Red Robin

Yum indeed!
I initially didn't plan to blog fast food places (Popeye's HAD to be done) but since Red Robin has waiters I figured it's close enough to be blog-able.
When we finally got around to trying Red Robin our party was too large for me to keep track of what everyone ordered so I'm only going to tell you my own experience.

pretzel bites with beer cheese dip-- we ordered this as an appetizer but it never arrived. After our food arrived, the appetizer did too! Nice. The waiter apologized for the mix up and offered to pay for the pretzels so that was awesome. That is customer service!

bleu burger-- perfectly cooked beef, onion straws, bleu cheese, and a jalapeno spread. Once I got past the burning mouth introduction I really enjoyed this burger. I'm not a huge burger fan so it means something if I really like it. The menu had so many burger options so there's something for everyone.

# of hairs found in food: 0
# of items that did not belong: 0
# of items that belonged but arrived late: 1
Flavor: tasty for a fast food type of place
Price tag: affordable
family friendly: yep
Service: even though they screwed up an order, they fixed it properly
Atmosphere: much like a Steak N Shake
Do it again? If we're stuck at the Mall and the Chik-fil-a line is too long, YES

Harry's Part 2 -- Mother's Day

I wasn't cooking a darn thing this year on Mother's Day. Nothing. No way. Not even for my own Mama. She lucked out on this because it meant I had to take her somewhere. We knew we were destined for hour(s) long waits, a table next to the backed up bathroom, and a waitress ready to strangle the next person who asks for more bread. Yay Gainesville!
I was smart enough to call ahead so, somehow, we had no wait at all when we walked in. I could see, but not smell, the bathrooms so that was an additional plus. The waitress even let me live when I asked (nicely!) if we could have bread! I could tell it was gonna be a good day.

fried green tomatoes-- These had a nice crunch but I could have done without the spicy sauce on top. Maybe I will request some ranch or sour cream next time.

crab cakes-- very tasty but for $10 we only got two cakes. Yikes!

Louisiana fondeaux-- always a fave!

# of hairs found in food: 0
# of items that did not belong: 0
Flavor: yummy
Price tag: pretty pricey
family friendly: yep
Service: we had to request multiple things multiple times, but she was busy and nice about it
Atmosphere: clean and inviting
Do it again? Rarely, but only because I hate driving downtown. I'll go if you drive!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

Longhorn Steakhouse

We love Longhorn. Love it. One of the great things about traveling is hitting up new (or not local to us) eating establishments. We have this place listed as a Favorite on our GPS system so you know we do what it takes to make it work out. On this day, the only Longhorn on our route brought us to dinner at 4pm. Oh well. I can pretend to be elderly if that's what it takes.

sirloin and a baked potato-- cooked just right

bacon bourbon topped sirloin with garlic mashed potato-- the steak was very tasty though I wasn't a fan of the bourbon sauce. It was a bit too sweet for me. The mashed potatoes were wonderful. Creamy and flavorful like a "mashed" potato should be.

ultimate mac and cheese-- I would order this over and over. It was a big pile of cheese with a few noodles tossed in. Mmmmmm.

Cesar salad-- We try to order this salad at each restaurant to get a good feel for the place. Do they put forth effort in every way, including in the small pre-dinner salad? I vote YES for Longhorn. I really enjoyed the salad. Big shavings of cheese and very garlicky dressing.


# of hairs found in food: 0
# of items that did not belong: 0
Flavor: very
Price tag: pretty pricey
family friendly: yep
Service: great service
Atmosphere: typical steakhouse
Do it again? on every trip I take

Ballyhoo's

For my mother's birthday (almost) every year, I take her out to dinner to a place she doesn't go to often or has never heard of. For someone who likes to play it safe with meals she grew up eating (no matter how gross/boring to a normal person), like macaroni in tomato juice, she is a good sport most of the time on these adventures. This year we stopped by Ballyhoo's. It had been years since her last visit and I'm glad to say she rather enjoyed herself. This enjoyment may or may not have come from the cute young waiter who wouldn't leave the table until she accepted the two-for-one margarita deal.

steamed oysters-- steaming these babies always turns them into little globs of nothing, and although we got a heaping bowl of saltine crackers and horseradish, these little globs of nothing were pretty pricey. I wouldn't order them again.

