staff prepare the meal from the comfort of your table.

Today, we decided to order a half order of bolani, chicken kabob, and tikka kabob. We were glad to have ordered the half order of the bolani because a full order would be way too much. The bolani tasted delicious and was filled with potato and chive flavors. The bolani went very well with the white yogurt. Each piece was freshly prepared and was steaming hot. The chicken kabob came with an ample amount of rice and veggies. The chicken was tender and had a lot of spices on it. The outside of the chicken tasted like a lot of flavorful dry rub and well with the basmati rice. The rice was fresh and soft, which went well with the meat. Just like the chicken kabob, the tikka kabob came with the same rice and veggies, but the beef was sliced and extremely tender. The beef was delicious and had the same seasonings as the chicken, but the seasoning tasted even better on the beef.

Overall, Chopan Kabob serves up some delicious tasting Afghan food. The tables were lined with plastic tablecloth, which gets annoying because it gets sticky on your legs. On one piece of the bolani, we did find a fine fiber, which may have come from a cleaning sponge, but we just avoided that piece. Price is decent for the quantity and quality of food received. Given another chance, I would come back to Chopan Kabob and recommend it to others.

Aug 03

My Thai Basil

8785 Center Pkwy

Sacramento, CA 95823

Rating: ★★☆☆☆ 

Located in a busy plaza, My Thai Basil serves up various Thai dishes at reasonable prices. When we entered the restaurant on the weekday evening, there were no customers in the restaurant. There was one table that still had the previous customer’s dishes on them, but other than that, only the server/hostess was the only other person in the dining room. After being seated, we received our menus and ordered our drinks.

Today, we decided to order the chicken satay, spicy eggplant with pork, kapoon noodle with chicken, and pad Thai with chicken. The chicken satay arrived first. The four pieces of chicken were tender and came deliciously seasoned. The accompanying peanut sauce was delicious and smooth, which well with the chicken. The spicy eggplant with pork had a delicious sauce that was moderately spicy. The sauce went well with the meat and rice. The kapoon noodle was a lot thicker than expected and was not really a soup. The flavors were OK, but you could not taste much of the curry flavor. The noodle did have ample amounts of meat though. The pad Thai was extremely sweet and sticky. The flavor was overpowering and not appetizing. There was an adequate amount of meat, but it was very hard to eat with the noodles.

Overall, My Thai Basil was very inconsistent with their food quality. This may explain why there were no other customers coming in to eat. With that said, some dishes like the spicy eggplant with pork were actually really good, but definitely stay away from the pad Thai. If you are planning on watching a movie at the theater in the same plaza and want Thai food, then you can settle with this restaurant. Otherwise, you will find much better tasting Thai food elsewhere.

Jul 31

The Dumpling House – Davis, CA

129 E St

Davis, CA 95616

Rating: ★★★☆☆ 

Located right next to Sophia’s Thai Kitchen, The Dumpling House serves up several homemade dumplings with various fillings and flavors. As you enter the small eatery, you notice several tables available and a few staff available to assist you. Once we were seated, a server took our drink order. The menu is pretty simple and inexpensive on the front side, but when you turn it over, you have access to additional fish and chips.

Today, we decided to try the pork & vegetable pan-fried dumplings, steamed kimchi pork dumplings, and pork & vegetable wontons. Each order came with 12 dumplings, so we quickly realized we ordered too much, oh well. We were provided with a plate and a container of dipping sauce. The sauce was both savory and sweet, which went well with all of the dumplings. The pork & vegetable dumplings came first. Each dumpling had a great pan sear on its sides and came filled with fresh pork and vegetables. The dumpling wrapper was quite thick, so each dumpling felt quite heavy. The kimchi pork dumplings had a spice to each bite, but you cannot really taste any kimchi inside the dumpling. The steamed wrapper was still quite thick, so you really felt like you were eating some very thick dough. The wontons came with a much thinner wrapper, but the filling tasted similar to the regular pork & vegetable dumpling. A peanut-based sauce came with the wontons, but it was not tasty. I rather dip the wontons in the regular savory sauce instead.

Overall, The Dumpling House serves up some good dumplings, but the wrappers are way too thick. Also, we were seated near the door and mail drop, so I constantly had hot air blow over me. If you feel like dumplings and want to eat something simple and filling, then these dumplings will do the trick. If the wrapper becomes too much, you can remove them and just eat the meat.

