Udom Thai

As followers of the Rocky Mountain Oyster have probably figured out, Mr. Oyster and I have no ability whatsoever to feed ourselves. Instead, we rely on others to prepare delicious and unique food that we can enjoy in exchange for a reasonable fee. 

Being fans of Thai food, we've been on the lookout for delicious Thai that's close to our jobs and house in the south suburbs. Tuk Tuk suffices for a quick weekday lunch, but Thai Monkey Club is our true favorite for Thai. The Monkey Club, however, requires a long trek up to Broadway - that's no good on a weeknight when I'm craving spicy curry. 

Based on some outstanding Yelp reviews and its close proximity to our neighborhood, we tried Udom Thai at Dry Creek and University for a very late lunch this past Saturday. 

Udom Thai is situated in a nondescript location in a strip mall next to a King Soopers and a few other small chain restaurants. It's not far from the SouthGlenn shopping area and Land of Sushi, both of which lie a few blocks to the north on University. 

We showed up at the somewhat odd hour of 3 pm on a Saturday for a very late lunch. Despite the shining reviews, the restaurant certainly wasn't busy when we arrived. In fact, it was empty, and even the staff was absent when we first walked into the dining room.

We were soon greeted by a woman who emerged from the kitchen, apologized for the very short wait and immediately seated us. The interior of Udom Thai was clean and sparsely decorated, with light green walls and dark tables and chais.  

We started off by splitting a small bowl of Tom Yum Chicken Soup ($5.95). 

Tom Yum Chicken Soup

The traditional Thai soup was made with lemongrass, lime leaves, galangal, straw mushrooms, tomatoes, onion and cilantro, and was packed with chicken pieces. The soup was tangy, sour, and sweet, but with a very light and clear broth. We loved every sip of it.

For his main dish, my husband ordered the Drunken Noodles with chicken ($8.95), spiced "hot."

Drunken Noodles with Chicken

The noodles had a perfect chile heat and a great flavor to the sauce. The dish was packed with vegetables and substantial pieces of chicken. One thing I wasn't crazy about, however, was that many of the noodles were congealed together. Nonetheless, this was a pretty solid plate of Drunken Noodles, although I do prefer the more peanut-heavy concoction made by Thai Monkey Club.

My main plate was - no surprise here - the Panang Curry with chicken ($9.95 + $1 for brown rice), spiced "hot." I ordered brown rice in place of white rice, which cost an additional $1.

Panang Curry

The curry broth had a good flavor, with chile heat and the sweetness of coconut milk. It was packed full of carrots and bell peppers, but I was perplexed by the addition of peas to the mix of vegetables. They were too sweet for my liking, and certainly didn't seem authentic. Like my husband's Drunken Noodles, I really enjoyed the curry, though I prefer the analogous dish at Thai Monkey Club.

Service at Udom Thai was outstanding, although we were dining at off-peak hours and we were the only ones there.

Udom Thai served up some tasty and quick southeast Asian dishes, and stands out as one of few good Thai places in the south suburbs. We'll likely swing by in the future for some weeknight dinners.


Everyday Dining

7 of 10

Pros: Great service, good food
Cons: Boring strip mall location

Website:
http://udomthairestaurant.com

Land of Sushi

One frustration about living in the south suburbs is, as Westword points out at every opportunity, a lack of interesting local dining options. In particular, my husband and I have struggled to find a local sushi restaurant that compares to Sushi Den or Sushi Sasa closer to downtown.

I was therefore intrigued - and surprised - to see a Centennial sushi restaurant I'd never heard of win "Best Sushi Restaurant - 2012" from Westword recently.

That restaurant was Land of Sushi, and it didn't take long for us to decide to give it a try.

But if it weren't for the gushing from Westword, I probably would have steered clear of Land of Sushi. Nothing about the exterior of Land of Sushi is particularly appealing. Not the name, nor the glowing red letters that spell it out, nor the strip mall location across from the newly redeveloped SouthGlenn area.

Last weekend, we arrived to a nearly-full Land of Sushi at around 6:45 pm on Friday evening. The sparsely-decorated, L-shaped restaurant was smaller than I expected. It had no real waiting area, and a couple tables were placed far too close to the entrance. We sat at the small sushi bar, where our dishes were placed on plastic placemats with a fake wood pattern on them. After an initial mix-up between waiters, we were situated with drinks and menus.

We were soon glad we had arrived when we did, as the restaurant quickly filled to capacity, and a small crowd waited for their tables outside.

And although I often cringe at Westword's characterizations of suburban-restaurant ambiance, Land of Sushi certainly reflects the influence of the surrounding Centennial demographics. The restaurant was packed with families, waitstaff shuttled giant boats of sushi and sashimi to tables, and the atmosphere was casual, quiet, and mellow.

To start our meal, we ordered the Fatty Big Eye Tuna Sashimi with Avocado ($16).

Fatty Big Eye Tuna Sashimi with Avocado

I regret that the picture turned out a bit blurry on this one; it doesn't do justice to the beautiful presentation. The fatty big eye tuna slices were buttery, tender, and fresh. The creamy avocado atop each slice was an excellent compliment to every bite.

