Viors

Roland was stuck, so I came to his aid,
It was lunch time, and his Computer was broken,
well not broken, but not working right either,
So I told him I would stop by on my way home.

When I was done, he bought me lunch, and since Vior's Bakery and Deli is really close to our offices, that's what I got. And ohh was it good.

He has them on speed dial... just in case he can't get out,
and speed dial works well. You give them your name, and then tell them your sandwhich,
(He also has a menu for super easy ordering)

I asked him what was good, and he said "everything." I had to be skeptical.
So I asked him about the Chicken Panini.
That's the one he's never had.
That's the one I wanted.
In the Store I think it was called Vior's Chicken Panini, but on his menu is was something else,
like Tenegate Chicken Panini, I would look it up, but they don't have an easily accessible website. When I got there my sandwhich was ready. Of course I had to get an Alligator Jaw to close out my meal.

I took the food back to my office, and oddly, it was still warm.
When I took the first half of my sandwhich out of the container
(I got a full-- two halfs), I thought this bread feels funny,
but as soon as I took my first bite, my hesitation began to disappear.
The sandwhich was amazing! And it was still hot!

Vior's Chicken Panini
The chicken was nice and warm. And it had the perfect texture,
I think it was pulled. It was thinnish, but it still felt like chicken.
It wasn't dry, and I didn't need to stop to cut each bite before I ate it.
(it may have been in chuncks, but it didn't feel like chunks, it just felt, and tasted perfect).

Then I noticed the bread it was really good.
not overly airy, but not overly dense either.
It's a panini, so the bread is not typical bread. This Panini bread is baked
in single serve size "loafs"

The sauce was really good. It's something like big mac sauce, but a little lighter.
I didn't compare the sauces but I think Vior's is better, maybe a hint of BBQ.
Either way the sauce was way good. In fact I would buy the sauce alone,
and I think it would fix many a dull sandwhich.

At this point I really wish I could find their website.
I don't remember everything that was on the sandwhich,
I just remember that it was amazing.

If I had to guess I would say lettuce, and tomato, and Red onions.

Not only was the Sandwhich very tasty, but it was big too.
Like I said, I got a full, and that's what it did too.
After the first half, I already new this was a meal!
The second half was just as good, but I had to wait to make room
for my alligator jaw.

Alligator Jaws
Call it a guilty pleasure,
or maybe it's those found childhood memories,
but part of me really likes alligator jaws.
It's a deep fried triangular donut, then they cut it open,
and fill it with this uber-sweet pink frosting.
They can't possibly be good for you, and sometimes even I think it's "too much"
(not too big just too much, though the size is nice),
But it's a tradition, and I love them.
so I had one of these too.

and when I got to it,
it was good too.

It seems like I ate there once before, but It's been a while,
that time I got a cressant, (and It may not have been Vior's at the time)
but it was too small.

Viors is located on 4th south, just off of Main St.
In Cedar City, They also have a location in St. George,
I think it's by the Factory Stores.

Viors Bakery
50 West 400 South, Cedar City, UT 84720
(435) 586-4572

Highly satisfying
I give this visit to Vior's 8 wooden spoons, (even with dessert and a drink, I stayed under $10)

Gadolfos Deli

My first experience with Gandolfo's Deli was probably about two years ago.
In fact I'm not even sure that I saw one before that.
That is about the time that the Cedar City location opened for business,
and that is about the time that I started eating there.
This review (at least on my part) will speak specifically about that location.
but as always I welcome all comments, about this and any location.

Update: The Cedar City Location is under new management, some comments may not apply anymore. We may even update the review, we'll see.

As always I feel I must talk about the bread.
It's tradition.
but first let me set the scene.

Gandolfo's Deli is Located pretty squarely in the Heart of Cedar City.
If Cedar City has a downtown, Gandolfos. is the place.
The place is kind of dark, but I guess that gives it a slightly more authentic feel.
And they have little bits here and there, that make you think of a big city, back east. Then there's the deli counter.
yep
they have the salad's and the desserts and such, just like you would
expect in a deli. To be fair I haven't tasted their salads or desserts.
And of course what Deli would be complete without a large tub of dill pickles
(also an item that I have yet to try).

Then there's the menu, at first it's pretty impressive,
maybe even overwhelming. I mean there have to be over fifty different sandwiches,
and each can be adjusted to you own likes, and many can be served hot or cold.
I like the freedom of being able to choose exactly what I want, but it does make it harder to judge the eatery as a whole.
And for me, it make's it pretty tough to pick the sandwhich that I want.

