January 2008 | Epinions.com

I was introduced to House of Nanking by my friend. We were attending MacWorld San Francisco this year (2008), and this is one of his favorite restaurants. To my surprise, House of Nanking is smaller than expected. All-in-all, it will only seat about 50 people, elbow to elbow. Literally. Fortunately, there was only a small line, and since there were only two of us, we were ushered in quickly, in under 5 minutes, by the owner himself. The owner himself also served us. Our food arrived in due time. The owner had selected two dishes and a soup for our meal. One dish featured shrimp, spinach leaves, red peppers. The other dish featured mushrooms, spinach leaves, and chicken, I believe. Both were covered in dark, though different sauces. But both dishes were to die for! They were delicious. The soup was likewise delicious, and I found myself wishing we had more of everything! I've never had better Chinese food than House of Nanking's. Chinese food here in the Midwest pales in comparison. Most are standard Chinese fare, bland, nearly tasteless. After my friend and I had cleared our plates of every scrap and emptied our soup dishes of every drop, and began working on our second glass of water, we noticed that the wonderful flavors we had just enjoyed continued to linger in our mouths and make them water. We dearly wanted more! My friend commented that the beer he had last time must have ruined the flavor of his dinner, because the flavor of that meal last time didn't linger like this. The taste lingered the rest of the evening, in fact. The experience was astounding! Our mouths watered for hours! Read my full review of House of Nanking >

March 2006  |  Epinions.com

After just two visits to Steak & Shake restaurants, Steak & Shake is now our favorite vacation hamburgers-as-fast-food restaurant. Partly because Steak & Shakes are only available in about 1/3 of the lower 48 states and there aren't any in Wichita, but mostly because they're a great franchise. In fact, for our spring break vacation in March 2005, we went to St. Louis, and a Steak & Shake restaurant was the bright spot (besides Magic House) in an otherwise miserable vacation in that city. Read about our nightmare vacation in St. Louis, and how Steak & Shake was the turning point in that vacation >

March 2006  |  Epinions.com

Lambert's Cafe on Hwy 65 between Springfield and Branson, Missouri, has become as much as family tradition as Silver Dollar City, White Water, Table Rock Lake or any of the shows on the Branson strip. Though serving delicious home-style meals, including beef, pork, chicken and vegetables, with never-ending portions and free all-you-can-possibly-eat passarounds such as fried potatoes, macaroni and tomatoes (like ghoulash), sourghum molasses and fried okra, Lambert's Cafe's real claim to fame is that it is the original home of throwed rolls. That's right, Lambert's staff throw hot, fresh, tasty white rolls to you from across the table and across the room. All you gotta do is raise your hands, prepared to catch them. Kids and adults alike enjoy Lambert's easy, family-friendly atmosphere. So much so that we now have to stop at Lambert's every chance we get, usually on our way to Branson and on our way home from Branson, too. Read my review of Lambert's Cafe >