New Big Daddy's Chinese - 3700 Telegraph Ave

New Big Daddy's is an interesting, fluorescent-lit cafeteria-feeling takeout Chinese hole-in-the-wall.

Good Chinese food is hard to find, so we had low expectations of this place and figured it was just a proverbial notch in the Telegraph belt.

And it was. EXCEPT for one big happy surprise, and that was the "dry fry ribs" which are, I believe, actually called "dry fried ribs." I don't remember, but the first is more fun to say.

I don't know what animal spawned these ribs, but they taste vaguely like Kentucky Fried Chicken - oddly, in a good way. (This is the second establishment in this project to offer us something that tasted like KFC - odd.) They're bizarrely tasty, and the Partner in Chow ate so many that we feared that she might contract a coronary of some kind.

It seems that the dry fried ribs are in fact the specialty here, as they're called out on the menu, on the wall, and some neighborhood dudes pulled up in a hoopdie and rolled in clamoring about dry fried ribs. They were loud and boisterous, and they really wanted some ribs. On the plus side, they didn't ask me for money.


We had two standout dishes from New Big Daddy's: the ribs and the green beans with chicken. Both were unique to this establishment, and both were bizarrely good.

What we ordered: Dry fried ribs, Hot and Sour Soup, Spicy Green Beans with Chicken, Mu Shu Pork, Broccoli Beef and steamed rice. (This is way too much food for 2 people, but for the purposes of a review and PIC's taste for leftover Chinese we splurged).
Atmo: fluorescent Chinese takeout
Crowd: the 'hood
Spent: About $30
Dry fry rib rating: 5 sporks (though we don't have a baseline)
Chicken and green bean rating: 4 sporks
Everything else: 2.5 sporks
Atmo: 1.5 sporks
Overall rating: 3 sporks

The Broccoli Beef had slightly too much fish sauce, but it was still pretty good. I fear weird fluffy Chinese food beef, and this beef wasn't the usual weird rubbery/fluffy beef. It was thin and still slightly scary for me; PIC didn't mind it.

The Hot 'n Sour Soup was OK; thinner than usual, and nothing to write home about. This is one thing I order nearly every time I eat Chinese food, and this one was forgettable.

So: go for the ribs or the green beans, or don't bother.

Louisiana Fish and Chips - 2817 Telegraph Ave

I'd actually heard from a neighbor that he loves this place. I don't like fried food, but I figured we'd give it a try anyway. Hey - they have burritos, so yet another "fried seafood and burrito" place on Telegraph. The first one didn't disappoint...

Unfortunately, this one did disappoint. All the fried fish was bizarrely hard, though to be fair the crust wasn't greasy. Vaguely tasteless and otherwise kinda nasty, but not greasy. Woo.

The hushpuppies were also bland. The burrito was bland. Everything was bland and left us feeling like we were glad we stopped eating before we felt gross.

I believe that this is the place that made 2 other friends sick. I was hoping this wasn't the same place, but after eating there I fear that it was. Yuk.

What we ordered: Fried fish that came with fries, hush puppies and a burrito
Atmo: takeout fish fry
Crowd: us
Spent: Too much, probably $30
Overall rating: (we don't divide evenly; food is more important): 0 sporks

Yes, 0 sporks. We didn't like a single thing. Sorry, Louisiana Fish & Chips. Wait - no, I'm not sorry. You owe me $30 and some calorie credits!

Our advice? Avoid this place and go to Off the Hook if you absolutely must have fried fish and burritos.

Dan Sung Sa - 2775 Telegraph Ave. - 10.24.2007

This place looked about as unwelcoming from the outside as the previous Korean establishment, and we weren't sure if it was a restaurant or not. We don't know why these Korean establishments eschew windows. Curious.

Turns out that the interior of this place is super groovy. It's a bar with a kitchen and cool private booths made out of stables, decorated with bizarre Korean movie posters. Sweet. We might just hang out at the bar here regardless of this project.

Fortunately for us, the cocktail waitress was really knowledgeable about Korean food, and she spoke perfect English. She explained that this place was more Korean bar food, whereas Sam Won was more traditional BBQ.

Once we knew we were in for bar food, we ordered Soju. We asked what it's made out of and were told that it's 50/50 rice and barley as 60%, 20% sweet potato, and 20% tapioca. It's also 19.8% alcohol. Woo!

