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.
We couldn't resist stopping by Thirty-Thirty on our way out of town for our anniversary.
Our overall rating was 4.36 (out of 5 stars).
Here's how that breaks down:
Family Friendly: 4.5 Stars
Coffee: 5 Stars As a friend of ours has said: You forget how good 30/30 coffee is until you're drinking it.
Food Choices: 4 Stars Anything we've tried tastes really good, although there isn't a ton of selection.
Restrooms: 4 Stars
Atmosphere: 5 Stars
Probably one of the coolest coffee shops we've ever been to. Watch out for the bear!
Service: 4 Stars
Ethical/Sustainable: 4 Stars Good grades on the coffee here. Everything else is an unknown however.
Pricing: A small drip coffee will cost you $2. Pricey but good.
We'll be back. In fact, we try to swing through anytime we're in Peoria.
After a crazy adventure trying to find a Walmart in the Starved Rock area, we needed a hearty snack to lift our spirits. We stumbled upon the Country Cupboard Ice Cream Shoppe in Utica, Illinois.
Our overall rating was (3.14) (out of 5 stars).
Here's how that breaks down:
Family Friendly: 5 Stars
Menu: 3 Stars The menu had too many choices and was too random.
Taste of the Food: 3 Stars We both got a bowl of chili that was pretty mediocre. The ice cream, however, was a rockin' 5+ Stars. It was seriously delicious.
Appearance of the Food: 2.5 Stars There were big drips of chili and cheese down the side of my bowl.
Restrooms: N/A
Atmosphere: 3 Stars
Service: 3 Stars
Ethical/Sustainable: 2.5 Stars There was no information on the sourcing of their ingredients, and only a few things were even possibly made from scratch. But the napkins were 100% recycled.
Pricing: The (very full) single scoop ice cream cones were $2.50.
