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bite me: june 2008

 

3rd- perkins, edina
11th- duplex, minneapolis
13th- pastrami jack's, eden prairie
19th- ground round, tomah, wi
19th- max's restaurant and deli, highland park, il
20th- osteria di tramonto, wheeling, il
20th- zingarella's, northbrook, il
21st- cafe central, highland park, il
21st- don's fish market (catering at the comfort inn), june 08, skokie, il
22nd- max's restaurant and deli, highland park, il
22nd- zhivago restaurant and banquet hall (banquet), skokie, il
23rd- iron skillet, portage, wi
27th- taste of thaiyai, apple valley

3rd- perkins, edina (f)

i should've freakin' checked my own web site... if the last time here was bad, this was so very much worse. we were seated. we reviewed our menus for several minutes before we were ready to order. we shut them. we looked around trying to catch someone's eye. it was five minutes before someone noticed, and a few more before the correct person came to the table.

the server mentions that someone is suppose to tell them if someone sits at the table we are at. um... you've already passed it about a half-dozen times without checking, and it is your section. share the blame on that.

we ordered. they said they put it in as a rush order.

ten minutes later. my water's empty. no one refills in. it takes another five minutes to catch our server, as they walk by the table several times without looking our way. during this time i contemplate what would happen if i stick my glass in the aisle and shake it to a festive samba beat as they go by.

20 minutes after our so-called rush order. people who were seating about two minutes before us are mid-way through their meal. we are told three more minutes. we are offered a free piece of pie for our troubles.

five minutes after that, as i was about to put my coat on and leave, one of the manageresque types comes over, tells us the food is being put on a tray as we speak, and offers to pick up the check and gives poor excuses (new cooks, fine, but why have them when you know the place'll be packed on free food for kids day? sorry, not buying it... and 25 minutes and counting for a 'rush' order? nope.). mrs. brk makes the call to stay, but mentions that it's now been another several minutes that they were talking and the food *still* hasn't made an appearance.

mrs. brk's fish sandwich is ok. the fries with it are sad. they forget the tartar sauce.

my blueberry pancakes... well, the menu description is something like this: "we load blueberries inside our secret recipe batter to give you five fluffy 'cakes, smothered with warm blueberry topping and a sprinkling of powdered sugar, with a dollop of whipped topping."

what the plate that i got had in common with that: they were pancakes. there were five of them. and they had blueberry topping on it.

but hell... they were not blueberry pancakes, just plain. they were not fluffy. the topping was lukewarm. there was no powdered sugar. no whipped topping.

this is perkins. if they can't do pancakes right (especially when they had almost half an hour to do them in) why do they exist?

awful, just awful.

i should listen to me, i'm always right.... heh.

11th- duplex, minneapolis (c-)

the fact that the restaurant is indeed a duplex makes it an interesting space to eat in (the upstairs porch looked especially nice, but it was raining). it also poses some challanges to the service, which the place wasn't quite up to on the day we visited.

about half the food served was lukewarm to too cold, made more so by having to haul it upstairs. our server, who was in a very dour mood the whole time, was probably made so by the fact they appeared to have to serve as the host by the front door on the ground floor and serve tables upstairs. so when we got the cold food, we had to wait while it got even colder before we could flag them (or anyone) down to heat it up. let's just say service suffered.

so what was billed at poutine ($6.99) but was only just close, as the fries in gravy didn't have cheese curds, but white cheddar, and not enough of it, suffered from the cold, and the reheat made them mushy. disappointing, but not as much as the previous poutine attempt.

seriously, this dish holds such promise for me (if they could work bread into it, wouldn't it be my perfect food?) but never lives up to it. at least the fries (sans gravy) from mrs. brk's plate were good. her sandwich was perfectly done, though everyone thought both items on her plate were served on the lukewarm to cold side of things. (anyone know who else has it besides harry's and here? does axel's river grill/e? anyone know how to get this right? must i go to canada for this?)

her meal was probably the best overall, a steak sandwich ($14.29) that was just the right size. it had grilled rib eye, smoked gouda (she got that on the side), oven roasted tomatoes (left off due to the tomato scare, at her request), and a kickass caramelized onion demi-glace on grilled ciabatta. plus the nice fries. not great, but nice.

