A while back, we watched over a friends dog, Bailey, while they were in Maui.  They thanked us with a gift certificate to PF Changs.  When we walked it I thought it looked amazing.  There was upstairs seating, wallpaper on the ceiling and really cool Asian statues.  I looked at the kids menu but didn’t really find anything I wanted there.  I did notice that it was cute and it had lots of games and coloring–perfect for children.  Of course I ordered root beer. I thought it was very creamy and they put the root beer in a tall, chilled glass.  We ordered crab wontons & plum sauce for our appetizer.  They weren’t bad–they were very well presented on a long pretty plate, and they looked to me like edible flowers.  I ordered the chow mein noodles but just plain, no vegetables.  I thought they was out of this universe!  They were very warm though–I had to let them cool.  The noodles were very flavorful!  I ate the huge, entire bowl of them.  We also ordered the vegetable fried rice. We all thought it was really good.  My mom got the mahi mahi with garlic sauce and cilantro rice. I tasted them and though they were both really good.  My dad ordered the seared ahi tuna. My parents loved it.  I loved the greens and the peanut dressing that was on the greens.  The desserts we ordered were very fun.  They offer little mini desserts in small glasses.  They have 7 different kinds and they are $2 each.  Everyone at our table got to pick their favorite thing.  Spencer got chocolate cake–full of chocolatey goodness with raspberry sauce at the very bottom, Dad got lemon bar–very tart for me but dad loved it, Mom got Tiramisu–mmmmmm and coffee-ish, and I got s’more–perfect layers of goodness with chocolate sauce, marshmallow sauce and graham cracker crumbs, yummmm!  Finally, we each had a fortune cookie.  A perfect last treat.  The service was wonderful.  Our waiter mixed sauces for our entrees right in front of us.  If we wanted it more spicy, we could mix in more spice ourselves.  I think this is a great place for friends and families to go to if they want some tasty Asian food.  And if you want a special treat, but you don’t want a huge dessert, they you should order one of the mini desserts.  I thought they were very clever.

After a visit to the Exploratorium in San Francisco, our family went to dinner at The Stinking Rose.  When I first walked in, I found some vampire things (because vampires hate garlic) and on the ceiling the world’s largest garlic braid.  There were pictures all over the walls of famous people who have eaten there and they signed the pictures.  On the wall it says they season their garlic with food!  We ordered the bagna calda which is warm roasted garlic in olive oil with anchovies.  It came with tasty, soft rolls.  My mom and dad and grandma love the bagna calda.  I thought the rolls were very good and fresh.  My parents also ordered the garlic caesar salad. It had very good, cheesy dressing and lots of parmesan and the croutons were very crunchy. I ordered the kids pasta,,just plain and I put garlic olive oil, salt, and parmesan cheese. The waiter offered some fresh grated parmesan cheese.  It tasted really delectable!  Spencer ordered a kids cheese pizza. It wasn’t on the menu but they made one for him.  Spencer loved it!  I thought it wasn’t bad.  The adults shared the neon ravioli filled with garlic mashed potatoes and caramelized onions. I thought it wasn’t bad but it wasn’t my favorite.  They also shared the gnocchi. Gnocchi is one of my favorites so of course I loved it.  The gnocchi was very soft and warm and it felt like it melted in my mouth.  It had a delicious garlic cream sauce. We also tried the garlic mashed potatoes. They were really good.  They left in the potato skins, which I love.  If you are ever looking for  place to eat in San Francisco then you should definitely pick the stinking Rose…if you like garlic!  (I wouldn’t recommend it if you are a vampire.)

My family visited Matteo’s Pizza & Bistro on Fair Oaks Blvd with a Fox 40 photographer.  One of my good friend’s mom works there and she was our waitress.  She told me I should try the Mac & Cheese off the kids menu. She said it was the best in the universe and that sometimes even the grown-ups order it.  So I ordered that. When I tasted it, I thought it was warm and had very creamy cheese and it had lots of parmesan sprinkled on top.  Yum!  She was right, it was the best in the universe!  My brother ordered the cheese pizza. He loves pizza!  I got to try a piece too.  I though it was gooey and had lots of cheese and was delicious!  My brother says its the best he’d had.  I ordered my usual root beer and it was really good and creamy.  I like creamy root beer.  My mom and dad shared a Southwestern Caesar salad. I thought it had really good dressing and liked the tortilla chips that they put in it instead of croutons which gave it a nice crunch.  My parents also shared the Fettuccini Alfredo.  I tried a little bit.  It had bread crumbs on it and it was very creamy.  For dessert, my brother and I shard the ice cream sandwiches. They were house made and there was chocolate sauce and caramel drizzled on the plate.  The atmosphere was happy and comfortable. There were pretty flower paintings on the walls and flowers on the tables.  It sort of reminded me of spring.  I think this is one of the best places for family and friends to go. They’ve got great food and very kind people who work there.

