November '16- Serranos

Last night we decided to try a new Mexican restaurant.   We usually go to El Pueblo's in Portage, but the last couple of times we have gone we felt like it was too greasy, so we wanted to change it up a bit.  We went to Serranos in Valparaiso.  Their dinning room isn't huge and every table was full.  We were seated and chips and salsa were brought to us right away.  We were asked if we wanted to add cheese sauce to our table, and we did.  It was delicious and I will probably get it every time we go back, which  *spoiler alert* we will be back.  I ordered steak quesadillas and Brian ordered Serrano tacos.

We were both really impressed with our meals.  Brian enjoyed the the fact that his taco wasn't just beef and cheese like the tacos of many restaurants around here.  His were stuffed with chicken, steak, chorizo, cilantro, and onions.  He loved them.  I stuffed my quesadilla  with the sides that were offered (sour cream, guacamole, and pico de gallo).  It was really good, not too greasy with delicious flavors.  The only thing on our table that we were not super impressed with were Brian's rice and beans.  They weren't bad, just nothing special and the color was a little off to me.

I think we found our new Mexican place.  The only thing that El Pueblo has over this place is El Pueblo gets its plates out much faster, however, I would rather slower service for higher quality.  Serranos is a little farther from our house, but worth the drive for some good flavor and less grease.  In fact, I will go as far to say that the only reason we would go back to a Portage Mexican restaurant is if the roads are bad or we don't have time to drive to Valpo.

Overall Experience: 4 STARS
Price: Over to pay.

July '16- Salvoras Pizza

Last night Brian and I tried Salvoras Pizza.  Salvoras took over the location of Jeff's Pizza on McCool in South Haven earlier this year.  I had kind of forgotten about it until we got a flier at the 4th of July parade, so we decided to try it.  We wanted to get it delivered, but they said they were very busy and it would take about 90 minutes for delivery, so we decided to pick it up and it was ready in about 30 minutes.  Brian went and picked up the pizza by himself so I didn't see the inside of the restaurant, but he said it looks like they have a decent dinning room.

We ordered a sausage pizza and bread sticks.  The pizza was really good.  It was a little greasy, but just the right balance of cheese and sauce, so still really good.  The bread sticks were a little blah.  They were not bad, but nothing to write home about either. They have a large list of appetizers and sides on their menu, so next time we will try a different one.

Brian and I really enjoyed our dinner last night, and looking at their menu we see that they have a full menu of salads, pasta, and sandwiches.  Although we both really enjoyed the pizza, we are looking forward to going back, eating in the dinning room, and trying other things on the menu.  If this sounds interesting to you, I suggest you check out their website salvoraspizza.com for their full menu and a surprisingly long list of cities they deliver to ;)

Overall Experience: 4 STARS
Price: Offer to Pay

May '16- The Red Apple

Today we went to The Red Apple, which is a Polish buffet on Milwaukee Ave. in Chicago.  We went with my sister and brother-in-law.  My brother-in-law is Polish and grew up eating at this place, so it came highly recommended.  The restaurant wasn't super crowded, so we got seated and waited on right away.  The decor was typical for an older restaurant, kind of reminding me of the Greek family diners around here.  Everything is on the buffet except for the soup.  When the waitress asked if we wanted to soup, I passed.  I shouldn't have.  I took a bite of my sister's mushroom soup and ended up stealing the whole thing.  It was amazing.  There was a nice sized buffet with all the polish staples including pierogies, potato pancakes, sausage and sauerkraut, all sorts of meat, side salads, other things that I didn't know what I was eating, and the best mashed potatoes I have ever had.  Everything on this buffet was delicious, which is rare for a buffet.  There was also a good size dessert buffet with a wide range of traditional and not so traditional Polish deserts.  I had cheesecake that was wonderful.

Everything was good about this place except for the price.  We didn't see the sign that said the weekend buffet price was $20 per person.  My brother-in-law was also shocked at the price saying that back in the day this was known as the cheapest buffet in Chicago.

We had a good experience at The Red Apple, and I tried many dishes that I would have normally never tried before, but I do think it was a little over priced.  If you do go, go on a weekday when the price is cheaper, and don't pass when offered mushroom soup! 

