I finally made a trip to Wild Berries for the first time. It's been open for awhile and is right next to my office, but I had never gotten over there before. The biggest highlight for me is that even though my brother and I met there for a late lunch, breakfast was still on! I could eat breakfast any meal of the day. On to the rankings...
Our overall rating was 3.94 Stars (out of 5 stars).
Here's how that breaks down:
Family Friendly: 5 Stars I didn't bring my kids to this visit but I saw a handful of kids throughout the restauarnt.
Menu: 3.5 Stars It almost has too many options. I realize it's good to have a lot of choices, but it is one of those menus that overwhelms you when you get it. The kids menu has some notable failures: hot dogs and dino-nuggets anyone?
Taste of the Food: 4.5 Stars I just ordered biscuits and gravy, but they were very good.
Appearance of the Food: 4 Stars I can't say much about my biscuits and gravy, but the skillet breakfast my brother got looked outstanding.
Restrooms: 4 Stars
Atmosphere: 3.5 Stars It's funny that this should be a knock against the place, but it just seemed empty. I think there were plenty of people there, but the buildings is huge, so it felt like we were dining alone. Not bad if that's what you're going for but it's also nice to feel that others are into the restaurant too.
Service: 4 Stars
Ethical/Sustainable: 3 Stars Everything seemed made from scratch, but there was also nothing about their purchasing practices.
Pricing: Prices were reasonable. My half order of biscuits and gravy were about $4 and my brothers' HUGE skillet was about $10.
A friend and I met for lunch at Red Rock Bar & Grille this week. It was the first time I had been there since the place was The Brick Oven, so awhile ago.
Our overall rating was 3.35 Stars (out of 5 stars).
Here's how that breaks down:
Family Friendly: 3 Stars Red Rock very much feels like a bar. Nothing was that bad while we were there, but the presence of numerous TVs and wall size Beer mural ads made me rate this lower
Menu: 3.5 Stars The menu had some good options but didn't leave me thinking: "I need to come back and try something else."
Taste of the Food: 4 Stars The burger I got was good. The house made chips were really good.
Appearance of the Food: 3.5 Stars It was just a burger, but at the same time nothing looked that special about it.
Restrooms: N/A
Atmosphere: 3 Stars Red Rock had a weird entrance. At least I think we went in the entrance. If we missed the actual entrance then that probably says something about the atmosphere as well. The biggest knock however was after we got inside we wandered through the restaurant before we knew what to do or were directed to seat ourselves.
Service: 4 Stars Once we were seated however the service was great.
Ethical/Sustainable: 2.5 Stars
Pricing: Reasonable priced. My decent sized burger was only $8.
On a recent date we spent some time at The Blend in Washington.
Our overall rating was 4.33 Stars (out of 5 stars).
Here's how that breaks down:
Family Friendly: 5 Stars It seems like a fine place to take kids if you would want to. They even have high chairs!
Food: 3.5 Stars They have a pretty decent selection at The Blend. But the cinnamon roll we ate was average at best.
Coffee: 4.5 Stars On this particular date we didn't get the coffee. But the specialty drinks were quite good. Any time we've gotten coffee it's been excellent.
Restrooms: N/A
Atmosphere: 4 Stars For a newer building, this place has a great atmosphere. We've been to coffee shops that feel like waiting rooms, and this is definitely not that: It's casual and comfortable. The in-house coffee mugs are glass, which is just cool. The only knock is the line at the counter: There's really no place to step out of the way if someone's behind you and you haven't decided on your purchase yet.
Service: 5 Stars Friendly and fast!
Ethical/Sustainable: 4 Stars From what we can tell The Blend does a great job sourcing and roasting it's coffee beans.
Pricing: Specialty drinks are $3-$5 depending on sizes. Food items are in the $3 range. A small coffee is $1.65.
After visiting the new Peoria Riverfront Museum we headed up to One World Cafe for lunch time. We had the whole crew with us, which is always quite an adventure.
Our overall rating was 4.5 Stars (out of 5 stars).
Here's how that breaks down:
Family Friendly: 4 Stars The staff was very accommodating. The host set up our table perfectly with a high chair and booster seat. We were even in a great little corner of the restaurant with not too many other guests around. The main negative that prevents a 5 star rating is the location at the busy intersection of Main and University. We've never been able to park close, which means juggling little kids and holding hands as you try to make it inside.
