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(Meals from the Darkside) |
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| Locations/Time/Date | |||
| Hughies - Grand Marais, MN 7/4/2008 | On our way into town we noted that the previous Thai restaurant had changed over to a Mexican restaurant. While I had probably wanted to try the Thai version, I guess it wasn't high enough on our priority list to go there the last coupla times were in town. Mexican definitely bumped it up a coupla notches. We decided to just wander some place to go eat and it was an easy decision to try out the new place. Nick wasn't too hot on the idea, but he wasn't too hot on any non-fastfood place, so it didn't matter all that much. It wasn't your standard Mexican place and, in fact, they didn't even consider themselves a Mexican restaurant for some reason. They started business as "Nacho Mamas", but that turned out to be taken by a chain somewhere else in Minnesota. They sold primarily tacos, but had a bunch of other stuff too. Nick and Jennifer had chicken tacos and I one each of the beef and chicken tacos. They were pretty big and not in the standard taco shell, but more like a thick chalupa soft-shell. I liked the beef much better than the chicken, as it had pretty conventional taco seasoning, but the chicken version was kinda lame with no spices. We also had nachos, which were okay with pretty dense chips, but the usual melted cheese goop that you would get at a sporting even. We got filled up pretty well and the prices were quite decent. It was fun talking with the staff. | ||
| The Pie Shoppe - Grand Marais, MN 7/3/2008 | For the several years that we have been going up to Grand Marais, or atleast the north shore, we have driven by The Pie Shoppe and thought we should eat there. On several occasions we have actually made it a point to drive up there for a meal and were turned away by it not being open. Seriously, we have probably gone there atleast dozen times and never found it open. There was no rhyme or reason to our attempts, we would just go there whenever. We couldn't understand how it could still be in business with not being open very much. This time, however, was different. Lo and behold it was open and apparently not very busy. When we explained our previous attempts to the waitress, she assured us that they were ALWAYS open, which I obviously didn't believe. The ambiance of the place was basically a nice house turned into a restaurant, something that we had seen before, but still nice. We sat out on the enclosed porch and we could have done without the stream of small ants coming in in the window, but they were small and not very numerous, so it wasn't much of a problem. I decided to have the blueberry pancakes, whichwere very good, but there just wasn't enough volume for the money we paid. The maple sausages were good, as was the ice tea. The biggest problem that we had was the price. Actually not really the price, as we don't mind spendinga little more, but it was more the value than anything. Nick had the two hotdog meal, which they allowed at dinner time, even though it was on the lunch menu. The problem was that it was $11.50 for two hot dogs, which he reported were very good, and chips. Not clever hoighty-toity chips, just simple Old Dutch style chips. These dogs were much more expensive than the ones that we buy at the Xcel Center when we go to Swarm games. When something is more expensive than at a sport arena or airport, you know you are no longer in the value strata of price ranges. The dogs were good, but not THAT good. It was nice, but just not filling enough to justify the price. Half again as many pancakes more and I would probably change my tune. | ||
| Mediterranean Cruise - Mendota Heights, MN 8/25/2005 | My group at work had a group lunch to welcome a new employee in the group and it was decided to go to "the cruise". I've eaten there quite a few times, but most of those times were over a decade ago. I don't know whether its new owners or whatever. In fact, the last time I was there was with Jennifer before we got married. It was one of those take-her-to-an-exotic-restaurant dating sort of deals. Well thankfully we had been together for quite a while, as the dinner didn't go as smoothly as I would have hoped. Jennifer is allergic to lamb and while she obviously didn't explicitly order lamb, there must have been some in something that she had eaten. Thus, the last experience for this particular restaurant was her throwing up in the parking lot. Even she will agree that the food was good, but just had something that didn't agree with her. Thankfully that didn't derail the whole dating thing, so it worked out in the end. Flash forward many years. I decided to not get too out of hand, so I ordered the chicken stir-fry. I was interested in seeing what their interpetation was, as compared to an Asian restaurant. As it turns out, it wasn't too far off of expected. The chicken was very good, and the spicing was good, but there were far too many other vegetables such as peppers, which aren't terribly liked by me, but certainly will be liked by others. I skipped them and enjoyed the rice. The ambience of the place hasn't changed that much over the intervening years. I seem to recall that it was smokier back then, but I think there are now non-smoking policies around the metro area. | ||
| White Castle - Bloomingon, MN 8/24/2005 | Fresh off the Krystal experience in Huntsville, I figured that I should directly experience White Castle again and let Nick take part too. He was pretty much determined to go to McDonalds or something like that, but it didn't take much to convince him to embark on this culinary adventure. It was fun explaining that you bought food in bagful terms, rather than individual items. There was a cheeseburger combo meal that seemed just right. A ten burger extravaganza to ensure that we are full. I think he was still skeptical of the whole thing until I opened the bag back at my office. Given that Nick is a chicken nugget fiend, I decided that some chicken rings would be a nice addition to our meal. I had no idea of what they were, but why not. The chicken rings turned out of be very good and I wish that we would have gotten more of them. The fries were kind of standard cafeteria krinkle fries and by no means outstanding. Of all the fries that I have eaten, those are some of them. The burgers are something that I had a vague recollection of, a recollection that I wasn't terribly intent on reliving. In the past the White Castle burgers pretty much picked up speed going through my system and would create a certain urgency in getting home, inspite of the fact that it was only 2 blocks away. Thankfully that didn't happen this time, but I was planning for it being the case. Okay I can accept that the White Castle burgers are gonna be small and fairly insubstantial. After all you buy them by the bagful. What should one expect. Even with low expectations, those expectations were smashed on the lower bound. I'm not entirely certain that they were fully cook. Given the perceived level of beef that White Castle must buy, I fear the health ramifications. A closer examination of the cheeseburger reveals something that was more akin to a spray-on burger. Mind you I had never envisioned the notion of a spray-on application of burgers, but the concept was fairly evident with those cheeseburgers. Perhaps I have stumbled upon something quite profound. I can see it now, quick-set burgers dispensed through a nozzle. The amount of food we got as a meal was adequate, but I am not really sure that it could be considered a value, by any means, given the "quality". It's a culinary experience that I am glad is behind me. I guess my expectations were pretty much set correctly. | ||
| Wendy's - Huntsville, AL 8/17/2005 | It was late and I wasn't all that wound up for a new culinary experience, I decided to do a regional comparison with a meal that I very often have when I am not travelling. The Wendy's restaurant wasn't all that far away and I frequently order a double cheeseburger combo when I am working late at my office. I mean I have had the same meal probably a hundred times. I'm not speaking figuratively, but literally. Thus I figured that was the right meal to use for my comparison. I'm happy to report that there is absolutely no variation between regions, based upon my single anecdotal experience. The cheeseburger and fries were as if they were prepared in Eagan, MN. While in some situations a little regional variation would be welcome, but I am more of the mind that some things should be static whereever you go. Its something that you can depend on when far away from home. To wax nostalgic a bit, I recall when I was a kid and we went on a trip to Russia and Scandanavia. At one point we stopped at a McDonalds for a little bit of a taste of home. My hopes for that, I recall, were dashed when I found out that the European versions of ketchup and mustard were very much different from what I was used to. The mustard was sweet and the ketchup wasn't. It was backwards for god's sake! A foundation of my existence was put into question. Somehow I lived through it and walked away more worldly. | ||
| Daniels - Kasson, MN 6/6/2005 | We were on the way back from Cabelas in Owatonna, driving through torrential rains we decided we would hit Daniels in Kasson. It was on Nick's list and it was on our way, so we stopped. It's a very surprising place. Really clean, very new, and not typical small town restaurant. We have frequently bought stufffrom their booths at fairs and stuff, so we were familiar with the name, but had no idea that the place was so atypical. It's a high ceiling open arrangement that lacks a certain intimacy, but that definitely sets is apart from what we expected. I wasn't quite sure what I wanted, but eventually settled on the barbeque burger. It was large and definitely tasty. The fries were standard for restaurants of this class and the bbq sauce was a nice change from ketchup. We all liked our selections and the service was prompt and quite good. We were definitely full when we got done with my meals, so we ordered dessert to go. I got the "devil made me do it" cake in a take out container. I didn't eat it until much later and it was pretty good. Not nearly as decadent as I would expect for such a name, but it did taste good. | ||
| Uncle Mony's - Hayfield, MN 6/5/2005 | For this summer I decided to do something a little different. Nick and I, and perhaps Jennifer, would setup a program to go to atleast one new restaurant per week. To make it less onerous on Nick, I let him pick the restaurants and to some extent create the order of battle. I printed out a list of most of the restaurants in a 25 mile radius and Nick went through it picking a dozen or so choices for the summer. To start off the summer right, we decided to start right away and have Nick pick something far away. He picked Uncle Mony's of Hayfield from his list and we were off. I took a rather circuitous to Hayfield, but got there in due time. To our surprise, Uncle Mony's was attached to a bowling alley and had a bar. I had no problem with it, but Jennifer had a bit of trepidation about that connection. It turned out to not be a real issue. Uncle Mony's is just sort of typical small town restaurant that has a certain charm but not much ambience. It had the typical menu as well, but this plebian palate doesn't have a problem with that. I went for the hot turkey sandwich with mash potatoes and gravy and we got some batter-fried cheese curds. The curds, unfortunately, were the standard Sysco'esque extruded variety that only vaguely resembles cheese curds. It was more a matter of not tasting, as opposed to tasting bad. Another thing that I have to mention is that the fountain Mountain Dew was awesome. I am quite an afficianado of dew and theirs was some of the best I had tasted in a long time. There are several different distinctive forms of dew and they had something that tasted alot like what I remember dew to be when I was a kid *mumble* years ago. Being a dewophile, I would likely drive to Hayfield just for that dew, periodically, if I had any confidence that it would be the same. Enough drooling over great dew. The hot turkey sandwich was quite good and of decent volume. It wasn't exactly spectacular, but certainly at the top of the spectrum of what I would expect from a small rural restaurant. The service was friendly and good and roughly what we would expect. It doesn't make sense to expect gourmet fare at such a place, but one can always hope. The question is whether I would drive all the way to Hayfield to go to Uncle Mony's. The answer is probably no. I would definitely go there if I was in the area, but wouldn't likely make a special trip, but actually might for the Mountain Dew. | ||
