Beethoven's Bistro

It's amazing what you can find in this sprawling expanse of a city if only you commit to looking hard enough. The internet and sites like Urbanspoon have become invaluable tools in uncovering great little eateries around town. But even with the power of the internet and GPS at our disposal, Beethoven's Bistro on Roosevelt, a recent web-enabled find, was so well hidden that we drove past it several times. But we eventually found it and eagerly wandered in for some breakfast.

Breakfast, as I've mentioned in the past, is not a meal my ilk have traditionally ventured out to consume but I married into a clan of go-out-for-breakfasters so I've learned to adapt... in a way. In actuality, every breakfast excursion I've gone on has been preceded by another breakfast so I essentially treat the meal as a very early lunch. I do enjoy much of the egg-centric breakfast fare, it's just hard to wait that long to eat.

First off, as a coffee snob, I must joyfully extoll the virtue of the quality coffee served up in this place. A far cry from the weak tasting dish water they pour at the Waffle House (and, sadly, at some of the area's otherwise decent diners), this coffee actually has flavor and body. Additionally, most drinks are included with your food so you see one price for your meal (a cappuccino, latte, mocha, or chai will cost you extra).

Being unable to resist the promise of a great omelet, we found ourselves ordering the "Build Your Own Omelette". You can choose any and all of the following ingredients for one price: Ham, Bacon, Sausage, Peppers, Onions, Mushrooms, Tomato, and Cheese. Granted, the price is $9.75 but, as mentioned previously, your drink is included and the omelette also comes with hash browns and a croissant. The croissant turned out to be almost an entire meal itself. Rich, buttery, and fluffy; croissants are one of the few pastries I'll make an exception for if they're made right and this one fit the criteria. You can also get a bagel instead and, again, it turns out to be almost an entire meal unto itself.

The omelette was up there among the best I've had. The ingredients were noticeably fresh and flavorful. But if an omelette is not your thing, there's a good variety of other items to choose from. Really, for such a little place, Beethoven's Bistro has an impressive menu. The daily breakfast and lunch menus remain pretty constant but the Sunday brunch menu, the Monday night dinner menu, and the Wednesday - Saturday full dinner menu all change each week. They also host special, themed dinner events(such as the upcoming Deep Fried Turkey Dinner on Sunday, March 7).

Truly a unique little place with a cozy atmosphere, great food, and service that transcends the typical restaurant relationship; you're treated like a friend, not a customer. It's a shame that we only discovered this place by actively looking for something new. This one deserves a good word of mouth reputation, let's make it happen.

(PS. Sorry about the poor quality pictures, I forgot my camera again. I'll put better shots up when I go back.)



Beethoven's Bistro
5917 Roosevelt Blvd., Unit 1
Jacksonville, FL 32244
(904) 771-6606

Pacific Asian Bistro

Sushi restaurants are everywhere, a common feature along our strip-mall lined streets, whereas a decade ago they were but a rarity. For lover's of raw fish and rice, the abundance of options means you never need to wander for from home for a good meal. And the First Coast region does indeed have its fair share of really good, even great, little sushi joints. But an unfortunate consequence of this surplus of options is that finding an extraordinary sushi restaurant can be quite difficult, particularly with the impetus to skimp on the quality in favor of economy like the rest of the competition.

Once upon a time there was a restaurant called Botan that was conveniently situated on my way home from work. For a great many months, my co-workers and I would frequently stop in and order horrendous amounts of sushi. This, of course, led to us directly interacting with the Sushi chefs whom, as anyone who ever visited Botan in its heyday can attest, were masters of their craft and would surprise us with unique culinary creations that were nowhere to be found on the menu. Sadly, due to differences between the owners, Botan was quite suddenly sold off and became a shell of its former self.

About a year later, Mas, former Botan sushi chef and consummate culinary artist, resurfaced again with a new restaurant: Pacific Asian Bistro. Located down in Palencia Village near the northern edge of St. Augustine, Pacific serves up all the typical Chinese and Japanese influenced fusion dishes we've come to expect from Asian bistros but at a much higher standard. From the familiar hibachi plates to the common Chinese restaurant fare, the names of the menu items are the same but the taste, presentation, and overall quality stretch far beyond what you've come to expect.

Additionally there are a lot of uncommon items. Delectable lamb chops were on offer on our recent visit. These succulent morsels, which even the chef admitted were not up to his standards, were far more delicious than any I've had the pleasure of tasting at some of Jacksonville's better known fine-dining establishments. Another treat was some monkfish liver: a musky, creamy (and slightly controversial) delicacy popular in upscale sushi bars.

But it's really in the sushi department where Pacific delivers unparalleled excellence. Every piece of sashimi, every roll, every gourmet creation is flawless. You will find a lot of the standards here, from simple rolls and sashimi to decadent, sculptured tempura monsters. These are all exceptionally crafted using fresh, flavorful ingredients. There are even some incredibly novel and equally delicious special rolls that are part art, all flavor. But if you want to treat yourself to something extraordinary, take a seat at the sushi bar and ask for a surprise.

The menu at Pacific is a suggestion, a guide for those who need to know exactly what to expect. For the more adventurous, for those with high culinary standards, the real trick is to leave your meal up to the chef. Perhaps you can go as far as suggesting what you like and maybe what you'd prefer to avoid, but trusting Mas with the final decision on what you're going to eat is the best course of action. I can't begin to tell you the names of the items I ate as they don't seem to be on the menu, but every single plate was incredible. You probably won't get exactly what you were expecting and if you'd see the item before you on the menu, chances are that you wouldn't have selected it, but the end result is always more than satisfactory.