salmon spread-- Mom really liked this but I thought it was too watery and lacked any real seasoning. (Personally I don't trust her judgement. I have eaten her macaroni and tomato juice. Love you Mommy!) I think it would have been better had there been a nice crusty bread to spread it on and a heaping spoonfull of Old Bay. Instead we were given more crackers. I could have made an entire meal with the amount of crackers we had on our table. I think it's a poor choice for a restaurant to offer crackers as part of the meal.

firecracker shrimp-- these tasted fine but I wish they had come with some sort of dipping sauce. I originally wanted the buffalo shrimp but Cute Young Waiter insisted these were much better. Picture tiny buffalo shrimp with sriracha sauce carefully swirled around the plate. Add $2. Now picture my sad face. Now picture my sad face with just a hint of sweat and swollen red lips. I don't tolerate heat well. 

fried green tomatoes-- I remember loving these things as a kid but I haven't been able to find a decent version...until now! These were great! I don't care if they come in frozen and then get cooked in the oven. They were thick, crunchy, and came with a bowl of tasty dill aioli. The portion was perfect too.

california roll--  Mom does not do sushi. I am trying to ease her into it. Right now the closest we are to it is eating things that resemble sushi. We both loved this and would definitely order it again. I would do it just to watch Mom try to figure out again how much wasabi is too much. Anyone know what the pickled green slaw under the ginger is? She ate it so I'm hoping it wasn't for decoration only.

# of hairs found in food: 0
# of items that did not belong: 0
Flavor: good, better overall experience than I have had in a while
Price tag: semi-reasonable
family friendly: yep
Service: great
Atmosphere: busy though we didn't have to wait, dark, loud like a fun place should be
Do it again? I want to try a few more things on the big sushi menu so YES

Simply Delightful! Confections

I know it's not a restaurant, but it does serve a type of food and that's good enough for me. :) I read about Simply Delightful in a local magazine a few months ago and have tried over and over again to experience it. Somehow we always went on the two days they were closed...then we would forget and go on the same day a few weeks later. Ugh. (It's a sad day when you dream about a chunk of good dark chocolate and then the dream is squashed.) Anyway, today was a happy day! This place is not your typical candy shop where you fill a ziplock bag with sugar coated crap that eventually melts together into a giant sugar turd. This is where you take your date, try something new, spend some money, and walk away feeling like you ate "grown up" candy.
The shop is small but very clean, nicely decorated, and has a nice variety of goodies. Some are priced by weight and some by individual piece. I would say it's probably no more expensive than the candy we have purchased at Godiva shops. We were impressed by the detail on the more expensive candies. A handful of them were just beautifully done. My kids were excited to see that there were a few kid-friendly options as well: cookies and cream bark, chocolate coated gummy worms, and dipped pretzel sticks.
We each picked a few items and decided to wait until later to try them. (FYI- the candy never made it out of the parking lot.) I won't list them all but my favorite was the dark chocolate salted caramels. To quote the Kool-aid man: "Oooohhh yeeeaaahhh!"
So when you want a nice bitter dark chocolate or a sweet milk chocolate (I'm guessing here because I don't eat that garbage) I urge you to try Simply Delightful Confections.

The Great Outdoors

I decided to title this one: Socially Awkward Waiters Need Not Apply

I was fortunate enough to attend an impromptu Girl's Night Out last night with a few coworkers. We decided to try out The Great Outdoors since it's walking distance from my house and we don't have to fight for parking. My food was fine. Not spectacular, not horrible. (I won't speak for my coworkers but they are more than welcome to leave their opinions in the comment section.)

 fresh bread and honey butter-- the butter was very tasty. We compared it to the honey butter croissants at Hop's. I like to refer to those as Little Nuggets from Heaven. (I miss you Hop's!)

Gorgonzola spinach salad-- I would totally order this again. It had a light dressing and a generous sprinkling of gorgonzola. Mmmm.

fried catfish with coleslaw, maple baked beans, and gouda grits-- I'm pretty sure the baked beans were canned. I like a good canned baked bean, but I also like to pay the canned baked bean price. Ya know? The catfish had a good crust and a generous portion as well. The grits broke my heart though. No salt, no flavor, and where the heck was the gouda?? I loaded them with salt and pepper to make it a teensy bit more palate pleasing. I was expecting something amazing. Broke. My. Heart.

house sangria-- eh. It was okay. Not my favorite. It wasn't as sweet as I like and it came in a mug (a MUG for Pete's sake) so I couldn't just down it and move on.

