SE LLAMA PERU

Where: Se Llama Peru, 368 W Center Street, Provo

Who Went: Chelsey & Kierea 

Number of Visits: 1

What We Ordered: Lomo Saltado with Steak & Chicken, Barbecue Chicken 

What It Cost: ~$16

What We Thought: 

Okay I have to be honest, I stumbled upon this restaurant because the restaurant I originally wanted to go to wasn't open. And I've never been to Peru or had Peruvian food. So this is coming from that perspective. 

So, if you've never had Peruvian food, I bet you didn't know that nearly everything is served with French fries? Yeah, we were surprised too! Basically every option on the menu appeared to be some combination of meat served over French fries. I went with steak + chicken so I could try out both meats. The meat was pretty flavorful, nice and juicy and I liked the tomatoes. The fries were just a little weird to me, and I kept being confused about how to eat it all together. The onions were also very, very strong. There was no kissing later that evening for the husband. It also comes with rice on the side, in case you didn't get your carb fix with the fries.

Funny enough, the friend who was accompanying me on this lunch adventure was on a no-carb diet. Um yeah. Don't go here if you are trying to avoid carbs.

She ended up getting the barbecue chicken, which looked very much like super-blackened and charred chicken, and they were nice enough to substitute the fries with a pretty sad looking salad (no dressing). My friend wanted something to go with the chicken since it was quite dry, and after exhausting all the typical options, we were served something called "sauce." We asked what kind of sauce, and she said, "I don't know, it's just sauce." Hm. Well the sauce was fine I guess, though a little uncomfortable since we didn't really know what it was...

What You Should Do: I want people to go here and tell me if it's authentic Peruvian food. Like I said, I am not an expert on this, so I can only say that if you aren't familiar with Peruvian food, I probably wouldn't recommend it. It was really heavy, the fries tasted frozen, and the service was sub-par in a restaurant with very unflattering lighting and uncomfortable seating. But hey, if it's the real deal, I want to know! Guess this is a good excuse to convince Owen that we need a trip to Peru....?

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Rocky Mountain Drive-In

Where: Rocky Mountain Drive-In, 43 S 500 W, Provo 

Who Went: Chelsey & Owen

Number of Visits: 1

What We Ordered: Onion Rings, Potato Twirl, Bacon Cheeseburger & Ranch Burger

What It Cost: $14.49

What We Thought: 

Another burger place, another ho-hum meal. The old-school dining atmosphere and out-of-the-way location gave us hopes that Rocky Mountain Drive-In would be one of those special finds with great food, but unfortunately it only turned out to be average. 

The one thing that was NOT average were these onions rings -- these are no question, the BEST onion rings I've had in Utah! It was so strange because everything else was just normal, but these onion rings were exactly the way I like them - no weird beer-batter breading or sogginess. They had a crisp, crunchy batter exterior and they were the perfect onion ring thickness. I had to bat away Owen's hand because I certainly did not want to share these golden rings of goodness!

The burger was nothing special. The bacon was perfectly prepared and flavorful, but the cheese was fake-tasting and the burger too wimpy and charred. They had fairly decent buns, but flavorless iceberg lettuce and tomatoes. If you are one of those people who like thin classic burgers, then you might go for this, but it just din't really do it for us.

The ranch burger was exactly the same as the bacon burger, except the mayonnaise was swapped for ranch dressing and it had white American cheese instead of yellow. Meh.

Now this little guy was exciting -- they had one on display at the cash register, and I just had to try it because it looked so interesting! It was a potato, sliced and pulled into a long spiral, and then baked I think...it basically tasted like a bunch of thick crunchy homemade potato chips, on a stick. Kind of weird, but fun to eat! Not sure if I would order one again, but it was certainly entertaining!

What You Should Do: First off, if you do decide to go here, do NOT use the bathrooms! They are downstairs, in a dingy little corner and were pretty scary. I probably would also not recommend seeking this restaurant out specifically, unless you are a huge onion ring lover like me. I probably would never go here again, unless I got a super craving for onion rings. I also have heard their milkshakes and scones are pretty good, so you may want to try these as well. But altogether, Rocky Mountain Drive-In is pretty typical, and I feel like there are better burgers here in Utah County.