Well it sounds like it's time for me to talk about the bread.
It's really rather unimpressive. There are a few choices on bread,
and some of them are definately better than others, but I have yet to find on that I really liked (ok the wheat bread was decent. but certainly not stellar).

The first time I went I thought, "Try the regular sub-bread,
regular is always safe."

Regular was disappointing, but I didn't realize it was the bread for until I had it a few more times.

The bread was chewy,
maybe even a little doughy, but certainly not the highlight of the sandwich.
And maybe, just maybe, the bread is not made to be warm, but I like warm sandwiches, so I thought I would try it.

After a few failed attempts, with the normal bread I decided to go for the wheat bread. It was way better. The regular bread is a hogie roll, the wheat bread is just a couple of slices of bread. But to be fair, it is big. The wheat bread is pretty thick, and it is large enough to still feel like a pretty healthy sandwich.
Actually I was surprised by how little it wasn't.

And like I said the wheat bread is much better, but it's almost like they over correct. The hogie roll, is perhaps a little doughy, and the wheat bread was just a little dry. Still of the bread's I've had there, the wheat wins hands down.

Perhaps now would be a good time for a disclaimer,
I don't feel that my local Gandolfos has given me the best possible experience.
I think the staff just doesn't care, they work for next to nothing, and they're not about to get fired.

Unfortunately the sandwiches that I have had seem to reflect this attitude.
Thus my review is somewhat tainted.
One thing that has really bothered me about gandolfos is the way they do a hot sandwhich. It's like only half of it gets warm, and that half only gets warm.
I really love a good hot sandwhich, but I have never had a good hot sandwhich there. Sure they have an impressive menu, and some of the ingredients/ combinations look phenomenal, but they never live up to my expectations.

here are a few of the sandwhiches that I think have had:
The Urban Cowboy
The Bronx BBQ
The Bridge Hampton
And Maybe Club Met

The last time I went in I was very aware of my sandwhich,
I ordered the wheat bread, I didn't get it heated, and I still didn't like it.
What I noticed was the MAYO. I don't know why but the mayo really hit me,
maybe I don't like mayonaise, or maybe I don't like their mayonaise, or maybe the person who threw my sandwhich together put on too much, but either way it was not very pleasant to me.

So for me Gandolfo's is out,
yes I might go there again, but it won't be my choice,
and yes I do think I could do it right this time, but I don't imagine it will be anytime soon.

I give Gandolfo's Three Wooden Spoons, just not my sandwhich shop.
(but their web site is quite nice)

Cedar City, UT

126 N. Main St., Ste 102

(435) 586-8116

http://gandolfosdeli.com/storelocator.php

Quizno's or Gandolfos, I can't decide

But I can tell you this one is an up,
and one is a down
let me know if there is one you would prefer to here me babble about.

Deano's Pizza

If you're ever passing though Fillmore,
and let's face it the odds are pretty good.
You might just want to stop at Deano's Pizza.

I was quite happy to add Our former state capitol to the elite list of places in the review. But the question was "which of their seven restaurants (estimate) should we eat at?" (Yes I did just end that sentance with a preposition, but I'm too lazy to fix it.)

We started at the south end of town (where by the way, gas seems to be quite a bit cheaper (than the north end of town)). We thought for sure we would go where we always go, Larry's Drive in, but we drove through town anyway. And a few blocks later we found Deano's Pizza.

At length we decided Deano's was our place.

We were even more sold when we noticed that they had a mini-golf course in the back.

The Entrance is on the corner of the building.
There are two doors,
One facing each way.
I unfortunately picked the one that faces south.

As you enter it, um doesn't really look like a place of food.
but if you go upstairs,
and pass the room with the pool table you'll find yourself in a hallway.
and if you look carefully,
at the end of the hallway, you'll likely see a counter
(you know a place where you could order).
Actually there is a room off to the left, which also has such a counter.

The room to the left also has tables.
(where you could eat your pizza)
I would actually order from here if I had it to do again.

The smell is pleasant, but perhaps a bit stronger in the dining area.
The menu as you might guess is mostly Pizza.
The selection is good, but nothing unexpected.

And it's mostly pizza,
yeah they have like a lasagne but we didn't get that.
Since I can pretty much eat anything,
I let my sister pick our Pizza.

She selected a Pepperoni, with mushrooms and olives.
I thought that sounded great.

What I forgot, is that I don't really like mushrooms, but I'll get into that later.