mrs. brk's friend liked the flavors in the mango chutney chicken ($14.99) but to me it tasted a bit too much like vinegar and the chicken was a tad overdone. it came with green beans, and a german potato salad served cold, which seems like odd choices for a mango chicken dish. the chicken was a bit cold here.

and in case you're wondering about my lack of anything resembling health in my dinner, i also got a bowl of a just-right spiced curry black bean coconut soup (overpriced for the small amount i got at $4.99) with some nice crunch from what i think was raw green onion and a chili créme fraiche. i would've liked some bread with it. but, alas...

we did have an appetizer, the crab cake (just one, and i think also a tad overpriced at $10.49), which was billed as
lump crab meat (it was the very stringy bits, so i have a hard time believing it...and hey, guess who got the shell bit in the cake, btw...) that was a tad overdone but had a very tasty grilled pineapple vinaigrette, citrus salad, blood orange créme fraiche.

we would've used bread to lap it up but we had to ask for a spoon, as we had eaten our first basket bread and they charge after that one. being that it took about 20 minutes for them to finish one crab cake, this seems stupid, as the bread charge served only to make me not want to come here again. it took them another 30 or so after that to get the entree down. and this was on a day that less than half the tables were filled.

charging for bread ($2.09 for every basket after the first ) is so very much the wrong answer for this situation when it takes your kitchen that long when it shouldn't. then again, they also do the 18% mandatory tip for parties of 6 or more. and since this seems the right place to mention it, they don't have salt, pepper, or spoons on their tables. they have some weird policies here. so yeah, not a place i'd go back, not a place restaurant club would ever go to either. how not to get people to come back.

it's an interesting looking house, with the original wood floors, but all the dining areas upstairs seem to have been painted dark red or orange, so it's a bit oppressive-seeming in the small areas. and they really need to clean the restroom upstairs. really.

the other diners were happier with their meal than i. some of the flavors were enough to rescue it from average, but on the whole i just left feeling kinda mad at the place for not doing better, when they clearly had potential. the grade would've been better had i not gotten nonfood in the food (and yes, shell does count).

13th- pastrami jack's, eden prairie (b)

on the online menu, a breakfast of a lox bagel with cream cheese, capers, tomato and onion is $10.95, but a sign on the table announces it to be $7.95. for lunch, a lox plate of a bagel, cream cheese, capers, tomtato and cucumber slices, plus a bunch of random lettuce, is $12.95, and you assemble it yourself. kind of odd.

anyway, i was craving lox, so i met someone here for lunch as i knew it was on the menu, and there's probably not tons of places in this area that have it. it was good lox, sure, but the cream cheese was in a packet, which seemed odd, and the bagel needed toasting. and flavor.

the cuke and onion were ok, but the tomato was cold and hard so i left that (fear the tomato! not why i left it, though...), and the lettuce (i couldn't figure out what to do with the lettuce... eat it like a salad without dressing? put the small bits on the sandwich and watch them fall off? perhaps some abstract art? interpretive dance? use it as confetti? none of these seemed a good idea...). a bag of chips would've made more sense. no lettuce would've made more sense, too.

the person i was with had the tuna salad ($8.50), which was flavorful with what we think is dill, but a bit watery for my tastes. they also had of their matza ball soup, which is quite nice, but sometimes the hugeness of the matza balls prevents it from being done all the way through.

still love the pickle bar/cole slaw bar (the pickles way more than the slaw) and the large water glasses. lunch is counter service, so the wait can get long there, but once you order you get the food fairly quickly. (water is self-serve, so no issues there, and hey, they put bonus lemon slices next to it). though since it was lunch and not dinner, i couldn't use the discount card i have, alas.

