United Domestic Business Class, IAD-SFO

Update Review, October 2023

I certainly wasn't expecting to fly on United again from the DC area, but, during a recent business trip, I found myself back on the same flight I took literally a year prior.  The culinary experience was slightly better than the previous year, but certainly not one to be excited by.

Flight Details:

• Flight: UA 1951
• Depart: IAD - Washington on Tue, Oct 31 2023 at 17:40 PM (scheduled) 18:06 PM (actual)
• Arrive: SFO - San Francisco on Tue, Oct 31 2023 at 20:35 PM 
• Aircraft: BOEING 777-300ER (twin-jet) (B77W) 

Service

I intentionally picked this flight, even though later than I like to leave the east coast, for the aircraft type.  While it was standard United Domestic service, I was in a Polaris cabin ("fauxlaris" the regular call it).  A nice private seat, but no other niceties, not even water bottles waiting at our seats.  No pillow, blankets, amenity kits.  

My crew was largely uninteresting.  Not particularly friendly, but not rude.  They took our food and drink orders, served our meal, and were otherwise absent from the cabin.  No refills proactively offered, etc.

Food & Drink

Pre-departure beverages of water or sparkling wine were offered.  I tried to get a sparkling water or Aha, but was denied.

Meal service was standard United domestic business class, as this route does not count as a premium transcon.  No pre-order was available because United hasn't managed to do that on wide bodies yet.  No printed menu.  Only 3 options rather than the 5-6 on most domestic routes.  Before takeoff, the FA came through the aisle briefly describing the choices, "BBQ chicken, 'pasta', or sweet chili noodle salad", the same 3 options that have been offered on this route for ... years.  The non-wide body flights serving this route also offer pre-order options of enchiladas or a burger these days.  

Orders were taken starting with Premium 1K, and we had 35 (!) of them on our flight, so I had little hope of getting the only choice I was interested in, the sweet chili noodle salad that folks on Flyertalk say is reasonable, even though I was in row 5.  I heard others ask for recommendations, and the FA recommended the chicken, "I don't eat meat on airplanes, but the bbq chicken always smells good."  It quickly sold out.  Others asked what exactly the "pasta" was, and it was a burrata manicotti, a slight upgrade perhaps from the standard ravioli.  The mention of burrata seemed to draw people in.  And thus, I was able to get my noodle salad after all.

Drink orders were taken alongside our meals.  Again, no menu, so people were left to ask about the options.  Wine options were "white, red, or sparkling".  When asked by another passenger what the red wine was, the response was, "uh ....".  

Aha, "Red Wine".

I went for the "red wine", whatever it was. It was inoffensive, but not particularly complex or interesting. I also had my fill of sparkling Aha, rotating between the two flavors on offer. ***.

Nuts.

A bit after takeoff, our drinks were delivered, and our FA came through saying to each person, "do you want nuts?" and offering a ramekin of nuts.  I accepted the nuts.  They were warm.  Cashews and almonds only.  Lightly salted.  Reasonable offering, but I'd love to at least get a token pecan!  ***.

Meal Tray.

Meals were a one tray affair, with side salad, entree, and dessert all on the tray, along with condiments (butter, salt, pepper, and not one but two choices of dressing), cutlery, and an empty glass, that was never used.  I'm not sure why that glass was included on our trays, as they didn't pass through doing cart service drinks.

Roll.

No roll was provided, but I asked about one, and my FA brought me one on a napkin.  I saw her hand delivering other rolls on napkins to others.  I'm not sure why they weren't included on our trays?  The butter to go with them was on the tray, along with an empty plate (under the salad bowl), but just no rolls.  Anyway, I actually really like some of the rolls on the United rotation, but this one wasn't anything special.  Just a wheat roll.   Lightly warm.  ***.

Side Salad.

Even though my entree was a salad, it came with the same side salad as the other dishes.  The salad was simple: mixed greens, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers.  No element for crunch, no acid, no cheese.  But it was actually quite good, the greens fresh and crisp, the tomatoes shockingly flavorful, and the cucumbers remarkably crunchy.  It tasted fresh and actually good quality.  I was amazed.  ****.

On my tray was both of the dressings I've seen United feature before, balsamic vinaigrette or sesame ginger.  I don't care for either, but appreciated the choice.

Overall, a big surprise, a nice one at that, particular compared to some of the more lackluster grain or oddly chilled cooked veggie side salads United has offered on other flights.

Sweet Chili Glass Noodle Salad.

"Sweet chili glass noodle salad with jicama and cucumber served with an option side plate of garlic-ginger beef."

My main dish was more salad.  The "option" of the side beef wasn't actually explained to anyone, we were just told this was a "noodle salad", but I knew there was a beef component from having read other reviews, and per the online menu (from flights that have pre-order) the beef is actually optional.  This explains why it comes separate on the side.  I heard vegetarians throughout the cabin surprised to see it, and I suspect the FA just omitted the fact that it was option as she was sick of explaining it over and over.  I'm not sure why I expected the beef to be warm, but I did.  It wasn't.  The entire dish was chilled.  

One side of the dish was a salad, a base of mixed greens, topped with the expected batons of jicama and cucumber, plus a lot of sliced red peppers.  The peppers added a lot of color and vibrancy to the plate, even though I don't really care for them.  The veggies were reasonably crisp and fresh.  I think maybe the ginger sesame dressing was supposed to go on this, as it was undressed?  ***.

The other side was the glass noodles, which were lightly tossed in sweet chili sauce.  The noodles were ... eh.  Truly seemed like someone had taken generic grocery store rice noodles, soaked them in water for a few minutes to hydrate, and then mixed in as little generic sweet chili sauce as they could.  The noodles were a bit dry and hard.  The sweet chili sauce was fine, but it was so minimal.  I was a bit surprised by how blah this part was, as people frequently mention this as a decent, flavorful  dish.  ***.

