Paulina's Mexican Grill

Paulina's Mexican Grill is a small "hole in the wall" in the newly built shopping center next to the Victor Bowl. When driving in the area, it's impossible to see Paulina's or to even know that there's a shopping center nearby. We found out about Paulina's through recommendation from friends, and from a coupon that was sent to us in the mail. With a coupon in hand, it was now time to go ahead and give Paulina's Mexican Grill a try!

When my wife and I first walked into Paulina's, we were pleasantly surprised not to see sombrero's on the wall, loudly blasted mariachi music, or cheesy bright green and red walls. Paulina's is decorated like an elegant 5-star restaurant, equipped with beautiful pictures, elegantly painted walls, and beautiful table settings and colors that played perfectly with romantically dim-lit room. The restaurant is very small, but it makes for an extremely romantic and personal dining experience. This place would be perfect for a date, important event, or just to hang around in for the sake of stress relief. The first thing presented to us were the chips and salsa (sorry about not having a picture), the first thing to be pointed out is that these were homemade chips fresh out of the deep fryer, they were perfectly fried and had little to no grease! The salsa was also homemade and tasted amazing! It was more on the spicy side, but the ingredients tasted super fresh and had a perfect crunch from the onions which played well with the soft juicy tomatoes in the salsa. I was ready to cancel my order and eat just chips and salsa(just kidding, but they really were that good)! My meal came with a choice of soup or salad, I decided to give the Tomato Bisque a try (pictured above). Most tomato bisque's honestly just end up tasting Campbell's tomato soup, not this bisque! There was a mild tomato taste when the soup first hit my tongue, but immediately I tasted numerous spices (mainly basil) and a sweet/almost sugary aftertaste that made this soup an addictive and pleasurable appetizer!
My wife ordered the Cheese Enchilada dinner with refried beans and mexican rice. I went ahead and sampled some of her food. It's always easy to judge certain Mexican restaurants by their red sauce and by their rice and beans, this particular red sauce had an amazing taste that immediately reminded me of my Grandmother's Mexican cooking! The sauce tasted authentic, and tasted nothing like any other red sauce in the HD. It's hard to describe, the best way to put it is if you took a normal red sauce, added numerous spices, love, and served it fresh out of the pot. The enchilada itself was cooked perfectly, the tortilla had texture and wasn't mushy, the cheese was melted to perfection! The Mexican rice tasted great and the beans were extraordinary! The beans also reminded me of my Grandmother's back-home Mexican style cooking, this was authentic food with a modern twist!
I ordered the Chipotle Chicken for my entree, I ordered the fried green beans and poblano rice for my sides. The dish also came with a choice of corn or flower tortillas that are acquired from a local business that makes the tortillas in house. The chipotle chicken is a chicken breast cooked with garlic and shallots, drenched in a chipotle based cream sauce, garnished with chipotle pepper slivers. Words can't describe how good this dish was, but i'll do my best to describe it the best that I can! The chicken itself was perfectly cooked and pretty much melted in my mouth the second it hit my tongue. I was a little bit worried that the sauce would be over powered with a strong taste from the chipotle's smoky adobo sauce, but the cream offset the strong flavor and made for a PERFECT sauce that accented the chipotle's smoky flavor without letting it overpower the entire dish. The consistency of the sauce was perfect and the chipotle slivers on top were perfect for bites where I wanted a little extra kick of heat and flavor. The poblano rice was also excellent, it had a buttery/milky taste and a light poblano pepper aftertaste. The fried green beans were also a treat, they were fried to perfection and had great flavor!

When I was growing up I was raised on a steady diet of authentic homemade mexican food from my Mother and my Grandmother, they cooked recipes that were handed down from generations past. They made food that held deep roots in Mexico, and deep roots in my heart. When my Grandmother passed, some of those recipes passed with her, recipes that my Mother hadn't learned yet, flavors that I thought I would never taste again in my lifetime. Those flavors and love for cooking is something that Paulina's holds over any other Mexican establishment in the HD, at certain times in the dining experience the smells from the kitchen, the taste of certain ingredients, and the love in the food reminded me of my Grandmother and the tastes that made her cooking so good. I never thought I would ever experience those flavors ever again in my life, Paulina's proved me wrong, they made my dining experience heartfelt and personal, and that's something that some people never get to experience in their lifetime at a culinary establishment. The atmosphere was perfect and made me feel like I was dining at a nice restaurant in Los Angeles. The waitress Paulina was very friendly and was extremely knowledgable of every item on the menu, she also told us that her Mother (the head chef) makes just about everything on the menu from scratch. Paulina's does a great job of staying authentic, while still adding a modern twist to the dining experience. Paulina's also serves %100 USDA Certified beef at the restaurant, that way you know every cut of beef in your food is of great quality. Without our coupon, the price of our meal would've come in at just over $30. Paulina's is located at 14845 Monarch Blvd, Suite G, in Victorville next to the Victor Bowl.