Overall Experience: 4 STARS

Price: Make Your Boyfriend Pay (and tell him to bring cash as they do not except cards)

April '16- Casteel's

Last night we went to Casteel's for dinner.  Casteel's is a casual dinning place in the Aberdeen neighborhood in Valparaiso.  For those of you unfamiliar with Aberdeen.  It is a little town within a town.  It's a neighborhood with expensive houses and it's own church, gas station, and a couple of restaurants.  Brian pointed out that all they need is a giant fence and it would be like the little town in The Walking Dead, haha.  Anywho, back to Casteel's...

The reviews on their facebook page made it seem like it was going to be a super small space and there was going to be a long wait.  When we got there, we were happy to see that the space wasn't too small at all and there was no wait.  The restaurant is comfortable and has a family dinning room and two bars.  We were seated right away and our waitress was super nice and attentive.  From here my enjoyment of this place goes down...

We ordered the pierogies for an appetizer.  They were good, but I have had creamier pierogies before which I prefer.  Our meals came with a choice of soup or salad.  We both got potato soup.  We should have stuck with the salad.  We both agreed that it had a funky taste to it.  Speaking of funky taste, I usually get a baked potato whenever I get a big meal at a restaurant, but I saw that baked mac and cheese was one of the options.  I asked the waitress if it was any good, and she was very honest with me.  She said that she liked it, but she has had complaints about it before.  She said she thinks people don't like it because they are used to the creamy mac and cheese out of the box.  Well, I thought I like baked mac and cheese and am not a big fan of Kraft mac and cheese, so I will go for it.  I shouldn't have.  At first I thought that it just didn't have strong flavor, but then it started to leave a funky taste in my mouth.  For our main dishes Brian had steak (he said it was good but nothing special), and I had ribs.  The ribs were good (probably the best part of either of our meals), but if you want a recommendation for good ribs in the area, I would send you to Wagner's in Porter.

This restaurant has a great staff with just mediocre food for our experience.  At first we were saying we wouldn't go back, but this place has a lot of really good reviews on Facebook and a lot of people on Facebook were saying how wonderful their hamburgers are.  If we do go back, that's probably the route we would take.

Overall Experience: 3 STARS
Price: Have your boyfriend pay.

March Single Shot- Barada Kabob

It is not often that I try a new place by myself, but I did and thought I would write about it (Hence the name single shot. I was by myself.  See what I did there?)  There is a small fast food style restaurant in Valparaiso called Barada Kabob.  I was looking for something for lunch today other than the ordinary fast food options, but didn't want a waitress as I was by myself and I always thought that was weird.  I looked online, and from the pictures of this place it looked like a small lunch counter, so I went.  Boy was I glad I did!  First let me say that when I go out by myself what I am looking for is a comfortable place where I feel comfortable sitting by myself, reading a good book.  This place offers this.  There is one or two tables off to the side, but most of the seating is at a counter that runs along the length of the windows.  Everybody is facing out in high back swivel chairs, so you can easily turn and talk to the people around you, or if like me, you are by yourself, you can face the windows without being disturbed.  OK, enough you want to know about the food, and not how it also makes for a comfortable reading nook for Sally ;)

This restaurant offers Arabic food that is rare around here and unheard of around here in a fast food style.  They offer beef kabobs, falafel, hummus, shawarma, halva, and a bunch of other stuff I've never heard of.  If you go with your less adventurous friend, there is also a hamburger on the menu ;) When I went in I was greeted by a very young cashier who looked to be about 16 years old...maybe.  Super young, but also super sweet.  He could tell by the length of time I spent staring at the menu that I was a newbie.  He sweetly offered me a free sample of his favorite thing on the menu.  I don't remember what that was, but it was good.  In the end I decided to go with the shawarma because it is something I have had before, so I knew I would like it.  It was really good.  I made mine a combo meal which came with fries and a drink, but next time I might skip the fries and order two ;)  I can order two because it's supper cheap.  Everything on the menus was right around $3.00, which was a nice change from the day before when I paid $11.50 at Panera for half a (stale) sandwich and a cup of soup ;)

I am so happy I found this place today.  I probably wouldn't go there for a dinner date or anything, but for a small lunch I would totally go back.  It would be worth the 20 minute drive just to go there and enjoy a small lunch and get some reading done.  In fact, I'm already planning on going back during Spring Break to try the falafel ;)

Overall Experience: 4 STARS
Price:  Offer to Pay (SUPER CHEAP)

March '16 - The Market

Chicken and Waffles

If you scroll through this blog you will find a review for The Valley from back in 2013.  The Valley is a farm to table restaurant in Valpo that prides itself on the freshest local ingredients.  The owners of The Valley (they also own The Tomato Bar) wanted to open a more casual, speedier lunch style restaurant.  In comes The Market (located in the old Strongbow's restaurant).  This restaurant gives you the option of ordering at the counter (a little more fast food style) or sitting in the bar area where you will be given a waitress and the full service dinning experience.  We opted to order at the counter.  The service was still good.  They gave us a number, we filled our own drinks, and then about ten minutes later they brought out our food.  The busboy checked on us and cleared our dishes, so even without a waitress, we had good service.