And finally, the side of sliced beef.  The beef was slightly better than I expected, it was fairly tender, reasonably seasoned with at least salt and pepper, although I didn't taste any of the garlic nor ginger from the online description.  Some bites were a bit chewy, and it clearly wasn't the highest quality cut of beef, but, it was edible.  ***.

For a lunch flight, I think this would be a reasonable option.  Salad and more salad.  For dinner though, I did miss having a warm dish.  **+ overall for me, not really sure why people recommend this.  I wouldn't get it again.

Crumb Cake.

The dessert was the sad component of my platter, but, I knew to expect it.  This blueberry crumb cake appears to be served on basically all domestic United flights right now, save the premium transcons.  I lamented the lack of the famous sundae cart (that does show up on premium transcon, along with international flights), I lamented the lack of cheesecake or other sliced cakes from Eli's cheesecake (again, offered on premium transcon), and even the old pie-in-the-sky.  

But then I tried it.  It was so much better than it looked.

The cake base was a sweet generic cake.  Tight crumb structure.  Decent tang to it, perhaps buttermilk?  It looked more like coffee cake appropriate for breakfast/brunch than dessert cake, but, the sweetness level was high, making it eat more like a dessert cake.  It had a thin layer of decent enough blueberry goo, and a crumb topping, with a slight drizzle of sweet icing.  So sorta a dessert cake base, but coffee cake top.  I really wanted fresh fruit and whipped cream to go with it, or for it to be warm with a scoop of ice cream, but, I was surprised that it was actually pretty tasty, even if it looked quite boring.

***+.

Original Review October 2022

Flight Details:

• Flight #UA1641 
• Aircraft: BOEING 777-300ER 
• Departure: IAD 6pm (scheduled) 6:35pm (actual)
• Arrival: SFO 8:49pm (scheduled) (actual)
• Seat: 5A

This was my first ever United domestic flight with meal service.  I tend to avoid flying United ever, and certainly domestically.  However, I had limited options between Orlando and San Francisco, and while I could have flown direct on United at rather poor times on their generic aging recliner based aircraft, I decided to take a bigger gamble and do a layover at Dulles, so that I could fly a better aircraft for the actual transcon part of the flight.  Thus, I had a real Polaris seat, even though flying a non-premium route.

The seat was the same as any other Polaris route, although for the transcon they do not provide pillows, blankets, amenity kits, or even bottles of water at the seats.  Its a pretty big cabin for a domestic business class flight, but, for a 5-6 hour flight it was kinda nice to be on a "real" plane, with a big spacious cabin that didn't feel tight, and, most importantly to me, to not have a neighbor.  The seat wasn't particularly comfortable for day flying, but I'm sure it was much better than most domestic business class seats, (JetBlue suites of course would be a bit nicer, as would the seats on premium transcons between NY and LAX on other carriers, but, for this route, it was certainly above average).

The Polaris cabin however was deceptive.  Everything else about the flight was solidly US domestic lower end.  Our orders were taken for the main dish while we were on the ground: "your meal options tonight are chicken or Impossible meatballs", was the announcement.  No description of the sides, or anything else, just, "chicken or Impossible meatballs", and the poor FA had to explain to nearly every seat that Impossible meatballs were vegan, not beef.  There was no pre-order available on this flight, just those two options, which I knew to expect, as they were the same two dishes offered on all United domestic flights for several months.  

We were not prepared for the meals to be delivered, e.g. no pass through to have you take out your tray table, set a tablecloth, etc.  Just all of a sudden, the FA was there, with your tray, looking annoyed that you weren't ready.  Once the meal was over (assuming you ate fast, if you were slow, good luck, you likely still had your tray left around) the FAs disappeared entirely.  Service, definitely, as minimal as it gets.

Food & Drink

Sparkling Aha, "Red Wine".

Orders for a beverage were taken once underway (but then no refills were offered).  There was exactly one red wine available.  "The red wine", it was dubbed.

I do like the flavored sparkling Aha drinks (two flavors available!), and appreciated getting the full can.  "The red wine" was highly mediocre, a bit too much acid, a bit of tannin, but no complexity.  Certainly not a higher end wine.

No nuts were or anything were served alongside the beverages, just the beverages. 

Meal.

Our trays were plopped down all at once, with the main dish, a bread roll, a fruit salad, and a packaged brownie.  No side salad nor appetizer course. Salt & pepper, and a pat of butter, came along with it.

I actually had some hope for the meatballs, as I do like Impossible meat.  I knew I wouldn't likely want the cous cous, nor the broccolini, so I came prepared with my own sautéed green beans, mushrooms, and onions, along with some nice bread, and my portable oven, that was plugged in and already heating my food when the meal arrived.  I also had crushed red pepper flakes, parmesan cheese, and, if necessary, hot sauce and ketchup with me to jazz it up further.  Oh, and a side salad, as I knew my meal would not have one.  And of course, my own dessert.

Fruit Salad.

There was no actual salad provided alongside, rather, fruit salad.  This seems good for a breakfast flight, or perhaps a flight with a cheese course, but, it seemed odd as the dinner "salad".

I avoided the melons (allergic), and the pineapple and orange were pretty meh, but the grapes and blueberries were fine.

**+, but, an odd dish to have with dinner.

Impossible Meatballs.

"The Impossible Meatball Bowl features three Impossible Meatballs™ Made From Plants and broccolini served on a bed of couscous and topped with an herb-infused tomato sauce. Impossible Meatballs are made with a custom mix of Impossible Beef™ Made From Plants and Impossible Sausage, seasoned with a savory homestyle spice blend."

The main dish, the meatballs, ... wow, it looked, and tasted, like it came out of a microwave, where someone zapped it on high for a bit too long, so that it totally dried it out, but then also forgot it, as it wasn't actually hot.  The cous cous, large style Israeli cous cous, was mushy, super dry, unseasoned, and some parts were just totally overcooked.  It was not good.  The broccolini, I suppose fine if you like broccolini, but it was an odd color of green, and didn't taste particularly fresh.  It definitely needed the provided salt and pepper.  I was quite pleased that I had my own carbs and veggies ready to go with my main, and quickly pushed aside the provided veggies, and took my own out of my oven.