Now for the entertainment part of the night: the waiter. I wish I had thought to catch his name. He was quite a character. Let's call him Weirdy McWierdFace. Have you ever had that waiter that likes to hover? Stands there looking at you for a few uncomfortable minutes after you said you weren't ready yet? Comes back to the table multiple times but says nothing for about, oh I don't know, 20 seconds? Takes the conversation to a personal level? (Did you know he is allergic to certain lotions? Or that he sees an acupuncturist? I did!) Grabs your plate from you because you aren't filling your to-go box FAST ENOUGH? That's Weirdy! Good ol' Weirdy. I think I made a new friend.

# of hairs found in food: 0
# of items that did not belong: 0
Flavor: some things were great, others were oh-so-sad
Price tag: pretty pricey
family friendly: yep
Service: who doesn't love a good "creep factor" in their dining experience? I know I do!
Atmosphere: clean, dark, a good place to hang out
Do it again? I may order the salad to-go a few times but I think I will just wait for the next GNO to spend that kind of money.

Wahoo's Grill

 The kids and I were meeting Brian for lunch today so we decided to try the new place that took over MT's Chophouse. It's called Wahoo Grill. It is basically seafood with a burger or two thrown in there. It was a beautiful day, and we had a tired baby, so we decided to spare the other diners and sit outside. Our waitress was great and explained to us that they had only been open three weeks and were still working out the kinks. Great. That's just what I want to hear. To quote my daughter's favorite show: "Adventure Time!"
Here's what we ordered:

fried gator tail-- it had a good flavor but nothing great. I would say just a chewy chicken nugget. It was Dynah's first time trying it so it was fun watching her "test the water" with it.

kids mac and cheese-- I was pleasantly surprised to see something other than the blue boxed kind. It was spiral pasta with a white cheddar type sauce. It tasted pretty bland at first then had quite a kick we weren't expecting. Phoenix didn't mind it but I know my other two kids would have pushed it away immediately. It was a strange choice to use a spicy cheese sauce on a kid's entree.

crab bisque-- not too bad. Full of imitation crab meat (so it was pretty sweet) but it had a decent enough flavor that I would order it again on a cold day. 

Parmesan and garlic crusted oysters-- Poor Brian. He must be praying for God to give him patience because the poor man is thrown waaaay too many opportunities to show that patience. Based on the description, he expected steamed oysters, on the shell, with a nice crust of parmesan and garlic. Sounds pretty heavenly, amiright? Instead, he got raw oysters, room temperature, with a small crust on top. Barf. That's what it looked like, and that's what we wanted to do. That's quite possibly what he would have done had he eaten them. The waitress apologized and had new ones made that were cooked this time, and came out an actual temperature other than "sat on the counter for who knows how long". These were much better. We just chose not to think about how much spit, or other nastiness, was hiding under the crust. (Hey, I have seen Waiting once or twice. I know what to expect.)

Crab BLT-- This sandwich made me sad. The waitress said it was crab salad with arugula, bacon, fried green tomatoes, and dill aioli on a roll. Heck yes I am ordering that!  My bacon was burned. My arugula was wilted. My "crab salad" was a spoonful of dry, shredded crab meat sprinkled onto the bun. The fried green tomatoes were good, as was the aioli. Add a few halved grape tomatos. The End. 

I don't know yet what my vote will be. They are just starting out. The waitress was very helpful, apologetic, and thanked us for being honest because they can't fix what they don't know is broken. She was glad to know that the descriptions (or her understanding) did not match the actual plates. That is awesome to me...if they actually use that information to better things. So, for now, if you're feeling adventurous it may be just what you are looking for! 


# of hairs found in food: 0
# of items that did not belong: 0
Flavor: had everything been properly prepared, it could have been amazing
Price tag: pretty pricey
family friendly: not really
Service: great
Atmosphere: it was a weekday lunch trip so it was empty
Do it again? maybe in a few months, without my children