December '15- Fahrenheit Two Twelve

We end our year long project with a trip to Crown Point to eat at Fahrenheit Two Twelve for lunch.  This restaurant has a little bit of everything including steak, pasta, seafood, sandwiches, and flat bread pizzas, but the waiter told us they are known for their ribs.

The restaurant is a large comfortable space with some pretty cool pictures of flames on the wall.  We got there around 1:00pm and there were probably about 5 other tables of people there.  It took about 5 minutes for our waiter to come to our table.  He apologized and said it is normally not like this.  Our waiter got everything we needed, but was not the fastest waiter we've ever had.  Brian said he also heard the other waitress apologize to her table for something.  My guess is they were either under staffed or had some new staff working.

We ordered wings as an appetizer.  They were pretty large wings and they give you a large portion.  They tasted good, but were nothing really special, which you will find throughout this review that pretty much sums up the entire restaurant. Both of our meals came with chicken dumpling soup.  We both agreed that it was nothing special.  I even thought I had had canned soup at my house that tasted just as good.

Brian ordered bruschetta chicken and I ordered baked ziti.  The portions were good (I had leftovers).  My baked ziti was OK, but nothing special.  It was covered and cheese and included large chunks of sausage.  Brian's chicken was delicious.  It was stuffed with some kind of cream cheese filling that was wonderful.  

Brain and I both agreed that this restaurant was decent, but nothing special.  If I found myself in Crown Point I would go back, but I wouldn't make a special trip to Crown Point just to go there.  If I do find myself there again, I would try something like the ribs or a burger.

Thus ends our year long project.  We may take next year off, we may not, we also had the idea of doing "second chance" reviews next year, meaning visit restaurants we have reviewed in the past to see if we still agree with our original review.  Only time will tell what we decide to do in 2016.  Happy New Year!

Overall Experience: 3 STARS

Price: Make Your Boyfriend Pay

November '15- Mexico Lindo

Today Brian and I went to the new Mexican restaurant in Portage called Mexico Lindo Bar and Grill.  It is located in the Portage Commons right next to Portage House of Pancakes.  The restaurant is pretty big and comfortable on the inside and they have a number of large tables that would suit a larger party.  They also have a bar area.  El Pueblo on route 6 in Portage is our go to Mexican place in town, so we of course started comparing as soon as we walked into Mexico Lindo.  The menu and the prices are about the same, but two major differences I noticed were this place serves breakfast (strange for a Mexican restaurant) and they have a really cheap lunch menu.  You can get a nice lunch for the same price, or even cheaper, than most fast food places. 

The first thing I tried was the complimentary chips and salsa that were delivered to the table.  If we are keeping score, Mexico Lindo gets the point here.  They give you a spicy salsa and a mild salsa.  I only tried the mild and it has a really good flavor to it.  For the main course, Brian ordered something off of the lunch menu and I ordered the fajita quesadilla.  I did this on purpose, because this is what I always order at El Pueblo and I wanted to compare.  The first think that I noticed was that it was huge.  When I bit into it I quickly noticed it was a lot less greasy than El Pueblo.  The shell had a nice crisp to it and the chicken had good flavor.  Point Mexico Lindo.  I liked the fact that the quesadilla had less grease, but this did not transfer over to the rice and beans.  El Pueblo’s rice and beans have more flavor and I think it’s because they also have more grease.  Point El Pueblo.

As you can see if you were keeping track, Mexico Lindo earns more points, however El Pueblo will always hold a special place in my heart.  I will return to Mexico Lindo, but will return to El Pueblo from time to time when I am looking for some extra grease, a more cozy mom and pop type atmosphere, and let’s not forget El Pueblo’s fried ice cream.

