Review: Colorado Dining

Colorado Dining

So I'm on vacation out of town and have visited a lot of dining establishments. Bare with me on this review since I am doing it from my phone. Now I use to come to Colorado every summer growing up, but this is the first time I've been back in a couple years. We have went out to eat for pretty much every meal so far, so I have some basic reviews of restaurants we've visited, sadly no pictures since my phone will not let me put them on here.

BJ's Brewery
We visited BJ's the first day we got here. This isn't the first time I've been to BJ's we have one in our hometown that opened not to long ago. But this is the first time I've been able to review it.
I got the Chicken a la fresca, which is a chicken breast on top of a rice pilaf, and some arugala on top the chicken breast. It was topped with a Dijon type dressing that I opted to get on the side. I thoroughly enjoyed the meal, and would definitely order it again. One of the things I'm pickiest about is Chicken, but this chicken had no "bad spots" that's that terminology I use for an array of things that could be wrong with my chicken breast, whether it be grizzle, or a vein running through it. I would reccommend if your coming to BJ's and looking for something on the lighter side to definitely order this.

La Casita
La Casita is one of those fast food type Mexican places maybe a little bit fancier than a Taco Bell, or Del Taco. I remember loving to come to this place growing up, but it has clearly went down hill in my book.
Being just four women on this trip it shouldn't cost us that much to eat, but when we went here our total was $24.00, and we didn't get much.
Cheese enchilada plate
2 cheese enchiladas al acarte
Cheese quesadilla
2 chicken fajita tacos

Seems over priced to me for what was pretty much a fast food joint, and we all got water.
I order the 2 chicken fajita tacos, fajita tacos made them all chicken breast. After I ordered I was quite looking forward to this meal that was until it came and I looked at the chicken, and a big bright red vein is running through almost all the pieces, this turned me off this meal extremely since I had to pick all my chicken apart to make it edible. Then about half way through my first taco I bite into a lovely piece of grizzle, I was done at that point.
I was very disappointed in the quality, and my mom wasn't to pleased with her cheese enchiladas either. My sisters enjoyed there's, but one of them absolutely loves all Mexican food, and for the other it's pretty hard to mess up a cheese quesadilla. Overall it looks like we will not be revisiting this establishment. And to top it all off I was on the toilet the rest of the day clearly from this food.

Review: Shaadzee Fruit Tart

Shaadzee Bakery Bistro

So me, and my dad were trying to find dinner before our tennis match, and ran across Shaadzee Bakery Bistro which is a"European mixture of Mediterranean cuisine" according to there website. We took a quick glance at the menu, and pastries, and decided just to come back after we got some dinner else where, like Togos across the street.

After just a mini turkey, and advocado I decided I needed maybe a pastry from this bakery to fill me up especially before a match. They also had gelato, but since I had just had ice cream the night before I decided against it.

They had a wide variety of pastries that all looked delicious, but I could never pass up a good looking fruit tart. I could have went with a smaller one but those had just one type of berry on top, so I decided on the much bigger one. On this were strawberries, kiwis, maderine oranges, raspberries, and what seemed like backberries.

I took my first bite, and was very pleased it was delicious the filling was some type of custard not overly sweet which is good, becuase the fruit, and shortbread cookie are sweet enough for me. The only problem was about half way through I was just getting sick of it, to me the proportion of tart crust to berries and custard was not enough, it would have been better if the crust was thinner, and there was more custard, and fruit. But overall it was good.

Taste: 6/10

More fruit, and custard would have made this so much better.

Value: 5/10

Our total for this was $6.51 wasn't surprised since everything on the menu was on the pricier side.



Review: El Pollo Loco

Skinless Chicken Breast Combo

Today me, and my mom decided to visit El Pollo Loco after my tennis lesson about 25 minutes away. Sadly this is the closet one to us, so whenever we are up near it we stop by. Now typically I would get my usual order of a BRC burrito, and a small corn cake, but today I decided to venture out, and try something new. I got the skinless chicken breast combo, now I am a big fan of breast meat, or any white meat in general, it was the only thing I grew up eating, so I found dark meat pretty disgusting, and will avoid it if I can. The meat here looked very good, and I was quite excited to try some.

The combo I guess being considered one of there "healthier" options came with fresh vegtables, and a loco salad. I opted for no dressing on the salad since I am not a fan of ranch, and just topped it with there spicy salsa, which made it quite tasty. The fresh vegtables were good, but didn't really taste like much kind of what I expected.

After a few bites of chicken I was very impressed on how well it was cooked for a fast food joint. It was tender, and I think it was perfect without the skin. I'm not a big fan of the skin on the outside anyways. I would recommend you get this meal if your looking for a healthier option at lunch time.

Taste: 6/10

The chicken breast was great, but the sides were just to bland especially the fresh vegtables. Overall though quite enjoyable.

Value: 7/10

At $6.49 for the combo I thought it was a decent value, when it also came with a drink.



Review: Pinkberry Fruit Bowl

So simple I am obsessed with frozen yogurt any, and all kinds if I see a place I haven't tried yet I will make sure I try it right then, and there. Today I was looking for a small snack before work nothing inparticular, and stumbled upon a Pinkberry. I immediately entered, looking for something different I decided to try there fruit bowl. It's a bowl of fruit topped with frozen yogurt of your choice.

The fruit I decided to have in mine was strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, kiwi, mango, and watermelon. Topped with a watermelon fro yo. I was disappointed in the size I thought the amount of fruit would have been more then just one of there small bowls. The watermelon flavor tasted very much like watermelon which I was impressed with. But overall was very tasty, but needed just a touch more yogurt to get just enough for all the fruit.

Taste: 6/10

Tasted good just needed a little more yogurt, and I would have been quite a bit happier.

Value: 4/10

I thought the value was below average, $4.50 for this when a small with toppings is less than 4 dollars. One size bigger at $4.50 would have totally worth it.

Review: Anderson's Split Pea

One of my favorite places to go even if it's extremely out of the way is Anderson's Split Pea in Santa Nella. Even with the gift shop, and over priced candy you can't get better split pea soup anywhere.

Simply what I get everytime one bowl of split pea soup. It's creamy, vegetarian, and always very hot. We could always get the traveler's special which comes with bread, a soda, and unlimited soup, or get the sourdough bread bowl which sounds very good, but me, and my dad always end up with just one bowl of soup each, and many crackers.

This is my dad's lovely creation as always of his split pea soup. 10 saltine crackers, and 2 of the whole wheat rye.

My delicious cracker filled soup. I managed to enjoy every last drip along with some yummy candies from there gift shop.

Taste: 8/10

Soup great soup to have as a snack, or light lunch. One of my favorites. :)

Value: 5/10

At $5.99 a bowl it's on the pricer side since you can buy the cans from most grocery stores for much less. It just doesn't have the same feeling as eating at Anderson's.