The Legend Of Barstow Del Taco

If you've lived in the HD all of your life, you'll know about how popular Del Taco is in the area. Del Taco is the go-to fast food joint for residents of all ages, being that they're open 24/7, it's a quick and cheap fix for your late night post-bar adventures. Originally established in Yermo, Del Taco now has locations all over California and parts of Nevada. While they eventually became franchised establishments, the Barstow locations remained privately owned and operated. Thus began the legend of the Barstow Del Tacos. They were said to have fresher ingredients, larger portions, and menu items that can't be found at other franchised Del Tacos.

When you finally make it past the huge line and finally get a clear glimpse at the menu, the first thing you'll notice is that the tacos aren't called "taco", they're called "Barstow Taco", same with the soft tacos. Also notice that the menu has "Bun Taco"'s and Tostadas, these items used to be exclusive to Barstow, but are now available at select locations in California. Although the picture looks similar to the taco pictures on the menu of your local Del Taco, the flavor and size isn't. I decided to go with a Barstow Taco, 1/2 Pound Green Burrito, Fries, and a drink. My wife went with the 2 taco combo with one of those tacos ordered as a "Barstow Soft Taco". It was time to turn the legend into reality.

One other cool thing about the Barstow Del Taco is that the condiment packets are nicely arranged in a basket and easily accessible at your table, removing the problem of having to get up for more sauce during your meal (lazy, i know).
The first item I cracked open was the Barstow Taco, the first thing I noticed was that this beast was the size of 2 standard size tacos from any other Del Taco. The taco was loaded with meat, cheese, lettuce, and a tomato slice on top. The first bite definitely surprised me because the taco didn't taste anything like a normal taco from Del Taco. The meat was tender and had no burnt pieces, the lettuce wasn't soaking wet, and the cheese had the consistency of a freshly grated pile of cheese (no huge clumps of stuck-together/super-cold cheese). The tomato on top tasted extremely fresh and was better than chopped tomato's in my opinion. The shell was crispy and wasn't soaking in grease, mainly because the meat wasn't super greasy. This tasted similar to a restaurant style taco and was packed with flavor up until the last bite.
Next up was the Green Burrito, the first thing to take notice of is the sheer size of the Burrito while in the wrapper, notice that it runs the entire length of the tray. I also ordered french fries, the french fries are the same as the ones served in any other Del Taco, but they were perfectly fried and weren't dripping with grease or overly soggy.
The beans in the burrito were piping hot and the cheese was evenly distributed throughout the entire burrito (it wasn't just clumped on top). The beans tasted fresh cooked and had a slightly more authentic taste than beans from a normal Del Taco. The green sauce tasted the same as a franchise Del Taco, but was evenly distributed and wasn't just in one spot of the burrito. At this point it became clear to me that the main difference between Barstow and any other Del Taco is that the food is made with CARE. Attention to detail seems to be a priority in every item, and no particular item looked thrown together with withered effort, this was not an average fast food restaurant, nor was it a normal Del Taco.
Here's a picture of the "Barstow Soft Taco" that my wife ordered, the tortilla could barely hold the large amount of fillings inside. Take note that the wrapper doesn't have any grease on it, it's perfectly clean! After visiting one of the 3 Barstow Del Tacos, it's clear to me that it's not even worth it to eat at a normal Del Taco, I would just be cheating myself due to the fact that the same food is made 10x better in Barstow. The food is made with care, and the ingredients are fresh, also notable are the gigantic portions and great service. If you're going to eat at a Del Taco, don't even waste your time with your local location, make the drive to Barstow and sample what Del Taco is supposed to taste like. For my food and my wife's combo, the bill came in at just above $13. The location I visited was the Lenwood location just outside of the Tanger Outlets. On your pass through Barstow on the way to Vegas, forget about going to In-N-Out, Tommy's, Chipotle, or Chilis. The real gold mine is Del Taco. Barstow's Del Tacos are located at 401 N. 1st Ave, 1310 E. Mountain View St., and 2871 Lenwood Rd.

