Manna Deli

Manna Deli -- Greenwood

Price -- Cheap
Parking -- Good (part of mini-mall)
Style -- Teriyaki
Seating -- Seating for 10-15
Speed -- "Quick" food
Review time of day -- 5pm
Reservations -- No
Rating -- 4.0/5

   I love teriyaki. The sad thing is, a lot of places you visit either give you reheated garbage, or incredibly small portions. I've even been to places that charge extra for rice. But, Manna deli has generous portions and seemed to be freshly made.
   Manna Deli is located in a little mini-mall off Aurora, across from Burgermaster. There are a couple dozen parking spaces with lots of turn over, so you should be able to find a place.
   I ordered some spicy chicken teriyaki. I've never gotten my teriyaki spicy before, and I regretted it. Basically, they just seemed to add some of that red pepper sauce that you can find in big red platic containers everywhere. I did get lots of chicken and rice. I got the "salad" in a to-go container, without the dressing even on the lettuce and carrots.
   The food reminded me of Nasai Teriyaki in the U-district. They probably both use the same bulk premade teriyaki sauce. But, that is a good thing, since I love Nasai. The dressing on the salad isn't the same as Nasai, just some rance dressing.
   They do offer a teriyaki sandwich, which is on a 12" roll. It looked good, but I was there for dinner. If you want teriyaki for lunch, it might be something good to try. Chicken Teriyaki cost me $5.99, which is about what everyone charges.

The Good: Cheap, large portions
The Bad: Sad excuse for salad

Mandarin Gate

Mandarin Gate -- Greenwood

Price -- Cheap
Parking -- Great (part of Oaktree mini-mall)
Style -- Chinese
Seating -- Seating for 40-50 + lounge
Speed -- "Quick" food
Review time of day -- 5pm
Reservations -- Yes (but I doubt you would need one)
Rating -- 3.0/5

   There is Chinese food, and then there is Americanized Chinese food. This is definately Americanized Chinese food. The food was quick (10-15 minutes), but that is not always a good thing. Many times with chinese food, this means premade food. And I'm afraid this is what it seemed like here. I got a "chef's special" of beef with orange peel, sweet & sour chicken, and an appetizer of 8 pot stickers.
   The beef was cut in large 3"x3" chunks, which would not be a problem if the beef was a cut that can easily be cut with a fork. But, the beef had a bit of grissle and was hard to cut up. Once I got it cut up though it tasted good. A good balance of spicy and orange. I would have liked a bit more spicy to it, but then I like things extra spicy.
   The chicken was well cooked, but it is unfortunately the normal of what you find for Sweet & Sour. Deep fried battered chicken with much to large chunks of bell pepper, pineapple, and carrot, coated in neon pink sauce. Despite the mass produced neon color of the sauce, it was not make your teeth hurt sweet like so many are. The potstickers were not bad, but not outstanding either. Much like the kind you can buy in the freezer section at Safeway.
   The portions for all were not small, but not huge either. Most all of the entrees are <$10, and my order cost me only $25. Which I would say was about enough for 2-3 people. This is not bad chinese, but nothing to write home about either.

The Good: Good flavors, well cooked.
The Bad: Nothing special, run of the mill.

Gordito's Healthy Mexican Food

Gordito's Healthy Mexican Food -- Greenwood

Price -- Middle of the Road
Parking -- Minimal (unpaved area on the side of building)
Style -- Burritos
Seating -- Plenty of tables
Speed -- "Quick" food
Review time of day -- 4pm
Reservations -- N/A
Rating -- 3.5/5

   I went to Gordito's after hearing that it is has such wonderful food. I went there recently with my mom expecting a waiter style sit down restaurant, but was disappointed to find it to be a fast food style place. You order at the counter and take a pinata to your table. Hopefully you have enough people or hands to carry your basket of chips, dish of salsa, and your drink to your table yourself.
   After a bit of time, staff will show up at your table with your food. But they don't show up with utensils or napkins. We had none on our table and the waitstaff didn't even notice when she dropped off our food. The good customer service thing to do is to then offer to go get the utensils for you, or at least point out where they are.
   The menu looks deceivingly big, but in reality it breaks down to burritos either large or "Grande". The Grande burritos are HUGE and not bulked up with rice as is often the case with other places. The meat inside is well cooked and juicy, although lacking in spices. No hint of chilipowder, cumin or garlic powder anywhere. Instead they depend on salsa and quacamole to make the food wrap into a "burrito". When ordered medium spicy I didn't expect bland. I would really recommend getting it spicy if you go.
   The grande burrito is enough for at least 2 meals, and for the money that is a good deal. But if you want real mexican food, then this is not the place to go. If your idea of mexican food is Taco del Mar or Taco Bell, then run from the border and give gordito's a try. But I have had better spiced mexican food from lunch carts in parking lots.