You can see video of me reviewing this restaurant in the Fox 40 studio under the Videos tab.

When I arrived inside the building, there were lots pf pretty, colorful paintings inside and there were big screen TVs with sports on. A few minutes after we sat down, Dinger, The River Cats mascot, came by.  A man followed him with a huge bag of candy and gave us some.  We said thank-you and took a photo with Dinger.  Then, we ordered the roasted garlic appetizer. The bread had balsamic vinegar on it with a roasted garlic bulb in the middle.  You can squeeze the garlic onto the bread.  My parent really loved it.  My mom and dad ordered a dinner salad–it was very leafy and delectable and had crunchy croutons.  They also ordered the beer cheese soup. It was cheesy and I thought it was pretty good.  My mom and dad loved it.  My brother ordered the kids’ grilled cheese with french fries. The grilled cheese was so good and cheesy. It was warm and crunchy and the fries were so delicious.  I ordered the mozzarella sticks with ranch dressing. They were very good and had tons of gooey cheese.  My mom ordered the Mahi Mahi with mashed potatoes and steamed veggies. I tried the fish and although I am not a fan of fish, I found that it wasn’t fishy.  My mom loved the entire dish.  My dad ordered the veggie burger with jack cheese and avocado and he loved it.  The dessert menu made it really hard for us to choose just one but we finally decided on the Chocolate Wall with some vanilla ice cream on the side.  It was a big cake with chocolatey goodness and a rich, sweet icing!  It was the best chocolate cake I have ever had!  We all dove for it right away.  My overall assessment is that this is a very good place to go for a good meal!

I think Ettore’s is a very good place to go to breakfast.  I went with my family on a Saturday morning and tasted lots of things from the menu.  I ordered the French toast which is a house specialty.  It is made out of a cinnamon roll. It was large and sweet and it came with a cup of warm syrup.  It was the best French toast in the world!  All can say is “Oh yum!” and I could eat this every morning!  It came with strawberries and whipped cream which I had them put on the side.  The strawberries were a little tart but the whipped cream was sweet.  I thought they were pretty good.  My parents ordered a breakfast burrito and a breakfast sandwich, and shared.  They loved the burrito.  My dad said it was a little spicy but he liked it. It had a spinach tortilla and you can choose what to put in the burrito.  The breakfast sandwich was a 3 herb omelet on a croissant.  I didn’t try it but my parents really liked it.  My brother got toast with butter and he loved it.  For dessert he and I got a chocolate croissant and a regular croissant. The chocolate croissant was very large and chocolatey. The regular one was buttery, crispy, large and flaky.  They were both so big that one of them can make you full.  I really enjoyed our visit to Ettore’s. By the way, I saw a woman and her dog come into patio of the restaurant and one of the people that worked there gave the dog some water so that tells me that they are pretty much dog-friendly too!  This is a great place for you to go to breakfast with your family, friends and man’s best friend.

There are lots of things to see at the California State Fair!  They have lots of rides and lots of little stores and exhibits. They also have delicious stands for food.  One of the foods that they offer is deep-fried s’mores.  I decided to try it!  It had nice chocolatey graham cracker goodness on the outside and sweet, gooey marshmallow on the inside.  Its just like a real s’more except its deep-fried.  They also have french fries and my brother decided to try them.  He let me try them too and I thought they were soft and tasty.  He liked them too.  We also bought a refillable drink cup that you can fill up again and again for $2 at any of the food stands.  After that, I went to the corn on the cob stand and ordered a giant corn on the cob.  They grill it in the husk and they have a table of toppings and condiments. The corn was sweet, juicy and buttery.  My mom and I loved it!  It was the biggest, juiciest corn I have ever had in my whole life.  Next time we go, I am getting another one of those!  After that, we went to the farmers market area where there is lots of fruit, nuts, and honey sticks as well as fun animals to look at.  We decided to get the grapes.  They were sweet, juicy and nice and fresh too.  I also tried a honey stick. It was very sweet, delicious honey.  Bees are a great insect because they pollinate and make that delicious honey.

I went back the next week for another taste and I tried the deep fried Twinkies. They were crunchy and creamy and they had a choice of chocolate or strawberry toppings.  I had the chocolate and I thought it was really good!  Then we went inside a building and had a cinnamon roll. It was very warm and gooey and everybody loved it!  Later in the day, when it was nice and hot, we went and got some shaved ice. We got watermelon flavor and it was nice and sweet, plenty of juice and it was perfect for a nice, hot day! For my overall assessment, I think the State Fair is a great place to go and sample some of the delicious foods there.  You can get some delicious fruit or sweet treats to keep up your energy to go on the really fun kids’ rides and fun-houses.  Its a great place to go with your family and friends!