The meatballs likely *could* have been good, but, they were 1) lukewarm, 2) very dense, 3) mushy, 4) lacking sauce.  I did actually like the Impossible meat, but ... they were just too mushy (yet strangely dense), not nearly warm enough, and super dry.  They needed the basically nonexistent tomato sauce.  I did add red pepper flakes, parmesan cheese, and, even ketchup, which helped, but, these just weren't actually very good.

**, although I think that with better heating it could have been a ***, the concept was fine.

Roll, Butter.

I actually had my own brown bread with me, already heated up in my oven, and my own butter, thinking I'd dip it in the expected tomato sauce, but, alas, there was no tomato sauce to dip into, let alone enough to cover the meatballs, and I wasn't expecting there to be a roll served, let alone one worth eating.  I'm not even sure why I tried it really, but I'm glad I did.

The roll was slightly warm, had some oats, and didn't taste stale nor dried out.  Sure, it wasn't great bread, it didn't have a good crust nor great crumb structure, but, I actually found it fairly satisfying.  It was better than most onboard bread.

***.

Dessert.

Ok, I was really let down when I saw the dessert.  I knew the flight wouldn't have an ice cream sundae, nor a nice cake, or anything like that, but, most United flights have the Eli's "pie in the sky", which is just a United specific re-branding of their cookie-pies that I love so much (and used to order for my work group all the time, see those reviews).  But no, we had a packaged brownie, a brand I didn't recognize.  

I tossed the brownie in my bag, and pulled out my frozen yogurt, fruit, and toppings.  Because, um, yes, I was*that* prepared.  

I did eat it later.  It was a reasonable enough packaged brownie.  Not dry.  Fairly rich.  It did have a slight odd taste to it, not plastic exactly, just, something not fresh tasting.  Easily masked with copious amounts of whipped cream and ice cream (because, yes, I obviously turned it into a sundae). ***.

Read More...

Otis Spunkmeyer Muffins

Update Review, 2023

A few years passed since my last Otis Spunkmeyer encounter, and so even though I hadn't really liked their products before, I tried them again when a hotel I was staying at had them in the buffet and I truly didn't want anything else on offer.

Wild Blueberry Muffin.

This was just as blah as previous ones I had tried.  The top was gummy.  It was too sweet overall, more like cake than a breakfast muffin.  Very homogeneous tight crumb structure.  Blueberries small and didn't add much flavor.

**.

Update Review, 2021

Much like Costco muffins, Otis Spunkmeyer muffins have their place in this world.  Granted, usually that is in airline lounges, hotel breakfast buffets, etc, and you may not know what brand they are at the time, as they are mainly a wholesale distributor.  No one will claim these are the best muffins ever, and they certainly don't taste, nor look, wholesome or homemade, but, when the mood strikes for a perfectly fine generic muffin, they most certainly do the trick.

I last (knowingly) had Otis Spunkmeyer muffins many years ago, so a update review was in order, when I recently attended an event with the Otis Spunkmeyer "Delicious Essentials Variety" mini muffins.  Of course, I had to try all three flavors, just for you, dear readers.

Wild Blueberry.

"Blueberry muffins made with no artificial colors or flavors. Our blueberry muffins use real wild blueberries and are an ideal healthy treat for your breakfast or as a snack. No tame blueberries for us!"

The full size wild blueberry muffin was the first Otis Spunkmeyer muffin that I (knowingly anyway) tried.  The mini version looked much the same: homogenous texture, not a crispy top, slightly moist on top.

However, I ... really didn't care for it.  It tasted very artificial.  Full of preservatives.  From a package. The texture wasn't a nice crumb, rather, it was spongy.  It did at least have little bits of wild blueberry, but, eh, I would certainly pass on this in the future.

**.

Banana.

"Muffins are delicious. Bananas are delicious. So we put them together."

Next, I tried the banana muffin, really just for completeness as it looked rather boring.  The full sized ones have a buttery crumb topping, and they also make a banana nut version, both of which I imagine are more appealing.

This was as boring as it looked.  It tasted like ... nothing.  The banana was incredibly faint, honestly barely detectable.  It had no visible banana, and, obviously, no nuts or topping.

Bo-Ring.

**.

Chocolate Chocolate Chip.

"Our Double Chocolate Chip Muffins are a decadent dessert that is guaranteed to turn any frown upside down."

I saved the best for last.  Chocolate Chocolate Chip.  A chocolate based muffin studded with chocolate chips.

Let's just be clear on one thing.  A double chocolate muffin is not really a breakfast item.  No, this is a chocolate cupcake, just missing the frosting.  Which is not a bad thing.  Served as it was, it was "fine", decent chocolate flavor, like a fluffier brownie really.  But I preferred slathering some buttercream frosting on it (that I had from a rather awful piece of cake, the frosting the only salvageable part!).  I suspect it would be nice warmed with ice cream as well.

Original Review, October 2014

Ok, I admit it, this is a bit random.  I am rarely satisfied with the baked goods from nice bakeries all over San Francisco, particularly when it comes to muffins.  So what on earth am I doing reviewing packaged muffins?

Well ... you may recall that I do have a particular fondness for the almond poppyseed muffins from Costco, so, there is some sort of precedent here.  Oh, and you can't forget about the crazy good cinnamon rolls from 7-Eleven.  So yes, sometimes delicious things come from surprising places.

But, the real story is that I was helping test out Google Shopping Express before it launched publicly.  After ordering all our household essentials of toilet paper, tissues, shampoo, and whatnot, we started to get a bit creative.  And Ojan loves blueberry muffins, so, at some point, he ordered blueberry muffins from Google Shopping Express.  You may recall the blueberry muffin from Walgreens that I reviewed a while ago?  Yeah, same reason.

