When Sia and I first moved to Clearwater we had a hell of a time finding a sushi restaurant.  From Sia’s tireless research using Google reviews she eventually found a couple acceptable places.  Tom Yum was one of those joints.  Our first experiences with Tom Yum were via take out.

The prices are average for a sushi place.  We both liked the ‘cute’ way they store their silverware/chopsticks in a rolled up napkin with custom embroidery. The restaurant had a number of  Buddhist accoutrements, and a very warm interior.  As you can see on their sign they have a fat cat waving at you, and to stick with that theme they did have a number of ‘golden paw waving cats’ that many eastern restaurants favor.  I’ve considered purchasing some of those cracked out golden cats for my apartment so that I can have frighteningly-large-eyed, ever-waving cats greet any visitors to my humble abode.  You’ve gotta make a good first impression, right? Really though, are these statuettes on LSD?

To start we ordered Tuna nachos. The concept was unique to me and the presentation was dead-on but the implementation was slightly off.  First, when eating nachos I’ve come to expect something hot or warm in temperature.  Due to the Tuna being uncooked the nachos were fairly cold, which is foreseeable.  Next, the sauce that the tuna was tossed in was almost cloyingly sweet. Again, this was slightly unexpected as I’ve grown accustomed to cumin and hot peppers getting involved with nachos.  The nachos were topped with a spicy mayo that had a kick and really pulled the dish back into the “nacho” realm.  In the end, the dish was very good but I felt that the term ‘nachos’ brought me to expect something different from what I received.  Despite all my nit-picking and bitching, I would order this dish again.

For our second course we ordered a spicy tuna roll, and a dragon roll.  From what I can recall, and I most certainly could be wrong about this, every sushi joint I’ve been to serves these same two rolls.  The spicy tuna roll is basically tuna, nori (seaweed wrap), and some hot mayo (and sometimes cucumber) and the dragon roll varies from restaurant to restaurant.  This particular variation included salmon, tuna, and white fish with an imitation crab center. Both rolls were crafted fairly well and both were delectable.  In retrospect, after describing the ‘dragon roll’, I think it may have actually been the Rainbow Roll.  I could be mistaken either way as it has been nearly 10 months since I ate at Tom Yum.

For round three I ordered “Mother In-law Beef ” which was described as ‘real Thai!’  The dish was essentially chopped beef stir fried with basil, green beens, and chilies.  Just as the menu forewarned, this dish was hot.  The chilies didn’t have a kick-you-in-the-teeth-wasabi effect, but rather a slow heat that gradually built up in your mouth and left you gasping for water.  The heat was great and I would gladly order this again if I was in the mood for something hot.

I would give Tom Yum a higher rating, but the service we received was terrible.  Twice, I had to remind the waitress to get my drink (after waiting 15 minutes when it became apparent that my drink was not coming), and not to be a dick but she bombed as a waitress.  Likewise, she took our drink order, never showed up with the drinks and after being reminded and showing up with the drinks disappeared for 20 minutes before taking our order.  I know people have off days, or perhaps are learning the ropes but it wasn’t busy in the restaurant, and the carry out orders didn’t seem to be coming in at an overwhelming volume. One of the other waitresses paid more mind to our dining experience by asking how we were doing or if we needed anything else when it became clear out waitress was a no-show.  By the good grace of previous experiences and the quality of the food Tom Yum isn’t pulling a one.

Overall: Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

-Matt in Clearwater

First, sorry about the poor quality of pictures, I forgot to pack my normal camera, so all of these were shot using a camera phone (except for the logo and outdoor shot, which I cribbed from Eddie’s). Eddie’s at first glance may appear like a tourist trap, but it strikes me more as a local haunt. They have a couple ‘thatched’ tiki huts outside, and arcade games like skeeball inside. The “dining room” is paneled in wood and features TV’s in cubby holes ringing the bar, and unfortunately the TV’s look like they were purcashed in the early 2000’s as they’re all about 28-30 inches. If you’re going to watch “the-big-game” you may want to consider a diffferent bar.

