Slaw Dogs
Slaw Dogs:
Ok all. After all the posts, I finally visited Slaw Dogs. It’s a pretty sleek, tiny sliver of a place, perhaps to sleek in some ways. Pulled up to Lake Ave, near Orange Grove and nabbed a spot in the parking lot in the back.
Anyhow, I tried the veggie dog with habenero onions and tomatoes adding some cheddar cheese to the dish (Visions of the a heavy hand with great shredded cheddar cheese entered my pea brain, visions of the now dearly departed Wiener Factory). The waitstaff asked if I wanted to add a side and a drink and a tiny piece of fudge to the dog? Sure why not. The potato salad seemed to be a decent choice. So the veggie dog arrived (yes, I knew the veggie dog was not going to be anything special) and I was completely surprised. There was maybe like a couple onions on there and maybe about four shreds of cheddar cheese on there (I thought they were playing a trick on me) and four a $1 add-on that is some serious price-gouging. You would at least expect a decent amount of cheese on there. Suffice to say, the potato salad was nothing special and the fudge was decent, nothing intense, artisanal, or fancy about it. It was good but then again all fudge even from the faux-saltwater taffy joints are still pretty decent. All that for $9.40, not cheap at all, and not worth it.
But I was already there so I did what any hound might too and went for the much heralded chili cheese dog. The dog was decent (supposedly all the dog dishes here unless otherwise specified come standard with Vienna beef dogs) but nothing special. Fab’s Coney all the Way is head and shoulders better than the chili cheese dog here. And even Carney’s is better (Carney’s luckily does not employ that gloppy, heavily starched chili that Tommy’s uses as well as Tommy’s knockoffs such as Tam’s No.5) and Carney’s has some snap too. The chili was decent to good, but Fab’s chili is so much better. But some might quibble that Fab’s chili is better suited to a bowl than sluicing a hot dog and that’s fine with me. This time around the cheddar cheese was maybe more than a sliver than before but not by much. This last dog set me back all of $5.15. Now I would not mind paying even 10 dollars for the best chili dog ever, but this was far from it.
So anyhow the grand total of my meal was $14.65, not a great deal for two small hot dogs, a tiny dish of potato salad, and a soda, as well as a piece of fudge the size of a mint they put on your bed at some of the classier motels around town.
Just as a comparison, you could have gotten a pastrami sandwich, chili cheese fries (although yes, the chili would be a lot worse), and a soda from the Hat for roughly the same price.
So why are you hounds so crazy about The Slaw Dogs. Is it because it’s a mom-and-pop style operation, has a lot of toppings, actually good, has a neighborly feel to it? Maybe I can only agree with the neighborly feel aspect of it. It is way way way overpriced for hot dogs. Over 5 dollars for a chili dog? Am I seriously out of touch and that’s the going rate now. Also, not to put down this stretch of Pasaden, but it is not exactly a high rent area like Old Town, or neighboring San Marino, or points due west.
Just my two cents and my opinion, and I’m probably in the minority on this one.
By kevin
on Mar 15, 2010 09:37 PM
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Sounds like The Emperor's New Clothes.
I'm with you....couple dogs, fries and drinks $20+.....ouch !!!
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Wow, the price jumped up $5 in 10 minutes. Next thing you know it will be $25 for 2 dogs, potato salad and a drink. Give it a chance.
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My bad, my grand total was a little under 15 bucks.
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Have you been?
2 #1 The Original $4.99 ($9.98)
Belgian "style" Fries $2.99 (not Belgian style fries that's for sure)
Sweet Potato Fries $3.99
2 Drinks $5.000
= $20+ in my book.
I gave it a chance...it's not my kind of place.
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Sorry man, I thought you were referring to Kevin's post and I could not figure out the $20.
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I always specify the natural casing dog (if I'm getting a hot dog, as opposed to one of the other sausages). For an extra 50 cents or so, I can't imagine it's not worth it. I'm very surprised, though, by your comments about the quantity of the toppings. I've been there 5 times now and have never once had any issue about topping quantity.
Yes, it does seem a bit steep in price by the time you throw in fries and a drink. I don't think the chili dog is really any better than Carney's even though it costs about a dollar more. On the other hand, I'd spend more than that in gas to drive to Studio City.
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