Cooper Irish Pub

Jason’s Take

On date night last week, we were going to go to the Yardhouse, but found out you really should get a reservation if you’re going there on a Friday night. So we went to Cooper Irish Pub instead.

Cooper’s is a slight upscale Irish bar. They serve a variety of beer, and the food’s always good. We walked in right as a lull hit, because we got seated immediately, but they were crowded 15 minutes later. Yay, us!

They make a perfect Old Fashioned, if you want to pretend to be a Mad Men hipster. I did, so they did. It was good.

We started out with Reuben Rolls, which are reuben guts wrapped in a spring roll and deep fried. I’ve only recently been able to bring myself to eat sauerkraut, and then only at good restaurants. This certainly wasn’t a restaurant that made me regret eating kraut.

We followed the rolls with a chicken and hummus wrap with mashed potatoes for me and a vegetarian wild rice burger for Linda. Both were good. Cooper’s knocks the mashed potatoes and gravy out of the park. I like ordering simple things at new restaurants because it’s hard for the chef to hide behind the fancy crap. It’s a good way to judge the overall quality of a place. Cooper’s delivers.

For dessert, we had their three-dessert sampler thingy. I don’t remember what they call it. We got the deconstructed cheesecake(yum), the bread pudding(yum), and the salted caramel ice cream. Oh my golly gee, this was good ice cream. One bite, and I was ready to smoke a cigarette and roll over to fall asleep. I’ve had sex worse than this ice cream. Damn.

5 out of 5 pants off, for sure. Cooper’s is worth visiting.

Linda’s Take

So this evening we were going to try out the Yardhouse, but with over an hour wait we thought there are plenty of other restaurants over at the West End Shops we can try. The closest was Cooper’s. They got us in right away; the place was busy but not over busy.

They had a good selection of beers on tap, and the menu was pleasing. I loved the look of the place, tons to look at.

We tried an appetizer that had I really liked, Ruben egg-roles I would get those again in a heartbeat. I ordered a veggie burger, and it really tasted good however it fell a part too easy, my sweet potato fries were some of the best I have ever eaten, plus the choices of dipping sauces that I got with it made them 10 times yummier!

The best part of the meal was the desserts, we had a 3 treat trio, and by far for both of us we loved the salted caramel ice cream, however I found out the hard way that ice cream and a few beers don’t sit to well in my tummy. Needless to say that cut or evening a little shorter that what we wanted. So never again will I have the 2 together! Sorry for crashing our date honey, but you are awesome company!

4 out of 5 pants off

Total Score

4.5 Pants Off!

Crave

By Jason Leave a Comment

Linda’s Take

So, one night, we didn’t know what kind of food we were in the mood for. But we wanted to stay close to Toby Keith’s to get some good dancing in and have drinks.

Jason suggested Crave; it has hearty food and light food. Kind of an American/Asian twist on everything. I thought it was a superb idea!

I really love the atmosphere in this place. It is high scale business feel, but warm and inviting. I don’t know if that makes sense to you, but that is what ran through my head.

Our waiter was really nice, he even gave me a wine to try for free because Jason ordered an Old Fashioned and the bartender hadn’t muddled the fruit in the drink. I said something politely to the waiter because I know it makes a difference in the way the drink tastes. Jason agreed with me when he got his corrected drink and I could tell by the look on his face that he was satisfied! (Almost like that after-sex look men get!) I asked the waiter for suggestions on food, and the way he was describing some of his favorites sounds as if they would be the perfect choice for me.

I ordered a beet salad and I really enjoyed it, fresh and crisp. Also I ordered a “Godzilla” sushi roll. Oh my god, this was huge. Packed full, about twice the size of regular shushi rolls, and I couldn’t even finish it. However, I do want to go back and get one again. Delightful and delish!

This is a great place to take someone out for a date. Really great food, more pricey than a place like Applebees, however not over the top pricey. Also they have a couple of other locations around the Twin Cities.

I give it 5 out of 5 pants off!

Jason’s Take

We’ve slowly been working our way through all of the restaurants in St. Louis Park’s West End district. We’d eaten at Crave before, but not at all recently. Definitely not recently enough to review it accurately.

So off we went.

We ordered drinks. I ordered an Old Fashioned, because I’m a geek and a Mad Men fan. You can only get good Old Fashioneds at good restaurants, and I thought Crave fit the bill. I was wrong. With an Old Fashioned, you have to muddle the fruit and the bitters into the sugar or it doesn’t work. Hell, they even know that at Applebee’s. Without doing that, you’re basically drinking a glass of Rye.

