Ubon Thai Kitchen, Eugene Oregon

We ordered our food outside. In Arizona I would have been okay with this, but in Eugene it's cold. Not as cold as my home town, Fairbanks, but still. They had several types of soda, but they all looked like they came from another planet, so I just picked a coke, how original. They had a variety of pad thais. My dad picked it for me, but that's just because I wanted the classic pad Thai, and he wanted me to try an alternative recipe. It was called the Special Pad Thai and it was tasty. Not like over the the top. It didn't really make me hungry for more. So, not love at first bite. The noodles were not cooked enough. They were still white and weren't brown. They were super gooey too, like as if they deep fried the noodle in a bunch of melted gummy bears. I did ask for it to be spicy, but it wasn't really. They did have an above mild peanut sauce that I drizzled over the top. This is my second rating of Pad Thai so I should compare it to the last. This was better. I think anyone would say that the special pad Thai with mushrooms would be given a good 85%. The pad Thai at Jasmine Thai Cuisine was given an 18%. Remember, it was too saucy and didn't mix up the food well enough, yuck. My dad gave me a chunk of tempeh from his dish. It tasted like it was cooked in cheap beer, with an aftertaste of coffee grounds. Pretty much like beans that went wrong. The restaurant exterior seemed like it was a fixer upper, but the inside was made like people put some thought into it and it ended up making me feel happier. There were a few decorations. Not like other Thai Restaurants, with so many decorations I feel like I'm actually in Thailand. There was nice peaceful colorful paintings of sea sides and boats hanging on the walls. I got full really fast, and I just got back from the airport, so I was ready to head home. But it was fun. Good job Ubon Thai Kitchen, a

73%

Loving Hut, Phoenix Arizona

        I have been to this restaurant before, but it was a long time ago. It was soothing inside. I felt safe. This made the food taste even better. Our waiter looked just like my friend Leland. Except like 13 years older. It was pretty weird.
        I was planning on getting a veggie burger, but my Aunt Gretchen convinced me to do the "sharing meal thing." We each ordered a different dish and took what we wanted. I'm glad I did because there were other meals I definitely wanted to try. One had eggplant, which I hate. The others consisted of fake meats and spices. The fake meats were actually really tasty and everything was just right, not overdone. The brown rice was cooked with expertise and was even better when I mixed in one of the sauces. Delicious. A meal made for kings.
        I also saw something I fancied on the menu. It was an orange soy drink. It was like a milkshake and it tasted aromatic and it made my tongue very happy. The sensations of this drink were to die for. The sweet soy mixed with a sour orange; just amazing. It was called the Orange Sunshine.
          We got ice cream at the end, one was cherry with chocolate chunks, and the other mango flavored. I liked both of them. The mango wasn't really an ice cream, but rather a sorbet. The cherry was a great ice cream, but could have used a little more chocolate chunks. I had no idea that vegan food made professionally would be awesome! Good job Loving Hut, a
93%

The Mother Road Bar, Flagstaff Arizona

It was cold in Flagstaff. Snowing weather, but no snow. We arrived late in the evening and we were heading over to my uncle's brothers work. We worked at a bar. That is a brewery of some kind with a neighboring pizza place. We sit outside in the cold. It's pretty uncomfortable, but we both had dogs so  we had to stay outside to keep them company and such. There was a hearth that we all gathered up next to, to warm our cold mitts. We ordered beer and soda. I got an awesome Mexican Cola that was one of the best sodas I have ever had. It was very pure and bubbly. It was like some one put a lot of effort into making such a wonderful drink. Then we all ordered our own pizza. These pizzas had a new style. They were all very untraditional, one didn't have any sauce, another had uncooked spinach and cheese on top. And the special was extremely spicy. It was still great though. My favorite pizza we got two of which seemed to be the most classic pizza there was on the menu. Delicious. It had little cheese and the slices were so big it was necessary to fold the slice in half and eat it like a taco. The pizza had a thin crust. The bottom of the pizza was very burnt and left a nasty taste left in my mouth. Very unpleasant. They seemed to all be cooked for much too long. The pizza place was trying way to hard to be different though. Like as if they thought they were special, and they were a little bit. Interesting tastes. I liked it. I was very cold though and I ended up not wanting to eat very much food. I would have rather been sitting inside warming up. Later I put my hat over my face, because the smoke of the fire was making my eyes water. It hurt so bad. A few minutes later a strange man came up behind me and asked for the time, his words were something like this, "Can you guys tell me the time, that's all I ask, can you tell me". Then he stayed right behind me talking to our group about nonsense. He really freaked me out. It was scary. And it seemed like he was standing there for half an hour, bur really it was only a few minutes. And I know I have been rating so many types of pizza. I'm sorry. But hey, I''ll rate this pizza a
44%

America's Taco Shop, Phoenix Arizona

At first we drove by a run down antique store that I thought was the restaurant. It wanted though. The antique store looked very creepy and I felt bad for the America's Taco Shop to have such a creepy neighboring business. Enough of that. The restaurant had a different style that made it more of a quick stop meal instead of an actual restaurant. Kind of like Falafel in Fairbanks, you brought your own food over to your own table, instead of a waitress. The menu was very confusing, because it had meals with the same name, but under different categories, that made them slightly different. I chose the chicken burrito. A pretty simple burrito with caramelized onions, guacamole, beans, and chicken. The burritos were made very fast, but the actual burrito was coldIt tasted great and was very healthy, but the salsa they had was disturbingly weird and tasted really watery. I also got a coca-cola. I like coca-cola, It was very cold and was sparkly. The burrito had a nice tortilla and the beans were amazing, A great burrito, but I was surprised how all the flavors were kind of bland, they weren't as fragrant as they usually would be. I also had a headache while I was eating it, but I can still give it a
52%