This batch came from Otis Spukmeyer, a large baked goods distributor.  They sell wholesale baked goods for restaurants and businesses nationwide, apparently including the US Army.  However, little known fact, they actually started as a fresh baked cookie shop in nearby Oakland!  They also make those rather delicious hot fresh cookies that American Airlines serves in first class.  Their products are available in retail version fully cooked, or, for restaurants, they come as frozen dough and pastries to be baked off on site.  They also distribute their own special ovens to bake their signature cookies, 3 dozen at a time.

Wild Blueberry Muffins, 3-pack.

The muffins did not look good.  Sure, they were from a grocery store and pre-packaged, so I'm not quite sure what I was expecting, but they looked gummy and moist through the packaging.

And they were.  Moist muffins wrapped in plastic are going to get gummy, I don't think there is any way around that.  One thing I love with cupcakes and muffins is when they have a crispy top, yet moist interior.  (Yes, I'm definitely the type who wants the crispy edges of lasagna too!).  These were entirely homogenous throughout, not dry, but not moist exactly.  Just, preserved "freshness"?  And the tops were indeed a bit gummy.

I wasn't a huge fan of the consistency at room temperature, so I popped one in the toaster oven for a few minutes.  A warm muffin is always appreciated, and it eliminated the gumminess this way.  It also crisped up the top.  Much improved!

Many reviews I read said they were "not too sweet".  I'm not really sure what those people were thinking.  These tasted as sweet as any cake, not a muffin.  Too sweet for my breakfast tastes.  And I like sweets!

They did have a slight tang to them, pushing them slightly on the muffin side of the cake-muffin divide, but just slightly.  That was the part I did like.

I was amused that they came as a 3-pack, yet the nutrition stats were for 6 servings.  Because you know, people really eat just a half a muffin ...

Cross section.

I cut one in half, to see what the suggested portion size looked like.  While the muffins were large-ish, a half a muffin was way too small.  Silly portion sizes.

As you can see, there was a decent quantity of little blueberries.  I am never much of a fan of wild blueberries, I prefer large plump ones, so that was not a selling point for me, but the blueberry was at least more substantial than in the Panera muffins.

Ojan is the one who ordered these, as he loves basic blueberry muffins, and he liked them, particularly for a packaged good.  I however, would not get again.

Read More...

Golden Diner, NYC

An Asian diner.  I've seen lots of fusion cuisines before, but, I hadn't ever stumbled upon an Asian diner until I spotted the menu at Golden Diner, in New York.  I was intrigued.  The menu had your expected diner dishes, like a wedge salad, burger, club sandwich, pancakes, coffee cake, etc, except ... all have a bit of Asian flair to them.  That wedge is garnished with chili crisp.  The burger has gochujang sauce.  The club sandwich is actually chicken katsu.  The coffee cake is green tea.  Etc.

I was even more drawn in when I saw how strong the reviews were in general, AND when one of my most trusted locals told me she adores the place, and in particular, the pancakes.  So although I never made it there during August when I was staying in New York, I finally made it last week, and dragged 10 others with me.  For context, the diner seats only 20, so we took up more than half the restaurant.  Our visit was at dinner time.

Setting

Counter Seating.

I absolutely loved that they have classic diner counter seating.  The short order cooks were working the line right behind it.  Coffee cake was in the display on the end.  Such great vibes (and don't worry, it filled up quickly!).  No jukebox, but they were blasting some solid tunes the whole time.

Table Seating.

The rest of the seats are at tables for 2-6, made up from a combination of benches and chairs.  The diner seats 20 total inside.  The decor isn't really diner-eque, but the brick and white lace curtains had a charm to it too.

There is additional sidewalk seating.

Drinks

To drink, they had a few wines available (1 sparkling, 2 white, 2 red, 1 orange), a few beers on draft or by the can, a couple korean spirits, and some soju or korean wine based cocktails.

Sparkling water was Topo Chico, which I love.

Omija Negroni. $14.

"Seoul night plum suju, omija 'campari', sweet vermouth."

I briefly considered getting plum wine, because it had been a while since I'd had it, but when I saw they had a play on a negroni, I wanted to try it.

I didn't really care for it.  It was rather sweet, lacking any bitter notes.  Not much booze flavor either.  I wouldn't get it again. *+.

Savory

Since we were there at dinner, not breakfast or brunch, we mostly went for the savory lunch/dinner appropriate dishes, rather than the breakfast all day, although that was available too.  We opted to share a few things, starting with one salad (which was hard to pick, as all the salads had really interesting components to them), and their most famous sandwich, the aforementioned chicken kastsu.  We skipped the share plates with popular Korean fried chicken wings or some interesting sounding vegan nachos, and the burger as that seemed the least unique.  If we had ordered one more dish, it certainly would have been the vegetarian hero, which has marinated yuba in it, and sounded fantastic.  If you are noticing the extensive vegetarian and vegan options, you are absolutely correct.  This diner has extremely strong vegan offerings.

Chili Crisp Wedge Salad (Vegan). $17.
(Dressing on the side).

"Chili crisp a la Fat Choy, iceberg lettuce, vegan ranch, blue "cheese", mushroom "bacon"."

I struggled to pick between the two interesting sounding salads, but was drawn in by the chili crisp and mushroom "bacon" in this one.  It just happened to be vegan, which certainly isn't what you think of when you have a salad known for 1) blue cheese, 2) ranch, and 3) bacon.  I'm also certainly not vegan.

But honestly, I couldn't tell it was vegan.  The ranch was creamy and flavorful enough, basically, well, it tasted like generic ranch.  It was fine, but I'd love more buttermilk tang, or interesting herbs in it.  It certainly didn't taste oddly vegan.  I had it on the side as I was worried about not liking it, but normally the salad comes smothered in it.  Average ranch dressing: ***.

The chili crisp they also put on the side, and it was good.  Nice size bits of "crisp" and not too oily.  A notch above average chili crisp.  This is something I regularly drizzle on my own salads, so this was a natural salad topping for me.  ***+.