Thankfully, the waiter understood and got a replacement quickly. I watched and the bartender didn’t spit in my glass. Yay!

We started with the beet salad and walleye cakes. I can’t stand beets, so I only tried a bite, then graciously let Linda have the rest, cuz I’m awesome like that. The walleye cakes, however, were right on the edge of really freaking awesome.

After that, I had the baked mac & cheese, which always looks so damn good on the menu, but never–at any of the restaurants I’ve been to–lives up to my hopes. Don’t get me wrong, it was good, especially with the chicken-apple sausage, but it didn’t wow me.

The bill ran $78.90 after tax. That’s two appetizers, two entrees, and a round of drinks.

I give it 4 out of 5 pants off.

Total Score: 4.5 Pants Off.

Bonefish Grill

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Linda’s Take

Bonefish Grill just opened up in the West End and, judging by the website, the menu looked awesome!

I really wanted to go here. Jason said it looked like a great place to try, so we made reservations one night after our dancing lesson.

I really liked how the inside of the restaurant looked. The staff was really nice and was helpful at suggesting things to try.

I absolutely loved the appetizer that we tried, Bang Bang Shrimp; it’s breaded shrimp with a yummy sauce over a bed of shredded lettuce.

I ordered a filet of trout and they cooked the fish really well. I also ordered some corn chowder soup and that was really yummy.

This place isn’t the best for signature drinks, but if you want a really good place to have seafood, go here. Oh, I almost forgot to say the bread was die for!

I would go back there to just eat the bread, the shrimp appetizer, and the corn chowder soup.

By the way, they forgot to bring out my soup with my meal, so they decided not to even charge us for it. I thought that was a really nice touch.

I will say that this place is on the fancy side, so if you want to impress someone without breaking your budget, this is the place to go.

I give this place 5 out of 5 pants off

Jason’s Take

Linda and I spend a lot of time in the West End development in St. Louis Park, so we were excited to see a new restaurant opening up there.

Bonefish Grill looks a bit on the fancy side, but doesn’t get all the way over into pretentious, which is nice. All told, we spent $93, which included four drinks.

We started out with the Bang Bang Shrimp on the waitress’s suggestion, and it was oh-my-god good.

I followed that up with the Ahi Tuna Steak, with mango salsa, which was good. I really like mangoes.

The bread was phenomenal. I’d go there just to eat Bang Bang Shrimp and bread.

I give it 5 out of 5 pants off.

Raku Sushi & Lounge

By Jason Leave a Comment

Linda’s Take

There is a nice quiet sushi place to go in the West Metro called Raku Sushi & Lounge. I liked the decor, the staff is ready to help, and the lunch prices are good.

Jason and I wanted to get some lunch and I wanted to spend time with him before he was going to go deer hunting for the weekend. I didn’t want to do all you can eat sushi, so I looked online and Raku looked like a good spot to go. We really like the West End area and it is so convenient for us.

This place has been there since the West End shops have opened and they seem to be having repeat costumers. I overheard another couple say they come there for lunch often.

The food was really good and pleasing to the eye! This is a place I would go to for lunch with friends or by myself again.

I give it 4 out of 5 pants off

Jason’s Take

I was leaving town and wanted to have lunch with my beautiful wife first. We were in the mood for sushi, so off we went. Linda looked up Raku and it seemed like a good place.

They’ve got little, sit-on-the-floor tables by the door, but traditional booths and tables beyond that and pretty decorative fish hanging all over the ceiling.

The place is affordable. We got the lunch special–3 rolls and a bowl of soup–and spent about $30 after tip. More important: the sushi is good. Cheap, bad sushi isn’t worth paying for.

I give it 4 out of 5 pants off.

Total Score: 4 out of 5 pants off

Burger Jones

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Linda’s Take

So Jason was helping out with my job in the morning and we thought we would grab a bite to eat for lunch. He said he heard about this burger place near Lake Calhoun.

So we went there, it’s called Burger Jones and it’s located in Calhoun Village right on the end of the strip mall.

Let me tell you, if you’re watching calories don’t go here! Everything is gonna be on the greasy side. However, I have to admit that the cheese curds that we ordered were melt in your mouth yummy.

I ordered a buffalo burger and it was really good. Jason got a burger called “White Trash” and it really looked like it, but it tasted really good. However I thought it looked like a heart attack on a bun!

I have to admit that their fries sampler with 3 dips to choose from was really delish! Especially the sweet potato fries!