I first came to Eddie’s on an invitation to have a drink. Girls get an “all-you-can-drink” bracelet for $5 on Tuesdays. They also offer $1 tacos (the only reason I came out). The tacos were surprisingly large and good for being $1; they were packed with meat and unfortunately this foreshadowed the night as Eddie’s began to fill up with alcoholic girls and meatheads looking to score… clearly not my kind of crowd. I fell slightly off track, the reason I came back to Eddie’s on a sweltering Saturday afternoon is a menu item that caught my eye:

…a challenge for champions, and with my love for burgers a worthwhile endeavor. It might be difficult to read, but the menu reads that they bring you 1lb of Fries and 3lb’s of Burger. So, on returning I ordered a water and the Eddie’s Monster Burger… and proceeded to wait 45 minutes for the food to be cooked. While waiting for my beast to be cooked, my lady ordered Fried Mushrooms and a side salad:

This is after about 20 minutes of eating this monster plate of mushrooms, the picture does not do the quantity of food justice. The salad was what you would expect when ordering a side salad. Later in the day, I baked the remaining mushrooms and even reheated they were fairly good.

From here you can see the massive quantity of fries. What may be difficult to see is how deep this dish is, it’s more like the dog-bowl for Beethoven (see ‘Huge Slobbering Dog’ from lame family movie).

What you may be able to ascertain from this shot, is that the burger is in fact larger than my head.

Yes, this is fucking huge. I have most likely bitten off far more than I can chew. When the burger came out the owner of Eddie’s (his name is… Eddie) came out and shook my hand, gave me some encouraging words and informed me that 10 people have attempted this monstrosity and that only 1 person had even finished the plate. Eddie is one of those older guys that you immediately like. He’s got a bit of a lewd mouth, and a friendly manner.

So, into the fray I go. I decided that I would start off with the fries as I felt like they would be more difficult to muscle down at the end. My strategy was a bit off in retrospect, as the sheer mass of the burger is fairly daunting after you rip into it. My only fluid would be water (I eventually had a couple sips of diet pepsi just to change up the flavor of what I was consuming/clear the palate). What I neglected to state was that 3 pickles were tossed into the hot mess, not that it drastically changed the quantity there or made the challenge more daunting.

After about 7 minutes I had cleared the majority of the fries and moved onto the burger which I loaded up with Mustard and Ketchup.

Above is a shot at the 10 minute mark. I could feel myself begin to slow down. I had developed and insidious feeling that I was going to hit critical mass. One thing to note, before going into a food challenge you should try to expand your stomach. Whether you do that through good ‘ole over-eating or eat huge salads with every meal and keep packing it in when you’re feeling full. Prior to this challenge I had been reducing my daily intake throughout the past 2 weeks, trying to be healthier. In hindsight, this was a poor decision to assist in crushing this challenge.

As you can see here at the 15 minutes mark, my progress has great slowed. I’ve only managed to eat a bit more of the bottom half of the burger, pack a way a few more fries and finish the pickles.

Above, you can see me at the 20 minute mark. By the end of the 30 minutes, I hadn’t pushed much further than this, I tossed down a few more bites of burger and bemoaned how packed I felt. In terms of the food, the fries were excellent as they were thick-cut, seasoned well with salt (and no other seasoning) and cooked well; crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. As for the burger, my only beef with the beef is that it lacked salt and pepper… it tasted like it was only lightly seasoned. The actual meat itself was good and cooked to my specification. According to our waitress, the burger was created from 6 other of their “normal” burgers.

In closing, I was bested by this beast of a meal and had to dish out the $24.99 for the plate. Come visit me and I dare you to give it a shot.

-Matt in Tampa
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Judging by the name, you wouldn’t expect this joint to have a focuse on their food. And you’re right! The selection is fairly uninspired Pub-fare, as well as being a bit pricey for what’s available. You have an array of sandwiches, 4 salads, or appetizers to choose from. All of which carry a price tag about $2 over what you’d expect.

I ended up ordering a salad. Essentially it’s an oversized garden salad, and I asked for Balsamic Vinagerette on the side:

Yup, there it is. Some diced tomatos, a mix of greens (not just iceberg with romain on top, it was a fairly good mix), 2 croutons (toasted bread with a basil and oil mixture), cheddar cheese, red onions, and green peppers. The salad was supposed to come with Cucumbers… but they were out. The flavors all meshed well, the ingredients were fresh but I did miss not having cucumbers. The salad was satisfying but I wouldn’t put a $7.50 price tag on it and call it a deal. Overpriced for what I received but the beer made up for it. The real reason to come to the Dunedin Brewery is to have some delicious micro-brews and enjoy some music.
I ordered a Celtic Gold to go with the salad and it went well. It has a strong almost citric bite, yet it didn’t have a sour twist at the end. The beer wasn’t sweet like PBR nor was it bitter like a strong ale, it was crisp and refreshing… a solid summer beer.

In closing, decent food that was overpriced. I would advise grabbing your grub elsewhere and showing up here for the beers (no liquor served at this establishment).

-Matt in Dunedin
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars