Memphis GastroBlog

Sharky’s Gulf Grill

I went to Sharky’s with my wife and son for my birthday. I had wanted to go since they first opened. The sign advertising their oysters also made this place very appealing. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t read some reviews before we went. I saw some mixed user reviews and some fairly positive reviews from the Commercial Appeal. Either way, I always like to form my own opinion so I remained very excited to eat here….. and I’m glad I did.

It was a Tuesday night when we went and they weren’t too busy at all. The atmosphere was very nice. The bar area has a few tv’s so that you could watch the playoffs if you chose to. They also have a fish and lobster tank which kept my son fairly occupied for a while. For our appetizers we chose the half dozen oysters on the half shell, fried calamari, and the fried green tomatoes.

The oysters were very fresh and very very good. I chose to eat mine on a cracker with a little cocktail sauce and some fresh horseradish. I could literally live off of those things. The fried green tomatoes and calamari were also very good. The calamari came with a sweet chile sauce.

For our entrees we got the mac and cheese for my son. (which I stole a bite from and wow it was great!) My wife ordered the fried scallops, and I got the grilled lobster tail. Both came with two sides. I chose the seasonal vegetables (awesome green beans), and smashed potatoes. My wife chose fries with the green beans.

My lobster tail was perfect. It was cooked just like i would have made it. It was very fresh and a pretty good sized one too. The green beans and potatoes were also surprisingly really good. All too often vegetable sides are very bland and almost seem like a waste of space on the plate. These were seasoned perfectly and had a nice crispness to them.

The fried scallops were very creamy and cooked perfectly. I tasted them with tartar sauce, cocktail sauce, and plain. They were great however you prefer to eat them. (I cut a piece up in case you were thinking I ate all of my wife’s food.) We were all very pleased with Sharky’s and we all plan to go back again. The sign that advertises the 50 cent oysters out front more than guarantees it!

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Categories East Memphis

Lou & Mickey’s (San Diego)

17 May

On my first rainy/cold night in San Diego a large group of co workers and I all decided on Lou & Mickey’s for dinner. It wasn’t that far of a walk from our Marriot and their menu looked pretty good. Although we had a fairly large group we were seated almost immediately. Since so many restaurants in San Diego feature local beers a few of my friends and I decided to try out a few. I honestly couldn’t tell you the name of the one I had but it had a grapefruit taste (which I love) that seemed to grow on you. The first gulp seemed rather bitter, but as you make it through your pint it gets exponentially better. (At least in my experience.)

None of us could really decide on what to eat. We were all jet lagged. My end of the table luckily was the more adventurous group and we basically decided on a series of appetizers so that we could sample each others. (Warning: food porn pics ahead)

These are the Oysters Rockefeller. Truly great. They had some nice briny ocean flavor that I love.

Since Lou & Mickeys is famous for their steaks, and since I wasn’t getting a steak…. I decided to get their creamed spinach. I mean… great steak houses should always have great creamed spinach right??

Crispy Calamari…… need I say more??? I think the proximity to the ocean made this taste even better.

We also tried the Seared Rare Yellowfin Tuna, Teriyaki Filet Minon Tips, New Orleans BBQ Shrimp, and their excellent Roasted beet salad with goat cheese. I think we covered the board pretty well wouldn’t you? We all had a great time at Lou & Mickey’s. I always welcome new experiences with food and friends.

www.louandmickeys.com

Tags: calamari, filet minon, gaslamp, oysters; seafood, san diego

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Categories Out of Town

Rockin’ Baja Lobster (San Diego)

17 May

On my recent trip to San Diego my co workers and I had a free afternoon and took a stroll into the Gaslamp District. I’m not really sure why, but we ended up stopping at Rockin Baja for lunch. The weather was perfect so we decided to eat outside on their patio. The temperature was around 70 degrees. It was the right amount of sunshine and not too windy. We were all pretty famished so we ordered pretty quickly. I was pretty disappointed with myself for being in San Diego for three days and not having had any fish tacos. That happened to be the first thing I saw when I opened the menu. I didn’t need to see anything else….

After I ordered I went to wash my hands and when I came out my co workers were huddled around a little nacho bar. They told me that the chips and toppings came free with our lunch. I piled mine high with blackbean salsa and cilantro. Pretty awesome. More places should have free chips and salsas like this. They had at least 10 different kinds to choose from plus other things you could try.

Not long after we inhaled our nachos our lunch came out. One look and I knew I made the right lunch choice.

