Anthony's on Pier 66

I am SUPER unhappy with the Blogger app at the moment... I had beautiful pictures of this meal and they have completely disappeared.  :-(  Same with several other restaurants we have been too recently.  I was going to update the blog and now I'm just in a bad mood.

For now I'll simply say that if you plan to go to Anthony's, you must get the crab and corn chowder.  And take me with you when you do.  I love that soup.  Love.  The food is great.  The soup is divine.  Just remember to add salt.

Roy's in Anaheim

Welcome to Roy's!  Well, Roy's in Anaheim.  The Critic and I have been looking forward to this meal for 3 years.  3 years ago we went on a Disney vacation and stayed less than a block from this Roy's, but didn't realize it was the same ROY'S we went to in Kauai for our 10 year anniversary trip.  We ate at that restaurant twice, ordering the same food both times... that's how much we loved it.  If that doesn't mean anything to you, you don't know us very well.

So fast forward to this surprise Disney trip we had for The Guys and it was a given we were eating at Roy's in Anaheim.  Yes, it's outside of the park.  No, it's not that far.  We all hiked the mile or so to get there and probably did less walking than we did inside the Disney parks.  And we still had plenty of time to ride all our favorite rides before the park closed (I think we left at 11:00 pm, but oh well, it's vacation, right?).

The food was good.  Not as amazing as we remembered from Kauai, but still delicious and all-in-all we are super happy we got to return.  I will say the highlight for this was the treatment of The Guys.  When I made the reservation online, I knew they would be going the extra mile for them.  From chopstick pals to personalized desserts, they did not disappoint.  Which makes sense, given the ridiculously expensive kids meal price!  Oh well, again, it's vacation, right?

To start the meal, we had edamame.  This was an experience with the good and the bad.  The bad?  It was overcooked.  As one who makes edamame at home often (we had it last night for dinner in fact) I do not understand this.  I think you have to really try to make soggy edamame.  And if you're using this as your "free bread", you'd think it would be pretty easy to get this perfect.  Oh well.  The good was that rather than just having sea salt on it, they sprinkled on this mix of red chile, sugar, and salt.  And it was GOOD!  The Critic is looking forward to experimenting to make his own at home.  On properly cooked edamame, no less.

Next up was The Canoe.  I have absolutely no pictures of The Canoe because that's just how fast it disappeared.  The Canoe is a sampling of about 5 different appetizers... ours included some sushi (which we both surprisingly enjoyed), lobster pot stickers, some braised short ribs, spring rolls, grilled shrimp... I don't remember but it was delicious and gone in a heartbeat.  My honest favorite part of The Canoe was listening to a lady ordering for the table at a business dinner she was clearly hosting say "I took the liberty of ordering 3 "Ko-Nae-Hoes" for the table.  Seriously?  That made me LAUGH!

Now for the main dishes.  Here is The Critic's dish... butterfish.  Let me tell you, he wins!  We always have that unwritten contest in a restaurant... who makes the best choice.  This was kind of like cheating, however, because this is the dish we know and love from our Kauai trip.  If you go to Roy's, get the butterfish.  Always.

Next up, my dish.  Meh.  I got the mixed seafood grill or something similar.  It included a scallop, a lobster tail, a shrimp, and a crab cake.  Underneath it was a risotto that had macadamia nuts in it I think... here's the deal.  The scallop was AMAZING!  I love scallops.  I love them best when they are cooked right, and this certainly was.  Best thing about it was that they asked me how I wanted it cooked!  How crazy is that?  They wanted to know if I wanted it cooked "rare" or "cooked through".  I informed her I wanted it cooked "correctly".  She did not disappoint.  It was delicious.  The shrimp was okay... but we'd already had a couple of those on our Ko-Nae-Hoe (still laughing!).  So I wasn't too amazed.  Same with the lobster tail.  It wasn't pulled out of the shell and needed something to dip it in (such as, oh, butter...).  It was fine, but not amazing.  Then the crab cake.  Sigh.  I tried a couple bites and didn't love it but couldn't figure out why.  You know why?  They had mushrooms in it.  Mushrooms!  I don't get it... well, and I won't get it again.  And that's the same with risotto.  Sigh.  Why can't people just put that on the menu???  Nothing saddens me more than expecting one thing and getting one of the two foods I really don't like.  It's kind of like they are trying to sneak them in to see if I still don't like them.  Guess what?  I don't.  Oh well.  That scallop was (almost) good enough to make up for the disappointment.

 

Check out this awesome kid's plate!  This was the salmon.  How great does that look?  I love when a kid's menu item doesn't dumb down to the younger people.  The salmon was good too.  This was FIT's plate, but truth be told The Big Guy ate most of it.  In the background you see The Big Guy's plain pasta.  Sigh.  Can't teach an old 6-year-old boy new tricks, can you?  I'm working on it!

