Dinosaur BBQ - Rawr! Quick Stop in USA (Rochester, NY)

Dinosaur BBQ

After our stop at Niagara Falls and Tim Hortons, my travel companions and I made a run for the border and came back to the good ol' US of A. Originally, we were planning a stop in Buffalo for some wings, but since we had already tried some at Duff's in Toronto, we instead located a BBQ restaurant in Rochester to get our grub on!

Dining Room

Upon entering the restaurant, we were greeted with numerous bikers chillin' on the patio outside Dinosaur BBQ, quite an intimidating sight. As we spoke to the hostess about getting a seat, we were told it'll be a wait in the upwards of 90mins. It looked like eating at Dinosaur BBQ would be an even bigger intimidating sight! Fear not, our trusty hostess pointed us to the To-Go counter where we could eat some tasty BBQ in the comforts of our homes. While we don't know where to take our food, we knew we had to get in line, stat! So now, what to order......

Pulled Pork Sandwich

One of my friends went with the pulled pork sandwich. Looked like a great choice as he chowed down hungrily at the sandwich!

Brisket Sandwich

I, on the otherhand, went with the beef brisket sandwich. Tender, juicy, and 100% effing delicious! Us hungry travelers destroyed those sandwiches in a matter of minutes.

Top: Crazy Pasta Salads, Left: Mashed Potatoes & Gravy Right: Dirty Rice



My 2 sides of: Mac 'N Cheese and Green Bean Salad

We can't forget the sides, right? I enjoyed both of the ones I picked. Mac 'N Cheese and some cool salad to finish off the meal. I love a good BBQ!

And I washed everything down with a Jolt! Why can't we find some Jolt drinks in California?? This one bottle kept me up from Rochester to Montreal! Yes, this Cherry Bomb, was da Bomb!

Eh, so where did we eat our meal you ask? Well, look no further than outdoor benches at the Rochester Public Library:

As the three of us continued our journey into Montreal, we bid au revoir to Rochester as we jetted toward Montreal, the home of the poutine!

Yes, even though the border patrol officer gave us, three Asian Dudes from California that were driving a Cool *barf* PT Cruiser a lot of shit, we still love you America! Yes officer, smirk all you want when we told you we're Computer Engineers and a Stockbroker. Be an Asshole! We were only coming back to America for the BBQ!

Final Rating: 7.5 out of 10

99 Court St
Rochester, NY 14604
(585) 325-7090
Official Website

Palace BBQ - Oldie but Goodie (Sunnyvale)

Before I moved to Los Angeles, before I got involved with Yelp, and before I got into food so much that my friends has started calling me a "food snob (I prefer foodie)," Palace BBQ was my introduction to Korean BBQ. From my mom, my college buddies, former buddies, etc, Palace was the place for us Nor Cal people to hit up for some AYCE (all you can eat) action in the Silicon Valley. (On a side note, I really miss the gloomy weather of Nor Cal. The weather in LA is too...perfect?)

As the picture above shows, the lunch time prices are fairly similar to the ones found in Koreatown in Los Angeles. However, the dinner prices can be as high as $25.99 during weekends sans any additional soju or hite beer you may order. Pricey? Probably. Tet, with the lack of AYCE Korean BBQ establishments in Nor Cal, what can you expect? Supply vs. Demand I guess. Onto the meat!

I could have showed the various meat located at the meat bar (instead of having the meat brought to you like most of the LA restaurants, you actually get the meat yourself at the meat buffet bar), but the best meat there is the kalbi. Not the usual "LA kalbi" found in most restaurants, but this is the bone-in kalbi. Sadly, it's only offered during dinner, as being the good Asians we were, we only ate the kalbi. Multiple plates later, we finished off the night with some octopus and marinated squid. The kalbi was delicious. One of the better meat found at any AYCE KBBQ around.

All in all, Palace BBQ is a truly solid Korean BBQ experience. Besides the meat bar, there is also a panchan, hot cooked Chinese/Korean bar, and a salad/dessert station as well. Sadly, I was too hungry to bring my dSLR over to those stations as I was concentrating with the food. While Palace probably won't stand out compared to the Yi Ssi Hwa Ro or the Road To Seoul of the world here in LA, for a fun experience on the streets of El Camino Real in Sunnyvale, you could do a lot worse than Palace BBQ.

A shoutout to all of my buddies in Nor Cal, the better part of California. Go Kings!

1092 E El Camino Real # 1
Sunnyvale, CA 94087-3777
(408) 554-9292