Original Roadhouse Grill

The Original Roadhouse Grill is one of several restaurants in Victorville's "Restaurant Row". When driving down restaurant row, drivers will pass Chilis, Sonic, El Pollo Loco, Applebees, Freddys, Mimis Cafe, and Roadhouse. With all of those choices, it's time to see how Roadhouse separates themselves from the other heavy hitters on Restaurant Row.

Roadhouse is a country themed restaurant with a southern BBQ feel to it, The restaurant greets diners at their seats with a bucket of peanuts, and advises diners to throw the shells on the floor. The restaurant offers a perfect family atmosphere with loud music and plenty of seating. The Roadhouse also caters to the bar/sporting event crowd with a spacious bar and plenty of flat screens showing numerous sporting events. After the bucket of peanuts, the waitress eventually brought out some dinner rolls for us to snack on before our entrees arrived. The dinner rolls had a sweet taste to them similar to hawaiian bread sold in grocery stores, they were served fresh out of the oven and were as addictive as chips and salsa. The butter that accompanied the rolls was a sweet honey-butter that perfectly complimented the sweet dinner rolls. It's definitely possible to fill up on dinner rolls and peanuts when eating at the Roadhouse, that's just how good the rolls are!

Next out was our Buffalo Wing Appetizer, The wings were fried and drenched with a spicy, vinegar based buffalo sauce. The wings were tender and had a slight crunch to them, the sauce was great and had a perfect heat to vinegar ratio (not too pungent, not too spicy). They came with chips and celery which were perfect for soaking up the leftover sauce and ranch dressing after the wings were gone. The Roadhouse's wings also come in a bbq sauce upon request, the wings themselves were pretty big and had plenty of meat on them with very little fat. These wings are definitely worth ordering again during future visits.
I decided to substitute my french fries for a dinner salad in my meal, the picture above is the side salad. I was pretty impressed that the salad came with pieces of real bacon (not bacon bits), diced tomato, and a ton of cheddar/jack cheese. The salad was pretty tasty and very refreshing after eating a ton of peanuts, bread, and buffalo wings.
One thing that separates Roadhouse from other establishments is the fact that they serve Bison meat. Bison is lower in fat and cholesterol than normal ground beef, but still maintains a great flavor without any taste or quality compromise. I ordered the Garlic Mushroom Burger with bison meat. The size of the patty was gigantic, it hung over the bun and was cooked to a perfect medium temperature(the meat is cooked to the diner's request). The patty was juicy and tasted similar to normal beef but was a lot juicier, the only noticeable difference to ground beef is that the bison patty was a little less firm than a beef patty and had a tendency to fall apart at times. The burger itself came with jack cheese, grilled mushrooms, and pan fried garlic cloves. The garlic cloves weren't overpowering and added great flavor to the already impressive bison patty. The cheese was melted to perfection, and the mushrooms added a great grilled flavor to compliment the garlic and cheese. The burger was overall a great decision and was the perfect entree to go with the rest of the great bar food that Roadhouse has to offer. Next time I will definitely be sure to try one of their steak or bbq items on the menu. My entire meal came in at just under $20 with a soda. The Original Roadhouse Grill is located in Victorville's Restaurant Row at 11940 Amargosa Rd.

Freddy's Steak Burgers

Freddy's is a brand new burger/fries restaurant in the HD's restaurant row area of Victorville. Freddy's is a straight forward diner style restaurant offering burgers, dogs, and their signature frozen custard.

