Tag: ramen

Food Review: The Social Cafe and Caterer in Branson

***This blog post has two parts now. One from my first visit in January, 2018. The second from about a year after that, located towards the bottom.

1st Post

Finding somewhere good and not typical for Branson (Southern food, diners, BBQ is pretty much what you’re given) is always my goal while here. There have been a couple great places that fit the bill here- an amazing Indian joint (India Clay Oven), a couple good sushi places, and a great Thai place (Thai Thai), but it is usually very hard to find good food here. By good, I mean not deep fried or slathered in gravy or ice cream. No offense to those foods, but it is hard to eat like that anymore…the 30s don’t play.

After reading a couple Yelp reviews about this new cafe and saw they had ramen (it happened to be 14 degrees this day), I knew where we were going to lunch! And, spoiler alert: I found the best meal yet in Branson.

ENVIRONMENT

This cafe is….weird. It is in a building shared with a ministry or two, feels like a church but there was nothing about the actual cafe that suggested it was a part of the ministry? I am assuming they are renting the space from them because of low cost, but I have no idea.

So, the space is open, small, and has ministry ad videos playing…which are very different from the super nice, modern furniture and place settings the cafe has set up. If the cafe was in its own space, I’d imagine it being very nice and romantic. They do try hard to make you feel like you’re having a nice meal- nice silverware and napkins and glasses and little tea lights on each table.

You order and pay at the counter shown above, with the menu on the wall. And then you are served at your table.  There are a few baked goods in a display glass on this counter as well if you’re looking for a small snack.

MENU

I loved seeing a small, focused menu that has some typical dishes (burger) and quite a few non-typical items (Thai chicken wrap, pork belly ramen, roasted red pepper potato salad, etc.) This made deciding what to get pretty simple!

FOOD

Ramen with Pork Belly, Carrots, an Egg, and Green Onion: $9.95

This was not only really good ramen, this ties (perhaps even beats) the best bowl of ramen I have ever had. First off, the broth was SO flavorful. That’s always what is hard to find, so many ramen bowls around here are lacking flavor in the most important part, the broth.
But then it got better. The seared pork belly was plentiful and perfect! It was a little crispy on the outside but still melted in your mouth.
I have never had seared (or roasted?) carrots in ramen before, but they were delicious, adding a nice texture and sweetness.
The egg was cooked perfectly, still runny.
The green onions added a nice crunch and freshness.
The noodles….the noodles were perfect. I know they had to be made in-house. They were different than any other noodles I’d had. Thick, but not too thick, and really dense for a nice chew. Also, they were cooked perfectly al-dente.
I had NO complaints about this dish. I believe its the best dish in Branson. And I’ve been investing this for years.

Yellow Curry with Chicken and Vegetables, Served with White Rice: $9.95

The other dish we tried sounded great because we love curries- Indian curries, Thai curries, etc. This type of curry definitely was more authentic than what I am used to.  It was spicy, not very creamy. The chicken and veggies in it were great and everything was cooked just fine. The flavor just was a little much for me. Plus, I was comparing it to the ramen, which just isn’t fair.

OVERALL

There were only two people working here, the owners. The man was in the back cooking, the woman was our server and was also back in the kitchen cook as well. I love a place with hands-on owners, it shows they really care.
Plus, she was more than welcoming and nice. We were made to feel right at home.
All I can say about the food is I’ll be back every year for this ramen bowl. I’ll try some other things, but always alongside the ramen bowl. This is a must-try.

 

2nd Post

I was excited to eat here again after my last trip to Branson. So, we hit The Social Cafe for lunch as soon as we could. (They only serve breakfast and lunch)

The atmosphere was the same. Even though they are in a weird building (a church), they make the dining experience as nice as possible. Plus, the service is super friendly.

The menu has changed a bit. Now with a couple burger options, a sandwich option, (probably due to Branson’s typical theme of popular food) and then what you will see we got below.

FOOD

Side of Tomato Basil Soup, $3

I am so picky about my tomato soups/ bisques, and I loved this! It tastes so similar to my own recipe, which obviously is delicious. 😉  It has the texture of real homemade soup, full of very tiny pieces of real vegetables. The flavor is perfect, a little tangy from the tomato, but also sweet from the cream and basil. I loved it.

