Happy Joes

Happy Joe's
9919 Route 20
Galena, IL 61036
815-777-1830

Do you ever wake up in the morning and just crave pizza?   You look in your fridge and then remember you ate all the pizza last night for dinner.   Man, what would I give for some hot, fresh breakfast pizza?

Well, Happy Joe's has solved your dilemma!   They make breakfast pizza's that are pretty darn good!     They'll even deliver in the morning too!

We ordered the Denver Omelet Pizza which was described as pan style crust pizza topped with eggs, cheese and Green peppers, onions, tomatoes and diced bacon.  Sounds good to me!   Here's what we received:

This was a fantastic pizza!   The crust seemed fluffy/chewy (in a good way) however it was crisp  on the bottom.    The cheese and eggs really had a lot of flavor.   And the veggies!  Wow, the bell pepper still had crunch!  All the veggie's seemed to be really fresh.   Overall, this was a really well done pizza.   I've never had a breakfast pizza like this and I wouldn't hesitate to get it again!   If I'm ever back in this area, maybe I'd try the Bacon & Bacon Breakfast pizza or the Three Meat Breakfast pizza.   Two forks up on my plate for this one!

Lucky's Sandwich Company

Lucky's Sandwich Company
3472 North Clark Street
Chicago, IL 60657
 
(773) 549-0665




My wife and I were in Chicago a few weeks ago and ate really well!   So many places to eat at.   So many that I've read about or seen on TV.  I finally got a little of bit of time to write and post some photos of the places we ate at...    Keep an eye on the blog for the next few weeks...

I saw this place on Man vs Food and figured it should be pretty good..    The Challenge at this place was to eat three of their sandwiches in less than an hour.    According to their stats, less than 7% of the people who attempt it are able to finish all three....    This challenge wasn't for me, so I just went to enjoy the food..

All of their sandwiches are topped with Tomatoes, Fries and Seasoned Coleslaw.    Sounds good to me!   I opted for the Two Bagger.   A sandwich with Roast Beef and Pastrami with Provolone Cheese.   Here's a picture of what I received:

Whoa!  This looks good!    I'm all about stuffing anything you can on a sandwich...  At $7.50 a sandwich, you definately get your moneys worth in food!    But how did it taste?  

The bread was very soft and fluffy.   It worked really well and tasted freshly baked.  The coleslaw, however, was too vinegary.   I like coleslaw, but to me it just tasted like vinegar soaked cabbage with no other seasonings.   I really didn't like it at all.  The fries were seasoned and were good.  With the rest of the sandwich being drowned out by the coleslaw, there really was too little meat to taste.  Eaten separately, the meat tasted fine, but nothing special.   The fries and coleslaw drowned out the meat.  A sandwich loaded with as much as this one is, there really needs to be more meat to balance the taste out.

My wife ordered a bacon and cheese sandwich..    She took the coleslaw off the second half before eating it and it was a really good sandwich!   Fries, bacon and cheese on some really good bread.   Can't go wrong there!

Although this wasn't a place I'd return to, it was busy at lunchtime.  Within 10 minutes of our arrival the place was packed solid!


Bottom line:  Skip this one.   Nothing special to see/eat here.

Jack in the Box - Bacon Shake

Jack In The Box

2115 S Victoria Ave
Ventura, CA  93003
(805) 658-1723


Ever since I read on the internet that you could get a bacon flavored ice cream shake from Jack In The Box, I was game!   I salivated for this shake for several weeks before I had an opportunity to try it.

We pull into the drive through and I tell the guy that I would like a Bacon Milkshake.   I could just about hear the smile in his voice as he asked, Regular or Large size?    I opted for the regular as I wasn't sure how much I'd enjoy this new creation, however in the back of my mind I already knew I would enjoy it.  

As I pull up to the window, the car in front of me gets handed a shake and speeds away.   Two employees greet me at the drive-through window and ask how we heard about the bacon shake.  I said, "The internet, of course!"   They laughed and told me that the car in front of me also just ordered one.  I guess their "secret" menu item isn't so secret anymore.  It's not on their menu board, but I did see it on their website.

The bacon shake is described as, "Made with real vanilla ice cream, bacon flavored syrup, whipped topping and a maraschino cherry."   I don't remember ours having a cherry on top, but maybe my wife ate it before I saw it..   I can't say.   Also important to note...  No real pigs were killed in the making of this shake.   No real bacon or imitation bacon bits on or in the shake.  Just bacon flavored syrup.