Overall Experience: 4 STARS

Price: Offer to Pay

October '15- Beijing

Last night we ordered take out from the new Chinese restaurant in Portage called Beijing.  We found their menu online and phoned in our order.  Our food was ready in 15-20 minutes.  When we went to pick up our food, the first thing I noticed was that the dinning room is pretty small, so it probably is best to do take-out or delivery.  Brian and I both ordered one of their specials, chicken rice soup, and egg rolls.  They also threw in spring rolls and fortune cookies for free.  The food was good, but nothing special.  It was typical Chinese food.  That doesn't mean it wasn't good.  It was good.  It was exactly what you would expect from Chinese take-out.  I ordered the Triple Play which is beef, chicken, and shrimp.  It was supposed to be served with broccoli, but mine came with a mixed vegetable instead, which was fine.  My favorite part of my meal was the pork egg roll.  The price was OK.  For the two of us, the bill was $29, but we got two of the most expensive things on the menu plus soup.  Oh, and they give you a ton of food.  We both had leftovers.  By the time I was done eating, it looked like I barely made a dent in mine.  We will order from Beijing again (but next time I'll order less).  It is an nice alternative when you want something delivered, but are not in the mood for pizza.

Overall Experience: 3 STARS
Price: Offer to Pay

September '15 - AJ's Pizza Company

Friday night is usually pizza night for us.  Tonight we decided to try AJ's Pizza Company in Chesterton.  This place has been around for a long time, but neither one of us had tried it before.  It used to be a dive looking place on Route 6, but they built a new restaurant next to the toll road about a year ago.  When we first got there we were told it would be a half hour wait, but then after about 5 or 10 minutes a place opened up in the bar, so we sat there. We usually hate sitting in a bar, because in our past experience we have learned that sitting in the bar means getting not the greatest services.  This was not the case here. The service was just fine.

We ordered the bread twists and a sausage pizza.  One of my friends at work said that the bread twists were amazing, but the pizza was just OK.  She was right.  The bread twists were amazing, The marinara dipping sauce had a sweet taste to it and the bread twists were a little on the smaller side, so before I knew it I had eaten three without even noticing :)  The pizza was good.  It had a lot of cheese on it and the sauce had a unique taste that doesn't really compare to anything else I've had.  Our pizza of choice is Aurelio's and JJ's because we like a thin crunchy crust with a lot of sauce.  Tonight's pizza was a thicker crust with not a lot of sauce.  You might be able to order a thinner crust, but I didn't notice.

Overall, we liked AJ's, but we still prefer Aurelio's and JJ's.  The table next to us ordered sandwiches that looked really good.  We both agreed that the pizza was good, but next time we would try their sandwiches.

Overall Experience: 4 STARS
Price: Offer to pay

August '15- Agave

Tonight we went to Agave for the first time.  Agave is a Mexican restaurant on Main Street in downtown Hobart.  We were surprised at how big it was when we walked in.  Because of its location, we were expecting it to be much smaller.  The restaurant has a decent size bar area as well.  Another thing that surprised us was that it had quite a few customers considering it's in downtown Hobart (for those of you unfamiliar it's usually a pretty dead area) and Main Street is closed right now so you either had to walk or park behind the restaurant and use the back entrance.

The menu is the typical Mexican restaurant menu.  Brian had a combo plate and I had the chicken fajitas.  The prices were reasonable (most items were between $8- $12).  We thought the food was OK.  It was good, but there are a couple of other local Mexican restaurants that we like a little bit better.  Our go to place is El Pueblo in Portage.  The prices are similar, but you get more food at El Pueblo.  El Pueblo's food is more flavorful, but also more greasy.  I felt full leaving Agave, but I usually feel uncomfortably full when leaving El Pueblo.

At Agave we had really good service and the food arrived quickly.  Even though there are other Mexican restaurants in the area that we prefer, we would go back to Agave again especially if we were looking for a place to meet friends in Hobart. 

Overall Experience: 3 STARS

Price: Offer to Pay

July '15 On the Road

We tried many new restaurants this month because we went on vacation to Minnesota. Here are a few highlights from the many places we ate while vacationing:

# 1 Revival

Revival was my favorite restaurant we went to while on vacation. It is in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They specialize in southern cooking. I ordered the pork shoulder (pictured above) served on a bed of grits and collard greens. It was very flavorful. I loved every single bite.  Brian ordered the fried chicken. They had southern style and two varieties of hot.  Brian, who never complains about food being too hot, said it was too hot for him and he was dripping in sweat by the time he was done :) We also ordered a side of hush puppies and mac and cheese to share. They were both good, but the mac and cheese was to die for.

