Eat Well Sushi & Grill

Eat Well Sushi & Grill
2965 N Germantown Rd # 102
388-8178

On Wednesday night we had to take the kids to my mom's house in Germantown, so I decided it would be fun to go to dinner at Eat Well Sushi & Grill which is a "Modern Japanese buffet." I'd heard lots of good things about it, and had wanted to try it for awhile.


It's located past Wolfchase Galleria, across Stage Road in a strip mall. From the outside, it is nothing special, but inside is very fancy.

We were immediately impressed by the biggest fish tank I've seen outside of an actual aquarium.

There were several full tables, but it was far from packed. I liked that the buffet was off to the side rather than in the middle of the restaurant. Here are some photos from their website:





We were taken to a table and asked for our drink orders then told to "enjoy." Jiro (6) was a little flumpy since he fell asleep in the car on the way over, and the sweet waitress talked to him and tried to cheer him up. "Go eat so you'll get some energy!" she said like a doting grandmother.

We went over to the buffet and tried to figure out where to start. The grill items were first and Satchel (8) and Jiro immediately started loading up their plates. Warren wandered off to find the sushi, so I stayed and monitored the monkeys' activity. Jiro was busy getting french fries and the like until I told him that there was sushi. I took him over and we looked for a roll that he likes. The crunchy shrimp had eel sauce on it, but I figured he'd eat it anyway. On our way back to the table, I found some miso soup and got him a bowl of that.


Satchel went for all of the "weird" stuff, which I thought was cute. Grilled squid, crawfish, and octopus filled his plate.


Once the monkeys were settled, I made my plate. I went for the sushi and was pleased by the selection. There were several complex rolls and even some sashimi. (The only negative thing I can say is that the tongs were really dirty due to the sauces covering the rolls, and it was kind of a turn off.) I also got some squid salad off of the cold bar and some "Thai Gumbo" at the soup bar.



Warren went for a variety of sushi, grilled items, and kim chi.


Our waitress came by several times to check on us, clear plates, and fill our glasses. We all enjoyed our food, and everyone except Jiro went back for seconds. He had gotten a lollipop on the way in and was eager to eat it.

Once it looked like we were all done, the waitress came over and asked if we wanted ice cream. "It's included," she said.

Of course the monkeys couldn't turn down ice cream. The choices were mint chocolate chip, rainbow, and cookie dough.


Warren and I passed on the ice cream, but he got a few items off of the dessert bar. I asked him to bring me a piece of the dessert sushi which was rolled with fruit. (It was okay--not as good as I hoped.)

The waitress brought us the bill and we paid up. It was $20 each for me and Warren, $12 for Satchel, and $6 for Jiro. (Prices are a little lower on the weekend and at lunch.) I was already starting to feel the msg kick in and was having buffet regret. I think that for the money, it makes more sense to go somewhere and have sushi made to order.

Despite the nice decor, friendly service, and wide selection, I left feeling a little underwhelmed. And bloated.

Three Angels Diner

Three Angels Diner
2617 Broad Avenue
452-1111



Every Wednesday, my mom comes over and we take the monkeys (Satchel, 8, and Jiro, 6) to Taekwondo practice. When practice is over, we take turns picking a restaurant for dinner. This week was technically Jiro's week to choose, but because my mom just had her birthday we let her choose. Her choice was for me to pick some place new. I'd been looking for an excuse to take the monkeys to the newly opened Three Angels Diner by our house, and now I had one.

Three Angels is owned by the Severs, who also own Bari, and who have three monkeys (aka angels) of their own. Even though the restaurant has a full bar and is in the hip, Broad Avenue arts district, it is very welcoming to families. I went for lunch the day they opened, and Warren and I went for dinner one night when the monkeys were at a sleepover. Both times I was impressed.

My plan was to let the monkeys play pinball while we waited for our delicious dinner. As soon as we walked in, they made a beeline for the machines. Sadly, they both had an "Out of Order" sticker on them (as you may or may not be able to see in my crappy picture).



They actually took the news pretty well, probably because it was delivered by David Parks, famed midtown bartender and server. He is also a father and knows how to keep monkeys laughing. (i.e. The first thing he asked Satchel was why he was in his pajamas.)