Cheesecake Factory, Phoenix Arizona

Yesterday I visited the Cheesecake Factory. I thought it was an actual cheese cake factory so I was deeply disappointed when it was just a restaurant but, cool place. The inside, very tall and with a magnificent ceiling with art all over it. Very attractive. It was a little cold inside. We first sit down in a brown cushioned booth. The waiter coming over to ask us what we wanted to drink. My mother said, "Water would be great". It seemed strange to me that there wasn't already water at the table, most restaurants do that. The water again had way too much ice. I couldn't believe it. Just like the Thai restaurant, they too gave us water with too much ice. Unbelievable. It gave my mother a brain freeze. And their was also a lemon slice in the water. We didn't ask for lemon-water. We strictly said WATER. The menu was long, but the colors of it were unappealing. When one is given an ugly menu they expect ugly food. I was going to ask for a pizza, but instead I changed to a flatbread. The Sausage Ricotta Flatbread. I noticed the prices were pretty cheap and affordable. I wondered if maybe the food was low quality. They gave us some free appetizers which consisted of two types of bread and some butter. My favorite food. I gobbled it down like a hog. But there was not enough butter for the bread so we asked for more BUTTER. But we got more bread too. And now there was even a smaller butter to bread ratio than before. When I got my flatbread, I noticed our waiter had some weird hair. He was balding and had a bit of hair on either side, obviously gelled and was standing up, he looked like a Batman wannabe. The flatbread, too cheesy, like the cheese was liquid. I was also already stuffed with bread so I became full before I knew it. They probably gave out such big tasty appetizers so the people wouldn't get to taste much of their actual food. That way they wouldn't realize how bad it was until they ate it for leftovers. It wasn't terribly bad food of course. The restrooms were very fancy and there was some awesome music playing inside. Some nice bathrooms, I began to get a headache and I couldn't eat much of anything else. That night when I got home and reheated it for dinner, I realized how much it tasted like the freezer pizzas that my mother and I had used to get. I hoped that they hadn't just microwaved a packaged flatbread. But any way, I'll rate it a
32%

Homemade Pizza, Phoenix Arizona

It was delish. I had that feeling where when your eating pizza that has so many toppings that your kinda weirded out by it, but in the end it just tastes great. It had salami instead of pepperoni. Not much of a difference only pepperoni has pepper. Oh well. We didn't have any. I actually helped make this pizza, so of course it tasted great. It had mushrooms cut precisely and instead of tomato sauce for pizza we used spaghetti sauce. Weird. But you couldn't really taste much of a difference. The crust was white bread which tasted so good. I often don't eat white bread, because my mom tries to eat healthier with whole wheat bread. Anyway the cheese was normal enough, being mazzerella and I had two slices. I really don't have anything bad to say about it so, a

67%

Sun Food, Phoenix Arizona

A platter of some awesome food my Mom made up in a few minutes, obviously tasting better than the Pad Thai. The presentation, Beautiful. Resembling a sun made of turkey, salami, cucumber, and cheddar cheese. The only reason I am not rating it very high was because it did not take long and it was an extremely simple meal. Sorry Mom, a
35%

Jasmine Thai Cuisine, Phoenix Arizona

It was different. Very. Compared to Bahn Thai Express or Lemon Grass in Fairbanks. Fairbanks has great Thai food. I ordered the #31 Pad Thai. It was saucy. Maybe too much oil. Like as if the chef accidentally was pushed and emptied the whole thing of sauce into my dish. The noodles were annoying. They were very slippery, but also sticky. Strange. They had a salad side which composed of uncooked bean sprouts and carrots. The carrots were obviously old. That was nice and crunchy, but still could have been better! It had roasted peanuts and green onions. The green onions on top, the peanuts on the side, would have been better if they but it together, that way it didn't look like a do it yourself dinner meal. The presentation, a 25%. An F. Not very enjoyable. Not enough egg or chicken and the chicken slices were much too big, I looked like a stray dog trying to tear it apart. The noodles, too long, I mean come on. They dangled from my fork and was just a complete mess. Oh, but the appetizers were fine. The Egg Role, meh, didn't have much taste. The Fried Wontons on the other hand were great, a 72% at most. The cream cheese innards were a nice touch and the sweet sauce was good too. The Water had too much ice. Too cold. I drank it within a few minutes. Which meant they had to come over and fill it up again. One time, I finished off my water and was going to ask my grandmother to let me have her water, but immediately the waiter popped up and refilled it. Actual milliseconds after I had asked, and there was no way she could have heard me from the counter, no way. She must have been hiding in the booth in front, listening to our every word, afraid I found out about the sauce mess up with my Pad Thai. Or maybe cameras hidden in the walls or napkin container, watching us and studying us like we were animal test subjects. Spooky. I had nightmares of the terrible taste left in my mouth from the food and the creepy restaurant. The restaurant was like a worn down ware house, the lighting was bad and the music reminded my grandmother of Hello Kitty. It was terrible. There were also strange mirrors on the walls, possibly a one-sided mirror where they could see us from the other side, but we couldn't see them. the mirrors were much too high for anyone to see them self, and nothing reflected off them except the ceiling, an ugly sight. I tried to keep my head pointed the other direction. There was a also a strange young man diagonally across from me, who kept on glancing my way, when i looked back he turned the other way and laughed with the other man we was with. I did not like him. The Pad Thai I would give a miserable
18%