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.

Nubi Yogurt

One of the current culinary trends of today is frozen yogurt, every city has at least one frozen yogurt shop nowadays. In the HD we have plenty to choose from, on this particular day I chose to give Nubi Yogurt a try. When you first walk into Nubi the first thing you notice is the wall of yogurt machines and the many different toppings available to make your healthier dessert choice highly fattening and unhealthy. For the sake of blogging, I decidedly to put everything but the kitchen sink into my yogurt. I was undecided between peanut butter and vanilla yogurt but luckily enough for me I was able to split the goodness due to the fact that they both shared the same yogurt station (similar to the combined vanilla/chocolate option on an ice cream machine). The vanilla had a light vanilla taste without too much punch and the peanut butter ice cream tasted as advertised. The only thing that makes Nubi stand out from the other yogurt shops in the HD is the large amount of cereals to put on top of your ice cream! Yes, they have all of the different fruits/nuts/candies available, but the vast amount of cereals sealed the deal for me. The yogurt shown above includes: Coco puffs, Captain Crunch w/berries, chocolate turtles, pop rocks, gummi worms, heath, reeses, kiwi, and a vanilla/peanut butter yogurt swirl. When it comes to frozen yogurt shops, Nubi's quality of yogurt is the same as every other shop out there, as a matter of fact, I have yet to see a yogurt shop in the HD that has frozen yogurt any other way. The only thing that separates these shops are the available toppings for the yogurt, and luckily enough for Nubi they offer the best selection that i've seen in the HD. The pictured yogurt cup ran me just under $5. Nubi is located at 19201 Bear Valley Rd. STE H-A in Apple Valley.

Thai Dawn Bistro

In the ashes of the once booming Maan Fu Steakhouse in Victorville is the newly opened Thai Dawn Bistro. Thai Dawn is from the same owners of Go Bangkok Thai in Hesperia, one of the many credible Thai operations in the HD.

As I entered Thai Dawn I immediately felt comfort in the elegantly decorated restaurant, for being such a small room, they were able to add great decor and plenty of seating while not making the diner feel like they were eating in a cafeteria or eating in an overly fancy bistro. The first thing my wife and i ordered was the "Bangkok Bites" appetizer sampler. The appetizer came with eggrolls, satay chicken skewers, fried tofu, and curry puff packets. The appetizer came with 3 dipping sauces: Cucumber sauce, Thai Peanut sauce, and a house Sweet/Sour sauce. The first thing I tried was the satay chicken, the chicken had a mild curry taste and was cooked properly, it tasted great when dipped in the mildly spiced thai peanut sauce. The best thing about the chicken was that it wasn't overpowered by the curry seasoning, which left plenty of room for tasting the great flavor in the peanut sauce. Next were the eggrolls, the eggrolls were fried to a decent crunch, but the inside was slightly mushy. The veggies inside the eggrolls were properly seasoned and went great with the house's sweet/sour sauce. The house sweet/sour sauce was a lighter version of normal sweet/sour sauces in chinese restaurants, it tasted more tangy than your average sweet/sour sauce too. Next up was the fried tofu, the glory of tofu is that it tastes like whatever you season it with or decide to dip it in. I chose to dip the tofu triangles in the cucumber sauce, the sauce tasted like a sweet/sour sauce with a slight aftertaste of cucumber, the bits of cucumber in the sauce added for an excellent crunch factor to each bite. Last were the curry puff packets which were potato bits cooked in a curry paste, wrapped in a won ton packet, and deep fried. The packets had a similar taste to the chicken satay being that both items were cooked with yellow curry, the won ton had great crunch, and the tender curry potatoes on the inside played well together with any of the 3 sauces. The fried items in the appetizer were fried perfectly and were not super greasy or overly filling, it was a perfect appetizer sampler to prepare us for the main course.
Above is the Tofu Pad Thai that my wife ordered. Pad Thai is a rice noodle dish which is cooked in a peanut sauce, and filled with meat, veggies, or tofu. My wife decided to go with tofu and veggies. My favorite thing about Pad Thai is the rice noodles, they're not super mushy or super firm, but cooked to the point where they melt in your mouth and allow you to easily taste any other item which is incorporated into the dish without feeling a strain of chewing rough noodles. The peanut sauce in the Pad Thai tasted amazing, it had a very delicate peanut taste, and very little heat. The tofu and vegetables added great texture to the dish and the crunched up peanut bits on top added a great crunch to finish out the dish. The Pad Thai alone is more than enough reason to visit the Thai Dawn Bistro.
I order the Thai Normai dish, which is a spicy curry dish with bamboo chutes, green beans, various bell peppers, and a side of rice. I also added tofu and vegetables to my main course. The bamboo in this dish shines over everything, the bamboo is very tender, yet still provides a snap when chewed and has a similar taste to cooked celery. The sauce wasn't as spicy as I had hoped, but the curry and aftertaste from the other various spices in the dish were more than enough to make up for the lack of heat. The tofu and veggies were also cooked to perfection and tasted great when mixed with the rice in the dish.

I ended up getting a Thai Milk Iced Tea with my dinner, the fact that it tasted great was nothing compared to the huge beer glass that it was served in! The service at Thai Dawn was also very prompt and polite. We went on a busy night and the service was still great. Meals were flying out of the kitchen at a quick speed, which was pretty impressive considering how much prep and seasoning goes into Thai food. If you've never had Thai food before, I would highly recommend giving it a try, the various curry's and spices in the food are nothing to be afraid of, and provide great flavor in every dish. Thai Dawn is highly recommended and for our appetizer, thai teas, and 2 main courses, the bill came out to just under $40. Thai Dawn Bistro is located at 14317 Bear Valley Rd. Ste 2 in Victorville. Thai Dawn's sister restaurant (Go Bangkok) is located at 15800 Main St. Ste 200 in Hesperia.

