Tag: restaurant

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!

Onny’s Thai- A Restaurant Review

By Kiran Jayasinghe

If you’re looking for a good Thai restaurant in San Marcos, Onny’s Thai is the restaurant for you. It is located on the corner of San Marcos Blvd and Rancho Santa Fe Rd. It’s a bit small, but it is beautifully decorated with a Thai theme. We went to have dinner at this restaurant about two weeks ago. We were seated at a nice table at the back. Behind our table, there was a television showing pictures of sceneries from Thailand and was playing music. Onny’s Thai only serves lunch and dinner.

Flaming pot of soup.
The delicious Tom Yum soup in the flaming pot (image by the Jayasinghe family).

For appetizers, we shared two orders of pot stickers. We also had Tom Yum soup with chicken, which was served in a pot that was shaped like a ring with a chimney-like hole in the middle. In the hole in the middle was a flame (the picture shows what it looked like). For our main meal, we had yellow curry with chicken, white rice, thai fried rice with chicken, and Pad Gra Pow with chicken. Pad Gra Pow is a dish of stir-fried bell peppers, onions, thai basil, green beans, and chili garlic sauce. All of our selections were extremely delicious. To drink we all had water, except for our father, who had Thai beer. In addition to Thai beer, Onny’s thai also serves wine, soda, and Thai tea. We all enjoyed our food, which tasted delicious.
The owners of this restaurant are Onny and Bill Eitel. The owners themselves work at the restaurant, since they don’t have many employees. Mr. Eitel even came up to us and asked if we wanted a spice rack!
Onny’s Thai is a great place to sit and enjoy a wonderful thai meal!

Check out Onny’s Thai’s website.