| Ipanema Grill - Seattle, WA 5/27/05 | It was our last night in Seattle and Luiz (my boss) wanted to go to a nearby Brazilian grill. I had heard a lot about it and wanted to try it to, but had reservations about doing it fairly close to a flight home, as I try and be a little more conservative about what I eat, in the event that it doesn't sit well with me. Thankfully it sat with me quite well and had not problems on that front. The restaurant actually wasn't that far from the hotel that I stayed in. There was a nice walk up a whole bunch of steps and it was nice day. To give you an overview of how a Brazilian grill works is that they bring you meat (or whatever) on a spit and slice you off a hunk. You have this little red and green coaster thingy that you use to moderate whether they bring stuff over for you to try. They seem to have ten or twenty different things from shrimp to pork loin to sweetcorn to sausage for you to try. Some of the stuff I knew I wouldn't really liked, so I skipped those, but the rest of the choices were very tasty. One thing that I had to get used to was that they cut off little slices of stuff, an approach that runs afoul of the Minnesota big slabs of meat portions. They are at your table quite frequently, so you really don't have time to get hungry and it all works out in the end. Also the notion of saying "no" was a little foreign in my book, as its close to being rude, but totally expected in this environment. Everything was very very tasty, I definitely got enough to eat, and the service was really good. I do, however, have two reservations about the place. First of all is the cost, being about twice of what I would normally expect to spend for a meal. Having said that, it is something fun to do periodically. In the context of me being there, my more serious reservation was that the meal was kind of messy. People cutting long swords of meat frequently and in close proximity tended to be a little messy. Given that I was in the clothes that I was gonna wear on the plane, I wasn't keen on grease spots. At different times a server would brush behind me and I wasn't sure whether it was the skewer and I had odd visions of large grease stains all over my back. Thankfully that wasn't so and I got away with just a couple of small grease spots on my pants. Anyways, the food was good but it was too expensive for this plebian palate. | ||
| Ivars - Seattle, WA 5/25/05 | I had finally arrived in Seattle, on business, at a reasonable time while it was still light out. That gave me plenty of time to wander around Pioneer Square and the waterfront in the relative safety of daylight. It's not that it terribly dangerous, its just sort of uncertain in that area. There are tons of seafood places, as one would expect, and of obvious levels of quality. I had been to Elliots, so that was out. One that looked middle of the road, and was close to the hotel was Ivar's. It had obviously been around for quite a while and had lots of kitschy ambiance, but was nice overall and had a bit of a view of the ferries. I was by myself and I wanted some place that wasn't terribly quiet and consequently boring and Ivar's fit the bill nicely. I was very hungry, as the flight wasn't a meal flight, so I hadn't had much to eat all day. I was looking for some sort of chowder'esque meal and Ivar's had a couple of choices, but I settled on the Viking Soup, which was basically a chowder with halibut and cod instead of clam. Of course I had to get Calamari to assess the restaurant on a galatic scale. Being by myself and getting a whole order of calamari was a little overkill and I felt bad that I didn't eat it all. It was good stuff, although a little bland, but it had tenacles, so I knew it didn't come from a bag. Perhaps not a cheap bag. I wish there had been a red sauce like at Olive Garden, but it wasn't to be. They also had good crusty bread, but I didn't have much of it as I was endeavouring to eat all the more expensive calamari. My main course was the Viking soup, which I wasn't quite sure of what to expect. It was really good, but a little bland. I am ambivalent about whether it should have been less bland. On one hand, its a good thing to let the customer spice it to taste, but it would be nice to have it more flavorful from the start. Six of one, half dozen of the other. I must say that its the first time I have used salt at a restaurant in my life, other than sweet corn. I actually had to salt it twice to get it up to a more conventional level of chowder-ness. The texture was great, the fish tasty, and the ambiance interesting. It was about as expensive as I would expect for such a place. I will go there again and probably be a little more assertive and get red sauce. Having someone to share the meal with would have been good too. | ||
| Phnom Penn - Rochester, MN ~5/20/05 | While my Mom was in town we happened to be looking for and interesting and different place to go with her. We had been to Phnomn Penn before and knew that it had quite a diverse Thai, Cambodian and Chinese menu, which would give us lots of different choices. Even Nick was sort of up for going there, which as kind of surprising. I didn't want to simply get Chinese food like I could get anywhere else, so I let Nick choose Thai or Cambodian for me. He picked Cambodian for me, which I am not sure whether that was the better choice or not. Thai, I think, is more spicy but more understandable. I picked a beef and noodle bowl type thing, as I was assured that it wasn't too spicy. From our experience before, you knew that you were going to definitely get a great deal of food. It very nearly ran afoul of the "Don't eat anything larger than your head" natural law. I also had an iced tea and cream drink like I had gotten in Seattle. As advertised, it wasn't very spicy but it wasn'tvery bland either. Just about right. Actually the beef was reasonably spicy, but when mixed with the veggies and noodles, it was nicely tamed. Nick decided on some sort of chicken soup and got a huge bowl as well. He fiddled around with it a lot, but once he set his mind to actually consuming it, I think he really liked it. I definitely like the place, but I have to say that it could stand to have some waitresses that have a little better command of the English language. Granted we are asking more questions than normal in our experiementing with foreign cuisine. We definitely weren't asking anything clever or depending on understanding the subtleties of the English language, it was just stuff like "what is a typical meal in Cambodia?" level questions. Come to think of it, we have been there three times and two of the times we have gotten waitresses that barely spoke English. Perhaps that is part of the ambiance, but its sort of a pain. We'll keep going there tho, for the diversity. | ||
| Westfire Grill - Rochester, MN | Jennifer and I ran some errands and I had a jones to try out some new restaurant. Jennifer was up for it and we happened to be driving by the Westfire Grill and we thought that it might be interesting. The funny thing is that we didn't have any idea whatsoever about what to expect. I hate to say it, but we did have some preconceived notions as a result of it being in the parking lot of the cheaper of the theaters in Rochester. We figured it was some sort of Appleby's or TGI Fridays knock-off. Just walking into the place we knew that it probably wasn't the case, as it seems quite a bit nicer aesthetically than the chain store versions. It was pretty dead at the time, so we had would probably have waitstaff to ourselves. Their menu had lots of good stuff and was pretty much like an Appleby's, so there was no lack of good things to order. As we haven't had a whole lot to eat, appetizers seemed like a good idea and nachos filled the bill. We were both amazed at how much we got at part of a simple appetizer. We did our best to eat as much as we could before our meal came, but we came up short. I chose the hot turkey sandwich that just seemed like the perfect alternative to standard fastfood fare that we often have. When it came, we were absolutely amazed at the portions. We were full from the appetizer, but my hot turkey sandwich could have been a family plate, rather than for a single person. There was lots of good real mashed potatoes and to my surprise the bread for the sandwhich portion was homemade bread and quite thick to boot. Usually you get standard wonderbread with hot turkey sandwiches, but this was real and like three times as thick. I was able to eat all the turkey, half the mashed potatoes, and about a quarter of the bread. I felt kinda bad not eating it all, as it was awfully yummy, but I was absolutely full. I took the remainders home. The service was very good and attentive. I don't know if that level of service would hold up when the place got full, but I kinda suspect yes. As for the price, it was a little more expensive, but not really noticeable. We will definitely be going there again in the future. | ||
| Fado Irish Pub - Seattle, WA 1/25/05 | We needed to find a nearby interesting place to eat to treat our visiting guest from England, so we just sorta wandered a ways in the Pioneer Square area of downtown Seattle. There are plenty of places to eat, but none of them seemed particularly compelling, based upon consensus, until we ran into Fado. It seemed like an interesting place and we found pretty much what we expected, something that basically looks like an Irish pub, but without the well worn environment of a real pub. It was commented on that it was probably ordered as a full setup Irish pub kit that one would buy from a catalog of some sort. It certainly seemed that way, as everything was right where it was supposed to be and just a little too authentic to actually be real. It lacked a deeper Irish pub "soul", but played the part well. The service was good and the Guiness even better. I've never been a big Guiness fan, but it is sort of growing on me and it certainly tastes better when you are drinking it while eating. Giving our taste buds a bit of a rest from time to time certainly helps. I thought that while I was in Ireland, albeit virtually, I should do as the Irish do and order something tending towards authentic. I couldn't find anything that seemed right, but they did have Bangers and Mash, which I believe is English, a distinction lost on many. I settled on the bangers and mash and looked forward to comparing it to my faint recollection of the bangers and mash that we ate in the Washington Hotel in London. Hey!?!? I'm in Washington state and comparing something that I ate in the Washington Hotel half a world away. Spooky, eh? | ||
| Taco Del Mar - Seattle, WA 1/24/05 | While out getting the lay of the land near my hotel, it was 8:30pm and I realized that I was hungry and the number of places open in the area would dwindle if I didn't do something about it. There were lots of Asian noodle places and Indian restaurants, but that wasn't what I was looking for. To be honest, I was looking for a standard American type restaurant, but Pioneer Square didn't seem to be the sort of place where you would find that. I had notice a Mexican place, the Taco Del Mar, on my appointed rounds and decided to go back to it. Thankfully it was still open. It was an interesting place, certainly not the same vibe as a Taco John's and seemed to be run by real Mexicans. I decided on a fish taco, as I had never had one before, and a pork soft shell. Turns out the fish taco was basically a fish stick in the bottom of the taco, rather other meat. They did poor something that looked like runny tartar sauce over it. I did make a fateful mistake in ordering tho. He asked me if I wanted hot sauce, to which I answered affirmatively, as if by reflex. Right after doing it, I realized my mistake. These are actual Mexican's and this was likely actually hot, not like the "hot" sauce you get at a Taco Bell (aka "ketchup with salt"). The tacos were both very good and of a decent size so that the two of them filled me up nicely. However, the hot sauce quickly did its magic and I started sweating, a little at first and eventually a torrent. It wasn't that "holy crap" type hot that hits you like a ton of bricks, it was the slow but ceaselessly increasing burn. It wasn't until after I had finished the tacos that my whole face was sweating, my nose running, and one eye started to tear up. I was impressed by its effect, but even more so by the fact that it actually tasted good. Often very hot things taste like crap to get to that effect. The bill was quite reasonable, so I give it two thumbs up. I just might go there again. | ||
| Macaroni Grill - Rochester, MN 10/3/04 | The convergence of Nick having an early birthday party to attend and the opening of the new Macaroni Grill near Apache Mall gave us a fabulous opportunity. Neither of us had ever been in one and we couldn't exactly tell what it was all about. The closest thing to a clue about it was that Jennifer had seen the news coverage of a Macaroni Grill in Edina when a jeweler had been shot outside one. Not exactly Robin Leach. I would have guessed that it was Applebees-ish but Jennifer guessed closer to Olive Garden. It was something in between. It was basically an Olive Garden if the people who created the Outback Steakhouse wanted to copy it. Right out of the chute the ambiance was too loud. I don't much like loud restaurants at all. It was like a loud bar at all times and it made it hard to have a decent conversation without working at it. The decor was okay in a reserved source of way. The employees were pretty good and had the timing down pretty well, so as to not annoy us by frequent interruptions. I decided to do something different, something more healthy, so I picked the teriyaki and honey glazed salmon and asked for mixed vegetables instead of the spinach pasta. I don't eat much in the way of fish and this seems like a good place to start to reverse this behaviour. Getting some Omega-3's into this old body seems like a good thing to do. Unfortunately I had made an ham & cheese omelete for the late breakfast and I walked into lunch with a fairly full stomach. Consequently I wasn't able to eat my entire piece of salmon. We also had calamari appetizers, as is usually our custom. The calamari was good, but it was awfully greasy. They had given us some load of crap about there not being knives in Italy and we had to rip the bread they brought us. That wouldn't have been much of a problem except that it too was greasy/oily. The bread was okay, but nothing to write home about. Not nearly as good as the bread at Timber Lodge. So, to summarize, the food was pretty good, but greasy, and the place was too damn loud. For the amount of money that we spent there, we will probably go other places in the future. | ||
