I visited the Lazy Dog Cafe in Anaheim with a friend for the first time on May 26. We ordered the Shanghai Tacos for starters and later on I had the Chipotle Chicken burrito. First I want to comment on the starter- I didn't think it was that good. Both The Cheesecake Factory and PF Changs have a similar starter, so I had some frame of reference to compare. The ground chicken was bland and tasteless. The lettuce cups we were served with the ground chicken filling were enormous. They were about the size of a baseball cap (INot kidding). Lettuce is not that bendy and so everytime we tried to roll the filling into the lettuce, it would snap and the filling would fall out. A butter lettuce leaf or other higher quality leaf lettuce would have been better, but overall between the mediocre filling and the giant lettuce leaf, it was a disappointing starter. For my main course I had the Chipotle Chicken Burrito. This was very tasty looking and large in size. I ate about 1/3 of it and have to say that it was very tasty. The chipotle flavor was just the right amount of flavor and heat for this dish. The chicken was tender and complemented by roast red peppers and black beans. I was very disappointed to find a chunk of shredded beef in my burrito. I DO NOT eat red meat at all, so this was very disturbing. This made me wonder what else is ""mixed-up"" back in their kitchen. I also wanted to mention that they do not bring you anything at all to nibble on when you are first seated...no offence but that's just cheap. How much could a piece of bread and butter be, or a few tortilla chips? My friend had the Spaghetti Bolognese and requested a few extra pieces of the flatbread, which I tried- they were delicious! Even though I did not enjoy my initial experience, I went back for a second try with a co-worker. I had a Ceasar Salad with Chicken, I don't remember what he had. Just very mediocre, small bits of chicken. Service was ok both visits. Place itself was nothing special though.
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