1st- scoreboard, minnetonka
6th- dino's gyros, shakopee
8th- buca di beppo, eden prairie
10th- french meadow bakery and cafe, minneapolis
14th- kozy's steaks and seafood, edina
17th- coffee ta cream, shakopee
22nd- bunny's bar and grill, st. louis park
23rd- edelweiss, prior lake

1st- scoreboard, minnetonka (b+)

see, i remembered and got the bar of salad. the breadsticks were good, the soup of the day (white chicken chili) also quite tasty. the rest of it was standard, though i do wonder about the lack of pickles. and why they have what would be mini-corn if it were about a quarter of the size.

attack of the giant mini-corn!

i skipped the hot entree, though. tuna noodle casserole. i've always hated that. i hate heated canned tuna in all its guises. in case you care. even if you don't, really.

mrs. brk got the reuben though i remembered it wasn't that great. it still wasn't. the fries with that were passable, that's the best that could be said about them.

the soft serve machine was fixed, so we had dessert. service was decent. and boy was the parking lot full (wolves game, the bar was packed).

6th- dino's gyros, shakopee (b+)

had the same thing only different- there's only so many ingredients that most fast food places use for their combos... this time a chicken gyros plate, which was said food with onion and a few tomato slices over an open face pita sliced into fourths, plus some tzatziki (i think i may have spelled that right) on the side. i prefer the stuff with a bit of lettuce, olives, and of course feta. mmm, cheese. anyway, got fries with that. apparently they have greek rice now- i have to ask to find out what that is exactly.

8th- buca di beppo, eden prairie (b+)

shout out to the folks who gave me the gift card.... i have had buca food since the last time listed, just either take out or under circumstances where i wouldn't get the same treatment as any random person off the street...

anyway. mrs. brk and i started with a new menu item, the cripsy shrimp. they came with a dill sauce mrs. brk found spicy, but i didn't see that, and marianara. quite nice, but nothing inspiring. the dill sauce would be good on salmon.

see the seafood- we went with one of the specials, linguini cartoccio, which was the same thing more or less as the same pasta frutti di mare they have, only baked. it had shrimp, mussels, clams in the sauce (canned i believe), and calamari. it was pretty good, but needed more sauce. after hitting it with salt, cheese, and olive oil and/or some of the hard to get at sauce, it improved greatly.

yes, i ordered garlic mashed potatoes with it. i don't care if they don't go with whatever else i am having there, or i am too full to eat more than a few tablespoons-full (like today), they can come home with me.

seriously, at about a third butter, a third cream, and a third tatoes, how can you go wrong? (i say that now, and something horrible will happen with them next time, just you wait.)

in fact, i did consider just ordering up the whole gift card in said potatoes so that i could possibly bathe in them.

not seriously, but i did consider it.

service was generally good. after noticing the bread we requested didn't show up (the server asked the table runner to get it, but the runner was on the busy side. noticing this, the server went to get it.) they timed the meatball that was going home with mrs. brk for mr. brk's dinner so we got it just at the end and it was still hot. decent pace on the water-filling.

10th- french meadow bakery and cafe, minneapolis (a)

ok, weird to think that i've not been here in ages. it doesn't seem that long.

grilled cheese here. when it's on, it's on it's the best in town. despite what others thing. one of those 'everyone's entitled to my opinion' things. usually i'm a bit of a grilled cheese purist, preferring only bread and cheese on the sandwich, but i like their addition of roasted pepper, though sometimes the tomato slices they add aren't happy.

i really wish it'd come with tomato soup or fries instead of your choice of chips (with a nice salsa) or mixed greens. (i went with chips. obvious, huh?)

i also got a loaf of bread to take home with my coupon from rake magazine- buy one thing there, get half off another. no label on it, though, so no one will get in trouble for it.

