EDIT: This location is closed, but that’s just Manhattan Beach for you. You can find more Qdobas wherever, man.

On the fringes of the Mexican fast food world lies a restaurant chain called Qdoba, which I’m pretty sure is pronounced queue-doh-ba. Qdoba functions in an assembly-line vein similar to Chipotle and the food itself tastes pretty similar except for one special thing: queso. For those who understand the language Spanish, queso simply means cheese and it would be no surprise to you that cheese is on the menu of a Mexican restaurant. But, for those of you who are well-versed in the language of Qdoba, queso means so much more.

At Qdoba, the queso still means cheese, but instead of regular cheese it’s a cheese sauce. It comes on the queso burrito, along with pretty much any burrito topping you’d like. I ordered mine with pinto beans, rice, chicken, medium salsa and some additional cheese. All rolled up, the burrito looked like little edible baby that I was ready to eat. This thing was so stuffed I even grabbed a fork in preparation of my burrito baby overflowing.

When I dug in, my mouth was met with a ton of rice. And not so much in a good way, because rice is a bit of a burrito filler. However, the best way to make rice taste better is by adding cheese and the queso sauce was just delicious. The chicken tasted pretty good and just about everything came together nicely, but the rice was truly overwhelming. I would have preferred a smaller burrito with less rice just so the rest of the insides would have had stronger flavor not washed out by rice.

The queso sauce was a great twist on the burrito and really helped my burrito baby along. However, when it came to size, I would have preferred a bit more quality over quantity. Rice is good and all, but it shouldn’t be the centerpiece of a burrito.

As an attempt to mix up the sandwich scene from the usual Quizno’s and Subway, I took a ride out to Jersey Mike’s Subs in Hawthorne. The inside of the place was pretty similar to the typical sub place, so I was a little disappointed. I hoped that the sandwiches would at least be different. I had heard they had great Philly Cheese Steaks despite being from Jersey, so I was planning on getting one of those. It wasn’t easy, though, because they had some really good-looking sandwiches.

They had a few different cheese steaks, but also some other meaty delights. Nonetheless, I went with the original “Jersey Mike’s Famous Philly.” It came in regular and giant-sized, so I ordered the giant, without grilled onions and peppers of course. These were not necessary for my cheese steak. It was nice to see them actually pull out some uncooked meat and cook it on a griddle, as opposed to the sub places that just pull pre-cooked meat out and think that’s good enough. When they pulled out the bread, I saw that this was truly a giant sub. A foot-long was nothing compared to this monster. Unfortunately, this came with a price of just over ten bucks. The man who handed me the sub looked me in the eye and said, “You’re going to eat this whole thing, aren’t you?” I replied that I was with a deep pride in my heart and ponied over my money. I hoped this price would be worth it.

It was. Almost. This cheese steak was damn good, with soft, yet tasty bread, gooey cheese and tender steak. The size was certainly massive and no bite went to waste. For a price like this, though, I would have like some more meat. The meat that I got was great, no doubt, but this was an expensive sub that deserved more.

Edit: This location is gone, but A & W still lives elsewhere.

I always have fond memories of trips to A & W from when I grew up. I always loved their root beer floats and their curly fries. So when I stumbled upon an A & W in Hawthorne, I knew I had to return to relive my glory days.

Unfortunately, as with so many other childhood favorites, my hopes were too high for A & W. This particular A & W was merged with Long John Silver’s, which made me sad to hearken back to the days when an A & W could have a restaurant all to itself, and not just any restaurant. These were the drive-thru sorts where you parked next to a menu and were waited on in your car. It seems those days are all but gone, and despite the generic and washed out design of this A & W/Long John Silver’s amalgamation, I hoped that the food would make up for it.

The first thing I noticed was the obvious absence of curly fries. This was disheartening, although I felt slightly better when I saw they had fried cheese curds. After looking at the menu, I decided on the Papa Burger. This was a double cheeseburger, with a special sauce called Papa sauce. I was told this was essentially thousand island dressing and then I made sure to order it without any vegetables. Since I was feeling pretty hungry, I got it as a combo, with a root beer float and cheese curds.

Then the waiting began. It turned out that the guy who took my order also happened to be the guy who prepared all the food. It also turned out that everyone sitting in the restaurant when I walked in also happened to be waiting for their food. Twenty minutes later, I finally got my order.

I tasted the burger and almost choked. The special sauce was more fluorescent than the American cheese, which isn’t an easy thing to do. And it really was special, because it didn’t taste anything like any thousand island I’ve ever had. In fact, it was as if someone had urinated in a bowl of thousand island (oh please tell me this isn’t what actually happened). The beef itself was also a huge letdown. The texture was comparable to an overworked and dried-out sponge. The fries were decent despite not being curly, as were the cheese curds (you really can’t go wrong with fried cheese), but the one truly redeeming part of this meal was the root beer float. I was so happy to find that they didn’t forget how to do these right. Even though the ice cream was soft-serve, they found a way to make it taste right.

I may end up at A & W again, but it certainly won’t be for the food.

While most people associate Costco with huge quantities of products, I like to think of it as a great place to grab a quick bite to eat.

Beyond the free samples, Costco actually has somewhat of a restaurant, offering a few cheap meals, from chicken bakes to pizza.

By far, the best deal to be had is the hot dog combo, which is a 1/4 pound Kosher beef dog, with a drink for $1.50, but sometimes that isn’t enough. On my most recent trip to the Costco in Manhattan Beach, I also helped myself to a huge slice of pepperoni pizza. These deals are not just available to Costco members, but to anyone from the unvegan world.

The hot dogs come naked aside from the bun, with the option of choosing whatever condiments you like, as long as it’s ketchup, mustard, relish or onions. It’s nice to see a place that let’s the consumer decide, rather than forcing an unvegan like myself to specify that I don’t want any relish or onions. The pizza is also frill-free, just nice and oily.

After a long day of shopping, elbowing and pushing your cart to the front of the line, only to realize you just ran up a giant bill on your American Express card, there is nothing better than a hot dog or piece of pizza from the Costco counter to remind you that life really is good.