Moochie's

Judy recently started taping the show "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives," the Food Channel show, for me. It features the kinds of places I absolutely love to eat at, with my interests more on the dives, rather than drive-ins and diners. We saw a show featuring Moochie's, located in Salt Lake City (232 East 800 South), and decided to try it out while we were there recently. My mother and brother Matt, and his family, joined us.

The cable show has obviously been good for business. They are minting money with all the people rolling through there.

There are a number of reminders, spread inside and outside, of its feature on the show.

The show focused on the Philadelphia cheese steak sandwiches and the meatball sandwiches. So Judy and I ordered one of each and shared them. Neither of these are items I would normally order, so my opinion is jaded by that fact. I ordered cooked mushrooms for the large Philly cheese steak which is an add-on to the normal price. The sandwich was very large, had plenty of meat and the mushrooms were good, but the sandwich didn't grab me. It was wet and fairly juicy, but the taste was not real pronounced. I ate a relatively small portion of the sandwich and was satisfied. It was not begging me to eat more.

I also ordered the large meatball sandwich, and paid extra to get the "Atomic" version, with cooked peppers, jalapenos and feta cheese. It was an extraordinary sandwich. The feta was different and good, the jalapenos gave it a spicier flavor, the peppers and tomato sauce made the sandwich wet and moist, which I love.

But it still did not reach out and grab me. I enjoyed it, more than the Philly cheese steak, but it boils down to the fact that I don't really love meat ball sandwiches. The right combination of flavors was not there to beg me to come back again for more.

I'm glad we went, we had a great time, and I enjoyed the sandwiches, and I might consider going back again, but I would try other menu items.