Out Of This World BBQ And Saloon

When you think of the HD, the last thing you think of is BBQ, especially smoked southern style BBQ. Out of This World BBQ (OOTW) is a bbq stop located in the outer part of Apple Valley that serves smoked bbq, burgers, and other various bar foods. OOTW is decorated in a country western theme, the dining area is even equipped with a booth inside of a jail cell. The dining area has a delightfully smokey aroma to it that is very common in the majority of bbq restaurants that use smokers to cook their meat.

The first thing we ordered was the Buffalo Wing Appetizer, the first thing that I noticed is that the wings came dry with the buffalo sauce off to the side. I enjoy being able to choose the amount of sauce that goes on my wings so I don't end up with sloppy and soggy wings. The wings were fried perfectly, there was amazing crunch on the outside, and a moist/juicy inside. The vinegar based buffalo sauce was perfect and not too spicy. The best part about the wings being fried perfectly is that you're not left with a super greasy wing, you're just left with brilliant crunch and tender chicken. We finished every last wing on the plate and were ready for the main course!

My wife ordered the pulled pork sandwich and also added a side of mac & cheese. The pulled pork was great, it was tender, juicy, and had a light smokey aftertaste. The only drawback to the sandwich was the huge roll it was served on, while it made it difficult for the sandwich to fall apart, it also created a hassle in chewing each bite. The fries were undercooked and incredibly greasy, which was a shame considering what a great frying job they did with the buffalo wings. The mac & cheese had great flavor, but unfortunately was left in the oven for too long, the top was almost rock solid, and the pasta ended up being a huge clump of noodle underneath the hard, burnt shell of cheese.

I decided I would try everything and go with the bbq sampler platter. The platter came with brisket, pulled pork, chicken thighs, ribs, baked beans, and I substituted my corn for french fries. I'll review each item individually.

Ribs: usually when ribs are smoked the meat will fall right off of the bone, in this case, these ribs didn't. They weren't rough to eat, but they weren't as tender as other bbq spots will offer. I also was unable to taste any seasoning or dry-rub on the ribs whatsoever, which left a mild and bland taste to the ribs.

Chicken: The chicken was already diced into pieces so I took a dinner roll and made a mini sandwich. Unfortunately the chicken had fallen victim to the same crime as the ribs. No taste of seasoning and were borderline dry.

Brisket: Brisket will most likely make or break a bbq joint, nothing is more satisfying than a juicy, smokey, tender slice of
brisket. The brisket that was presented in this sampler was dry and had very little flavor besides a light aftertaste of smoke, it tasted like it was pulled out of the smoker yesterday and left on a table until it was served the following day. A smoke ring was visible on the meat (a sign of a great smoke-job), but unfortunately the meat just couldn't live up to the smoke ring.

Pulled Pork: The pulled pork is definitely the show-stopper in the sampler, it tasted great and almost made up for the unfortunate serving of dry meat that was presented with the rest of the meats in the sampler. The pork was moist, juicy, had a perfect amount of smokey taste, and almost melted in my mouth. It tasted great and was the shining star of the entire sampler.

Sides: The baked beans tasted great, i actually ended up mixing my baked beans with the meat in the sampler to provide liquid to the otherwise dry meat. My fries were also undercooked and swimming in oil just like the fries that came with the pulled pork sandwich.

House BBQ Sauce: On the corner of the table was a bottle of house bbq sauce, I figured I would drench this on my chicken to help with the dryness, while the bbq sauce is definitely homemade, it tasted like a plain bbq sauce that could be acquired from the local grocery store. The sauce had a strong brown sugar/cinnamon aftertaste that left the sauce with a very tangy aftertaste, but nothing more than that.


Before you read my conclusion I would like to first say that by no means will I ever tell anyone on this blog to not eat at a restaurant, everyone's experiences differ at certain restaurants and everyone's taste buds are different. I am simply offering my point of view, I strongly encourage everyone to try new things and to enjoy what you love regardless of what anyone says. I also support the growth of HD businesses and would prefer that we choose a local establishment over a chain restaurant. With that being said, read the next line for my conclusion.

OOTW is a fairly new establishment, they've only been open for a little over a month, it's very difficult to judge a new restaurant under those circumstances, but it's very evident that OOTW has a lot of work to do before they can become a contender with the HD's best restaurants. It seemed as if most of the servers were brand new to the craft and it was very visible that most of them were struggling. Our server let our food sit on the hot-tray for a good amount of time before we received it, she also had trouble remembering refills and extra orders, the worst part was that she incorrectly charged the couple that came with us for dinner, charging them double the price of what they ordered from a different ticket. The cooks also seemed to be overwhelmed with the large amounts of customers to cook for, which was evident in the undercooked fries, overcooked mac & cheese, and the dry servings of meat. Our friends shared a burger from OOTW, the burger came out looking like a million bucks, it was juicy, and the flavor could be smelled from the opposite end of the table, they devoured it before I could even get a picture! The negative to that is that the only reason they shared the burger is because one of them ordered a chicken salad that came with chicken that was fatty and tasteless, and was sent back. OOTW has massive amounts of potential, and I would love to go back and give them a second try once the bugs and kinks get worked out in the kitchen and on the dining room floor. Since my visit, I've heard of great experiences from friends and family member's visits to OOTW, I guess it's safe to say that maybe they were having an off night when I went. The bill for the sampler, sandwich, and wings came in at just over $50. OOTW is located at 21041 Bear Valley Rd. in Apple Valley.