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Carrabba's Italian Grill

Where: Carrabba's Italian Grill, 683 E University Parkway, Orem

Who Went: Chelsey & Owen

What We Ordered: Antipasti Plate (containing calamari, mozzarella sticks, and bruschetta), Chicken Marsala with Cavatappi Amatriciana and Lentil Sausage Soup, and Chicken & Spinach Cannelloni with Side Caesar Salad

What It Cost: $53.00 (including tip)

What We Thought:


It never ceases to blow my mind that whenever we drive by Olive Garden on University, there is always a huge line out the door! I understand how people could be sucked in once by the appeal of endless breadsticks and salad (I've been there), but Olive Garden is not a good deal people! And it is not good food! All of the food is overly-processed, straight from a package, and flavored with cheap and heavy ingredients. And yet people still flock there like it's the greatest thing on earth, despite the fact that you usually have to wait 45 minutes because they don't allow you to make reservations.

So my outrage with Olive Garden has encouraged me to find a suitable alternative Italian restaurant to recommend to others, and Carrabba's seemed like a good target. Cute trees on the roof, they let you make reservations, and the menu online seemed promising enough (though mysteriously with no prices).

When I first entered the restaurant, I was immediately turned off. The main dining area was just a big open room with all of the tables crammed in on the same level, so it appeared to be more like a giant mess hall rather than an intimate Italian dining experience. Though we were lucky enough to get a booth since we only had two people, there was absolutely no privacy and we could easily observe basically every other person in the restaurant. Which I guess might be a good thing if your date is really boring, but it was a little unsettling for me.

We started out with the antipasti plate, since I love both calamari and bruschetta, and it was cheaper just to get the fried cheesesticks as well, I mean...hand-breaded mozzarella marinara... The calamari definitely was the highlight of my meal - it was perfectly battered and fried, crispy but not too heavy, and wasn't too fishy. Usually calamari is so excessively breaded that you can't even taste the delicious squid inside, but that was not the case here. If I ever went back to Carrabba's, it would definitely be just for the calamari. The bruschetta was nothing memorable, and the mozzarella sticks were, well, fried cheese, which always tastes good no matter what. I didn't really enjoy the marinara sauce it was served with - it had this weird fishy taste and seemed almost more like a shrimp cocktail sauce than marinara. 

The Caesar salad was what I expected - nothing too exciting, a good dressing, and two kalamata olives tossed on the side to make it seem more interesting. It was basically just a filler until the rest of my food came.

Owen thought that his lentil soup had pretty good flavor - it was a little greasy and very filling, so by the time our food arrived, he was already pretty stuffed. But the lentils were well-prepared, the consistency was nice, and the meat had a rich enough flavor to make the whole thing taste like sausage. And sausage is good. It's not really the prettiest thing, but in the dim lighting of the restaurant, who can tell anyway?

Then our entrées arrived. First up was Owen's Chicken Marsala with Cavatappi Amatriciana - those fancy words basically just meant curly pasta with red sauce (asking for the side of noodles would probably be easier than trying to pronounce those words...!) I had read lots of great things about the chicken marsala, which was why I was so surprised when I tasted it. Sure it is a huge portion and they give you lots of food, but the whole dish was WAY too salty! We could hardly take a couple bites without having to rinse with water. I'm sure the cream sauce and mushrooms were nice, but you couldn't really taste anything beyond the oversalted chicken. We ended up only eating half of it at the restaurant and cutting up the second chicken breast into small pieces for a salad the next day at home, which was the only way we could balance this super saline dish. And unfortunately, too much salt on a dish really sucks out moisture, so the chicken was pretty dry as well. This is partially masked by the sauce, but was really a disappointment for us. 

As if the chicken marsala wasn't disconcerting enough, my stuffed pasta was also sadly too salty and just not that great. The menu described this dish as having fresh herbs, chicken, spinach, with fontina and romano cheese, but all I could taste was too much cream, salt, and butter which completely overpowered any subtle or fresh flavors. The pomodoro sauce tasted identical to that on Owen's side pasta, and I suppose those little green flecks on top of my pasta could potentially qualify as the "fresh herbs" they are talking about, but you couldn't taste them at all.

