By Bob of Bob’s Whine and Dine

I’ve been intimidated by Kai for a long time.  My wife and I stepped into the doorway once right after it opened and saw a dark place with lots of ‘trendy’ people dressed in black and we just don’t have the black clothes in our wardrobe to fit into that crowd.

Fast forward to a recent evening where we had reservations for a play being presented at Nathan P. Murphy’s.  We thought sushi would be an excellent start to a fun evening.  Recently, we’ve been to a few trendier places and our fear factor has been lowered a bit so with Kai only a few doors down from our destination we thought it would be a good time to give it a try.

I was surprised that our trepidation wasn’t really warranted after all.  Downstairs is the bar area and while there were several trendy people dressed in black, the upstairs dining room is more normal and typical of your more upscale restaurants.  We were seated at a banquette table and took at look at the menu.

The cuisine itself is Japanese.  There are a few entrées with prices mainly in the $20’s.  There is a variety of hot and cold appetizers along with the Sashimi, Sushi and Nigiri one would expect.  There is also a large drink menu with wine, martinis, beer and drink specialties like the “Anti-Freeze” and the “Coolaid”.

We started with the Kai Salad ($3) and received a simple lettuce salad with some tomato, radish and cucumber sprinkled with a sesame dressing.  I thought the dressing lacked some in the flavor department – I would have liked the heartier creamy dressing you find at other Japanese places.  Everything was nice and fresh though.

We then ordered our sushi and based on the recommendations of our server ending up with the Drunken Tiger ($13.95) and the Monster Lobster ($11.95) rolls.  The Drunken Tiger is Kai’s version of a spicy tuna roll with the addition of asparagus on the inside and slices of lightly seared tuna layered on top.  (Sorry about the picture – we had already had a few pieces before I got the camera out.)  It was very tasty and had a nice crispy fried thing stuck in the middle.  We weren’t exactly sure what the sauces were made of but they went well with the roll.

The Monster Lobster was another good roll.  In this one the lobster was battered and fried and gave the roll a little crunch in the middle.  Other ingredients were crab (not with a ‘K’) and avocado and mango.  This one was also very good.

Once we finished off the rolls, we wanted something sweet.  The thing that captured our attention was the Banana Chocolate Spring Roll ($6) with a Cayenne Chocolate Sauce.  The chocolate sauce was pretty darn good – with just enough cayenne to give it a good kick.  The spring roll itself came off a little on the slimy side due to the banana inside.  Don’t get me wrong – we ate it all – but I think a batter-fried banana with that chocolate cayenne sauce would have been better.

The downstairs at Kai is geared around the bar crowd.  There are tables, but the bar is the focal point.  The full name of the place is “Kai, Afterdark Lounge”, but they should probably call it “Kai, Alwaysdark Lounge” as the upstairs dining room is very dark – with red & black being the dominant theme. This red and black décor must be the trendy thing now (see my review of Flo).  The dining room is narrow and there is a small bar located upstairs also.

Service was pretty good on our visit.

Overall we liked the food at Kai.  It was on the pricy side of things though.

306 S Campbell  – (417) 869-1488

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By Bob for Bob’s Whine and Dine

Meatball & Cooper’s got onto my radar due to a coupon I found in one of the local papers.  The top of the coupon proclaimed  “Lookin’ for Home Style Cookin’!” and had pictures of a burger and meatball sub.  It looked like the perfect place for lunch, so I made plans to meet my friend David.

I arrived about 11:45 and there were two other tables occupied.  I took a seat near the oxygen bar (more about that later) and started looking at the menu while I wanted for David to show up.  The menu (viewable on the website) has an assortment of the typical appetizers and includes a couple of non-typical items: meatballs with a choice of sauces and something called the Flying Meatball (meatballs & wings).   When David arrived it wasn’t a hard sell to get him to share a Flying Meatball ($7.95).  The meatballs come with a choice of 5 sauces (chipotle BBQ, marinara, sweet & sour, honey mustard or garlic parmesan).  I asked which sauces were made in-house and was told only the BBQ was, so that is what we picked.  The wing sauce comes in mild, medium or hot (all from a bottle) – we picked hot.

The rest of the menu includes burgers, dogs, pizza, sandwiches and fried catfish.  There was an electronic sign in the window that advertised daily lunch specials (as did the coupon).  When we asked about the day’s special we were told they didn’t have a lunch special that day – I thought it was odd but I didn’t feel like asking why.

The Flying Meatballs arrived fairly quickly and consisted of 4 wings and 4 meatballs and a small side of the chipotle BBQ sauce.  The wings were average and not particularly spicy.  The meatballs tasted ok and the BBQ sauce wasn’t anything special.  I asked if the meatballs were homemade and was told no – but that they ‘doctored’ them up a bit.  By the way they looked, I think there was some Italian seasoning sprinkled on them before or after cooking.  We were told the meatballs served with the spaghetti were homemade, but if so, why use pre-made ones in the other dishes?  Also, I thought the price was too much for 4 wings and 4 ready-made meatballs – especially when you consider that most of the sandwiches cost less than the $7.95 this Flying Meatball set me back.

For lunch I decided on the bacon cheeseburger ($6.45) and David picked his usual – a Philly Cheese steak sandwich ($7.50).  The Philly had a cheese option of Swiss or nacho cheese sauce.  We asked about the nacho sauce and were told it was from a can – but ‘real good’.  David selected nacho sauce based on that glowing recommendation.  As you can see from the picture they were very (actually too) generous with the canned cheese sauce and David scraped most of it off.  He also said that there wasn’t anything particularly great about the ‘really-good’ nacho sauce.  The rest of the sandwich he said he enjoyed – the beef, onions and peppers were all grilled up well and there was lots of meat.  He said he would order it again, but next time would ask to have it topped with the white queso sauce that is available on the appetizer menu instead of the canned, yellow substance they called nacho sauce.

The 1/3 lb cheeseburger was decent but certainly not in the same league as Bair’s.  The patty was a frozen style but it was cooked properly and wasn’t hocky-puck-ish.  I asked for some shredded Colby-Jack instead of the standard American cheese and it was nicely melted to the top of the patty.  The bacon was good and crispy and the tomatoes were nice & red which was a nice surprise given the season.  The fries were average.

The décor is what I would call a cross between dog & sports.  There are a couple of bull-dog murals whom I understand to be the owner’s dogs – who just happened to be named Meatball and Cooper.  There are some TV’s on the walls for watching that big game and there is some sports stuff scattered here and there to round out the theme.  This place is not a bar – so no alcohol and there is no smoking as well (good for them!). They do have an “oxygen” bar in the back corner so it is probably a good thing there is no smoking.  Having an oxygen bar is kind of strange and I didn’t see anyone belly up to it for a hit of some pure O2.

Service was pretty good – we were checked on frequently and my diet coke did not go empty.  One thing I would mention is that it was very cold in the dining room when we arrived.  Others that were there all had coats on.  I mentioned this to the server who didn’t seem to notice the temperature problem (he had a sweatshirt on).  He went to check and returned saying that the heat had been turned off.  It warmed up after that was corrected.

I would say that the bottom line on Meatball and Cooper’s is that I felt letdown on several fronts.  I understand now that “Meatball” refers to the dog and not the food – but I would think having some great meatballs would be something to strive for given the name.  The promise of “Home-style Cookin’” was not fulfilled with most of the items seeming to be from cans, bottles or the freezer.  On the plus side, the sandwiches we had were ok except for the nacho cheese/philly thing.  I appreciate the non-smoking atmosphere, but that oxygen bar concept is kind of weird.

218 N. Massey Blvd, Nixa – (417) 725-9598

Bob’s Whine and Dine

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Earlier this week I noticed a sign for a new restaurant on West Sunshine that I decided needed a visit.  Rolls N Bowls (RnB) is the name, Vietnamese is the game.  RnB is in the spot where Little Saigon used to be.  I did a little checking there was another name for this same spot for a little while last year – Blue Saigon.  I’m guessing these are new owners but I never went to Little (or Blue) Saigon so I can’t be sure.  What I do know is that RnB joins Bambu to offer Springfield a second option for Pho and other Vietnamese goodies.

Today’s lunch outing was with my buddy Steve who also enjoys a good Pho now and then.  There were only two other tables occupied with we arrived and I was directed to sit wherever I wanted.  The menu seemed to include the normal Vietnamese favorites including several Pho selections, a few plate-type entrées and of all things a sandwich on a French baquette roll.  The sandwich had shrimp on it.  I don’t really like shrimp much, so I decided I better skip that one.

I ended up ordering a bowl of N4 aka Beef & Meatball Pho ($7.49).  Steve selected B1 which was a bowl of noodles (no broth), grilled pork and an egg roll ($7.49).  We decided to split a spring roll ($3.50) so we could get the full roll and bowl experience.

The two spring rolls came out quickly and we were also brought individual bowls of peanut sauce (which avoided a double-dipping scenario).  The spring rolls had noodles, some pork, fresh herbs and 3 shrimp nestled inside a soft wrapper (these are not fried).  We both decided that the rolls were ok – but that we’ve had better rolls elsewhere.  They didn’t have the fresh herb pop that other places have.  The peanut sauce was good and did a nice job of covering up the shrimp flavor.

My Pho come with a small side of bean sprouts, fresh jalapeno slices, a lime slice and some fresh leafy herb (not sure what exactly, but it tasted somewhat like black liquorice).   I added the spouts, a couple of leaves from the herb and the jalapenos to my bowl along with a bit of hoisin sauce from the table.  Doctoring up Pho is part of the ‘Phun’.  The chicken based broth was very good and a bit spicy (maybe due to the jalapenos).  The thin slices of beef had some good flavor and were tender.  The meatballs were some kind of mystery meat.  They had a strange, dense consistency and while didn’t taste bad – were just sort of weird.  I’ll be skipping those next time.  After locating a knife to cut up the noodles in the bottom of the bowl I was able to make a good dent in the large serving.  One thing both Steve and I thought odd was the extraordinarily large spoon that was given to us to eat our meal with.  It is easily twice as large as a normal table spoon.  I used a fork to get to the solids and the ladle (I mean spoon) to sip the broth.

I think Steve’s impression of his meal was good – he emptied his bowl completely.  He did mention that the egg roll was especially good.  I had a piece of his pork and it was tender and tasted good.

Inside the place was bright and clean.  The new paint job looked good.  The dining room is plain without a much in the way of decoration – mainly a big open space with lots of tables.  There is a TV on one wall which was tuned to a news channel while we were there.  The restroom was clean.

Service was pretty good.  My diet Pepsi was always full and our food came out quickly, but there were few other diners during our visit.

We decided that we liked our food.  Prices are just a bit less than Bambu, but I don’t think the portions are quite as large either.  BnR did a good job of satisfying my need for a Pho Phix.

1402 W Sunshine St – (417) 869-1488

Link to Health Inspections

By Bob of Bob’s Whine and Dine

Seems the Tan brothers are at it again.  This time branching out of their Asian and Pacific Rim comfort zone (5 Spice, Ocean Zen, Yum Yum Bowl) and into the trendy bar scene with Flo Eatery and Wine Bar.  Last Saturday, my wife and I decided on an early evening outing to Flo to check things out.

We arrived around 5 p.m. (place opens at 3 p.m. – so not a place for lunch) and found the parking lot with just a few cars.  We were pretty surprised as generally it is hard to find any place to eat without a wait on Saturday evening.

Upon walking in – you immediately notice the décor.  I was seeing red – everywhere.  Red booths, red chairs, red drapes hanging from most of the walls.  If you don’t like the color red – well, you won’t like it here.  There are several lounge areas with couches, low tables and stools that look like giant red marshmallows.  There is seating at the large bar as well as a scattering of tall and regular tables. We settled in at a tall table to check out the menu.

Following the ‘trendy’ bar scene formula, the menu at Flo focuses heavily on appetizers (I think the trendy word is tapas).  There are a few standard bar items (like wings), but most offerings are more upscale in nature and definitely American in selection.  The appetizers are also plated to encourage sharing.  There are only a couple of entrée-sized items.  There is also a sushi menu – it is, after all, a Tan establishment.

We decided on the following:  Caesar Salad for me ($7.95), Baby Greens and Apple Salad for my wife ($7.95), and to share, a Spicy Tuna Roll ($4.50) and Rosemary Garlic Grilled Beef Skewers with mashed potatoes ($12.95).  All of these were from the appetizer menu.

The Caesar Salad was lightly dressed with good flavor.  Instead of traditional croutons, there were 3 slices of crunchy baguette peeking out from under the lettuce which was a nice touch.  My wife reported that her apple salad was good – it came with a balsamic dressing.

The spicy tuna roll was just OK – there wasn’t anything particularly spicy about it and it wasn’t artfully made – it was however inexpensive compared to everything else.  The Grilled Beef Skewers (3 sticks worth) were tender and cooked to a nice medium temperature.  Some of the pieces had more rosemary flavor than others.  The mashed potatoes and gravy were pretty good.  The mushrooms on the side were especially tasty.

We both decided that the food was overall pretty good – but we also thought it was a bit over priced.

Besides ‘Eatery’ the name also includes ‘Wine’ and ‘Bar’.  I think that is the real focus of Flo.  Our server mentioned that Flo has a one of a kind (at least to Missouri) wine dispensing machine.  This machine is supposed to allow the offering of many different wines by-the-glass with each of them being just as fresh as when the bottle was first opened.  Indeed the wine menu is pretty large and there are many choices available by-the-glass.  Prices vary of course, but they offer 1, 3 and 6 ounce portions which would allow one to try several different wines without breaking the bank.  My wife ordered some kind of red wine.  I don’t know about or care for wine, so excuse me from knowing what kind or vintage or anything about it.  She said it was good though (was that helpful?).

I also noticed a vodka wall with what looked like 20 or 30 different vodkas available.  The drink menu is large and features many different types of martinis.  I, of course, stuck with Diet Coke.

Service was top-notch on our visit.  Our server was very friendly – our food arrived quickly and we were checked on often.

There are drink specials every day – and the drink prices during happy hour seemed pretty reasonable.  It’s not really a dinner place, and I’m not trendy which means Flo will not make it onto my regular list of go-to places.  But hey if you are trendy and have the cash – Flo should probably make it on your list.

2925 East Battlefield Ste. 105 – (417) 886-0356

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Cashew Chicken, of the true original recipe at Leong's Asian Diner

By Bob of Bob’s Whine and Dine

I had lunch today at the new Leong’s.  There has been plenty of info recently in the media about the Leong family history and fame as the creator of we all have come to know as Springfiel Style Cashew Chicken, so I won’t go into any of that here.  I will say that the original Leong’s Tea House was a favorite of my wife’s family.  I have great memories of many big group meals at the round table with the Lazy Susan full of Chinese food spinning around – but I digress.  This is all about the new Leong’s Asian Diner.

I think the name should maybe be changed to Leong’s Asian and Diner because if you look at the lunch menu you will see both the original Cashew and Sweet & Sour chicken (and a few other Asian dishes) along with diner lunch classics like burgers and Philly Cheese Steaks.  The lunch menu also lists a set of daily specials (one for each day except Sunday) – but our server said the daily specials aren’t available just yet.  The daily specials were all ‘diner’ choices like pot roast, chicken fried steak, etc…  Their Facebook page has the full lunch & dinner menus posted.

I’m going to keep my comments mainly to the food on this write-up.  The day of my visit, they’ve only been open 3 days and the kitchen and wait staff are obviously still figuring things out – so comments about service and such wouldn’t be fair.

So on to the food.

Wait a second ... a burger at Leong's Asian Diner?

My dining companions made selections of Cashew Chicken and Sweet & Sour Chicken (both $6.99 + .50 for all white meat).  Knowing I would be able to sample theirs I decided to go the ‘diner’ route and chose a burger based on our server’s recommendation.  We ordered some Crab Rangoon ($5.99) for an appetizer to share and my wife ordered a bowl of hot and sour soup.  My wife and I also ordered an egg roll each – but they never showed up on the table.  Fortunately, they weren’t on the bill either and as it turned out we really didn’t need them anyway.

The 6 Crab Rangoon’s arrived first.  (The picture only shows 3 as the first 3 disappeared from the plate before I could get my camera out).  The skins were tough and hard to bite through.  Not sure why that was – but I’ll conjecture that they didn’t make it out to the table as quickly as they should after leaving their hot oil bath.  The filling however, was excellent.  These had real crab (not krab) in them and you could actually taste the little crustaceans.  The filling was savory unlike the ‘sweet’ variety most other places have.  I liked the filling – if the wonton skins had been tender and crispy these would have scored a 10 with me.

My wife reported that the hot and sour soup had a good flavor (I snuck a taste and agreed) but she said it lacked the spicy heat she is used to.  It had some body to it with lots of goodies swimming around.

The Cashew and Sweet & Sour chicken was mostly largish chunks fried up in a light and crispy coating.  The chicken was tender and moist.  I thought Cashew sauce was a very good rendition with a mild flavor and a light consistency.  The Sweet & Sour sauce leans heavily to the sour side of the equation – it had a great tang to it which I enjoyed a lot.  This was a nice change from the overly sweet sauce most other places have.  The fried rice was disappointing.  It was mushy and overcooked.  It was like eating Uncle Ben’s (well maybe not that good).  It did have some nice stuff tossed in – carrot, peas, onion & pork.  An issue of both chicken dishes was that there wasn’t quite enough sauce drizzled over the chicken to go around.

My ½ pound burger with bacon, smoky cheddar and caramelized onion was very good.  The meat was hand pattied, the bacon was thick sliced and the onions were cooked just right.  The cook left just a little pink in the middle which avoided the dreaded hockey-puck-patty syndrome – overall a decent burger indeed.  The fries weren’t very crispy being a fresh cut variety – as such they were just ok.  Even though this is a good burger – at $9.50 I didn’t think it was $2 better than the $7.50 Full Ride at Grad School – especially when you consider the superior fries the Grad School offers.