| Betty's Pies - Two Harbors, MN 8/29/04 | We always seem to stop at Betty's Pies on the way home and this time was no different. It just seems to be the right place at the right time. I ordered my usual ham and cheese sandwich and it was pretty good as usual. As with many other places the ham is a little too salty. I prefer it to taste more like ham as if I cooked and cut it myself. They probably all get it from the same place, so theres not much I can do about it. Anyways, its a nice place to eat but we still remininisce about the old Betty's building and the less polished, more homey place that it was. While they can handle a larger crowd and are better suited to year-round crowds, it just aint the same as it was. I feel kinda bad for the people just discovering it now, as their memories will not resemble the old school version of the restaurant. | ||
| Birch Terrace - Grand Marais, MN 8/28/04 | We decided to treat ourselves to some place nice and some place new atleast once on the trip. I can't honestly remember Birch Terrace existing when last we were in Grand Marais, but it seems to have been around for a while. A co-worker suggested the place, as his family would visit it atleast once every time they visited Grand Marais. It just seemed to be a large-ish house on the main drag, turned into a restaurant. We had no idea what to expect, other than it seems reasonably nice from the outside. It was nicely appointed, but not overly so. The night we were there, late-ish on a saturday, it was not very busy, with only a couple of other couples. We expected it to be more busy, but Grand Marais as a whole was pretty quiet. The service was very good with just the right amount of attentiveness. I had a steak and it was quite tasty, as good as most any other nice restaurant that I have been to. | ||
| Blue Water Cafe - Grand Marais, MN 8/26/04 & 8/28/04 | I reviewed the Blue Water Cafe several years ago and I think it is time to refresh the review with a new set of experiences. We actually went and ate there twice during our short vacation in Grand Marais. Going to the Blue Water Cafe is one of the standard things that we do when we visit the area, as it has exemplified the area in its homespun ambiance. This time was no different, except with a small twist, namely now most of the waitstaff seems to be from Eastern Europe. I don't say that is better or worse, just different Both waitresses we had were very nice and we had a great time talking to them and their reactions to moving to such a small and isolated place. They certainly both upheld the wonderful level of service that we remembered from our previous trips. I had the hot turkey sandwich with mashed potatoes, a standard Americana meal in a standard Americana restaurant. In fact I had it both times and was excellent both times. Our second trip there we sat in the upstairs dining room and it was a nice location overlooking lots of activity down on the street. Just an overall pleasant two meals and quite reasonably priced as well. | ||
| Sven & Oles Pizza - Grand Marais, MN 8/26/04 | Every time we go to Grand Marais we have to eat Sven & Oles pizza, with carryout and eat-in sort of evenly split. This time we decided to eat in largely because I think we just wanted to hang around, rather than taking it back to the hotel room and hole up in front the tv. We ordered our usual chicken and wild rice pizza and it was wonderful as usual. Even Nick eagerly ate it. We happened to be there on a thursday night, which meant that we were there for the trivia content, although we were there too late to really participate. Adjacent to Sven & Oles is the Pickled Herring, which seems to be some sort of bar that is up a set of stairs from the dining area and overlooks it. Anyways, they would loudly announce the trivia questions to both establishments and apparently the winner got a $75 gift certificate to Sven & Oles, a nice prize to be sure. Had we participated, Jennifer and I would have done pretty good, as we are both veritable cesspools of trivial knowledge. On our way out we stopped and started chatting with a table full of retirees. They lamented to dramatic rise in land prices and how it was pricing young families out of the market. They looked at Nick and hopefully asked if we were planning to move into the area. I hated to say no, but I actually wished I could say yes. | ||
| Pearl Beach Resort Restaurant - Bora Bora, French Polynesia 2/29/04 | Since it was our official anniversary, we decided to go and eat in the restaurant for something special. This time I wasn't about to be so cost conscious as I had before. This was something special, so just pay whatever to make it special. Consequently I ordered the t-bone steak but I am fairly certain that I got something else. Something more akin to primerib. It could be that the American perception of t-bone is not equivalent to the French Polynesian perception. It could be that there was a language barrier the caused the problem. On Bora Bora, as compared to Moorea, the service folks seem to be much less inclined to be fluent in English. Hey, I'm in their country and I'm the foreigner, so I just chalk it off to experience. | ||
| Pirates Bar - Vaitape, Bora Bora, French Polynesia 2/28/04 | After taking the launch to the main island and a bus into Vaitape, we wandered around shopping and just seeing what there was to be seen. Eventually our stomachs started rumbling and it was time to eat. There were plenty of different little places to eat, far more of a casual environment than we typically consider eating places, but we couldn't really find any place that we could all agree on. Eventually we settled upon the Pirates Bar, which had a nice deck overlooking the water where we could get a nice burger and fries. I ordered a Heineken to go with the cheeseburger and fries and I was all set. The burger was okay and the fries were standard, but the scenery was wonderful. This is clearly not a place that thrives on its food business, but it was a nice lunch. | ||
| Miss Pizza - Moorea, French Polynesia 2/24/04 | I don't usually go over the same restaurant a second time, especially the next day, but we went there and ate something completely different. While last night we had pizza, we decided to go with burgers this evening and we definitely weren't disappointed. Actually I had what was more of a steak burger. I was intrigued by the ingredients that they offered on the "Missburger". It had steak, bacon, cheese, and egg. It was served open-faced with the dipping egg placed on top of it. After sopping up some of the egg with the fries, which were okay, I closed it up and ate it like a burger. It was quite sloppy, but really quite excellent and the egg gave it a unique flavor. | ||
| Uninhabited Motu of Moorea - Moorea, French Polynesia 2/24/04 | It's about time to do something completely new, so I thought I would include a barbecue picnic that we had on a lagoon tour that we had around Moorea. The tour company is Albert, in case you should want to reproduce our exploits. We got taken to a shallows area where we feed rays and swam with sharks. From there it was onto a motu just off the coast of Moorea. Actually it wasn't really uninhabited, there are two houses on the island. The setting was an idyllic tropical island beach picnic area with some wooden picnic tables. They barbecued steak and chicken and fixed some sort of raw fish salad, which I didn't have the guts to try. It was rather ironic that there were chickens running around the picnic area while we were barbecueing their brethren with great delight. The chicken and steak were really excellent and I certainly relished getting seconds. After the excellent meal they gave a coconut demonstration where they taught us how to shuck and crack them. Its actually not that hard once you get the trick down. Anyways, I can't overstate how wonderful the picnic was, especially given how tired we were from swimming with the rays. | ||
| Miss Pizza - Moorea, French Polynesia 2/23/04 | After a long day of swimming and running around, we decided to run over to a nearby pizza place that we had run across in our wanderings. It was a very short walk from the resort, which in the heat was a big plus. We got there at a little bit after 6pm and it was closed. It was supposed to be open from 5:30pm until like 8pm, so it should have been open. Looking at the menu in the window, a woman ran over from a store next door to tell us that the person running it was late and would be there in a little bit. She invited us to sit on the patio and wait. After a bit, she even opened up the restaurant and offered us drinks. We weren't in any hurry and given the typical view that islanders live on a casual clock, it wasn't any big deal. A little more waiting and the woman ran back over to tell us that the person would be there in about 10 minute at 6:30. Eventually she showed up and we were in business. We figured that it would be fun to see what kind of pizza that we would get. I suspect that the French aren't exactly known for their pizzas, so it was likely going to be an adventure. We ordered the ham, cheese, and green olive version. It was definitely not a standard American style pizza joint. The pizza turned out to be what you might consider a designer pizza. It was a little bigger than a large plate and was thin crust. I am so used to Pizza Hut type pizzas that I need to keep in mind that they are not the standard in the rest of the world. It was pretty good and the cheese was actually interesting cheese, rather than that which is usually put on a American pizzas. I definitely could have used a bigger pizza, or more of a deep dish format, but we aint in Kansas any more. The ambiance specifically associated with the pizza joint was pretty standard, but being in paradise more than made up for it. It was fun talking to others that had showed up for supper, as they mostly seemed to be Americans or Canadians. It was quite a decent pizza, but I could have easily have eaten the whole thing myself, not that I need it. | ||
| Intercontinental Beachcomber Resort - Moorea, French Polynesia 2/23/04 | It was the beginning of our first full day on the island of Moorea in French Polynesia and it was time to make use of our complimentary American breakfast at the hotel restaurant. I wasn't quite certain how an American breakfast is different from other varieties, such as continental, but it appears that it means hot food is included on the buffet. We weren't sure what to expect from the buffet but it was quite excellent. There was everything that you would expect, such as scrambled eggs and bacon, along with some more French oriented breakfast items such as croissants. I certainly had my fill of eggs, fried potatoes, and fresh fruit. They even had coke on the buffet, so it is definitely first class. I look forward to the next few days of buffets to give the rest of the choices a try. While I don't have any idea of what it cost, I would definitely two thumbs up. | ||
| Air Tahiti Nui - Somewhere over the Pacific 2/22/04 | First of all, I must say that Air Tahiti's happy color scheme is conductive to having a happy flight, consequently I would consider the ambiance of eating at like 36,000 feet and 590 mph to be pretty good in this case. Knowing that you are on your way to paradise doesn't hurt the ambiance much either. We had the choice of chicken or salmon, and as I am not much of a fish eater, I went for the chicken, a good safe bet. It was a roast chicken breast with scampi, penne pasta, and sauteed italian vegetables. The chicken was done just right and not terribly spicy and the pasta was really excellent as well. I could have used a bit more of each, but it was probably appropriate for people less accustom to vast proportions that I have come to enjoy. There was a salad with with a vinegar dressing that was about par for the course for any airline. Something that really hit the spot was the bread with a slice of monterrey jack cheese, so much so that I went for seconds on that. I don't quite know why it was so appealing, but it was nice. The chocolate cake for dessert wasn't what I expected, but in a good way. It was soft and creamy rather than being cakey. All in all, a good meal to add to the wonderful flight. | ||
| Bakers Square - Bloomington, MN 2/21/04 | We were out in search of a standard garden variety meal, in preparation for the long plane flight to Bora Bora the next day. Of course Bakers Square was our obvious choice, but I wasn't sure how they would be in the cities. For the most part there seems to be a linear relationship between the size of the city and the scuzziness of the Bakers Square. A sad state indeed. It took us a little to find the place, but I was really surprised that the place was actually fairly nice. It was a different layout that any other Baker Square, but roughly the same. I had the usual Roast Turkey Dinner with a second mashed potatoes rather than dressing. Jared was our server and he was very attentive and was right there when we needed something, without being annoying. It was exactly as I expected and enjoyed it immensely as we had all eaten very little all day and it was 9pm. One thing that was different was that they had carrots as a choice for vegetable, whereas our usual Baker Square only offers snap peas or vegetable medley, both of which aren't bad, but certainly aren't nearly as good as carrots. In eating at the Baker Square in Bloomington we got exactly what we needed, a fine meal, at a reasonable price, with reasonable service. | ||
| Jenpachi Grill - Rochester, MN 2/14/04 | Jennifer and I were asked to share a Valentines Day reservation at the new Japanese grill that we have heard so much about. All the reviews by friends were that it was really good food, an entertaining meal, but quite expensive. I will say right from the start that it was very expensive for the Rochester dining market, so if you are a Golden Coral sorta person, you might want to either skip it or consider robbing a bank first. It certainly isn't your typical restaurant and you, and 10 close friends, sit around a U shaped table that surrounds a large grill. Its a very interactive meal that gets prepared right in front of you and sometimes with your participation. Observing the chefs technique and at a couple of other tables, it really is appealling and likely entertaining for everyone. He twirled and juggled eggs which later became part of the fried rice and somehow made chopping vegetables entertaining. We had our choice of lobster or shrimp and as you might expect, I went for the shrimp. We also got filet mignon, which was very tasty. We all walked away being stuffed with our wallets a bit lighter to offset the weight that we had gained. While it was very entertaining, I do have one sort of nit to mention about the place. It might just have been that it was Valentines day, but you pretty much got the sense that once you are done eating, its time for you to leave. It would have been nice to linger a bit and talk further with the other couple that we went with. So to summarize, it was fantastic food, great entertainment, but quite expensive. Just don't go too often, but definitely go there. We both had the sense that we should absolutely bring Nick with us next time. | ||
| Burger King Downtown - Edinburgh, Scotland 8/3/03 | We had taken the bus into Edinburgh from Peebles and then walked around for a bit. Soon we were getting hungry and stuck in the middle of the festival parade. There were just tons of people around and we weren't terribly creative in our desire to eat. Consequently we saw a Burger King right on the parade route and ducked into it. Personally I felt that not taking a chance with funny food was a good idea in the environment, especially stuck this far from our hotel with a bus ride back to Peebles as our only way back. Anyways, like I said, the place was packed but the line moved quickly. I got my usual cheeseburger and fries and Jennifer and Nick got their usuals. Due to all the people and the unseasonably hot weather, it was a little close in the restaurant, but certainly bearable since we have been putting up with the heat since arriving in the UK. It was, however, a little cooler than London and just focusing on everything around us kept our minds off the heat. The cheeseburger, fries, and drink were exactly as I expected it, so it passed the test. While one should eat different things while one is on vacation, there is something comforting about just having access to some of the same old food. The quick BK meal was the basis for the rest of our day of running around. | ||
| Castle Venlaw - Peebles, Scotland 8/2/03 | Tonite was the first time that we have eaten in a real live castle, and in this case one in Scotland. As part of our stay package, we get breakfasts and suppers included. I fear not, as this is a very swanky place and the food will be excellent, should I be able to decode what it actually is. Thankfully almost all of the stuff on the menu is bilingual, with parts being in English and the other parts in Chef-ese. They brought around samples of something very chef-ese, namely a salmon mousse and polenta. Obviously I could figure out that its salmon and its fashioned into some sort of spread type form. However, this plebian was at a total loss for what 'polenta' was. Jennifer told me sorta what it was, but only after I had eaten it. I figured that it was fairly small and I was pretty hungry, what could go wrong. It actually tasted good, but I am still bewildered as to how they fashion corn meal into something that is the consistency of tofu, or maybe pudding. We had several first course to choose from and most of them were pretty much in chef-ese. I chose the Tuna Carpaccio, which seems to mean 'raw in some sort of flavored oil'. It was a lot better than I expected, not being a fresh-fish-ofile, and I may actually choose it again by choice. The main course was scottish beef with mashed potatoes, mushrooms, and fried small tomatoes. Of course I didn't eat the mushrooms and tomatoes, as I regard them pretty much as a garnish, but the beef and the mashed potatoes were great. Desert was a fresh berry cobbler, which wasn't what I expected. It is obviously a misperception of mine that cobbler is something akin to pie filling, but this was a nice pile of fresh berries, surrounded by a thin wafer wall, and some sort of bisquit on top. The bisquit was like a baking power bisquit, but without the baking powder. It was an excellent finish to the meal. The ambiance of the place is very nice and the service excellent and befitting of a castle. Less experienced diners might think of it as stuffy, not having the option of fries with each meal does not make it stuffy. Just fine dining with excellent service. I have no idea as to the price, as I said it is included in the room, but I can imagine that its not for the weak of heart or pocketbook. Well worth the cost. | ||
| Cafe Harrods - London, England 8/1/03 | We had been wondering around Harrods for quite a while and it was time to get a little bite to eat. We first stopped at a place called the Terrace ?, which was right next to one of the more swanky restaurants. There wasn't a table ready, so we sat and waited with menus. Looking at the menu, there wasn't much that this plebian palate would knowingly consume and I was even more reluctant to pay such premium prices for such weird food. I am not saying that the food was bad, its just that much of it was bewildering and generally contained on ingredient that I really could not stand. Also, there was nothing that Nick would pretty much knowingly eat. Consequently we got up and tried to find a more appropriate venue. Certainly there are quite a variety, but some of them just seem to appealing, like the diner, which is something that we could get any day at home. In the end we chose the Cafe Harrods. Its food was only slightly bewildering and the ingrediants were only different, not revolting like our previous attempt. I decided to have the soup of the day and bread. Todays soup was carrot soup, which was intriguing because I don't think that I have ever had just plain carrot soup. I have had carrots IN soup, but never as THE soup. Having it with bread, I couldn't go wrong. The soup was excellent and nicely entertaining as I spent nearly the whole time dipping bread in it. They also had fountain Coca Cola, which was absolutely wonderful, the best I have had on this trip. Nick got a ham and cheese sandwich, swanky version of course, and could not eat it. Thus, I had the other half and it was really good, much better than I expected for a sandwich with such exotic nomenclature. The service, while cheerful, was a bit inattentive and when we ordered our drinks, it seemed like a helluva long time until we actually received them. Its not liek there were tons of customers or anything. I wanted a second coke and it was rather hard to attract our servers attention. He would make a quick scan of his area, but too quick to give me time to realize that he was scanning and get my hand in the air. Perhaps I wouldn't care as much if it wasn't in a place that prided itself on such extraordinary service. In any case, the food was good, but quite overpriced. Think of it as gourmet food at airport prices. | ||
| Eurostar Train - on the way to Brussels 7/31/03 | While I am going for firsts, its yet another one. This time its the food on Eurostar train going from London to Brussels. Going first class, it turns out that we get meals in each direction. I shall review just the the first first leg of our journey. In a way I feel sorta bad because I actually skipped much of breakfast, as I didn't want to play russian roulette with my bowels. We had woken up damn early that morning, around 5am, and didn't get time to have our standard breakfast at the hotel, so I was glad for what they had. As I hate spinach, I didn't go for the spinach omlette, but Jennifer made me taste it as one of those "you got to try different things" lessons for Nick that end up with the old "Look, Dad will try it". Not a good scene. I lived to tell this tale and I am still here to tell you that spinach still sucks. Not just a little bit, but a lotta bit. It absolutely ruined an otherwise good omlette. The only good thing is the presentation of the omlette, which was somehow rolled with the spinach in it and then cut into slices, giving it a spiral appearance. Kinda neat in a way and it would be much better had actually edible components such as ham and cheese been used. Instead I went for the rolls in a big way. There were several different types such as croissants and some chocalate pastry. There were also more conventional European dinner type wheat rolls that were nicely crusty and presented a bit of a challenge. Along with hot tea and a very good glass of orange juice, we were ready to hit the ground of Brussels running. Even as I really didn't expect more than some sort of beverage on the trip, I would still rate the food quality very good and the service was very excellent. I got courteoulsy chastised to choosing for Nick, as he was hemming and hawing about what he wanted and I knew exactly what he wanted. As recompense, he chose for me, as he knew exactly what I wanted. | ||
| Washington Hotel - London, England 7/28/03 | Here's another first, a review of room service. By the time that we got to the hotel, it was kinda late. In fact, they were on the late night menu already. That cut our options quite a bit and not wanting to get too far out on the beam for my first night in London, that could possibly be a problem. In the end I decided to say "what the hell" and went for the bangers and mash. That very dish has been the object of humor at our house ever since we decided to make the trip to the UK. It was picked for its odd sound and not for any particularly culinary reason. If the sausages weren't compatible with my palate, I would just go hungry. Well, I was very surprised and it wasn't spicy as I expected. It wasn't as spicy as your typical American breakfast sausage. Jennifer thought that is was some sort of potato sausage, which went nicely with the mashed potatos. Even Nick didn't gritch about the sausage and they seemed to have agreed with Jennifer as well. Usually if its spicy at all, Jennifer bails on it. In my diminished capacity for rational thought after many many hours of travel, the bangers and mash were an entirely welcome meal, especially when washed down with a Grolsch. I just its just one of those "When in London..." things. | ||
| Iceland Air - Somewhere over Canada 7/27/03 | Okay, this is another first. I thought that I would reflect up the effects of airline food on the Plebian Palate. On our trip to England, we happened to take Iceland Air. We made no special dinner arrangements, so what we got was the luck of the draw. On our flight there was a choice of chicken or pasta and I picked pasta, for no real reason other than it sounded better than the chicken. As it turns out, the pasta dish had strips of chicken in it, so I wasn't entirely shut out. The pasta dish was more spicy that I anticipated, but not in a bad way. My experience in the past is that they make it fairly bland to appeal to every taste. I was quite happy with it and the portion was just about right. I cannot comment on the cost, as you get other benefits for spending the hundreds of dollars you pay to get the meal. The salad was your standard bland lettuce, stripped carrot and tomato affair and it would have been tastier had I actually used the Kraft italian dressing packet on it, but that didn't seem too appetizing. The bread was okay, but it would have been much better had we gotten a pat of butter with it. Okay, I'm a geek, but I was impressed by the plastic silverware that I got with my meal. It was really nice stiff plastic that happened to have a decidedly scandanavian design feel to them. They weren't the wimpy plastic utinsels that you usually get, they were very high quality. To be consistent with my other reviews, I feel that I have to comment on the ambiance. Unlike other establishments that I have eaten in, this one came with complementary ear-popping. The din of the establiment was relatively loud and the seating was cramped, but hey, its a damn airplane. Next time I should book first class if I don't want cramped. Atleast the company was good, with Jennifer and Nick happily eating beside me. | ||
| Sam's Pizza - Marseilles, IL 3/28/03 | First I must reveal stuff that might color my review, but I endeavour to not let it affect the review. As we are in the town Jennifer grew up in and getting take out from a pizza joint that she has a great affinity, I do not suffer from such encumberances and will speak my mind. This particular pizza joint has been in the same family for a million years and a fixture in this small predominantly Italian community. It was a real family operation. Talking to the owner was fun and it was obvious that this wasn't exactly a "take your food and go away" sort of establishment. While others might dispute my perception, Johnny seemed to me to be a great deal like Art Carney in conversation and banter. Anyways, to the food. We ordered our usual pizza, the canadian bacon and pineapple deep dish. Its what we really like and serves as a great benchmark for pizza places. The crust of the pizza was great. It was obviously not the standard recipe used by places like Pizza Hut. It was also not the crust of a hoighty toighty Italian place that leans on the spices to make the fare seem exotic. It was just damn good crust. The sauce and cheese was really good and at an amount that I would have expected for such a pizza. I, however, would have like to have seen a little more canadian bacon, but that which was on the pizza was great. I had heard about this pizza place for years from Jennifer and this was the first time that I had actually experienced it, for some reason. I have to say that it certainly lived up to its years of advanced billing. I look forward to actually going there and eating-in, as I believe that it would be a great family type pizza joint experience. Plus, I heartily endorse it because I like supporting non-formula restaurants that are owned by actual people and not cloned corporate schlockmeisters dependent on demographic analysis. I also support small restaurants that compete on quality rather than some boutique aesthetic that dictates that "small is good" regardless of quality. Okay okay, I will put away my soapbox. I really liked it and we will undoubtedly go back next time we are wandering through town. | ||
| Cracker Barrel - Ottawa, IL 3/30/03 | You know you are trouble when you can smell the grease from the parking lot, which happened right when we got out of the car. First of all, I am much of a fan of the Cracker Barrel concept, as the thought of running customers through a crappy gift store to get to the restaurant makes me sick. I also must state that I wasn't exactly sad when the Cracker Barrel in Eagan, MN went out of business shortly after opening. I am still puzzling about what type of research was done that came to the conclusion that it was a good idea to put that type of restaurant in such a yuppie area. Inspite of all that, I try to keep that apart from my review of the food and the overall view of the restaurant. Anyways, I ordered the ham and biscuits and I have to say that the biscuits weren't too bad, but the ham was a little bit salty, which was consistent with the other time that I had been at a Cracker Barrel. I like my ham to actually taste a little more like meat, which probably sets me apart from other more regular patrons of the establishment. The portions were certainly generous and the corn that I ordered was fairly good. While I didn't have to pay for it, the bill didn't seem to be too bad either. The service was fairly good and attentive. I have to say that inspite of it not being terribly busy, it was damn loud. One facet of going out to eat is actually talking during the meal and the noisy ambiance of the place was a real pain. While I suspect that it would interfere with some of the motif of the place, I think that there are probably some strategies that would avoid some of the ambient noise. Back to the gift shop. It still pisses me off that they drag you through the damn gift store to get into the restaurant. That fact alone would dissuade me to ever knowingly going there again. I have been to lots of restaurants in my day that had associated gift stores, but they were politely tucked off to the side and didn't require you to weave through a morass of cheap, made in China, faux Americana shit. As you may have noticed,5it pisses me off just a little. To summarize, the food, price, and service wasn't bad, but the rest of the stuff really sucked. | ||
| Red Robin's - Eagan, MN 3/25/03 | Out doing some errands, I decided to try out Red Robin's in Eagan. I had been by there about a million times and didn't know anything about it. After I figured out how the hell to get in their parking lot, I was set. Entering the restaurant you get the sense of busy, like a Chuck E. Cheeses type busy. It turns out that the place is sorta busy, but in a less chaotic and more adult way. TV's strategically placed and mixed drinks on the menu, certainly not a Chuck E. Cheeses. A certain percentage of the patrons seemed to be fathers alone with kids. So anyways, this place considers itself to be a good burger place, so I aimed to test that theory. While they had all kinds of wierd burger combinations, I went for the straight-up Gourmet Cheeseburger with cheddar cheese. While that is my standard burger choice, it also gives me a good comparison base. Something that I think is interesting is that they have an endless bottom basket of french fries. For me that means something more akin to unlimited girth growth, I suspect that Nick would like that particular facet of this restaurant. The fries were big steak type and basically of standard quality. The burger was quite large and had lots of stuff on it. I had mine done well, but it was still pretty juicy. I was quite happy with the service and the ambience overall. For some reason the loudness in the restaurant was not a problem, as I suspect that a mix of the visually active environment matched the sound level and the noise didn't seem out of place. That realization, in itself, was kind of profound. I will likely go back, but probably not very often as I am trying to swear off big-ass burgers for my girth's sake. | ||
| Old Chicago - Eagan, MN 3/19/03 | I was out running around a local computer chain store when it started showing the first attacks on Iraq on their TV's. The war was on. I immediately decided to goto Old Chicago in Eagan, where they would have TV's undoubtedly tuned to the new conflict. When I got there, the place was fairly dead, except for the bar. Great. I was taken to a nice seat with a perfect view of the TV. The staff was quite distracted by the news reports and eventually turned up the sounds to hear was was happening. I was getting a ring-side seat. I ordered my usual personal pan pizza, Canadian Bacon and Pineapple. It took quite a while to get it made, but I didn't seem to mind. He brought it out and he had mispunched the order into the computer and I got a calzone. He was apologetic, but I said I would wait for a pizza, which he happily went and ordered. Again, a wait, but I was glued to the TV. The pizza was great as usual and just the right amount. It seems that personal pan pizzas either come up woefully short on volume, or way over the top, such that you walk away feeling like a stuffed tick. This was just right. For his error, he cut the bill in half, which was unnecessary and quite surprising. Even more surprising was that as I was literally walking out the door, he came running after me and gave me the calzone they had prepared, as they were just going to throw it away. I was shocked. I guess I would have a great lunch at some future point. With the steep discount, the overall bill was less than I would have spent at McDonalds. As I write this, I am still shocked by the quality of their service, in a good way. | ||
| New China Buffet - Eagan, MN 1/9/03 | Having worked a long day, while I was racing around later in the evening, I ran into the New China Buffet, a very canonical mall Chinese restaurant. Being the ever-so-slightly adventurous type, I decided to give it a try. Most of the time these types of restaurants are basically okay, and the New China Buffet did not let me down. I have to give them a bit of a break, as I got there right before closing and I am sure that what they still had out wasn't exactly fresh. I can, however, distinguish between 'old' and 'not flavorful' even on a bad night. Their sweet and sour chicken was roughly equivalent to every other similar place, basically batter-fried chicken blobs. They can be vaguely considered chicken, in much the same way that McDonalds McNuggets (tm) can be called chicken. Their fried rice was uninspiring, but the lo mein wasn't too bad. The crab rangoons were small and quite a bit more greasy and, consequently, not crispy, the way I am accustom to getting them. They had a little more sweet flavor and not so heavy on cream cheese. I can't really decide whether I liked the way that they were doing them, but I will make a determination after I eat there when its more fresh. There were some more of the old Asian buffet standby's, but they looked quite unappetizing and I wasn't that hard up to need to eat them. The ambiance was the standard strip mall Chinese restaurant, as I would have expected. All in all, the place was 'okay' and I will eat there again, but I certainly wouldn't recommend it too friends. As a side note, I wonder if the Old China Buffet is any good. ;-) | ||
| Carbones - Eagan, MN 12/30/02 | Apparently I look like a regular or something because it took a bit of work to actually get a menu, as I didn't innately know what was on the menu. While I have eaten at Carbones before, it has been quite a while and most of my Carbone meals were delivered and free, having been "engineering dinners" provided free by SGI to those who worked late. I worked late quite a bit, but that doesn't mean that I know what I want now. Me being a non-adventurous, food rut sorta guy, I ordered probably my most frequent meal, lasagna with cheese bread. I recall it fondly and so I am sorta giving them a head start, in terms of reviews. First a bit about ambiance. Its a clean and efficient restaurant that basically has a theme of 'nice', complete wit crackling fireplace, fish tanks, and crooners for muzak. The lasagna was as I recalled it, a nice portion and slightly overloaded with some spice that I don't know the name of. It's not a critical comment, just referring to something that differentiates it from most restaurant lasagnas. This lasagna almost has a sweet taste and I could undoubtedly name the spice off the top of my head, if only I knew anything about spices. I also liked the garlic cheese bread and could probably used another slice, but one was good enough. While Italophiles would probably consider it schlock, I liked it and will be back. | ||
| Dragon Palace - Eagan, MN 12/17/02 | I must first admit that I have eaten at Dragon Palace easily >300 times in my life, but I haven't eaten there in probably close to 10 years. I think qualifies as having cleansed my palate. In all those times I have dined there, I always ordered the same meal, shrimp-fried rice. This history could be a good or bad thing overall, but my current review will have to stand up against fond former dining memories. First, the ambiance was just as I remembered it. Nothing had changed in over 15 years. The faces had changed, but not the facilities one whit. Well, as you might expect, I ordered the shrimp fried rice. It was exactly as I remembered it in every respect, the taste and volume. One thing that brought me back to this particular restaurant is the large amount of food that you get for your money. For most people, the meal typically yields ample leftovers and even those taste good for days. I, however, consumed the whole thing and walked out pleasantly stuffed. Its easy to recall why I ate there so frequently. Undoubtedly I will eat there many more times in the coming months, especially with my new travel schedule. | ||
| John Hardy's (North) - Rochester, MN 4/15/02 | Nick and I went out to eat without Jennifer, as she needed some time at home alone after a hard day at work. To my total surprise Nick agreed to eat at John Hardy's, without a fight. to provide some context, he always wants to go to Burger King or McDonalds and any other place to eat is usually by parental executive perogative. Thus his giving in without a fight is a big deal. For those who have not been there, John Hardy's has a sort of a roadhouse motif, rather than a typical refined restaurant type layout. Having been to their south restaurant, I can say that the north one is quite a bit cleaner and less crowded. I guess that goes with the whole bar-b-que thing. Anyways, I had the shredded pork dinner and the jojo potatoes. The medium sauce was just about the right amount of but I should probably try the hot sauce to see if its any tastier. I am not one for spicy stuff, as my plebian palate pretty much dictates, but lately I have been looking for a little more of a challenge in the spice department. Both the meat and jojos were good, but I could probably use a bit more meat and a few less jojos. The side of corn was great, a little peppered to give it a good corn taste. More importantly, the Moutain Dew was very very good, much like it used to be. Fountain Mountain Dew seems to have a great variation in taste and this particular batch was wonderful, the way Dew used to be when I was a kid. Nick really liked his chicken nuggets and I didn't even have to pester him to eat too much. The service was great, with the waitress keeping our beverages topped off without being annoying. I definitely give it two thumbs up and I am sure that Nick does too. | ||
| Coffee Mill - Zumbrota, MN 4/13/02 | On a whim, we decided to have lunch some place different and quickly decided to go out of town because we couldn't agree on a local place we couldn't remember any place in Pine Island, so we went further. In Zumbrota, we stumbled upon the Coffee Mill restaurant in the downtown area. You get the very local sense in that everybody says "Hi" to everyone else. It could very well be that during a more busy time that we could have been sitting in someones spot. It even has a coffee counter and allows smoking, something you don't see too much any more. It was you old time standard small town restaurant, which is to say quaint with the much feared "diddly boos" (ewww!). I had the beef sandwich with potatoes and gravy, which absolutely hit the spot. It was pretty standard and good and it didn't live very long. Dessert was banana cream pie and would be considered reasonably good, but was elevated to nearly great because I was so damned hungry. We also ordered some batter-fried cheese curds as appetizers. They were good, but likely out of a bag. They were too perfectly shaped and sized to be locally prepared. If I found myself in Zumbrota, I would definitely eat there again, but I likely wouldn't drive the 20 miles to go eat there, unless I craved the small town atmosphere. | ||
| Noodles - Rochester, MN 1/10/02 | We were out running around looking for a place to eat and none of the usual suspects were really tripping our collective triggers, so we decided to try some place that we haven't tried before and it just so happened that a new obviously franchise restaurant named Noodles had opened up in the area that we happened to be running around in. We had seen the signs and we were, frankly, intrigued by a restaurant focused solely on noodles, something that we typically take for granted. First impressions are that it was a boisterous place, yet well organized and things flowed well. We were there when things were fairly busy, but not overly so, which leads to my biggest gripe about the place, namely the lack of elbow room. The tables were quite well packed in and you were brushing people when going to and from your table. Not a big deal for me, but probably more so for those who our butts brushed up against. It was kinda noisy, but not overly, given the number of people (including many children) in the place. To the food... I had the Chicken Noodle soup, inspite of a reasonable selection of other choices. One thing that surprised me is that you received standard saltines with the soup. You would think that they would have some sort of special crackers or maybe breadsticks for the soup, but no, just plain old saltines. Nick had the Macaroni and Cheese, which seemed awfully foreign to him, as all mac & cheese must look like that made by Kraft, the way god intended mac & cheese to be. He ate it, but sort of reluctantly. I tasted it and it tasted good to me. I don't know how frequently we are going to eat at the restaurant, but it certainly wasn't bad and might serve nicely as a break from standard restaurants. | ||
| Bilotti's - Rochester, MN 3/23/02 | We wanted Italian, something not too expensive, and some place different from where we usually go. A quick gander at the yellow pages and we were all set for Bilotti's, a long time Rochester Italian restaurant. One key factor is that it had an American segment of the menu to satisfy Nick's more domestic tastes. In my coupla decades of living in and around Rochester, I don't believe that I have ever been to Bilotti's, so this was going to satisfy a long held curiosity. The restaurant is very physically small and seemed to have every table full, but we got seated quickly. Actually seating was a bit of a pain, as the booth we were in was likely configured for children because I had a hard time getting into the booth and once there, my ample girth could be construed as "wedged in there". Think eating in an airplane, although the available width allowed more freedom of movement. I ordered Canadian bacon single serving pizza and Jennifer ordered the Lasagna, good representative plebian samples of Italian cuisine. One cannot fault them for small portions, as Jennifer could only eat about half her meal. While I typically like thick crusted pizza, mostly because the crust is chewy and not crunchy, the single serving pizza had a nice chewy crust. The toppings were well proportioned and tasty and overall the pizza had a less formulaic taste than most pizzas I have ordered, something more like you would expect from a family restaurant. Something that I have harped on in the past was noise in the restaurant, but Bilotti's was relatively quiet even though it was a small restaurant full of people. I appreciate being able to talk at a normal conversational level and actually be heard. Also, a nice part of the experience was our server Angie. She interacted with us very well and was just the right amount of attentive, not annoying us and not abandoning us. I will certainly go there again, but I will make sure to get a table and not a booth. As an aside, they seemed to have quite a delivery business going and in a Pizza Hut and Dominos world that says something pretty positive about their pizza. | ||
| New Chalet Resturant - Ottawa, IL 5/11/02 | Through a driving rainstorm, we searched out and found the New Chalet Restaurant, having been promised that it was decent food. The restaurant itself was basically like a standard American restaurant, complete with lunch counter with stools. Thankfully, however, it didn't have the standard formica, feet-sticking-to-the-floor motif of many of its brethern. Our server was nice and helpful, as you would expect in middle America and menu contained standard American fare. This worried me because I figured that all the food would be totally formula and wheeled directly off the Sysco truck and served. Thankfully I was plesently surprised. I ordered the jumbo bacon cheeseburger, which should be reasonably safe to order at any restaurant. I was utterly amazed that the cheeseburger that I got irregular in shape, which seemed almost unnatural in this setting. Could it be that this burger had been actually pressed out and not extruded at high speed? I must say that it actually tasted very good, although it wasn't as jumbo as I expected it to be. The fries were the usual restaurant fare, but the whole meal was good and the setting quite reasonable. It drives me nuts to be in restaurants and not be able to talk with people mere feet away. Thankfully this restaurant was quiet while reasonably busy. | ||
| Country Kitchen - Ottawa, IL 5/12/02 | For some reason at the time we were ready for dinner, almost every restaurant in Ottawa, IL was either closed, closing, or stacked up for quite a while to come, it being Mothers Day and all. Our search led us to Country Kitchen, definitely nowhere near our first choice, but not too bad in any case. We all decided to get the buffet, which was pretty anemic as salad bars go. What sold me is that it had ham, always a draw for us. All in all the buffet was basically equivalent to what you would find in a college food service, which is to say basically passible, but not something you would drive across town for. The primary draw, the ham, was a pseudo honey-baked, which is to say it was sorta sweet but not terribly so. Let it be known that I like ham of the salty variety and not sweet, so it didn't exactly trip my trigger. The meal was okay and its largest value was sheer volume of food and lack of other options. I am sure that we will be going there again, but not typically by choice. | ||
| Gorda Resturant - Gorda, CA 7/31/01 | Okay, I have been sitting on this review for a while, but absolutely thought it should be done. How we happened upon this resturant is a story in itself. We had left San Francisco a little late for our drive, down the scenic Pacific Coast Highway (PCH), to Cambria where we were going to be staying for much of our vacation. It was a 200ish mile drive, so it wasn't that bad. Anyways, we got going late and the PCH gets pretty gnarly after Monterrey, not to mention that it was a quite dark night. I have driven many times on the PCH, but not ever this far south. The places that I had driven had been curvy, but enjoyably so. The further south you get the more it turns into a mountain road from hell. A twisty narrow road with no inland shoulder, to speak of, and a sheer drop off to the pounding pacific surf on the other side. Darkness does not help the situation. As we were limited to very slow speeds, like 35 mph, a lot of the time, the drive dragged on and on, but we really wanted to get it behind us. Just for fun, throw in having very little evidence of humankind nearly the entire way, not even small towns. It was getting to be nearly 10pm when we stumbled upon Gorda. Out of the darkness came blaring lights and signs of civilization. There were quite a number of cars and a sign that there was a resturant, which was fortunate because we were starving. We were already wierded out by its very existence, going in only amplified that feeling. It was like the set of a twilight zone episode. A nice ambiance, everyone seeming to take interest in your arrival, but just something strange. Off to the side was a guy sitting on a bar stool playing the guitar and singing, in a very coffee house sorta way. Looking back upon the experience, I figured it was probably one of two scenarios. My first idea was that this was a wayside stop run entirely by vampires, just awaiting fresh meat to come to their lair. Another possibility was that this place was made up entirely of ghosts and that we would drive through again in daylight and we would find no evidence that it existed, other than local stories of "that unfortunate incident in the 30's that happened where Gorda used to be". Having driven through Gorda in the daylight, I can dismiss the second scenario. The first remains open. Okay, on to the review. We were famished and looking for some nice food. Their menu was fairly yuppy in content, but had quite a number of things that were recognizable as food. I picked the chicken sandwich, as I didn't want to overload my system with grease on the windy roads. The sandwich tasted great and absolutely hit the spot! Nick and Jennifer also liked their meals as well. During our meal, we were treated to a young hispanic boy, whose birthday it was, getting up and singing. He sang several songs to the guitar accompaniment and did very well, especially in such an impromptu manner. My only gripe with our meal was that it was quite expensive for the portions and foodstuffs that we got. Our meal was roughly twice what we would pay at some place like a Bakers Square, but given its remoteness I can understand the pricing (read "only place for miles"). Anyways, I give it two thumbs up, except on price. | ||
| Dos Amigos - Rochester, MN 11/22/01 | After running some errands, Nick and I negotiated going to some place that we had never gone to before, or hadn't been to in a long while. He chose Dos Amigos in a small residential strip mall in Northwest Rochester. We have driven past it about a million times before, but never stopped. Actually we had been to that resturant, but I think it was at the pizza place that it had been before it became a Mexican resturant. Well the layout and fixtures of the resturant haven't changed from its previous life. Is there some federal statute that Mexican resturants must be loud and the cacophany of all the other patrons conversations should be readily distinguishable at every other table? In terms of Mexican resturants, this one was slightly less loud, but a little too loud for a quiet meal with my son. Some how more packed traditional resturants (ie. Bakers Square or Perkins) seem to handle the noise problem just fine. The menu had a large list of different combinations of several different Mexican meal components (quesadillas, tacos, enchiladas, etc). I think I picked the two enchiladas and a taco with the refried beans. The components weren't as truly distinct as they would have been at a better resturant, which somewhat explains my uncertainty. Another explanation is that much of it was utterly forgettable. Not bad, just not terribly memorable. The refried beans were a vaguely brownish-greyish slurry that had I not known that they were beans, that wouldn't have been my first guess. They tasted okay, but the appearance wasn't exactly enticing. All in all I would rate the meal as 'blah' in presentation and just a bit better in test. In truth, I would much rather go to Taco Johns or Taco Bell. The price wasn't too bad however. Not some place that I would take friends or out-of-towners, but I may try it again to see if I just hit a bad night or something. | ||
| Applebee's Apache Mall - Rochester, MN 11/11/01 | While at the local mall (Apache Mall to be specific), we decided to drop by Applebee's. We haven't eaten there in probably quite a few months. We always seem to go there when my Mom is in town, but no other time. Anyways, it seemed like a good place to go, especially considering that the alternative was probably the food court, which Nick was lobbying for. For the first time in going to this particular Applebee's, we got right in, much to our utter shock. Normally we have to wait for 15-45 minutes for a table, which is probably why we pretty much avoid the resturant. That and the fact that its more of a bar with a restaurant, rather than the other way around, atleast judging by the ambient volume and ceiling mounted tv's. On the the meal... I ordered a special thing that they were running, the honey glazed chicken. I was up for something interesting and something that might even be construed as good for me. What really sealed the deal was the cheesy mash potatoes. It wasn't "cheesy" as in "cheap", as you might expect, but actually had cheese in them. At the time, in fact most of the time, I have a mash potato (or 'potatoe' for the republicans in the crowd) jones that needs to be quenched. Jennifer got the same thing, but the salmon rather than the chicken, and switch to the cheesy mashed potatoes instead of the rice pilaf. I tried a bite of her salmon, but it was a little too fishy for my tastes. The chicken was very good and about the right portions for a standard meal. The dipping sauce with a little too much something-er-rather and I only used it once. The honey glaze stuff was enough fiddling with the chicken for my taste. Rounding out the meal was mixed vegetables, which apart from the carrots were pretty much superflous because I don't eat those nasty vegetables. I consider it an integrated garnish. So I give the meal as a whole two thumbs up. The envions are a little raucous for a quiet family dinner and would be much better for a bunch of friends going out. Anyways, this meal was definitely one of the best of our trips to this particular Applebee's. | ||