The salad base itself, two iceberg wedges, was not as crisp as I'd expect for a wedge salad.  Kinda limp and pale too.  I know it is iceberg, which isn't exactly known for being a robust lettuce, but, it was pretty boring.  Same with the bits of tomato, and harsh red onion.  ***.

The vegan blue "cheese" was fascinating.  It tasted, and looked, quite a bit like blue cheese.  It was white with blue veins.  It had funk to it.  Uncanny.  I am not a big blue cheese fan, but, this was interesting and novel as a vegan item.  ***.

And finally, the mushroom "bacon", which I adored.  Great crunch, nice umami flavor.  There was far, far, far too little of it.  Just a few little bits.  This was my favorite component of the salad, and the most minimal.  **** for taste/texture/etc, but * for quantity.

Overall, this was a fine salad, and there is no way I'd ever think this was vegan, but, it could do with fresher base lettuce, more "bacon", and a better onion component, like fried onion strings or something.  I wouldn't get it again. ***.

To the salads, you can add avocado for $3.50 or crispy chicken for $10.

Red Cabbage Slaw. $5.

I adore cole slaw, and when I saw it was available as a side, I added it to our order.  It normally comes on the club sandwich.

The portion was a sizable mound.  It really was just red cabbage and mayo.  I think I expected carrot at least.  It was a bit soft.  Well dressed, but the taste was just mayo.  Not much seasoning, if any.

As a standalone slaw, it didn't work very well.  I wanted it crispier, more flavorful, potentially more components.  But, used inside the sandwich, I see how it would totally work.

** as a side, but not holding this against them as most people get it inside the sandwich.

Pickled Diakon. $5.

One of my other guests saw that they had pickled diakon on the menu, and immediately ordered it.  I may or may not have stolen a bunch.

It was good, nicely crisp, good pickling flavor.  $5 worth of diakon?  I'm not sure about that, but I liked it.  ***+.

It normally comes with the Korean fried chicken wings.

Chicken Katsu Club. $19.

"Panko breaded chicken katsu blt w/ red cabbage slaw, bulldog sauce, and kewpie mayo served on milk bread."

Take the classic chicken club, and make it fusion.  That gives you their top selling sandwich, the chicken katsu club.  Most of my group wanted this.  

The portion was a full sandwich, cut into 4 wedges, with three slices of bread, one separating the chicken and slaw, the other the lettuce, tomato, and bacon.  Not a single person was able to finish it, even when served without a side.  They seemed to really like it, although one guest lamented that it was too hard to eat because it was so tall.  Another took all the leftover 1/4 and 1/2 slices from the group home, and was quite pleased with her bounty.

For $5 more, you could make it "deluxe" with fries and a pickle, or $6 you could opt up to home fries.

Out of the rest of my group, one other ordered the vegan grilled cheese and tomato soup, and one had the matzoh ball soup, neither had much reaction to their items.

Sweet

And there, of course, we get to desserts.  A primary reason for me to pick many places.  Here you find a pastry item (green tea coffee cake), a cake (thai tea tres leches), and pudding (pistachio rice pudding).  All sounded good to me.  

And then there is the pancakes.  My co-worker's top recommendation, but also, the top recommendation of many others in reviews too.  This is probably Golden Diner's most well known dish.  The pancakes technically aren't on the Sweets menu, but rather, the All Day Breakfast section, but we ordered them as dessert.

Honey Butter Pancakes. $15.

"Double stack of fluffy, moist and savory pancakes served with honey butter maple syrup and whipped honey butter, finished with lemon zest."

Behold, the famous honey butter pancakes.  The serving is a stack of two diner plate sized large fluffy pancakes.  They come pre-sauced and buttered, no additional is provided unless you order and pay for an additional $1 each.

The honey butter and honey maple syrup were both good, and while the pancakes were pretty smothered in the syrup, I wanted more.  The pancakes were quite plain without it.  **** syrup/butter though.

You can add a berry compote for $4 more, and I wished we had.  I just really wanted more flavor in this dish.

Pancakes: Second layer.

The pancakes were cooked really unevenly.  As you can see in the first photo, the top pancake was light and perfectly colored.  The pancake under that one?  Wow, so dark!  At first I really thought it was burnt, and wondered "wow, how could they plate that and not notice!"  

But actually, the uneven cook was fine.  The top one was light and airy, this one had a bit of a crust to it, which I liked.  The pancakes were a bit bland though - no real buttermilk tang, no cornmeal grit, nothing like that.  Just, plain pancakes.  Good pancakes, nicely thick pancakes, but, plain.  ***.

Pistachio Rice Puddin'. (Vegan) $11.

"Coconut milk, orange, candied cardamon pistachios."

Because I can't resist a pudding, and because I was saddened by the lackluster rice pudding at my office the previous day, I also ordered their newest menu item, the pistachio rice pudding.  It also happens to be vegan.

It was attractively served with orange supremes and pistachios on top, in a layered parfait style glass.  The rice pudding was fine, the rice nicely cooked, not too mushy, not too al dente, nice sized grains.  It was quite thick and rich from coconut milk.  I loved the bits of pistachio for crunch, and there was plenty of it, so every bite got some.  The pistachio also added a lot of flavor.  The orange supremes added a bit of freshness, and juiciness, and went well with the pistachio, but I'd rather see fresh berries.

Overall, this was absolutely fine, but I found myself wanting a bit more of a complimentary flavor, maybe some whipped cream too.  ***+.

Green Tea Coffee Cake. $7.

"Made with hojicha and matcha."

And lastly, we ordered the coffee cake, made with both hojicha and matcha.  It was served warm, but otherwise unadorned.

The color of the base was not particularly appealing, somewhat green-gray, but it was clearly loaded with green tea.  The flavor was, well, green tea, fairly strong in the hojicha direction.  If you like green tea flavor, this delivered.

The crumble topping layer was equally as thick as the base layer.  It was quite crispy.  It was good, but not remarkable.  