19th- ground round, tomah, wi (c-)

why would three salads and a half sandwich take almost a half an hour to get to the table in a place that wasn't even a quarter full? why, my bad restaurant karma of course. and in the new gr, no peanuts on the floor. no wonder why the place went bankrupt in the twin cities a few years back.

the service left a lot to be desired, as the server was not familiar with the menu, and also there was a bit of a language barrier (i think they were from germany, maybe, but i was the only one at the table who could understand with the accent, and they could only understand me). the manager type said they would check why it took so long. we never saw them again.

my salad was spinach (lots) with a few scattered strawberry slices (sweet, but with a few bad bits that should've been taken off), few walnuts, and about half an overcooked chicken breast, along with strawberry vinaigrette (ok) and some blah flatbread. it was edible.


19th- max's restaurant and deli, highland park, il (a-)

oh, my... this is so what pastrami jack's wants to be and isn't. you sit down, and get a bread basket so big, so packed with a variety of breadstuff (regular and raisin minichallahs, onion rolls, bagel chips, matzos, rolls, etc.) even i, queen of all things bread, couldn't even put a dent into half of it. seriously. and i was tres famished. toss in the best pickles i've had recently that weren't clausens, and hey, i'm loving it already.

here i also got, more or less, the lox plate. for $9.95 ($3 less than pastrami jack's) you get a nice toasted bagel (your choice of many... i got an everything), chive or regular cream cheese (lots), nova or regular lox (regular and about as much as jack's), a few kalamata olives, cuke slices and some lettuce that could actually be used on sandwiches (leaf form).

it was just better than pastrami jack's. i want to go back again. maybe i'll bring some bread home. not sure if the pickles would last the journey, though. mrs. brk does would like to bring some home, too. she also was in love with their cabbage soup (it had a very deep, concentrated flavor) and the chicken salad on marble rye.

not everything was great. the fries were utterly forgettable, and i didn't really need them anyway. i left most of them untouched (extra, but with that extra cost still less than pastrami jack's, natch). service was quite decent, even. maybe we'll swing by again. i hope.

20th- osteria di tramonto, wheeling, il (b)

when it's a famous name on the door, do you expect more or less? everyone i know has had mixed experiences about famous name places. the only person with any sort of nationwide name and empire who seems to fare well, at least in the higher end restaurants, is wolfgang puck (ok, not the frozen stuff or food carts, but still, from vegas to cali to minneapolis, i've not heard bad things about his food.)

rick tramonto and gale gand (known for her desserts) team are less famous and their than puck or flay and their empire is chicago-area based. they were both on top chef this season, and the steakhouse attached to this italian place figured prominently in an episode. so when i was in the 'hood, and on a recommendation, i decided to go here.

mrs. brk and her friend each had a bowl of the minestrone, for $5.95 and split a steak sandwich with aioli, fontina, and shallots with some house-made garlic fries for $10.95. the minestrone got a mixed review, with the friend liking it, and mrs. brk thinking it was a bit underseaoned (i thought so too). the broth could've used more flavor, besides seasoning. the more al dente veg was also a bit mixed in preference (mrs. brk against the veg, her friend and i both liked it and thought i brought a freshness to it) . everyone liked the small amount of pasta in it.

the steak sandwich was beloved by both, but on the friend's portion parts of the bread were too charred to eat. the garlic fries were panned by all- they weren't crisp, and weren't at all garlickly, except if you maybe ate something with garlic first, then ate a fry.

my choice was a wood-fired pizza, the tramonto, with fresh mozzarella tomato, arugula, garlic, gaeta olives, and truffle oil for $12.95. it was large (hello, tomorrow's breakfast), and had solid flavor, but maybe a tad too much arugula and a few more olives would've been welcome. since we had no red pepper flake at the table, i used regular pepper. the pizza could've used another minute in the oven (parts of the crust had a bit too much sog in it). but it overall had some nice flavors that played well together, and a nice bunch of cheese on it, which always goes down well with me. off the small, but well-chosen lunch wine list i opted for a glass of my favorite sort of wine, the moscato d'asti ($6 per glass). hey, i wasn't driving. everyone liked the wine.

everyone also liked the bread, served with olive oil and pesto, too. we cleared out a few large baskets of it.

for dessert, i for once eschewed cheese for a gale gand dessert, after hearing so much about the gand experience. it didn't disappoint. the torrone nurzia, a warm chocolate hazelnut cake with cherry gelato and cherry conserva ($7.95) was lovely.