Seriously Spicy Chicken Tenders and Chili

If you are thinking about coming to this place, you might want to check out their menu ahead of time to see if there is something that you would like, as their menu is pretty small.  I opted for the chicken and waffles, which is not on their normal menu but was today's special.  It was delicious.  I had never tried the chicken and waffle combo before, which is partly why I ordered it.  I am trying to branch out.  The waffles were nice and fluffy and the magic sauce (or syrup if you prefer to call it) was delicious.  I was happily surprised when my meal came out that the chicken was boneless chicken tenders and nothing I had to pick off the bone.  Bonus in my opinion. My side dish was a house salad, and given the fact that these owners pride themselves on fresh local ingredients, it shouldn't be surprising to hear that the salad was super fresh and packed with veggies (not like the usual two pieces of iceberg lettuce you get from other places around here).  Brian ordered the seriously spicy chicken tenders and chili, which was too spicy for me, but he is into that sort of thing.  It was so spicy that we went through 4 or 5 beverages.

I read reviews for this place online before we went and a few reviews were commenting about the price.  It is a lot more expensive than fast food or other cafes, but the quality is also a lot better so I didn't mind the price.  For Brian and I our bill was $27 which is about the same or cheaper than a lot of other sit down places.  I do see why you would expect it to be a little cheaper because it is more like eating in a cafe than a fancy restaurant and I also see how your bill could quickly sky rocket (they have appetizers and desserts which we skipped and a full bar which I heard is really expensive but we don't drink). I didn't mind the price (maybe because I didn't pay, lol)

Overall Experience: 4 STARS

Price:  Offer to Pay (expensive for what it is, but still cheaper than taking your date to one of them there fancy places).

February '16- China House

Tonight Brian and I went to China House in downtown Valpo.  We have driven past it many times, but never went inside.  China House is the typical Chinese restaurant that you find in NWI, decent food at a reasonable price.  We ordered egg rolls, soup, the chef special, and BBQ pork.  We decided to order one large soup to share.  That wasn't necessary.  It was enough soup to feed 3 or 4 people so we took home a bunch of leftovers.  The chef special was good, but the pork tasted a little bland.  The restaurant has a comfortable environment and our waiter was very nice.

China House was good, but nothing special.  I prefer the food at Beijing in Portage, however, they don't really have that big of a dinning room, so if I wanted to order take out I would go to Beijing, but if I wanted to sit somewhere and relax, I would go back to China House.

Overall Experience: 3 STARS

Price: Offer to Pay

January '16- Beef Belly

If you scroll back through this blog to December of 2013 you will find a review for LeadBelly in Chicago.  LeadBelly has now opened another restaurant in Jefferson Park in Chicago called BeefBelly.  BeefBelly takes the concept of LeadBelly, but focuses on Italian beef instead of hamburgers.

When you walk into the restaurant you will notice a lot of similarities between the two places.  The signs are the same, the set-up is the same, they offer the same craft beers.  They have an Italian beef menu and a chicken menu.  You can get a traditional plain Italian beef or you can get an offering of toppings similar to LeadBelly.  I ordered the black & bleu beef, which was bleu cheese, crispy onions, and horseradish sauce, and Brian ordered the garlic Parmesan beef.  We split an order of fries and had Italian ice for desert.  My food was delicious, however the Italian ice did leave a funky aftertaste in my mouth for the rest of the night.

We went to dinner with my sister and brother-in-law, and all four of us agreed that BeefBelly was good but as good as LeadBelly.  The toppings were pretty much the same, but they work better with hamburgers.  The hamburgers were also more filling.  I guess what I am saying is if you find yourself in Chicago often and want to eat at both of these places, they are both good; however, if you are only going to try one of these places, go to LeadBelly. (Side Note: LeadBelly was named after a blues singer and was recently sued over their name so they are now called BurgerBelly)

Overall Experience: 4 STARS
Price: Offer to Pay