Overall, this ate pretty dry.  I wanted whipped cream or a scoop of ice cream to make it a real dessert.  Pairing it with some berries would be nice too.  Most of my group didn't even try it, so even though we only had one piece, we had plenty left.  I took it home and had with breakfast the next morning, and enjoyed it more in that setting than as a dessert.

Overall, perhaps worth trying if you really like green tea, and for brunch, but not what I'd recommend for dessert.  ***.

Read More...

Breakfast at Residence Inn by Marriott New York Downtown Manhattan/World Trade Center Area

Another day, another hotel stay.  In this case, another Residence Inn, which means included breakfast for all.  While domestic Residence Inn free breakfast never comes close to rivaling the breakfast I get in other parts of the world with my status, some locations do an actually decent enough job, like the Residence Inn in Cambridge, MA, that surprised me with the variety and constant change from day to day.  I cannot say the same for the Residence Inn I stayed at in Manhattan, near World Trade Center.  

Breakfast was a crazy time every day, with a space not seemingly designed for the crowds, with bottlenecks abound.  The wait for the elevators at breakfast time was even worse.  The lackluster experience was pretty on par with everything else I experienced at this hotel, which included really shabby rooms in need of updates (literally every door frame or painted surface had paint hunks missing, there were weird patches on the walls, the wallpaper was peeling off, nothing was actually clean, with visible debris around the corners of the room and under and around everything, the linens smelt awful, etc, etc).  Anyway, this isn't Julie's hotel review blog, but, yeah, I don't recommend this hotel at all.

And now, back to the food and drink review.  I can solidly say: meh.  I was there for 8 days, tried a variety of items, and only found one that I liked in the entire time.

Starbucks Machine.

There were two Starbucks branded drink makers that made a variety of espresso beverages, coffee, chai and hot chocolate. Two choices for regular coffee beans, plus classic Pike Place decaf were available.

One machine was broken.  The other was sloooooow.  It took a fair number of steps for each guest to actually get to the button to "zomg, give me my drink already", and then it was quite slow at grinding beans, brewing, etc.  Given how truly awful the big urns of brewed coffee (regular only) on the side was, this meant quite the queue.  I saw people routinely give up, and say to their partner, "I think there is a Dunkin Donuts across the street, let's just go".

Anyway, I had both the regular and decaf coffees from the machine.  All were almost passable, but not particularly good.  

Apple and Orange Juice.
Water Dispenser.

The buffet starts with dispensers with two kinds of juice, classic apple or orange.  There is also an in-counter faucet controlled by a display on the side for chilled, sparkling, or elderflower (!) water.  I appreciated having what I assume is filtered sparkling water on tap.  Sadly, the breakfast room is closed after breakfast service, so I couldn't use it to fill bottles later in the day and the faucet is too low to fill a water bottle, which seemed intentional.  You could only fill their tiny little glasses, no extra water for you!

Cold Brew, Oat Milk, 2% Milk

This Residence Inn went slightly above and beyond, with a pitcher of cold brew, and oat milk.  (Strangely no soy milk, which I'd think is more common? ) The big dispenser had 2% regular milk, and nonfat was further down in individual bottles.

It turned out that that cold brew was only there one morning.  I never saw it again in my 8 night stay.

Cereal: Cheerios, Frosted Flakes, Kashi Granola.

The cereal was in those annoying dispensers that either 1) jam up, 2) dump way too much at once, or 3) crush the contents.  All basic cereals, nothing particularly interesting.  I wished the corn flakes weren't frosted, and that the granola wasn't so full of super hard pellets of sugared raisins, but, it was at least a reliable option.

Oatmeal.

The standard pot of hot oatmeal and toppings was on offer.  I do like the walnuts they have, but, boo, no chocolate chips (like most Residence Inn locations have).  Only nuts, seeds, dried fruit.  Not even cinnamon to put on top! (the shaker was cocoa powder).

Yogurt & Milks.

In the little fridge was Chobani greek yogurt and a few flavors of lowfat creamy Danon yogurt, along with non-fat milk, both regular and chocolate.  I tried the chocolate milk on a whim one day, it was, well, chocolate milk.  The yogurt was all cloying sweet and fake tasting.

The only fruit to go with the yogurt was whole apples and oranges.  No berries, no melons, no pineapple.  Just whole fruits.

Bagels.

In a city known for bagels of course they had bagels, but I think these were just generic mass produced bready kind.  No bread or english muffins, just bagels.  Toasters were on the side to toast, and, judging from other guest's comments, seemed to not really toast at all, just, lightly warm.  There was always a long, long line for the toaster slots too.

Peanut butter, jam, s & p.

The usual suspects were on offer as spreads: Jif creamy PB, Smucker's brand jam.  Grab n go individual packets made it easy and mess free in the spreads area.  Not a very compelling lineup, particularly when I've seen RI locations with fancier jams (and a big lineup of them), plus come on, not even fairly standard Nutella?  Just peanut butter and jelly.

Cream cheese, butter.

At least the cream cheese (plain only, regular or low fat) and butter were properly kept cold.

Scrambled Egg Whites.

The hot bar had 4 items, two were eggs, either whites and regular, scrambled.  These never changed.  No fried eggs, no poached eggs, etc.  Just scrambled.

Next up was a rotating breakfast meat of the day.  The day it was sausage patties I heard multiple guests complaining there was no bacon.  The next day, it was labelled as sausage, but was in fact bacon.  It seemed to only ever be the pork sausage patties that looked highly processed and limp, or the bacon.

There were never any breakfast hot potatoes of any kind, no hash browns, home fries, or anything like that.

Daily Special: Liege Waffles.

The last item in the hot buffet did rotate.  On weekends, it was waffles.

So, um, these were a surprise.  Not because omg there was something decent in the buffet, but because of the noticeable absence of *the* signature Residence Inn self-serve waffle station.  I actually looked around, checked around the corner, thinking I really must be somehow missing it (like, in Cambridge, MA, where it really was in another room entirely).   But, nope, this RI does not allow you to make a horrible mess everywhere and burn your own waffles.

