Yellow Dog Eats Café

There was some good food to be had at Yellow Dog Eats Café on my recent visit there, but unfortunately it really didn't end up on my plate but on that of my friend, Tommy. Extremely salty soup and a messy sandwich with cold pulled pork left me sorely disappointed. But, let's start with the good. 

We arrived about 5 or so on a Sunday evening. Yellow Dog Eats Café is a very interesting place, quite unique. You order at the counter and find your own seat. There is plenty of seating, inside and out and it's quite quaint. We approached the counter and the friendly girl there asked if we'd been there before. Our answer was "no" and so she proceeded to tell us about the place. Maybe it was me, but she's done this once to often and needed to slow down a bit. But, we did catch a good part of what she had to say. Eventually we returned and ordered.

Tommy ordered the Holy Crap. This was mesquite grilled turkey on a dark bread, maybe pumpernickel, with bacon, lettuce, onions and cheese. It was very good and was definitely the best bite to eat I had. It was served with a coleslaw that was quite a surprise--a surprise because it was very spicy hot! It was a good coleslaw with a few craisins in it to give some sweetness, but it had a very definite heat as well, not for the faint of heart.

My meal was not so satisfying. When I was ordering, i saw "beer chees [sic]" on the chalk board and so I ordered the Beer Cheese Soup. Unfortunately, I could barely taste any beer or cheese--all i could taste was salt. I'll bet the chef or cook never tasted that soup. If they had, they would not have served it. I ate quite a bit of it, hoping with each sip I'd taste something other than salt, but no luck. I would never serve anything like that. The sandwich I ordered was the Blue Suede Shoes, billed as "smooth pulled pork topped with tangy bleu cheese, crispy bacon, thin sliced scallions, and red onions served on a soft bun." According to the menu, "this would make Elvis proud." I disagree. This would have had Elvis left wanting warm pulled pork and a huge handful of napkins. The botttom bun was placed on the plate, then cold pulled pork--not even warm-- was put on, then the other ingredients and a dose of BBQ sauce (admittedly a good sauce)--and it was the only warm thing. Unfortunately, it made it way under the bun and made for a very messy sandwich. I used a ton of napkins. The because the pulled pork was cold, it was hard to judge its flavor, but it seemed OK. However, the blue cheese was too much and overpowered the sandwich. I would not order this again. 

So, I entered Yellow Dog Eats hopeful based on all the good reviews I'd read. Even a good place can have a bad day--and a bad place have a good day. I'm hoping this was just their bad day because nothing I was served would entice me to return for a second visit. Be your own judge, but my experience was that this place did not at all live up to the hype.