Within minutes of sitting down, the monkeys had befriended David and were placing their orders. They wanted hamburgers with "meat, cheese, ketchup, pickles, and bread." David tried to trick them into asking for mustard or onions but they couldn't be fooled. He mentioned that they had potato and squash soup, and after I assured them that Daddy put squash in the potato soup at home, they agreed to have some of that too. "I want cheese and bacon on mine," Jiro said. "Me too," said Satchel. I reminded them that we weren't at Huey's, but David assured us that cheese and bacon was no trouble and in fact, it was a great idea.




Jiro and "Bruce Lee" chowed down while my mom and I pored over the menu. We were both indecisive as everything sounded good. David read us a long list of daily veggies and we were both tempted to just get veggie plates, but in the end she ordered the organic beef short ribs and I went with the Momma's Veggie sandwich and brussel sprouts. (Yes, I was trying to make a healthy choice.)

The monkeys literally licked their bowls clean. (I begged them to stop.) And then, declared the soup as good as Huey's. That's a pretty big compliment!

Once the soup bowls were cleared, we had a brief discussion about how they know Santa isn't real because there's no way he could get down our chimney and that I should just stop telling them that he's watching. "We know you use your money to buy us presents," Jiro said. Now that they are both in the elementary class, I see no reason to keep up the ruse. "Fine," I said. "Then you can rest assured that I am watching your every move and making MY list of who's naughty and nice."

That shut them up! Haha.

When our entrees came out I was immediately sad that I did not order a burger.



It looked and smelled a lot better than this picture lets on. (The "mood lighting" in the diner made snapping good pics near impossible. If you want to take pictures of your food, go in the daytime!)

Jiro and "Jackie Chan" wasted no time digging in, and I feared I wouldn't even get a bite! Thankfully, Jiro hooked me up. Nothing against the Momma Veggie sandwich (house baked tofu, red bell pepper, lettuce, red onion, pickle, house made mayo, veggie bacon, and oil & vinegar), but the beef has WAY more flavor.

Here's a sad picture of the Momma Veggie:



You can't see the tofu, but if it was baked it was just barely. It had a very soft consistency. I think the fake bacon and the red pepper saved the sandwich from complete blah-ness. It's pictured here with homemade chips (yum!) and the standard Three Angels deviled egg. When I reminded David of my brussel sprouts he quickly told the kitchen. They were fantastic. Next time I am definitely getting a veggie plate.



I wondered what my mom would think about the short ribs since Jennifer Biggs, in her CA review, made a point of saying they were actually brisket. (Turns out that was just a snafu.) However, my mom said that they reminded her of what she grew up calling "soup meat." I was surprised to see the grits look more like polenta, but the green beans looked tasty.

Another horrible picture:



My mom saved me the last bite of everything and my only comment was, "Huh, kind of bland." She'd eaten the whole thing without complaining, but noted that growing up she would have had the meat served with horseradish sauce to spice it up.

Overall, I'd say we had two very happy monkeys and two satisfied adults. We all had room for dessert, so we kept going. Jiro got the banana cream pie, Satchel got the cookies, my mom got the lemon ice box pie, and I got two spoons.





I was tasked with selecting the best dessert, and while they all three tasted great, the banana pudding was the clear winner in my mind. And, much to my delight, Jiro could only eat about half of it.

When all was said and done we had half a hamburger, some chips, 3 deviled eggs, some brussel sprouts, and one chocolate chip cookie to take home to Warren. David packed the leftovers up in two eco-friendly containers much to my satisfaction. (Three Angels and Bari are not Project Green Fork certified, but I understand they do several PGF-type things on their own.)



Satchel successfully covered himself in chocolate and Jiro needed to use the restroom, so I escorted them to the Men's room. (The restrooms are the back storeroom and you can get a sneak peek in the kitchen when you visit.) I glanced in the Men's room briefly and didn't notice a changing table. I'm pretty sure there wasn't one in the Women's on my last visit, but I didn't think to re-check.

My mom picked up the tab, but I made her tell me what it was so that I could report it here: $48 plus tip. Not bad considering the monkeys had soup (I'm pretty sure David had them split a bowl) and we ordered three desserts.

And I couldn't leave without having my picture taken on one of the awesome orange sofas in the front under the even awesome-r Bobby Spillman painting.



I think you can *almost* tell that Three Angels is lovely and bright and colorful in this shot.

David walked out with us and made sure we got to our car ok, which was very nice of him.

We'll be back.

Sweet CeCe's

Sweet CeCe's Frozen Yogurt & Treats
4615 Poplar

Anyone who reads this blog regularly knows that I am a big fan of frozen yogurt. I would probably go to YoLo everyday if I could. Luckily I don't live too close to it. As other yogurt shops open, I can't help but check them out. I mostly do it to reinforce how awesome YoLo is.