#2 The Nook

We went to The Nook in Saint Paul on our first night of vacation because we saw this place on an episode of Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives.  They specialize in cheese stuffed hamburgers.  When you bite into the hamburger the cheese explodes in your mouth. We thought the burgers were good, but we have had butter burgers before at places like Lead Belly, Stacks, and Stray Dog.  We were told we were doing it wrong if we went there and didn't order the bacon cheese curds. They were right. The curds were wonderful.

#3 El Burrito Mercado

El Burrito Mercado was our last meal before we left Minnesota. It is in Saint Paul.  This is a restaurant attached to a Mexican grocery store.  There is a lunch counter, which is where we went, but on the other side there is also a sit down restaurant. I ordered the taco plate. I didn't feel my tacos had much flavor, but that is my fault because I did order the mild meat. The rice and beans were very good. The beans may have been the best I ever tasted. If you ever find yourself at this place, when you are done eating go over to the bakery and buy some desserts from their pastry case. Yum!

Overall, Minneapolis/Saint Paul turned out to be a good food town.  We didn't eat one meal that we were disappointed with.  Thanks Minnesota!

June '15 Le Peep

Brian got a rare Saturday off today, so we decided to take our June restaurant in another direction and try a new breakfast place instead of a new dinner place.  We went to Le Peep in Valpo.  Over the past year or so I have heard many people say that this is the place to be as far as breakfast is concerned.

The first thing that surprised me when I got there was that we were seated right away.  Everybody always talks about how popular and crowded it always is, so I was expecting to have to wait for a table.  Nope, we slid right in.  There was already a carafe of ice cold water waiting on our table for us and our waitress greeted us and asked for our drink order within two minutes of us sitting down.

The menu is your typical breakfast menu consisting of a little bit of sweet and a little bit of savory.  I am more of a savory type of person when it comes to breakfast, so I wanted eggs, but I also wanted to try their french toast or pancakes because they seem like the type of place that would get this right.  I landed on the dish called the "Eighteen Wheeler". It comes with eggs, meat of your choice, potatoes, and french toast.  Brian order the meat lovers skillet which he always seems to find on the menu and order no matter where we go for breakfast :)  Our order arrived in a timely manner, and as soon as it did we started comparing our food to Tate's in Portage which we have eaten at many a Sunday morning.  My eggs were...well...eggs, hard to mess those up or really elevate them.  The sausage was really good.  They were big, thick, juicy links that had a good flavor to them.  I was not a big fan of the potatoes.  I found them bland and ended up dousing them in ketchup.  By far the highlight of my meal was the french toast.  It was nice and fluffy and sweet without being too sweet.  They gave me butter that I didn't even need because the bread was so soft and tasty on its own.  Brian said that the meat skillet was good, but he prefers the meat skillet at Tate's.

Overall we were very pleased with our Le Peep experience and will go back and try something else, but we both agreed we like Tate's a little bit better but they are close.  I guess what I am saying is if you live in Valpo go to Le Peep and enjoy a wonderful breakfast, but if you live in Portage you really don't have to make a special trip to Valpo because Tate's is just as good (maybe even a little better). BUT, if you do live out in the Valpo area you need to get your butt over to Portage in October to try Tate's pumpkin pancakes.  They are to die for!  See you next month!

Overall Experience: 4 STARS

Price: Offer to Pay 

May '15 Greenbush Brewing Company

Today we crossed the border into Michigan and went to the Greenbush Brewing Company in Sawyer Michigan for lunch.  It is about 12 miles past the Indiana/Michigan border.  When we first got there we were told it would be a 20-30 minute wait, so they took our phone number and we were able to walk around to the other places in the area, and they sent us a text when our table was ready (it actually ended up being only about a ten minute wait).  The brewery obviously focuses on beers, but they also have a full menu including a kids menu, which I thought was strange.  The brewery has a large bar, a bunch of high top tables, and an outdoor patio.  The walls were lined from floor to ceiling with empty beer mugs, which I thought looked cool.  The large windows in the front made it seem light and open, and not like you were sitting in a dark dingy bar.