The first sip....   Wow...   My mouth was immediately immersed in a smokey, maybe some maple, flavored bacon and then the vanilla ice cream kicked in.  I smiled...   Who would have thought such a combination would have brought so much pleasure to my palate.  My wife also seemed to enjoy the first sip or two but then later recanted and said she wouldn't order it again. I do admit, the flavor will either grow on you or you'll be repulsed by it.   After more than half the shake is gone, my mouth almost grew tired of the flavor.  But it didn't and I finished it off with a proud grin, knowing that I was able to finally taste a truly new creation.

I would definitely order this again, since it is a limited time product, and just fact that we can order something so odd off of a secret menu.   I will stick with a regular size though, as a large would be too much...    Maybe I'll ask them to crumble some real back on top?   I'm sure they've been asked to do that already.

Service - 9/10

Food - 8/10

Overall - 8/10

Spencer Makenzie's Fish Company

Spencer Makenzie's Fish Company

806 East Thompson Boulevard
Ventura, CA  93001
(805) 643-TACO

Famous for their fish tacos, this probably wouldn't be a place I'd race to.  I'm not a big seafood lover.  If I eat fish, usually it has to be breaded and lots of sauce on it so the flavor is disguised.   Never the less, we had a coupon for this place and thus, we ended up here.

We pull up to what appears to be an old mobile home style dining car which has been retrofitted to look like a fishing boat.  The exterior looks old but not run-down.  Usually places with visual character tend to have pretty good food.

Although the fish tacos were all the rave, we both opted for the 3 piece fish and chips.    The menu describes it as "Three grilled or tempura pieces served with our Spencer Sauce & Coleslaw.  $9.50"  We also ordered some of their homemade chips and salsa for an additional $2.95.

The service here was top notch for the environment.   Our drinks were kept full and the server explained the menu very well and answered our questions confidently.  He checked in with us to make sure the food was as we expected and just was an all around friendly guy.

The tortilla chips were obviously made right there at the restaurant, although they weren't fresh out of the fryer.  They keep what appeared to be about 6-8 orders of chips underneath a heat lamp waiting for people to line up and order them.   Since we came just before the usual dinner time (4pm), perhaps they were expecting a dinner time rush of chips and wanted to have them ready.  Who knows how long they've been sitting underneath the lamp.   The salsa was delicious!   It really wasn't too spicy hot, but it definitely had a lot of flavor.  I cleaned out the small cup of salsa before we ran out of chips.  The salsa gets an A- on my report card.

After the chips and salsa were devoured, the fish and chips were delivered to the table.  We both ordered the tempura battered fish and it came out as three large pieces of fish sitting atop of mountain of french fries and a side of the Spencer Sauce and coleslaw.  The coleslaw was nothing special, I'm not too much of a coleslaw fan.   The Spencer Sauce was surprisingly good!   It basically is their own version of a tartar sauce.  The fish was perfectly crisp on the outside and very moist on the inside.  I'd say they know what they are doing here.

Another feature of the restaurant is that they make their own hot sauces for your fish.  I tried the 3 they had sitting on the table.  I first tried the Mean Green Sauce.   I like verde sauces, but it seems that I'm pretty selective of which ones I like.  There have been many times where a simple verde sauce is messed up and tastes awful.   This is one of those times.  I would steer clear of the verde sauce here.  The next up was the Caribbean Blaze Sauce.  I'm not fond of sweet sauces and this is one of those sweet n spicy sauces.  I'd say if you like sweet n spicy type sauces, you'd probably like this sauce.  By far my favorite, as expected, was the Habanero Sauce.  You can only put a little bit on each bite because it is HOT!   I put this sauce on two of my fish pieces and they really enhanced the flavor.

Nothing special to write about the french fries except they give you a mountain full of them.  We didn't even finish all of them.  

Overall, I'd say this was a good place for fish!  If I were to come back, I'd probably try their famous fish tacos with the Habanero sauce.  Come here if you're craving fish, they do a pretty decent job at it!

First Impression - 8/10

Service - 9/10

Menu - 8/10

Food - 8/10

Overall - 8/10


Sorry for no photos in this post.  We were kinda hungry and didn't remember to take any pictures until it was too late!