You can see video of me reviewing this restaurant in the Fox 40 studio under the Videos tab.

A very nice guy named Carlos , an animator, invited us to the Pixar studio for a tour and to review the employee cafe for lunch.  Carlos had sent me, through a man that works with my dad, a signed DVD of Ratatouille last year when I was in the hospital.  Ratatouille was the movie that gave me the idea to become a food critic.  So thank you Pixar for making that movie and Carlos for working on it.  Right now, Carlos is busy working on Toy Story 3 but he took some time out to take my family on a tour.  The tour was really, really cool.  We took some pictures, saw where they screen the movies, saw where all the animators and everyone works.  Then we had lunch.  In the cafe, there were tons of pictures of the movie, UP! all around you. When a movie comes out, the pictures change.  Everything on the cafe menu looked really good.  I finally decided on the angel hair pasta with pesto. It was warm and light and the sauce was good.  My mom ordered the chilled asparagus soup and she loved it!  My dad made a salad at the salad bar and he let me have some of his croutons. They were super crunchy and yummy.  They had yummy seasoning and soft bread in the middle.  The softness of the middle made me really like these croutons.  Also, at the salad bar, the bread was very nice and soft.  My dad ordered the vegetarian plate. It had heirloom tomatoes, cheesy mashed potatoes with the skins on and vegetables.  My dad said he loved it!  My brother ordered the cheese pizza. It was a really big pizza with warm, great cheese. The cheese was nice and gooey.  My brother and I thought it was excellent.  I stole two pieces from him (he let me).  For dessert, we had chocolate chip cookies. They were very good and large, seriously large!  I think Pixar is a great place to work.  Their cafe is more like a restaurant than a cafeteria and the food is excellent!  There were tons of menu choices, lots of soups, a salad bar and delicious fresh plates to choose from.  I really want to thank Carlos for letting me have a tour!  I never knew Pixar would be that wonderful!  Thanks!

Every year we go to Yosemite with our friends.  One of they days that we were there, we drove down into Yosemite Valley.  We went to a restaurant called Degnans Loft which is above a deli and some shops.  Its nice to look down at all the pretty oak trees outside the windows and the animals and people walking by.  We were all very hungry from hiking around.  My mom ordered a Caesar salad. It had really crunchy croutons and rich, sweet dressing and it was nice and leafy.  We shared a half cheese and half veggie pizza. It wasn’t my favorite, too much sauce for me and the cheese was okay, but my brother really loved it!  My brother and I usually have opposite taste in pizza.  We also got some cheese bread. It had really soft tasty cheese. Everybody loved it.  My parents loved the veggie pizza.  If you are in Yosemite Valley and you are hungry, you should definitely go here.  Its really nice to look out the window and look at the pretty mountains and trees and enjoy the beauty of Yosemite and a nice lunch!

We went, with some friends, to Ghirardelli On the Go for ice cream sundaes!  Its smells really wonderful, sweet and delicious in the shop.  You can buy chocolates–there were tons of chocolates on the shelves with different things inside like peanut butter, caramel or mint.  My mom and I shared a Gold Rush Sundae.  It was vanilla ice cream with peanut butter sauce and hot fudge, whipped cream and a cherry on top with nuts.  The peanut butter tasted really creamy and soft.  I’ve never tried a sundae with peanut butter as tasty as that!  My dad and brother shared a brownie sundae. The brownie was warm and gooey and the ice cream and hot fudge were yummy.  Everyone loved their sundaes and we will sure go back there again!

We went to Marnee Thai in San Francisco with some of our friends.  Some of our other friends recommended it too–its their favorite Thai place.  It was a small place on 9th Ave. with lots of pretty orchids on the bar and tables.  My mom ordered the vegetarian pad thai.  It was a little spicy to me but I sort of liked it.  My mom loved it!  My dad ordered thai fried rice with prawns and pineapple. It was yummy and flavorful.  I ordered the corncakes.  They were thin fried cakes with corm kernels in them.  My mom and dad really loved them.  I thought they were okay  but I think other kids would enjoy eating them because they are fried and you eat them with your fingers.  I had a lot of white rice.  I had never tried soy sauce before because I usually have sweet and sour sauce on my rice, but I liked the soy sauce a lot.  I tend to like salty things.  I think the service was really great and even though Thai food isn’t my favorite thing right now,  I liked trying new things, my family and friends loved it and I think it was very kid-friendly and fun.