Inside, the basic layout of the place hasn’t changed too much from the previous 2 incarnations (Charlie’s Chicken and Tortilla’s – I still miss Tortilla’s a lot).   They have managed to erase the previous décor with a simple and elegant interior of light green, red and black.  There is a cool glass topped bamboo-themed partition separating the dining room from the bar area.  The occupancy sign says 99 people max – but that must include the wait staff as well.  The dining room is not all that big and given the hype about the opening – I expect there to be long waits to get in.  We arrived a little after 1pm and had a 20 minute wait.  When we left about 2:30 there were still people waiting for a table.

Finding a place to wait will be problematic during busy times – there is a very small area inside by the reception desk and then some space between the inner & outer doors.  Add people coming and going and things get pretty crowded.  I think they should look at some buzzer coaster things if they continue getting the crowds I saw today – that way you can wait outside when the weather is nice or in your car when it isn’t.

The other thing that I found curious was the pay-at-the-register-when-you-leave process.  I wonder if trying to emulate the ‘diner’ aspect of the place may have led to that decision, but it is absolutely the wrong thing to be doing in my opinion.  I don’t expect or want to wait in a line to get out of a restaurant where the burgers cost $9.50 and you can order a $26 filet & lobster dinner.  I hope they reconsider that decision and let one pay at the table.

So, is Leong’s an Asian restaurant, a diner or maybe something different?  Well, there are some diners in town that serve sweet & sour chicken – usually without a lot of success.  There aren’t any Asian places I’m aware of that serve $19 Ribeyes, Chicken Fried Steak or Pasta.  My guess is that Leong’s really wants to be an up scale American food restaurant – but they really couldn’t have that name in this town and not serve Cashew Chicken and some other Asian favorites.

I will return for dinner after they’ve been open a while and report back on that.

1540 W Republic Rd– (417) 887-7500

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Kazoku Amazing Roll

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Bob unintentionally found Kazoku on opening night, but didn't feel like a 'guinea pig'.

By Bob, Bob’s Whine and Dine

My wife and I were on the east side recently, it was dinner time and we were hungry.  I had noticed that there was a new place going into the spot at Eastgate & Sunshine where Tuscan Grill had been and we decided to drive by and see if it was open – it wasn’t (it is called Nicola’s by the way).  Anyway, while cruising the rest of the shopping center we discovered a Japanese place called Kazoku.  Neither of us had heard of Kazoku before so we decided we better try them out.

When we walked in (around 5pm) there was only one other table occupied.  The menu is similar to other non-habachi style Japanese places with a sushi/nigiri menu and staples such as tempuras, chicken, steak, salmon, scallops, shimp, calamari and lobster hibachi entrées.  Prices for dinner entrées are in the $10 (vegetables) to $17 (filet mignon) range.  There is also a nice selection of appetizers.

We decided to order an ‘Amazing’ roll ($8.50) for a starter.  For dinner I selected the steak & scallop combo ($15.95) and my wife chose the hibachi chicken ($11.95).  We struck up a conversation with our server as she was refilling our drinks and we found out that we had arrived on opening night – and we were among the first in Springfield to visit.   We both thought that was kind of cool but I hoped it didn’t mean we were going to be guinea pigs testing out their new processes.  That, thankfully, turned out not to be the case.

Kazoku's Amazing Roll

The first thing to arrive was our Amazing roll.  The Amazing roll is spicy crab (real crab not krab!) and avocado on the inside with spicy tuna on top drizzled with a nice spicy sauce – it was indeed amazing.  There were really good flavors here with enough spice to make you notice, but not too much to ruin your taste buds.  We really liked this roll.

Soon after the roll came the salad & soup.  The salad was pretty standard for this type of place with the lettuce crispy and the dressing standard but good.  The miso soup however is another story.  Sorry to say that this is probably the BEST miso soup we’ve ever had.  It had more body that any other version I’ve had and the taste was complex.  It was just really good.  We returned for lunch the week after this visit and were bummed out that the miso soup is a dinner only offering.  The explanation was that it takes all day to make and they only serve it fresh – not from the day before.

So far Kazoku hit a solid double with the amazing ‘Amazing’ roll and the miso soup.  Next up – the entrées.  Both entrées were served with some grilled veggies, fried rice (white is also available) and noodles.  The grilled veggies were good with some nice caramelization on the edges – there was a little too much yellow squash for me, but my wife made short work of that.  The fried rice was nice with bits of egg, peas and carrots tossed in.  The noodles were different than I remember getting at other places.  They were more like spaghetti than your typical soba style noodle with quite a bit of body to them.  They weren’t bad – just different.  The 4 scallops that arrived on my plate were nicely cooked and tasted good – there was no grit like I’ve had every time I’ve ordered scallops at Umi.  The steak was cooked just as I ordered and it was very tender.  There were a few pieces that had some gristle but overall it was among the better quality regular steak (non filet mignon) that I’ve had at a Japanese place.  My wife reported her chicken to be good as well – she liked the light sauce it was grilled with.

Our opening night visit was considered a success.  As I mentioned before, we returned for lunch the next week for another Amazing roll and a caterpillar roll (eel, cucumber, avocado) and except for not getting any miso soup – left very pleased.  We also noted that there were lots more people on that visit.

The dining room is spartan in what I would guess is a Japanese style.  The color scheme is black, red and white and has a nice finished look about it – no strange curtained booths like at Wayo.  The tables are placed far enough apart so that you can have a private conversation.  As it is with most strip mall restaurants, in the winter, the single entry door will sweep cold air into the dining room on every entry and exit.

Service was good on both visits.  My diet coke was kept refilled, our food came out in an acceptable time and we didn’t have to wait for our check.

There is one more interesting thing that I should mention.  Remember we were checking to see if Nicola’s was open – well as it turned out, Nicola and his entire family came in and sat at the sushi bar for dinner the night we visited.  They seemed to enjoy their meal as well.

My wife and I enjoyed both of our visits to Kazoku – the miso soup and the awesome roll being two of our favorites.   We will definitely be back next time we are in the mood for Japanese.

3637 East Sunshine Street – (417) 882-1454

Bob’s Whine and Dine

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Meet Whisler's 8 Decker: 8 burger patties, 8 slices of cheese, and 8 pieces of bacon (apologies to the Viral Vegan for having to see this). It's not on the menu but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

By Bob for Bob’s Whine and Dine

I’ve wanted to try Whisler’s ever since my nephew showed me a picture of the eight-decker cheeseburger he ordered there.  In the picture, there were 8 burger patties, 8 pieces of cheese and 8 pieces of bacon – enclosed within a bun and held together with a wooden spear.  Well, an opportunity presented itself recently and I made a lunch trip downtown with friend Steve to check them out.

We arrived around 11:30 and there was just one other person in line when we got there.  We looked over the menu and then struck up a conversation with the person running the place.  We told him we were new and asked what we needed to know.  He replied you can have anything you want as long as it is a burger.  Burgers (and shakes) is all they do here.  There are 6 types of burgers on the menu including a turkey and veggie (Bocca patty) burger.  The variations are mainly add-ons like ham and bacon with cheese tacking on 15 cents per slice.  There is also a lunch deal for $4.60 which includes 2 cheese burgers, chips and a drink.  The lunch deal is what Steve and I opted for – but we did do an upgrade with Steve getting a Pig & Bull (add ham slice) and I got a Sow & Cow (add bacon).

Our burgers were cooked to order on the single grill and then delivered to us in an unassuming paper bag.  What we found in the bag were two smallish burgers.  They aren’t what I would call sliders – I think the patties may be a bit bigger than that but not by much.  The meat to bun ratio is just about perfect on these little guys though.  Each bite had a nice mix of meat, cheese and bacon/ham.  You could taste the meat and I think it was a pretty good quality ground beef.  The patties were also cooked nicely with nice browned edges.  Since they were smallish, I wasn’t stuffed after eating two of them with a bag of chips, but that meant that I did have room to squeeze in some Gelato Mio afterwards.  Without the gelato – I think an order of 3 or 4 would make a more substantial meal – and Whisler’s will accommodate by selling you burgers 5 at a time for $6.25.

Brown Baggin' at Whisler's

There was one issue both Steve and I agreed on that would have made the burgers even better – a toasted bun.  We asked about that while getting some drink refills and the cook said that if it isn’t too busy he will generally toast the bun – next time I’ll be sure to ask for that.

The eight-decker my nephew got was obviously a special order as it isn’t on the menu – but I get the feeling that as long as it is a burger the folks at Whisler’s will try their darndest to please.

Chips and drinks are self-serve.  Seating is very limited with 2 tables inside and 2 tables outside.  It was a nice day when we were visiting so we sat outside.  The sidewalk tables would have been great had there not been a Banta Food truck parked idling across the street making it hard to have a conversation.

Overall – Whisler’s is one of those places that is just kind of neat to go to.  The prices are reasonable and the burgers are good.  I’ll be back.

208 West McDaniel – (417) 864-5565

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The $5 Lunch: Whisler’s

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Gelato Mio

By Bob of Bob’s Whine and Dine

Gelato?  Springfield?  What???  Ok, so maybe it isn’t all that weird – but there is a new rival in the ice cream / frozen yogurt / frozen custard scene in town.  Located just east of Park Central Square is an unassuming spot that looks more like a coffee house than an ice cream place – Gelato Mio.  The menu includes – well Gelato – which turns out to be Italian-style ice cream and sorbet.  Don’t bother asking for a concrete, Sunday, mixin’s or other ice cream fanciness – all you get here is the cold stuff in a cup with a tiny little spoon.

At any one time there are 18 flavors out in the case.  Free samples are encouraged and my wife and I took advantage of that to sample at least 8 or 9 different varieties.  I ended up with a scoop of rocky road and chocolate peanut butter sharing a two scoop cup ($4).  My wife got dark chocolate along with an espresso something in her cup.  Each cup was decorated with a tiny waffle cone.

This is how Gelato Mio does gelato. Right.

Well, turns out gelato is pretty darn good.  It is richer than regular ice cream and has a thick, sticky texture.  The flavors are very intense.  I don’t think they are created with chemicals – but rather the real stuff – chocolate, espresso, peanut butter, etc.  The tastes I had of the fruit gelato made me believe that only real fruit is used to create those flavors.  On a second visit I got the espresso gelato that had chocolate coated coffee beans mixed in – that was an ‘espressolly’ good combo.  On a third visit I got a combo of bananas foster and double dutch chocolate – can’t go wrong with bananas and chocolate.

There are several tables inside to sit and enjoy your gelato as well as a large comfy sectional sofa seating area.  In the back is an art gallery that was featuring a local artist.  On nice days a couple of tables are outside to enjoy the weather.

Also, on our visit, the owner explained that they were starting to sell coffee drinks heading into the fall season.  Not just regular coffee – but coffee with the espresso gelato added in ($3).  For some reason we got a free cup of the coffee during our visit and it was good.

The gelato at Gelato Mio is shipped in from Chicago.  The story we were told is that an Italian family in Chicago is their source and has been making this goodness for over 20 years.  The owner also said that this particular gelato brand is sold in Vegas at Caesar’s Palace.

As you probably have guessed from my several return visits, I particularly like this Gelato stuff.  I now have another good reason to head downtown.

Gelato Mio at Taste of Springfield

207 Park Central East – (417) 766-9383

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The Blue Bull is on the square in the former Riad's location.

By Bob for Bob’s Whine and Dine

The Blue Bull Bar and Grill (BB) sort of snuck up on me this summer.  I’ve been gone a lot and have missed a lot of the news about new places.  Occupying the former Riad’s place smack dab on Park Central Square, the Blue Bull seems to be downtown’s newest place to grab a burger and beer.

It was a gorgeous evening with my wife and I visited and we decided to eat outside to enjoy the weather.  The BB has what I believe to be the largest outside seating area on the square with a nice view of the square and the people wandering around it.

The menu at BB is mainly burgers, sandwiches and salads.  When I asked the server what the ‘specialties’ were she said the burgers and the tenderloin.  I wanted a burger so I selected the Ozark Mountain BBQ Burger and asked for the BBQ sauce on the side.  My wife chose the Spinach Cranberry Salad that comes with grilled chicken.

Ozark Mountain BBQ Burger

Without the BBQ sauce, my burger was really a 1/3 pound bacon cheese burger with caramelized onions.  I’m glad I asked for the BBQ sauce on the side as it had a pretty strong flavor.  The sauce reminded me a bit of the BBQ sauce at Big Whiskey’s down the block as it was sweet, thick and sort of smoky.  It was served on a Ciabatta bun and it looked really good with the cheese all melty, and the onions and bacon peaking out from under the cheese.  So juicy burger, bacon, cheese, onions – it had to taste great right?  Trouble was that darn Ciabatta bun.  See there was too much bread for the size of the burger and I couldn’t really taste the goodness that was happening between the buns.  Mostly I tasted the bread which made the whole thing kind of dry.  This would have been much more successful with a smaller, more traditional, hamburger bun.  The larger Blue Bull Burger which was 2/3 pound or maybe even a whole pound would have been able to stand up to the Ciabatta, but not this one.  On a more positive note, the waffle cut sweet potato fries were really good.  Crispy on the outside, soft on the inside.  Unlike other places, these were not seasoned with sugar or cinnamon – just salt and they were sure yummy.

My wife liked her salad quite a bit; it had pecans, cranberries and some feta to go along with the fresh greens.  It came with a balsamic based dressing.  The chicken was nicely seasoned as well.  She said all of the ingredients went together well.  It was also a fairly large portion – enough to take home for lunch the next day.

The décor of the BB stands up to its name – it is really blue inside.  There are lots of shiny things around to reflect the very blue lights that serve as illumination.  The bar is pretty large with lots of chairs to belly up to it with.  In good weather though – outside is the place to be.

Service was very good on our visit.  My diet coke remained full, our meals came out quickly and the food was hot.

Even though the burger didn’t live up to its looks – I’m pretty sure I’ll be back to the BB.  Next time, I think I’ll try the tenderloin.  Our server was really talking that up as being hand breaded and the best in town.  Since my failed trip to Smith’s – I’ve got a hankering for a good tenderloin sandwich and I hope the one at BB lives up to the hype.

105 Park Central Square – 417-831-BULL (2855)

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Mille's Turn of the Century Cafe, downtown on Jefferson

By Bob of Bob’s Whine and Dine

My wife and I planned a nice evening out visiting downtown for a meal and a movie at the Moxie.  We wanted to eat outside since the weather was nice and decided that Mille’s would fit the bill as they have some outside seating.

Once we got downtown we discovered that Mille’s was hosting their 2^nd Annual Grape Harvest Festival.  They had blocked off the parking lot next door, setup a stage, tables & chairs and a band was playing when we arrived.  We didn’t want to go to the festival so we entered through the front door.  We were seated right away at one of the outside tables.

The ‘Turn of the Century’ moniker gave me a vision of a home cook’n country-style place  – however, don’t be misled.  The menu at Mille’s has no hint of fried chicken or fried pork tenderloin.  Their website says they are Springfield’s only ‘Urban Casual Café’.  I’m not sure what that means exactly but the food selections are certainly on the fancier side and include appetizers like Fondue, Mango BBQ Shrimp and entrées like Chipotle Pork Chops, Sesame Ahi Tuna, and Mahi Mahi Ala Orange.

We ordered drinks and a roasted red pepper hummus appetizer ($6.95) and started to study the menu.  My wife settled on Asian Chicken Salad ($9.95) and since I wanted red meat – I picked the Cherry Port Petite Tenderloin ($19.95).

The drinks took a while to appear but the hummus came out pretty quickly.  The hummus was chunkier in texture that you typically see and it had a good taste.  There were plenty of pita points to go along with it.

Our dinners took a really long time to get to the table.  I’m guessing the activity of the Grape Harvest Festival was having an impact on the kitchen and wait staff.  When dinner finally arrived the plates looked pretty good.  My wife said her salad had lots of fresh greens, and extras like celery and mandarin oranges.  She did say the dressing was oily and was hard to get it to mix.  The salad also arrived with fried chicken instead of the requested grilled chicken.  She didn’t send it back as no telling how long it would have been until a fresh salad arrived.

My tenderloin was described as goat cheese encrusted with a cherry port reduction.  The goat cheese wasn’t ‘encrusted’ onto the meat but instead was dolloped on top of the three tenderloin slices.  This turned out to be good as I didn’t like the goat cheese at all and was able to remove it easily.  I’m not sure I’ve had goat cheese before, but this version was quite musty and there was a lot of it.  The cherry port reduction had a lot of cherries and it was piled over the top of everything.  I did like the sauce.  It was a bit sweet and went well with the beef.  If you like this type of goat cheese, I’m sure you would have loved the combination of the cheese & sauce.  The beef itself was overcooked – it came out well instead of the requested medium.  The garlic ‘smashed’ potatoes were pretty good and the veg of the day was asparagus which was fine.  Given the goat cheese and the overdone beef, I would have been happier with a different choice of entrée.

As I mentioned above, service was very slow and not just because of the kitchen.  There were long periods of time when we didn’t see our server.  My water glass went empty at one point for 15 minutes.  It took 10 minutes to get our check after our server said she would have it right back.  Again, I think the festival had a role in the service issues.  After the hour and a half we were there I was getting concerned about making it to our movie on time.   There is one other thing worth mentioning, we saw all of the other tables around us with a bread basket.  We didn’t get one.

The décor is similar to other downtown venues perhaps a bit more on the bar/grill side than the fine dining side.

Overall, our meals suffered from a couple of mistakes (fried instead of grilled chicken and overcooked beef) and the service was really bad on our visit.  I hope this was an artifact from the festival.  If this service problem happened on a regular night – there is no way I would consider returning.  There are several other things on the menu that sounded good so I’m likely to give Mille’s another shot at some point.

313 S. Jefferson – (417) 831-1996

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Smith's Restaurant is a new to SGF home for home cook'n.

By Bob for Bob’s Whine and Dine

I got really excited when I heard that Smith’s Restaurant was opening a location in Springfield.  For those that don’t know, Smith’s original location is located in the small town of Collin’s Missouri located some 20 miles north of Bolivar on Highway 13.   Smith’s in Collins over the years has become a favorite place of mine to stop for a great home cook’n meal on the way to and from Kansas City.  Their claim to fame is a giant pork tenderloin sandwich which is the biggest and best I’ve ever seen or had.  The tenderloin is so big, they also offer a ½ size which is about the size of other place’s regular sized sandwich.  Smith’s is also a favorite for their ham, beans and cornbread along with home-made pies & cobblers.  It was always a special treat to stop for some home cook’n food.  It was also a popular place with the parking lot would getting quite full during lunch and dinner.

