Five Star Barbeque Company - Orem, UT

I have discovered a new vice.

China Light Cafe - American Fork, UT

China Light Café is a place that my husband and I have frequented for many years. I would say that it’s a staple in American Fork when it comes to Chinese cuisine. Despite the fact that I have been there more times than I can count, I have only ever gotten one thing: the #80 daily special. (Don’t get too excited, there aren’t actually 80 specials. They count by ten on their menu for some reason…) This special comes with special chow mein (the “special” part is that it’s actually lo mein), sweet & sour chicken, an egg roll, ham fried rice, and a cup of soup. This review will be based on my most recent trip to China Light Café. 

Soup: The soup options this time were Cantonese (egg drop) soup and cream of broccoli soup. I’m not generally a huge egg drop soup so I went with the cream of broccoli. Spencer ordered egg drop.  Spencer let me taste his soup and it was fine. I’m always put off by the taste of egg drop soup and I don’t understand how they’re able to get that thick-ish texture to the broth. Cornstarch, maybe? Ew. I’m not a fan. But, for egg drop soup, it was fine. My cream of broccoli was a bowl of cream soup with a very small, token piece of broccoli. The soup tasted like thickened milk and had zero broccoli flavor. I mean zero. I was quite disappointed. I should have ordered egg drop. 

Special Chow Mein: I have no idea why they call this chow mein, because it is obviously lo mein. That being said, it is delicious. Truly, it’s the best thing there. I’m a big fan.

Sweet and Sour Chicken: China Light’s sweet and sour chicken is a little different than most others that I have had. Instead of cooking small, individual pieces of chicken, they fry up one long piece of chicken and slice it. Definitely unusual, but very yummy. The batter is light and crispy and the chicken is always high quality white meat. A winner for sure. 

Egg Roll: China Light definitely does not skimp when it comes to their egg rolls. They are huge! They seem to be double wrapped (Which I love! The fried wrapper is the best part, right?) and they are stuffed with lots of veggies. Very good egg rolls. 

Fried Rice: I’m pretty disappointed by the fried rice. Although it is obviously fried (as indicated by the overall oily texture) there is very little flavor. It’s like they just tossed the rice with oil and called it good. There are also carrots, peas, and small pieces of ham with the plain rice. Honestly, I prefer the fried rice that I make at home. 

One note that I must make about the food overall: It is very heavy. When you’re finished eating, a sheen of oil seems to coat the entire surface of the plate. Some people really like this kind of Chinese food, my husband being one of them. I prefer my Chinese food to be a bit more fresh and bold with fried elements as accents, not as the whole. You won’t taste a ton of spice, ginger, or garlic at China Light. However, the food is pretty yummy and very affordable. Whenever I leave China Light, I feel full, satisfied, and like my arteries are going to clog up on the way home.

Ernie's Sports Deli - Orem, UT

I had never been to Ernie's. Having been a former Mountain View High School Bruin, I know that this is almost blasphemous to say, but it's true.  Well, we received a coupon in the Value Pages mailer so my husband and I decided to go and try it out. I was pleased to see that it's still the Mountain View hangout that it was during my day (even though it wasn't my hangout then - my friends went to Wendy's.) We went at noon on a weekday and the place was packed, but we were still able to find a small table in the back where we could fit our baby's car seat with relative ease. I was surprised at how quickly they got our food out! Even though the place was hopping, we had our sandwiches in a little over 5 minutes wait time.

I got the Slider sandwich. It was served hot with grill chicken, mozzarella, and marinara sauce. It was DEE-licious. The marinara was very fresh and light with big chunks of tomato. It tasted so fresh that I wondered if it was made in house. The chicken was tender and sliced thin to make the sandwich easier to eat. (I hate it when restaurants throw a huge chicken breast on a sandwich. You get ten bites that are all chicken and then the rest of the sandwich is just bread.) I was very impressed by the Slider. I will definitely purchase it again.

My husband got the Slam Dunk sandwich. It was a cold turkey sandwich with avocado, swiss cheese, lettuce, tomato, honey mustard, and oil and vinegar. He was not particularly enthused. He thought that the turkey was nice and moist, but the sandwich overall was somewhat soggy (should've grilled the bread) and was overwhelmed by the flavor of the vinegar. He also felt that there was an insufficient amount of avocado. There were only two small slices for the entire 6" sandwich. He was unable to taste the honey mustard because the vinegar was dominating the sandwich so heavily.