After we were seated it took awhile for our waitress to get to our table, but once she did everything else was delivered to our table quickly.

 

 

The menu consisted of mostly sandwiches, but they also had pizza and a couple other entrees.  I ordered the pulled chicken sandwich and a side salad as my side dish (I wish they would have had something like fries or mac and cheese as a side).  It was a very good sandwich.  The meat was very smoky.  The whole time I was eating my sandwich I was thinking, I wish they would have put some sauce on the sandwich, and then about halfway through I remembered that they put a bottle of BBQ sauce on the table (my bad).  Brian ordered a sandwich called a hot brown, which was an open faced turkey sandwich he had chips and chili as his sides.  He thought the sandwich was good, but was not impressed with the chili.  I am not a beer drinker, so I just drank water.  Brian tried a couple of beers that he enjoyed.  Speaking of, they brewery owns the building across the street.  They also have food over there, and rumor has it you can also buy beer to go in the second building, but we never went over there.

 

Overall, Brian and I both agreed that this place was good, but nothing special that we would go out of our way to recommend.  Our Michigan restaurant of choice is still Stray Dog, but if you are looking for an alternative and are really in to beer, this place isn't bad.

 

Overall Experience: 4 Stars

Price: Offer to Pay

April '15 Bartletts

Last night Brian and I went to Barletts for dinner.  It is located in Burns Harbor on Hwy 12.  I would have never gone there if it weren't for a recommendation from a coworker, because from the outside it looks like all the other dive bars that bikers frequent on Hwy 12.  This place is a bar and grill, and it does indeed look like a dive.  It is super small and all the tables are very close together.  This, on top of the fact that it was packed, made for a very loud restaurant.  This was a little bit of a turn off.  I couldn't really enjoy a conversation with Brian, and I could barley hear our waiter.

When you start looking at the menu, you quickly realize that this is no dive bar.  They have a full menu with some pretty fancy items on it and the prices are comparable to many of the fine dining restaurants in Valpo.  Our waiter (all the waiters were middle aged men which I thought was strange to see) was very kind and very helpful.  He was probably the most attentive waiter I have ever had.  I told him I had it narrowed down to a few things on the menu, and he started talking to me in detail about all the things I mentioned.  He really knew his menu.  One of the things I had it narrowed down to was the chicken schnitzel.  As the waiter was talking about it he said, "It's topped with capers and I will take every opportunity I get to eat capers."  In my head I was thinking what the hell are capers?  They must be good.  Well, come to find out I HATE capers.  My chicken was good.  It had a really nice crunch to it, but I couldn't eat the part that had the capers on it even after I scrapped them off because the taste lingered and come to find out it is one of the worst tastes I have ever had.  Having said that, we had hot wings for our appetizer, and Brian and I both agreed that they were some of the best wings we had ever had.  They had a ton of meat on them and had just the right amount of spice to them (I don't like a lot of spice).  Brian had venison chili and pot roast.  He said he would have given his meal 9 or 9.5 stars.  So, I think the food was good, I just ordered wrong.  Next time I go I will try something like the meatloaf or fish and chips.

Overall, our experience was OK.  From the looks of the outside of the place what we found inside was unexpected, and what we found inside was a super nice waiter, a place where you can't have a comfortable conversation, and really good food minus the capers.

Overall Experience: 3 STARS
Price: Make your boyfriend pay

March '15 Smoque BBQ

Today we crossed the border and went to Smoque BBQ in Chicago.  We had recently seen the restaurant featured on The Food Network, so were excited to try it.  The restaurant is small and when we first walked in every table was full, but the place was well organized.  We ordered our food at the counter, and by the time our food was ready, they had a table ready for us.  The food is served to you cafeteria style on little metal trays, and boy was that ever a tasty tray of food!