This popularity led to the opening of another location in Bolivar some years back.  I had a chance to visit that location once and found the same satisfying food.  The Bolivar location is more modern and that home-town diner charm is lost somewhat.

This all leads me to my recent visit to the new Springfield location.  My lunch partner on this trip was my mother-in-law who was looking forward to some beans and ham.  When we arrived about 12:45 the parking lot was pretty full.  Turning into the parking lot was a bit of a challenge crossing Glenstone, but we finally made it and ended up with a slot out front.

Once we got in the door, the first thing we noticed was the mob of people in the little reception area.  At first I wondered if we should go somewhere else as I didn’t really want to wait a long time for a table, but upon further investigation, these people weren’t waiting to get in – rather they were waiting to get out.  See, Smith’s is a pay at the door as you leave kind of place.  I would estimate at least 20 people were in line to pay and leave when we arrived.  The line snaked through the reception area, down the hall and into the dining room.  Since it was 12:45 I suppose there were one or more groups heading back to work and everyone had a separate check.  It was a Friday.

Anyway, once we found the hostess, we were seated immediately in a booth and started looking over the menu.  Of course, I knew what I was going to order – yes, the ½ tenderloin $6.99.  There were two special’s on the day of our visit, an all-you-can eat fried chicken buffet for $8.99 or a meatloaf dinner also for $8.99.  Ham and beans weren’t on the menu which bummed my mother-in-law out.  Turns out the H&B is a special available only on Tuesdays.  She ended up also ordering the ½ tenderloin.  The sandwiches come with your choice of fries or slaw.  I wanted to try both so I ordered the slaw as an extra side.

Our meals came out very quickly and I noticed that my tenderloin was a quite a bit smaller in size than my mother-in-laws.  I think she ended up with the full tenderloin by mistake – but I remedied that by switching with her.   The ½ tenderloin is still a pretty big sandwich with the meat spilling over the sides of the bun.  I typically cut the meat in half then stack what are now 2 meat patties back on the bun for a double-decker.  It was during this process that I noticed the first problem.  The tenderloin was just warm – nowhere near the temperature expected for a freshly made sandwich.  The other sandwich had the same issue.  The taste of the tenderloin was good but it would have been so much better had it been hot.  The fries also suffered from this temperature problem – with them being just warm and soggy.  I think I would have liked the fries had they been hot and crispy.  My theory is that there were a bunch of fries & tenderloins made up ahead of time and set under a heat lamp – then plopped on a bun/dish when they were ordered.  The quickness of the delivery would seem to support that theory.  I was bummed.

The slaw was interesting.  It was sort of yellowish/greenish in color and soupy.  It didn’t look very appetizing and I seem to remember this same thing from the Collin’s location.  The taste however was good and on the sweet side.  I asked if the slaw was always that way and our server said yes.  If this were served in one of them fancy eat’n places, they would call it a cold sweet cabbage soup and probably charge $5 for it.  I would prefer it not having so much dressing.

Wanting to try desert, I ordered a serving of blackberry cobbler and my mother-in-law ordered a slice of coconut cream pie – both to go.  When I had the cobbler later that night I thought there was way more blackberry goo than actual blackberry’s in the serving I received.  At least the crust was good.  My mother-in-law said she didn’t like the CC pie saying it had way too much whipped cream and the filling was too sweet.

Service was pretty good during our visit except for what seemed like a pretty long wait for our server to show up the first time.  The glasses used for soda and tea are large, so I only needed one refill on my diet coke.

This particular building has been home to at least a Mexican place, an Asian place and most recently a Ziggy’s location.  The décor has been countrified with old barnwood and antiques adorning the walls and ceilings.  There is a mix of booths and tables and the dining area is separated into several sections.  There are also 2 party rooms available for groups.

As I mentioned above, there is a major traffic flow problem with the reception area.  When I checked out there were 5 people in line.  It is just too small to serve as a check out and check in area and it gets very crowded.  – They should rethink that.  One should also take seriously the little sign on the front door asking you to watch your step – there is a lip on the front door’s threshold that you will trip over if you aren’t paying full attention.

Overall, I was disappointed.  I may have had unrealistically high expectations, but the sandwich was a letdown.  Also, I would be angry if I had to wait in a line of 20 people to check out.  I do intend to go back and try it again and hope that the tenderloin failure on this visit was a fluke.  But as I’ve wondered in the past about other places, why does it always seem to happen to me?

935 N. Glenstone Ave – (417) 832-0255

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D'Arpino's

By Bob – Bob’s Whine and Dine

Lunch this day was with my wife and father-in-law at D’Arpino’s. I’ve been to D’Arpino’s several times in the past and have always liked the food here. Today was no exception.

D’Arpino’s has a daily special – usually for $7.95 including a salad and drink. Today’s special was lasagna. My father-in-law ordered that, my wife selected the sausage calzone ($7.95) and I chose the meatball sub ($7.95).

My father-in-law liked his salad, and said his lasagna was very good – with a nice spicy sauce. It was a pretty large portion for a lunch item and while he isn’t a big eater – he nearly finished the entire plate.

My wife’s calzone looked great – nicely browned on the outside, gooey on the
inside with meatballs, mozzarella and ricotta cheese. It was served with a side of the really nice marinara. She liked her lunch a lot. I had a taste and while I usually don’t like ricotta cheese I found that it worked well in this calzone.

My meatball sandwich was another winner. The meatballs were great – tender with a really nice flavor. It was served on what looked like a homemade hoagie roll which was tender on the inside and a bit chewy on the outside – the perfect bread for this sandwich. It also was dripping with mozzarella and sauce such that I needed a fork & knife to eat the first half of the sandwich.

On past visits, I’ve also enjoyed the spaghetti and meatballs, the egg plant
parmesan, the chicken parmesan and the lasagna. The house salad dressing on the side salad is very good as well.

Décor is a step above your standard strip mall. Warm colors on the walls,
ceramic tile on the floor (be careful though as it can be slippery), paintings and posters on the wall. I think I heard Frank Sinatra a few times in the background music. It is a pretty comfortable place for a meal unless it is cold outside. There is just one door opening into the restaurant and the cold air can really be felt across the dining room.

Service was spotty today. The dining room was nearly full with a couple of large groups present. The two servers working were really busy. We didn’t get any bread & butter to munch on (it was mentioned at one point however). It took a while after we finished our meal to get our check.

I really like the food at D’Arpino’s. It is good classic Italian. It is a busy place and reservations are recommended for dinner. I’ll be back.

3014 S. National – (417) 889-9898

Cedars Chicken Fried Steak is $4.99 at any time of day

By Bob – Bob’s Whine and Dine

Originally published on BWAD (2/5/09)

I’ve been to Cedars twice in the last week for lunch – first with Danny, then again with some of my family. Cedars has two locations – the one I went to on South Campbell across from Wal-Mart and another one (the original?) on West Bypass.

We arrived for lunch both times about half past noon and the place was really jumping. Fortunately we were able to find an empty table both times. Also in both cases, the place pretty much emptied out by the time we were ready to leave after 1pm.

The first visit I ordered the country fried steak ($4.99) that comes with mashed potatoes and a vegetable. The veggie I chose this day was brown beans – the other choice was peas – but I think the veggies change each day as our second visit the choice was baked beans or corn.

The steak was large, nice and crispy outside, tender inside and was seasoned well. The potatoes were not freshly mashed and were either a better than average instant or some other pre-prepared item. They had a good consistency and weren’t bad – but they had that taste of processed food. The beans were very good with bits of ham. The white gravy covering everything was pretty good as well. For $4.99 – this was a really good lunch and was really more than I should have eaten.

On my second trip, I ordered the “Hillbilly” sandwich which turned out to be ground beef, breaded and fried like the country fried steak and served on a toasted hoagie roll. It came with a side of fries, pickle chips, onion, a tomato slice, lettuce and some mayonnaise in a little cup. The meat was formed into a long rectangular patty that extended beyond the hoagie roll on both sides. It had the same type of breading as the country fried steak and I liked it as well. The
fries were a thicker frozen variety – they were ok.

Danny ordered the cashew chicken ($4.99 and I didn’t like it). Others on the second trip had the pork tenderloin (good), spaghetti and meatballs ($4.99 good), pork steak ($4.99 good). With the exception of the cashew chicken – all of the home-style diner food was good. My wife especially liked the BBQ baked beans she had with her meal – she said they were the best baked beans she has ever had.

Cedars has a small salad bar which none of us tried. Breakfast is served in the morning. There are 6 to 10 specials everyday – with most in the $5 to $7 range. The décor is strip mall with some old farm implements hanging on the wall. The restrooms were clean.

Service was very good on both visits – with our friendly servers checking in on us frequently and my diet Pepsi getting refilled when needed.

To tell the truth, I have been avoiding Cedars for a long time. My first and until last week only experience with Cedars was at the West Bypass location many years ago. At that time the place was dirty, smoking was still allowed (this was before the non-smoking ordinance). I have let that experience keep me from trying the South Campbell location. I’m sorry I did that for so long.

The best thing about Cedars is the standard diner food selection – it is pretty good and  inexpensive. I will be back.

Bob’s Whine and Dine

3322 S Campbell Ave – (417) 890-1984

Everybody deserves a vacation, including Bob. While Bob enjoys a cruise on the Alaskan coast, we bring you reviews from the archive.

La Fiesta

Originally published 12/7/07
La Fiesta is located in the small strip center in the Home Depot parking lot on South Glenstone in what used to be Schlotzsky’s. I consider La Fiesta to be (in Steve’s ranking) in the top tier of Mexican restaurants in town. We had lunch on Sunday after church with a group of about 11. We were seated in our own section of the restaurant in the back and it felt like we had the place to ourselves.

The chips were warm and tasted good, the salsa was freshly made and had a really good flavor – it also had a bit of heat to it which I enjoy. Steve ordered guacamole and I thought it was good when I tried it, chunky with nice bits of tomato and onion – perhaps a bit too much onion though in this batch.

Bob’s Whine and Dine

My wife and I decided to order two dishes we have had before, the Special Taco Avodado and the Chipotle Fajitas. The Taco Avodado are three open face corn tortillas topped with seasoned pork, onions and cilantro. I’ve had this twice before and loved it.

This time however things were different. There was a great deal of onion on top and a lot of cilantro – my wife does not like cilantro so she opted out of trying the dish after seeing so much on it. Removing the excess of both of these ingredients was helpful – but the pork is what was disappointing this time. In the past the pork was in small chunk form and had a very nice texture and flavor. This time, the pork was shredded and the texture mushy. This really let me down and I didn’t enjoy the dish near as much as before.

There was something missing in the taste this time as well – and I figured it out after I finished the last taco. I forgot to put the special hot sauce on top that the dish comes with – this was a big mistake on my part as I remembered that the hot sauce is what really stepped up the flavor. I will be trying these tacos again hoping that this was a one-time issue with the pork.

The other dish we tried was the Chipotle Fajitas. We got the mix of chicken and beef and both were tender and flavorful. What makes this one of my favorites however, is the chipotle sauce that they add to the fajitas during cooking – it really elevates this from a good fajita plate into a great fajita plate. The chipotle sauce adds a great flavor and doesn’t overpower the other ingredients. Definitely a dish to come back for.

Service today was very good with my diet coke getting refilled frequently. We got our food in an appropriate time and our server was by often to check on us. This was a nice change from the last time we came to eat here with a group after church. The last time, we waited a very long time for our food – I’m glad to see that they have addressed that issue.

The decor is nice with a modern look and lots of natural light from the windows. This is something that you don’t see much in most Mexican restaurants in town – which tend to be kinda dark.

Even with the problem with my Taco Avodado today this is still my favorite Mexican restaurant in town – fresh ingredients, really tasty food, and nice atmosphere (did I mention very good margarita’s?). When I want Mexican food – this is my first choice.

Bob’s Whine and Dine

3825 S. Glenstone Ave – (417) 886-7040

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Farmers Gastropub has been on my list to visit for a while.  Danny, Steve and I finally got a chance to have lunch again (which has been sort of a rare occasion lately) and we decided a trip to Farmers Gastropub would be in order.  I’ve heard mixed reviews from people I’ve know that have been there so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect.

We arrived about noon-thirty and there were just a few other tables occupied.  We selected a table along the wall and started reviewing the menu.  Steve ordered us a starter of hummus and “crudites” ($7).   We all wanted to try something different so Danny picked the fish & chips ($9), Steve got the Cottage Pie ($9) and I selected the burger ($9).   We wanted to try the Bangers & Mash but that item (as well as the sausage roll appetizers) were ‘not available’ on the day of our visit.  Funny thing to run out of for a ‘pub’.  The dinner menu appears to be a fixed-price ($36 this week) affair where you select from a couple of appetizers, entrees and deserts.  The dinner menu also appears to change frequently – I supposed based on what is available from their local vendors.

In short, Farmers' burger doesn't get a standing "O" from Bob.

I wasn’t familiar with the term crudites (I was pronouncing it ‘Krud’-ites) and wasn’t sure what we were going to be getting with our humus.  Turns out the term is actually crudités (pronounced ‘krew-di-tey’) and is French for cut veggies served with a dip.  So what we got were a few rounds of toasted baguette and a selection of cut veggies to go along with our ‘dip’.  We all found the veggies good but the humus fairly lackluster.  We also asked for and got a few more baguette rounds (which were good by the way) as there wasn’t quite enough dipping implements for the whole bowl of humus.

Danny’s fish looked pretty good and had a nice crunchy batter.  It was served with what we think was some homemade tartar sauce which Danny said was really good.  I had a taste of the fish and thought it was ok, but nothing spectacular – the batter could have used a bit more seasoning.

Steve’s Cottage pie is a take on Shepard’s pie.  The potato layer was nicely browned and very thick while the meat layer was pretty thin.  It was served with some sautéed zucchini which I’m glad I didn’t get (I don’t like that zucchini stuff).  Steve, however, liked the vegetables.  I had a taste of the pie and thought it was bland needing more seasoning.   Steve agreed with that assessment.

My burger arrived and I was pretty stoked because it looked sooooo good.  The bun had been toasted on a Panini grill and had those cool-looking toast marks on top.  The burger patty was obviously done by hand and the cheese was melted into all the nooks & crannies of the patty.  I added some ketchup along with the supplied tomato and lettuce to the burger and went to savor my first bite.  This, however, is where my love affair with this burger ended.  There was something wrong with the patty.  It was cooked just like I had ordered – a bit past medium – and had what at first tasted like a great charcoal flavor.  But that charcoal flavor quickly turned into a bad metallic/chemical taste.  Danny and Steve were looking at me kind of funny so I had them both try the meat and they agreed there was something very wrong there.  It is hard to describe the flavor.  We all wondered if they had left some cleaning solution on the grill or something.  Needless to say I was very disappointed.

Bob’s Whine and Dine

Moving on, the fries were OK.  They were fresh-style and somewhat crispy.  Not bad, but not as good as Grad School across the street.  The amount of catsup I got was not quite enough for all of the fries.

Service was just OK.  I had to ask for each drink refill but at least they came back quickly.  Our food was brought out in an acceptable amount of time.

There is an attempt to make this Gastro’PUB’ look a bit like a British pub inside and it works OK for Springfield.  There are chairs at the large bar, several large 6 person tables available in addition to the 4 tops we sat at as well as some booths.  There is another dining room towards the back of the space where the tables had white tablecloths.  I guessed that this is for evening dining as it was closed off on our visit. There is also a nice large outside eating area which looked like a great place to get some fresh air on warm evenings (I’m pretty sure smoking is allowed out there thought so maybe you won’t get fresh air).

So, bottom line – the food Danny & Steve got at lunch was pretty ho-hum with just about everything needed more seasoning.  That mirrors some of the comments I’ve heard from others.  The burger was downright awful.  I’m really hoping that this was a one-time deal and there is a simple explanation for the burger since it looked so darn good.  If that is typical of anything coming off the grill – then I would say stay away from any grilled items.  If it was a one-time deal though – why does it always seem to happen to me?

As I was leaving, I looked down the sidewalk, saw Grad School sitting there and wished I’d gone there for my burger & fries (can you say ‘Full Ride’?).

Bob’s Whine and Dine

431 S. Jefferson – (417) 864-6994

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We have another BBQ restaurant in town – Billy Sims Barbecue (BSBBQ).  They opened up in mid July on South Glenstone near the Supercenter complex where the Boston Market restaurant used to live.  I love BBQ and there are only a couple of places here in town that are my go-to places for this simple, yummy, yet seemingly “hard to make well” food genre.  Of course I had to check it out.  I’ve been for lunch twice now and am ready to report in on what I thought.

Both visits were during a busy lunch hour but we didn’t have any trouble finding a table as they seem to turn around pretty quickly.  The process at BSBBQ is fast-food single-queue style.  You line up to examine the overhead menu board while making your way to the first stop at the meat cutting station.  This is where you tell the staff your BBQ selections.  On both visits I selected combo plates and have been able to sample, the pulled pork, sliced brisket, ribs, turkey and bologna (yes they smoke bologna here).

After you order, the meat-cutter then slices and portions your meats using a scale (except for the ribs which are counted out).  I noticed that for the pulled pork they add a bit of seasoning from a large shaker and mix that all up before putting it on your plate.  Next stop is the sides station.

The sides selection (sideliners) is pretty typical but has no fried items.  One interesting selection is listed as ‘mini-huskers’ – which is smoked corn on the cob.  I stuck with my usual cole slaw and BBQ beans on both visits.  Combo plates come with a piece of Texas toast.

The last stop is the register where you trade your money for food.