Ramen, $11
Description: Tonkotsu Ramen with marinated pork tenderloin, mushrooms, caramelized carrots, jalapeños, ginger, and green onion.

You know I had to get this ramen again after last year’s visit! Surprisingly, they have changed it a bit. For example, now there’s pork tenderloin instead of pork belly. There’s jalapeños, mushrooms, and ginger added, and there’s no egg.
Here’s what I thought about these changes:
Pork tenderloin: I thought I would miss the pork belly, but this tenderloin was just as “melt-in-your-mouth” and flavorful as the belly, as well as I can remember.
Jalapeños: Added nice heat, though I removed them so I wouldn’t accidentally eat one and regret it.
Mushroom: I love mushroom is ramen, they just fit and are a great texture in broth.
Ginger: This was my favorite addition. I love fresh ginger and this was sliced thin so you could enjoy a small amount in every few bites. Great addition!
Egg: I miss the egg.
Broth: I honestly don’t remember if this broth is any different. However, it is bold, flavorful, and delicious. So many ramen places I have tried have bland broths where you need to add your own flavor. Not this one, it was delicious!
Overall, this is still easily one of the best ramen bowls I’ve ever had and still the best dish in Branson, IMHO.

 

Pasta, $10
Description: Bucatini pasta with butternut squash and red bell pappers in a garlic cream sauce topped with grilled chicken and parsnip crisps.

Drew got this dish and it was stunning to look at! The fried parsnips not only looked great, but they added a crunch to every bite which is unique in pasta dishes. I love this touch!
The chicken was perfectly cooked. The bucatini pasta is fun, because it has a whole in the middle, so the sauce can get inside. The red bell peppers gave good flavor and color as well.
The only issue with this pasta was we couldn’t taste any garlic in the cream sauce. Granted, I’m a garlic fiend and use so much in everything I cook, so perhaps I’m immune to it? After asking for a little salt and pepper, the flavors stood out more and the dish was very enjoyable.

 

Double Chocolate Brownie- FREE! (with Facebook Check-In)

When we were ordering, our waitress let us know if we check in there on Facebook, we could have one of their very large double chocolate brownies for free. So, of course I did!
After our meal, she heated the brownie up and brought it out. It was obviously delicious! What a nice treat to offer your customers for helping share a little on social media! (Very worth it)

OVERALL

I can’t say enough how much I love the idea of this place, how they are bringing delicious, unique-for-Branson food to the area, and how genuinely nice they are. The chef/owner came out and asked me what I thought of the new recipe for the Ramen, which just shows they really care about taking time for their customers, but also that they want to know what we think!
While this may not be a fast stop in Branson (good food can take more than 5 minutes to dish out), I hope you get a chance to try this place out. It’ll be worth it.

Food of Las Vegas!

I had an extensive list of places I researched or heard I must eat at while in Las Vegas. I only got through a small fraction of the 34 options. But here’s the details of the good, the bad, and the ugly of my food in Vegas for two days.

ELLIS ISLAND

Surprisingly one of the only 24-hour diners in Vegas, Ellis Island was the first place we grabbed a very late-night dinner. (Around 1:30 am) No, we weren’t partying, we just got there late due to car troubles.

Ellis Island was one of my top “must-try” restaurants due to their $8 steak deal. Without a casino player’s card, (you can get even better deals with one)
I got a 12 oz. New York Strip, two eggs, potato hash, and toast. The steak was cooked a perfectly medium-rare, though it was not well seasoned at all. So, not  much flavor. The eggs were cooked perfectly. The potatoes were your regular frozen squares, fried up. The toast was standard. Overall, that was a great deal! I couldn’t finish but about half of the hash and toast.
*No worries, a well-dressed, middle-aged white man sitting next to us collected my leftovers after we left the table and ate them at his own table, as he did everyone’s leftovers. Vegas….

Drew decided on the $9 reuben with a side of coleslaw. While it didn’t look nearly as good as it tasted, it was amazing! I ate a few bites because I couldn’t help myself. It was drippingly juicy, very flavorful, just perfect! The slaw was terribly bland.

MONTA NOODLE HOUSE

For lunch the next day, we took a lyft to Chinatown to try Monta Noodle House, suggested by a friend and highly supported by great online reviews.