So we ordered our pizza, and our drinks and sat down,
(they have fanta and sprite, and other Coke products)
As we entered the dining area we noticed to very interesting things.
First the walls.
The walls are two toned.
With a fairly bright dark green on top,
and A lovely red on the bottom. You know,
Italian ambiance.

The second thing we noticed was a pizza.
Someone was just getting theirs,
and it looked DIVINE!
Granted, we were hungry,
but it looked good,

Half of it was Hawaiian, and half was something else.
It smelled good too.
Suddenly we were ready to eat.

But this is one of those "we make it when you order it" kind of places,
So we had to wait a little while to actually partake.

While we were waiting we decide our one medium pizza might not be enough.
(And for the record I think we were right.)

So I went to add an order of breadsticks.
(Turns out it's a pizza with no toppings, so I got a medium of that too.)

But how about the pizza.
Ah the pizza,
The first thing you notice, of course is the smell,
but shortly thereafter, we noticed the pizza.
More specifically we noticed the mushrooms.
I guess I was expecting those wimpy things you get in a can,
but that's not what I found at all.

I actually like wimpy mushrooms, I mean, they're not my favorite,
but they're not bad either.

But this pizza didn't have wimpy's, in fact it was the furthest thing from it.
I forgot that Fillmore is the home to one of the states largest mushroom farms.
And very likely the mushrooms came from there.
And they were fresh
(they may have even been picked that same day).

Yes our pizza didn't have small chunks of wimpy mushrooms,
It had rather large (though not overly thick) slices of very fresh
Fillmore Mushrooms.

The crust was good.
The sauce was actually good too.
neither one got in the way of a good experience.

The crust actually had a good taste to it.
It wasn't a strong flavor but it was a good flavor. The texture was also nice.
The sauce was similar, A little sweet, but not too much,
not too salty, nothing weird, just a nice middle of the road sauce,
which if you ask me is usually best.

When the bread sticks came they did in fact look like a pizza.
They had something like Parmesan on them and they came with a little cup of
sauce for dipping.
Oddly though, the sauce was cold (if you want the sauce warm you can order a plain pizza,
but I it costs about 30¢ more). I don't know, they might even warm the sauce for you if you ask,
but it's not the default.
Still the bread sticks were good, and the cold sauce wasn't bad.
We got the medium bread sticks, and I don't know if they give different sizes of sauce with different orders, but we had enough.
it was close... I probably would have liked to have just a little more but still it worked.

All in all it was a very nice experience, and far more than I expected in the middle of nowhere
(which oddly enough seems to be about the middle of everywhere too).

My sister absolutely loved it she said something like "Wow this pizza is amazing!"
And "This is the best pizza I've had in a really long time!"

I too enjoyed it, but I guess not as much.
Yes it was very good, even better than average.
The service was not great, but we had what we needed.
And the food more than compensated for our slight lack of service (mostly the two or three employees just sit in the kitchen, but they will help you if you need it).
All in all I would give it six wooden spoons.

The Miniature Golf course is open roughly from Memorial Day to Labor Day.
They have a miniature replica of the Former State house,
and they have a windmill.

But I can't fully comment on the course, because we didn't play.

Deanos Pizza Tel: (435) 743-6385

96 S Main St Fillmore, UT 84631

6 wooden Spoons out of 8

Bruno's Italian Deli and Pizza (Cedar City)

You might say I'm biased.
And you might be right.
But then again, I might not be.
I think it's kind of a circle.

I think this will be my best blog yet.
and by best I mean most comprehensive.

I have to say that I like Bruno's
The food is good,
and the staff is pretty cool too.

It's a small operation - kind of a mom and pop pizza shop.
But it's not just pizza.
They serve pizza, and Pastas and Sandwiches.
Most of what they have is pretty simple,
and yet in some way it is richly unique.

I haven't quite figured out their secrets,
but I think I am close.

First the Sandwiches.
*There are about a dozen sandwiches that you can order.
and like I said they're pretty basic,
but they're basically pretty good too.
I've had the Chicken Parmasean,
and the Eggplant Parmasean,
and the Philly cheese steak,
(all warm of course)
(but they also have cold sandwiches)

I've also had the lasagna, the penne with pesto

And the pizza,

The Pizza is Amazing,
or at least some of it is.

I'll start with the Crust.
I think it's superb.
Sal, the owner, says this is because Cedar City has good water,
and good elevation.
Thus it is pracitcally impossible to get great pizza in vegas,
but not so hard when you are at Bruno's

There are many types of pizza that you can get.
And Sal doesn't mind making something special.
In fact, I get the impression that he kind of likes it.