Stacia's Gormet Pizza & Pasta

Stacia's Gormet Pizza & Pasta -- Greenwood

Price -- Middle of the Road
Parking -- Minimal (half a dozen spaces shared with other shops)
Style -- Pizza
Seating -- 4 chairs to sit in while waiting
Speed -- "Quick" food
Review time of day -- 4pm
Reservations -- N/A
Rating -- 4.5/5

   You know what they say, pizza is like sex, even when it is bad it is pretty good. Well no worries at Stacia's the pizza there is wonderful. Now if you are stuck up and insist that "real pizza" is only tomatoes, basil, and mozzarella on a thin crust or that Chicago style deep dish is the only pizza worth eating, then you are missing out.
   I went by Stacia's ~4pm on a Wednesday. There was no one there, but they seemed to be training a new employee on how to take orders. Now rather than delaying my order while instructing the new employee on how to enter it correctly, they called my order back to the cook out loud so he could get started on it right away. The service seemed genuinely friendly.
   I ordered a "Family meal", which is one medium of their specialty pizzas and a large one topping pizza for $19.99. For the specialty pizza I got the all meat pizza. It has pepperoni, ham, salami, sausage, beef, and bacon. Most of the meats are what you would find at most any pizza place, except the bacon which for once wasn't bac-o-bits and seemed to be cut pieces of real bacon. This pizza turned out to be a little greasy, but I would guess this is probably due to the large quantity of meat they piled on the pizza.
   On the large, I got pepperoni and they did not skimp on the pepperoni and their spicy sauce. The sauce was pretty good, for those of us who usually throw some red pepper flakes on their pizza, it was about that spicy. I was pleasantly surprised to find that their garlic bread was actually bread and not the usual breadsticks made of pizza dough. I got the bread with cheese and I can't believe I'm saying this, but there was actually too much cheese on the bread. The bread was a little soggy, but again I blame this on the abundance of cheese. Although I think they did use soft crust bread and it would be so much better if they used a hard crust bread.
   Overall, this place was great. A large variety of toppings and sauces are available. And for $27, I got enough food for 3 or 4 people, which works out to ~$7 a piece. They even offer calzones, which I will have to try next time I stop by. I would love to see them find a new space for their restaurant where they can have an actual dining room. Do that and fix the bread and they would get a 5 out of 5. If your only exposure to pizza is pizza hut or dominos do yourself a favor and order your next pizza from Stacia's.

Red Mill Burgers

Red Mill Burgers -- Greenwood/Phinney Hill

Price -- Middle of the Road
Parking -- Minimal (about a dozen spaces shared with starbucks)
Style -- Burgers
Seating -- Several booths and some bar stools
Speed -- "Quick" food
Review time of day -- 3pm
Reservations -- not needed
Rating -- 3/5

   Since it is National Cheeseburger Day, what better restaurant to start with than a burger joint. Finding Red Mill Burgers is pretty easy, it is right where Greenwood/Phinney bend and meet. I went there during the afternoon, and found several parking spaces open. I went in planning to get myself a nice burger, fries, and a shake. Too bad they don't accept Credit Cards there. What kind of restaurant these days doesn't take credit cards? They lost a point with me just for that reason alone. They could at least put a sign on the register says, "we don't take Credit cards". I'm not going to leave and run to the bank to get cash, just for some fast food. So, I ended up just buying a bacon double cheeseburger and skipped the fries and shake.
   I've read that their fries and onion rings are great because they are fried in peanut oil. The fries I saw coming out didn't look crispy and actually looked a little greasy, usually a sign of fries cooked with the oil temp too low. People told me their burgers were the best in the city. I can see if you are used to only eating at Mcdonalds that the burgers would surprise you, but they didn't seem more special than a burger you would get at a restaurant like Red Robin.
   When I went in the afternoon, the place wasn't busy at all. I was able to order as soon as I walked in the door. It took ~10-15min to get my order, plenty of time to read the signs that say "If you haven't heard your name, then your order isn't read yet. Don't ask. -The Chef" or "No Cellphones". I choose to think these are meant to be campy and not grumpy.
   They do put a special "Mill sauce" on the burgers that gives them some spicy flavor. But if you don't like spicy, then stay away from the sauce it does have a little kick. They did use leaf lettuce and the tomatoes were fresh and not slimy. And bacon was generously applied to my burger and there was cheese put on both patties. Overall for $6.22 it was filling and tasted good. It would have been >$11 for the burger/fries/shake.

The Good: Big burgers, spicy sauce
The Bad: No credit cards, price is a little high