Bob’s Whine and Dine

Bottom line – I really liked the meats.  They all had a great smoky flavor with that nice dark outer smoky layer.  The meats were all tender as well.  The ribs weren’t fall-off-the-bone but were still tender and easy to eat.  The brisket & pork were just a bit on the dry side, but adding sauce fixed that right up.  Speaking of sauce, choices include regular and spicy.  Both were good but I fixated on the spicy one.  The bologna was an interesting meat to try.  It was well smoked like the rest of the meats and because of that, the taste was more smoke than bologna.  I’m glad I tried it but truthfully I don’t know why, for the same price, one would pick bologna over pork or beef.

(Sorry for no food pictures, for some reason my camera weirded out and they didn’t come out.  I’ll post food pics next time I visit.)

While the meat was good, the sides were ho-hum; nothing really special there.  The beans were a little weird.  There is pulled pork mixed into them – but the pork is so finely pulled that it makes the beans look stringy.  They would at least look better if the meat were little chunks instead of pork threads.

Drinks, plasticware– well everything really – is pretty much self serve.  During our visits at lunch time there were a couple of people making their way around the dining room asking if you needed anything.  Food is served on those plastic plate/basket things with a paper liner.

The dining room is pretty much left over from Boston Market and is pretty spartan but kept clean.  The ordering queue however is not easy to get to if you enter from the north side of the building.  It is a tight fit to get to the start of the line between the ropes that mark the queue and the first row of tables.  I would recommend entering on the south side of the building to avoid threading your way to the ordering line.

BSBBQ also has a drive-thru which I plan to make use of when I want my BBQ to go.

I’ll be back to Billy Sims Barbecue – it being close to where I live makes it likely I’ll be back often.

3757 South Glenstone Ave – (417) 883-7467

Link to Web Site

Link to Facebook

Link to Health Inspections

Bob’s Whine and Dine

Wayo opened up on South Glenstone in the spot formerly occupied by Beano (and Burger King before that) earlier this year.  The week it opened I made a visit with my brother and his family and decided against doing a review at that time as they were obviously working out many kinks.

I drive past Wayo almost every day and have wanted to try it again.  A gift of a $15 off coupon from a friend pushed me to make a dinner trip with my wife and niece (hungry college student) recently.

Our visit was on a Monday evening.  When we arrived there was one other table occupied.  We sat at one of the regular tables because I thought the closed-in booths looked sort of creepy.

The dinner menu at Wayo is pretty simple.  You can get Teriyaki, Bento Boxes, Sashima/Sushi (chef’s choice on those), Tempura, Noodles as well as something called Katsu – pork or chicken breaded & fried.  Most dinners come with soup, salad and rice.  On my first visit both my brother and I got the ‘Spicy Chicken’ Teriyaki ($12.95) and found it to be almost too hot to eat (especially when you don’t get your drink refilled).  I’m not sure if that is the standard preparation, but on that night it was – it was very hard to enjoy.

So, staying away from the Spicy Chicken, I decided to go for the Bento Box ($13.95).  For the Bento Boxes, there are 10 entrée items to choose from and you can pick 2.  I chose the Teriyaki beef & spicy tuna roll for my box.  My wife ordered the Soba noodles with Chicken ($8.95) as she really liked the noodles on our first visit.

My niece decided on the Shrimp Teriyaki dinner ($13.95) which is her default meal at most any Japanese restaurant.

Bob’s Whine and Dine

We all got miso soup to start our meals, but the soup arrived just a few minutes before our entrées (more on that later).  I thought the soup was ok.  We never got the promised salads.

Bento Box at Wayo

The rolls were ok but not very spicy without the added kick from some wasabi.  I liked the teriyaki beef.  It had a very good flavor and the grilled veggies were all fresh and tasty.  The tempura vegetables were also pretty good and even included a fried asparagus spear, but they were just a bit on the greasy side.  The rangoons weren’t anything special.  The fruit (apple, melon & orange) was a nice touch – and the orange was artistically cut which was fun.  There was a good amount of food in the box and overall I liked it a lot.

My wife said she liked the Soba noodles & chicken.  There were lots of nice fresh veggies and everything was well cooked.  My niece also liked her meal of Shrimp Teriyaki.  So overall we were very pleased with our meals.

Service was a big, big issue on our first visit and unfortunately it was still an issue on this visit.  There was one server working on this particular evening.  I think there were, at the most, 4 tables occupied at any one point during our visit – which I didn’t think would be too challenging.  But obviously it was – we waited a lot for just about every part of our meal.  It took a long time before we were asked for our drink orders.  It took a long time before we got our food orders taken.  We never got our salads, the soup arrived 2 minutes before our entrees.  Refills were few (good thing I didn’t do the spicy chicken!).  And it took a really long time after we were done to get our check.  It was just a frustrating experience.

The chef made it by at one point to check on us.  I met him on our first visit and we liked him a lot.  On that first visit, we got some freebies during the meal, probably because my 5 year old nephew was with us that time.  We got a sampling of noodles and some yummy fried bananas at the end of the meal.  No freebies on this last visit though.

As far as décor goes, they did a pretty good job of removing the fast-food aura of the place.  The color scheme is black & red.  There are enclosed booths lining the outer walls which require a small step up and a twist to the side to get into them.  They have some red curtains covering the upper part of the opening.  The seats in the boots are hard-looking benches.  I don’t think I would like eating in one of the booths as they look a little ‘Munster-ish’.  The sushi bar is located in the ‘lobby’ just inside the doors and you can sit there, order & watch your sushi being made.  The restroom was clean.

The food at Wayo was really pretty good and I liked being able to get a Bento box at dinner time as most Japanese places make that a lunch-only choice.  The service issues are likely to keep me from coming back though – it was very frustrating.

Wayo is open really late (1am) on most nights and have drink & sushi specials for the late night crowd.  I hope someone comments about what late-night at Wayo is like and perhaps let us know how the sushi & sashimi are as we really didn’t go there on this last visit.

2119 S. Glenstone – (417) 886-0300

Link to Facebook Page

Link to Menu

Link to Health Inspections

I recently got a gift certificate to Lola’s Pastries & Eatery in Nixa from a good friend.  Naturally I needed to go spend it, so last week my wife and I headed south to Nixa for lunch.

We arrived around noon and found the parking lot to be just about full – which is typically a good sign.  We were greeted at the door and were immediately taken to a table in the back room.

Lola’s is open for breakfast & lunch and the lunch menu is “tea-roomish” consisting of sandwiches, salads & soups with combos of each available.  My wife chose the “Heart Healthy Lunch Combo” ($5.99) which was a ½ order of Lola’s chicken salad with a cup of vegetable soup along with some crackers and a small fruit cup.  I picked one of the specialty sandwiches, the Roman Roast Beef Ciabatta ($6.19), roast beef, grilled onions & red peppers on a ciabatta roll.  Instead of the standard blue cheese dressing I requested some horseradish sauce.  Lay’s style chips, a pickle spear and orange slice rounded out the plate.

My sandwich wasn’t large, but it sure tasted good.  The grilled onions and peppers along with the horseradish sauce was a great combination.  The roast beef was standard deli style.  I also liked the ciabatta roll as a sandwich holder.  What I didn’t really understand though was the name – what is Roman about a roast beef sandwich?

My wife said the chicken salad was good.  It had grapes but wasn’t overly sweet.  It was also very lightly dressed which she really liked (for the fewer calories aspect).  I had a taste of the soup and it had a much richer broth that I expected.  It also had lots of veggies – so 2 thumbs up on the vegetable soup.

Bob’s Whine and Dine

For desert we decided to try the ‘chalk board special’ – a guiltless strawberry cake.  This was not a winner.  The desert consisted of a small piece of strawberry cake hiding beneath a big pile of soggy strawberries.  The cake was probably ok – but it was soaked through with the juice from the strawberries ladled on top.  The strawberries may have been fresh at some point, but based on the texture and consistency they seemed to be of frozen-then-thawed variety.  A pile of fresh strawberries was what this needed.  At least they were not sweetened with sugar so the calorie count was likely in the guiltless range.

Service was very good during our visit even though Lola’s was pretty busy.  Our server checked on us often and my diet coke was kept at an acceptable level.

Lola’s occupies what used to be a ‘50’s-style all-brick ranch house.  There are two main dining areas and the tables are nicely spaced.  They do have room for quite a few folks which is necessary since it was very busy on our visit.  It is a nice place to have lunch.

I liked the food at Lola’s and I’m likely to go back when I’m in Nixa at lunch time.  I felt the food was better than my recent visit to the Bee-Stro and the prices were better too.

Bob’s Whine and Dine

110 N Fort St, Nixa – (417) 725-9225

Nixa, MO 65714

Link to Website

Link to Health Inspections

The Bee-Stro café is co-located with the Honey Heaven store on the Lawrence photo strip center on South Campbell.  I’m still not exactly sure why I visited the Bee-Stro except that I was told that I was taking my wife, sister-in-law and mother-in-law out to lunch and that was where they wanted to go.

We arrived during prime lunch time and the place was pretty busy but they found us a table right away and we settled in.  It took quite a while for someone to come back for our drink orders.

The Bee-Stro café fits into the tea-room category of places to eat and so the menu is pretty typical tea room with salads, sandwiches, quiche and soup.  The twist here is that most items include honey in some form or the other as part of the dish.

Two in our party got quiche and the other two got sandwiches.  My selection was the ‘Tracy Special” which was a grilled honey-mustard chicken sandwich with Muenster cheese on a ciabatta roll for $8.99.  Sandwiches come with a small salad on the side as do the quiche.  Sandwich & quiche prices are all $8.99, salads run $6.99 and a bowl of soup will set you back $4.99.  Link to menu.

While we waited for our food – our server dropped by a couple of small plates of Lay’s chips drizzled with some honey-mustard salad dressing.  It was sort of a tasty way to start things off.

When our food arrived, I was a bit disappointed with the size of my sandwich – it was on the smallish side.  But then again, that was probably good as I’m supposed to be eating less anyway.  The salad consisted of nice fresh greens with a small bit of tomato & onion.  It also came with a small slice of watermelon and a grape.

I chose the parmesan peppercorn dressing and thought it was a very good rendition.  The menu says they make all their own salad dressings.  The sandwich was ok – but I’m pretty sure that the chicken patty wasn’t freshly grilled.  The chicken breast was also a bit on the dry side, but it did have a nice coating of honey-mustard sauce.

There was more honey-mustard on the side for spreading and that helped moisten things up.  The ciabatta roll was good and had been warmed.  To finish off the plate, was a tiny chocolate chip muffin – which was pretty good.

Others in the group all liked their meals.  The “Ricks Special’ sandwich looked pretty good with a nicely toasted marble rye bread encasing the turkey & cheese.   We didn’t try any deserts – but several of the choices mentioned by our server sounded good.

Service was non-existent at first and we waited quite a while before a server came over to take our drink orders.  It was better after that.  It seemed like they were short-handed on our visit and our server apologized for our long wait.  I also had a long wait at the front counter for someone to appear to take my money.  Diet Coke is served in cans – so I didn’t attempt any refills, but water & tea refills were offered several times.

There are several dining areas in this combo tea room & honey-themed shop.  I was shocked and pleased that they didn’t cram in as many tables as possible like some other tea rooms I’ve visited.  The décor is honeyfied – with honey stuff everywhere you look.  Clientele is made up of mostly the female of our species – but there were a few gents dining including a Lieutenant Colonel from our very own U.S. Armed Forces (Go Army!).  As we left I noticed the ladies at the 2 or 3 tables in the front room of the place all having a good time playing some kind of card game after finishing their lunch.

I think people that like tea rooms will like the Bee-Stro café.  I thought it was a bit pricey for what you get, but my wife likes the Bee-Stro so we may be back at some point.

2516 S. Campbell Ave – (417) 869-0233

Link to Website

Link to Health Inspections

Friend Kelly said there was a new restaurant in the Dillons strip mall on West Battlefield road.  My wife and I were driving by at dinner time the other night and discovered it was Springfield’s newest Mexican place called El Sombrero.

There were only a couple of tables occupied when we arrived and we were seated next to the front window.  Drink orders were made, chips & salsa was delivered and we started in looking at the menu.

The menu is typical of most Mexican places in town – probably 100 choices of the standard fare – burritos, enchiladas, fajitas, combo meals as well as some  house ‘specialties’.  A homemade sign at the cash register advertised $1.99 margaritas (with a limit of 3), unfortunately we don’t get to test whether the limit is actually enforced.   My wife settled on the chicken fajitas ($9.99) and I picked what I usually order at a new Mexican place – the pork – carnitas in this case ($8.50).

The chips and salsa were pretty standard.  The salsa, delivered in the typical salsa carafe, tasted fresh and wasn’t spicy – I forgot to ask if they have a spicier version.

My wife liked her fajitas.  I had a couple of bites and found them to be seasoned pretty well with a lot of chicken and onions.  It was a good sized portion and she was able to make 3 meals out of it.

Bob’s Whine and Dine

My carnitas were a bit of a surprise.  When the plate arrived, I found several very large chunks of pork looking at me – I’m used to smaller pieces.  Carnitas can be somewhat fatty and these were no exception.  While my friend Steve thrives on pork fat – I like my meat leaner.  Fortunately the pork was tender and the fat easy to separate from the meat.  The meat itself was tender and tasted pretty darn good – I was glad I made this selection.  This pork would be even better if paired with a nice green or red chili sauce.  There was one other nice touch to this dish – a whole roasted jalapeno pepper on the side to spice things up.  The rice and beans were pretty good perhaps a bit better than average for our town.

Service was good during our visit with our drinks staying full and our meals delivered quickly.

Everything is new inside.  The dining room is sectioned off into 3 areas.  Décor is nice and light with flowers & fruit artwork on the walls.  There weren’t any cartoon peppers, piñatas, sombreros or other south of the border type of items around so there are few cues that you are in a Mexican restaurant.  The upholstery on the booth seats are a strange color green though.

Overall we both enjoyed our meals at El Sombrero.  In the BWAD 3 tier Mexican Restaurant rating system (1 is best – 3 is well, not best) – El Sombrero earns a solid tier 2 rating – perhaps even on the upper end of tier 2.

Bob’s Whine and Dine

1529 West Battlefield Road – (417) 887-8810

Link to Health Inspections

Steve, Danny, Kelly and I ended up at Arris’ Pizza after a failed attempt at trying another place in town (it had closed).  I’ve been to Arris’ in the past but it has been a while.

We got there right before the big lunch crowd appeared and I think we may have gotten the last table.  I remembered from previous visits that this is a popular place and there is often a wait for a table.

Kelly got a Gyro since he didn’t want to share pizza with the rest of us.  I believed he liked it pretty well.   We other 3 decided on 2 large pizzas – one split ½ and ½ so we could try a variety of ingredients.  We ended up with the following: Full House Special ($16.25) and a ½ Sweet & Sassy and ½ Black & Blue Supreme ($16).   We thought 2 large pizzas would be just enough for 3 hungry guys, but there was about ½ of a pizza left over even after eating more than we should have – they were pretty substantial.

The House Special is the one I focused on and it was the one that had Arris’ homemade Greek sausage – which was the highlight of the pizza.  The sausage is in rather large chucks and for the most part, each piece of pizza had one large chunk of sausage on it.  The sausage had a mild flavor and the Greek seasonings made for a really tasty topping – the large pieces added to the experience.   Other toppings included ground beef, pepperoni, green peppers, onions and mushroom.  This was my favorite of the 3 styles we had this day.

I did not try the Black and Blue as I do not like blue cheese – that pizza had black olives, blue cheese, tomatoes, and the Greek sausage.  I also had a few pieces of the Sweet & Sassy – Canadian bacon, breakfast bacon, pineapple, onions and jalapeños.  One of my favorite pizza combos includes pineapple & jalapeños.  However, I didn’t care for this pizza as the two types of bacon overwhelmed the other ingredients – leaving the pizza too salty and too smoky for my tastes.

The crust on the pizza is better than average.  It was almost like a thin crust ‘Chicago-style’ crust which is more flakey than doughy.  It was not crisp all across the bottom, but the edges were nice and crispy and it did hold itself up when you picked up a slice.  The crust had a really good flavor – especially the crispy edges.

Speaking of slices & edges – Arris’ does the square-cut style when cutting their pizzas – I don’t like that!  I feel like I get ripped off when I end up with a square piece from the middle of the pizza that has no edge crust on it.  Fortunately for me – Steve and Danny volunteered to eat the middle pieces so I could always get some edge crust on my slices.

Service wasn’t outstanding but it wasn’t terrible either.  At times workers other than our server checked on our drink status and got us refills.

The dining room is fairly large and they have tables spaced out to accommodate groups (there were several on the day we went).  There is a small bar area with tall tables in the corner.  There is also a wide open kitchen that lets you watch what is going on in there.

Overall, the pizza was a hit and miss for me – a hit on the pizza with Greek sausage, a miss on the pizza with bacon.  I’m sure I would like their more standard pizzas just fine.  It was also a miss for me on the  ‘square’ cut slices.

1332 East Republic Rd – (417) 881-7260

Link to Arris’ Pizza Web Site (with menu)

Link to Health Inspections

Link to Bob’s Whine and Dine

The menu at St. Michael’s is Italian influenced with pasta’s, salads, sandwiches and burgers. The special of the day on the sidewalk chalkboard caught my eye – an eggplant parmesan sub. I pretty much decided that’s what I wanted before looking at the menu.  The special came with a side and I chose the Italian wedding soup at Kelly’s urging. Steve ordered the cheese lasagna and soup and Kelly just had the soup saying something about needing to eat light.

Kelly’s been talking up the Italian wedding soup for quite a while and I must say it was a winner. The broth had a great flavor.  Goodies swimming around inside the broth were tiny pasta tubes, carrots, 3 meatballs and some fresh greens tossed on top.  The meatballs were just ok – I don’t think they were homemade. Overall this was a great soup and would make a great light lunch by itself when combined with the complimentary bread.

The eggplant parmesan sub was another winner.  Served on a toasted roll was a generous slab of golden fried eggplant topped with marinara and just the right amount of cheese.  The eggplant tasted great – as good as I’ve had anywhere.  The marinara tasted really fresh and was seasoned well.  After the soup, I only had room for ½ of the sandwich so was able to enjoy it all over again the next day.

