Donato's Pizza

I know it has been a while since I posted. My travels have taken me to places recently where no blog-worthy food is available. Fortunately this week, I have a real treat! My travels have taken me back to Dayton, Ohio, where my bio explains I moved from two years ago. I didn't have many pictures from my favorite food in the Dayton area, but am here all this week. I am trying to hit all my absolute favorite places while I am here.

Yesterday for lunch I chose Donato's Pizza. This pizza chain started in Columbus, Ohio in the 1960's. It seems to be localized to Ohio, and is quite unique. This is one of my favorite Dayton area pizzas, mainly because of its "edge to edge" topping philosophy. When I'm in the mood, I like deep dish as well, but most of the time I don't prefer a lot of crust, and like my toppings more. This is the case with Donato's. They also have a couple of unique flavors that I love. Their "Founder's Favorite" is my favorite, being a total meat pizza but with the addition of banana peppers, which really add a nice taste to the sausage, ham, bacon, and pepperoni. My other favorite is just a cheese pizza. There is something special about the seasoning they add to their cheese pizza, and they use provolone cheese, which gives it a different taste than the usual mozzarella.

If you find yourself thinking about edge-to-edge toppings pizza when you are in Ohio, give Donato's a try. I would put it in my top 5 favorite pizzas.
Web Site: www.donatos.com

 

Fourleaf Chopped Salads

I have been meaning to review this place for a while, but didn't have any photos until today. I guess you can know that a place is good when I eat my food before taking pictures!
I don't consider myself a big salad buff, but a friend turned me on to Fourleaf about a year ago, and it has become one of my favorite lunch spots when I am home at the office. It is a salad restaurant, where the salad chefs make your salad to order for you. There is a base menu with many different pre-determined recipes for great salads, such as Buffalo Chicken, BBQ Chicken, South Western, Steakhouse, and many others. You can always get creative and build your own creation, though. The one shown in the first photo below is a romaine and spinach mix with avocado, bacon, double steak, cheddar, tomatoes, croutons, and Italian dressing. What I like best about the salads here is that they gather all the ingredients in your bowl, then dump it all out at the end on a cutting board, and chop it all up into bite size pieces, then scoop it all into a mixing bowl and add your dressing. They mix it all up so that when they put it in the serving bowl, every bite you take has dressing on it and is full of flavor. They have a great variety of ingredients and dressings, all of which that I have tried so far are delicious. They have two sizes of bowls, small and large. A small is plenty of food for just about anyone. You always get a free freshly baked bread stick with every salad.
The location itself is a bit hard to find, and not right out in the open for all to see. Word of mouth about their delicious salads and great service has caused this to be a very busy place, though. It is always busy for lunch every day, but you get your salads quickly none the less. Finding a seat is the only hard part. If you're in the Greenwood Village area of South East Denver, you must stop by and check this place out!
Location:  6840 South Dallas Way (near Arapahoe & Clinton) Greenwood Village, CO 80112
Web site: http://fourleafchoppedsalads.blogspot.com/

 

Oklahoma Joe's Barbecue

Since I was in the Kansas City area trying various BBQ restaurants, a friend suggested I try Oklahoma Joe's Barbecue, that it was their favorite. I took the family for lunch, and we all split various platters so I could sample as many meats as possible. I tried their pulled pork, which I wasn't too impressed with. It wasn't very juicy or tasty by itself. I also tried the sliced turkey, which I thought was okay. It had a good flavor to it and was moist. Their brisket was better than average, though. I liked it a lot. It had a good flavor to it and was very juicy. I believe baked beans to be a staple of a BBQ meal, so I tried theirs. I wasn't too impressed. It was more like chili than BBQ beans, very thick and it lacked meat. It had a spice to it that was more like chili should have, not BBQ. The regular BBQ sauce was average, but I did like their hot BBQ sauce a lot, which they called "Night of the Living Barbecue Sauce". It had a nice kick to it and was quite tasty.
I have to say, this restaurant was not consistent to Kansas City style barbecue. It was closer to a Texas style, which I usually prefer. But this BBQ was just above average in my opinion. I probably wouldn't go again, given my other choices in the Kansas City area. It's worth trying though.The prices were average, and it was fast and friendly, a good lunch place for sure.
Web site: http://www.oklahomajoesbbq.com/

 

Smokestack BBQ

While in Kansas City, I was told by someone close to me, that their favorite BBQ was Smokestack. We decided to get some takeout from the one location left, of more than one that used to exist. We got the Roundup Platter for Two, which came with four meaty ribs, and our choice of three other smoked meats. We chose the brisket, the pork loin, and the turkey. The platter also came with beans, cole slaw, bread, pickles, and fries. It was a generous portion for a great price - about $27 for all of that.
I wasn't too impressed. It was average BBQ at best. The beans were tasty, Kansas City style sweet, but did have lots of meat in them. The brisket was above average, but the rest was pretty plain. I wasn't a big fan of the ribs. They were pretty dry and tough. We got a side of what I was told was their spicier sauce. I didn't think it had much of a kick at all, and the flavor wasn't anything extraordinary.
With all the other BBQ options in the Kansas City area, I wouldn't go here again. It's pretty good, but there are many better choices. I give it three stars, maybe two and a half.
Web site: http://www.smokestackbbq.com/