Although we only sampled a small portion of Ernie's fairly vast menu, our overall impression was that the hot sandwiches were MUCH better than the cold ones. (A fairly good rule of thumb and most sandwich shops, I think.) The service was good, the atmosphere was fun, and the ingredients were of excellent quality. I don't know if Spencer and I will go back without a coupon ($8 is a lot for at 12" sandwich), but the next time the Value Pages come in the mail, we will definitely be taking a trip back to Ernie's.

Magleby's Fresh - Lindon, UT

This is a review of the Lindon, UT Magleby's Fresh. It is VERY important to distinguish between the Provo and Lindon restaurants. The Provo restaurant is terrible. The lines are long, they take forever and a day to get your food out, the food portions are smaller, and the staff is mostly comprised of obnoxious students. (I say MOSTLY because I am sure that there are some very nice servers there. I have simply never met one.) Whenever I go to the Provo restaurant, I leave frustrated and anxious. It is NOT a pleasant dining experience.

The Lindon restaurant, however, is lovely. The lines are never too long, the staff is very polite, and the food is delicious. Although I have hardly tried everything on the menu, here are some of my favorites:

Stuffed Breadsticks: It doesn't matter what the breadstick of the day is, any stuffed breadstick you get is amazing. I think my favorite is the turkey, but I've also had the ham and blackened chicken. They take their famous breadstick dough and stuff it with meat and cheese and then serve it with either marinara or alfredo sauce. I usually get the marinara sauce because I figure that it must be healthier than the alfredo sauce and I can therefore rationalize eating more breadstick. Both sauces are excellent, though.

Classic Magleby Cheeseburger: This is what my husband ALWAYS gets. If you're craving a cheeseburger, you cannot go wrong with this beauty. They put two (we suspect homemade, but we're not sure) large patties between a toasted bun with cheddar cheese, onion straws, lettuce, tomato, and onion. It's served with a large pickle spear (The worst part, in my opinion. I HATE pickles. *Shudder*) and some of the best battered fries I've ever had.

BBQ Chicken Salad: This is my favorite salad at Magleby's. It comes with honey mustard dressing, carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, mozzarella, and BBQ chicken. I always switch out the dressing for ranch because...I can..., but the honey mustard is great too. The chicken is covered in a homemade BBQ dressing that goes great with the salad. It's super yummy.

Ceasar Salad: I'm not necessarily recommending this as a favorite, but I  feel the need to make a note about it anyways. It is a very good Ceasar salad, but be aware that the dressing is a very traditional Ceasar. I suspect that they use real anchovies in the dressing, because it can sometimes taste a little fishy. If you like this flavor, by all means get the salad. If not, consider yourself warned.

Breakfast Burrito: If you go to Magleby's Fresh for breakfast, the breakfast burrito is definitely the best bang for your buck. It's a very large burrito and is topped with the most heavenly slice of candied bacon you've ever had. The endless french toast may sound tempting, but I'm telling you...Go for the burrito! Unless you hate Mexican food, you will not regret it.

Dessert: Get the chocolate cake. End of discussion.

Magleby's is a Utah classic and the Lindon location is the best place to get your Magleby's fix.

If you live in Utah and have never tried Maddox chicken, shame on you. Shame! Shame shame shame!



Maddox chicken is AMAZING. When we lived in Idaho, one of the primary reasons that we vacationed in Utah was so that we could eat Maddox chicken. I’m not kidding.
So, if you have not been there (SHAME)…Go. Either drive up to Layton (698 North Main Street Layton, UT) or, if you’re ambitious, go to the original restaurant in Brigham City (1950 South Highway 89 Brigham City, UT) and order the chicken breast with mashed potatoes, a roll, and a corn pone. You will not be disappointed.

The breading on the chicken is light, crispy and salty. The meat inside is juicy, tender and flavorful. The mashed potatoes are the real McCoy…somehow managing to be chucky and creamy at the same time. Do yourself a favor. GO TO MADDOX!