Now, those signature waffles are never actually anything special, even if you do cook them properly, but even otherwise "meh" RI locations tend to have a great toppings lineup for the waffles.  Flavored syrups, fruit compotes, and always, always whipped cream.  I was counting on being able to get a cup full of whipped cream at breakfast!  But alas, no whipped cream.  In fact, the only topping for the waffles was packets of pancake syrup, and it was only there on waffle day.

That said, these were liege waffles, and thus, syrup isn't actually needed, as they have pearl sugar baked in.  I was particularly excited as I got a fresh batch of the waffles my first day.  They were ... soft.  At least not over cooked and dried out, but, this kind of waffle is not supposed to be floppy.  And these were floppy.  The base flavor was fine, and they did have pearl sugar studding them, but, presumably being kept hot in a steam tray did them no service.  I pondered sticking one in the bagel toaster ...

Overall, still ***, but, would get another half star if actually lightly crisp.

Update: The next weekend, the waffles were back.  They were not just soft this time, but also wet and gummy.  Sadness, as these really could be good, but this steam tray does them no justice. **.

Daily Special: Sausage Biscuit.

On Monday, I went eager to snag a liege waffle and found that slot now housed packaged sausage biscuits with cheese.  Lukewarm.  It turns out, this 4th hot dish was a rotating special, so waffles weren't actually available daily (only weekends I was told).

Sausage Biscuit: Unwrapped.

"Our Cheddar Sausage Biscuit is made with our classic, scratch made Mason Dixie® Cheddar Biscuit and nitrite/nitrate free sausage and ready in just 90 seconds."

I didn't try the sausage biscuit the first day, but, when it came back 2 days later, and I literally wanted nothing else from the buffet, I decided to brave it.

It was worse than I thought it would be.

The biscuits were both dried out and moist at the same time.  More like soggy I guess, due to the steam inside the plastic wrapper.  But they were hard/dry as if overcooked as well.  I did not taste the cheddar cheese, that was supposed to be inside the biscuit part.  They had no tang either, no buttermilk or anything slightly classy about these.  They tasted like soggy hard compressed cardboard.  Not good. *.

And the sausage?  A thin, chewy patty.  Tasted highly processed (I know all sausage is obviously processed, but, these were very processed). *.

Truly nothing redeeming about this. *.

Daily Special: Swiss Cheese & Spinach Crustless Quiche.

The third day, the breakfast special was packaged crustless quiche.

It was soggy.  Lukewarm.  Had no real flavor.  Did not like. *.

Egg, chorizo, & cheddar breakfast burrito.

"For the True Southwestern Morning."

Another day, another "special" pre-made packaged item.  This one came from Green Chile Food Company, who make a variety of burritos, both breakfast and regular.  The breakfast burritos feature eggs and most include hash browns and cheese, along with a variety of breakfast meats (bacon, sausage, chorizo, beef, etc).  Regular burritos include the standards like pork carnitas, chicken fajita, steak and jalapeno, bean & cheese, etc.  Our special was the egg, chorizo, and cheddar version.

I didn't try this the first time it showed up, after the other specials failed so miserably, but when it returned the very next day, I grabbed one out of curiosity/boredom.

Ir was actually considerably better than I was expecting.  The flour tortilla was soft and not dried out.  The fillings well distributed, warm, and comforting.  The cheese was nicely melted.  The chorizo bits were flavorful.  Soft bits of scrambled egg and shredded potatoes rounded it out.  The roasted corn and other zesty "southwest" inspired ingredients gave it a ton of flavor.  Basically, good textures, good flavors, and truly not bad.  No additional sauce required either.

It did leave me feeling *very* weighed down, as this is a heartier item for breakfast than I normally would have, and I wished I had my griddle to toast the exterior on, but, I wasn't upset I ate it.  I wouldn't get another unless really craving something like it though.  ***.

Read More...

Peter Pan Donuts, NYC

Yup, yet another day, another donut.  Whatever city I am in, donuts seem to seek me out.  Certainly, this is helped by the that my offices have a donut rotation, where someone brings in donuts from a place of their choosing every week.  But also, random parties with extra donuts just seem to regularly happen around me.  I rarely seek out the donuts, they come to me.

Yet, when I was staying in New York for a while this summer, I actually sought out donuts myself.  I wanted to see if there were other noteworthy donuts, besides Doughnut Plant.  So I did my research.  I had, well, plenty of options.  But one, Peter Pan Donuts, was located near where I was staying in Brooklyn, and got great reviews, so I assumed it would be my destination.

And then, random donuts kept showing up at the office, and I never made it to get a donut of my own accord.  Until I returned to New York in the fall, and the craving for a good donut hit.

And thus, Peter Pan it was.  

Peter Pan makes a variety of yeast and cake donuts.  All the classics, plus some upgraded ones, but nothing particularly wild or unique.  Yeasted donuts start with the standard honey dip, sugared, or frosted and sprinkle topped.  Filled versions had, lemon, blueberry, strawberry, or Bavarian cream.  Jelly donuts could come plain, sugared, or powdered sugared.  More fun is the crumb topped and cream filled red velvet or old fashioned, or other varieties with cream filling and a coating.  Cake options span from plain/cinnamon/glazed/powedered/coconut'ed old fashioned, to chocolate cake, to more interesting red velvet or even sour cream.  Oh, and don't forget the specialty donuts like a boston cream, several types of eclair, crullers with several toppings, or, my dad's all time favorite, the jelly stick.

I had one each, cake and raised, to really evaluate.  The raised was exceptional, and I'd gladly return for more and more of these!

Donut Box.

No pink box from this  shop, but a relatively classic and classy bakery label let us know what goodies were inside.

Blueberry Buttermilk Cake. $1.95.

The first donut I tried was a cake donut, which isn't normally my preferred donut (generally, I go for raised over cake).  But if I'm having a cake donut, an old fashioned or buttermilk based donut definitely far exceed regular cake donuts.  And, it was blueberry?  And glazed?  Now, that's a good combo, even for a cake donut.