Jul 27

Ettore’s European Bakery & Cafe

2376 Fair Oaks Blvd

Sacramento, CA 95825

Rating: ★★★★☆ 

Located in a small busy plaza off of Fair Oaks Boulevard, Ettore’s serves up delectable European desserts while serving other guests at the full service restaurant. Today, I entered the shop in search of cakes. As you enter, the bakery is to the right and the restaurant is to the left. You wait in line to be helped by staff. After a short wait, staff acknowledged me and took my order.

Today, I decided to try the fruit basket, strawberry white chocolate mousse, and Napoleon cakes. The fruit basket tasted fresh with its strawberries, but the cream was a bit sweet. The cake itself held up well without being too dense or dry. The strawberry white chocolate mousse cake was delicious and refreshing with subtle sweetness. The strawberry on top was quite sour though. The Napoleon slice had some pretty hard puff pastry, but was very creamy. There were bits of strawberry in the cream, which made the filling taste even more delicious.

Overall, Ettore’s serves up some delicious tasting and looking cakes, but are a bit on the pricey side coming in at around $4 a small slice. You really do get what you pay for in terms of quality and presentation. Given another chance, I would definitely drop by again to try their other bakery items. If you want some fancy dessert, then it makes sense to head over to Ettore’s.

Jul 24

Blue House Korean BBQ

1030 Howe Ave

Sacramento, CA 95825

Rating: ★★★★☆ 

Located on busy Howe Avenue, Blue House Korean BBQ brings in an alternative to the ever-popular Oz Korean BBQ here in town. With an ample amount of parking spaces in their parking lot, Blue House draws in meat lovers to the newly opened, newly renovated space with an abundance of food choices. We had a short wait for our party as the restaurant was not completely packed, but was close to capacity. After we were seated, the hostess provided menus while our server came to take our drink orders. The hostess did mention that if we needed to call our server, there was a button on the wall that we could press to page the server, which actually came in handy. The menu has both individual Korean menu items like BiBimBap, but also has two choices for all you can eat. The first all you can eat menu has fifteen different items on it in addition to the 4 shared appetizers. If you opt to spend $7 more per person, you can get 6 additional meat options. Today, we opted for the standard $25 per person all you can eat option.

We received the four different sharable appetizers along with our banchan (side dishes). The soft tofu soup was spicy and came with various seafood inside, which was a great value, but we didn’t really want to drink seafood soup at the time. The soybean paste soup was flavorful, but extremely savory. The steamed egg was delicious and fluffy. We ended up ordering a refill of the egg during the meal as well. The japchae was delicious and savory. The rest of the side dishes were only OK. We were not a fan of the salad. The sprouts were dry, but the broccoli tasted good. Portions were fairly small for the sides, but they do provide refills. We were seated at an electric grill, which felt like it cooked fairly unevenly. We would have preferred a gas grill that was available at some of the other tables not in the center of the restaurant. The premium black angus brisket cooked quickly, but was not very tender. The brisket we tried at GEN Korean BBQ in San Jose melted in your mouth. This brisket was more tough. The thin cut pork belly crisped up pretty easily on the grill and tasted good with their house dipping sauce. We attempted to try the signature pork cheek, but it was too crunchy and chewy. The miso pork belly came in thick slices and took a while to cook. The Pork was tasty, but you do not taste much miso flavor. The spicy pepper paste pork has pork bulgogi sauce on pork belly. The pork tasted delicious and the spicy pepper paste went perfectly with the pork. The marinated pork belly tasted savory and delicious. The cajun chicken was surprisingly delicious and tender. The chicken came in large slabs and retained its cajun seasoning during cooking. The LA galbi had deliciously marinated beef, but many of the pieces came with large bones. The bulgogi was pleasantly seasoned and came in large sheets of tender beef. Unlike Oz, this beef holds up a lot better and tastes delicious.

Overall, Blue House Korean BBQ serves up a large variety of Korean food at reasonable prices. The all you can eat does cost more than Oz, but there is a much larger selection. Given the mostly delicious food we tried on this visit, we will definitely revisit this restaurant in the future to try out their other authentic Korean dishes as well as try their more expensive all you can eat option. If you love meat,  love Korean BBQ, and don’t want to drive out to San Jose, give Blue House a try!

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