courthouse culinary conglomeration

During my short jury duty stint I got to try a few of the restaurants within walking distance of the county courthouse. I don’t eat in Woodland very often, so trying out the different restaurants in town was actually pretty cool. Here are some of the restaurants I tried.

Silvina’s Basket

Silvina’s Basket is a small Mexican restaurant with a lunch buffet. Their food is interesting, it’s nothing like any other Mexican restaurant I’ve been to. To me it feels kind of like a fusion of Mexican and Italian cuisines. I’ve never had sauteed zucchini at any other Mexican place, but it’s fairly common at Italian restaurants. And there’s a couple of dishes that use cream sauce, again that feels more Italian than Mexican to me. I actually like this place a lot because it’s different and interesting.

The owner was very nice. The place was pretty empty, and I struck up a short conversation with the owner. I told him that I pretty much visit whenever I am in Woodland on a weekday during lunchtime (which is actually a very rare combination) and I’ve always liked the food. He ended up giving me a free flan dessert. Lesson learned: be nice to restaurant owners and you will be rewarded.

 Chicago Cafe

Chicago Cafe is a Chinese/American diner on Main street. It’s one of those places where you can get Americanized Chinese dishes like egg foo young and chop suey, but you can also get typical American diner fare like a burger or steak. There’s a good number of these kind of places in my hometown of San Francisco, but these places seem to be a bit harder to find in the Davis/Sacramento area. So I was pretty happy to find this place.

The day I went they had a corned beef lunch special. Interestingly enough it’s served with both mashed potatoes and rice, a mix of American and Chinese sides. The waitress too, seemed like a mix of American and Chinese, but the restaurant’s patrons seemed to be all locals who appeared to be old generation American, with the exception of me, a first generation Korean American.

Ono Teriyaki

Ono Teriyaki is kind of like a non franchised L&L. Like L&L they serve various meats marinaded in teriyaki sauce and grilled, served with rice and macaroni salad. They’re a little classier than L&L in that they actually serve you in a bento box. They have some additional stuff that L&L doesn’t have, like stir fried noodles and gyoza. But I was a bit disappointed that they didn’t have brown rice.

Burger Saloon

Unlike most of the restaurants I had visited in Woodland so far, Burger Saloon was actually pretty crowded. I was actually surprised to see so many customers, seeing as how there’s a Red Robin in town. The concept is kind of similar, sort of an upscale burger joint. The burger was pretty tasty, I ordered a ‘guido’ which, true to its name, tasted Italian American because of its roasted garlic and roasted tomatoes. Gosh I don’t know how I lived thirty years before eating a burger with roasted garlic– it’s such an obvious combination– soooooo tasty… The only problem I had with this place was its prices. I ended up paying $15 for a burger, fries and a drink. For that price I could have gone to Red Robin, which comes with unlimited fries.

Ludy’s

For my last day of jury duty I met up with my friend Jim at Ludy’s. Apparently he comes here pretty often with his coworkers, and he came prepared with discount cards. Ludy’s is one of only a couple places in Woodland that I’ve been to more than a few times, the other being Silvina’s Basket. A visit to Ludy’s has never failed to leave me completely and utterly full, and I’ve always left with a massive food coma, which is probably not all that conducive to staying awake during jury duty.

Actually, all of these meals in Woodland were pretty filling and left me with a fair amount of food coma. The only saving grace was that the court provided free coffee. It was the only way I could make it through the long afternoons listening to witness testimony.