Seoul Garden Korean BBQ

Generally all you can eat = lots of bad food. Not here. The all you can eat lunch provides a marvelous selection of korean dishes, and then as much of the fantastic korean beef, spicy pork and chicken as you want grilled up on the grill at your table. The soup is served nuclear hot, and is really tasty. This is one of my favorite lunches in all of the high desert. Not cheap, but worth the trip.

Joel

Tokyo Sushi

There are lots of Sushi restaurants in the Victor Valley, but only one Tokyo Sushi. Why does it stand out so much? Two reasons. First is the quality of the fish. These guys drive to the fish markets every other day to bring back fresh caught fish and it shows. The second reason is combo b, which is the best sushi lunch special you will ever encounter.

Their rolls are good, but the real attraction here is the nigiri sushi and the sashimi. The miso soup is the best in the desert for standard miso (don't miss the off-the-menu clam miso at samurai if you want something different). Don't miss this one.

Joel

El Meson

Today we stopped in to this restaurant for a bite to eat. It used to be Andrew's Family Restaurant, and after that went out of business it became a rather unremarkable mexican restaurant with a cold lunch buffet. That wouldn't be so bad except the food was supposed to be hot...

In its place is a new restaurant, new owners, and new cooks. We were greeted by a friendly server who gave us menus and took our orders. She delivered chips and salsa, and we immediately were impressed. The salsa looked rather plain, but the flavor was anything but! Spicy with lots of flavor, it did not last long at our table.

After she brought us our burritos we knew this was going to be good. She offered us "hot" salsa which was different and had amazing flavor. The burritos were very tasty and on the whole we were quite pleased.

There were only two downsides to our lunch. First, the burritos are a little more than we like to pay for lunch. In this case, $7.25 for what you see in the photo. The flavor was awesome, but I wish it was dollar less (and I'd be more likely to eat here with some frequency if it was). Second, we were the _only_ customers in the restaurant. This does not bode well for the future of El Meson. Hopefully this is temporary and business will pickup, because the food and service were both quite good.

Joel

The Tofu House

Located by the indoor swap meet on bear valley in the same parking lot as the taco shop #1, this restaurant is one of the hidden gems of Victorville. They have lunch specials that are extremely tasty and reasonably priced. Dave had what you see pictured to your left. It's some sort of a Korean salad type dish that he liked quite a bit. I had a spicy pork platter that was simply outstanding. Just the right amount of heat, great flavor, and a nice sized lunch.

Lunch came with an appetizer of spiced cucumbers and bean sprouts, and on my plate I had salad, rice, and a few things I didn't recognize that were very good.

On the whole, one of the better lunches I've had in a while. We were looking for something outside of the usual suspects today, and we were delighted with what we found. Don't miss this place.

Joel

Los Robertos

This is a restaurant that is well liked by our staff, but I never seem to enjoy it. Today I think I figured out why. We went to Los Robertos for lunch. I had a Machaca Burrito, which is my very favorite thing to order from Albertos. It was ok, but it had no spice, no depth of flavor. All the ingredients were there, but it had to be slathered in hot sauce to make it taste even remotely decent. Otherwise it was just ... bland.

And suddenly it clicked. I don't eat at Taco Bell, but lots of people do. There are a few restaurants in town that are very popular with the taco bell crowd, but I don't care for them. What they are missing is flavor. The places that do it right have complex flavors and the right amount of heat to make for a great meal. Los Robertos isn't one of those places. It's ok, the food is decent, but it is nothing to write home about. Which is exactly why some people like it, but not me.

Joel

The Pita Stop

Located in Apple Valley, slightly off of Highway 18, is a little mediterranean grill called the Pita Stop. First off, the restaurant is immaculate. The bathroom is cleaner than most hospitals, and the place just has a very nice feel to it. This restaurant may be small, but it feels upscale.

The menu is simple if you are used to eating this kind of food. There are no surprises here. It costs between $5 and $6 for a pita with meat and vegetables. The price isn't bad, but it's not exactly a big lunch for that price. You really need to add hummus or one of the other appetizer type dishes unless you are eating light. My lunch came on a whole wheat pita (you have a choice) and I didn't care for the pita. The food itself was decent, but not as good as the other arabic restaurant in town.

On the whole, I like this restaurant but am not wild about it. There is better food to be had for less money around town. I like the atmosphere, I like the people, I like the vibe of the place, but it just doesn't quite measure up. Pity.

Joel

Emma Jean's Holland Burger Cafe

This blog is getting boring with one good review after another, but that's part of the fun of eating at non-generica restaurants. Sure, every once in a while you get places like the taco shop in the old A&W, but most of the time there is great stuff to be had by eating at the small places.

Yesterday we had lunch at the historic Holland Burger Cafe, located on old route 66. We had eaten there once before, years ago, and weren't enamored, but yesterday was a different story. I had a ham and egg sandwich with cheese. They served it with lettuce, tomato, onions, mayo, the works! I had never even thought of eating that sandwich that way, but it was really tasty. I would order it again. Dave had the Brian Burger, which he quite liked, and Daniel had a turkey sandwich that was something like having a pound of sliced turkey on toast. All of us enjoyed our lunch quite a bit.

It's not a place I would eat at every day, but it was very good. Because it's old, it has charm, but it's also rather small. The place was full by the time we left, and our table was immediately occupied when we stood up. If you are looking for a good sandwich shop, you could do far worse than Holland Burger.

Joel