After a morning business meeting we went out to lunch at Michael's Italian Feast in Germantown Hills with our new friends. I have to be honest that I was impressed and surprised at the place. Here's why:
Our overall rating was (rating) (out of 5 stars).
Here's how that breaks down:
Family Friendly: 4 Stars This could maybe be higher, but some elements of the atmosphere (see below) could be an extra burden depending on the energy level of your kids.
Menu: 3.5 Stars Michael's is an 'order at the counter' place. The menu overhead was good: not to expansive but still with enough options. The only downside is that everything on it was pretty typical of an Italian place. I guess that's what you want, but it was so similar that I could have been at a couple other local Italian restaurants and not known the difference.
Taste of the Food: 4 Stars That being said, the food was great. I really enjoyed my Pizza Bread. It probably could have had less cheese, but it was still good.
Appearance of the Food: 3.5 Stars Whatever Italian food you're picturing, picture it covered in cheese. That's what everyone who ate with us experienced.
Restrooms: N/A
Atmosphere: 5 Stars This is why I want to take my family to this Michael's location specifically. Half of the sitting area felt like you were eating outdoors in Italy. No joke. They did an excellent job of painting, decorating and construction. There was even a decent sized working fountain in the middle. (See Family Friendly).
Service: 5 Stars For a seat yourself place, service was excellent.
Ethical/Sustainable: 3 Stars Just the average rating here.
Pricing: Lunch entrees were $7-10.
I met a friend for lunch at Thanh Linh next to Bradley. It was packed, as I hear it is most everyday. It was an enjoyable lunch... a great conversation to be sure... Here's how I would rate the restaurant.
Our overall rating was 3.75 Stars (out of 5 stars).
Here's how that breaks down:
Family Friendly: 3.5 Stars It would be a little intense to have young kids there during the lunch hour rush. This isn't anyone's fault, it's just a tiny restaurant that's popular enough to be completely packed. (Word is that they will be moving to a bigger location down the road in 2013, but as it stands now, it's a tiny place.)
Menu: N/A I didn't even look at the menu as there was a lunch buffet. I did see a few gentlemen order off the menu and their dishes looked great!
Taste of the Food: 3.5 Stars The friend I ate with would disagree with me here, but I found the food to be okay. It was a step above most Asian buffets, but never did I find it "great".
Appearance of the Food: 4 Stars For a buffet though, the food all looked great.
Restrooms: N/A
Atmosphere: 4 Stars Despite being packed, or maybe because of it, Than Linh has a great feel. Just a fun place to be and talk with a friend.
Service: 5 Stars Top-notch. Great service, especially consider the full room.
Ethical/Sustainable: 2.5 Stars I have to be careful here. Like most restaurants there really isn't anything public about their buying and cooking practices. The reason they scored so low is that while and after eating it, I felt terrible. I'm not sure if it was MSG or what, but I didn't end up with a cold or flu later, I truly think it was the food.
Pricing: Under $10 for the lunch buffet
We tried out the Savory House in Morton Illinois for a business breakfast. This place was formally known as Main Street Deli and only open for lunch. But after a remodel they are now open for every meal. Overall we weren't too impressed, although for a quick breakfast meeting it did fine.
Our overall rating was 3.31 Stars (out of 5 stars).
Here's how that breaks down:
Family Friendly: 4 Stars It's tough to tell when you're meeting before most kids are awake, but it seemed like a fine place to take kids.
Menu: 3 Stars
Taste of the Food: 3 Stars Considering this was breakfast, 3 stars is pretty low. Nothing was bad, but nothing was great either.
Appearance of the Food: 3 Stars Again, nothing specifically bad. But nothing was impressive about the appearance.
Restrooms: 4.5 Stars
Atmosphere: 3.5 Stars The old Main Street Deli was sort of in a weird facility, and while things have been remodeled, the new restaurant still feels like you're eating in a food court.
Service: 3 Stars
Ethical/Sustainable: 2.5 Stars Not having real butter is a huge downside here.
Pricing: Breakfast was about $6 per person.
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.