Orange Leaf - Highland, UT

Last week we went to Orange Leaf Frozen Yogurt in Highland. It’s one of those self serve yogurt places that seem to popping up everywhere. (Rather like the mushrooms in my backyard, actually. Where are they all coming from??)

Anyways, it was…fun. The yogurt wasn’t out of this world wonderful. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t BAD. It’s just that the quality of the actual yogurt itself didn’t make my eyes pop out of my head. (Unfortunately, the price did.) What made this place enjoyable was the fact that you could design your own dessert with as many flavors as you wanted and there was no one there to say boo. I got cheesecake, raspberry and chocolate yogurt with cookie dough balls, cheesecake chunks, strawberry bobas and hot fudge on top. The great thing is that you’re charged by the ounce so you can get as many toppings as you want without paying an exorbitant extra charge. My dessert was delicious. However, it wasn’t delicious because the ingredients were superior or the quality excellent. It was delicious because of my mastermind in combing the exact flavors that I wanted. (That’s right, I’m taking complete credit.)

It was a fun place to go and it was very yummy, however for the price ($8.00 for two cups of yogurt!!) I would choose Golden Spoon over Orange Leaf every time.

Maria Bonita - Orem, UT

Spencer and I are Mexican food connoisseurs. Spencer served a Spanish speaking mission in San Diego, California so he KNOWs his Mexican food. In fact, Mexican food is more standard at our house than American food is. That being said, we are very particular when it comes to dining out at a Mexican restaurant. Our normal places to go are Los Hermanos (a Utah classic) and El Azteca (super delicious). Last week, however, we were in the mood for something different. We had a coupon for a buy one get one free meal at Maria Bonita’s in Orem (800 N State St) and we figured we’d give it a try….

…. O_o

Oh my goodness….

Maria Bonita….

Whoever she is, she is the goddess of Mexican food….

We go inside the restaurant and immediately this lady (I’m assuming the owner…perhaps Maria Bonita herself?) greets us with such enthusiasm that we feel like we’re her long lost friends. She shakes our hands and leads us to our table, calling me “Princess” and Spencer “Champion.”

We’re seated, we place our order, and they bring out chips and salsa. (The salsa was excellent. It was very fresh and was bursting with cilantro. Mmm.) As we’re waiting for our food, several other couples come into the restaurant and the same lady (Going forward, I shall call her Maria…even though I’m not sure that’s who she is) greets them with the same zeal with which she greeted us. In fact, she hugged most of them. As we saw customer after customer hug this lady, Spencer and I began to feel very confused (insert cocked eyebrow here).

Anywhooo…the waitress brought out two little bowls of soup for us. I have never been served a soup before a meal except for egg drop soup at Chinese restaurants so I was confused, however Spencer got excited as soon as he saw it.

“I have seen this stuff since my mission!” he exclaimed. Apparently, it is very common for Latinos to serve this type of soup with their meals. It wasn’t anything fantastic, but it was very authentic. It basically consisted of a broth and rice. That’s it. Not to exciting, but adding spoonful of their yummy salsa to it made it super delicious.

Then come the entrees…. I had ordered a combination plate that included two beef enchiladas and one beef tamale. The serving dish was more of a platter than a plate. Spencer and I are both aghast at the serving sizes.

“The plate is very hot, Princess,” Maria warns.

I take my fork. I cut into the tamale. I raise the bite to my mouth. I achieve nirvana.

Seriously, I pity the Indian Buddhists who starved and meditated for days on end trying to achieve a state of spiritual peace and tranquility. All they needed to do was come to Maria Bonita’s. Not kidding. It was that good.

The tamale is spicy and tender. The outside is actually fluffy, not dense and heavy like so many others are. Oh it was so good. The enchiladas are amazing. The rice is perfect. The beans…Oh the beans. How can I even begin to describe the beans. I cannot think of any words powerful enough to describe the goodness of these beans. They are tender, smooth and packed with yummy pork flavor. I’m salivating just thinking about them.

We leave the restaurant in a state of satisfied awe. How could food have tasted that good? I now understand why all of those people hugged Maria when they came in. I wanted to hug her as I left! How can you not feel love and camaraderie towards someone who can provide you with a culinary experience like that?