8th- woolley's, bloomington
12th- greek grill and fry co., eden prairie
14th- edina grill, edina
21st- satay 2 go, apple valley
22nd- heartland, st. paul
25th- michael's deli, king of prussia, pa
29th- appetite's delight, wayne, pa (and) philly steak and gyro co., philadelphia, pa
30th- little tokyo, eden prairie
8th- woolley's, bloomington (f)
water= after 10+ minutes, i went to get my own. this was after the person pouring it hit the table next to ours to pour water, and had passed the table about a dozen times without looking (so there was no catching anyone's eye).
food= bleach. the salad was bagged with two slices of cuke and two cherry tomtatoes. the tomatoes didn't suck. unlike last time, the bread was not warm. my dinner was half wrong (i order the baked potato, not mashed) and the rest inedible (meditteranean chicken roulade, supposedly a chicken breast stuffed with goat cheese, kalamata and sun dried tomatoes in a basil cream sauce. it was more like half of one, as it was very tiny indeed, with no visible tomatoes... and it was inedibly dry. i sent it back. it doesn't even make sense, as mine would take longer to cook than the other dishes) they did ask if i wanted anything else, but since i got the missing baked potato by then, i said no. i know when to give up. they did comp dessert (and took my dinner off the check). and of course the apple cobbler i selected had slices in it that weren't so cleaned up as they should've been (the inedible bits around the seeds were in it, and of course i got those).
timing= it took way too freaking long to get anything to the table. 10-15 minutes for salad, even. yes, it seemed strangely busy, but salad? bad and wrong. the kitchen timing is way off.
service= the main server was nice and all, but in this context, that is so not enough, without stopping by to see how things are or seeing if anyone needs a refill. plus i overheard another server at another table next to us telling their table that people who make reservations get the bottled water, not the tap. which was odd, as we made reservations, and got the water a la tap. so something's freaking odd there.
others at the table= both the grilled and panko breaded walleye were fine ($20 each) as was the shrimp and scallop plate ($29). i tried both walleye dishes for my dinner, and i liked the panko version's sauce but the lightness of the grilled. the other three people would go back.
me= never coming here again (even with 1000 open table points and a buy one get one dinner). it was all just bad and wrong. comprehensive bad restaurant karma meltdown surpreme.
irony= the card at the table that read "our mission to you: to reach a point with each and every guest in which we are exceeding their expectations in product quality and service each and every time they visit.”
12th- greek grill and fry co., eden prairie (d)
if you wish for your coupon to be a buy one get one combo plate, how about putting that on the bloody coupon. the one i had said buy one menu item get one free, up to $8. and that means any menu item i want. don't frickin' try to argue me out of it. i was very close to leaving before the person gave it. i got mine to go. stupid craving for a chicken gyro.
after my order was taken, i was at a loss as to when and where i paid, as the guy at the counter didn't take the money. i followed the next person to the convenience store counter. weird.
this not very attractive (about a third of a convenience store, plastic tables and chairs) locale is like dino's, only less good (though was run by a greek guy). well, of course my food was less good. the chicken gyro pita ($5.49) had a little bit of meat that tasted a bit like honey mustard chicken, a bit of lettuce, tomato, a minor hint of tzatziki. onions, part of the ingredients on the menu, left off. and most inexplicably, a quarter of a dill pickle, not part of the ingredient list on the menu. no feta. and it was not very good at all for what it was supposed to be. the fries were below average.
it would've been rated a bit worse, but mrs. brk happened to like her gyros a lot better than dino's version. though i don't have her down as having any at any time, just the chicken ones. maybe i need to suck it up at try dino's edina again, it's been over a year. or make it myself, as i can get closer to authentic and/or dino's at home than this place can with the chicken.
well, as brunches go, at least it wasn't horrible. so in my realm of brunches (most of which fall towards the inedible side of things), this sadly falls near the top. yet i keep trying. which either speaks to me perseverance, or my stupidity. or both, i suspect. i had a two for one breakfast (pre-11 am) coupon here, otherwise i dare say we would never have gone here for brunch (given my poor brunch history) but here it seems to be slighly better than other brunches, which is to say generally decent. though it's been a while since we were here for brunch.
