My Favorite Barbecue Restaurant

So I am writing this blog post here on Picky Eats as something that I never thought would happen just happened. As I am certain I have mentioned here my favorite barbecue restaurant for many years has been Ribs USA in Burbank, CA. It was about 8 years ago that I first ate at Ribs USA, and since then it has been my favorite place to get barbecue–until today that is. I was at JR’s Barbecue this evening with my good friend and editor Mr. Charlie Wolf, and my father Mr. Richard Green enjoying a nice dinner. I ordered my usual half slab of baby backs ribs with mild sauce but something was different tonight. I don’t know what but after 8 or so years, Ribs USA has been bumped from first place to second place, right behind JR’s Barbecue. Ribs USA is great, but at JR’s you get treated like family. Robert Johnson is the owner and when I walked in the door he instantly recognized me. During my meal I devoured my food, leaving almost no meat on the bone. After the main course it was evident that JR’s was going to be moving to first position. Robert Johnson, the owner, walked over and I told him that for about 8 years Ribs USA held the #1 spot and that his restaurant just changed it. When he heard this he was delighted, to say the least. He took a step back and then took a dramatic bow. After the meal Charlie and I were talking and he said that he thought Ribs USA would have to close before this would ever happen.

Shutting Down

Hello to all!

I’ve decided to stop my food blog. It was nice while it lasted. I will be starting a new blog soon on nerd/geek goings on and reviews for games, products, and events. As I’m a first year college student I have very limited time to keep up this blog. It was more work than I had time for.

FATBURGER La Cienega Boulevard

Fatburger La Cienega

Wow! I love Fatburger already and I am so glad they opened this one here by my house. When I started to write this I was sitting in the restaurant enjoying my meal. As per usual I ordered a Medium Fatburger with cheese and lettuce. It’s funny that I should run into Mr. Don Berchtold here because I met him at the last big Fatburger event I was at, the Cheeseburger Network event at the Santa Monica Blvd location. Now normally I don’t review chain restaurants unless something is special about it. This one most definitely is special! Fatburger in general is a great restaurant but this location feels so homey. The staff are really nice and I feel kind of at home here. The owner is an old acquaintance of mine from Mika Sushi which actually used to be where Fatburger is now. Han owns both the Mika Sushi and Fatburger here. Now, normally the Fatburges are nice but this place just surpassed my expectations. The staff were extremely outgoing and friendly. It could just be the fact that it’s opening day, but I certainly hope it’s not, and that the behaviors of the staff and the atmosphere that those behaviors create remain more or less the same.

Appearance: 2/2 The food looked as one would expect it to look. Like a cheeseburger with lettuce with a bag of fries. Now that’s not to say it didn’t look great, because it did; it simply did not look like anything special.

Flavor and aroma: 5/5 As always, the food was phenomenal! My burger was delicious and the fries were wonderful too. The meat was also very juicy, it seemed better than usual but it could just be the atmosphere and the enjoyment of the evening.

Location and parking: 1/1 It’s an excellent location for this restaraunt because it’s directly on abus route. and it’s right on the corner of 3rd Street and La Cienega Boulevard. But it also gets quite a bit of foot traffic in that general area and it’s the only burger restaurant around as well so they have a geographic monopoly.

Affordability: 1/2, While Fatburger is not a cheap burger restaurant per se, it is a cheap restaurant in general and the quality of the food is amazing so the price balances out a bit.

Service: 2/2, Phenomenal service! They were so friendly and helpful and very warm and welcoming.

11/12

I thoroughly enjoyed my meal and I recommend this Fatburger over the one on Santa Monica Blvd. This one feels a lot homier and welcoming while the other one is just a restaurant. I highly reccomend Fatburger in general as well.

San Gennaro Cafe

San Gennaro Cafe

Tonight’s meal was a small cheese pizza.

Appearance: 2/2, The food looked phenomenal, while there was nothing special about its appearance, it still looked delectable.
Flavor and aroma: 3/5, Now this is some very good Pizza, high quality everything is fresh and made right there. The dough is fresh made daily. It smelled as good as it looked however there was nothing that set this pizza apart from any other pizza.
Location and parking: 1/1, It’s in a very nice location, very nice, and relaxing and the parking is nice.
Affordability: 1/2, this is a high end restaurant so it is a bit pricey of course but the food is definitely worth the price for what I ordered.
Service: 2/2, The service here was phenomenal! I’m old friends with the owner and most of the staff so it’s likely I got some special treatment but even if I wasn’t the service would still be the same.

9/12

Greetings

Hey all, Sam here. I know I haven’t posted anything in a while I’m just kind of busy with school and I have to reconfigure my rating system; I’ll be back though!

JR’s Barbecue

JR’s Barbecue

Wow! It’s been easily 5 or 6 years since I was here last, and the restaurant has only improved! My main course was a half slab of baby back ribs and an order of fries.