I'm always super critical when visiting burger joints, it takes a lot of effort to make a good burger, and it's way too easy to make a bad one. I feel that opening a burger joint in this day and age is no longer the safe thing to do, I feel that your burger joint should offer something unique, something new, or something that tastes simply amazing. With that being said, I stepped into Freddy's and immediately felt like I was at In-N-Out. There were long lines, fast paced burger cooking, and a smell of fresh cooked burger in the air. I went ahead and went with their #1 Double cheeseburger with fries. Freddy's has an east coast attitude with their burgers, all that comes on the signature burger is mustard, pickles, and cheese. Being that i'm from the west coast, I immediately put some ketchup on my burger. Freddy's has the same attitude towards their burgers that fine steak houses have towards their steaks: Pick good cuts of meat, season mildly, and let the flavor of the perfectly cooked meat shine over everything. Upon my first bite I instantly tasted the meat over any other topping that was on the burger. It was evident immediately that this wasn't a normal burger. The meat stood out as something that wasn't your generic ground beef, it literally tasted like a well cooked steak that was flattened out and put on a burger. I wasn't a fan of the super thin patties, but the amazing flavor of the burger completely made me forget about the size of the patties. The burger had a mild aftertaste of seasoning salt, but it honestly was not needed, the natural flavor of the meat was more than enough to make this one of the better tasting burgers in the HD. The american cheese complimented the burger well, but I honestly would've been content eating the burger without any toppings at all, that's how good the meat is on Freddy's burgers! The french fries were thin cut shoe-string fries and were honestly a pain to eat, they were very thin and difficult to dip in ketchup without having them break. They tasted more like potato chips than french fries, the flavor was good, but a thicker cut fry would've gone with the burger a lot better. Freddy's offers there seasoning salt to put on the fries, which is basically a spicier seasoning salt similar to the seasoning salt that is offered at Red Robin.
I finished off my meal with some of Freddy's Signature Frozen Custard. The cashier told me that the custard is so good that it's pointless to put any toppings on it, I played it safe and put butterfinger bits on top of my vanilla custard. The cashier definitely proved me wrong, The vanilla custard tasted amazing, it had a very creamy and silky texture that put any ice cream/frozen yogurt to shame! Even the vanilla flavor of the custard tasted different than your average vanilla, almost as if it was made with fresh vanilla bean. Although I was full from my burger, I couldn't stop eating the custard, it was that good! If you haven't been to Freddy's yet, you're letting yourself down. The burgers are great, and the frozen custard is easily the best frozen treat in the HD. My bill was just over $12 for the meal and custard. Freddy's is located at 12032 Amargosa Rd. in Victorville.

Nicks pizza 2

Nicks Pizza 2 in Apple Valley is one of the oldest pizza places in the HD, they've successfully withstood the test of time and have always been a go-to place in the HD for good pizza and great family atmosphere. This time around my wife and I brought some friends for beer, pizza, and the baseball game.

We started off our visit with an order of Nick's famous Nick Sticks. The Nick Sticks are basically Nick's pizza crust with tons of mozzarella cheese, garnished with basil and drizzled olive oil. The sticks were full of flavor and the bread was soft with a super crunchy edge. I personally am not a fan of olive oil drizzled on top of a pile of cheese, but in this case, it just seemed to work with the Nick Sticks. The cheese was super gooey and had tremendous flavor. These were perfect for dipping in the ranch and marinara that accompanied the appetizer.
Next up were the buffalo wings, the interesting thing about these wings is that they were oven cooked instead of deep fried. While the oven method may be a little bit healthier, it provides for a soggy and sometimes dull wing. The sauce on the wings was a basic Frank's style red sauce, I liked Nick's wing sauce a little bit more because it didn't have an overwhelming vinegar taste that most wing sauces tend to abuse. These wings were decent, but nothing that made them worth a second order.
The best thing about Nick's is that they make personal pan 10 inch pizzas and have tons of toppings available at your disposal. The pizza above was my creation, it included: Pineapple, Jalapeno, Artichoke hearts, tomato, cheese, black olives, and mushrooms. All of Nick's pizzas are served deep dish style, this particular pizza was amazing. All of the toppings tasted fresh and the large amounts of mozzarella on the pizza made every bite taste better than the last. The sauce on the pizza is pretty generic and put on very sparingly on the pies, making the cheese and the crust the standouts in Nick's pizzas. The crust is deep dish and is super crunchy on the bottom and edges of the pie, but fluffy on the inside, the crust has a buttery/garlic taste and is simply amazing. The pizza stood up well to the large amount of toppings and was a treat from the first bite to the last.
Our friends ordered a veggie pizza with green peppers, mushrooms, olives, and onions.
This is the pie my wife ordered, pepperoni and pineapple. Nick's Pizza is a staple to the HD and holds an excellent track record of great service and consistently great dining experiences. Nick's has a large personal party room and a very large general dining area equipped with TV's, a large salad bar, and arcade machines. Nick's usually has around 4-5 different beers on draft and offers pitchers and individual glasses of beer. Nick's is also conveniently located in between 2 different movie theaters on Bear Valley Rd, a perfect dinner/beer pit stop before going to see a movie! The bill for 2 pan pizzas, nick sticks, and a pitcher of beer came in at just over $30. Nick's is located at 21510 Bear Valley Rd. #L1-1 in Apple Valley.