Menu: 5 Stars The menu features a good variety without being overwhelming. There are options for vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free needs. The kids' menu is one of the best we've seen. Even the "classic choices" have a healthy, from-scratch flair.
Taste of the Food: 5 Stars We split a couple of pizzas between all of us. Both the Classic Primo and BBQ Chicken were great! Pizza is so easy to do an average job at... so great pizza really stands out.
Appearance of the Food: 4.5 Stars It was pizza, which is pretty hard to make look fancy. Any other time we've gotten other entrees, they look nice too.
Restrooms: N/A on this visit, although they have been decent in past visits.
Atmosphere: 4.5 Stars One World is noisy, but it's just a general din of happy conversations and people connecting (way better than TV noise in our opinion). It's in a cool building and is set up well.
Service: 4.5 Stars
Ethical/Sustainable: 4 Stars They make a lot of food from scratch. Their plastic cups for kids are compostable. It's the little things!
Pricing: Pizzas are $12-$15. Other lunch sandwiches and entrees range from $8-$20.
This review is based on a couple of visits to Avanti's Ristorante in Pekin.
Our overall rating was 3.81 Stars (out of 5 stars).
Here's how that breaks down:
Family Friendly: 5 Stars Avanti's is always very accommodating to our family.
Menu: 3.5 Stars If you're in the mood for pizza or pasta, this rating could jump to a 5. They have a lot of variations, but it all boils down to pizza, pasta, and sandwiches.
Taste of the Food: 4 Stars Avanti's bread is really, really good.
Appearance of the Food: 4 Stars The food always looks good, but there's really no special presentation to speak of.
Restrooms: 5 Stars
Atmosphere: 3 Stars The Pekin Avanti's is set up really weird. Depending on where you sit you can be in a high traffic area or have a straight view into the kitchen.
Service: 5 Stars Every time we've gone, the service has been outstanding.
Ethical/Sustainable: 3 Stars Like most restaurants, there's not a lot to go on here. The score could be higher if they provided information on where they sourced their food... then again it could be lower.
Pricing: Sandwiches are $5-$7. Entrees are $8-$12. Pizzas are pretty standard for a sit-down restaurant.
Recently before attending an all day conference I met a friend at Judy's Restaurant in Morton.
Our overall rating was 3.71 Stars (out of 5 stars).
Here's how that breaks down:
Family Friendly: 4 Stars Judy's used to be a smoking restaurant. Newer Illinois legislation keeps that from happening, which makes it a lot more family friendly.
Menu: 3.5 Stars It was a pretty standard breakfast fare and not much grabbed my eye as interesting or unique.
Taste of the Food: 3.5 Stars This is a half star lower because the coffee was absolutely bad. The friend I ate with liked it though, so maybe it's just a personal preference. (But really, it wasn't good.)
Appearance of the Food: 4 Stars
Restrooms: N/A
Atmosphere: 3.5 Stars
Service: 5 Stars Our waitress was quick and on top of things, despite the restaurant being full.
Ethical/Sustainable: 2.5 Stars I seriously doubt Judy's has ever given ethical food sourcing or sustainable practices much thought. I only didn't score it lower because I don't know that for sure.
Pricing: Breakfast items were between $5-10.
If I'm choosing the restaurant next time, I would probably pass on Judy's. But I'll a meet a friend there if they request it.
For a fun family outing we took a lunch visit to The Harvest Cafe. This is our family's favorite restaurant and we were glad to finally get there since starting this blog. Why do we like it so much? We've never not had a great experience.
Our overall rating was 4.81 Stars (out of 5 stars).
Here's how that breaks down:
Family Friendly: 5 Stars
Menu: 5 Stars One reason we keep going back is everything we see on the menu looks so good we want to try it again!
Taste of the Food: 5 Stars Always good. They could get a bonus for their coffee. So good.
Appearance of the Food: 5 Stars
Restrooms: 4 Stars
Atmosphere: 5 Stars It's just a fun place to be and eat.
Service: 5 Stars
Ethical/Sustainable: 4.5 Stars
Pricing: Lunch sandwiches are $7-10, Pizza is $10-12, and lunch entrees are $12-15
We can't wait to plan another trip to The Harvest Cafe.
