My new feature for this blog

Well....I'm in Lake Tahoe!! Patrick and I came up here to spend Valentine's Day weekend ALONE together. It has been so wonderful !! Anyway, I thought this would be a good time to debut my new feature in my blog - restaurant reviews. We'll start with Friday Station on the 18th floor of Harrah's Hotel and Casino in South Lake Tahoe. We ate there on Friday, February 12th, 2010. This is your typical "surf and turf" restaurant. We didn't have reservations and they were pretty full, but we were seated immediately. 2 points. Then the busboy came over immediately with bread and our ice waters - another 2 points. Then we sat there close to 10 minutes with NO ONE coming to take our drink order - minus 5 points. That was inexcusable in my opinion. In the meanwhile, a different busboy than the one who had brought the bread walked by our table and glanced down and continued on his errand. On his way back past our table he stopped and said "No one has taken your bar order yet?". We indeed told him that, alas no, no one had taken our bar order. He said he would get someone immediately. 5 points to the busboy for his powers of observation. Someone finally showed up (a male waiter) and apologized profusely for the delay. I ordered a lovely Pinot Noir and it was delivered right away. I then decided to check out the ladies room (something I do often at restaurants - they should always be clean). The restrooms passed inspection. 3 points. When I came back to the table Patrick told me that a female server had come by to apologize and said she didn't that our table was part of her station. Minus 2 points - a server should know their stations!! Patrick ordered the Filet Mignon with Blackened Cajun Shrimp and I ordered Chicken Lyon. Both were delicious! 5 points. The steak was cooked to perfection and was melt-in-your-mouth yumtastic! Both orders came with garlic mashed potatoes (I would have preferred regular mashed or a choice of baked potato) and sauteed vegetables, which came crisp-tender. Patrick gave our busboy a $20 tip for being so helpful, and also another $20 for the busboy who noticed that no one had ever come by to take our drink order. Well, the word must have gotten out, because they first male waiter who came by to take our order was all over us. lol. We didn't tip him anything as he wasn't our server and I'm pretty sure he was just looking for a tip as well. We ordered the Chocolate Lava-style cake for dessert. It came with a scoop of vanilla ice cream drizzled in chocolate sauce and some banana sliced sauteed in butter - so good! We split this dessert as we were already pretty full. I would definitely recommend this restaurant.

The next review is for the Driftwood Cafe in South Lake Tahoe, CA, which we ate at on Saturday morning, the 13th. This was one busy, hustling-bustling joint!! We opted to sit at the counter to avoid a 20 minute or so wait for a table. The lady behind the counter was quick to take our drink order (2 points) and she also went ahead and took our meal order as well. The food came out in a timely manner. I ordered the 2 egg breakfast with bacon and opted for the potato pancake instead of home fries. It came with applesauce and sour cream on the side. I didn't care for the potato pancake but Patrick liked it. The eggs were cooked over-medium (just like I ordered it - 2 points) and I asked or white toast - my choice for white was sourdough bread or English muffin. I chose the English muffin. This came barely cooked and drenched in butter. I like my Engish muffin well-toasted...granted, this can rip up the roof of your mouth when biting into it, but I'm a girl that likes some crunch and texture wit her meal! Patrick ordered the chicken-fried steak, potato pancade and 2 eggs, over-medium. He liked it all and had no complaints. We'd definitely eat here again. They were serving LOT and LOTS of Bloody Mary's an Mimosa's for breakfast to the skiers who were getting ready to head out on the slopes (this restaurant is next to the gondola loading zone). Made me glad I wasn't hitting the slopes this weekend. Drunk skiing is a pretty dangerous and stupid thing to do.

Our lunch was at the Chinese buffet-style restaurant (think Panda Exress) located in the Cafe Court (basically a food court with a hamburger stand, italian food and Chinese food). i *think* it was called Wan Chu, but I can't be sure. This meal was so not worth mentioning here. The fried rice had NO flavor whatsoever. The bbq pork was large chunks instead of nice slices. The black pepper chicken was just okay.

Our dinner on Saturday night was at Kalani's restaurant in South Lake Tahoe, at the Heavenly Center. One of the cocktail waitresses at Harrah's had recommended the place as she knew the executive chef. We had called ahead and put our name in and was told it would be 45 - 60 minutes wait time. We stayed at Harrah's for a little while and then walked over to the restaurant, where we were seated immediately, even though it probably hadn't been 30 minutes. 3 points!! Patrick ordered the rib eye steak, which came with wasabi-garlic mashed potatoes and steamed asparagus. Everything was very tasty. The steak was also cooked to perfection and tasted SO good. I ordered the spare ribs in a sesame-soy sauce glaze and there were so tasty. Apparently these ribs have been written up on Bon Appetit magazine! My dish came with grilled Bok Choy and the wasabi-garlic mashed potatoes. I'm not a huge fan of Bok Choy so Patrick was kind enough to share his wonderful asparagus with me. I do love this man! lol. We were too full to take advantage of dessert.

For breakfast on Valentine's Day we headed to Palapa Patio for breakfast (it's in the famous Cabo Wabo Cantina). I have decided that I am putting on WAY too much weight, so I opted for fresh fruit and a mimosa for breakfast. Patrick ordered the 2 egg breakfast (over-medium) with bacon and home fries and white toast (for me as he knew I'd be all over his plate lol). He said everything was good but nothing special. The home fries were loaded with onions and bell peppers, making me glad that I didn't order them!!

We took a drive partway around Lake Tahoe, on the Nevada side. On the way back we stopped at Zephyr Point Cove restaurant. As soon as we were seated we were asked for our drink order - coffee for Patrick and a Mimosa for me. 2 other servers came by and asked for our drink order as well (word must have gotten out! lol) Since they serve breakfast until 2:00 pm (and since nothing on the lunch menu did anything for me) I decided to order a 3 egg omelette with Jack cheese and bacon....and a side of avocado....along with an English muffin (which was toasted PERFECTLY - 2 points) an home fries. As we were eating the food I realized that Patrick was enjoying his coffee...but no one ever brought me my Mimosa - minus 3 points - 1 for each person asking us for our drink order! My food was good except for the large slices of red peppers and onions in the home fries. The omelette almost had a sweet taste to it - I like it very much. Patrick ordered the cinnamon French toast with bananas sauteed in a rum sauce and toasted nuts...and a side of applewood smoked bacon. Everything was very tasty and we had a great time. tonight our dinner reservations are at the Sage Room, which is located at Harvey's Casino, right across the street from Harrah's. That was the best I could do on short notice as I didn't book our trip until Friday morning. We peeked at the menu last night when we were at Harvey's and it looked pretty good. I will let you know how everything was soon!

Put a fork in me because I'm done (for now!)