Appearance: 2/2, The food looked amazing.

Flavor and aroma: 2/2, Wow, these ribs are phenomenal! I have NEVER had ribs like this before. They are just such a unique flavor. Do not let the fact that they smell like any normal baby back ribs fool you–they are not.

Location and parking: 1/2, While the location is not very hard to access, it isn’t the easiest. If you don’t know where it is you could easily miss it, though the parking is good.

Affordability: 1/2, The food here isn’t outrageously expensive, and for the amount you get I think the prices are reasonable.

Service: 2/2, The service was excellent! The owner Robert was there and he took our order and brought our food. It was a very nice experience as we talked with him during our meal, which made it all the better. When we were ready for dessert I looked at the menu, as did my father, and my friend and editor Charlie Wolf, and being the big fan of Red Velvet I am, I wanted a slice of cake but he recommended the Red Velvet cupcake instead and being that it was his restaurant I took his word. I did not regret it in the slightest. That was the richest Red Velvet I have EVER had.

My overall rating for this great barbecue restaurant and great experience is 8/10.

Philly’s Best Lake Forest

Philly’s Best Lake Forest

I ordered a plain Philly steak with cheese.

Appearance: 2/2, The food looked amazing and delectable and I couldn’t wait to start eating.

Flavor and aroma: 2/2, The food smelled like any old Philly Cheesesteak but the flavor was just phenomenal I don’t know what it was but it tasted so good!

Location and parking: 1/2, This restaurant is a chain, but the location of this one is  “hidden”, as it’s in plain sight but you wouldn’t notice it unless you were looking for it.

Affordability: 2/2 While it doesn’t appear as though the prices are very cheap, the portions are big enough for two servings.

Service: 2/2, The service here was excellent! The guy at the counter was very nice, and we got into a conversation about football. I was in a good mood from the moment we walked in to the moment we walked out.

My overall rating for this great restaurant is 9/10.

Fiddler’s Bistro

Fiddler’s Bistro
I ordered a stack of buttermilk pancakes and a glass of water, nothing too fancy or too plain, just what I wanted. Very filling.

Appearance: 1/2, while everything looked great there was just nothing special about the way my food was presented.

Flavor and aroma: 1/2, everything tasted and smelled great but was a familiar taste, nothing unique.

Location and parking: 2/2, the location is nice and it doesn’t seem like many people would know this place exists and the parking lot is very small, but there is some street parking.

Affordability: 1/2, the prices here are quite fair and the portions are good for the money you pay.

Service: 1/2, the service here was very nice, we were seated the moment we walked in the door and our waitress was very nice we told her we were in a hurry and she rushed our order for us.

6/10

Little Spain Restaurant and Gourmet Market

Little Spain Restaurant and Gourmet Market

This review’s a tad late as I ate here on Saturday night, for a business meeting. Overall it was a good meal, I enjoyed myself and the company was great.

Appearance: 1/2, while everything looked good nothing popped out to me and said WOW! this is unique.
Flavor and aroma: 1/2, While my meal tasted good it mostly consisted of breaded calamari steak strips and French fries. Don’t get me wrong it was a very enjoyable meal.
Location and parking: 2/2, This great little restaurant and gourmet market is located in the farmers market, while parking is not perfect it’s quite a large lot.
Affordability: 2/2, the prices here are actually quite reasonable, and for a party of about six it was quite affordable.
Service: 2/2, The service here was wonderful. The employees were very nice, the chef even came out and talked to us. In fact my editor Mr. Charlie Wolf is programming their website.

8/10

Jan’s restaurant

Wow, what a terrible meal. Our waiter was inattentive and kept walking away from us while we tried to order. I ordered a half sandwich and soup, my soup went to my mother who was joining me and my sandwich was a hot pastrami. It took about 10 minutes for us to even be noticed by our waiter. When we finally were noticed and ordered it took about 35 minutes before we finally got my sandwich the soup was brought out first because my mother was starving.

Appearance: 0/2, the food looked appalling, the pastrami was falling off the bread, it wasn’t put on nicely and it didn’t even look like half a sandwich it looked like a tiny bit of pastrami on bread.
Flavor and aroma: 0/2, didn’t taste very good at all, my “hot” pastrami sandwich was warm and in some parts cold even, I didn’t smell anything that made this meal superb.
Location and parking: 2/2, this is the highest rated part of this review because they have a prime location on beverly blvd and ample parking.
Affordability: 1/2, this is not the cheapest restaurant nor is it the most expensive I have ever eaten at.
Service: -1/2, Wow, this is the absolute WORST rating I have ever given for service at any restaurant, it was so bad that it impacted other parts of the meal. I had to send my food back 3 times before it was even close to right! The 4th time they brought me my food it still wasn’t right but was the closest I was going to get to a correct meal. I am shocked because I have been coming to this restaurant for years and it was never ever this bad.

My overall rating for this horrendous meal is 2/10 stars.