Today I took the monkeys (Satchel, 8, and Jiro, 6) to check out Sweet Cece's which is in the Laurelwood Shopping Center near Chili's. I felt guilty going, but I did it for the sake of my readers. (That's not technically cheating, right?)


The monkeys ran ahead of me, so by the time I got in the store a grandmotherly type woman was already asking them if they'd ever been to CeCe's before and guiding them through the concept. (I should have realized right then that CeCe's is a chain.) This is one of my biggest pet peeves about these yogurt places. It isn't that hard to figure out what to do! However, I am 100% sure that there are people who come in and stare blankly at the wall of yogurt machines, so I'm going to let this slide, especially considering what happened next.

Granny told the kids that they could taste any flavor they wanted and to just let the young girl standing by the machines know which ones.


(Sorry this picture is blurry--everything happened very quickly.) Both monkeys wanted to try Irish Mint and the young girl quickly hooked them up. I thought it was odd that she served the samples since it was clearly a self serve yogurt place. Since I cut off Granny's original speech, I double checked the rules! (Get a cup, get your yogurt, get toppings, weigh out at the register.)


But just to be triple sure I said to the girl, "We can serve ourselves, right?" She nodded. I handed each monkey a cup and reminded them to go easy on the yogurt. After a few gluttonous trips to YoLo, they have learned that they cannot eat as much yogurt as they think they can. Anyways, in a matter of seconds, they each had HUGE servings of mint ice cream. Frankly, I was pissed, but I let it go since the young girl was hanging out by the machines.

When I filled up my own cup with the tart flavor everything made sense. The dispensers have very wide openings and the yogurt comes out crazy fast. I stopped being mad at the monkeys and got a little annoyed with Sweet CeCe.

Of course, by now the monkeys had hit the toppings so there was no time to assign blame. I watched as the monkeys continued to load up their cups by the wall of cereal and candy.


Like the yogurt, the toppings come out really fast. The dispensers, which I had previously noted as cute in my mind, were now noted as sinister.

Last, but not least, the monkeys hit the "good" stuff--fruit and chocolatey candy and brownies and such. These expensive toppings are, of course, much harder to dispense. (Another sign of a chain restaurant.)


However, after Satchel put about 10 cherries on his yogurt, I was back to being annoyed with him.


I took a deep breath and decided that they were just kids, it was a new place, it was supposed to be fun, yadda yadda yadda. I paid the $13 for our yogurt and tried not to act bitchy towards the innocent cashier. She asked if we had a member card and I said no. She picked one up, punched 3 holes in it, and gave it to me. (After 9 punches, the 10th one is free.) I'm kind of a sucker for those cards, especially at places I frequent anyway.

Satchel got us all a spoon out of the fancy spoon dispenser and then we sat down to enjoy our treats.



Satchel had also picked up what looked like a bookmark. Upon closer inspection, it was a bookmark with ten lines for kids to write in the books they are reading. Once it's full, their teacher signs it, and they bring it in for a free yogurt. Sweet CeCe was starting to get to me. Both Satchel and Jiro agreed that they would fill up their cards. (We visited the bookstore prior to getting our yogurt fix.) I then grabbed a brochure from the counter. It had birthday party information. For $12 per kid, you a get behind-the-scenes tour, yogurt, a table cloth, a t-shirt, a sticker, and a party room.

While the kids continued to work on their mountains of yogurt, I did some snooping. I looked for the party room, but didn't see it. I'm wondering if the cute little kids' area is what they mean. It's separated, but not separate.


It has smaller tables and chairs and a cute chalkboard.



I continued snooping and was happy to see a large poster on the wall with nutritional info. (Note that the serving size is half a cup!)


And this sign giving a nod to sustainability.


(A Project Green Fork certification would be a lot more impressive.)

Jiro came over and asked me to take him to wash his hands. The women's room was full so we went to the men's.


I thought the mood lighting was awesome. But you wanna know what was extra awesome? The changing table. IN THE MEN'S ROOM. (I'm sure the women's had one too.)


I left feeling pretty good about ol' CeCe. But by no means am I going to dump my local-loving, PGF certified YoLo. He'll always be my #1.

