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.
Saturday, March 30, 2013
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.
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.
Thursday, March 28, 2013
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
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
Saturday, March 23, 2013
Napolitano's
We needed to run errands today so we decided to stop by Napolitano's for a quick bite. I have been bugged by a coworker (nameless) to give it a try again since it has been over 10 years since I have visited. Our server turned out to be another coworker (nameless also) so our service was great! The food was a disappointment however. Bummer. I feel like we try not to be too nit-picky about things but DANG! At least make it look like you are trying to impress your customers, ya know? Our table decoration was a small glass vase filled with yellow water with a sprig of brown and dying rosemary in it. I don't even know what kind of ambiance that is supposed to produce. I will give them this: you get a ton of food. It may not be great, but you get a ton of it.
bread-- nothing special
salad-- once you picked out the brown and wilted pieces of lettuce it was okay. The dressing was tasty.
crab cakes-- they had a nice crust and a good flavor. I would have preferred having a thinner cake so the insides would have been a little less soggy, but I would order them again just on the flavor alone.
Sausage and peppers with a side of spaghetti-- the sausage was dry from having sat in an oven for way too long. It was borderline flavorless. There was a pile of cooked onions on one side of the plate, and a pile of raw onions on the other side. Why? What's the point?
Summer saute-- this dish was okay but nothing that made me want to order it again. It had a mild flavor, well done noodles (I prefer al dente), and a few veggies and chicken tossed in.
I opted out of ordering dessert. I decided to save that $6 and I feel good about that choice.
# of hairs found in food: 0
# of items that did not belong: 0
Flavor: pretty bland
Price tag: more than I think it was worth
Service: great
Atmosphere: only three other tables were filled. I guess that should have been our first hint.
Do it again? nope
bread-- nothing special
salad-- once you picked out the brown and wilted pieces of lettuce it was okay. The dressing was tasty.
crab cakes-- they had a nice crust and a good flavor. I would have preferred having a thinner cake so the insides would have been a little less soggy, but I would order them again just on the flavor alone.
Sausage and peppers with a side of spaghetti-- the sausage was dry from having sat in an oven for way too long. It was borderline flavorless. There was a pile of cooked onions on one side of the plate, and a pile of raw onions on the other side. Why? What's the point?
Summer saute-- this dish was okay but nothing that made me want to order it again. It had a mild flavor, well done noodles (I prefer al dente), and a few veggies and chicken tossed in.
I opted out of ordering dessert. I decided to save that $6 and I feel good about that choice.
# of hairs found in food: 0
# of items that did not belong: 0
Flavor: pretty bland
Price tag: more than I think it was worth
Service: great
Atmosphere: only three other tables were filled. I guess that should have been our first hint.
Do it again? nope
Popeye's
I didn't plan to add fast food to my list of entries but this one HAD to be shared. After church one day I convinced Brian to take us through the Popeye's drive-thru. I have never eaten there and the commercials were just too convincing. We hauled the van full of children all the way over there and pulled in. You don't get to see the menu ahead of time so you don't get much time to figure out what your options are. We pull up to the speaker/menu and here's about how it went:
Crazy employee: "Can I help you?"
Brian: "Can I get the Family Feast with a side of...(interrupted by Crazy as she tries to sell us something else)...okay that's fine. I would like a side of...(interrupted AGAIN as she tells us we don't get a side with the thing we changed our order to)...then no I don't want that. I want the Family Feast with a side of...(interrupted AGAIN to ask what side)...I would also like an order of shrimp."
Crazy employee: "The shrimp will take 4 minutes to cook.You'll have to wait."
Brian: "Fine. Never mind then."
Crazy employee: "That it?"
Brian: "No. I also want--
Crazy employee: "Could ya'll hurry up! I'm on a timer!"
Brian: *silence*
Me: *laughing in shock* "Are you kidding me?!"
My children in the back: *looks of shock and fear*
We go to collect our food and don't even get the right food. It made no sense. Normally we just suck it up and move on when we encounter crappy people but that was just ridiculous so we called the store to speak to a manager. The manager, no surprise, basically acted shocked and then said she can't take her off the speaker for another few hours. I can't even imagine how that talk went...if it even happened. I can laugh about the whole thing now, but at the time I wanted to go all Madea on that chick and drive my car through the store.