i maybe would've gotten a gelato cone to go, but the area where they sold pastry and gelato and such has been removed and a private dining area is now there. they do sell pastries out of a hotel cart in the morning, though, for those of you looking for that, and the tradition of them sending out evening customers with a bag of pastries may be over because of that, but hey, i may be wrong.

i wasn't knocked out by the place, but it wasn't bad. none of the food was groundbreaking , but hey- it is technically a hotel restaurant (it's at the westin). and for hotel food it's quite good and not hideously overpriced.

but service was lacking. the server was apparently told to upsell upon pain of death (just the one dessert for the table? doesn't everyone want soup or salad and and an appetizer and entree and a side? you all want a beverage before, during, and after dinner, perhaps one to take with you?) which was way annoying. as was their tendency to ignore the table for very long periods of time. though they did point out the vegetarian items on the menu, which was nice. sometimes you can't always tell from the description.

20th- zingarella's, northbrook, il (c+)

this time it was mrs. brk, her friend, and two of her friend's friends. and me. they go here a lot, they have since the placed opened not too long ago.

anyway, everyone liked it more than i. not surprisingly, my brk kicked in. the french green lentil soup lacked depth of flavor and just tasted like lentils. for puy lentils, they tasted like ones compared with other puy lentil dishes i've had. it was ok, but not complex. ($3.95)

the salad nicoise i got had a (not quite) grilled (enough) tuna steak that had a bit bit of gristle in it, and the tuna was a bit too cold, as were the potatoes. room temperature, people, is best for both of those items. and the green beans, for that matter, and olives. maybe it was one of those things you have to serve all cold as it is a resaurant, but the tuna steak could've been made to order. then again, maybe it was and it just sat a long time. ($12.95)

i really wanted the soft-shell crab. since i had my epi-pen with me, i was thinking of risking it, but probably not the smartest thing in the world.

the only other thing i tasted was mrs. brk's chicken pot pie. liked the puff pastry on top, buttery and crisp. and there is a lot of chicken in it, plus potato, onion, carrots, and celery in a white sauce. it was a bit on the bland side. thyme or something would've made the dish.

more good bread, though. baked and served right there. so i ate more bread. as i am wont to do.

service was decent, though it would've been better if they had anothe person on the floor and the busser was less new. but we had to do a table auction (tilapia? who had the tilapia? the mussels? etc.) when the entrees came, never fun. they did seem concerned when i said the salad was just ok (and mentioned the inedible bits).

it's a small family operation, with maybe 30 tables in it, plus a sweets, gelato, deli shop, etc. area in the front. they do a nice chocolate covered cherry with truffle instead of the usual liqueur.

21st- cafe central, highland park, il (b)

owned and operated by the same family that owns carlos' french restaurant, it does a bistro trade compared with carlos' more old-school traditional higher-end french fare. it looks the part of a french bistro, the menu is pretty traditional french bistro (well, maybe not the root beer float, but still... ).

so yeah, no one's surprised i picked it. french bistros have a rep for good fries, no? i've not had a good fry in illinois yet. so hey. why not.

and they were good. not great, they needed a hit of salt and another few minutes in the fry-o-lator, but they were a solid b. about as good as it gets around here. good enough so i polished off mine, and had half of someone else's.

and i had my share of the warm, fresh out of the oven baguette, with cold, creamy, sweet unsalted butter. that made me happy.

my fries came with my sandwich, a smoked salmon (yes, more lox... i can't have enough recently for some reason) on country bread with grilled vegetables (mostly zucchini) and avocado. it came with a house salad that was dressed with just enough balsamic vinaigrette to coat. the salad was good enough, but i guess too healthy to be my main focus, but what i ate was nice. (hey, i had bread and fries to focus on.)

the sandwich was tasty, with the creamy avocado and the veg complementing the salmon's texture and flavor surprisingly well. the bread could've been a bit more grilled, though. the only problem i had with it was that there was a bit of an odd scent about it.

mrs. brk and another person had the market fresh panini. not sure what it's called that, but there you go. it was a nicoise-style one, with white tuna, dijon mustard viniagrette, olives and salad greens. it was like a nice, flat tasty tuna sandwich. this one came with an orange-fennel salad.

the kobe beef burger with tons of carmelized onions with fries and regular salad was also tasty, word is.