It actually tasted even better than it looked. The fish was nice and crispy and it had a tremendous flavor. The rice and beans weren’t bad either!! Although we were not very sure how we drifted into Rockin Baja we were all glad we did!

Tags: fish tacos, gaslamp, nachos, salsa, san diego

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Categories Out of Town

Chocolat Cremerie (San Diego)

4 May

Whilst roaming the streets of the Gaslamp District of San Diego my fellow explorers and I found ourselves needing to sit and rest a while. At first we saw a place advertising coffee and cigars. Not completely appealing but we could all grab a coffee and rest a bit. As we got closer we saw the single word that changed our course. “GELATO” That was enough. As if we were telepathically connected we just all immediately headed to Chocolat.

When we walked in we knew…. we just knew. This was the right place. The weather outside was beautiful and they had outdoor seating. They had two large cases filled with all flavors of beautifully arranged gelato. The staff was very friendly. (You could sample any flavor you wanted!)

I’m usually not a big sweets guy but the chocolate looking gelato with the huge chile pepper looked mighty appealing to me. I asked to sample it and I needed no further confirmation. I ordered myself a medium chile pepper dark chocolate gelato alone with a Fiji water.

When you taste it you immediately get a rush of that great dark chocolate. After you swallow it down then the chile flavors come out causing you to want another bite to chase the spiciness away. It’s an evil and awesome conconction. I thoroughly enjoyed it. My friends ordered creamy hazelnut, espresso, and caramel flavors. We were all silent while we sat outside on the sidewalk seating and finished our gelato. This, I think, is confirmation that we all enjoyed our selections.

Tags: chile pepper, gaslamp, gelato, san diego

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Categories Out of Town

Filippi’s Pizza Grotto (San Diego)

3 May

On my recent work trip to San Diego, CA I met up with my wife’s cousin and his good friend for dinner. He insisted we head out to Mira Mesa to try out this “incredible” prime rib place. Who am I to san no to that?? Any place would have been fine to be completely honest though he did have me at “prime rib.”

So when drove out to the Mira Mesa area of San Diego and we pulled into the parking lot of an Italian pizza place. I was curious but still excited. As we waited to be seated I looked around and saw some very incredible looking dishes on the tables. I saw some very good looking pizzas, lasagna, pastas, and other great looking things. I wondered just why a person would come here and order prime rib.

When we sat down we all knew what we wanted. My two fellow diners ordered appetizers. Wings of Fire and the Shrimp Jumpers I believe. We also wasted no time in ordering the Filippi’s cut prime rib at $25.50. It comes with a salad and a side of choice. I opted for a baked potato. The other guys chose rigatoni and steak fries.

We chowed down on the appetizers for a while and when our main entree came out I will admit right here and how that I completely underestimated it. This thing was absolutely massive. It came with two nice sized cups of house made horseradish and a nice cup of au jus.

These guys know how to order let me tell you. The neighboring customers who’s jaws weren’t already opened offered to buy our doggy bags. This is how great this massive cut of meat looked. We all ordered ours medium rare. (I mean its prime rib man.) The picture I took does it no justice. I’ll admit I can usually hang with the best when it comes to casual eating. I didn’t even touch my baked potato. I fully regretted even taking a single bite from my salad. I wish I had come on a completely empty stomach so that I could devour this beast the way it should be devoured.

The meat was perfectly seasoned and cooked. The au jus was phenomenal. I was able to just eat the prime rib all the way to the bone, but there was still plenty of meat left. Luckily all the meaty bones were saved for my friends dog. Trust me when I say he ate like a king that Friday night. I know I did.

I’m very thankful that I was introduced to Filippi’s and I will always remember that huge cut of beef that I couldn’t quite conquer!

Tags: italian, mira mesa, prime rib, san diego

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Categories Out of Town

Shang Hai

2 May

On a recent lunch date with my wife and son my wife suggested we try Shang Hai. It is right across the street from my favorite Vietnamese joint. (Pho Vietnam) I had seen the place many times but had never had the pleasure of stopping in. She doesn’t work very far from there and she had been quite a few times. I’m not sure at all what the building used to be. It looks like the Starbucks on Poplar/White Station used to look before they remodeled. I’m sure someone out there could help me with that as it was most likely a chain location. Anyway, back to my story.

The sign out front says that they serve Thai and Vietnamese food. Personally, I’m down with both so I knew I couldn’t go wrong here. When we walked in and sat down I looked around and I immediately picked up on the family vibe. There were several people eating there for lunch. (Always a good sign) The owner came over and handed us some menus and took out drink orders. She was extremely nice. I could see that it is truly a family owned and oriented type business. They knew many of their regulars by name.

