After the company event, we did need to have a proper dinner. So we walked over to the Bubba Gump at Universal CityWalk. Yes, it’s a chain. Yes, it’s based on Forrest Gump. Yes, it’s a tourist trap. It’s decorated with all types of Forrest Gump related kitsch, and they even play the movie on tv’s.

Some restaurants have a green side / red side system. Some have buzzers. Bubba Gump has these little “Run Forrest Run” and “Stop Forrest Stop” signs if you need to fetch a server for any reason. It works!

Ok, so there were a bunch of us there and we were still waiting for more, but didn’t want to wait. So we ordered up a bunch of appetizers. Shrimp cocktail! Who doesn’t love shrimp cocktail? Well, people that don’t like shrimp, I suppose. Boo to those people! Oh, and I had a strawberry lemonade, which was delicious!

A freakin tower of onion rings! Yes, I can see how this would definitely be fun, especially for kids. Lucky for Bubba Gump, they taste pretty good too! I like onion rings in general, but I prefer to eat the onion, with very little of the batter. But it was hard to remove the batter with these ones.

Cajun shrimp! These little suckers were sauteed in a spicy cajun butter sauce. These are deceptively spicy! They were very good.

This is a shrimp restaurant so we really did stick with shrimp dishes. We got 3/4 lb of the Shrimper’s Net Catch Garlic Spice peel-n-eat and another 3/4 lb in Cajun Spice. These were so good! If you don’t like peeling your own shrimp, then obviously, avoid these. But these were quite good. Both the garlic ones and the cajun ones were good. It was actually best to mix the two together. After everyone else showed up, we did also order the steamed shellfish, which was a mix of mix of steamed mussels, clams, snow crab, lobster claw, and shrimp. It was also served with jasmine rice, cole slaw, and garlic bread. I immediately absconded the rice and cole slaw. M was nice enough to peel me some random things and give them to me, so I didn’t even have to do any work! Thanks M!

So you know I avoid chains as much as possible. But there are times it’s unavoidable. I enjoyed my meal here, I know, it’s surprising. But it was fun. So now I know that I can always have Bubba Gump’s in my back pocket as a decent chain option. Thanks Forrest Thanks!

I went to Orlando to play trade show girl for work, and we stayed in the Universal Studios area. On my first night there, we dined at Emeril’s in Universal CityWalk. I had low expectations, because you never know what you’re going to get with a celebrity chef restaurant. I personally have never watched Emeril on tv, so it wasn’t like I was a fan of his anyway. But I knew it was a nice place, so I was excited, but only a little.

M and I were the only two that went with the prix fixe degustation menu. It started with the pan seared jumbo sea scallops with stone crab caramel, oven dried white alba clam shell mushrooms, and a balsamic drizzle. It was supposed to also have flash fried fresh soft shell crab, but that was obviously not there. I love me some scallops, so I’m happy whenever I get to eat them. I thought this was great! The scallops were nicely seared, rare in the middle, and the sauce went perfectly with them. It was a great start.

Next up was a crispy chilean sea bass with black truffle-australian lobster vinaigrette and organic red romaine lettuce. Another nice dish! I liked the scallops better, but this was still tasty.

Finally, a seared angus 4 oz filet mignon, chive mashed potatoes, and wild ramps with a worcestershire cream sauce. Ok, so I’m not really normally a steak girl, so this meat was fine by me. But oh my gosh, this worcestershire cream sauce was freakin heavenly. I wanted to bathe in it and drink it. I wanted to put it on everything I will ever eat again for the rest of my life. Seriously, I will eat steak every day for the rest of my life is it came with this sauce. I will eat cardboard if it was topped with the sauce. It’s beyond amazing. Oh, and if you order just the regular filet from the menu, it will come with a worcestershire sauce, but not the worcestershire cream sauce. They’re different!

The dessert from the degustation menu was a profiterole with cinnamon ice cream, white chocolate fudge, sweet cream. and fresh berries. We thought this was ok, but was disappointed that the profiterole was stuffed with cinnamon ice cream, and not cream. We expected a cream puff, but got a strange ice cream puff.

A couple of people got the souffle for dessert. It’s funny to get this because when they give it to you, they put the plate down, and then take a big hunk of souffle out, drizzle chocolate on it, and then put the hunk back in. It’s really awkward because it’s a production, and you have to watch it, they take their time, and have to work around you.

The service is good here, as it is a fancy and expensive place.  But because of that fancy service, you have to wait quite awhile for your food. They coordinate the service, so everybody’s food has to be ready. So be ready to wait and be hungry for awhile. But when you do get the food, it’s pretty darn good! I was pleasantly surprised and impressed by the quality of the food here. I recommend it highly!

I’ve been to the bay area over  half dozen times in my past, but I only did touristy things on my first trip. And I never even ever rode a cable car. Well, I corrected that on this trip. It is extremely touristy, and it gets crowded, and you have to wait in line, but there’s just something about this that was actually fun. You’re going uphill or downhill most of the time, so you get to see some really great views of the city. And it’s fun to have to hold on for dear life. The cable cars don’t even have to obey stop lights or stop signals. It’s bad ass. It dumps you out at Fisherman’s Wharf, which is like tourism central, so we decided to continue the cheesedom by having some clam chowder at Boudin. This place pretty much runs on the clam chowder in the sourdough breadbowl racket, so we had to partake. I’ve had it before so I knew it was good.

They sell cutely shaped sourdough breads as well, for the kiddies and what not. And normal shaped ones too!

Pretty much everyone orders the same thing… clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl. You get the whole thing of bread. The clam chowder is actually good, honestly. And then you get to eat your bowl, or at least try to. But in a way, I wish the clam chowder just came in a plain bowl and you just got the bread by itself. The bread bowl ends up sucking so much of your soup, and I’d rather just eat the soup, not slightly soupy bread. This is the one touristy thing that I would recommend everyone to do. And who doesn’t love a giant can of beer that looks like a cute little keg?