I would go back, but I would like to come with the kids in the summer and just get some fries and try one of their malts. They had some interesting flavors on the menu.

I give it 2 out of 5 pants off

Jason’s Take

Thanks to my current tour of unemployment, Linda and I have been able to enjoy lunch together far more often than normal.

A recent trip was to Burger Jones in Calhoun Village. They clearly focus on serving burgers and do a good job at that.

We started with some cheese curds, which were sitting in a pool of grease that soaked through the butcher paper they were served on. Regardless of the presentation, they were damn good and literally melted in your mouth. Almost no chewing or swallowing was required.

I got the White Trash Burger, which was kind of insane. It’s chicken-fried bacon, fried cheese curds, and Velveeta on a burger. It looked horrible, but the combination actually worked well. It was good, but I’ll never order it again. It’s not good enough for a coronary bypass.

Linda got the “Tiny Tummy Tatanka” burger, which is buffalo meat on flatbread. I stole a bite and enjoyed it.

We split their fries sampler which gave us a huge pile of Parmesan waffle fries, maple-bacon sweet potato fries, and regular french fries, with our choice of three sauces. We got the chipotle aioli(good), the seasoned sour cream(good), and the avocado mayo(boring). The sweet potato fries were easily the best sweet potato fries I’ve ever had. By comparison, every other fried stick-like object made from sweet potatoes should get a new name. I recommend “Why bother fries”.

So, two burgers, an appetizer, and a giant bowl of fries for $52.66. Not a cheap place to go, but very not bad. And after you’re done, you can head to Rustica a few doors down and get some still-warm fresh-baked bread. Holy yum, Batman!

I give it 4 out of 5 pants off.

Total Score: 3 out of 5 pants off.

Wok In The Park

By Jason Leave a Comment

Linda’s Take

Sometimes we don’t have time to do a full date night so if the schedule allows it a yummy lunch is a good idea.

My husband loves Wok In The Park! They have really good Chinese food and the service is always friendly.

I really like there lunch menu. It’s a 1-2-3 step and you can’t go wrong with anything you choose. Also there pho soup is amazing!

Only thing is, you gotta get there right away at 11am, or after 1pm. They get busy fast!

Or, you can place in an order for carry-out!

I give this place 4 out of 5 pants off.

Jason’s Take

I’ve said it before: Chinese restaurants usually have a predictable cycle. They open, they’re awesome, they start to suck, they close.

When my last favorite Chinese place did that, I was sad. Somehow, they haven’t hit the close-the-doors step, yet, but it’s only a matter of time.

Since I was sad, I went hunting for a replacement.

And I found it.

Wok In The Park was born out of a feud with Than Do across the street. Or something. I don’t know all of the details.

What I do know is that WITP freaking rocks. The egg rolls are awesome and the cream cheese wontons are the best I’ve had, and I’ve had a lot of cream cheese wontons.

The lunch special is sweet. Pick a soup, an appetizer, and a main course(a bit smaller than the regular menu) for $10. Good food cheap.

Beats the heck out of anything else in the area, hands down, but try not to show up between 11:30 and 12:30 or you may not get seated. It’s not a huge place and they are popular.

I give it 5 out of 5 pants off.

Total Score: 4.5 out of 5 pants off

Ciao Bella

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Jason’s Take

This week, it was my turn to pick a restaurant for date night. Don’t tell Linda, but I only made our reservations to Ciao Bella about 20 minutes before we left for our dance lesson. Love Yelp and OpenTable for finding a restaurant and making reservations.

Love. It.

So Ciao Bella is a nice Italian restaurant that happens to have some sushi options, which is weird. But, being an Italian joint, you’ll find lots of the expected pizza, pasta, and seafood.

As you walk in, you definitely notice the smell of fish, but that fades as soon as you get past the bar area. Once into the restaurant proper, it starts smelling good. They’ve got an open–and sprawling–floor plan, so the place is noisy. It’s not great for quiet, intimate conversations.

The drinks were reasonably priced, but not cheap. My cocktails ran $7.75 each, while Linda’s wine cost $10 per glass.

The food was good. The unlimited stream of bread that’s the staple of Italian restaurants everywhere in the Midwest was excellent.

We followed that up with seared wasabi scallops. Totally reccomend. I could have left happy after filling up on scallops and bread.

For our main course, I had the seafood linguini, which was done very well. Good food. Linda had the halibut special. Her fish was kind of dry, but was an otherwise excellent dish.