It was fine.  Lightly glazed, not so sweet it took over.  It was clearly studded with lots of bits of blueberry, with visible blue bits throughout.  Mild blueberry flavor.  Dense in the right way inside, yet quite moist, and lightly crisp from the glaze.  But ... I didn't detect a buttermilk tang, and I was really hoping for that.

Overall, an absolutely fine cake donut, but didn't deliver in the "special" department for me, that is needed to take a cake donut above ***.  So, a strong ***, but, still just ***.

Yeasted White Cream Coconut. $1.95.

The next donut I tried was a raised one, and not one I picked for myself.  When I was stuck in a meeting when Peter Pan donuts arrived, I asked him to snag me something, and this was his selection.  It likely isn't what I would have picked (so much coconut!), but actually, it turned out to be absolutely fabulous.

The coconut on top was standard shredded non-toasted but likely sweetened coconut.  It was very generously applied, which I thought would be too much, but actually, it totally worked.  Just, a nice coconut flavor, that went so well with the fluffy sweet frosting.  ***+.

The cream frosting blew me away.  I expected fairly generic very sweet buttercream, but it was actually just really, really good.  Vanilla flavored I think?  It was so soft and fluffy, even though it was fairly old by the time I had it late in the afternoon.  It was sweet, but absolutely not cloying.  Really, really great cream. ****+.

Yeasted White Cream Coconut: Underside.

So, what about the donut itself?

Here you can see that this was actually a ring donut (surprise! Didn't it look like a filled donut?).  It had a great pocket of cream in the middle, in addition to the topping.  Given how much I loved this cream, this was a huge win for me.  

The donut was perfectly fried.  Very lightly crisp on the outside, golden brown, and so, so, so light and fluffy and airy inside.  Great flavor to it, didn't taste oily nor greasy.  This is really as good as a basic yeasted donut can get.  ****+.

Overall, I loved everything about this.  The quality of the donut, the frosting, everything.  I'd get it again in a heartbeat, and it made me immediately want to try more donuts from Peter Pan!  ****+, really nearly a perfect *****.

Read More...

Donut Pub, NYC

Another day, another donut.  Whatever city I am in, donuts seem to seek me out.  Certainly, this is helped by the that my offices have a donut rotation, where someone brings in donuts from a place of their choosing every week.  It generally means I get to try donuts from places further away from my house (or where I'm staying) than I'd normally go.  And it means I eat a lot of donuts.

When I was visiting my New York office this summer, it was of course donut day at some point.  My co-worker picked Donut Pub, a donut shop with two locations in Manhattan.  She got a selection of great looking donuts.

Great looking, but, overall, I was not impressed.  The donuts themselves were fairly average, and they relied heavily on far too sweet toppings/fillings.

Birthday Cake. $3.25.

"Yeast raised donut with vanilla icing, sprinkles, topped with buttercream."

The first one I went for was fairly ridiculous looking.  Yes, there was a donut hiding under all those sprinkles and frosting!

This was a raised ring donut, which may not be obvious at first glance, but, it was hollow in the center.  It had both vanilla icing cover it all AND the center filled/topped with buttercream, and of course the very heavy handed (er, generous?) application of sprinkles.  As you can imagine, um, it was a very sweet donut.

The donut itself was very average - average lightness and loftiness, and it was hard to really tell if it was greasy or not due to the toppings.  The vanilla icing was sweet, and the buttercream was crazy cloying sweet, and the sprinkles were the kind that are relatively waxy and, yup, sweet.  It was far too much sugar even for me to have in the morning, but if you think of it more like a cupcake, or perhaps if you are 5 years old, maybe it can be good.

This was a more premium offering, at $3.25, which is still reasonable for most NY donuts, given that $5-6 donuts are pretty normal.  **+.

Brooklyn Cream. $3.25.

"Buttercream filled and topped with chocolate icing."

Next up, I tried the "Brooklyn Cream", which is a play on the Boston cream (which they do also offer), but with buttercream filling rather than custard.

The raised yeast donut was similar to the previous one, fairly lofty, fairly light, but this time, rather than a ring, it was solid, and filled with the same cloying sweet buttercream.  I really love buttercream in general (I'm one who wants a cupcake to have equal parts frosting to cake!), but, I didn't really like this, as it was just too far in the sugar direction, and not enough, well, butter nor cream.  The chocolate icing was fine.

Another premium donut at the reasonable $3.25 price.  **+.

Assorted Regular Donuts: Red Velvet, Vanilla Cream,
Marble Cake, Apple Crumb.  $2.75 each.

A co-worker nicely grabbed me an assortment of other donuts to try.  She selected these, two cake donuts, and two raised.

Red Velvet (Cake):  Big let down. This one really was just a standard glazed old fashioned cake donut.  Yeah, it was reddish, but, I didn't taste anything red velvet about it (no cocoa element, and it seems like a missed opportunity to use a cream cheese glaze rather than generic regular glaze).  So ... interesting color, but average plain sweet glazed cake donut.  **+.

Vanilla Cream Powdered (Raised):  This was very similar to the Brooklyn Cream, but with powdered sugar rather than chocolate icing.  So again, average raised filled donut, cloying sweet frosting, and this time, powdered sugar coating, which didn't help to balance the sweetness in the same way the chocolate glaze did.  **+.

Marble (Cake):  Another cake donut, this one both regular and chocolate.  I don't think I've ever seen a marble donut before, so that was a bit unique.  But the donut itself was very average, and the chocolate flavor not particularly deep.  **+.

Apple Crumb (Raised):  This one was interesting at least.  It was a filled raised yeast donut, stuffed with apple pie filling (e.g. spiced bits of apple and goo), and then frosted with icing, and coated with crumbs.  The spicing was a bit much for my taste, and I was very sick of overly sweet donuts by the time I reached this one, so, the generous icing glaze was not particularly appealing.  A unique one though, so my favorite just as it was most interesting to eat.  ***.

These were all regular donuts, only $2.75 each.

Read More...