Steve said his cheese lasagna was good.  When the lasagna came out it almost looked like a soup as they cover the lasagna with a good dose of that tasty marinara sauce.

Looking around at other tables I noticed a lot of salads being consumed out of large stainless steel bowls.  Kelly said that the salads at St. Michael’s are very good and based on the number of bowls I saw – are indeed very popular.

Service was pretty good with my Diet Coke kept full most of the time – but Kelly is on a first name basis with everyone working here so we may have gotten a little extra attention from our server.

Located on the corner of South and McDaniel, the restaurant has you typical downtown setup – a deep narrow space with high ceilings.  School memorabilia lines the walls.  The restaurant is “Dedicated to the Class of ’61” which I’m sure has a connection in some way with owner Nick Russo – just not sure what.  Perhaps someone will comment with more info on that.  The place also seems popular with the Roman Catholic clergy as I saw several priests lunching it up on our visit.

Overall, I’m sad….  Sad that it took me so long to try St. Michael’s.  I really enjoyed my meal and I’m going to arrange another trip soon with my wife so she can try one of those salads and I can try a burger – unless of course the eggplant parmesan sub is available again.

301 South Avenue – (417) 865-2315

Link to Health Inspections

I finally had the opportunity to visit the little Sub Shop on Seminole.  I’ve been driving past this place for years and don’t know why I’ve never stopped in to try it.  I was with my brother and his two boys so we had a chance to try a variety of subs.

I had the Fighter Pilot on white with salami, pepperoni, cheese, lettuce, mild peppers and sub sauce.  Others had ham and cheese and turkey and cheese.  We all ordered the large ($5 for any large sandwich) which seemed like a better deal than the $4 small.  The large sandwich was about 10 inches long.  My Fighter Pilot had 3 slices each of the salami, pepperoni and cheese.  The sub sauce is a kind of Italian dressing and the amount on the sandwich was just right.  I really hate places that pour on the sauce such that is drips out of the sandwich.

The bread is what everybody really talked about.  The sign in the shop said it is baked fresh daily.  The bread was soft but chewy and held together really well while biting into it.  It had a great fresh taste and was probably the best thing about the sandwich.  This sandwich is a big step up from the Subways of the world.

These are simple sandwiches.  You can choose white or wheat bread.  Provolone seems to be the only cheese offered (but the one I prefer).  There aren’t 50 toppings to choose from, but you can ask to have the sandwich made just how you like it from what options there are (e.g. no mayo, light sauce).

Bob’s Whine and Dine

We all agreed that for $5 we got a really good sandwich.  I wonder now if they had an option for extra meat and cheese on the Fighter Pilot as I think that would have made the sandwich even better.

They also had a special going that this day was a ham sandwich, drink and chips for $5 – which is even a better bargain.

One thing that I found not pleasing (to me at least) were the drink prices.  $1.75 for a 20oz drink that was mostly ice.  I didn’t ask but figured there were no refills.

There are two locations – the Seminole one where we ate and one on west McDaniel.  The Seminole location is really tiny with just enough room inside for about 5 people to line up to order at the counter – more than that and the line stretches outside.  We ate at one of the two small picnic tables outside but we noticed that most people either ate in their cars or just took their food to go.

The two people working when we visited were really nice and didn’t mind helping us newbies navigate the process of ordering.  Our sandwiches came out just as we ordered them.

We arrived at the Sub Shop right about noon and there was a steady stream of people the whole time we were there.  There were obviously some regulars as the lady behind us walked up to the counter and didn’t even have to order – the guy behind the counter said hi and just rattled off her ‘usual’.

Sub Shop is open only for lunch (11 to 2pm I think).  It is also a CASH ONLY place – but the sales tax is included in the prices so if you only had a $5 bill in your pocket you could walk out with any large sandwich.

I’ll be back – but will probably skip getting the drink and stick to the yummy sandwiches.

1721 E Seminole St – (417) 887-3804

456 W McDaniel St – (417) 831-8077

The Shop Shop made TAGsgf.com’s Top Five Sandwich Shops

Link to Health Inspections

Bob’s Whine and Dine

This article, written by Bob first published just after Yum Yum Bowl’s opening on Bob’s Whine and Dine.

In the last few weeks, I’ve noticed the new sign at an old location on Battlefield near Kimbrough and witnessed quite a few cars in the lot at lunch and dinner time. I couldn’t tell from the sign exactly what kind of place the Yum Yum Bowl (YYB) was until I went for lunch today with Danny and friend David. Turns out Springfield has yet another Chinese restaurant to choose from.

There were a couple of tables occupied when we arrived before noon. This is an order at the counter, get a number, and they bring you your food kind of place. The soda fountain is self service. It got progressively busier (and louder) in the dining room as our visit went on.

The menu consists of some standard Chinese appetizers and several chicken, beef and shrimp entrées. There was one pork entrée and one vegetable entrée along with a couple of salads. (Check out the menu link below).

My selection was the Teriyaki Steak ($6.95), Danny chose the Kalbi Style Steak ($6.95) and David ordered the General Tso’s chicken ($5.95). I made mine an eggroll combo for an extra $1.95 which includes a drink (you can get the combo with two crab puffs as well). I also decided on an order of the Crab Puffs ($3.95) to share with the guys. The entrées all come with white rice and you can sub for fried noodles for an extra buck.

The Crab Puff was your standard crab rangoon – cream cheese in a fried wonton wrapper. We discussed how they were unusually uniform in size and shape and pondered if they were frozen pre-made items.

All of the entrées are served in a very nice looking disposable bowl with veggies and your protein selection on top of a bed of rice. The beef in my Teriyaki steak was in nice big slices, very tender and I think a big step up in quality from the beef found at your typical Chinese place. The Teriyaki sauce wasn’t my favorite, however, because it was missing that wow factor as I didn’t think it was quite flavorful enough. The veggies in my bowl consisted of 99.9999% cubed zucchini squash. The other .0001% was one small piece of broccoli and ¼ of a mushroom. I don’t like Zucchini so I left feeling a cheated on the veggie front.

I got a taste of Danny’s Kalbi Style steak. It turned out to be a take on a Korean dish and in addition to the same rice & zucchini it also had a small portion of Kimchi. I had a piece of Danny’s beef and found that I liked it a lot better than mine – large chunks with a really good flavor – sort of sweet and sort of spicy. I would order it if I came back. David mentioned that his General Tso’s chicken was ok – it wasn’t very spicy, consistent with what the guy at the ordering counter described.

I do have to mention the egg roll I received in my combo meal. It had to be the worst egg roll I’ve ever had. The outside was soggy; the insides were like a pasty mush and just didn’t taste good at all. I’m sure this item came from a box in the freezer.

All of our meals came out quickly and freshly prepared except for the thing they were calling an egg roll.

The location YYB occupies was, for a very long time, a Chinese restaurant. In the last couple of years, the spot has been either fallow or occupied by very short-lived endeavors including a Mexican place, gyro/pizza place and Chicago hot dog place. I had lunch here once when it was the Mexican place and can tell you that the new owners have transformed an old, run-down venue into a nice place to have a meal. There has been extensive remodeling and decorating and the place has a really nice up-scale feel to it now.

I think YYB is attempting to be a more up-scale fast food Chinese place. I think the prices are a bit higher than other places when you consider a “combo meal” works out to $8 or $9. Some of the items are of a higher quality like the beef, but others just aren’t any different or even worse (that egg roll thing) than other Chinese places. Steve wants to try YYB at some point, so I may make it back one more time – if I do, I’m going to try the Island Style BBQ Pork and see what that is about. I’ll also ask for less zucchini next time. Otherwise, I’m going to get my Yum Yum Chinese somewhere else.

Bob’s Whine and Dine

706 East Battlefield – (417) 882-3644

‎‎Link to Health Inspections

I noticed 2 weeks ago a newish restaurant in the nook shopping center along South National where Shultz & Dooley’s 2 is located.  The name was Pickleman’s Gourmet Café and from just driving by I couldn’t tell exactly what kind of place it was, but it must be special to have ‘Gourmet’ in the name.  I talked my friend David into a trip to Pickleman’s to figure it out.

Turns out Pickleman’s is the newest sandwich shop in town.  On the menu board is a selection of toasted sandwiches & subs, soups, chopped salads and pizzas.  I think they are intending to position themselves in the ‘upscale sandwich’ market considering the ‘Gourmet’ in the name and the “Higher Quality Products, Freshly Prepared” slogan.  I think the prices are also an indicator as they are higher than other places in town.  It is probably more like McAllister’s or Schlotzky’s than Subway from a menu standpoint.

We almost left because we felt sort of let-down by the ‘Gourmet Café’ come-on, but then decided to go ahead give Pickleman’s a try.

I’ve just about given up on a good Italian sandwich in town but still decided to try the Pickleman’s Italian Club for $5.39.  David picked the Turkey Bacon Club for the same $5.39 price.  Setup is similar to other places, you order at the counter, scoot down the way a bit to the cash register to play – then head over to your table to wait to be called to get your sandwich.  It didn’t take long.

When our sandwiches were done, the first thing I noticed was the size – they are really short – especially if you are used to the ‘foot longs’ at other places.  There is only one size of sandwich as well.  The bread is not made in house and is removed from plastic bags.  Even so, the bread was more interesting than the stuff you get at Subway.  It was pretty dense and had a nice crust on it.  My sandwich was heftier than it appeared as well and I wasn’t hungry when I finished.  There was a fair amount of meat and cheese and with the Italian dressing – I thought the overall flavor was pretty good.  The ingredient quality is a step up from Subway.  David thought his sandwich was ok, but not spectacular.  He is a bigger eater than I am and we joked about where we were going next to finish lunch.

You’d think with a name like Pickleman’s that pickles would factor into the experience in a big way – right?  Well – the answer is no – it doesn’t.  If you want a pickle with your sandwich – you have to cough up .79 cents for a half or $1.39 for a whole – or make your meal into a combo and then make a decision to choose pickle instead of chips for your side.  Oh, and if you want to customize your sandwich with additional veggies (olives, banana peppers, cucumber, etc) – that’ll cost you extra as well.

Bob’s Whine and Dine

The décor is contemporary sandwich shop with a mix of tall and low tables as well as a few booths.  It is nice enough.  I think it is interesting that they choose a location a few doors down from Jimmy John’s.  This location is a prime area to catch the Medical Mile South lunch crowd and when we visited, I saw quite a few Cox Health badges dangling from people’s necks.

Pickleman’s offers catering and delivery as well.  Pickleman’s appears to be a somewhat local chain with their only other locations in Columbia.

My sandwich was ok – but the prices are higher than other places and they seem to nickel and dime you more for stuff.  Sad to say, but I’m still looking for that great Italian sandwich.

3522 S. National – (417) 887-7300

Website:  http://www.picklemans.com/ (their website is very annoying!)

Link to Health Inspections

Bob’s Whine and Dine

My sister-in-law who lives in Ozark suggested a visit to Rosie Jo’s was in order.  I had some trepidation about trying another home-cooking style place after our recent experience at Patrick’s in Nixa.  But, this is what I do, so Steve and I had lunch at Rosie Jo’s this week – purposely leaving out Danny as we were pretty sure he wouldn’t want to go after the pie incident at Patrick’s.

We arrived around 11:30 and settled in – the lunch/dinner menu looks just like most other home-style places featuring the standard comfort foods like burgers & sandwiches, fried chicken, catfish, shrimp, roast beef, meatloaf, liver & onions, etc…  There is also a daily special – on the Monday we visited it featured all you can eat fried chicken with our server indicating that it takes about 20 minutes as they fry the chicken to order.

Bob’s Whine and Dine

We ordered an appetizer of onion rings to munch on.  For lunch I ordered the Hillbilly Steak with homemade fries and a cup of chili, Steve ordered the Chicken Fried Steak dinner with mashed potatoes and veg of the day (corn).

The onion rings quite good being thinly sliced and coated in a light & crispy batter.  While they didn’t seem overly greasy – we did notice a good puddle of grease in the bottom of the basket as we were finishing up.

I’ve had a Hillbilly sandwich once before at Cedar’s which was made with ground beef.  The Hillbilly at Rosie Jo’s is a pounded beef tenderloin breaded and fried like ‘chicken fried’ steak.  It meat was pretty rectangular fitting the bun almost exactly – I’m not sure how they do that.  It was fried to a nice golden brown and the batter was seasoned well.  The Hillbilly didn’t come with mayo or any other dressing – just the relish – so I thought it was a bit dry by itself.  The sandwich was served with some ‘spicy’ relish that wasn’t particularly spicy but I thought it was good and went well with the sandwich.  I liked the sandwich but I think some mayo would have made the sandwich a bit better.

The fries were a disappointment.  They are fresh-cut and only fried once and therefore suffer from the ‘fresh-cut sogginess’ – nothing crisp about these.  I only ate a couple.  The chili was pretty good – not spicy but with a good flavor and nice and chunky with meat & beans.

Steve said he enjoyed his meal and said that things were a big step up in the flavor department when compared to Patrick’s.  The steak took over almost all of the plate, leaving just the edges for the corn and mashed potatoes (which were real by the way).  I had a taste of the steak and thought it had a bit of ‘mystery meat’ taste which I’m not sure I cared for.  Steve called it a liverish taste and that he liked it.  I don’t think I could have eaten the whole thing if it tasted like that all the way through.

When we were looking at the menu, I was considering a burger for lunch instead of the Hillbilly – but had this vision of a frozen patty on a bun and didn’t want to go there.  But while we were eating we started seeing burgers coming out to other tables and they looked really good.  The patties were thick and looked juicy – I would like to try one if I make it back.

So, at this point – I had eaten a good bit of onion rings, a cup of chili, a large Hillbilly sandwich and a few fries.  I was pretty full – but the pie menu beckoned with the promise of “Made from scratch PIES!!!”   Our last attempt at pie was unsuccessful and we were hoping given the rest of our meal that we would find a pie here worthy of eating.

Not all of the advertised pies were available on our visit.  I picked apple, Steve picked chocolate.  The apple pie was a good solid specimen with a tasty homemade crust and a not-too-sweet apple filling.  The chocolate pie had a meringue topping instead of whipped cream and Steve had and issue with the ‘rubberyness’ of the meringue.  I had a small taste of the chocolate filling and thought it was ok – but not really exciting.

Prices at Rosie Jo’s are attractive with dinners all around 8 bucks.  You can get the burger with chips for $2.99.  I think the daily specials are also around 8 bucks and most are AYCE.

Service was good.  My Diet Coke refills were prompt and we were checked on frequently.

The dining room is pretty large and there are 3 levels to the room.  The décor is what I would call countrified ‘Rooster’ with rooster stuff everywhere you look.  The dining room was also nice & bright due to the large windows out front.  The restroom was clean.

I considered our outing to Rosie Jo’s Café a success especially compared with our last visit to this type of place.   We got country-style home cooking food that was seasoned and cooked well.  While I didn’t like the fries or the taste of the chicken fried steak – there is enough promise here to make me want to go back.

915 W Jackson (MO 14), Ozark –  (417) 581-6047

Link to Menu I picked up

Link to Health Inspections

Bob’s Whine and Dine

Bob’s Whine and Dine

On a recent trip to D’ Arpino’s I noticed some picnic tables outside of the St. George’s BBQ & Catering storefront.  I took a quick peek and found a small dining area inside.  I had always thought of St. George’s BBQ as a catering only place and was surprised to see a dine-in option is now available.  Last week I got a hankering for some BBQ and decided to stop by for lunch accompanied by my friend David.

The menu is pretty standard for a BBQ place with pulled pork, beef brisket, ham, chicken, sausage in various combo plates and sandwiches.  Sides include BBQ staples such as potato salad, cole slaw, beans, fries and onion rings.  Wanting to try a sampling of meats, I chose the “Sample Platter” ($9.99) of 3 meats and two sides.  They didn’t have any sausage ready the day of our visit so I picked the brisket, pulled pork and sliced chicken with beans and slaw as sides.  David picked the “Combo Platter” ($7.99) with 2 meats (beef & pork) along with beans and fries.

Our meals where brought out quickly and on the 3 compartment plate, I was happy to see large portions of meat & sides.  There was a lot of meat on this plate – I wouldn’t be surprised if there was an entire pound between the chicken, pork and beef.  I loved that all of the meats had a great smoky flavor – you don’t always get that in this town.  One criticism I do have is that all of the meats were on the dry side.  I expected that with the chicken breast, but was surprised the pork was also kind of dry.  That turned out to be not a huge issue because I really liked the tangy BBQ sauce which found its way onto each forkful.  There are two sauces – mild and hot.  The two sauces are the same except for the heat level.  This time, I stuck with the mild sauce for the entire meal.

The beans were pretty good with some chunks of meat here and there.  The cole slaw was chopped very finely and was fairly lightly dressed.  It reminded me a bit of KFC cole slaw (which I like by the way).  The Texas toast on the side was just toasted – no butter or spread involved.

There was just too much for me to eat on the plate and I took about ½ of everything home (and had a nice dinner the next evening).  Friend David managed to eat his whole plate and said he too enjoyed it.

I had a short conversation with the owner (Chris St. George) and he said all of the smoking is done there at the restaurant in his digital controlled smoker.  He also said that all of the sides are made in house.  I was surprised to hear that dine-in option has been open for 2 years (but sorry I hadn’t noticed it before) and that they do a good dine-in business.

Towards the end of our meal, Chris left and went next store to the St. George’s Donut Shop (also part of the St. George’s Empire).  He returned a few moments later with a tray full of assorted donuts and offered us one on the house to finish off our meal.  I never turn down a free donut (even though I really didn’t need one) and enjoyed the nice cake-style specimen.

Besides the two picnic tables out front, there are 4 tables inside which makes for a very cozy eat-in venue.  Drinks are self serve.

I really enjoyed my lunch at St. George’s.  I want to go back and try the ribs & sausage.

