Tag: food

Cracker Barrel – A Restaurant Review

By Kiran Jayasinghe

We went to the Cracker Barrel Restaurant in Yuma, Arizona. It had a very old-fashioned, country vibe to it, which we loved. The restaurant also has its own store. They serve breakfast all day, along with their lunch and dinner menus.

The Cracker Barrel Store (image taken by the Jayasinghe family)

I ordered breakfast for dinner, choosing the French Toast Combo, which comes with four slices of French toast, bacon, and eggs. It also comes with a small glass bottle of Cracker Barrel Syrup, which I thought was so cute! The French Toast wasn’t amazing, but it was good enough when doused in syrup. Svara got the grilled cheese sandwich with a side of dumplings (Svara’s in love with dumplings). She says the grilled cheese was good, but the dumplings were a little “soggy and slimy”. Her words, not mine. Simran got the Fresh Start Sampler, which comes with a cup of yogurt, a fresh baked muffin, two eggs, and bacon. She says it was “okay, not amazing, but the muffin was delicious”. My mom got the meatloaf with green beans, carrots, and mashed potatoes. She says the green beans and the carrots were both overcooked, the meatloaf was okay, and the mashed potatoes were good. My dad had the chicken tortilla soup, but it was way too salty (we all tried it).

Our food at Cracker Barrel (image taken by the Jayasinghe family)

All in all, we didn’t particularly like what we ate, especially our dad. The service was good, but we don’t highly recommend Cracker Barrel.

PF Changs – A Restaurant Review

By Kiran Jayasinghe

pf changs front
One of our favorites – the Long Beach Pike location. (Image from the internet).

"Hurry up! I'm hungry!" (Image by the Jayasinghe family).
“Hurry up! I’m hungry!” (Image by the Jayasinghe family).

July 31st was our grandmother’s birthday. I’m not going to tell you how old she turned, but I can tell you that we decided to go out to dinner to celebrate. We went to PF Changs, at the Pike, in Long Beach. The restaurant is right by the water, and you can see boats go in and out of the little harbor. The Pike is a very busy place, so it’s best to get Valet Parking. After the car was taken, we met our uncle inside. That was one of the highlights, because our uncle is almost always out of town, or at work, and we never get to spend time with him! The restaurant wasn’t crowded at all, and we got a table quickly. To drink, we three (Kiran, Simran, and Svara) had water, and so did our uncle. Our mom, grandpa, and grandma had virgin Pina Coladas, and our dad had a beer. Since we love Pina Coladas, we each had a few sips from our mom’s. We all agreed that there was a little too much coconut, and we’ve had better. While we were tasting Pina Coladas and talking like food experts, our dad was ordering food. We had white rice, noodles, firecracker chicken, sweet chicken, garlic beans, and Mongolian beef. Although we expected the firecracker chicken to be spicy, it  wasn’t spicy at all, and it was delicious. The Mongolian beef was great, and our mom and dad just loved the garlic beans. All of us cleaned our plates, and we had to order another dish of Mongolian Beef, firecracker chicken, and noodles. But there was still something to come, even after all of that – dessert! The staff served our grandmother a scoop of ice cream with fried banana. None of the other adults had dessert. The three of us had a “great wall of chocolate” , a huge slice of chocolate cake with 2 scoops of ice cream and raspberry syrup. It was very rich, but we finished almost all of it! We all loved our visit to PF Changs (as we always do) and I think you will too!

Extraordinary Desserts- A Restaurant Review

By Kiran Jayasinghe

IMG_1853_2
Three delectable cakes and a scrumptious cookie! (image by the Jayasinghe family).

“Extraordinary Desserts” is a restaurant that serves delicious and truly beautiful desserts. You might be thinking, “The word ‘Extraordinary’ is probably just to attract attention.” The name does attract attention, but the desserts ARE truly extraordinary! The “Extraordinary Desserts” my family visited is located in downtown San Diego, near Balboa Park. There is also a location in San Diego’s Little Italy.

We had read online that the restaurant tends to be crowded, and it certainly was very crowded when we visited. When you enter the restaurant, there is a display of assorted cakes, cupcakes, cookies, pastries, and other baked goods. You make your selections as you stand in line and walk along the display, then you order your food from the cashier. We ordered four slices from different cakes for all of us to share. For a party, you can order whole cakes, or a batch of cupcakes. After ordering, you take a seat inside or outside, and, after a few minutes, a server will bring your food to the table.

Image of cake
So delicious! Too good to eat! (image by the Jayasinghe family).

IMG_1854
My sisters choice. (image by the Jayasinghe family.)

When the food was brought to our table, at first, nobody ate. We just admired the cakes and took pictures. The cakes looked so beautiful! Some of the cakes even had real flower petals adorning them. But eventually we gave in and tasted a bit of each cake. My sisters and I had milk to go with our cake. The milk toned down the richness of the cake.
One slice of cake was sitting in a pool of chocolate and raspberry syrup, with red flower petals and raspberries on top of the cake. Also on top of the cake was some sort of chocolate frosting, made to look like a flower. It was my little sister’s choice. We also tasted a cake that was sitting in a pool of red, green, and orange syrup, all cleanly separated but joined together, as if there was an invisible, thin, separator in between the three colors. It was indescribably delicious! The name of the cake was so fancy, I unfortunately don’t remember it, but the photo on this post will show you exactly how it looked. The prices are expensive, but the taste and look of whatever you order will be worth your money. “Extraordinary Desserts” is a restaurant you will likely never forget!

For more information, go to the Extraordinary Desserts website.