Our next plate included four orders of salmon sashimi ($2.5/ea, $10 for four orders as shown in photo) and an Ebi Tempura Roll ($7.5)

Ebi Tempura Roll (Front), Salmon Sashimi (Back)

The Ebi Tempura Roll was packed with tempura shrimp, crab, avocado and lettuce. It was the least interesting thing we ordered at Land of Sushi and was really a very average American-style sushi roll. The tempura batter was way too heavy on the shrimp; each bite left me with an unwanted mouthful of panko.

The salmon, however, was perfect. Thinly sliced, fresh, and delicately marbled with fat, I could have eaten several more orders of the fish.

Still hungry, we moved on to our final dish of the night, the Green Monster Roll ($13), which consisted of a green soy paper wrapper stuffed with tuna, crab, fried red snapper, and avocado.

Green Monster Roll

Land of Sushi has plenty of authentic Japanese dishes on the menu, but this certainly wasn't one of them. It was delicious nonetheless; I loved the combination of seafood, delicate sushi rice, and creamy avocado. The soft soy paper was a perfect alternative to nori as a wrapper, and contrasted with the slight crunch of the fried snapper.

Service at Land of Sushi was efficient and attentive. Our neighboring diners seemed to mostly be regulars, and that's no surprise. Despite the no-frills atmosphere, the sushi is good, service is quick, and the location is convenient.

We're looking forward to throwing Land of Sushi into regular rotation on our dining schedule. The restaurant certainly delivers on sushi quality, although it doesn't stand out like Sushi Den or Sushi Sasa downtown in terms of ambiance and authenticity.



Casual Dining

  (7 of 10)

Pros: Great sushi, quick service
Cons: Boring location and decor


 

Pho 95

Needing some pho this past weekend and intrigued by the positive reviews that Pho 95 received on Yelp and Urbanspoon, my husband and I headed over for lunch.

Normally for a Vietnamese food fix, we head to Pho Saigon in Englewood, so everything at Pho 95 was judged relative to its south-suburban counterpart a few miles further east on Arapahoe.

Pho 95 is situated in the 'burbs at Littleton's SouthGlenn development, which is a totally different environment from its Pho 95 predecessor off Federal. Nonetheless the restaurant seems to do extremely well in suburbia.

We arrived on a Sunday around 1 pm to a brightly decorated, mostly-full restaurant, and were immediately seated at a booth near the window.

We began with our usual starter, the Shrimp and Pork Spring Rolls ($3.95):

Pork and Shrimp Spring Rolls

The rolls contained high-quality shrimp and pork, but otherwise were stuffed with only rice noodles and lettuce and were a bit bland. The peanut sauce tasted too much like overly sweet peanut butter.

Our main dishes were small bowls of Pho Tai or Beef Pho ($6) for my husband and Pho Bo Vien or Meatball Pho ($6) for myself.

Pho Bo (Beef Pho)

Meatball Pho

The soup was accompanied by a giant plate of veggies:

Pho Vegetables

You really can't tell from the photo above, but the plate came with a mountain of bean sprouts that were a bit brown and not particularly fresh tasting.

Other than the dreary bean sprouts, however, the pho was fantastic. The broth was light and pleasantly salty. The meatballs and beef slices in our respective bowls were comprised of thinly sliced, high quality meats. The soup was packed full of meat and noodles, and we threw in handful after handful of veggies on the side.

Service was ridiculously fast, efficient, and friendly. I'm pretty sure we only had time to blink between placing our orders and seeing the spring rolls delivered to our table.

Overall we loved the pho (minus the bean sprouts), but the spring rolls were disappointing. Worth another visit.


Everyday Dining

(8 of 10)


Pros: Great pho, cheap, fast service
Cons: Some aspects of food below average

Website:
http://www.pho95noodlehouse.com

Snooze, Visit #2

Note: This is a follow-up review after our first visit a few weeks ago. 

It was inevitable: the allure of all the amazing-sounding dishes we didn't get to try at our last Snooze escapade drew us in for another visit last weekend.

This time, we brought a couple of friends along and tried to show up early-ish to minimize the wait. Fortunately, the four of us only had to wait 20 minutes after our 8:45 Sunday morning arrival for a table (keep in mind this is the suburban location at Southglenn).

The portions at Snooze being too large, and the amazing food options being too numerous, we decided to drive our waitress crazy with a mishmash of everything delicious we saw on the menu. I should point out that our waitress was really nice about our goofy orders and did a great job.

Let's get started.

Half order of Sticky Bun French Toast:

Sticky Bun French Toast (half order)

We all loved this, but it was extremely rich. The single slice of toast was smothered in a generous helping of syrup, nuts and cream cheese icing. Even splitting the half portion among four of us, it was hard to finish the whole plate because it was so sweet.

A full-size order of Peaches 'n Cream French Toast:

Peaches 'n Cream French Toast 

This wasn't as delectable as the Sticky Bun variety, but also not as overwhelmingly sweet. I loved the crunchy granola topping and the refreshing taste of the peaches.

We warned our friend that there was no way he could finish an entire portion of the Blueberry Lemon Bar Pancakes, but he ordered them anyway.