At Pacific you will find the best sushi North Florida has to offer and I limit it to this region only because it's where I have the most experience. The prices are a bit higher than most of the other sushi restaurants around but well worth the cost and certainly not as expensive as comparable, upscale establishments. After all, what's a few extra dollars and miles when the food is this extraordinary?


Pacific Asian Bistro
159 Palencia Village Drive
St. Augustine, FL 32095
(904) 808-1818
mas@pacificasianbistro.com

The Fox

I can't tell you how many times we've tried to go to The Fox only to get the dreaded phone call with the bad news: "It's full, let's go to the other place." Now, when the other place is the ever-so-awesome Metro Diner, this is not a terrible position to be in but still disappointing nonetheless. After all, The Fox comes in at #21 on Urbanspoon's Best Jacksonville Restaurants list while the Metro Diner is down at #68.

So we were pretty happy to be the first people to show up to the Fox one cold morning. They weren't even open when we arrived so we had to mill about in the street for a bit until the door was unlocked. This, of course, prompted the consumption of copious amounts of coffee. I will not comment on the quality of diner coffee, ever. I'm an unrepentant coffee snob so this is really an area where we should not go. I will say, however, that endless refills are great when you a) need warming up and b) want to run spastically throughout the rest of the day, twitching uncontrollably all the while.

The menu is slightly different than that found at the Metro Diner. While there are still the staple "breakfast foods" at both places, the Fox has a more traditional American fare while the Metro Diner has a bit of posh, modern flair to theirs. Still, good food is good food regardless of the culinary creativity.

I had a bite or two of my wife's Philly Cheesesteak and, while I thought it was decent, it didn't quite meet her insanely high, I'm-from-the-North-and-know-a-good-Philly-Cheesesteak standards. As mentioned before, I'm the same way with coffee; we all have our particular particularities.

My turkey sandwich, on the other hand, was quite enjoyable. Toasted bread, roasted red peppers, and melted swiss cheese with succulent deli turkey all made for a flavorful sandwich.

But apart from the good food, the real appeal of a diner is often the iconic decor and ambiance, an area where the Fox delivers in full. A meal and a moment, both can be enjoyed here. But if the place happens to be full, you know where else you can go.


The Fox
3580 Saint Johns Ave
Jacksonville, FL 32205
(904) 387-2669

Pattaya Thai

Thai cuisine has an incredible range. There's the classic creamy peanut sauce, fiery hot curries, sweet basil sauces, and the staple Padt Thai. One of my favorite Thai restaurants around is the often overlooked Pattaya Thai.

Pattaya Thai is not one of the big names around town but certainly a big deliverer. It is owned by an American gentleman, his Thai wife, and their chef son who takes his mother's traditional Thai recipes and throws in some modern flair.

Since the lady hadn't had any Thai food (at least not recently enough that she could remember it), I was itching to introduce her and Pattaya seemed like the perfect place to do it. The restaurant itself has a nicely done interior; mellow, classy, but not intimidatingly polished.

Taking it slow, we started with the Spring Pair spring rolls: Two crispy fried rice shells tightly wrapped around a seasoned mix of ground pork, bean thread noodles, julienne cabbage, carrot sticks, sliced celery, and diced waterchest-nuts with sweet chili sauce. For me, fried spring rolls rarely deliver but these are quite the exception. They were so good that we devoured the lot before I could remember to take a picture.

Again, wanting to make a safe introduction to Thai food, I decided that the quintessentially Thai peanut chicken would probably be the best choice for the main course. Not too spicy and, although peanut sauce is very un-Western, the ingredients in the dish aren't too exotic. Although she had scoffed when I had described it earlier, thinking that peanut butter and chicken should never meet, she really enjoyed it.

However, this choice was incredibly hard for me. Thai Red Curry is my staple at Thai restaurants, it's my gauge by which I can measure their worth. I love it hot and they do make a good one.

But it wasn't actually the curry that I was after. Pattaya Thai has a dish that is so delicious it haunts my dreams: the Soh Basa Filet: Basa filet battered and fried crispy. Topped with a brown sauce composed of Thai sweet basil, garlic, onions, bell peppers, chili and ground pork. It is so amazingly delicious and I wanted it so bad. In all seriousness, I had been lusting after it for weeks. Even now, not hungry at all, I am craving it with such an intensity that the only thing stopping me from heading to Pattaya Thai right this moment is the time. And maybe the price. That's the real reason I didn't get it that night. $10 for a lunch portion, $24 for a dinner portion. Hey, you should know by now that I am one cheap bastard, but still I was so tempted.

It is a good thing, however, that we decided to share a meal rather than order our own because it saved room for a very rare occurrence: desert. The coconut ice-cream, three scoops of homemade coconut ice cream topped with crushed peanuts, had been calling to us throughout the entire meal and the extra girth incurred was well worth it.

Pattaya Thai may be my favorite Thai restaurant around town that I've tried so far, and there's some pretty stiff competition. While other places might do some dishes better, I just know that throughout the entire meal I'll be dreaming about that fish.

Pattaya Thai
9551-1 Baymeadows Rd
Jacksonville, FL 32256
904.646.9506