Keothip Restaurant

This is a goodie, I love Thai food;introduced to me by my aunt, who was married to a man who was Thai.

My favorite dish her is Larb, whether it is beef or chicken I don't care it is so good, it is a simple dish to make so if it is bad... that is sad. Now when you go into the Keothip it is smallish and a little dark not overdone. They sit you pretty fast, I am not into thai tea's and things so I can't tell you about that (I'm a pepsi girl). The service is not the fastest or the greatest but they don't abuse you or anything and they bring great food, so that's the compromise. Order ahead if you are in a hurry though or call in for to go if you are on a lunch break.

I order the larb always when I am alone, but about 10 of us went there for a birthday/dinner thing and it was so much fun. The food came family style, which is something that restaurants are really missing out on I think; it was super fun pass this, pass that, hey where did that come from gimme that. They have these things my daughter really likes called shrimp nest basically some kind of noodle wrapped around a shrimp and deep fried mmm mmm. I didn't really like there curry. Chicken Satay was also yummy it had a nice peanut-ty flavor that I really enjoyed. And of course the Larb (Laab) Chicken can I say yummy enough here... it is a bit of citrus, and spicy with some soft and crunchy textures in it. The crunchy is from the toasted, ground rice that is mixed in, all in all my sugesstion is go to this place they are fabulous... and yummy.

Lets Talk Pizza Buffet!

Before I get started Happy Birthday Kim... love ya sister!

I should start off with I loooooove pizza, like I really love pizza. Now I am not a fan of New York Style, I love the cheese, and misc confetti of random toppings slapped together to make a special treat that requires no dishes to wash, really how can you go wrong with that.... I ask you... how?

So Pizza Buffets, you can imagine is mmm mmm good in my eyes, cause you can have as much as you want, and for me that works great. I am a bit of a gluten. My favorite part about pizza buffet is you get salad, and there is no fighting over what pizza to get. So this is a two-fer because it is really important to know about the good, the okay, and the ugly.

The Good: Round Table Pizza

I have been to a couple of them in the valley just to make sure... And let me tell you their pizza is so good, they kick all the kinds of pizza, not just the cheap pizzas, this is where I finally discovered the Maui Zaui, it is a hawaiian style pizza but you can get a choice of sauce. The other sauce choice is a sweet chili sauce (I buy it at the Thai Grocery Store), oh man this is truly good.

It is a good time to try new pizzas and their salad bar is really good, the lettuce is really fresh, and there is so many toppings to choose from, I think I counted 15 or so toppings. I almost forgot about the cheesy breads and cinnamon stick... 2 words Sticky Goodness, by far the best I had ever had, they are that good if they stopped selling the pizza, and served only those I would be super fine with that.

Everything is real nice, the set up at the Mary's Vineyard is a little small but it seems that everyone is real patient about it, and well its worth it. They keep the place real clean no visible signs of grossness, and the customer service has always been really good, and that is pretty hard.

The Mom & Pop: There is a pizza place with a sports theme on Ben Maddox and Douglass kind there is a Git & Go there. I found that the pizza there was okay, Pepperoni seemed to be the theme of the day, which I am not saying thats bad, a good pepperoni is fine with me, but at a buffet I expect variety. I believe that is the whole point of it. The place was uncluttered and could use an updating but all in all clean from my side.

The pizza was good, and the salad bar, though the variety was few, I thought it was good. The place is huge though, and the price is real good cause it includes the drink.

The Ugly: Man I hate these, the ugly that are disguised, I went into Pizza Hut and expected good pizza, after all I use to eat at the one on Mooney Blvd, like all the time as a teenager. So I bop in, sit down, situate, and ready myself for the mission at hand. The restaurant was super clean and decorated really cute with a mural on the wall. I knew I was in for a treat.

I hate being wrong, what kid of trickery was this. I always come in at the beginning of buffet time when there is a lot of people and the pizzas are constantly being changed out, for freshness reasons. The pizzas looked alot like the frozen variety you buy at the store. I had hoped that it would be different. I wasn't bad like frozen, but certainly not good like restaurant, which was odd, again no variety there was a veg, a peperoni, and a meat. No specialties, like hey try this one you may want to order it for dinner this weekend. The salad bar was also nothing to get excited about. The breadsticks and cinnasticks.... sad, they were just cut up pieces of crust with seasoning sprinkled lightly on top of them, not pleasing to the eye or the taste buds. So disappointing, and also proves that corporate rules and guidelines don't make for good food for sure.

So there you have it a small sampling of pizza buffets, what's your favorite and why, which ones do you hate. Just keep it clean, this is a family channel... Comments will be moderated in the sense of, if it is not appropriate for a everyone then I just can't put it on...sorry

The Corner Cafe

There's nothing a-typical about the setup a row of counter space filled with random fella's looking more like the local dairymen, the booths are at the perimeter with mini booths squeezed up the center. Apple decor trimmed the windows, tables, and edgings, pretty much everywhere, though it changes with the season or holiday.

The decor is country, the food is country, the clientele... is a wide array of citizens. From cowboy hats and senior citizens to tattooed and pierced, and everything in between. It's a have a seat anywhere kind of place, so you do, and one of the waitress' follow you ours was Tenille who by the way is hilarious, as with all of them the owners are right there on spot chatting, laughing, and working right along with everyone else.

So I order the special cause I like special things... It was an scramble with jack cheese, and red onions with country potatoes, biscuits & gravy, and coffee, you know stay with the theme.

It was busy in fact it is always busy... so this is not really a shocker. It didn't seem like it was too long before the food arrived, mmmm it smelled like cheesy goodness, the eggs was perfectly cooked, no brownness or crustyness. The red onions were so bright and fred, not too much cheese but enough to leave a nice layer of white on top. When I scooped up the eggs there was a stringy and wow I was impressed, this is super good you can actually taste the cheese and the onions were sweetish which was nice contrast with the eggs and cheese.

Now I am funny about country potatoes because my grandmother was from Booneville Kentucky and made the best potatoes ever. I really hate when you order country potatoes and you get those little square things as if you ordered them from Burger King or something and they spray painted them tan. Now these were real potatoes with onions, and other little goodies mixed all over, WOW they were so good, I mean really good. perfectly seasoned not lacking salt. The potatoes were tender perfect not mushy. The biscuits were soft, flaky, very airy, and hot.... mmmmm

Anyhow this is my review of The Corner Cafe, my advice go there 2 thumbs up for sure. I will eat there a hundred times over.

The Corner Cafe is located at 1718 E Mineral King Ave, Visalia, CA.