What You Should Do: Though Carrabba's IS significantly better than the glorified Olive Garden, I still felt like it was overpriced, too heavy, and not very authentic. The layout and seating of the restaurant reminded me of my high school cafeteria, but our server was very nice and helpful, which helped partially make up for the environment. I definitely did enjoy the calamari at the beginning of our meal, but if I'm spending upwards of $50 for two people, I really would expect more out of the main dishes as well. Ostentatious Italian names on the menu won't cut it for me, and my search for Italian food that I actually think is worth the bill shall continue.

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Wing Nutz

I bet that I have lulled you into a false sense of security lately with all these great places to eat...but beware! Not everything in Utah County is fantastic (you already knew that of course), so let me tell you about a place you should certainly skip.

Where: Wing Nutz, 1054 S 750 E, Orem

Who Went: Chelsey & my sister-in-law Abby

Number of Visits: 1

What We Ordered: Two small orders of wings - 1 with Jamaican Jerk sauce and 1 with Teriyaki sauce

What It Cost: $12

What We Thought: 


Let me just start off by saying that I made my first mistake when I decided that it would be a good idea to take my 11-year-old sister-in-law here before going to see the movie Monte Carlo (yeah, the one with Selena Gomez and Leighton Meester). The bar-like atmosphere may be fun for people who want to escape the normal Provo atmosphere, but it was no place for two relatively young girls on a Saturday afternoon.

Despite being female and a chick-flick lover, I do love my wings, as you all are very aware (sorry, will cut back on the wings posts...someday...). So I was excited to see their menu with a variety of sauces, and thought that maybe since they were baked instead of fried I could justify them as being more healthy or something. There were only two problems with this.

First off, the sauces were sadly boring. I could hardly distinguish between the two flavors, and it was a very superficial taste since they did not penetrate the actual wing at all. Sure they have lots of sauce options, but what's the point if none of them taste that great? Also, since the wings were baked, they didn't have any of that crunch or fantastic typical texture of wings. Such a disappointment. Not to mention that they felt incredibly overpriced for the small batch that we got (5 wings each at $6/order). Or the 25 minute wait we had to get 10 total wings for a place that pretty much only serves wings and there were only 2 other parties in the restaurant. I almost missed my movie!

What You Should Do: Avoid. There are so many other great wing places in the area, you really shouldn't waste your time or money here. The service is slow and uninviting, the prices are too high, and the wings just aren't that great. And definitely don't bring your 11-year-old sister-in-law here. It's just too weird.

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Roll Up Crepes

Where: Roll Up Crepes, 1605 S State Street, Orem

Who Went: Trip 1: Chelsey & Kirsten (my sister-in-law), Trip 2: Chelsey & Owen

Number of Visits: 2

What We Ordered: Trip 1: Southwest Chicken Bacon Crepe & Turkey Pesto Cranberry Crepe. Trip 2: "The Awkward First Date" (Bananas Foster Crepe with Vanilla Ice Cream) and "The Break Up"  (chocolate ice cream, Oreos, chocolate syrup - I'm pretty sure that is what the name of the crepe was, but they don't have the dessert menu updated online so I couldn't check)

What It Cost: $10.67

What We Thought:

I'm pretty sure that crepes are the new "hot thing" and there are crepe shops popping up all over the place in this area. This was one of the first, so of course we needed to check it out. To be honest with you, I can't really figure out what the actual name of this place is -- Roll Up Crepes, The Roll Up, and Roll Me Up Crepes are all options, so if anyone knows for sure, you should fill me in! 

The shop itself has some unique decor -- I described it as quaint, Owen thought it was just creepy. Take your pick I guess. The first time I went, I visited with my sister-in-law for lunch right after it opened. It wasn't too busy and we got our food pretty quickly which was good, and I actually enjoyed it a lot. I thought that the combination of turkey, cranberry and basil was a nice mix, and it was pretty filling. Kirsten's was the best - I was worried that it would just taste like a burrito in a weird tortilla, but it tasted fresher and lighter, with a spicy and flavorful sauce. It was a fun trip and I looked forward to going there again.