3012 S. National – (417) 877-0291

Link to Menu I picked up

Website: http://www.stgeorgesbbq.com/  (Web site is a bit out of date)

Link to Health Inspections

Bob’s Whine and Dine

Bob’s Whine and Dine

When it first opened, Tasia was one of my go to places for Asian food in town.  We celebrated family events there and recommended it to friends.  But then we had a bad service experience one evening with Danny and his family a couple of years ago that made me angry and I didn’t want to go back.  Well, we found ourselves at the new “Scam’s Club” on South Campbell around dinner time this week and my wife wanted to give Tasia another try.

This was a Monday night around 6pm and I was bit surprised at the number of cars in the lot.  While the place wasn’t full, there was a pretty good crowd for dinner.

The menu doesn’t appear to have changed all that much since they first opened.  Tasia offers food from several different Asian cuisines including Chinese, Thia, Japanese and Korean (link to menu at the bottom).  Many of the dishes can be ordered with different proteins including chicken, beef, pork and tofu.  We skipped appetizers and selected the Chicken Lomein ($7.95) along with the Thai Red Curry Chicken ($8.95 and printed in red on the menu indicating spicy).

After a short wait our meals arrived with a small bowl of white rice as a side.  We were both very pleased with our meals.  My wife’s Chicken Lomein noodles were a bit sweet, the chicken tender and there were lots of nice vegetables tossed in.  My curry chicken was also very good.  The sauce was a bit thicker than I’ve had at regular Thai restaurants and it had a really nice heat level unlike the anemic ‘spicy’ dishes at other places.  The chicken was tender, the veggies cooked well – overall a very good dish.  The portion sizes were generous as well – we both had extra to take home.

Service this evening was very good.  Our server (and the dining room helper) did a great job of greeting us, explaining the menu, taking care of drink refills, etc…  This was a big difference than our last visit a long time ago.  We didn’t get fortune cookies to nibble on though which I think I remembered getting on past visits.

The dining room is a nice place to have a meal with contemporary colors, greenery and other nice touches about.  The décor is several steps up from the typical take-away Chinese place.  Since my last visit, they have enhanced the dining space just inside the front door by putting up some wooden barriers creating some separation from the tables in that area and the foot traffic in and out.  The restroom was clean.

Tasia is celebrating their 5 year anniversary this month and to mark the occasion they were handing out some Tasia T-shirts (which we accepted – who doesn’t like free stuff?).

Today’s good experience has helped improve my opinion about Tasia.  I liked our meal and service was very good.  I’m glad we gave Tasia another chance and I would imagine we may make it back a bit more frequently in the future.

4728 South Campbell – (417) 890-6789

Link to Menu on AllMenus.com

Link to Health Inspections

Bob’s Whine and Dine

Bob’s Whine and Dine

Last Friday was the Friday Night Art Walk downtown. My wife and I have talked about going for a long time now and we finally made it. Being Art Walk night we decided that the “Gallery” Bistro would a fitting dining destination. Joining us was Kelly and his friends Darrin and Katie. Kelly has been talking up the Gallery Bistro ever since I told him about how we liked Flame.

We arrived without reservations about 5:30 (Kelly, we should have called) and after a bit of discussion amongst the staff – they found us a table for 5 that we could have until 7pm – which was plenty of time.

Looking at the menus – it appears that there is something here for everyone’s tastes with selections of the standard beef, chicken and fish along with lamb, pork and duck. The cuisine is what I like to call “Fancy Eat’n” with each dish having special sauces (e.g. bourbon fig compote or tarragon demi-glace) or sides with ingredients you don’t get at home like cumin steamed broccoli or seared apple and walnut cous cous. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not knocking this here “Fancy Eat’n” – I rather like something different than what you get at Applebee’s and Logans.

Our drink orders were taken quickly and a small loaf of white bread was delivered to our table. We wanted to get to the Art Walk so we skipped ordering appetizers and we went right for entrées.

I decided on the Pacific Halibut ($22.95) which comes with saffron rice pilaf, cumin spiced broccoli and topped with a citrus scallop ceviche. My wife ordered the Hazelnut Tilapia ($15.95) which ordinarily would come with a wild rice pilaf – but she substituted the buttered spaghetti squash for her side.

My halibut was an excellent choice – it was a nice big piece of fish – firm and meaty. The fish was simply pan seared which made the flavor of the fish the main element of the dish. The ceviche topping was good – small bay scallops with bits of onion and some red peppers along with the sauce. The scallops were particularly good – but except for a couple of them – I did not taste any of the citrus used in the mix – there were two of the scallops that did have the sauce infused through them and they were the best tasting of the lot. (Note – I only know what ceviche is by watching the TV show Top Chef).

I also liked the broccoli – being flavored with cumin made it taste like something you would get at an Indian food place. The rice was ok.

My wife liked her Tilapia – I had a taste and liked it as well. Unlike the Halibut – the Tilapia got most of its flavor from the Hazelnut crust and the citrus butter sauce – but then Tilapia is a very mild fish and needs something to help it out. My wife also really liked her squash – shredded and slightly sweet, which made for a tasty side dish.

Hopefully Kelly, Darrin and Katie will comment on their selections.

Service was very good tonight – we saw the manager several times and our servers were attentive. I was impressed with the knowledge our server had of the menu and specials for the night. Our special requests were no problem. My diet coke was refilled often – usually before I emptied the glass.

The space occupied by the Gallery Bistro is typical of other downtown restaurants in that it has a fairly narrow but deep dining room with tall ceilings. This makes for a somewhat loud environment – but it helped a lot that the tables were not crammed up against each other like at some other downtown places (think Bijan’s). We were able to carry on our conversations easily. The art on the walls and in the nooks and crannies are the focal point of the décor. There are many rather large canvases on the walls which certainly reinforces the “Gallery” theme.

Overall, we enjoyed our dinner at the Gallery Bistro – the food was very good, service was excellent. It also helped that the prices are a tiny bit lower than some of the other “Fancy Eat’n” places downtown.

Oh, and the Art Walk was fun afterwards too!

221 E Walnut St – (417) 866-0555

Link to Health Inspections

Gallery Bistro Online

Bob’s Whine and Dine

Bob’s Whine and Dine

Emack & Bolio’s (EB) has been in Springfield for at least a couple of years.  They used to be in a location on East Battlefield near Lone Pine in a new fancy strip center (after sitting downtown on Walnut for a short time).  My wife and I visited at that location once for some ice cream and didn’t really think it special enough to return.  Late last year EB moved to that tiny little rock building on Lone Pine across from Sequiota Park.  I drive by there a lot and noticed they had a sign out front advertising Paninis.  Last week I was on my own for dinner and decided to drop by on my way home and pickup a take-away Chicken Club Panini ($6.49) for dinner.

It wasn’t a very nice day and I was the only one in the restaurant while I waited for my sandwich.  My sandwich was prepared right away and I was ready to go in about 5 minutes.  The chicken club sandwich has sliced chicken breast, bacon, provolone cheese and ranch dressing on sliced ciabatta bread – then toasted on the Panini grill.  While the bread had a sort of toasty texture it didn’t look very toasty and didn’t have those nice browned grill marks I was expecting.

The sliced chicken (not thin deli sliced style) was plentiful as was the cheese and bacon.  This was a pretty substantial sandwich and I felt very satisfied after eating it.  The flavors worked pretty well together (can’t go wrong with bacon, cheese and ranch for that).   It would have added to the flavor had it been toasted longer.  The sandwich came with a small bag of Classic Lay’s potato chips.

There are 9 sandwiches on the menu along with soup and salads (see menu link at the bottom).  Of course there is also ice cream (cones, bowls, toppings, etc.) as well as coffee drinks, teas and smoothies available.  It appears that they make a point to highlight their home made waffle cones – with a specialty item being the rice crispy treat cone.

This new location in the little rock building is tiny on the inside.  There is barely enough room for the 4 tables.  While small, it was homey and kind of cute.   This particular building has been home to many different businesses over the years.  Most of the businesses were salons of one type or another and none of them had any staying power.

EB’s new location should bring good business as the weather gets better – they have a pretty good location to tap into the Sequiota Park patrons demanding ice cream in the summer.

Overall, I had a satisfying sandwich at EB.  I just wish they had toasted it a bit longer.

3521 S Lone Pine (Across from Sequiota Park) – (417) 889-3622

Emack & Bolio’s Online (menu online differs from
what I picked up on my visit)

Link to Health Inspections

Bob’s Whine and Dine

Bob’s Whine and Dine

UPDATE

Winner winner, trout dinner!

We arrived around 5:30pm and there were just a couple of tables full.  We were seated quickly and got our drink orders in.  Looking over the menu, it doesn’t appear to have changed much.  I had made up my mind that I would avoid the pizza and Mac & Cheese.  There were two specials this evening – a pan seared trout with a cream sauce and chicken fried chicken.  My wife chose the trout special with mashed potatoes and veggie of the day.  I was in the mood for a burger so I chose the Big Daddy Burger with the veggies.

My wife said she really liked the trout.  It was cooked and seasoned well and the cream sauce was nice and light and did not overwhelm the fish.  She also liked the way the skin was easily separated from the meat.  She didn’t much care for the vegetables which turned out to be some broccoli trees and a few slices of roasted red pepper.  The broccoli was undercooked and almost raw – and therefore was very crunchy.  The roasted red peppers were ok – but appeared to be out of a can or jar.  She liked the mashed potatoes.

My half pound “Big Daddy” burger ($8.50) was pretty good.  It was served on nice home-made style bun with lettuce, pickle and tomato on the side.  I ordered the burger medium and it was cooked correctly.  It was nice to get a burger that wasn’t dry.  It also was seasoned well – with something that was a bit spicy – I liked that.  I had the same broccoli issue as my wife.  I put the roasted red peppers on my burger which was a better place for them.

Service was pretty good on this trip without any of the issues from last time.  It was nice to see the servers looking out for each other – I got a couple of Diet Coke refills from another server who noticed my glass was nearly empty while he was walking by.

Except for the broccoli – we both enjoyed our meals.  If you look at the other comments – people seem to be divided about Grant’s.  Grant’s isn’t making my list of ‘must-go’ places but I will probably make it back again to try something from the list of Italian entrées.

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Original Review – July 8, 2009

Grant’s American Family Dining opened up in Ozark recently in the space formerly occupied by Angeli’s (still sad about that).  I had dinner there recently with two of my sister-in-laws while in Ozark one evening.

The menu at Grant’s is what they are calling “American” with pizza, pasta, sandwiches, and dinner entrées like chicken, pot pie, pork chops and a sirloin steak.  The wide-ranging menu has about only 6 or 7 items per category which I like to see.  I’ve found that often places with smaller menus can focus on making a smaller number of offerings exceptional.

The pizza was prominent on the menu – with a big headline about the dough being made fresh and hand tossed.  So I asked for a small with pepperoni, pineapple, onion and jalapeno.  My dinner companions choose the Macaroni and Double Cheese and the Pork Chops with Apple Sauce for their entrées.

When my pizza arrived it came out with one pretty serious problem.  The crust was undercooked.  There was no brown on the crust anywhere – not around the edges, not on the bottom and it tasted a bit raw and doughy.  I also thought that the sauce tasted too much of raw tomato with little in the way of those tasty Italian herbs.  When I brought this to the attention of our server he offered to take it back to cook it more – but I didn’t want any more pizza at that point.  He went back to talk to the kitchen and came back with an explanation that the pizza oven had been turned off and they didn’t notice it while cooking my pizza.  I don’t know about you, but when I’m cooking pizza, I always look at the bottom of the crust to make sure it is done – something that wasn’t done on this occasion.  Perhaps someone else will comment about what a properly cooked pizza at Grant’s is like.

The Macaroni and Double Cheese was another disappointment – it was more like macaroni & cheese soup – the cheese sauce was thin and abundant and the macaroni just swam around in it.  Our server asked what we thought of the M&C and when we relayed our disappointment – he indicated that he has heard a lot of ho-hums about it as well.

The bright spot of our evening was the Pork Chops.  My dinner companion said that they were great – tender and full of flavor.  Perhaps she will post more about that.

Due to the issues with my pizza, I was offered and accepted a free desert.  I selected the apple pie based on the description of it being made with “secret spices and caramel baked in a flaky crust”.  The pie filling indeed had a unique taste that none of us could put our finger on – it tasted pretty good.  The crust however was not the flaky one as described, it was thin and tough.  If it had indeed had the flaky crust as advertised, it would have been a really good pie.

Service was pretty good once it started.  After being seated by one of the two hostesses, we sat for quite a while watching staff running back and forth doing other things while the hostesses were hanging out about 3 feet away from our table.  After a bit of trying to get someone’s attention, we finally made eye contact with a server who was standing around visiting with the hostesses and asked for someone to wait on us.  We ended up with a really nice guy as our server and service for the rest of the evening was pretty good.

The décor of Grant’s hasn’t changed too much from the Angeli days with the exception of a new wall that has been put up to separate the dining room from the bar.

There is some promise at Grant’s if the pork chop is any indication.  They had been open about 3 weeks when we visited so I will probably be back to try something else.  I’ll probably stay away from the pizza in the future because even with a properly cooked crust the sauce was not to my liking and crust and sauce are what really make a pizza in my opinion.

1759 West State Highway J, Ozark – (417) 581-6770

http://www.grantsrestaurant.com (menu is online)

Link to Health Inspections

Bob’s Whine and Dine

Bob’s Whine and Dine

The Buzz

The menu consists of breakfast items (starting at 7am), sandwiches, soups and salads – oh yeah – they have coffee too.   On this day, my wife chose the spinach & chicken quiche with a side of fruit ($5) and I selected the curry chicken salad sandwich that comes with chips ($5.99).  There are also combos available where you can mix & match salad, sandwiches and soup for $6.99.

We had to wait for about 20 minutes for our food.  I could tell the kitchen was working hard to keep up as food was coming out at a good clip.   There were just a lot of people ahead of us.

Once our food arrived we dug in.  My wife said that the quiche was nice & fluffy and she said it was one of the best quiches she has ever had (and she really likes quiche).  The side of fruit was also very good – a good pile of nice, fresh cantaloupe, blueberries and strawberries.

My curry chicken salad was really good.  The curry gave it a nice sweet flavor.  The tender bites of chicken were mixed with raisins and cashews.  The dressing was nice and light.  It was served on soft wheat berry bread which did a good job of containing the filling.  The first time I fell in love with curry chicken salad was in Washington D.C. at a little local deli near the zoo – this sandwich brought back a really good memory of that trip.  The chips served with the sandwich are home made and crispy and had a really good potato flavor – they were nearly as good as the chips at The Grotto.

I visited The Buzz one other time for a takeout Southwest Chicken sandwich on grilled flatbread.  I recall it was a good sandwich as well.

At The Buzz, you order at the counter and take a seat.  They will bring drinks (and refills) and the food to your table.  I was a little worried about running out of Diet Coke due to how busy the place was, but the server managed to keep up with me.

Since the place was busy – it was also very loud and I found it a bit difficult to carry on a conversation – you could say there was a very loud ‘Buzz’ in the place (I know that was bad).   Our table was sort of right in the middle of the traffic pattern for people lining up at the counter to order and the server taking food around, so we didn’t stick around very long after we were finished.  Like most coffee places, there is a small lounge area with a couch & chairs to hang out and drink your coffee while you read or surf the internet.

Hours are 7am to 3pm for the breakfast & lunch crowd.

Overall, we both really liked our lunch and sort of wished we had tried this place sooner.  I’ll be back to get Buzzed again.

1360 E Republic Rd – (417) 881-4442

The Buzz Facebook Page

Link to Health Inspections

Bob’s Whine and Dine

Bob’s Whine and Dine

Tony's Famous Spaghetti

Steve, David and I ordered the spaghetti special (plate of spaghetti, garlic bread and drink for $4.50) we all added a side of 5 meatballs for an additional $2.29 bringing the lunch total to $7.35.  Danny ordered the 16″ Gondola Sub Deluxe ($4.89).  Since Danny and I wanted to try both the spaghetti and a sandwich we decided to split our selections.   One nice touch was that they had free cinnamon bread for you to snack on before or after your meal.

First the spaghetti.  You receive a good portion of spaghetti cooked correctly on a foam plate with Tony’s red sauce on top.  The sauce was nice and thick, with no watery mess at the bottom of the plate.  The sauce tasted good and it had lots of meat in it.  The garlic bread was ok – we all decided that it should be toastier and have some crunch to it – instead it was warm and soft.   You get LOTS of garlic bread with your meal – the menu states that the meal comes with 1/2 loaf of garlic bread and they are not kidding.  No one finished all of their bread.   The meatballs were good sized and fairly dense and had a pretty good flavor – but not the best I’ve had.   One additional comment on the meatballs – they menu indicates that they are ‘spicy’ – we detected no spiciness to them.

After Danny and I finished splitting the spaghetti – we were getting full and were wondering how we were going to eat the 16″ of sub sandwich that was sitting in front of us.  David and Steve managed to eat all of their spaghetti and meatballs – only leaving a slice or two of bread (note that they were complaining about eating too much).  The amount of food you get for the price is good here at Tony’s.

Danny and I both thought that the Gondola Sub Deluxe was disappointing.  My search for a good Italian sandwich in this town continues.   It was just ham, salami and cheese and a bit of lettuce on Tony’s bread – it reminded me of what I could make at home – it is a large sandwich however and we each only got through half of our half (I guess that would be ¼ of a whole – right?).  Also supplied was mayo and yellow mustard in those little packets that are hard to open.  One other curious thing about this sandwich is that they put a nice white cheese (provolone?) on it as well as yellow American cheese.  Why the American cheese – I have no idea – it is not something that belongs on this type of sandwich.  The Tony’s bread is pretty good – a bit on the sweet side and soft.  They indicate that they bake it themselves and you can see the loaves ready for use on a rack

You order at the counter and they bring you your food quickly.    You get your own drinks at Tony’s from the soda fountain.

Tony’s has a pretty large menu of your standard pasta items as well as various hot and cold sandwiches.  At Tony’s you can get a lot of food for a pretty good price.   I’m certain I’ll be back when I’m in the mood for some pasta & meatballs.