 

Last up dessert.  The Critic and I split a delicious chocolate souffle.  Picture?  Nope... again.  There is a direct correlation between our hunger level and picture taking for sure.  But I did get a picture of the personalized dessert place each of The Guys got.  In chocolate sauce, just below where the picture ends, they had their names written in chocolate sauce!  My friend said "It's like dessert for little foodies!" and it totally was.  The Guys were super impressed and so were we... which, as we all know, is the point.  

In N Out

Surprise!  We totally surprised The Guys with a trip to Disneyland in Anaheim California.  After a plane ride we all needed a "snack", just a couple hours from our dinner at Goofy's Kitchen at the resort.  Since that is a buffet, we certainly wanted to go hungry... but not as hungry as we were.  So our "snack" was our first taste of an In and Out Burger.  And guess what?  Surprise surprise... I'm not a fan.  Too greasy, and what is up with the raw onions???  They had delicious looking chopped up grilled ones... what are they for?  One of the great mysteries of life to be sure, and one which I'm not likely to answer anytime soon.  In and Out Burger, I'm choosing Out.

Pad See Yummy

In what is becoming a fun trend... FIT and I have a date and he chooses Fairwood Thai. Poor Critic is with The Big Guy... At Shari's. With the promise of Old Country Buffet before a night of skiing. Clearly I win in this scenario... Sorry Dear!

Boo Jay's :-(

Decided to go to BJ's tonight with the family (well, I should also add we ate lunch at McDonald's but that is hardly worth its own entry, right?).  We had a ton of errands to run and got some AWESOME deals on some gear and some shoes, so in the end it was worth it.  I finally decided that going to BJ's was the best choice because they have their super awesome chardonnay chicken pasta which should really be called heart-attack-on-a-plate based on the fat and calorie content.  I think they took the world's healthiest ingredients, including grilled shrimp, and added in about a pound of butter, 2 cups of heavy whipping cream, and straight bacon fat.  Anyway, that type of deliciousness can be rationalized when I split it with the shrimp, bacon, and pasta loving FIT right?  Wrong.  They don't have it on the menu anymore.  Devastation, except now I'll just find a blog that has the recipe (or something close to it), Pin it on Pinterest, and then make it myself (hopefully in a healthier version?). 

So instead FIT and I split cajun shrimp pasta, which we had them do grilled shrimp rather than blackened.  The end result is a "meh".  The Critic was super happy with his dinner (some type of deep dish pizza with meat and mushrooms... the guy was in heaven!).  I would probably have been happier if I had a diet coke to sip on.  Sad day for the Coach Foodie in this house.  Oh well!

Panda Express -- Now Open!

There is a new Panda Express near our house that is now open.  The FIT loves the place.  I'm not such a fan... first, the dishes are usually heavy and fried with sweet sticky sauces.  Second, their rice is really terrible... I don't want their white rice, their fried rice, or their chow mein.  Even their steamed veggies look questionable (though I'm sure that's what I'll get next time).  What I really need to do is bypass the overly sweet sticky sauce lure and go straight for the healthy option next time.  Resist the urge to think it's good!  Anyway, this is the Bejing beef which was good, mildly spicy, and way to sweet and heavy for me.  Thankfully FIT ate most of this.   I think he liked it better than his own orange chicken.

Panera for Lunch Bunch

No pictures on this... too much to juggle!  I am in a division of the international non-profit organization known as MOMS Club.  It stands for Moms Offering Moms Support and the idea is fun activities that stay-at-home moms (or working moms with some free time during the day) can do with their kids and meet other adults and not go absolutely batty.  One of our group's draws when I joined was called "The Empty Nesters".  These oh so lucky moms didn't truly have an empty nest... their kids were in school during the days, giving them the rare treat of being able to attend a coffee date or a lunch date with other ladies without needing to dice up someone's chicken or retrieve a sippy cup from the floor.  Color me jealous when I joined when my children were nearly hatched and 1.9 years of age!  Fast forward a couple years when I was serving on the board with this group.  Another foodie friend and I proposed an idea of going to "real" restaurants with the kids... things that didn't start with a Mc and end with a Donald's, specifically.  We wanted to help encourage our youngsters about ideas like how to sit at a table and eat your food, how to order without getting shy, and how to eat something that didn't start with Mc and end with Nuggets.  We thought there were so many places around that offer good, healthy choices in a kid-friendly environment that didn't also come with a play area.  Enter "Lunch Bunch".  Based on schedules for schools, my attendance at these has been lacking lately, so I was quite grateful that the chance to go to Panera with this group came up.  I enjoyed my typical... Chai Tea Latte (which actually came in a real coffee mug... this is slightly divine in my world!), Take Two option of mac and cheese and the BBQ Chicken Cobb salad.  Yu-um.  FIT got a PB&J, fruit cup, and cookie.  Delish little lunch with good friends... both his and mine.  Thanks, MOMS Club Lunch Bunch!