i got the salmon scramble ("cured sockeye salmon, herbed cream cheese & red onions scrambled with three eggs, served with hash browns & toast" for $9.45). everything was a bit off... the eggs were dry on the outside (too long under a heat lamp?) and not as creamy as one would think, given the ingredients. the hash browns were a nest of long potato strips, interesting texturally, that needed a bit more cooking in the middle. not much, just a bit. the toast was somewhat perplexing, a bit cold, and toasted looking, but not that crisp, and a bit chewy for sourdough. kind of odd. i dumped some of the bernaise sauce that the other person didn't use on the hash browns, which was good.
the meatloaf hash & eggs (a "pan seared blend of chopped meatloaf, idaho potatoes, roasted carrots, bell peppers, onions and fresh herbs. topped with two eggs and bearnaise sauce, served with toast. $9.95) was also a bit odd. why were roasted carrots in hash? the potatoes were cooked outside, but like the hash browns, a bit raw-seeming inside. the decaf ($2.25) was (like me) a bit on the bitter side.
service didn't suck, which is always a bonus. i will say they need to spiff up the restrooms, as compared with the still-new feel of the place, the toilets seem stuck in a retro time warp (not in a good way).
21st- satay 2 go, apple valley (b+)
why was there an egg on my chicken curry dish? tradition, i'm guessing. anyway, i came upon that as instead of the usual, i opted for the nasi lemak ("curried chicken over coconut flavor rice with potato, hard-boiled egg and cucumber" for $7.95). alas, the egg was overcooked.
i did like the coconut-milk curry, potato and chicken flavors together, and the texture of the potato was quite nice with everything, i would've liked to see the chicken more tender, that was a bit less successful. still quite good, mind you, but not as great as their best stuff.
like the chicken satay my friend had ("four sticks of chicken satay accompanied by coconut flavored rice, spicy peanut sauce, cucumbers, with gyoza" for $7.95). though she doesn't like coconut, she did eat the coconut rice. and though she doesn't like cucumbers, i said if she dipped them in the peanut sauce, it'd be a flavor sensation (or somethinga long those lines) and she liked that too. that plate was all good.
service is still good, they seem to have a few more tables than i remember, so hey, it'd be nice to see them move to larger quarters maybe? (sheer conjecture on my part there.) alas, i wasn't fond at all of the lite fm playing in the background. that was very odd.
someone wanted to take mrs. brk and i out to dinner. their first selection i declined (and said mrs. brk would go) as it was a place where i had found things in my food and they refused to admit it. instead of taking her, they sent me a list of places and asked if any where ok (aka brk-free). i said they all were, but heartland was more so.
per usual, everything was spot on, starting with the fish mousse on wee little brioche with microgreen... was it arugula? parsley? i can't recall, but it completely rocked.
once again i went with the flora menu ($30 fixed price). the starter was a "hand cut angel hair pasta-spaghetti squash salad with hidden springs farm sheep milk ricotta cheese, herb sprouts, toasted pumpkin seeds and candied tomato-tarragon vinaigrette." quite nice with the flavors, though i will say perhaps given the cold day i would've liked it even more warm at that point.
then it was the "golden potato-root vegetable cake with wild forest mushrooms, wild rice-apple relish, parsnip crisps and leek cream," which would make an excellent vegetarian thanksgiving dish. it's got the flavors you look for during the holiday, and it's very earthy.
both the rye rolls and the star anise ones bread went nicely with the salad, and the dinner, but i liked the rye a bit better. i opted for something off the 'by the glass' wine list, as everyone else was getting a way less girly red that wasn't to my taste, a bricco riella mostcato d'asti ($8). i think of it like champagne, only even more sweet.
dessert, i swapped out. instead of the 'roasted hazelnut pound cake with a white wine-poached anjou pear, a gewürztraminer-macerated apricot and cardamom crème anglaise' i chose the 'sugar pumpkin-red fruit linzer torte with passion fruit sauce, concord grape-high bush cranberry jelly, candied pie pumpkin and spicy illinois pecan-pumpkinseed compote.' because i love pumpkin. and it continued my thanksgiving theme.