Sometimes his wife will just start selling pizza's that aren't even on the menu.
And sometimes, you find some real treasures.

In my recent experience I've had um two of his specials.
The first one was one of the finest pizzas I have ever had.
I'm not even kidding here.
But it was very special.
Meaning...
you'd probably have to be very well liked,
and show up at just the right time to get it.
but if you did, it would be well worth it.

NEW! This has just been added to the menu (more or less)
They Call it the White Pizza timing will still determine what you can get on it (today they were out of artichoke hearts and the roasted reds)


Lets see,
--crust
--olive oil
--onions
--ricotta cheese
--fresh garlic cloves
--little itty bitty slices of sausage (I think)
--roasted red peppers
--and parmasean

I think that was it.

no "sauce,"
but it was heavenly.

The second pizza I had was
--crust
--olive oil (Sal says the Olive oil really brings out the flavors,
but you probably have to ask for it.) (but I think he'd be impressed if you did)
--sauce
--cooked onions (pre cooked onions -wow that's good)
--mozzarella
--parmasean
--and a little um canadian bacon (??) I think.

This pizza was also good,
but perhaps a little salty.

Actually that's one thing I've noticed.
Some of the food has a little more salt than I would like.
I think it's in the red sauce,
but it's most noticable in dishes like the Meatball Sub.

But anyway back to the pizza.

Did I mention he cooks his onions.
Like in the oven.
and the flavor is really really good.
Not strong, or bitter,
but they aren't a special onion.
Just onions the way that onions should be.
Appearantly that means pre-cooked.

Pizza comes in 14" and 16" sizes.
(And yes I hear that they do toss the dough, but I can't say that I've seen it)
Also the Pizza is served on a riser- an elevated platform in the middle of the table.

If that sounds to you like a lot of food,
you would be correct.
If that sounds like too much,
and you don't want pizza for breakfast,
perhaps a Calzone would be better for you.
or a sandwhich,
or a pasta.

Speaking of pasta.
I like the Pesto.
I'm kind of a pesto person.
So I guess it's not much of a stretch that I liked it.
But it was good.
Once again, I recommend the bread.
I just like bread, and the bread they give with their pasta is good.
Usually I get my pesto on penne.
I don't know why, but I like the noodles that way.
(by the way Bruno's does noodles Al Dente)

Like I said the flavor of the pesto was pretty good to me,
but I wonder what it would taste like with just a spoonful of their white sauce.
I think the flavor would be fantastic,
and the dish would be a little more moist,
which would probably suit me just fine.

The lasagna is also quite good,
but once again, we find our salty red sauce.
it's just too strong for me.
(Perhaps that is why they serve coleslaw too. The coleslaw and bread definately enhance the experience,
and I'm not a big coleslaw person.)

Portion size is good,
maybe a bit more than "healthy."
But likely enough to fill you up.
And they will give you a doggie bag (i.e., styrofoam carton)

As long as we are talking about the salt,
I guess the Meatball sandwich should come next.
The sauce is a little salty, and the meatballs are too!
The flavor is good, but kind of gets lost.
And if your in a hurry, or don't have much money this is one of your better options.
But don't ignore the coleslaw. Ü
Sanwiches are served with coleslaw and chips,
yep you guessed it, usually you get a bag of lays potatoe chips on the side
(sometimes they have Sun Chips, but I don't think there's a solid pattern).

The Chicken Parmasean,
And the Eggplant Parmasean, (both as sandwiches, but you can get them on pasta)
And both are quite good.
(and they tend to buffer the salt a bit)
Oh and there's bread.
yeah yeah I know, sandwiches are served on bread.
And since I like to talk about it so much, I can't believe I almost forgot.
I really like the bread rolls that Bruno's uses.
They are big.
and not too fluffy.
I can't accurately describe it, but it's good.
the flavor is good and the texture is good.
A nice middle of the road (not literally) kind of bread.
Slightly sweet, a little dense, and a nice mild flavor.
Chicken Parm is a breast and a half of chicken,
breaded and boiled.
Red sauce,
Cheese,
and Cheese.

(eggplant parm is... well, use your imagination.)

The service is good,
and the people are nice.
I guess I'd give my experience about 5 wooden spoons.
(but if you happen to get the right pizza, that could easily go up.)

Bruno's is located just off 1-15,
Exit 57, in Cedar City's Providence Center.
(you know, the light house)
Bruno's is currently sharing space with the Cheveron station.
1744 Royal Hunte Dr.
Bruno's is open Monday through Saturday, 11 am - 9 pm.