Jack Stack Barbecue

After my critique of Arthur Bryant's barbecue in Kansas City, I was told there are other really good BBQ places in the Mid West. One of those places I was told is Jack Stack Barbecue. Being in the Kansas City area for family this weekend, I decided to try this out. It was actually the second time I have had Jack Stack, but I don't remember much about the first time. We got a few large portions for carry out this time. I have to say, I was really impressed this time. Kansas City BBQ is a bit different than what I am used to, being known for its sauces being tomato and molasses based, so on the sweet side. I really liked it, though. We got brisket, which was average as far as the meat taste alone. We also got the smoked pork, which I thought was amazing! The taste of the pork alone was excellent, and it was very tender and juicy. I liked Jack Stack original sauce on the meats. It didn't have very much of a "kick" like I prefer, but it was good. The beans on the side, however, were awesome! They were sweet, but very meaty with lots of pork mixed in. I say their beans are a must-try.
As for the restaurant itself, I remember dining in the first time I went here, and it was pleasant. The prices look comparable to other BBQ places. Overall, I give this BBQ four stars, and recommend it if you're in the Kansas City area. We went to the Overland Park location, but there are three others in the area.
Web site: http://www.jackstackbbq.com/

 

Pho Saigon

Nearby the office in the South-East Denver area, there is a Vietnamese restaurant called Pho Saigon. I love this place. The food is great and the service is quick and friendly. I go for lunch, and make it a point to get there early because this place gets packed around noon, with a line out the door waiting to be seated. They have the usual Vietnamese menu, which has very good prices as well. Entrees are all under $10. I usually get the medium P6, which is Pho noodles in broth with steak and brisket. Sometimes I get an extra side of noodles for $1.50, which I could do without, because even a small Pho bowl is plenty of food. The meats themselves are a little bland in the Pho, but that's where the Hoisin sauce comes in. Theirs is really good, and I just pour a lot of it into the broth until it has the taste I like. They also have real fruit smoothies here, which are excellent as well. You have to specifically ask for them without tapioca if you don't want it in your smoothie, since the default is to add tapioca. The smoothie also might not be a good idea with Pho because the broth is so hot and the smoothie is so cold, my stomach always regrets the combination. I highly recommend this place if you're in the area!
Location: 9555 E Arapahoe Rd # 4, Greenwood Vlg, CO 80112 (720) 873-8899

Jabo's Bar-Be-Q

I was turned on to this barbecue place nearby my office recently and decided to go check it out. The reviews of this place are mostly very good, with people saying this was the best BBQ anywhere. I wouldn't go that far, but it was very, very good.
I have only been here once so far, and had their Jabo's Famous Jabo Link, which is a 1/3 pound Jabo custom Polish hot link, topped with 1/2 pound of your choice of chicken, beef brisket, or pulled pork, as well as your choice of their selection of sauces. They don't have their sauces on the table, so you have to select one. If it is your first time or need help with a sauce selection, they bring out a tray with small samples of each. You pick a choice of flavor and hotness. I tried all their flavors and thought they were all wonderful, but chose the Mango flavor, and Hot for hotness (#3 on a scale of 1 to 5). I thought Hot was a little mild for my tastes, so I will probably go a notch higher next time. I got the beef brisket for the topping meat, and was a bit disappointed. I have had much better brisket before. I will try their pork next time. The sauce on the brisket made it pretty good, but I tried a piece without sauce, and it was less than average. The hot link itself, however, was awesome! It wasn't too hot, but had a really good flavor and was nice and juicy. It left me feeling nice and warm inside for the afternoon!
Between myself and the others that I dined with for lunch, we got a couple of their sides: the baked beans, and their french fries. Both were awesome! The fries were fresh and nicely battered and crisp. The beans had a distinct sweetness to them, almost like brown sugar or molasses. They were very tasty, not as spicy as I usually like, but good nonetheless.
The prices at this place are a bit steep, but average for a BBQ restaurant I suppose. The Jabo Link I got was $9 just for the sandwich, not including sides, which are around $2.50 each. I also thought it a bit odd that they offered a 5% discount if you paid cash, so we did. I won't judge, except for the food, which was worth it in my opinion.
I would not say this is the BEST barbecue ever, but it is close to the best I have had in the Denver area so far. I give it four solid stars, and recommend it if you're in the South East Denver area.
Location: 9862 E. Arapahoe Road, Englewood, CO 80112 Phone: (303) 799-4432