14th- kozy's steaks and seafood, edina (c)

mrs. brk wanted to get her fourth twin cities originals restaurant in to score her $50 gift cert, so we went to kozy's. we didn't fully consider the whole valentine's day thing into our plans really. so we sat at the bar. the menu was only a selection of their usual, which was too bad as mrs. brk wanted to try their hamburger, and i wanted their chicken sandwich. it was also too bad as many of the dishes that remained were on the spendy side. and hey, if you have a web site like they do, why not mention such info on it? that would be a good place to do so.

as the name suggests, its a steak and seafood place so those would probably not be the usual choices, but they may be better than what we had. mrs. brk got the crab cakes over wilted spinach, an appetizer portion. they didn't taste so much of crab. they would've been helped along by some lemon action, but none was served with it. it just came with a wee bit o'sauce. for almost $15 it was not worth it.

i tried the clam chowder, which did have real clams in it. yep. real clams. alas, it has the same problem as the crab cakes only different- no defining flavor. it was creamy, but even with lots of pepper ground, added salt, and 2 packets of crackers, creamy was it.

the sides were better. the house-cut fries were decent, and the sauteed mushrooms were not bad either. the bread was kind of weird, it tasted almost stale near the crust. the butter was also strange somehow. mrs. brk thought it greasy, i thought it just didn't taste like butter. i would've liked to try the gorgonzola cheese bread, but it was priced almost twice was it is on the usual menu, if i read it right- $14.95 vs. $7.95.

service at the bar was quite good, but that wasn't really enough to save the meal. the whole experience was disappointing. we may go back to try their regular menu on a less busy day, maybe that would help.

17th- coffee ta cream, shakopee (b)

chicken wild rice soup and a turkey sub. a good deal at around $5. i think the soup is homemade, or at least does not taste like it's from a can. which counts for something. they get major points for being the first place i've ever been to that put enough pickles for me on the sub. though on a day like today where the high is zero, it would've been better warm, and even better without the deli packaged turkey, which i am so not fond of. maybe next time i'll see if they can crowave it or something.

the person who owns is one of the nicest people and they have really good ice cream there (sebastian joe's). the coffee is way strong (i got sick from the caffeine in a large, dark roasted cup o'joe from there once, but i don't hold that against them). erthe other hot beveragess i've had are great. after the morning rush, and before kids get out of school it's nice and mellow. there's also a post-movie rush, too, fyi.

the baked goods seemed interesting and i've had some before and they were tasty. i'd avoid the waffle (well, unless you're a malted waffle fan. not me). they also carry an assortment of random packaged food for the kiddies. i am not entirely sure why they had a package of three chocolate bunny heads in ice cream cones. those were just weirdass.

i kept meaning to get out there more and stuff, but it's almost slightly too far to go to lunch most of the time. maybe i'll try harder.

22nd- bunny's bar and grill, st. louis park (b+)

i really thought there was something i was going to have this time we went, but i didn't check. and i'm too lazy to look now, really.

mrs. brk got the rachel sandwich, i got the cordon bleu sans jambon (that's 'without ham'). the fries for both were pretty good and hot (they're not that great as they cool off...). mrs. brk's sandwich fell apart when she tried to pick it up. the bread needed more toasting but was otherwise quite good. my sandwich suffered from unsuccessful bisecting and oversized bun (a good third larger than the chicken) but was otherwise also quite good.

service was a bit erratic. if you can stand that here, you get above average bar food with most things you order here... well, if you can stand that and the very difficult parking (in winter) and impossible parking (golf season).

23rd- edelweiss, prior lake (b)

ok, weird lunch. maybe it was because of what i ordered. for $5.99 (plus tax) you get to select to of three things of a menu, half sandwich, soup, or quiche, and a dollar more gets you a baked good.

i went with french onion soup, a half sandwich of buffalo chicken (it didn't say it was salad, and it also said it was on cheddar jalapeno bread, which i can't quite verify), and an almond croissant. well, the soup comes with bread. two slices. the soup has bread in it, two slices (untoasted, with cheese melted on it), the sandwich is on half a croissant, plus i had the whole other croissant. very carb-laden. and while i can consume mass quantities of bread in a sitting, that's usually at dinner. (i shared it. mr. rogers thought sharing is good.)

the soup was difficult to deal with, as the bread slices were slightly smaller in diameter than the container, and you couldn't really get any utensils in there to cut them or anything, and they were too big to eat by spoon, and you couldn't really move them, eat the soup.

i removed them to my croissant plate (that moved to a spare napkin), cut them, and put them back in.

i am not sure if miss manners would approve, but it was probably better than drinking directly from the container and then eating them.

now everything i had tasted ok and such, but really, don't order the french onion soup here. i would eat here again, and maybe try other baked things.

(service was of the order at the counter and such, and food came out quickly, in case y'all were wondering about that).

 

 

 

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