13 Restaurant Reviews in One

I recently finished a stint of working 13 consecutive Saturdays. It's not the most fun, but that's the job.

One of the perks of all the weekend labor is that we get treated to a free lunch every Saturday. Sometimes we go out, but that can take a long time, especially with a large group of 8-10 people. So as we get towards the March/April crunch time, there is a lot more ordering in, which can be just as good. I decided this year that it would be a good idea to rank the various visits, because 1) I love ranking stuff and 2) I really want to contribute to the Southeast Denver dining scene.

So here goes, worst to first:

13) Rodney's at Tamarac Square. If you've never eaten here, well, you missed your chance. It closed as they prepare to bulldoze Tamarac Square to make way for Super Target. We went on the last Saturday they were open. Not a good idea, by the way, because there's not a lot of incentive for employees to provide good service. All of the burgers were undercooked, even after we waited 45 minutes.

12) Honey Baked Ham. Pretty unspectacular. We get sandwiches from there. I can't even remember what I ordered.

11) Panera Bread. It's popular, but I've never been super impressed with them. I'd never spend my own money there. It seems like they spend more time thinking up exotic ingredient names than they do making good food. It could also be that I'm not cool enough to eat here.

10) Crown Burger. This is kind of a joke place we go to. Not healthy at all, and not very clean or attractive. The burgers aren't that good - quality of ingredients are lacking. The fries and shakes are good though. Plus they serve fry sauce.

9) New York Deli News. I didn't get the pun at first - think about it. It was my first visit. Tons of different sandwich offerings. I think I went with the french dip - my default sandwich. They give you a A LOT of fries. Maybe too many.

8) Happy Teriyaki. Normally, this would be in the top five. But I decided to try something new this time - bulgoki, some sort of marinated beef concoction. It was okay, but I didn't enjoy it as much as the teriyaki/tonkatsu, which is what I usually like to get. Thus the low ranking.

7) Fresh Fish Company. I'm probably a little biased in that I don't really like seafood, so it would be hard for them to get up very high on my list. I ordered the fish and chips, which were pretty good. But by the time you get to the last fillet, it starts getting really. . . well, fishy tasting.

6) Cocina de Marcos. I usually don't like this Mexican place as much, but it was better this year. Or maybe I was just hungrier.

5) Pizza Hut. You can't really go wrong with Pizza Hut. Unless you order that cracker-crust crap they sell.

4) Piccolo's. We usually order in various pans of good stuff - spaghetti, enchiladas, lasagna, garlic bread, salad. It's all good, and there is something to be said for variety. It's like buffet-to-go.

3) Famous Dave's. I'm not a huge bbq person, but if I was ranking these based strictly on meal size, this would be #1. The item I ordered came with some Georgia que, Texas brisket, three St. Louis ribs, a roll, potato salad, and cole slaw. It's no wonder obesity is a problem in this country.

2) Thai Basil. Orange beef. Yum. Even the vegetables were good.

1) Panache Catering. I wasn't really expecting much from this place - I thought it would be the same type of underwhelming sandwich that Panera and HBH serve. Wrong. This may very well have been the best sandwich I ever had in my life. I ordered the rare roast beef. Phenomenal.