Then last Saturday evening, I convinced Owen that instead of frozen yogurt, we should stop by Roll Up Crepes for dessert. It was pretty busy, so we tried to order quickly and grab a seat in the rather crowded restaurant. I was pretty excited for my Bananas Foster crepe because I love caramelized bananas, and I was interested to see how ice cream would taste inside a crepe. 

This was what I got:

One skinny pathetic banana on top of some weirdly crunchy caramel, and wayyy too much butter spilling all over the place. And no ice cream to be found. I was a little confused because the crepe itself looked way too thin to have any ice cream inside, so I opened it up and found nothing. I was really looking forward to that ice cream (and I paid for it!), so I kind of pushed myself up to the front, showed the girl at the register my plate, and told her that someone forgot to put my ice cream with the crepe. "Are you sure you ordered one with ice cream?" she asked me. Are you kidding me? How rude! She totally didn't believe me, so I had to get out the menu and show her the one that I had ordered and point out where it said that it came with vanilla ice cream. Then she told me, "Oh, well, we are out of vanilla ice cream." I feel like that would have been a good thing to tell me when I had ordered. She just looked at me like "What do you want me to do about it?" so I asked if I could get a different kind of ice cream. They had butter pecan, which went fine with bananas foster, so I got that kind after many huffy and disgruntled looks. She didn't want to put on gloves to get me some ice cream, so she called up someone from the kitchen and I had to wait there awkwardly and embarrassed while 10 people were waiting behind me in line.

So once I finally got my ice cream, I dug in to my fairly destroyed crepe and discovered that it was nothing special. Basically the only flavor I could taste was all the butter that pooled around my plate, and I felt super heavy and gross afterwards.

Owen's was a little better, thankfully, because it's pretty hard to go wrong with chocolate and Oreos. The presentation was boring, and the flavors were also a little boring, but it was fine and satisfied the craving for sweet. Meh.

What You Should Do: Go if you have to. I would recommend going for lunch and getting a savory crepe, but I was so humiliated by the whole ice cream incident that I probably won't be going again. It doesn't matter how good your food is if the experience and customer service are a huge disappointment.

Diego's Taco Shop

I wish I had known that I wanted to be a restaurant critic blogger my whole career here at BYU because then I probably would have had the foresight to take photos at every place I've ever eaten in the past three years. Sadly, I only had this revelation last week, so I do not have photographs of all of the meals we have partaken. Many places we are excited to try again, and this time I'll remember to tote along the camera -- but there are a few places that were either mediocre or horrible, and I don't really want to waste another dime there again. This is the story of one of those places.

Where: Diego's Taco Shop, 45 W 300 N, Provo (kind of near Smith's grocery store, hard to find, not worth it)

Who Went: Chelsey & Owen

Number of Visits: 1

What We Ordered: Carne Asada burrito, 2 Al Pastor tacos

What It Cost: $6.93

What We Thought:


When I was in high school in Washington, I used to work at a fireworks stand in the summer. Classy, I know. There were two things that were incredibly awesome about this gig -- getting paid in cash and Super Burrito Express. This place was the ultimate when it comes to down & dirty Mexican food -- we're talking pulling a big slab of pork straight from the back of the scary white van where it probably wasn't even refrigerated. I probably caught at least 50 stomach viruses those summers, but it was so worth it. It was Super Burrito Express where I learned the magic of Jarritos and the wonder of the Al Pastor burrito.

When I heard about Diego's Taco Shop, and their famed hole-in-the-wall Mexican food, I began to dream again about the Al Pastor. I ordered Al Pastor tacos, and Owen went with his favorite, the Carne Asada burrito. We waited in anticipation (and in some dim, fluorescent lighting) and got our salsas - only 2 containers allowed per person! Stingy much?


Grave disappointment is only the tip of the iceberg of my feelings. My tacos were underseasoned, dry, and altogether wimpy. There was hardly any filling, and after inhaling them, I was left with the feeling, "Was that it?"

But at least my meal didn't make me want to retch in a nearby trash receptacle.

Owen's meal on the other hand...wow. We couldn't even finish it. The sauce that smothered the burrito literally tasted like Spagetti-O's sauce. Not a good combination with the leathery, super salty "steak" that filled the burrito. Next time I want to relive my childhood lunches, I'll skip the wait and spend the $1.50 at Smiths in the Chef Boyardee section.