I got a huge $8 bowl of Kuro Ramen Black Garlic Oil. With pork broth, actual pieces of pork, roasted garlic flavor mushrooms, scallions, soft boiled egg (for a $1.50 extra) this was delicious! There were so many noodles, I couldn’t finish, but I slurped all the broth up. If you like garlic, this is the one to try! There is also a heavy mushroom flavor. The pork is very tender, but not plentiful.

Drew got the spicy tonkotsu ramen for $8, which was made with the same pork that was in mine, pork broth, the same veggies as mine, and a spicy chili sauce. It was tasty as well, but the spice seemed to take over. I couldn’t get much pork or mushroom flavor. Drew was able to finish his off! And we did swap bowls a couple times to get a different flavor. A bowl that big can get very spicy when you don’t break it up with something else.

This place was super fast as well. We got there at opening time, there was already a line out of the door and we had to wait for the first set of patrons to finish their meals. (There is very limited seating). But we were seated, ordered and fed within about 40 minutes. They don’t piddle around here.

 

MILK BAR

One of my favorite food shows is definitely Ugly Delicious on Netflix. The chef and restaurant owner, Davis Chang, hosts this travel show about food. So, I had to try some of his food while in Vegas! Unfortunately, his restaurant here, Momofuku, was a little too expensive for my taste. However, the baker he had in Momofoku that made the desserts there crazy famous, Christina Tosi, has opened Milk Bar right next door. This is a dairy-focused dessert stop (no where to sit) inside of the Cosmopolitan.

The most popular item from this place is the funfetti cake. At $14 a slice (though this is a HUGE slice) I decided to splurge and go for it.
It was VERY similar to the boxed, make-at-home version. The icing was a little denser than the stuff you buy at the store, but it all was an all-too familiar overly sweet piece of cake. It was disappointing to me. Drew loved it, though. However, I hardly ever feed him cake.

And if that wasn’t enough disappointment for our trip to Milk Bar, I got a small serving of “cereal milk” soft serve for $6. The cereal milk is made with corn flakes. CORN FLAKES. As if she said “let’s use the least flavorful cereal when making our cereal milk. Let’s use corn flakes!” This made the ice cream taste like straight whole milk. I hated it. I took one bite and was done. Drew was very disappointed as well, we threw most of it away.

THE WICKED SPOON

The last time we came to Vegas, we had the buffet experience of a lifetime eating at The Buffet in the Bellagio. The best parts were perfect steak tartare and the largest Alaskan King Crab legs you’ve ever seen, already sliced open for you with a saw. You can’t beat pulling a foot of super thick crab leg meet right out of the shell.
Anyway, this buffet was rated lower online than The Wicked Spoon, so I wanted to give this one a shot. They also have Alaskan King Crab, plus bone marrow!!!!

We were starving this day, not having much to eat in preparation for this buffet, so we got there about 2:45. There was a line, but the wait was only 20 minutes. The cool thing about this, though, was since dinner didn’t start until 3:00, they charged us the lunch price ($28) instead of the dinner price ($36) even though by the time we got seated, it was after 3:00. Nice!

Now to the buffet. It was smaller than I imagined, much fewer choices than The Buffet at the Bellagio. The crab was much smaller and not already cracked open. There was plenty of bone marrow and crostini to spread it on. And the plating of a couple dishes was cute, like the fried chicken wings and the shrimp and grits.

As for flavor- besides the bone marrow- everything was very disappointing. The chicken wings had no seasoning and were very overcooked. The crab was fine, but a  lot of work. Most items were under-seasoned or overcooked, especially their meats. I got a small slice of completely inedible sirloin.

This was not the only plate I got before dessert, but the other plates consisted of mostly bone marrow, which was perfect. I ate way too much of that!

The desserts were cute and tastier than their savory dinner options. They also had a gelato stand that was delicious. The bread pudding was probably my favorite, followed closely by the macarons. Other than that, nothing was really worth eating.

Overall, stay away from The Wicked Spoon and go to The Buffet at the Bellagio.

That’s it for Vegas! Overall, I’d say stick to places in Chinatown- everyone said that has the best, most affordable food, no matter where you choose to eat there.