2nd- mainstreet bar and grill, hopkins
3rd- punch neapolitan pizza, eden prairie
10th- buca di beppo, eden prairie
11th- vincent a restaurant, minneapolis
16th- hope's silver spoon/chow mein, richfield
20th- the scoreboard, minnetonka
23rd- snuffy's malt shop, edina
30th- oh, dinner, wherefore art thou?

2nd- mainstreet bar and grill, hopkins (b)

pretty decent for bar food. the onion rings were good, and not too greasy. the fajitas were ok, but they skimped on the chicken, peppers, and onions, broughta bigass heaping plate of iceberg lettuce, tomato (not great quality), and black olives, and four small tortillas. they need better math skills. the guacamole was the kind that wasn't avacado-based either. the fajitas also came with chips and salsa, which seemed odd. the service was decent, and they look to have some good enough for bar food specials throughout the week. and in case anyone cares (and of course, even if they don't), they got rid of their popcorn machine after the recent ownership change.

3rd- punch neapolitan pizza, eden prairie (c-)

the efficiency stops it from getting a d. that, and the crust. this place win raves. i don't know why. the crust is good, wood-fired and all that, sure. but the pizza i had there was... boring and bland and not at all good. the toppings were skimpy, as in mushroom and artichoke, literally. there wasn't more than one of them apiece on the lunch-sized margherita pizza. and two leaves of basil total. it needed salt, pepper, pepper flakes and parmesan cheese to improve it to tolerable. d'amico's version was so much better...

10th- buca di beppo, eden prairie (b+)

it's all about the garlic mashed potatoes. their grade is an a+. as is their new dessert, torte grazie (or something like that), strawberries and blueberries in sweetened marscapone and three layers of sponge cake, more or less. alas, sometimes the pasta isn't quite as spiffy as the garlic mashed and the tasty cake (not affiliated with tastycakes, some of which aren't tasty, but that's another story... anyway....). the penne romano needed a bit more salt and extra cheese. the shrimp parmigana (that's apparently ptarmigan in spell check, strange, that.) was quite good, though. as was the bread and the mixed greens. and of course, everyone went home with leftovers, so that means more garlic mashed for tomorrow. mmm, garlic mashed potatoes... and the service was really good, too, even with someone who usually has bad restaurant karma. props to eric.

11th- vincent a restaurant, minneapolis (a)

fries. pommes frites. the real french way. what a certain fast food place dreams of having fries taste like (which will never happen). the best fries in minnesota. so good they do not need any ketsup at all (and i love ketsup). i'll stop with the superlatives, 'cause that would take too long to type them all out. finally, good fries. i should just come here when i have a fry jones and not try to kid myself with other places. ("fry jones, restaurant detective" you think? nah.).

and if that wasn't enough, the rest of the food kicks ass, the service is great (the waiters know their stuff), lunch there is affordable (if you think you can't afford it), the space is lovely, the flowers on the table are real, etc., etc.

the reason why not the a+... the bathroom was like a sauna (really hot).

16th- hope's silver spoon/chow mein, richfield (f)

plastic in the food gets an automatic f.

especially since this paraphrased conversation took place...

me to waiter- there's plastic in my food.

waiter- a lot of people have had plastic in their food today. it's falling off the brush used on the grill. do you want something else?

me- uh, no. (thinking- that's just going to have.... plastic in it, which i don't want to eat. and that's probably the least of it.)

even before i hit plastic, it was pretty worthy of a f grade, the food was that awful. there was nothing to redeem it. is there such a thing as an f-?

20th- the scoreboard, minnetonka (b)

or it could possibly be in hopkins. it's really near hopkins. and i didn't pay much attention to where the borders were, but i'm almost sure it's in minnetonka. anyway....

if you order the salad bar and dinner, i found that you can pay about $10 (give or take a few), eat your dinner from the salad bar (not the greatest veggie selection, but it's decent enough, the usual cold salads, two soups, a hot item, rolls, and soft serve ice cream with a few sauces for dessert, and now and then, odd items like herring), and take the dinner home. the food varies from ok to pretty good (the beer cheese soup was too heavy on the beer, but the lemon pepper chicken wasn't bad, for example). nothing superlative, but no plastic in it. nothing horrible tasting.

the wait staff was very attentive in a good way, but i've notice a quirk... after they get done waiting on you, it may or may not take a really long time for them to collect your payment. which is nice if you plan on lingering over drinks and dessert, watching the random trivia or people running in to each other (a.k.a. sports, it is a sports bar, after all... ), not so nice if you don't want to. and it being a sports bar, if you want to go there to eat during non-local team sporting events, there's usually no wait.

23rd- snuffy's malt shop, edina (b)

the first time i was at this particular snuffy's, when they first opened, the grilled chicken sandwich kicked ass. the grilled bun tasted superfresh, like it had just been baked, the chicken was tender and flavorful, the fries crispy on the outside, tender on the inside. grade a material. i've not had such a lofty meal, though i keep ordering the same thing. stupid, i know. but it's been pretty good. anyway, when they're not crowded with soccer teams, they get the food out superfast, too. i think we were in there less than half an hour.

it's also interesting to see the progress they're making on the murals on the walls of what looks to be various twin cities scense in the 50's (keeping with the 50's theme of the restaurant... the music, decor, menu choices, and suchlike are from that era).

30th- oh, dinner, wherefore art thou?

mega-awful restaurant karma today. first stop, vescio's, st. louis park. for a place that has a big old lot of... old people dining there, one handicapped parking space does not cut it. there was a party coming out that had two people in wheelchairs. they weren't in the space. another one came out with someone with a cane, and they didn't have it either.

anyway, we stood at the podium, waiting to be seated, as the sign said to do. after staring at the passing wait staff for a few minutes, the hostess finally appeared. there was a table that needed to be cleaned for us to sit down, she said, and proceeded to stand there. a few minutes later, we asked if it was ready. no, as she was the one who had to get it ready. and still she stood there. we didn't.

next, bunny's bar and grill in st. louis park. no tables, and a plethora of smoke. then on to panera bread at excelsior and grand, which had no parking, more or less.

so on to timberlodge steak house, st. louis park. we wait to be seated again. a few minutes later someone comes to the podium, and... we're seated. we get menus. we look at menus a few minutes, close them, and start scanning for wait staff. we see two of them in the section and try to make eye contact. we try and we try for more than ten minutes, during which the two wait staff pass our table four times between them. then we give up. a personal restaurant rule... if it takes more than ten minutes for someone to wander over to your table, it's probably not going to be worth waiting for.

one of our party stays behind to complain while the rest of us go to pick up some takeout stuff. the hostess said she could not do anything about the lack of being waited on, so the person who stayed behind asks... 'is there someone who can do something about it?' yes, the manager.... 'can you get the manager here in a shorter amount of time it took us to not be waited on?' yes. the manager comes over quickly, asks to be shown where we were seated, and gives over $40 in gift certificates for our trouble, which is a lot more than some places do. at least they tried.

© The bent sun as risen