21st- don's fish market (catering at the comfort inn), june 08, skokie, il (f)

i will take the local's word that don's fish market has good food at it's restaurants. the food at the event in the sad and misnamed waterfront banquet room (it overlooks the pool. get it? sigh.) that is so not handicapped accessible, well, not so much.

though hey, it's what i expected. and there were no foreign objects in what i ate. then again, i had some cucumber slices, mostly. those were fine. i tried the salmon. out of the three entree choices (steak, chicken or fish) i figured from the fish market, it would be perhaps the least bad. maybe it was, but it was dry and overcooked. the rice was not tasty. the pasta salad was... well, compared with the other food, it was inoffensive. more edible.

other things i sampled and avoided were the cole slaw (weird and not crunchy), dill potato salad (sat way too long in too much dressing), the chicken (also dry), and dessert (a german chocolate cake that didn't taste like chocolate, though i didn't try the blueberry... cake? bars? that looked not quite cooked or set), and even, yes, the bread. it was hard and tasted a bit stale.

for the cold items, i don't recall seeing any ice or other source of cold and being that it sat there for half an hour or more before we ate. kinda risky, so even if the potato salad was edible, probably not worth it.

things i avoided without sampling were the salad (not worth it), the mixed veg (straight outta the freezer, carrots, broccoli, and cauliflower mixed veg. how not seasonal or fresh of them).

all in all, a strange outing. good thing i had a big lunch, no?

22nd- max's restaurant and deli, highland park, il (b)

a less successful trip, probably due to group size and bad ordering. seven people was too many, and/or the host was having some technical difficulties, as even though there were empty tables they could've pushed together, they made us wait until a larger table was available. that's wrong.

i went with matza ball soup (i liked the broth, it tasted house-made, but there was no veg or anything in it, the matza ball had dill, but needed salt, and was done to perfection) and a half-turkey sandwich (i chose multigrain bread, and since they didn't toast it, there was no bread integrity, so i had more of a turkey sandwich. the turkey was nice, though, not that weird slick deli stuff, but the real thing).

the bread basket of bounteousness and pickles, still good. mrs. brk thought her salami omlet was decent (insert bad joke here, please). the cheese blintzes were quite good, though of course not as good as grandma used to make (the filling was not as smooth... oddly, the ones that come the closest to grandma's are mintz's blintezes, and they use soy/tofu instead of cheese filling).

all parties were happy. service was still good, but not great.

22nd- zhivago restaurant and banquet hall (banquet), skokie, il (a-)

i went to a wedding dinner there, and what an elaborate, multicourse feast spread out over several hours it was. i'm going to say my memory may be a bit hazy on this, even though it wasn't that long ago, due to the duration of the event and quite possibly the open bar (i was drinking white russians, it seemed the thing to do... and no, i didn't drive back to the hotel). good thing this place has their banquet menus online (though they need some serious proofreading... like i should talk).

as the ceremony was held in the same room as the dinner, it started with champagne and canapes on the patio (too bad all the seating was wet from the rain that popped up during the ceremony). they had beef and smoked salmon canapes. the salmon ones were tasty, on some cream cheese base. alas, the champagne wasn't quite girly enough for me.

so a while later, on to the banquet, which started at 7 pm or so. the place was lovely, with sash draped chairs, formal candelabras, roses done up in those circular forms in tall glass vases, gold charger plates, gold-rimmed dishes, heavy, ornate crystal. it was a quite a sight, especially as when you hit your table, you saw a slew of the first round of food for the evening, the cold appetizers. and the plating on each was very elaborately designed. beverages on the table were: a bottle of vodka, a bottle of brandy, red and white wines, water, and cola. the food on the table on the table was:

and the cold apps that were there i didn't/couldn't eat (they had beef or shellfish in them, mostly) and therefore won't comment on (but will list so you get an idea of the bounty):

now, on to stage two (this was about an hour, hour and a half after all that food that these started to be passed around). the hot appetizers.

