3rd- emma krumbee's, belle plaine
10th- pannekoeken huis, st. louis park
13th- town hall brewery, minneapolis
17th- red lobster, golden valley
24th- applebee's, st. louis park
27th- moscow on the hill, st. paul

3rd- emma krumbee's, belle plaine (d)

emma crummies.

if fast food and school cafeteria food had a child, this would be it.

green beans from a can that tasted of... metal, cranberry sauce from a different can that tasted of metal, potato flake "mashed" potatoes that tasted like nothing, white roll that tasted like nothing, chicken that tasted like oven baked nothing, sage dressing that tasted like nothing... with sage in it. i'd almost venture that the water had more flavor than the food, which is big and scary.

the grade is for the food, the service was adequate but yet i can't get past the food, so it was not good enough to bring up the grade.

10th- pannekoeken huis, st. louis park (b)

yes, they still call out pannekoeken when they bring one to the table. or they did with mine.

however, you do not drink out of jars, as in the previous incarnation of the huis or pannekoeken. there are tulips on the table, gouda is heavily featured on the menu, and there are random dutch things here and there to remind you the restaurant is vaguely dutch oriented. the background music was like elevator music, only odder, which was not dutch at all.

i had the veggie pannekoeken (i only remembered the fruity kind from before) and a cup of chicken and wild rice soup. the first could have used more gouda, but there are a great many foods i think need more cheese (and some of them are cheese to begin with). the soup, eh. not so great, not horrid. the dutch potatoes, were much improved with ketsup... flavors in the sides tend to run towards a bit bland. the veggie pannekoeken was pretty good. and apparently the pot roast sandwich was too.

service varied, the manager (owner?) seemed a lot more into the whole service thing than the regular server, but the regular one was better than what mr. bad restaurant karma, who was there, usually ends up with. though he did end up with mashed with gravy instead of the dutch potatoes he ordered, and when we told the manger (owner?) person that, they brought out the right ones quickly.

13th- town hall brewery, minneapolis (b)

there are certain things i have to figure out about their menu, including what 'nacho creme' sauce is, or maybe it was 'nacho cream.' either way, it's odd.

decent enough service (and they were able to tab individually a table of multiple people), the fries were nothing to write home about (or much here). the 'original' grilled cheese was pretty good, provolone, havarti, and parmesan, if i recall correctly, with green onion and tomato. that was all good. it would have been improved with better bread. i think i'll try parmesan in the next grilled cheese i make... og, original grilledcheese....

17th- red lobster, golden valley (c+)

yes, i did like the lobster mac and cheese, but i like almost any mac and cheese, even bad ones. if that makes any sense. the service was still decent, even with mr bad restaurant karma (hey, that's two in two weeks, strange, that), but the food is still not tasty, as a general rule.

which, as a restaurant, should be important. drenching things in butter and/or covering them with cheese will only make them good to a point, which is not the point of this particular restaurant (the food, that is), the experience is (aka getting you to give them your money by hoping you enjoy their fish theme, pretty much). and call me old-fashioned ("you're old fashioned"), but i think the food at a restaurant is a lot more imporant than these chains realize. wacky of me, i know. and obviously, not everyone thinks that. and/or shares my palate.

24th- applebee's, st. louis park (c-)

the thing i ordered was the only semi-decent thing. turkey spin dip (spinach artichoke dip, more on that later), or some equally stupidass name, with fries. the sandwich needed more topping and it was processed turkey, but on the whole not a bad effort for this kind of place. the fries were on the good side of chain restaurant fries, even, and we know how important fries with that are (to me...).

mr. bad restaurant karma ordered the nachos. they were a bit cold, of course. the cheese on them was more salt than cheese and it was cheez, not cheese, for that matter, but he didn't seem to mind that so much. besides the saltcheezem, there were a few black beans, a bit of meat, some sad looking lettuce with sadder tomato. and a glop of sour cream. not even salsa. and oddly, not on a plate. with tri-colored, out of a bag chips. it was in a basket with foil on it.

mrs. bad restaurant karma (well, she doesn't have said karma, but she is married to mr. brk... and took his name?) got the appetizer sampler, also plateless. the spinach artichoke dip was creamy. it tasted of... creaminess. not spinach or artichoke or any... flavor. boneless buffalo wings would have tasted better sans the coating, the fried cheese was... not that great (not melty on the inside, not tasty on the coating), the quesedilla was decent enough (hard to screw that one up beyond burning it). adequate salsa and marinara, below average blue cheese. the celery wasn't bad. heh.

service was not great (no check on glass levels or the needing of random things), yet not horrid. the place was decorated completely randomly in that popular scheme, 'let's hang random crap all over on every surface,' which is weird. not as weird as pretending to be a neighborhood chain when you're a soulless corporate entity, but still....

27th- moscow on the hill, st. paul (b)

grrr. someone in my party called for the check before i could order crepes for dessert, the bill came when i was in the restroom, then the waiter was not to be found. i'm not bitter, not at all. they need more crepes on the dinner menu, not just in the apps section.

i had chicken julienne. it needed more chicken in it, but was ok, the mushrooms made up for it. the rice pilaf wasn't so much a pilaf as just rice. the sauteed veg were ok. bread with herb butter, way tasty. other people way enjoyed their dinners, including someone who will only order the pelmeni (dumplings stuffed with meat and things), and the tiny chicken stuffed with wild rice, and one of the two vegetarian dishes on the menu.

someone who's 'rents are from russian (and speaks the language) didn't think the place so very authentic. i can see that, but it's odd there aren't more russian places in the twin cities that are more authentic, there are some areas with large russian populations. some of the menu is more authentic that others, which is true in most restaurants that go with a singular cuisine. though the pickled beets tasted (cliche alert!) like grandma (who was from what used to be part of russia) used to make, which i tried even though i never liked pickled beets. (still don't. but they did taste like grandma's, which by all accounts were good, according to those who like the beets).

or something like that.

 

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