This place has lots of Soju specials, seeing as how it's a bar. Anyway...

What we ordered: Chicken wings, soup & Kim-chee pancake
Atmo: hipster Korean happy hour
Crowd: local Koreans hipsters + regular, younger neighborhood types
Spent: around $40.00
Chicken wing rating: 4 sporks
Other food rating: 3 sporks
Atmo rating: 4 sporks
Overall rating: (we don't divide evenly; food is more important)... 3.5

If you order the chicken wings, you'll be thrilled. They were massive drumsticks and covered in some hugely sticky honey-based sauce that we both loved. The kim-chee pancake was OK; the soup I liked, but the PIC wasn't thrilled about fish-based broth.

We'd go back for the wings and the interesting ambiance.

Sam Won Kai Bi - 2606 Telegraph - 10.19.2007

Sam Won Kai is a Korean BBQ place that has a mysterious look about it from the outside. My Partner in Chow (PIC) was truly frightened to walk in here, as no windows and zero experience with Korean food were daunting.

Inside, this place was filled with Korean people. We took this as a good sign.

Not ever having had Korean BBQ, I don't know what I was expecting. I *wasn't expecting a shit-ton of smoke and actual mini BBQ's at tables below massive fans, but hey. When in Koreatown (or, more accurately, the Korean minmall)...

Anyway, our waitress was really nice and helped us pick our meal.

What we ordered: Mung bean cake with vegetables for an appetizer, which was huge and awesome. We then had 2 kinds of beef, and before they brought it out with our groovy personal BBQ they brought us a boatload of vegetables and condiments. They were: soup, rice, salad, kim-chee, mung bean sprouts, lettuce, cucmbers, broccoli, seaweed, tofu, weird fishy stuff, mushrooms (?), jalapenos and garlic, and peanut sauce. Phew!
Service: eager to make sure we didn't order something we wouldn't like
Atmo: smoky & a bit cafeteria-esque
Crowd: local Koreans, their friends and family
Spent: around $40.00
Overall rating: 4 sporks

I love condiments, so all these groovy things made me very happy, and that gives extra bonus points on the rating.

We had barley tea, which was interesting and good. It was also hot.

Grilling our own beef was fun, and while the quality of the beef certainly wasn't Niman Ranch I wasn't entirely afraid of it. Both beefs were marinated and tasted like delicious, fresh jerky.

Overall, as you'll see from subsequent reviews this is by far the best Korean place we've been to yet. But as of this writing we haven't tackled the Koryo plaza Korean BBQ place yet, because we've been slackers. Yes, I know it's March. Unfortunately our love of food sometimes pulls us off Telegraph... we're trying to be better about that.

Amazonas Pizza - 2427 Telegraph - 10.11.07

OK, we've been awful about posting. I'm going to make a Spring resolution to catch up with my trusty notebook so we can actually get up-to-date.

Amazonas Pizza:

The decor is lacking here. I'd recommend takeout, unless fluorescent lights and linoleum tables staffed with possibly homeless people is your thing.

We ordered our pizza and were told that it'd be a 20 minute wait. This was a bummer until we realized that the Adult Superstore is across the street!

Not being one for porn (truly), I was torn: spend 20 minutes waiting for pizza watching the random passersby, or browse porn titles? Once the second dirty homeless-looking guy came in and asked us if we were exchange students, I decided that porn was looking better.

Favorite titles: "Depraved & Shaved" was the runner-up. "My Hairy Creampie 3," though, was the hands-down winner. I also appreciated the many "special interest" sections, from Indian to MILF. These people really want to please the niche clientele.

Oh, and I learned a new word: jerkoff box. Sweet. (I guess they have these in the back.)

Anyway, the pizza was your average very cheesy, not-super-thin-but-not-thick-either-crusted type that you might find at Round Table. It wasn't great, it wasn't awful. It was a little too cheesy for me, but my PIC (Partner in Chow) liked it just fine.

What we ordered: Vegetarian pizza
Service: friendly, not the quickest (since they have to make the pizza)
Atmo: fluorescent linoleum
Crowd: I'm not sure if the homeless-looking guys counted as customers, but they were in there.
Spent: $20.24
Food rating: 3 sporks
Atmo rating: 1.5 sporks
Overall rating: 2.5 sporks

Overall, with Lanesplitter down the street we give Amazonas a 3 for the food and a 2 for the atmo.