Saddle Ranch Universal

Continue from last Friday, after an disappointing lunch at the train, we wanted to go to City Walk and decide which to go to when we get there. One thing lead to another and we decided to just do Saddle Ranch(something about seeing people flying off the bull). I have never been to City Walk before anyway so wth, lets do it. I got there and paid my 10 bucks for parking, and proceeded to wait in front of Hard Rock( where we agreed to wait), but the ladies were not there. Being extremely patient I waited and waited, until time flowed by and I was ready to call it quits. I was actually making my way to the parking lot when I saw a vehicle that looked like one of the ladies vehicle, so what the heck, lets do one more round, walk from HR to Saddle, and if I don't see them then I would leave. Well surprise surprise, the girls were sitting on a bench outside, their coats wrapped around them like a blanket, and they were waiting for me.....
What happened to waiting at HR???? Oh well

We went in, it was 8:30, and Z was going to come but will be really late. They didn't card us or anything, and there were no lines, B had a headache(probably from that Special Lasagna earlier), and so they both had soda while I decided to have their Arizona sunset..or was it sunrise.. whatever, the girls said it was good so I tried it. For our food, they girls had the combo platter and I decided to have steak so Filet Mignon medium. For those that don't already know, their combo platter was huge and enough to feed 3 people, and it was appetizer.... So my drink came, I stirred it , then took a sip...and I wanted to spit it out. It tasted like children's strawberry flavor cough syrup! B thought I was crazy, so I let her tried it, and she wanted it spit it out! I was ready to just leave it as it, but E decided to tell the guy who came asking us how everything was, and she got me a replacement. This time there were more OJ(I think), which masked most of the yucky flavor and the taste was passable, though I was still not a fan of that cough syrup after taste. So then our food came, the two girls shared the platter which had ribs, chicken, fries, mini burgers and an assortment of other stuff. I had my steak with veggies and garlic mash potatoes. While I was not a fan of the drink, I was an open human trash can to the food and everything on my plate landed safely into my stomach. As the waitress said "I am sorry you didn't like your food", as she came and took away my empty plate :)

I can say with certainty, that the steak was comparable to Steven's, and the side dishes completely blows Steven's away. It was that good. It wasn't greasy, and since I had that pasta in the afternoon, I wasn't really hungry, still I found everything in my personal food refinery....

Z got there around 9:30ish and we stayed for another hour plus watching girls being thrown off the bull, it was never really crowded inside, so I was surprise as we were leaving, to see a long line has formed on the outside, and they were tagging people with wrist bands... very strange to me but I guess they like seeing long lines.

Overall

Environment****************B+, it was noisy, but that is expected. Very western, that too is expected, the only thing I would say is that I would like to see more private booths would have been nice. It felt too public if that makes any sense.

Parking*********************C! 10 bucks to 20 bucks, structure parking.

Food***********************A, really really good western cooking.

Drinks**********************D, at least I didn't like it, though the girls said it may just be an off day.

Price***********************D, it is pricey. Food and Drink for me was 50 bucks.

IL Treno

Sorry, we didn't do anything the prior week, but to make up for it, this week we will be blogging 3 places. The first one we are going to talk about is IL Treno, located on 5403 S Santa Fe Ave, Los Angeles. This place used to be a hub, a classy place for white collar people in the Vernon/Huntington Park area, to do lunch. In a way it still is, but it is also just a shadow of its former glory. It is in an area whats known as food central of southern California, in the same building as Peacock Cheese. It looked like a train cart, thus the name. I has its own private parking, and is readily accessable.

The BETZ team was at full member, BEZ got there first as T had to make a trip to the office before he can go. We choose outdoor seating....that was mistake number 1. The flies... what is going on with the flies? T finally got there and everyone placed their order. B ordered Special Lasagna, E ordered Chicken Fettuccine al fredo, T had the Linguine al Frutti Di Mare, and Z had the Salmon affumicato. Out of these four dishes, B's was just not that good, E's was all right, T's flat out sucked! and Z's was barely passable. We are talking about low quality ingredient, overcooked, and overall just not good. The shrimps were literally glued to their own shells, and the top part was already peeled, you just cant get the shrimps off the tail.... the pasta was soggy, the flies were abundant, service wasn't all there either as we had to request for refills, was it because it was Mothers day weekend and everyone was not all there or something?

Overall it was disappointing, especially since I was there before during their "glory years"

Environment ***********************D, put some insect repelling lamps out in the patio area for crying out loud...

Parking****************************B, free parking but spaces were tight

Food*******************************D-, very sad, had this been written a couple years ago it would have at least scored a B+ if not A-

Drinks******************************N/A, being a lunch place for office people

Price*******************************C, while they are now serving substandard fare, they sure charge standard pricing. Expect 15-20 dollars per person for lunch, drink, taxes, and tip.