Friday, September 26, 2008

Shanghai Chinese Cuisine, LLC

Shanghai gets rave reviews by almost everyone I've conversed with in Fresno. I vaguely remember trying it way back in high school and I think I enjoyed it. That was before I learned about the vastness of Chinese cuisine in college. I didn't know Asian food could be Americanized. That was foolish of me, if Mexican food could be Americanized to the degree of Taco Bell, how far off could Panda Express be. Chinese restaurants in Fresno are predominately Americanized. There are a few gems in town but Shanghai is not one of them. My hubby wanted to taste for himself what all the buzz was about so we went to dinner as a family and ordered the Shanghai Imperial Dinner which comes with the following for $14.99 per person, minimum of 2 orders.

Sizzling Rice Soup
Sodium and grease laden water with no fresh ingredients. High blood pressure in a bowl.

Chinese Chicken Salad
If this is on the menu and it's authenticity you're after, hit the door. There's absolutely nothing authentic about Chinese chicken salad. This one was a platter of iceberg lettuce with some old fried chicken (probably fried 2+ days ago) and fried won ton skins drizzled in a sweet & tangy (in all the wrong places) dressing.

Sweet & Pungent Shrimp
Nothing sweet about this dish. Pungent=acutely distressing.

Pork Dumplings
The filling is a big glob of unseasoned pork wrapped in a flavorless won ton with no special dipping. I enjoy the variety Costco carries (Ling Ling) over these. The only time I eat the Costco variety is when it's a sample and I'm so starving I eat any and all samples. 

Veggie Platter
YAY! Some fresh vegetable for my baby to enjoy. Assorted vegetables stir fried with corn starched soy sauce.

Sizzling Beef Platter
This platter comes sizzling to the table is not bad tasting if you don't mind beef pseudo tenderized in corn starch. I mind. The same sauce used in the veggie platter, just a bit more salt. The food here is a lot like Joy Luck in Riverpark on Blackstone. I wonder if it's the same owner or management??? All in all I was very disappointed wasting my time, money, stomach space and taste buds here. Maybe we ordered the wrong things? I won't be returning any time soon to find out.

Shanghai Chinese Cuisine, LLC
4011 N. Blackstone Ave.
Fresno, CA 93726
(559) 221-0227

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Friday, September 12, 2008

Dog House Grill

Before moving back to Fresno I went to a Gwen Stefani concert at the Save Mart Center and thought what an unfortunate name for a restaurant.  Now that I live here, the name totally makes sense...Fresno State Bulldogs-duh! Being across the street from the university is not the only reason the lines are out the door during the lunch and dinner hours, it's the food.  My first trip here was with my husband when I was fat, pregnant and craving a hot dog.  Their hot dogs are sliced down the middle, grilled and dressed to perfection hoagie style.  If you don't like your dogs with ALL the fixins, you better stick to the kid hot dog.  I would have continued to order the hot dog if I didn't notice 85% of the other customers were ordering or devouring the tri-tip steak sandwich.  I'm not a big BBQ person, but I had to try it for myself. The hoopla surrounding this place and this sandwich are well deserved. Generous serving of grilled tri-tip cooked medium well with a thick, sweet BBQ sauce smothered on a garlic butter toasted french roll. I'm hungry just writing about it.  If you're with your buds share a basket of fries, there's plenty of fried skinny potatoes doused in seasoned salt to go around.  If your willing to spend a little more $$ get the basket of rings, they're pricey so I've only mooched from a co-worker but they were all that fried onions dipped in batter could and should be. I'm not a person who can get full off of lettuce but the steak cobb salad comes pretty close.  It's a traditional cobb salad with chopped tri-tip ends thrown in. My dressing of choice with this salad is a combo of ranch and the bbq sauce. 

Tri-Tip Steak Sandwich $7.99
The only miss from the menu was the pig sandwich, shredded pork with bbq sauce. It was way too sweet. It was like eating candied pork-yuck. I couldn't even finish the sandwich. Sometimes the snot in me turns my nose up to corn fed beef, wishing I had the funds to fly to Japan whenever I wanted to eat some oishii Kobe beef, then reality hits and I suck up the nastiness of American beef and enjoy Dog House Grill's finest.

Dog House Grill
2789 E. Shaw Ave.
Fresno, CA 93710
(559) 294-9920
sorry no call ins

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