# of hairs found in food: 0
# of items that did not belong: 1
Flavor: good biscuits but that's about it
Price tag: cheap, but you get what you pay for
Service: like a scene from a Tyler Perry movie
Do it again? Never ever
Crazy employee: "Can I help you?"
Brian: "Can I get the Family Feast with a side of...(interrupted by Crazy as she tries to sell us something else)...okay that's fine. I would like a side of...(interrupted AGAIN as she tells us we don't get a side with the thing we changed our order to)...then no I don't want that. I want the Family Feast with a side of...(interrupted AGAIN to ask what side)...I would also like an order of shrimp."
Crazy employee: "The shrimp will take 4 minutes to cook.You'll have to wait."
Brian: "Fine. Never mind then."
Crazy employee: "That it?"
Brian: "No. I also want--
Crazy employee: "Could ya'll hurry up! I'm on a timer!"
Brian: *silence*
Me: *laughing in shock* "Are you kidding me?!"
My children in the back: *looks of shock and fear*
We go to collect our food and don't even get the right food. It made no sense. Normally we just suck it up and move on when we encounter crappy people but that was just ridiculous so we called the store to speak to a manager. The manager, no surprise, basically acted shocked and then said she can't take her off the speaker for another few hours. I can't even imagine how that talk went...if it even happened. I can laugh about the whole thing now, but at the time I wanted to go all Madea on that chick and drive my car through the store.
# of hairs found in food: 0
# of items that did not belong: 1
Flavor: good biscuits but that's about it
Price tag: cheap, but you get what you pay for
Service: like a scene from a Tyler Perry movie
Do it again? Never ever
Harry's Seafood Bar & Grill
Brian and I had a short amount of time to spend together so we decided to hit up an old favorite: Harry's. We have had our good and bad moments with their menu but the good always ends up bringing us back. We enjoyed our food for the most part...until Brian made a lethal mistake. Yes, it was deadly.
fresh baked bread and garlic butter-- perfect every time. Extra butter please!
shrimp fondeaux-- very tasty! This is one of our favorites.
Cesar salad-- The salad was pretty decent. Here's where Brian went wrong: first he ordered the dinner salad instead of just a side salad. That's a $4 difference. Ouch. Next, the poor man, grabbed the salt shaker (it does look just like the pepper, I'll give him that) and proceeded to grind salt all over his giant $8 salad while talking to me about his day. He didn't realize it until he had a nice white layer of freshly ground salt all over the plate. There's no fixing that. He tried. My poor sweet husband. Death by salt.
Oreo beignet-- It felt wrong visiting a place with deep fried Oreos and NOT ordering it. Right? That would just be a crime. So, we decided to be a little crazy. Brian deemed it "deep fried OreNOS". It was supposed to be an oreo wrapped in a beignet with a vanilla sauce. It tasted like a terrible old doughnut swimming in a banana cream sauce. What did you do to the vanilla to make it taste like banana?! Bleh.
# of hairs found in food: 0
# of items that did not belong: 0
Flavor: avoid the dessert and all will be well in the world
Price tag: a bit pricey but worth it
Service: great
Atmosphere: great for a date, dark and quiet
Do it again? Probably in a few weeks
fresh baked bread and garlic butter-- perfect every time. Extra butter please!
shrimp fondeaux-- very tasty! This is one of our favorites.
Cesar salad-- The salad was pretty decent. Here's where Brian went wrong: first he ordered the dinner salad instead of just a side salad. That's a $4 difference. Ouch. Next, the poor man, grabbed the salt shaker (it does look just like the pepper, I'll give him that) and proceeded to grind salt all over his giant $8 salad while talking to me about his day. He didn't realize it until he had a nice white layer of freshly ground salt all over the plate. There's no fixing that. He tried. My poor sweet husband. Death by salt.
Oreo beignet-- It felt wrong visiting a place with deep fried Oreos and NOT ordering it. Right? That would just be a crime. So, we decided to be a little crazy. Brian deemed it "deep fried OreNOS". It was supposed to be an oreo wrapped in a beignet with a vanilla sauce. It tasted like a terrible old doughnut swimming in a banana cream sauce. What did you do to the vanilla to make it taste like banana?! Bleh.
# of hairs found in food: 0
# of items that did not belong: 0
Flavor: avoid the dessert and all will be well in the world
Price tag: a bit pricey but worth it
Service: great
Atmosphere: great for a date, dark and quiet
Do it again? Probably in a few weeks
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