We saw many things on the menu that would like to try but we kept it fairly basic for my first trip. We ordered the house combo fried rice. My wife ordered the house combo noodles. I ordered the Moo Goo Beef which came with fried rice and an egg roll. While waiting on our food everyone in the restaurant was visited by a little girl, presumably a grand-daughter of the owner, named Madison. Of course everyone contributed “Awwww’s” and “How cute’s”. This was further testament to the family atmosphere of the restaurant.

Our food came out fairly quickly to my relief. I was pretty hungry!! We all sampled each others dishes and I will say I was very impressed with it all. I had never had moo goo beef before (sheltered I know) and I must say it was great. The rock star of the lunch though was the fried egg roll. It was big, fried, and full of stuff. It had the clear noodles typically inside Vietnamese spring rolls. It also had lots of vegetables and plenty of ground pork. Looking back I might have just ordered a dozen or so of those bad boys and I would have been very content.

All in all I’m very glad my wife suggested Shang Hai. I’m glad to add it to my list of favorites for Memphis eateries. I’m also dying to go back and try the beef noodle soup for lunch. I highly recommend this place to anyone who loves great Asian food.

My Moo Goo Beef

Combo Fried Rice

House Noodles Combo

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Categories Midtown

Asian Palace

18 Apr

I have to thank my mother-in-law for recommending this fine eatery. She had been with some friends and really liked it. When she suggested it I remembered having read a few reviews about it so obviously I was interested. So my wife, son, mother in law, and I set off on a Saturday evening to eat there and try some of their Dim Sum.

Walking in I was completely impressed by the size of the place. They have plenty of seating with very high ceilings making it seem very spacious. The have some beautiful artwork on the walls. Once seated I glanced over and saw a picture featuring a woman (I assume an owner) with Emeril Lagasse. I’m not sure why but this made me pretty excited. I will tell you now that I really enjoyed my experience there so bear with me because this post will contain plenty of pictures.

The dim sum menu (pictured above) was full of some great food. We were pretty hungry and knew ahead of time we would have some leftovers so we ordered a lot. We ordered the following from the dim sum menu: Steamed Pork Bun, Chicken Feet, Shrimp & Chive Dumpling, Hong Kong Style Egg Roll, and Fried Eggplant stuff with Shrimp. For entree menus they have two. They have their usual Americanized Chinese menu. (Don’t even bother) They also have the Authentic Chinese Cuisine menu. (Please ask for this one if they don’t give it to you.) From this menu we ordered the Crispy Prawn with Spicy Salt, Salted Fish Fried Rice, and the House Combo Noodles.

(Fried eggplant stuffed with shrimp)

(Steamed pork buns)

(Dumplings with shrimp and chive)

(chicken feet)
Everything, I mean everything, was exceptional. The one thing I failed to get a decent pic of was the Hongkong Style Egg Roll. I truly regret this because it is by far the best egg roll I have ever eaten. I mean it. It was stuffed with shrimp and I admit I hogged it and ate three. It was phenomenal.

Here are the pics from our entrees. Each was exceptional. The prawns come with the heads on. (if that’s your thing) I also would encourage you to get a bite of jalepeno with the shrimp. (Makes it even better in my opinion.)

The house noodles came with large egg noodles. It had beautiful pieces of bok choi, and other vegatables. It had beef, pork, shrimp, and chicken. Just completely delicious.

The salted fish fried rice is not for beginners. It does have a faint fishy smell, but please believe me it is worth it. I have had this at New Asia in Germantown. I thought it was just as good, if not better, than New Asia. It had nice salty pieces of fish and it’s superb.

I told you there would be lots of pics! As you could probably tell I loved this place. All this food with a tip was just over $70. Not bad at all if you ask me. Although I’m not in that area very often I will definately make sure I find an excuse to head over there soon. Did I mention they have Bubble Tea???!!!??? If you haven’t ever tried bubble tea then nothing I can say will do it justice. The “bubbles” area actually tapioca pearls. It can be made in a combination of my fruilt flavors or even red bean….if that’s your thing. Unfortunately they were out of tapioca pearls when we went and trust me it just isn’t the same without it. Asian Palace has just made it to the top of my list for Authentic Asian restaurants anywhere!

Tags: authentic chinese, dim sum, memphis

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Categories Other Memphis Areas

Hunan Palace

18 Apr

I’ve been a fan of Hunan for some years now. My wife and I used to eat at their location by the former Schnucks frequently. When they moved the first time to the spot formerly occupied by Bangkok Alley we never made it. Now they are right next to O’Charley’s where Topz Burgers used to be. Their current space is much smaller that the one I was used to.