What You Should Do: Avoid at all costs. Do not go here. Even if a really hot date asks you there and you don't want to offend him, just say no. Your stomach will thank you. Dear Provo, these are NOT real tacos. I actually haven't found a decent taco shop yet, but when I do, you will be the first to know!


Some people may say, "Oh you're too harsh! You've only been there once and you really should have ordered _____ instead." No. I don't care. One horrible experience is enough. There should never be any horrible experiences at a good restaurant.  

Sammy's Cafe

One reason I really wanted to start this blog is because I am tired of reviewers always agreeing with what's popular. What kind of food critic just agrees with what everyone's saying on Urbanspoon or something else? Some restaurants are popular because they are actually good. But there are a few restaurants that are popular for no good reason at all -- they are just trendy and receive a lot of hype, but are either overpriced, or have poor service, or just aren't worth it. And I want to warn you about these ones so you don't get your hopes dashed like I did! Here is one of those hope-dashing experiences...

Where: Sammy's Cafe, 27 N 100 W, Provo (just off of Center street, between Univ Ave and Freedom)

Who Went: Chelsey & Owen

Number of Visits: 1

What We Ordered: Raspberry Cheesecake Shake, Sweet Potato Fries, The Promo Burger, El Paso "Burger" (WARNING: They sneak chicken burgers in there on the menu and you may not even notice it, just like me, and you will be very sad when what you ordered is not actually a burger, but a sissy sandwich instead)

What It Cost: $19.50

What We Thought: 

Let me just say that I was really excited to try this place. BYU students are crazy about a few restaurants -- J Dawg's, Cafe Rio, The Pie (even though it's in SLC...), and Sammy's is one of those few. We went on a pretty warm day in the summer, which was the first of our mistakes. The tiny place was PACKED -- even the crappy picnic tables they set up outside were full, and it was way hot in there. I'm pretty sure that the place would not pass general health code standards because while we were waiting for our food, we noticed fruit flies cruising lazily from the garbage can (which was open and right next to where we were supposedly going to eat) to the kitchen and to the restaurant guests. Not very appetizing.

We started out with a Raspberry Cheesecake shake, since they are "famous" for their pie shakes. What an underwhelming experience. The only thing different between this shake and something you might pick up from McDonald's is the price. There was no evidence that this beverage once was a pie, and it was super runny and overall disappointing for the $4.29 price tag. We slurped it up in 15 seconds and then proceeded to wait in the fly corner for another 15 minutes until some more food was ready.

Then we got our fries, which I fully blame for Owen's hatred of sweet potato fries (fortunately, this was recently remedied by Guru's...more on that later!). These were too thin, too crunchy, and too flavorless. The fry sauce was okay, nothing special but not gag-inducing, but Owen refused to eat any more of the fries, much to my great sadness. I am a huge sweet potato fry lover, and this was Owen's first time having them. Bummer.

Owen ordered "The Promo" burger, which was pretty much your basic bacon cheeseburger. Meh. Everything tasted fresh at least, but nothing blew my mind. The burger itself was a little overdone and dry, but it was alright. And it was served with sweet pickles -- when will restaurants learn that EVERYONE PREFERS DILL? Sorry, personal vendetta there...

And I got El Paso burger. Like I mentioned previously, I had a blonde moment and didn't realize this was a chicken burger, so I was pretty put out when it arrived. For a chicken burger it was fairly decent I guess -- the avocado mash on it compensated for the lack of flavor in the chicken, and I really wish I could have tasted that pepperjack cheese I paid for. 

What You Should Do: Go if you have to. It's not BAD really, it's just not that great. Just because you throw the word "Famous" in front of your restaurant's advertising campaign doesn't make you have good food, I'm sorry. I think people just go there for the hole-in-the-wall, I-went-there-before-anyone-knew-about-it appeal, and sometimes people just think food tastes better if it's more expensive. If you want a pie shake that actually tastes like it contains pie, drive down the road to The Malt Shoppe instead and order the Jumble Berry Pie shake. Nothing else on their menu is really that spectacular, but the Jumble Berry Pie shake is a diamond in the rough my friends.