| Quiznos - Rochester, MN 11/10/01 | Nick had the day off of school and we were running around doing errands and working on your christmas lists. While we were out, we stopped at a nearby Quizno's sub shop. We didn't stop at the one we usually goto, but instead went to the one that was much closer to where we were shopping. Nick wasn't very hungry, as he had just eaten over at the neighbors a couple of hours earlier, but he was up for a bag of chips and I need to get some food in my system, as I had been snacking most of the day thus far. I have eaten Quizno's sandwiches many many times in the past, but rarely do we ever actually eat in the restaurant. I ordered the same thing that I always do, the Black Angus sandwich. I just love it and haven't really seen a need to change my order. The regular sandwich is just the right size for a hearty appetite and the spicing is at just the right level for my adventuresome yet scandanavian palate. When we stopped at the restaurant, it was kinda quiet and we really didn't have to listen to the cacophany of customers that likely inhabit the space during more populated times. Nick had fun playing 'suicide' with the pop machine. It is only for the gods to know why a 7 year old would consider that things like hawaiian punch, diet coke, and mr pibb together might taste good. I remember doing it as a kid and I am happy to indulge this one right of passage into bigger-kiddom. The ambiance of a standard Quizno's, including this one, is quite a bit better than your standard fast food resturant, but that isn't saying much. They seem to have a variety of seating arrangements, low tables, high tables, etc, for some reason or another. We picked a high table with stools and I think that Nick was amused simply by the novelty of sitting that high at a table in a restaurant. As far as a rating, I think my frequency in going to Quiznos says it all. It's definitely a good break from standard fast food. | ||
| Eagles Nest - Red Wing, MN 11/3/01 | Checking out the local craft show, we found ourselves with a fierce need for some refreshments and Nick and I needed some food. At the end of the building, across from the St. James hotel, that we were in is the Eagles Nest, a coffee place that also has deli food and treats like cookies and ice cream. We later found out that its the same people that have the Eagles Nest in Wabasha, some 30 miles down the road, which is where we often go to eat while in that fine town. Nick and I both had ham & cheese bagels, which is what we usually have at the other resturant. The thing that fundamentally distinguishes the Eagles Nest from other places with deli is that they bake their own breads and you can certainly tell. There are not many places locally that really compare. Something to know, however, is that the bagels are soft and not the more traditional crusty bagels that bagel mavens adore. We eat at Brueggers enough to be able to differentiate between the types and I like the change of pace that the soft bagel provides. One doesn't have to test the integrity of their dental work to enjoy a simple bagel. The environment in the resturant was nice, but nothing to write home about. However, the chairs cushions were broken down in a disconcerting way that gave you the impression that you were sitting on one of those donut things that they make you sit on when you have hemorrhoid surgery, not that I have had any surgery like that, mind you. To summarize, its a nice place to sit and have a bite to eat and a nice fine coffee or, in my case, iced tea. | ||
| Godfathers Pizza - Rochester, MN 11/2/02 | I haven't eaten at a Godfathers Pizza in a very long time and never, as I recall, at this particular resturant. Its just sorta been off the beaten track and not in the usual places we worry about for pizza. I decided it was time for Nick and I to go eat some place that we haven't gone before, as we have been hitting the same places over and over again, largely due to Nick's affinity for fastfood toys and particular foods. In many ways he is like me, he likes what he likes and doesn't want to vary too much from that. He has not yet gained boredom as a factor that creeps into a repetitive diet. Anyways, after a trip to Best Buy, we stopped at the local Godfathers Pizza. Its not in the best location, but we see it frequently when we whiz by it on the highway. We got there a while after the supper rush, so the place wasn't very busy at all. Based purely on the ambience, it was a resturant that has seen its better days. Had this not been a national and competitive chain, I would have just surmised that the owners aren't terribly into keeping the resturant look up to date, but this IS a national chain and I am surprised that the national franchise folks don't expect more character in their resturants. Anyways, it was just sorta blah, in a laundrymat sorta way, probably not updated in the 90's or even much of the 80's. We decided on the meat lovers pizza, as Nick loves to pick the meat off the pizza and I certainly like a good bit of meat on the pizza. The folks behind the counter were your standard unaffected teens that inhabit most chain pizza resturants, but these were a little more clueful than the standard. Not a great deal more, just a little bit more. The pizza came in the normal amount of time one would expect for a non-cardboard pizza (are you listening Dominos?). It looked really good and smelled even better. It was a bit greasy, but I owe that to the fact that it was piled with meats that inevitably spew grease as a matter of course. It tasted as good as it looked. In terms of where it sits on the pizza spectrum, it was very much like what I remember Waldo's pizza to be. A unique, old school-ish taste that tended more towards consumer grade pizza, rather than idiosyncratic mom-and-pop "came over on a boat, straight from Italy" resturant pizza. I liked it about the same as I like the Pizza Hut pan pizza's (which is my benchmark for pizzas), but it did have a different taste. A word about my choice of Pizza Hut as benchmark for pizza. I didn't choose that because its the gold standard for pizza, its just the standard pizza. It truly middle of the road, pizzas worse than it are bad, pizzas better than it are good. Just total middle of the road. Anyways, back to the Godfathers Pizza. Nick seemed to like it and had no problems devouring his share. The true test of a pizza is how does it taste the next day, which this pizza did quite well at. All in all, I liked the pizza, but its location makes it less than convenient and we are kinda stuck on carryout pizza anyways. | ||
| Hunan Garden - Rochester, MN 10/30/01 | I am breaking from my tradition of only reviewing resturants that I ate in the resturant, but I have eaten in the Hunan Garden enough to blanketly say that its a nice place to eat and has really good waitstaff as well. However, this time, as we often do, we got carry out. The reason I post this review is because I decided to try something different. Typically I order my benchmark meal, shrimp fried rice, but I was interested in something a little more spicy due to being bored with my typically bland diet. I'm not a big spicy food fanatic, but every once in a while I like something with a little more kick to it. Certainly there are people that like food that doubles at the universal solvent, but I am not one of those people. I am also not one who subscribes to the notion that all food must be white and bland, hereafter known as "The Swede Diet". My choice of weapons this night was the Kung Pao Beef. I have had this particular dish elsewhere, but not at Hunan Garden. I must say that I was not disappointed, as it was delicious and just the right amount of spice. Sure, I would periodically bite into something that clear my sinus' and make me tear up, but I learned what those things were and avoided them. My face would sweat a bit, but that was all part of the richer experience. So, to summarize, I heartily endorse the Hunan Garden kung pao beef with two scandanavian thumbs up. | ||
| Tremplealeau Hotel Resturant - Trempealeau, WI 10/21/01 | We were out driving around on a fine sunday afternoon, trying to find some of the remaining colorful fall foliage, when we stumbled upon the town of Trempealeau, WI. Given that it was late in the afternoon, we were going down the east bank of the Mississippi river where the sun actually may have been shining. Anyway, we decided that this was about as good a place as any to each dinner, we stopped at the Trempealeau Hotel, which happens to have a resturant that appeared to be open. It had a nice porch looking out at the river, with only a street and railroad tracks between them. A nice setting to be sure. You walk through the bar to get to the resturant, which is kinda strange, but not a problem. I wasn't sure what to expect from the resturant, as hotel resturants are highly variable as to whether they rely on proximity to attract customers, or actually depend on good food. The staff seemed very very nice and helpful. The selection was reasonable and tended towards the yuppie end of the scale, but not too much. I'm not talking the uberyuppie fare that is about as inedible as it is unpronounceable. Many of the things had sprouts and an abundance of vegetarian dishes were designated appropriately on the menu. Thankfully they also had more standard food like burgers for the less refined palate, such as mine. I picked the grilled cheese sandwich, which oddly came with tomatoes, obviously a tip 'o the hat to the yuppie crowd. It tasted good, but could have somehow been a little more "substantial". I didn't walk away hungry exactly, but it could have been more. Another odd thing was that rather than fries or chips, they had tortilla chips as a side to the sandwich. I suspect that has something to do with the big 'fried vs baked' debate crap. Nick had the chicken strips, his 'usual' for just about any resturant, and the surprised us with strips that were actually made of non-extruded chicken and they weren't batter-fried. Definitely not the standard chicken strips. In the areas of food, ambiance, and service, I give the resturant two thumbs | ||
| Wind River Saloon Resturant - Humboldt, IA 10/5/01 | In the town of Humboldt, IA, you don't have many interesting dining choices. Its a very rural area with simple values and simple tastes. In terms of ethnic food, its pizza and oriental and rather bland versions of those. It does, however, have some darn good resturants that cater to those tastes. The best that we have found seems to be Wind River, located a short distance out of town and located at a ski hill which may or may not be active any longer. Anyways, the ambiance is of the standard homey Iowa variety and the staff is very nice. Go there more than a couple of times and you will probably be considered family. Its the kinda place where they know your name [cue "Cheers" music]. We have gone there on quite a few family occasions and its always been a great place to eat. Their salad bar isn't the greatest of all time, but the staples are there. My usual choice there, including this trip are the pork chops. On the ocean, you order seafood, in the middle of hog country, you order pork. This logic comes through tried and true in this case. Their pork chops are delicious and while they give you a good helpings, namely 2 large chops, it always seems that I could use a couple more, they are that good. The real treat is the deep-fried corn nuggets. I can't recall what they are called, but I absolutely love them. I am well know for my abilities to consume sweetcorn-based products and these delights really get me going. Basically they could best be described as batter-fried scalloped corn (the kind without onions and such) and it is wonderful. Its nice and sweet and fits anywhere in the meal. I could, and some would suggest that I have, made it the main part of the meal. I eat probably two skiffs per sitting and could probably eat more if I didn't clutter up my stomach with the rest of the meal. Each time we have them, I invariably have the thought that these corn nuggets would definitely sell well at the MN State Fair. But, alas, my mind boggles at the logistics of making that happen and the feeling goes away. I definitely need to get the recipe (or supplier) for the corn nuggets. Anyways, I give the Wind River Saloon Resturant two enthusiastic thumbs up for quaint Iowa resturants. | ||
| Carl's Jr. - San Luis Obispo, CA 8/2/01 | Perhaps the most surprising of the recent restaurants was Carl's Jr. We had missed a coupla opportunities to eat during the day, so we were pretty ravenous when we started looking for restaurants. We decided to head south to San Luis Obispo in search of more normal type (and cheaper) food. We had a little too much seafood and other more expensive fare, so we decided to move our sights down a bit. My key criteria for the choice was that they didn't serve fried calamari. We basically drove around until we found something that fit the bill. I honestly believe that I had been to a Carl's Jr. before, but this one wasn't anything like I remembered. Don't be under any illusions, it is still just a fast food joint, but I seemed to recall that it was more Wendy's like. As it turns out, they have quite a variety of things to eat, including an all-you-can-eat salad bar, which was kinda surprising. The salad bar was decent enough that it attracted Jennifer's attention. I, on the other hand, got the big ass burger that they have been advertising heavily. I must say that it was pretty darn tasty and the fries were pretty standard Burger King-esque fare. We were pretty famished and the food didn't last long. | ||
