We may not do reviews at MenuPages, but our legions of users are all over that. Here are six of interest.
And by that we mean, here’s a run-through of all the maiden reviews we received this week. Some are for new restaurants (Su-Ra), and some that no one had gotten around to until now (Hamburger King). In chronological order, plus commentary:
• Columbus Grill, by “Kelsey”, on 9/18:
This place is great and no one knows about it. I often go in and I’m one of the few patrons. The atmosphere is great and they have a Wii that you can play. I highly recommend anything that’s greek on the menu. All of the food is a great value, but the greek food is AWESOME. They deliver too, which is awesome when we’re too busy to get over there and grab the food. TRY THIS PLACE, YOU WON’T BE DISAPPOINTED.
Weekend and night hours are a little sketchy because they don’t have a lot of business during those times yet, but call ahead and they’ll be ready to help you out!
Any bar whose off hours are nights and weekends is okay in our book. Also, Wiiiiii!!!!!!
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• HB Home Bistro, by “THE JAY“, on 9/19:
homey?….yes…..delicious?…yes….alittle cramped?…yes.
this is a lovely little store front restaurant, run by care by the owners…and its byob, to boot. i recommend it highly…menu changes often.
At first glance, there’s not much to this review, but it has enough keywords to make it fairly descriptive. Homey, cramped, lovely, owner-operated, BYO and frequently changing menu together paint a portrait that’s pretty close to what we have in mind when we think of HB. Next time, JAY, please use only three periods to indicate an ellipsis.
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• Kiki’s Bistro, by “gigi”, on 9/20:
Kiki never disappoints. All dishes are well prepared.
Beet salad is superb; sauted liver the best ever; fish is always cooked to the exact doneness that shows the chef’s expertise.
A wonderful spot for both lunch and dinner
The word “doneness” is exclusively the province of meat temperature, and serves an essential descriptive purpose that is difficult to summarize with other words. Okay, you could say, “how do you like your steak cooked?” but then it would be conceivable to answer “well” and mean properly or with a high degree of skill, when the correct answer would have been “rare,” and you end up with a piece of shoe leather instead. No one would misunderstand “what is your doneness preference for this steak?” Well, maybe a lot of people would misunderstand, but then they didn’t really deserve the choice in the first place, did they?
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• J. Alexander’s, by “Anonymous”, on 9/20:
I love this place. I typically don’t enjoy chain restaurants, but I make an exception here. Great food - honestly one of the best filet mignons I’ve ever had. Nice wine.
Above all, friendly and prompt service.
We appreciate the disclosure about not enjoying chain restaurants, because it gives us a lens through which to interpret this review. The reviewer is as surprised as anyone that they liked this restaurant, given its chain status. Or maybe they’re shilling and were just trying to lull us into a false sense of security by gaining our confidence through a disparagement and setting us up to believe the lies about the filet! No, that’s not very likely.
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• Su-Ra, by “Anonymous”, on 9/21:
The food was really good and tasty. They have a simple menu with a few daily specials. I chose the salad from the specials and a bi bim bop; all recommendations from the waitress. The salad was fresh, and amazing and the beef bi bim bop was very good. The service was timely and helpful. The atmosphere is contemporary. I believe the menu item prices range from $9-$18. I really enjoyed the food and I look forward to going there again.
This is sort of a blah first review for a restaurant with as much hype as Su-Ra, which is not so much, but maybe, on the other hand, it’s good to get a down-to-Earth reaction from someone who was not starstruck and obviously enjoyed themselves anyway. Note that we’re nominally offended that the reviewer merely took a stab at the dish prices, when they’re all more than accessible on MenuPages (actual range: $7 to $18).
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• Hamburger King, on “Anonymous”, by 9/22:
A great place to go for an inexpensive breakfast. It reminds me of a place you would see on Seinfeld.
So it’s like Tom’s? Doubt it. We don’t have any concrete reason to doubt it, but nevertheless.
Okay, thanks for playing! Next time, something meaner, and hopefully shorter.