Blueberry Lemon Bar Pancakes

He finished them off. Unbelievable. These pancakes have a pleasant tart flavor and are covered in a honey-yogurt sauce made with local Noosa yogurt. My husband preferred these over the Pineapple Upside Down Pancakes from our last visit.

We also ordered two of the Juan's Breakfast Tacos (a normal portion comes with three). The tacos came filled with scrambled eggs, shredded hash browns, jack cheese, ranchero sauce, and we added chorizo to make things more interesting.

Juan's Breakfast Tacos

I loved the ranchero sauce, and I definitely preferred the tacos over the breakfast burrito I had at my last visit. Still, I thought they needed Cholula for an extra kick.

Finally, I couldn't decide between eggs benedicts, so I went with one each of the Caprese and the Upstream Benny. The Caprese had an heirloom tomato atop mozzarella and ciabatta bread, topped with the usual poached egg and hollandaise sauce, with basil pesto and balsamic. The Upstream Benny included smoked salmon on bacon-jalapeno spoonbread.

Left: Caprese Benedict   Right: Upstream Benny   Back: Hash Browns

The Caprese benedict tasted like a hybrid of bruschetta and eggs benedict. I really enjoyed the fresh flavor of the tomato, but the mozzarella was so gooey that it was a bit hard to eat. I preferred the very unique Upstream Benny (I'm a huge salmon fan), although the spoonbread just tasted like cornbread to me. The hash browns were just average.

Feeling like a seasoned Snooze pro after all that food (ok, I really only have two visits under my belt), I bring you the following recommendations for any visit to Snooze:

• Be prepared for a wait at any of their locations
• Not the most relaxing experience as things can be rushed for table turnover
• Portions, especially for sweet dishes, are way too big. Get a half order, or split with lots of friends, or both
• Recommend getting additional meat and/or veggies in savory dishes

Snooze seems poised to take over the planet, with new locations coming soon in Boulder and San Diego, CA, so be prepared for a future full of giant breakfast burritos and red velvet pancakes. I know I'm ready.

The food at Snooze is very unique and mostly awesome. We've always had good or great service, and the waits have never been too awful. I'm therefore handing out an additional star to Snooze @ Southglenn, so they're now an 8-star joint instead of a 7-er from the initial review.


Everyday Dining

(8 of 10)



Pros: Great food, able to mix and match menu items, really unique breakfast choices
Cons: Long waits, feeling rushed, giant sugary portions

Website:
http://www.snoozeeatery.com

Snooze

Snooze is another restaurant that's kind of a big deal, and I've been wanting to go for months now. I mean, this is a place that offers Red Velvet Pancakes, how can you go wrong?

The downside of being kind of a big deal is that everyone else is trying to eat there too. When we stopped by their Centennial location last Sunday morning, a quick look at the crowds standing outside idly made it obvious we were in for a bit of a wait. They also don't take reservations, which was frustrating.

We were told by the staff that our party of 2 would be a 15 to 25-minute wait. That stretched out to about half an hour before we were seated.

Snooze has a pretty jazzy looking interior, with pale green walls, giant orange light fixtures, and huge circular tables. It was, of course, packed to capacity.

Making a decision on our meal selections was tough. There were about five or six dishes we each wanted to try. I'll just refer to you to their full menu. You'll understand our dilemma.

My husband decided on the Pineapple Upside Down Pancakes. From the menu: Caramelized pineapple chunks with housemade vanilla crème anglaise and cinnamon butter.

Pineapple Upside Down Pancakes

These pancakes were every bit as rich and delectable as you'd imagine. Fluffy, white pancakes filled with sweet pineapple pieces and topped with a rich drizzle of rich sweet cream-cheesy "syrup" that was almost like a glaze.

The only problem? It was way too sweet and rich for the portion size. This is a hyperglycemic attack on a plate.

I didn't notice until after we'd dug in was that Snooze offers "a la carte" pancakes. I really wish we'd just ordered a single pancake alongside something with more nutritional value. The two enormous pancakes were just too much.

Anyway, moving on to my selection: the Breakfast Burrito. From the menu: Filled with scrambled eggs, hash browns, house black beans, cheddar & jack cheese, topped with salsa fresca and your choice of green chili or ranchero.

Breakfast Burrito with Green Chili

This monster was delicious, but why such a measly helping of green chili? I was expecting a far more generous smothering. The burrito was a little bland and would have been outstanding with more green chili flavor in each bite.

My portion was also too big, and even with some help from my lovely partner in crime, we had to push ourselves to finish three-quarters of it.

Our service was alright. Obviously it was a very busy place and I felt like we were rushed a little bit for the sake of table turnover.

I'd definitely return to Snooze, assuming I could get there early enough in the morning to avoid a substantial wait. The menu has too many delicious-sounding items that I have yet to devour.



Everyday Dining

 (7 of 10)

Pros: Great tasting food. Unique options. Cheap.
Cons: Long wait to eat, and they don't take reservations. Beware the full pancake portions (I recommend a la carte pancakes).

Website:
http://www.snoozeeatery.com