| Flying Dutchman Resturant - Morro Bay, CA 8/1/01 | It was the end of a long day and we were looking for a restaurant that sold shark, so Nick could finally fulfill a trip goal of his and eat shark. We found one place that had it, but it was way too expensive on the dinner menu, but much cheaper on the early bird special menu, so we decided to wait on such a speculative feast (ie. he may not like it). Instead we turned our attentions to a close restaurant which happened to be the Flying Dutchman. It appeared clean and reasonable and got the nod. Its menu was a little limited, but not too bad. I typically consider a menu limited when I, with my plebian palate, look long and hard for what I "should" eat, rather than what I "want" to eat. I have been to resturants in the past, typically hoighty-toighty artsy resturants, where I search in vain for anything that I can "possibly" eat. At one particular restaurant, I had to engage my limited knowledge of french to map words in the descriptions to particular food stuffs that I recognized. As I didn't recognize a SINGLE dish on the menu, it might as well have been written in Arabic. But that is another story. Anyways, while the Flying Dutchman was quite reasonable, you quickly got the sense of a restaurant that would happen if Denny's started a seafood chain, right down to the red plastic baskets that the food came in. We had the standard fried calamari which, while good, gave you the sense of having been extruded. We have had fried calamari several times in the last few days and this was the first time that they have seemed to be pre-breaded and ready to be thrown in the deep fat fryer. Looking around, you quickly noticed that most of the clientele are similar to those that would frequent a Denny's, not that that is a bad thing, just not something I would have expected. Anyways, I ordered the combo platter with chips and it had a less extruded quality than the calamari, but it didn't have the totally fresh taste or preparation that I have seen before. The fries/chips were the standard restaurant fries available in most any restaurant in the country. I guess I expected a little more "special" in the way of fries, especially at the premium price that we were paying for them. The service was decent and responsive. As is our custom, our review of the bathrooms is that they are reasonably nice but it appears that the clientele isn't accustom to indoor plumbing and can't seem to hit the trashcans with their used paper towels. So the restaurant is decent but probably not worth another visit, especially with a large variety of probably good restaurants near by. | ||
| Benvenuti's Pizza - Fishermans Wharf - San Francisco, CA 7/29/01 | After a long day of driving and hiking around north of San Fran, we stopped in at Benvenuti's. The primary criteria for selecting that particular restaurant, out of the literally thousands we have seen, was that it was open (at 10:30pm) and it was very nearby our hotel. We really really didn't want to drive any more, as we had just spent 2 hours on very very windy roads coming back from the Point Reyes lighthouse. Pizza sounded good after such a long day of eating mostly crap. The ambience was basically that of a standard pizza place in most any large metropolitan area. We ordered our usual pizza, the deep dish canadian bacon and pineapple. Their ice tea was quite good after the long day. I am quite sure that the pizza that arrived could not be officially called deep dish, as it was about as thick as a standard Domino's cardboard pizza. In any case, the pizza was really good and the crust was spiced perfectly. Typically crusts are either inperceivably spiced or spiced with a heavy hand, usually to overcome shortcomings in the taste of the rest of the pie. Apart from the lameness in the thickness of the pie, it was a wonderful pizza. Our waitress was a nice young lady from Limerick, Ireland who was working in San Fran for the summer and would be returning to school in the fall. The price was about what you would expect to pay for a decent sized pie anywhere else, a nice touch after spending lots of money eating elsewhere. I give the food a good two thumbs up. | ||
| Dante's - Fishermans Wharf - San Francisco, CA 7/28/01 | One of the predetermined eating experiences for this trip was a visit to Dante's on the Wharf. Jennifer had eaten there in the past and really really wanted to get back to it while we were in town. We were hoping to get Nick some shark, as he has had a certain fascination with sharks since a heavily edited viewing of the movie "Deep Blue Sea". Unfortunately we got shut out on that count. Nick wanted his standard chicken fingers, but we vetoed that choice and made him choose some sort of seafood. We started with an excellent platter of oysters, scallops, calimari, crab cakes, and shrimp. I liked all the stuff, except the oysters which weren't as tasty as I thought that they would be deep fried. Kind of a funny texture too. I should, however, preface that I pretty much like oysters on the half-shell, but the cooked version just didn't trip my trigger. Jennifer and Nick on the other hand liked them. | ||
| Sven & Oles Pizza - Grand Marais, MN 12/20/00 | For those that have been anywhere near the north shore of Lake Superior, they will immediately recognize the marketing juggernaut that is Sven & Oles. For a one-off local pizza joint, they seem to have quite a clever marketing campaign that extends well beyond the north short area. Anyways, we decided that since we were in Grand Marais again, it was time get a pizza from Sven & Oles and take it home with us. We had eaten there this summer and found the pizza to be tasty. This time was no different. We ordered a large thick "Vild Vun", which is wild rice, canadian bacon, mushrooms, green peppers, and olives. When you see such hype, it is usually some bit of overcompensation for a mediocre product, but this was different. Having eaten, and largely happy with, about a million Pizza Hut pizzas, the Sven & Oles pizza was quite different. The crust was sweet, a sign of weakness to some pizza afficionados, but I really liked it. Perhaps there could have been more ingredients, but what was there was just fine. I can't vouch for the ambiance of the place or anything because my experience was basically standing waiting for carryout. To summarize, I highly recommend it. | ||
| Blue Water Cafe - Grand Marais, MN 12/20/00  | We really needed lunch and happened to be in downtown Grand Marais, so we picked the nearest decent looking restaurant, which happened to be the Blue Water Cafe. In terms of ambiance, its your basic small town cafe that seems like people would have their own personal tables. In such places, non-locals sometimes upset delicate ecosystem of the restaurant by sitting at "Bobs table". Thankfully this wasn't one of those places, but it did seem to have its fair share of locals could immediately surmise that we were from around here. I had the open face sliced turkey breast sandwich with mashed potatoes. Nothing fancy, just good food in about the right amounts. I was pretty hungry at the time, requiring that I also order a garden salad and a plate of fries. I was quite satiated by the time I left, but not to the point of being sick, as I sometimes overcompensate for being hungry. The service was excellent and things came just at the right time. Standard good small town fare. | ||
| Subway - Grand Marais, MN 12/19/00 | After trying several different restaurants around Grand Marais at about 9:30pm, we were left with Subway. We had wanted to have something a little more of a local flavor, but it seems as if it was a slow night (not surprising for a winter tuesday night) led to having all the other restaurants closed inspite of closing times at 10pm. Anyways, we like Subway, so it wasn't a problem. It turns out that the local Subway has a local flavor all its own. Of course it has the standard Subway building that looked like it had been dropped in by helicopter, as it was with any other Subway anywhere else on earth. Anyways, the local flavor turned out the be the older lady that was the sole worker at the time. She was a transplant from Arkansas and was a college graduate in journalism and was trying to get started as a photographer, as her time off from Subway dictated. The Grand Marais area is certainly a good place for photography opportunities and a nice artsy-fartsy sorta area that gave her a peer group, which no doubt drew her to Grand Marais in the first place. We had a nice discussion about photography and related topics, and she really had a different attitude and I still cannot figure her out. Oh well, she fixed a good sandwich and it tasted exactly like the past 10,000 Subway sandwiches that I have eaten in my lifetime. Certainly a good backup plan. One nice thing, however, was that when Jennifer asked for extra tomatoes, the lady gave her like three times as many as you would usually get. | ||
| Wyndtree Restaurant - Moose Lake, MN 12/19/00 | On our way up north, we decided to stop and eat once we got on the other side of the Twin Cities. Sorta at random, we picked the Wyndtree Restaurant because of its adjacency to the Amoco station, which is typically an overrated criteria. It turned out to be a nice local restaurant with typical fare for such establishments, and a gift store to boot, usually something that I shy away from. I wasn't sure that I wanted a burger or something like that, so I decided to have the taco salad, something pretty hard to mess up. It was nicely portioned and very tasty, atleast to my palate. The service was good, inspite of the fact that the woman was both waitressing and running the till until whoever got back. I did have a little guilty pleasure while I was there. Right about the time we were finishing up, a large table full of old ladies was seated on the way to the front door. Walking by them, atleast a couple of the LOL's (Little Old Ladies) were visually upset about something about my appearance, probably my long hair. It was the "my gawd, they will let anybody into this place" look on their face that did it for me. After paying, I quickly decided that it was time to go to the bathroom, necessitating another two trips by the LOL's. On my way past them for the final time, the response was the same, or worse, and I walked out with a big smile on my face knowing that I provided some bit of upset for some old ladies with their heads up their collective butts, a duty I relish. | ||
| Bob Evans - East Peoria,IL 11/25/00 | To be perfectly honest, I didn't expect much from Bob Evans and I wasn't disappointed. It was explained to me has basically a Cracker Barrel without the gift shop. Oh boy. This particular one had a typical home-cooking type ambience, as I would have expected. One thing that we realized right away is that it was suffering from a training deficit. At one point, our server picked up a placemat that had fallen on the floor and put it back on a table (not ours thankfully). The paper placemats on our table seemed to be used or perhaps it was just that they had been stored in a very humid area. The service of the place sucked pretty hard. It wasn't THAT busy and our server seemed at wits end. We ordered garden salads with our meal and after waiting 20 minutes for our food, he still hadn't given us our salad. We had to catch him as he ran by and even then he delivered only one of our salads. We both had low blood sugar and were about ready to kill him. It took quite a while longer to get the rest of our food. The food was on average quality and presentation, about what we would expect from this type of resturant. It was a little cheaper than I would have expected, but the service sucked so bad, it coulda been free and still came out in the thumbs down category. The bathrooms were on the low end of okay, certainly much better than many resturants that we have been to. | ||
| Jumers Lodge Resturant - Peoria,IL 11/23/00 | Okay, its Thanksgiving and we are in Peoria and we decided to go to the best resturant that we knew of in town. We had been to the Jumers resturant before and it was a very pleasurable experience, so we decided to hit it again, especially since we were staying in the Jumers Lodge hotel. We had high hopes, which were quickly dashed by the immediate disorganization when we entered the resturant. To give you a little idea of what Jumers is, let me say that it is a quite nice German style hotel with all kinds of antiques and tons of ambiance. The resturant is no different. I can best describe the place as packing two or three bavarian hotels into a single hotel. Its kinda over done, but in a nice way. The resturant is the same way, but not nearly as dark and packed with culture. Okay, back to entering the resturant. We seemed to have hit them just as they were converting from a buffet style to using the limited menu. We were told that there would be a wait, but then remembering to ask, they sat us right away because were wanted to order off the menu. The ambiance was nice as usual but the staff seemed a little spazzed. Our server quickly gave way to another server because the first one was quite new and she thankfully handed us over to someone more experienced. It quickly became obvious that the place had been filled with second-stringers and we would soon find out exactly what that meant. There wasn't THAT many customers, but the staff was whipping around as if the place was packed. We ordered and the server said she would be right back with some of their wonderful bread (based on previous experience). We waited, and waited, and finally flagged someone down. They said the bread would be forthcoming. We waited, and waited. We flag down a second person, who repeated that it would be out shortly. We waited, and waited and finally the bread came out. It was very good as usual and we were very hungry at this point. Shortly after we arrived, the table next to us was seated and they had a small son, probably around three. Thus, they were waiting and waiting like we were. The kid got kinda owly because he was hungry. Being the "Minnesota Nice" (tm) type of people we are, we shared our bread with the table next to us. It turns out that that was a fine idea, as they shortly got the news that the resturant had run outta bread. Not a good thing. Our food came it is was very delicious, allowing us to have both ham and turkey for thanksgiving. The portions were very large and I was stuffed after having finished it. It was kinda expensive, but we expected that. The ambiance was nice and the food was great. However, the service left a lot to be desired. Perhaps they should consider adequately staffing the such an important holiday. | ||
| ¥You might ask yourself "Why does this matter?". Well, it doesn't. It's just that I have seen lots of food reviewers and critics that have a very refined sense of style, to which they believe all sentient humans should aspire. I, on the otherhand, like what I like and will give you my opinion on it. To give you some idea of how I differ from other reviewers, I would rather have a cheeseburger than escargot, and don't really like many wines all that much. |