Yoshi Sushi

Yoshi Sushi is one of the most popular sushi joints in the HD, they have 2 locations in the HD (Victorville, Hesperia) and seem to be growing more popular every month as the sushi craze continues in the HD. Today I visited the 1st Victorville location that resides in a building that is built to resemble a lighthouse (fitting for a sushi joint). I was lucky enough to catch Yoshi's during their sushi happy hour, which is from 3-5 monday-thursday and offers half price on select rolls and sushi menu items.

I started off with an order of baked mussels, the presentation was amazing and the mussels came fresh out of the oven straight to table. The sauce on top is a mayo-like teriyaki sauce with diced green onion garnish. As soon as the first muscle touched my tongue it immediately sent an explosion of flavor that ranks in my top eating experiences EVER. The creamy mayo based sauce was tangy, yet subtle due to the offsetting teriyaki glaze on top. The crust on top from the broiler added a crunch aspect to the dish that offset the soft texture of the mussels. The mussels literally melt in your mouth and taste as if they were just pulled from the ocean, their is also little to no sandy/grainy texture that mussels tend to have. This dish alone should be more than enough reason for you to come to Yoshi's. I could've sat at the bar and drank Yoshi's house-made pineapple saki and eaten baked mussels all day, but there were still more items left to try in this visit!
The roll above is the Heart Attack Roll, the roll consisted of crab and cream cheese stuffed inside a jalapeno which is then tempura fried. They served it on a bed of teriyaki and tangy mayo sauce. This roll tasted exactly like it sounded, it had big time spice from the jalapeno, almost too spicy at times. The cream cheese and crab mix in the roll did their job of extinguishing the heat from the jalapeno and offering a soft and creamy texture to offset the crunch from the jalapeno and the tempura. The different textures and flavors in this roll made it fun to eat, but sometimes a little too spicy and is not recommended for anyone that has a hard time handling spicy food. If you enjoy high heat and big flavors, give this dish a try.
Next up was an item that was compliments of the house, it was called the UFO. The UFO is a layered dish, the first layer is a flat pile of sticky rice formed into a disc which is then tempura fried. The second layer is a large portion of spicy tuna, the third layer is a spread of avocado, the dish is topped with crunchy tempura flakes and served with a side of spicy mayo and teriyaki sauce. The tempura rice disc tasted good enough to where I could see myself ordering just the disc with a side of tangy mayo sauce for dipping. The spicy tuna had great taste and wasn't too overpowering, the avocado and tempura flakes added great texture and offered relief to any spiciness from the tuna. My only gripe about this is that I wish they would've put the dish in the broiler before bringing it out so that the spicy tuna would've been warm. The cold spicy tuna didn't play well with the hot tempura rice cake. It almost grossed me out at times, all it would've taken is some warm tuna and this dish would've topped the Heart Attack Roll.
Next up were the Crazy Boy and Crazy Girl rolls. The Crazy Boy is a tempura fried California Roll (crab, cucumber, avocado, wrapped in seaweed). The Crazy Girl is a spicy tuna roll that is also tempura fried, the Crazy Girl also has avocado inside, both rolls are served on a bed of teriyaki style sauce. Both rolls were amazing, they were fresh out of the fryer and were fried to perfection. The crazy girl was everything that i had hoped the UFO would've been, cooked through but still keeping the tuna cooked rare. The crazy boy tasted just like a crunchy/warm california roll. The teriyaki sauce tasted great and the tempura had amazing crunch and texture. In case you didn't notice, I mainly ordered fried items this time around in my visit to Yoshi's. I decided it would be best to do something different other than reviewing the basic fish items. In the past i've eaten sashimi items at Yoshi's and the experience was great, the fish is fresh and the portions are generous. This time I wanted to offer a different experience in the world of sushi, Yoshi's does a great job with fried rolls and I felt it was something worth dedicating an entire visit to. Yoshi's stands as one of the heavy hitters in the HD's sushi scene, and this visit proved that this restaurant is one of the best in the HD. The service is great, and the sushi chefs are friendly and fun to chat with. Being that it was happy hour, my bill for everything came in at just under $30. I would recommend going during a happy hour (mon-thurs 3-5 pm), the low prices allow more financial flexibility which opens up the menu for you to try many different things on the menu without being scared of taking a chance on something new. Yoshi's has 2 locations in the HD, the original is located at 14177 Kentwood Blvd in Victorville. The 2nd location is located at 17005 Bear Valley Rd in Hesperia.