i didn't eat the following, because as far as i can tell, the dishes had beef or something in them:

it was maybe about 9. 9:30 pm after these were all served and done with. since the dessert table had been out the whole time and since i thought the food portion of the evening was over (they served coffee at this point) and there were people all over it, i went over and sampled. turns out we were early with dessert, but oh, well.

since the menu online says assorted fruits and pastries, here's what i remember... (see also- many white russians consumed): there were two plates of everything, one on each side of the wedding cake (multitier, all in cream, with cream-colored flowers). they had towers of fruit (grapes, strawberies, and the like), chocolate dipped strawberries and pineapple (i loved the pineapple, but sampled both), most of the tarts (fruit, chocolate) seemed underdone, there was a tasty, triangular, tiramisu-like cake, some weird gelatinous-topped patries, tiny chocolate filled eclaires (nice), and tons of other chocolate things i didn't taste.

but alas, dinner wasn't over. they still had the main course to serve. they were going to do so at 10:30 pm, but moved it up a bit, perhaps because by then about a third of the people had left. the main course was a family style platter with salmon, beef, what looked like some sort of veal chop, rice, and vegetables. and it also had a flaming thing on it, for show. dramatic and all. this varies from what the banquet menu has listed for the main course, but i didn't see any chicken or 'gifts of the sea' besides salmon. i did have a bite each of the salmon and the rice, both had been sitting a bit too long.

since we were getting tired at some point after 11 pm we took off, so i can't say how the cake tasted. i think i gained like five pounds from dinner, but i swear it was worth it.

the only technical difficulties we had with the service was that no one quite knew what some of the food was, and with the loud music playing and heavy accents of the servers, we only got about half of what they said (or at least i did, once again i was the only one who could break the accent barrier. weird.) and the tables were too full and things weren't cleared quite fast enough on the crowded tabletops (we started storing stuff we didn't need in an alcove in the wall). otherwise, it was swift and well-coordinated.

not all the food was great, but quite a bit of it was, impressive for a banquet. what an experience. (the grade is partially based on the spectacle and volume and such... how could it not be?)

23rd- iron skillet, portage, wi (b-)

the last restaurant of the trip. out of the roadside choices in the area, i went with this one on the theory that truck stop sorts of places should have decent food (that would taste like food, unlike at most fast food places that make up the bulk of on the road eating choices) at decent prices. and they did. besides a soup/salad bar, you can get the buffet, or just the dessert buffet, plus more comfort food favorites like chicken fried steak, liver and onions, and burgers.

mrs. brk had a decent blt with some tasty onion strings (an upgrade from fries, for $.49 more). my aunt had a tasty garden cheeseburger with the onion strings, my uncle went with the fried shrimp basket, which were fine too. my grilled chicken sandwich was a bit on the chewy side, just kind of ok, and the fries i got were no match for the onion strings in quantity or quality.

their meals were more of a b, mine a c. you get good, cheerful, efficient service and large water glasses. the food's decent. i'd go back again if i don't have any better travel food plan.

27th- taste of thaiyai, apple valley (b)

my friend and i had originally intended to hit 2 guys from italy for lunch (despite mixed reviews) but apparently they're undergoind renovation and will returned with a new italian 'concept.' um. no pasta, maybe? so we chose this place as we were at satay 2 go last time.

but ok, weird. they have a buffet station. they have on their menu something like 'please don't miss our weekly lunch buffet.' so when i inquire about a buffet, they said there's never been one at that location for many years. so apparently it's taste of thailand stil kind of, only with new people, only different? oh, well. no lunch buffet. and no lunch menu. which is a bit odd.

but the chicken curry ($7.40) was very tasty, with basil, sweet red curry, and bamboo shoots. creamy and good, though not quite the 'medium' i ordered. it was better than the nutty 'masman' (as the menu stated) curry with chicken (same price) by a bit. i do wish it came with a tofu option, i should've asked. that tends to taste better. the person i was with also got the 'special' eggrolls to go, she's way into their eggrolls.

we were the only people eating in during that time (in fact, i think i woke up the cook, who was napping on a banquette near the entrances) when i came in. the owner was very chatty (in a nice way).