I ordered the brisket platter which came with coleslaw and your choice of two other sides.  The second the brisket hit my mouth my mouth began to water.  It was so tender and delicious.  It had little charred pieces on the top which just put it over the top.  They put two different types of BBQ sauce on my platter to try, and I didn't even use it.  The meat was so perfect it didn't need anything else.  Brian ordered the pulled pork.  He said it was good, but he liked mine better and kept stealing food off of my plate.  The sides I picked were macaroni and cheese which was also mouth watering and very smoky baked beans.  I also ordered bread pudding for dessert because our school librarian said if you go to this place and don't get the bread pudding, you are doing it wrong.  She was so right!!! 

There was nothing at this restaurant that wasn't great.  My sister and her boyfriend also went with us.  She ordered the same thing I got and he got the ribs.  We could not stop talking about how much we loved the food through the entire meal.  In the middle of the meal my sister's boyfriend stopped and said, "I don't know what to do.  It's all so good!"  Haha, it was pretty funny.  Needless to say, next time you are on the north side of Chicago looking for good meat give Smoque a try.

Overall Experience: 5 STARS
Price: Offer to Pay

February '15- Popolano's

For our February restaurant Brian and I chose Popolano's in downtown Chesterton.  I didn't really have super high expectations after a lukewarm recommendation from a friend, but I really enjoyed this place.  The restaurant is in a house that is over 100 years old.  From the outside of the place, you wouldn't think it was that big, but there was plenty of room inside.  I loved the whole atmosphere.  It was well decorated, cozy, and had Frank Sinatra playing in the background.  The staff was also nice and was quick to offer recommendations when we said it was our first time.

For and appetizer we had fried ravioli.  It was delicious, and my favorite part of the meal.  The inside was very creamy.  Both of our meals came with soup or salad.  I got a salad.  The ranch dressing was very good.  It had a unique taste.  Brian got the chicken dumpling soup.  It was very creamy and was spiced nicely.  For our main dishes I ordered fettuccini Alfredo and Brian got rigatoni with spicy chicken.  My dinner was very good.  The fettuccini was very creamy.  Brian was not a fan of the pasta in his dish.  He said it was a little bland, but he loved the spicy chicken.

Overall, we were happy with our experience at Popolano's and we will try it again, perhaps in the summer when we can sit on their patio.  This was good, but our favorite Italian place in NWI is still Pesto's in Valpo.

Overall Experience: 4 STARS
Price: Make Your Boyfriend Pay

January '15-Martini's

We're back!  After a year off, Brian and I decided to try our "new restaurant a month dates" again.

Our January pick is Martinis in Valpo.  The only thing that wasn't bland about this place was the smell of cigarette smoke.  The reason we chose this restaurant was because the website made it look like a really nice, classy restaurant like so many other places in Valparaiso.  This is not what it was at all.  When you first walk in you are hit with a wall of cigarette smoke and there are ash trays on every table.  I have not had to experience that sensation since the 90s and that is not something I have missed.  The bar area is actually bigger than the restaurant, and you had to walk through the bar to get to the tables.  I wouldn't even call this place a restaurant.  I would call it a bar that serves food.

Really???

I ordered the Tuscan ravioli and a house salad.  A few minutes after I ordered our waitress came back to our table to tell me they were out of ravioli, so I ended up with the blackened burger, which had onions and aioli sauce on it, and French fries.  The burger was OK, but not great.  All the flavor seemed to come from the sauce, not the meat.  They asked me if I wanted seasoned fries or regular.  I got regular which didn't really have much taste.  My food was not bad, but it wasn't anything special.  I could have made something just as good, or even better, at home.   Brian got a ribeye and mashed potatoes.  He said the potatoes were wonderful, but the steak was very bland and he had to cut off a lot of fat.  He actually grabbed the salt and pepper shakers off the table which I have never seen him do.

 

We were seated right away, and the waitress was OK.  She wasn't overly attentive or over friendly, but she got the job done.

If you are looking for a place to smoke and drink with your friends this might be the place for you, but if you are looking for a nice, romantic date spot try downtown Valpo.

Rating: 2 STARS
Price: Offer to Pay