We ordered an appetizer called that included wings, gyoza, egg rolls, shrimp rolls, and crab rangoons. The wings were pretty inedible. They were burnt and tasted like they were cooked in old oil. My wife and I both took a single bite and put it back on the platter. The one thing that I was completely impressed with was the shrimp rolls. It’s pretty simple. It’s just seasoned shrimp in an egg rolls wrapper, but it tasted great.

For our entrees we ordered Moo Goo Gai Pan (for me), Combination Lo Mein (my wife), and shrimp fried rice (my son). It was part of a lunch special so we got an egg roll and choice of soup. We all chose the Won Ton. (My all time fave.)

The soup wasn’t as good as I remembered it before. They used to put little strips of pork in it and scallions. Now it’s just a huge won ton and broth. Still good once I added a little more salt. My wife was pretty disappointed that she couldn’t get the angel hair noodles for her lo mein. That used to be her favorite dish. What she got did not resemble in any way the dish she used to get.

It still tasted pretty good in my opinion. The shriimp fried rice was, on the other hand, exactly how I remembered it. Very tasty and had some great shrimp in it.

My Moo Goo Gai Pan wasn’t very good at all. It was completely bland. The only part they were generous with was the snow peas which was pretty much all I ate out of the dish.

Overall everyone was really nice. The restaurant was very clean, and the food was presented well. We had fun while there although not everything tasted good. I do encourage you to visit and try it out for yourself. I’m really hoping I visited on an “off” day. I do plan on visiting again to see some improvement.

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Categories Cordova

Memphis Dawgs Hot Dog Cart

13 Apr

Every since I read Shannon’s review of Memphis Dawgs on memphisfoodie.com I’ve wanted to try this place out. Until then I didn’t even know it existed. (Pretty ashamed I was.) So I started following Todd on Twitter and when I heard the excellent news that he would be in Wolfchase Galleria for the month of April I was extremely excited. I even tweeted him to tell him as much.

Luckily I had the perfect excuse to go to Wolfchase on my lunch hour to run an errand for my wife. Naturally I hit the food court to locate the famous Memphis Dawgs cart. It took me a minute to realize that he was occupying the space that used to be the Subway. So I headed right over and was thrilled to find that he had his actual cart parked inside the space. After a quick glance at the menu I knew immediately that I wanted the Memphis dog. It comes with slaw and BBQ sauce.

It was very delicious. Niced plump Nathan’s dog with some great slaw and BBQ sauce. It was everything I hoped it would be and more.
I got a drink and a bag of chips to go with it. A pretty damn good lunch if I say so myself. I also tried their strawberry cake which was a very good ending to my already great lunch.

It was a very awesome experience. I left the mall with a huge smile on my face and already tweeting about how great I thought it was. If you are in Wolfchase this month I implore you to bypass the national chains and head strait for the Memphis Dawgs Hot Dog Cart. You will not be sorry!!!

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Categories Cordova

Tao Too Asian Eatery

4 Apr

I stumbled upon this great place a few days ago while out and about with my wife and son. We had originally intended to go to Sakura, but something about this little place stood out. I had never heard of it for one. We always like to try new places. As soon as I looked at the menu I knew we made the right choice.

You may not be able to see it, but they advertise having always fresh ingredients. Our waitress was very knowledgeable about everything on the menu and she was also very nice. She recommended the crispy tofu appetizer so we ordered that.

This stuff was so outstanding I’m dying to eat it again. The crispy tofu is served over sauteed peppers, jalepenos, and onions and some crispy noodles. It’s like two great things in one. If you order this I insist that you also eat the stuff it’s served on. The whole thing comes with some great ginger soy dipping sauce.

For my entree I chose the Tom Yum Soup (aka Thai Gumbo). (After quickly reading a review from fellow blogger at burnmymouth.com) I fully agree. It was just perfect. The right amount of spiciness and flavor. It comes with lots of shrimp and chicken and great vegetables. Definitely would be perfect if you were under the weather or hungover. Just phenomenal.

My wife and son shared the chef’s fried rice and the Ocean Trio. The fried rice was great. It comes with a combo of beef, shrimp, and chicken. The ocean trio was very impressive. It comes with some great chunks of lobster, shrimp, and scallops. It is great served over the steamed rice they give you.

We had a great time eating here on a Sunday afternoon. So good in fact I am probably going to have this for lunch today!