834 E Division – (417) 864-8669

Tony’s Facebook Page

Link to Health Inspections

Bob’s Whine and Dine

Bob’s Whine and Dine

The completely mobile Taco Wagon is currently in an empty lot on West Sunshine.

Driving up to the taco wagon, the first thing I noticed was the ample parking.  The Wagon is currently setup on a large abandoned concrete pad where I’m sure some type of building was located at one time.  The Wagon is a walkup type place so you’ll have to leave the comfort of your vehicle and mosey up to the window to place your order.  The next thing I noticed as I approached the Wagon was the hum of a small generator providing power.  This thing is really portable.

The menu at Taco Wagon is pretty simple and written on a whiteboard next to the ordering window.  My selection was 3 tacos ($1 each), one each of pork, chicken and beef and 1 ‘homemade’ shredded beef tamale ($2) for a total of $5 which included the tax.  There was a selection of mild, medium and hot sauces available – they put that on for you.

The taco fillings are cooked up fresh so you will wait a few minutes for your order which is delivered on either those really thin paper plates or a paper boat each covered with some foil.  I decided to “eat in” – which means I took the plate back to my truck and dined in the parking lot.

The tacos are served open faced on two soft corn tortillas with a small wedge of lime on the side.  They are also pretty small and 3 easily fit on the paper plate.  The use of 2 tortillas is a structural necessity.  I tried to eat one using a single tortilla and had a hull breach with ingredients exploding through the side – good thing they give you a plastic fork.  The fillings were good and fresh, the meat was tender and grilled up with onion and cilantro.  I asked for the medium sauce which was green.  I wish I had chosen the hot sauce as I found the medium sauce lacking spiciness and flavor.  Squeezing the lime over the top is recommended as it helps brighten up the flavor.

I’m still debating with myself about how well I liked the tacos.  The fillings, while good on their own, didn’t have enough robustness in the flavor department to make their presence known when you double up on the tortillas.  That left me tasting mostly tortilla.  They were better with a single tortilla – but then you have that structural issue to deal with.  The tortillas themselves were pretty good – so I guess overall I liked them ok.  Next time, I’m definitely going for the hot sauce and ask them to put on a bit more than the standard amount.

The tamale was a good basic version of the classic.  They get warmed up in the microwave prior to serving.

While I waited for my tacos I took a peek inside the Wagon and saw a very compact, clean and modern kitchen.  I also chatted up one of the two ladies working the Wagon and she kept warning me about the tacos being ‘California’ style and not the crispy shell style.  She also mentioned that the tamales are made by a Mexican woman somewhere in town.

The Taco Wagon is currently located in an abandoned lot on West Sunshine just west Wal-Mart and West Bypass.  Given the mobility factor of the Wagon – it might make appearances in other parts of town.

There isn’t anything else like the Taco Wagon in town.  I’ve been to Mexico and the food is very similar to what you might find on the side of the road there – simple, cheap Mexican food.

Location: An empty lot on West Sunshine just west Wal-Mart – No phone.

Link to Health Inspections

Bob’s Whine and Dine

(TAG Magazine is proud to bring Bob from Bob’s Whine and Dine to the TAGsgf.com team. He comes with great regard and a tremendous online following. I’ll let him explain his position: “I will not tell you whether you should or should not go to any particular restaurant – I’m only going to share my personal experience. I am not a professional writer and I’m not a food expert. I’m just a regular forty-something year old guy who wants to do a little whining.” Look for Bob’s Whine and dine every Wednesday.)

Bob’s Whine and Dine

The tortilla machine at Tortilleria Perches runs during lunch. Talk about fresh.

The name “Tortilleria” I believe refers to the tortilla factory that is setup behind the counter.  The ‘factory’ is actually a tortilla making machine – a really old one – with lots of grease covered gears and various bits of machinery attached to it.  It has a “Made in Mexico” plaque on it.  It wasn’t running at lunch time and according to the staff it is used only in the morning as it is loud when operating.  I may return some morning just to watch it work.

The menu at Tortilleria is on a large hanging board when you enter the restaurant.  The menu not your typical 500 item affair – but rather simple with choices of taco, burrito, tamale, or tostada either a la carte or as a ‘plate’ with beans and rice.  Each selection can be had with your choice of meat which includes beef tips, ground beef (carne molida), mixed meats (discada), shredded beef (barbacoa), pulled pork (carnitas), beef tongue (lengua) or beef cheek (cachete).  Today there were three specials listed on the white board – Chilaquiles Dinner, Caldo de Res, and my selection – Gubado de Barbacoa.  On my various visits I’ve come to understand that you really must order from the special’s board as I’ve never been disappointed.

Lunch mates Danny also ordered the Gubado and Steve ordered Chilaquiles Dinner along with a fish taco (also from the specials board).  The Gubado was shredded beef cooked up with onions and peppers served with tortillas and beans & rice.  The Chilaquiles is a layered tortilla casserole with a red enchilada sauce and 2 sunny side up eggs.

We also ordered some chips & salsa ($1.50 – no it is not free here, but they did bring more chips when we ran out) .  The chips are obviously made here.  They are corn tortillas but are more like fried flour tortillas in texture and taste.  I liked them.  The red salsa was very average – thin and tomato based with no heat.

The beef in my dinner was nice and tender.  The preparation was very simple with some onion and green pepper.  It tasted pretty good by itself wrapped in a tortilla, but it was even better with some of the hot sauce from the table.    The rice was good – perhaps one of the better ones in town and the beans tasted good.  The beans also are very thin – almost a soup with no actual beans left intact from the cooking & preparation process.

Steve raved about his selection (the Chilaquiles).  I had a taste and it was very good even though the only protein was from the eggs.  It would have been even better with some chicken or pork.  Steve also said the fish taco was excellent.  It was made with some nice grilled tilapia and a tasty sauce.  Steve thought it was better than the fish taco at Grad School – which is really saying something.

On other visits I’ve had the Burrito Plate with barbacoa – very large and quite good when you add the green sauce that comes on the side.  The soups that come up on the specials boards are also very good and served in large bowls.  The large bowls are a necessity – for example, the chicken soups comes loaded with 2 pieces of chicken on the bone along with a small corn on the cob along with all of the other veggies.

I also need to mention that the tortillas are really good here both in taste and texture.  I’ve only seen one type -  a white corn tortilla – and they are not quite round.

At Tortilleria Perches, you order at the counter and they bring your meal to your table.  Drinks are self serve.  Our meals came out quickly.

The dining room is small – with 8 smallish tables.  There isn’t much in the way of décor (there isn’t room).  There was a pretty good crowd for lunch on this day.  They are also only open until 4pm which means you have to go for lunch or a really really early dinner.

Overall I think the menu at Tortilleria Perches is more authentic than most any other place here in Springfield.  It is simple Mexican food and I appreciate that.  You won’t find fried chimichangas, or things covered with sour cream or piles of lettuce.  Everything has that home made look and taste to it.

I really need to make it back more often.

1601 W Sunshine St – (417) 864-8195

Link to Facebook page

Link to Health Inspections

Bob’s Whine and Dine

(TAG Magazine is proud to bring Bob from Bob’s Whine and Dine to the TAGSGF.com team. He comes with great regard and a tremendous online following. I’ll let him explain his position: “I will not tell you whether you should or should not go to any particular restaurant – I’m only going to share my personal experience. I am not a professional writer and I’m not a food expert. I’m just a regular forty-something year old guy who wants to do a little whining.” Look for Bob’s Whine and dine every Wednesday.)

The Grecian at 417 Pizza getting sliced before a couple TAGsgfers devoured it.

Steve told me about a new pizza place in town that served only thin crust pizza. Naturally, this meant a visit was in order as I like pizza – especially thin crust pizza.

My recent visit was with friend David. When we walked in, there was no one there to greet us so we wandered back to a table in the back of the place and sat down. Our server then noticed us and came over for drink orders.

It is apparent that the focus at 417 is pizza because the menu is almost entirely pizza. There are a couple of salads, but I say why order salad when you can have pizza? There are 7 specialty pizzas as well as “Build Your Own” from a list of 17 ingredients (the menu is listed on the web site). There is only one style of crust – thin – so that part of the pizza decision-making process is simple.

David being the carnivore he is meant we decided to split a medium “Meat Eaters” pizza for $13.29. When the pizza arrived it was cut into squares, meaning there are lots of middle pieces without an edge crust – not my favorite. However, I was pleasantly surprised that this pizza was very crispy all the way across the bottom. It was crispy enough that I didn’t mind eating the middle pieces. Verdict: Crust was good.

Toppings were okay – not remarkably better or worse than most other places. Cheese is good old mozzarella and not that slimy provel stuff that is too often found on thin crust pizza in these parts. The sauce had a lot of flavor and was another hit for me. It was put on fairly thick, which I like, yet it didn’t make the crust soggy. Other ‘thin-crust’ places in town could learn something from this.

Between the two of us we polished off the whole pizza, leaving me with a satisfied but not-too-full feeling afterward. Our server said that the crust and sauce are made on-site. 417’s specialty is thin-crust pizza and they make a good one.

Our server was friendly but at one point I got up to refill my own drink as he went missing for a little while. I also noticed that another couple arrived while we were there and they weren’t greeted either. Steve mentioned they had the same problem on their visit. It appears that the staff hangs out in the kitchen until they notice someone come in.

The space 417 occupies is nice enough with a somewhat Italian flair to it. There are partial walls that create little cubbies to give diners a semi-private area to eat. This may be some of the reason for the greeting issue as it is hard to see all the tables from any one spot.

417 Pizza and is located on South Campbell, just south of James River Expressway occupying a spot in a strip center next to the Andy’s Frozen Custard. If you didn’t know 417 Pizza was there you probably would never see it as the building sits back from the road. The sign is also small and blends in with the other businesses in the center.

It is not easy to access the location from the north as you have to cross Campbell. If coming from the North you can turn at the light by Andy’s and then cut through the Andy’s parking lot. If you miss that turn, you will have to wait on traffic at the next turnout which doesn’t have a light. Leaving to go south has a similar issue. There is just a lot of traffic in this particular area, especially since the Sam’s Club opened across the road.

There is delivery available from someplace called “Lightning Delivery” for a $4 charge.

Overall, I liked the pizza at 417 Pizza. Based on my visit I would rate it among the better thin crust pizzas in town. The location is a problem, though, and I would imagine at rush hour it would be very difficult to get there.

4560 South Campbell – (417) 887-4417

417 Pizza: On the web, Facebook

Link to Health Inspections

Did you miss 417 Pizza during the TAGsgf.com Super Bowl Special? Watch it again and catch the making of a “Grecian”.

(TAG Magazine is proud to bring Bob from Bob’s Whine and Dine to the TAGSGF.com team. He comes with great regard and a tremendous online following. I’ll let him explain his position: “I will not tell you whether you should or should not go to any particular restaurant – I’m only going to share my personal experience. I am not a professional writer and I’m not a food expert. I’m just a regular forty-something year old guy who wants to do a little whining.” Look for Bob’s Whine and dine every Wednesday.)

Jimm's Steakhouse and Pub took over the old Steak and Ale location

I’ve been watching the transformation of the sad, empty old Steak & Ale building for the last couple of months. The transformation is complete and Jimm’s Steakhouse and Pub is now open. My wife and I decided to have lunch at Jimm’s last week to see what it is like.

We arrived just a little before noon and were a bit concerned about being able to get in as the parking lot was quite full. Fortunately for us we ended up only waiting about 10 or so minutes for a table to free up. There were quite a few groups having lunch and most of the diners we saw were business folk.

We were offered the lunch menu which featured sandwiches, steaks and soups as selections as well as the salad bar. I selected the 7 ounce sirloin ($11.99) with “seasoned” fries which came with the salad bar. My wife chose the ‘Hawaiian’ chicken ($7.99) and substituted a cup of poblano cheddar soup for the normal sides.

My wife said the soup was very good – I had a taste and it did have a good poblano flavor and was pretty rich and creamy. My wife also said the Hawaiian chicken was nicely seasoned, tasted good but was perhaps a little on the dry side (as grilled, boneless, skinless chicken breast typically is). Overall, she enjoyed her meal.

My steak was cooked correctly and had nice grill char marks on it. It was also pretty tender and was on par with the type of sirloin you would get at Texas Roadhouse or Logan’s. While it tasted good – I would have liked it better if some (or more) salt & pepper were put on the steak prior to cooking. The menu stated the steak comes with “seasoned” fries – however the fries I received had absolutely no seasoning on them at all – not even salt. The fries themselves were a bit below average and not very crispy. They were medium cut with skin on.

The salad bar is just about a direct carry over from the Steak & Ale days. There aren’t as many components as say Ruby Tuesday – but the salad items were fresh and of good quality. Fortunately for me there was no one else at the salad bar when I visited it, but I did notice that at times there was quite a line. The bar itself was setup such that you have to visit both sides to make your ingredient selections and then return to the far end for dressing which leaves you fighting the flow if there are more than two people at the bar.

I don’t remember enough about the old Steak & Ale menu to be able to directly compare – but based on the lunch menu my wife called Jimm’s a ‘meat & potatoes’ place. I would agree. I haven’t seen the dinner menu but I would imagine it being similar. I think if you liked the old Steak & Ale menu you will be comfortable with the menu choices at Jimm’s.

Service was a little slow on our visit. Some of it was due to our server being a bit preoccupied at times with other tables and I think the kitchen was running a bit behind – but when we visited – Jimm’s had only been open 3 days so I’m sure they were still working out the kinks. Our server was friendly and helpful.

If you’ve driven by Jimm’s recently you’ve seen the outside work that has been done – it looks nice and they added a big window in the bar area to brighten that area up. Inside no major structural changes were made. There are still several different dining areas and the salad bar(s) are still in the same location. There is new carpeting and paint and that has freshened things up quite a bit. I think the tables & chairs are the same.

Based on our lunch visit I think Jimm’s has captured that familiar Steak & Ale feeling. The food we had was overall pretty good. I’ll be going back for dinner at some point to see how that goes.

1935 South Glenstone Avenue – (417) 886-5466

Jimm’s Steakhouse on Facebook

Link to Health Inspections

Bob’s Whine and Dine

(TAG Magazine is proud to bring Bob from Bob’s Whine and Dine to the TAGSGF.com team. He comes with great regard and a tremendous online following. I’ll let him explain his position: “I will not tell you whether you should or should not go to any particular restaurant – I’m only going to share my personal experience. I am not a professional writer and I’m not a food expert. I’m just a regular forty-something year old guy who wants to do a little whining.” We’re so geeked about having him on board that you’re going to get a review every day this week. Look for Bob’s Whine and dine every Wednesday.)

Bob’s Whine and Dine

Flame Steakhouse

My wife and I decided we were in need of a special evening out (I think you could call it a date!) to include a nice meal somewhere. We decided on Flame Steakhouse since we have not been there yet and have heard some good things about it.

We made reservations for 6:30 this Friday evening. We ended up meeting at the restaurant due to our schedules that day (hey – just like a real date). I arrived early and was seated upstairs in the balcony at a table for two. I was able to peruse the menu while I waited and found a few interesting things about Flame that I was able to chat about with our server Derrick.

The steaks (except for the filets) are all dry-aged at the restaurant. The explanation in the menu is that this dry aging increases the flavor and tenderness of the meat. The other interesting thing about Flame is that they cook their steaks at 1500 degrees. 1500 degrees is hot enough to melt aluminum or copper, so I imagine that the steaks would cook very quickly.

We both decided on steaks – mine the 8oz filet with loaded baked potato ($27.75) and my wife the 12oz strip steak with mashed sweet potatoes ($31.75). Most of the entrees come with one selection from the starches menu. We also decided to split the Garbage Salad with the house balsamic dressing ($7.50) as a starter.

Our server brought us a bread basket filled with a type of corn muffin and the muffin of the day (chocolate chip) along with some butter. The corn muffin was especially good.

The Garbage Salad is a mixture of greens with blue cheese crumbles, bacon and egg and some other miscellaneous stuff (which I guess is where the name comes from). Paired with the balsamic dressing it was a very tasty salad – but – the greens had lost their crispness (possibly because of the dressing) such that you were unable to stab them with your fork, you had to kind of scoop up the salad and eat it that way. It was a bit awkward.

Our steaks were both cooked to the medium level of doneness we requested. My wife thought that the outside of her steak was too well done – a bit too crunchy – especially the edges. I liked the crispy outsides of the steak however. My filet was tender as it should be and I liked it a lot. My wife’s strip steak had a very good flavor and was tender as well. I expect that the dry aging helped the flavor of the steak somewhat – but I thought it wasn’t that much different than a non dry-aged steak. That said, the steaks were very good overall.

My loaded baked potato was assembled by our server at tableside using ingredients from a rolling cart – nice because you can request more or less of any of the 6 or so toppings. The baked potato was a good one. My wife liked her mashed sweet potatoes. It was served in its own little casserole dish. It had a mini-marshmallow topping that had been put under the broiler to toast the marshmallows – a nice touch.

I almost forgot to mention the steak sauces. Flame serves 3 different sauces to go with their steaks – a béarnaise sauce, a home-made A1 style sauce and a green sauce called Chimichurri. Now my personal opinion is that if you need steak sauce with your steak – your steak is not worth eating. That said, I did try the sauces (not with my steak of course) and found the béarnaise sauce mild but a bit bland, the A1 style was similar to A1 but I think better, the Chimichurri is a mixture of herbs with a minty flavor.

The décor at Flame is dark. Black walls and ceilings add to the darkness. It wasn’t as dark as the Red Room downstairs – which is good because I could at least read the menu. We both thought it is a nice place to have dinner – the table we were seated at was somewhat private as well. The dining areas upstairs are a combination of 2 people tables and those 4 person U-shaped booths that are hard to maneuver in when you are trying to sit 4 people at. Downstairs had some larger tables in the middle for larger groups.

There is an almost 2 story wine storage area enclosed in glass in the corner of the dining room – complete with aluminum extension ladder to access the upper racks (better keep that ladder away from the oven in the kitchen!). My wife looked at the wine list and thought it was quite good with a number of selections she would like to try sometime. They even have some >$100 bottles on the list as well. Our server offered to bring samples of any of the by-the-glass wines to try which is another nice touch.

