Jim's Family Restaurant (Sandy)

This weeks outing took us to:

There are a chain of different Jim's around the Salt Lake valley, as well as a couple outside the valley. This small restaurant chain embodies your typical diner experience: breakfast, lunch and dinner available all day. Alas, our numbers were few this time--just four (including myself) were able to attend. Our server was a man by the name of Coter, who did an adequate job of providing service for us. On to the food!!!

Kevin:

   The Tuna Melt Sandwich with Cheese Fries:

One of the difficulties of a tuna melt sandwich, is the tuna salad that different places/people use. Some people add grapes, some celery. In this case, our server let us know what came in their version. It wasn't anything out of the ordinary: tuna, mayonnaise, celery and sweet dill pickles making the bulk of ingredients. With Jim's Tuna Melt I would say that it was better than Johnny Rockets, but most anywhere is better than Johnny Rockets. I could make a better one, but Jim's isn't half bad. Their cheese fries, on the other hand, aren't the worst, but definitely aren't the best. So everything is about average.

Danielle and Julia both got the same thing:

 Strawberry French toast with Eggs

With the exception of Danielle getting bacon and eggs with hers.

 Danielle: Okay, so I got the Strawberry and French toast combo over-easy eggs and bacon. And the bacon was definitely over-cooked; the eggs were fine and the french toast was kind of tasteless and stale. So... nothing really good about it. 

Jules: Danielle took the words right out of my mouth. The french toast itself was kind of dry and tasteless.

And lastly, Allan:

 I got the Triple Play Skillet, which had diced/cubed potatoes, little pieces of sausage and ham, with some bacon mixed in. It also had some diced green bell peppers, diced onions, sliced mushrooms with shredded cheese on top of it and with eggs on top of that (I got mine scrambled). I think overall it tastes pretty good, mostly because I am a fan of a multitude of different flavors, so this hit most of my taste-bud sweet spots. With the Skillet you also have the option of getting either toast or pancakes with butter on top and I decided on the pancakes with (using the "FABulous" voice:) Strawberry's! The pancakes were alright, I say this mostly because I was spoiled with homemade buttermilk pancakes growing up, these ones didn't taste like Bisquick, but like I said, I've had better. 

We did end up getting dessert here as well, I think in large part to our server Cort bringing out a tray of sliced pies they had and basically showcasing them all to us. So, since a couple of them looked pretty good, we decided to indulge.

The Oreo Cream Pie:

 Danielle: So this is the Oreo Cream Pie, it's actually better than I thought it would be--it's really light and fluffy with an Oreo Crust (which always makes a pie better).
Allan: I agree with everything Danielle says and as a testament to how good this was, we both had it devoured in about a minute or two. 

The Chocolate Cream Pie:

Jules: The Oreo one is better, but this one has a whipped pudding texture to it like a chocolate mousse, but not as rich. Maybe that's what it's missing: The richness of a mousse. But the crust can be what makes or breaks a pie, and in this case the crust was really good. So overall it is a pretty good pie, but in a head-to-head contest with the Oreo Pie it would lose.

 So there you have it! The price is what you would expect at a diner (about 7-9 dollars per meal on average). Overall the food experience wasn't outstanding, the skillet and the dessert were probably the most noteworthy (and tasty) items there, so we are going to have to give it a 2 out of 5 tacos dining experience. 

The Break, Daybreak

March 11th, 2014
This weeks visit: The Break

   You will usually hear one of two things about bar food; it's either really good, or there is a reason you need to be drunk to enjoy it. We decided to tackle The Break (located in the strip mall location in daybreak) to taste of it's cuisine. One of their signature food items is their Mac 'n Cheese, which can be modified to include bacon, chicken, or anything your heart may fancy. Four of us got variations of the Mac 'n Cheese and we got the Bleu Cheese Burger and the French Dip Sandwich as well. We also enjoyed the Green Chili Verde Nachos as an appetizer, and Matt is going to start us off with his experience first.
 

Matt Baugh:
 
The Chicken Chili Verde Nachos:
   The Chili Verde Nachos at the break are quite delicious. The Nachos are covered with cheese with jalapenos, diced tomatoes and black olives, and on this same plate is a squarish bowl with the shredded chicken chili verde. You can dip them in it, pour it over the nachos and if wanted to just save some of the chicken verde left over it would go great in a quesadilla. Like I said this is some of the best chili verde I have had yet; there are even some places up on the slopes where you can get some, but this has been a really good treat here.

The Bacon and Bleu Cheese Burger:
   I got the Bacon and Bleu Cheese burger, which comes highly recommended by all the staff here. It's very meaty, but I obviously get it without herb-mayo, because mayonnaise is gross--don't eat mayonnaise, it's gross. They actually do the bleu cheese crumbles melted on the burger--not many places melt the bleu cheese crumbles on the burger. The bacon is crisp, a nice thick-cut. Yup, it's a great burger and it's for $8.50, it's a good deal.

Allan Stokes:

The Mac 'n Cheese:

    I just got chicken with mine, and let me tell you the taste was quite strong at first, not sure what kind of cheeses they used in it, but one or two were quite pungent. The strong flavor was a little off-putting at first, but it kind of grew on you. I feel that people that enjoy blue cheese and strong cheeses in general would probably find this macaroni 'n cheese quite delicious. As for me? I wasn't disappointed. 

What Jules, Colby and Kayrene have to say about it:

Jules: It's really good, obviously homemade; it has a nice creamy sauce.

Colby: It's good, it's good.

And Finally Kevin Newsome:

The French Dip Sandwich:

   It does not come highly recommended by the staff (like the Bacon Bleu cheese burger). It's very plain, and there is nothing really special about it. You could probably find something just as good at Arby's.

  

 There you have it, The Break was a decent dinning experience, we had a helpful waitress, and they have some games of poker going on, as well as a couple of pool tables on the upper floor. It was a great place to visit and try some new foods, but overall we would probably have to give it 3 1/2 tacos out of 5.