The Fish Net

Fish Net
2731 Lamar
744-3656

Warren had to make a trip out to the Knight Arnold library this afternoon. He returned home with a dinner suggestion: The Fish Net on Lamar. I'd never seen or heard of it, so I was immediately interested. He read me a brief online review and based on no evidence, I got it in my head that it was going to to be an unknown cajun jewel. I could already taste the gumbo.



I loved the sign from the get go. And the other hand painted signs along the side. (The restaurant wraps around into a fish market, and the building has a very "was this once a motel?" feel to it.)



We arrived at about 6:30, starved, and totally out of our element.



Inside there was a long counter with several near empty steam tables and in the dining room there were several large tables covered with red and white checked tablecloths. There were four other people in the restaurant--a couple and two cops. We stood around for a minute trying to figure out if we should order from the steam table, the menu on the wall, or sit at a table. I could see a cash register and a cashier at the end of the counter, but the cashier was on the phone and not interested in us. Finally another woman came over from behind the counter and said if we wanted something off of the steam table she could get it, otherwise we should order at the register.

Warren and I were feeling like super dorks. The kids were being super hyper because of a nearby Pac Man machine and super whiney because of their lack of quarters. Through a series of whispers, grunts, and threats we came up with what we wanted to order. (Thankfully they were out of the monkeys' first choice--corn dogs.) I sent the menfolk to a table while I placed our order: a catfish filet dinner, a butterfly shrimp dinner, a 4 piece wing dinner, some fried green tomatoes, a side of greens, an orange soda, a lemonade, and two waters. Our grand total was $30.

After paying, I requested some quarters and sent the monkeys off to play Pac Man. Warren offered them some tips.



The speed on the game was super fast so Satchel (8) had a hard time playing. Jiro (6), after watching Satchel die repeatedly and quickly, opted to save his quarters. They came back to the table and commenced fighting over the only drink we had secured--the orange soda.



Warren tuned them out in favor of his phone. Once they stopped bickering over the drink, they started bickering over quarters.



Soon Warren couldn't ignore the bickering and got all "Mr. Oster" on them, which means he put on his mean student teacher voice. That reminded him of the note he had in his pocket from one of his students.



I asked him what he did to get in trouble and he said that his teacher yelled at the students for not behaving during his observation the day before. The note was actually from one of the better students who felt guilty. (He didn't actually get in trouble, but his observer noted that the class was a little rowdy.)

The cashier soon notified us that our food, or some of our food at least, was ready. Satchel and Jiro bickered over the shrimp while I desperately tried to take a good picture. (It was technically Jiro's dinner.)



It was very clear to me that there was going to be nothing healthy or low calorie about this meal.



Warren said the greens were awesome and spicy. (I resisted taking a picture of the giant chunk of fat they were cooked with!) I had a tiny taste of the tomatoes and they were tart and delicious.

Next up was the catfish that Warren and I planned to split.



It looked and tasted great. "Can I have some of that?" Satchel asked sweetly. I gave him half of my filet, which was near perfect, especially with a splash of hot sauce. I bit into a fry only to discover that it was cold. Boo. They clearly made the fish to order, but the fries had been under a heat lamp for who knows how long. (I didn't dare dip into the slaw or tartar sauce. The two slices of white bread went untouched until Warren decided to make a sandwich with Jiro's leftover shrimp.)

Last up were the wings.



Aren't they pretty?



And I gotta say, they tasted even better than they looked. Oh. My. God. Yum! (While we were eating there were lots and lots of people coming in for to go orders. I have a feeling all of the styrofoam boxes that made their way out the door were filled with catfish and hot wings!)

Satchel had a really hard time eating the wings because they were hot and a little had to pull apart and he didn't want to get his hands greasy.



They are definitely 5+ napkin wings even without any sauce! While he was struggling along, Jiro decided to put his leftover quarters to use in the candy machines by the door. He returned to the table with a small pile of Hot Tamales.



I remarked that they looked pretty old and stale, but he insisted that they were good. Then Warren told us a story of his friend, Steve, who once got a small mouse out of an old peanut vending machine. Ew!

When Satchel finally finished, the boys and I made a fieldtrip to the bathrooms to wash our hands. The bathrooms were small, but clean, and also had a motel feel to them. I really liked the sign over the toilet.



(I had to explain to Warren the scenario in which a "lady" might "sprinkle" when she tinkles.)

I also liked that there was a Pepcid machine outside the restrooms.



Overall I'd say that if you are in the mood for fried food, The Fish Net is the place for you. It's casual and friendly, and perfectly fine for kids. I have a feeling that they are really hopping at lunch time.