Service was exceptional for us tonight. Derrick was very well educated about the menu, the wines, the way the dishes are prepared, etc… He did a great job for us taking the time to tell us about the restaurant, the dishes, etc… My diet coke never went empty – and he was always close when we needed something (but not hovering). My wife thought it was the best service we ever had (and I can’t remember of any better anywhere else).

Overall – we both thought Flame Steakhouse is a great place to go for a really nice dinner experience. The food was great – the service awesome. The downside however is that you pay for it – for Springfield it is an expensive place to go – the bill for our dinner entrees, split salad, 2 adult beverages (and a diet coke) was $94 before tip. Now that I think of it however, it is less expensive than Doe’s Eat Place and I thought just about everything was better here.

314 West Walnut St.

Flame Steakhouse Online

Link to Health Inspections

Bob’s Whine and Dine

(TAG Magazine is proud to bring Bob from Bob’s Whine and Dine to the TAGSGF.com team. He comes with great regard and a tremendous online following. I’ll let him explain his position: “I will not tell you whether you should or should not go to any particular restaurant – I’m only going to share my personal experience. I am not a professional writer and I’m not a food expert. I’m just a regular forty-something year old guy who wants to do a little whining.” We’re so geeked about having him on board that you’re going to get a review every day this week. Look for Bob’s Whine and dine every Wednesday.)

Sweet and Sour Chicken from Happy China

My wife and I felt like Chinese today for lunch. She had seen an ad for Happy China and thought we should try it. Happy China is co-located with the BP gas station on the corner of Battlefield & Kimbrough. In this case co-located means it occupies the West end of the building but has its own entrance and is completely separated from the convenience store.

Happy China’s lunch menu has 27 items on it – each of them only $4.25 and comes with fried rice and your choice of soup, egg roll or crab Rangoon. My wife ordered her standard Sweet & Sour Chicken and I ordered the General Tso’s Chicken both with egg rolls.

I thought the egg roll was one of the better ones that I’ve had in town – the insides were nice and fresh tasting and I’m pretty sure did not come from a box in the freezer. They also fried them up after we ordered them – so the outside was nice and crispy.

My General Tso’s Chicken was pretty good. I would have liked it with a bit more kick (the menu says you can ask for things hotter). The flavor of the sauce was nice and you receive what I thought was a large portion of chicken for the price. The fried rice was a nice surprise (also fried up after we ordered it) it had onions, carrots & lots of little pieces of pork – very nice.

My wife did not care for her SS Chicken however. The reason for this was that the chicken did not have that crunchy fried coating that Springfield SS or Cashew Chicken is known for – rather it had a light batter coating, sort of the consistency of a funnel cake (but not sweet). The chicken inside was in very small pieces and was very tender so it got lost in all of the batter. She wondered at first whether there was any chicken in there at all. She resorted to taking the coating off and eating her chicken that way. Traditionalists will not like the way the chicken is prepared. What was kind of strange is that the chicken in my dish was the ‘normal’ style for Springfield. She did say that the SS sauce was pretty good – light with an almost a fruity taste about it. It was served on the side and so she used it as a dipping sauce. If she had had my chicken with her meal – she would have been very happy.

The dining room is small but functional so I think they are targeting the take-out crowd. We saw quite a few people doing just that. Parking is limited and shared with the convenience store. Drinks are serve yourself – which works for me. You can see what’s going on in the kitchen – and they prepare your meals to order. Entrées are also served in aluminum bowls & pans (even if you eat in) which can be fitted with plastic lids. I like that style of take out container – especially for Chinese food which tends to leak out of the square foam takeout boxes.

The dinner special’s menu consist of the same 27 items with fried rice & egg roll or crab rangoon – all for $6.35. There is also a Chef’s Specialties menu with more deluxe items ranging up to $11. There are also another 125 entrées available by the pint or quart served with white rice – think take out.

Bottom line – I had a decent inexpensive lunch. If you are a Springfield Sweet & Sour or Cashew Chicken purist – try to see if you can get your chicken prepared with the crispy coating, or better yet, branch out and try something different for a change.

820 East Battlefield – (417) 890-9788

Link to Health Inspections

Bob’s Whine and Dine

TAGSGF.com’s Facebook Discussion of the best Cashew Chicken in SGF

(TAG Magazine is proud to bring Bob from Bob’s Whine and Dine to the TAGSGF.com team. He comes with great regard and a tremendous online following. I’ll let him explain his position: “I will not tell you whether you should or should not go to any particular restaurant – I’m only going to share my personal experience. I am not a professional writer and I’m not a food expert. I’m just a regular forty-something year old guy who wants to do a little whining.” We’re so geeked about having him on board that you’re going to get a review every day this week. Look for Bob’s Whine and dine every Wednesday.)

Ocean Zen Pacific Rim

Last week my Uncle John and Auntie Jay were in town visiting from Pennsylvania and I wanted to take them and my Mom out for a nice Dinner. John likes seafood – so my first thought was Ocean Zen (OZ).

We had reservations and our table was ready for us when we arrived. We skipped appetizers and ordered our entrées. My choice this evening was the grilled Filet Mignon ($25.95). Others in the group had Sea Bass ($26.95), Mahi Mahi ($22.95), and Pineapple Citrus Glazed Crispy Wok Chicken ($13.95). There was also a couple of Ceasar side salads ordered at $5.95. (Note: the menu on the web site is a bit out of date on prices as well as the descriptions of the menu items).

My filet was excellent – looked a bit on the small side for being an 8 ounce filet as the menu described, but it was cooked perfectly with a nice char on the outside. My filet came with lobster mac & cheese and was garnished with a couple of pieces of asparagus, as well as some pearl onions and portabella mushrooms. The lobster mac & cheese was really good – you could see real pieces of lobster in the mix. It was served in a cute little copper pot (as were some of the other sides at the table).

I had a taste of the Mahi Mahi, the Sea Bass as well as the Crispy Wok Chicken. I’ve had the Sea Bass as an entrée on previous visits and it is what I usually gravitate toward when I’m in the mood for fish – it was perfectly cooked with a wonderful, buttery texture inside. The mushroom risotto that it was served with was also very tasty. The Mahi Mahi was served with a mustard based sauce that sounded weird but worked really well – the dish was great. The Crispy Wok Chicken was also a winner – nice large chunks of moist chicken in a great tasting sauce served with rice and vegetables. The Caesar salads were sort of a stacked affair – requiring the use of a knife to cut up the large leaves of romaine – but the report I got was that they tasted good.

We all enjoyed our food.

The new location on Battlefield is much larger and has solved the crowding problem they had with their old location on Glenstone (5 Spice inherited the crowded dining room problem, though).

There was obviously a lot of attention given to creating the atmosphere at OZ and it is a really nice place to have dinner. The dining room is sectioned off into different zones, which makes it seem like you are having dinner in a smaller restaurant – again a huge difference from the old location. Dramatic lighting is all around and there is nice art here and there adding to the up-scale feeling.

While we liked the food a lot, it was not an entirely great experience.

Service started off on a bad note. We sat several minutes before our server arrived to greet us and take our drink orders. We had to ask for a wine list as it wasn’t at the table, it took 10 minutes to get water and drinks to the table, then another 10 minutes for our server to show back up to take our orders. Even though we were enjoying our conversation – I still felt ignored.

After that initial lack of attention things on the service side got better as the evening progressed – more in line with what you would expect from a place like this. Since I was the DD – my diet coke refills were numerous and generally timely.

We didn’t get desert – but there were several items that I’ve had before and enjoyed – Crème Brulee and Banana’s Foster being two of them.

OZ also has a large selection of Sushi and Sashimi on the menu – we didn’t have any of those this evening though.

This is one of them “fancy-eat’n” places and the prices certainly reflect that. Dinner for 5 including 3 adult beverages was over the $160 mark. Even with the service problem though, we all enjoyed our meals and the time we spent together.

Lunch prices are lower than dinner and are generally in the $8 to $15 range – so it is a nice way to try OZ food without spending as much.

600 E Battlefield – 417-889-7499

Ocean Zen Online

Link to Health Inspections

Bob’s Whine and Dine

(TAG Magazine is proud to bring Bob from Bob’s Whine and Dine to the TAGSGF.com team. He comes with great regard and a tremendous online following. I’ll let him explain his position: “I will not tell you whether you should or should not go to any particular restaurant – I’m only going to share my personal experience. I am not a professional writer and I’m not a food expert. I’m just a regular forty-something year old guy who wants to do a little whining.” We’re so geeked about having him on board that you’re going to get a review every day this week. Look for Bob’s Whine and dine every Wednesday.)

Crosstown Barbecue

I visited Crosstown BBQ last week for lunch with my nephew. 416RM on the forums has been talking up the place so it was time to give it a try. I’ve actually been to Crosstown once before – many years ago – and at that time I remember being disappointed by the ribs and therefore never ventured back.

We arrived after 1pm for lunch and there were still quite a few folks in the dining room. We settled in and were quickly greeted by our server, given menus and had our drink orders taken. The menu is fairly standard for a BBQ place – beef, ribs, pork, hot-links, chicken and the standard set of sides.

My nephew chose the Bluto sandwich ($7.35) which had sliced brisket and a hot-link. I wanted to get a sampling of meats, so I ordered the lunch plate ($7.75) combo with beef and pork instead of the standard ham. I then added on a rib for an extra $2. I chose beans and slaw for sides and then added a full order of “Crosstown Fries” ($4) to share. Sauce is not on the table, so your server will ask you what kind you want – regular or spicy. I asked for both.

First thing to taste was the sauce that comes in little plastic cups. The sauce at Crosstown is different than other places. I found it to be a bit sweet and tangy – the hot version having the same basic flavor as the regular but with just the right amount of heat added to make it my favorite. I liked the sauce here and my nephew has a theory about what makes the sauce different so I’ll let him opine on that.

My sliced brisket was fattier than I’ve had at other places – not fat on the edges, but sort of rippled all the way through each slice. It was tender and had good smoked flavor – but I would rather the fat been rendered out more than it had. The pork was sliced, not pulled. It had a nice smoked flavor – which is something I’ve not had at the last 3 BBQ places I’ve visited – so I enjoyed that a lot.

The rib was St. Louis style. The bone pulled very easily out of the meat and the rib had quite a bit of meat on it. This rib reminded me of the ribs we used to get at Grandaddy’s before it closed. I could see myself eating a ½ rack – no problem.

The slaw was pretty good and the beans were ok. The “Crosstown Fries” are fresh-cut style with the skin still on. They tasted good, but like most fresh-cut types – weren’t all that crispy.

Service today was good – our server was very helpful in explaining the menu and getting our special requests taken care of. For the most part, my diet coke was kept full and I even got a cup to-go at the end.

Décor is simple here at Crosstown – but décor is not what you would come here for. I can also see where parking would be a bit tight as the lot is on the small side – you need to enter the lot from Rogers street as it is only a one way flow around the building.

Overall, I liked my lunch at Crosstown – my bias from the long-ago previous visit has been erased and I would have no problem going back.

1331 E Division St – (417) 862-4646

Crosstown website

Link to Health Inspections

Bob’s Whine and Dine

TAG’s Top 5 Barbecue Spots

(TAG Magazine is proud to bring Bob from Bob’s Whine and Dine to the TAGSGF.com team. He comes with great regard and a tremendous online following. I’ll let him explain his position: “I will not tell you whether you should or should not go to any particular restaurant – I’m only going to share my personal experience. I am not a professional writer and I’m not a food expert. I’m just a regular forty-something year old guy who wants to do a little whining.” We’re so geeked about having him on board that you’re going to get a review every day this week. Look for Bob’s Whine and dine every Wednesday.)

Bob’s Whine and Dine

A plate of HuHot Mongolian Grill's BBQ

We arrived right about noon and there were plenty of seats available. As our visit progressed, the place got busier and busier and was about 80% full by the time we left.

The menu is pretty simple (link to menu is at the end of this post) – the main deal being the Mongolian BBQ (MBBQ). Besides the MBBQ there is a selection of appetizers, salads & deserts. Prices for the MBBQ are $8.49 for weekday lunch, $9.49 for lunch on the weekends and $11.99 for dinner.

After getting seated, we placed our drink orders, got instructions from the server on how to navigate the MBBQ and then headed over to the ingredient tables to get our food.

At the beginning of the ingredient table, you get a bowl to put all of your stuff into. If you aren’t careful, your bowl may be overflowing before you get to the end of the line. There is a sign saying to take one bowl – but it might be more efficient for bigger eaters to fill 2 at a time. Even though your bowl looks very full, by the time it is cooked, the volume reduces to a more manageable size.

For lunch the protein selection was chicken, steak, pork, sausage and “Krab” (yeah the fake stuff) the online menu lists more items than we saw – perhaps at dinner there are more choices. All of the meat selections were sliced very thinly and several were frozen solid. Next down the line were 3 different types of noodles. At the end was a large selection of veggies. Everything on the buffet looked good – nice, fresh and appealing.

After the line for the meat & veggies, you cross over to the sauce line where there is a selection of at least 12 sauces to choose from. There are different heat levels and sauce bases available to choose from – for example, there is a teriyaki sauce, a green curry sauce, a Thai peanut sauce and even a fajita sauce for those that may not want Asian flavors. The sauces are described pretty well on little signs and the heat level is indicated based on the number (or lack of) flames. If the ready-made sauces don’t suit, they also have a section of the sauce bar dedicated to sauce ingredients so you can make up your own. Our server recommended that you mix the sauces which is what we did. The recommended number of ladles of sauce is 5 to 7 per bowl.

After saucing up, you head over to the line for the grill where the items in your bowl are dumped out onto the large circular grill for cooking. There were anywhere between 3 and 6 cooks circling the grill at any given time and they did a good job of keeping track of whose pile was whose. Once you make it around the grill, you get your food back on a plate. At the end of the grill, there is one more little station where you can doctor your plate up a bit more with crunchy toppings like fried noodles, chopped peanuts, sunflower seeds or perhaps scoop up a big pile of wasabi if you like.

Steamed rice comes with each MBBQ and tortillas are also available if you want to make wraps. Fried rice is an extra $1.50 charge per bowl. Before we went to navigate the MBBQ our server said he would bring our steamed rice when we returned with our food. Sure enough when we got back with our first plate, he dropped by to say he would be right back with our rice. However, he didn’t come right back. We had finished our first plate before he finally came back with the rice and an apology for taking so long.

My first trip had some chicken, beef and sausage, along with some noodles & veggies. I put on probably 4 or 5 different sauces on that trip and ended up with a rather tasty plate of food when it was done. I didn’t get enough of the hotter sauces on my first trip. On the second trip, I stuck with just the beef and added just a few select veggies since I didn’t want another big plate. The second trip sauce mix leaned more on the spicier sauces.

I have to say that the food tasted really good on both plates. I felt like a great chef since I assembled this goodness myself. I think the tender meat, fresh ingredients and a good sauce selection was probably more responsible for the good taste though. Since this is an “All You Can Eat” place, if you do end up with something that you don’t like, you can just put it aside and get back in line for some other combination.

While the food tasted good, not everything was dandy.

One minor grip was that the ladles used to put the sauce in your bowl are too long and it is difficult to make it from the sauce container to your bowl without spilling on the counter.

The second thing I didn’t really care for is the appearance of the grill area – they do a good job keeping up with scraping off the top of the grill, but down below the grill is a shelf with slots where the spatulas are stored when not being used. Stuff from the top of the grill falls down into this shelf. The scrapings from the spatulas also end up here and it doesn’t look very appetizing. I know that the grills in kitchens that you can’t see are probably far worse – but the grill is part of the show and really needs to look good at all times.

The third and grossest thing was one of the cooks at the grill. He was wearing the standard issue black t-shirt, but with the addition of a coating of animal hair (probably cat) sticking all over the back of it. The cooks have their back to you most of the time so we had plenty of time to stare at that cat hair while all the cooking was going on. My brother said he would post a comment about what happened when he pointed this out to one of the managers. I expect that this was a one-time sort of thing – but then again it did happen while I was there.

My final comments will be about the process at huHot itself. I didn’t care for the 3 line process for getting your food. Besides having to get in line 3 times, you are standing the whole time while you wait. I was curious how long it took from beginning to end to navigate the MBBQ so I timed a random person in line. It took just over 12 minutes for Mr. Random Person get all the way through. Now, it was pretty busy when I put the stopwatch to it, but if you go at a popular time of day I would think you’d have a similar experience. Figuring you will want to go through twice and that’s almost ½ hour in line. Also, if you are a family with small children or in a group out for some food & fun, unless you all go through the line at the same time, you will spend a significant part of your time away from the others at your table. When I described how huHot works to my wife, she said she wouldn’t want to wait in line to have someone cook her food.

The inside of the restaurant is very nice and contemporary. It reminded me of a P.F. Chang’s that I visited once in St. Paul. There was a post on the forum that indicated over $700,000 was spent on the remodel from the J. Bucks days in this space. There is a mix of tables & booths, and a pretty large bar area with tall tables surrounding it. The restroom was clean.

huHot is on the east side of the mall and so you share parking with everyone else at the mall. You also get to experience the weird traffic patterns on that side of the mall.

Service was ok (except for the rice thing) and our drinks were kept full. Our server was very nice and did a good job explaining how to work the huHot lines. Take out containers are not available due to the AYCE format.

I know that this line thing is the whole idea about MBBQ and I’ll give huHot credit for trying to make things as efficient as possible – like how the ingredient and sauce tables can be accessed from both sides – but the grill is a one line deal. The other plus at huHot is that you get to choose exactly what you want and get it hot and freshly cooked.

I really did like the food and thought that the price was pretty fair considering the quality ingredients, AYCE aspect, and nice décor. I actually expected the prices to be much higher.

I would not go back during peak times because I really don’t want to deal with the whole line thing. I would consider going back at a time of day that wasn’t as busy so the wait in lines would be minimal.

East side of the Battlefield Mall at 2825 South Glenstone – (417) 882-0300

Corporate Website

Springfield Menu

Link to Health Inspections