mrs. brk got the 'juniper-smoked cedar summit farm organic bone-in veal sirloin with roasted cauliflower, sweet dumpling squash purée and red wine veal stock reduction ($26). the squash was the best stand-alone squash (not soup, risotto, etc.) that i've had possibly ever. she enjoyed the dish quite a bit, and also thought the place deserved an 'a.' she thought the menu was a bit pork-heavy, though i pointed out that it's only one night. you never know.
the others at the table got the same menu i did (down to the dessert swap) and then 'caramelized onion-pork confit soup with ginger-apple cider broth and grilled whole wheat croustade' ($10), followed by the 'hill & vale farm pasture-fed lamb chops with roasted fennel, baby leeks, grilled treviso radicchio and preserved tomato glace de viande ($32) and for dessert the 'moscato d’asti mousse-dark chocolate pavé with blackberry coulis, aquavit-rosewater sabayon and chocolate tea wafers ($9), which was a huge brick of chocolatey goodness.
service was good, though i don't think i've ever been there when it's that busy, so it's interesting to note how the pace differs a bit (less personalized attention, not that you suffer for it, and you don't miss what you don't know). for the first time, i sat near the window, and points to them because no one was cold (if you sit by the window in a lot of places in winter, you keep your coat on).
25th- michael's deli, king of prussia, pa (f)
it's a frickin' deli, yet it managed somehow to ruin a bagel with cream cheese and lox. what the....?
let's start with the sad tomato slices and the too-thick onion slices for the top. the amount of cream cheese was skimpy and of course the amount of lox was, too (maybe enough for half a generous bagel. and not sure how this is possible, but the bagel was toasted yet damp. even the pickle bar lacked flavor-filled pickles. the lettuce... well, that didn't suck. it was too spendy, too, at $8.69 for just that, no chips or fries or anything.
service was very slow, and no water refills. i didn't know that was an option, even. and no way to ask. or refill myself. so yeah. not a good place to eat.
29th- appetites delight, wayne, pa (and) philly steak and gyro co., philadelphia, pa (c for both of them)
i was in the philly area, may as well try a chicken cheesesteak. the only one on the appetites delight menu was a buffalo one ($8.95). that got me a large toasted piece roll with some chopped chicken, a bit of cheese (provolone, my guess), some hot sauce, and a side of blue cheese dressing. i asked for fries, and for some reason was served waffle fries ($2.29 i think for either kind).
later at the airport, i tried another version ($8.50 with fries). this one was an untoasted roll with chopped chicken, a bit of cheese (again, i think provolone), and onion and peppers. supposedly hot peppers. not so much. so i added, yes, hot sauce.
the first one had better bread but worse chicken. the second one the onions and peppers that are what cheesesteaks are to me. alas, none of them had the correct kind of cheese (whiz, actually, or some sort of american in a pinch) or came close to the one i had at the reading terminal market. it is true you have to be downtown to get the good versions, alas. these were just ok.
the fries were decent on both, though.
30th- little tokyo, eden prairie (b)
when out grocery shopping today, i heard someone talking about having chinese food for dinner. when i got to mrs. brk's building, someone was coming upstairs with leeann chin. so we headed towards the red moon cafe for dinner because i am easily led.
alas, they're closed sundays. i didn't even think to check, really.
so mrs. brk and i headed towards the mall. the food court, as the sit-down chinese place in the mall seemed a bit spendy. and the chinese place in the food court had no staff out front, and since they didn't come out after we had stood there for a bit (they were in the back, they could see me, i could see them), we went to the 'japanese' place, which had about half chinese food anyway.
the cream cheese wontons (3 for $1.49) were surprisingly good, though a bit cold (that's partially because the food court there was chilly and drafty). both of us had the same thing, two entrees and fried rice for $5.95 or so, with chicken katsu and veggie yakisoba for the mains. the chicken katsu had lots of tender, flavorful mushrooms. ditto the chicken, but not the lots part (there was about half as much as the mushrooms). the zucchini in it was a bit odd.
the veg in both the yakisoba and rice were also odd- the carrot strips rubbery, and the pea and carrot mixed were the worst kind of frozen. but if you yanked as much as possible out of it, they were surprisingly good. for mall court food, that is. and what you pay. on the larger scale of chinese food, they'd rank lower. mall court food gives it bonus points, somehow.
that stuff looks a lot better when your other choices are the likes of mc do's or subway.
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