Dessert was the budino, which is a molten chocolate cake with vanilla gelato. It’s good, but very rich. We didn’t finish it.

All in all, a good place to get a bite, especially if you want to impress a date without worrying about making up deep conversation.

I give it 4 out of 5 pants off.

Linda’s Take

I had no idea where we were going to go to dinner this evening. I asked Jason to surprise me and pick a place, while I tried to look very nice for him. We walked into Ciao Bella, it looked really fancy. I was pleased with Jason’s choice.

I tried a wine that I liked (Moscato). I’m not a wine drinker at all, but thought what the hell. Not bad but a little pricey at $10.00 a glass. But then again, I don’t know what a good price is for wine.

We ordered some wasabi scallops, they were oh-so-good.

Jason ordered a sea food pasta, and I tried halibut for the first time. Kind of a dry dish, but I guess it’s supposed to be. Still tasted great.

This was a really nice place, the staff is really kind, and they always fill your water glass prompt and give you really good fresh bread.

I give it 4 out of 5 pants off

Total Score: 4 out of 5 pants off!

Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar and Grill

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Jason’s Take

Linda and I are taking dancing lessons, which means we are also always interested in finding places to dance.

Enter’s Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar and Grill. They’ve got live music at least 4 nights a week, and the biggest dance floor I’ve seen in the western suburbs.

It’s gimmicky, it’s country, and the giant guitar-shaped bar can be irritating to walk around, but it’s fun.

The food…sucks. I’ve never been happy eating there. I’ll occasionally get an appetizer, but I try to avoid it. It’s all greasy and not worth getting.

The music, however is good. It’s almost all some blend of country and rock, which makes for fun music to dance to.

If you’re going to dance, I recommend getting there about 9. That’s when the music usually starts, and by 10:30, there are so many obnoxious drunks standing around the dance floor that dancing is almost impossible.

I know some people are offended by waitresses dressed slutty, but it’s not that bad. It’s a bunch of attractive women in shorts and tank tops that don’t leave a lot to the imagination, but they fade in to the scenery pretty fast. By your third visit, you hardly notice. I haven’t decided if that’s good or bad.

I give it 4 out of 5 pants off.

Linda’s Take

So I’m a country girl at heart, even though I grew up in a city suburb; put me on a horse and I’m in heaven.

So naturally, I like country music…really anything with a good beat is alright with me, but I mostly listen to country. So ever since Jason and I started taking our dance lessons, it only made sense to use what we are learning on a regular basis, right? Toby Keith’s Bar and Grill is really close to us, so, duh, it makes sense to shake our groove thing there!

We had been there a couple of times before to eat, but I don’t think I’ll ever order food there again. It seems to be just one step up from fast food for twice the price, however it’s an awesome place to go to and listen to live country music and, with a bigger dance floor than most places, this works for us really well!

But only if people that just stand on the dance floor and hold drinks and don’t dance taking up space on the dance floor get OFF the dance floor! (editor’s note: Or just die!) Oh gosh, that’s so annoying!

We found out that you don’t need to know how to line dance to be able to dance there, however, I wouldn’t mind learning some of that, just not the Achey Breaky that I was thought back in Jr. High School. Swing dancing works well with just about any up-beat song! Get a bunch of turns going and you look like a pro! And don’t worry if you fall on your ass, we have seen that a few times out there!

There is almost a live band every night, and most are really good. Also it’s only a $5.00 cover on Friday and Saturday nights, and there is no cover for Sunday – Thursday. Great way to practice dancing and have a few drinks, or just to have some country fun.

3 out of 5 pants off

Total Score: 3.5 out of 5 Pants Off

Forever Yogurt

By Jason Leave a Comment

Jason’s Take

A few nights ago, Linda had to work, and I had to come up with something to entertain the kids.

My solution: frozen yogurt from Forever Yogurt in the West End development. They’ve got 16 flavors of frozen yogurt, 50 different toppings to put on them to make the frozen yogurt as far from a healthy alternative to ice cream as possible, and they are immediately next to the most deserted part of the parking ramp complex over there.

They charge about 60 cents an ounce, so it stays affordable. It cost $23 to take three kids out, and they all love being able to get exactly what they want.

I strongly recommend limiting them to 3 or four toppings, or young brats will turn it into a horribly, sugary abomination that even they won’t eat.

Been there, done that.

I give it 4 out of 5 pants off.

The Yardhouse

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Jason’s Take

The Yardhouse came to St. Louis Park a few months back, and we wanted to try it. The last time we went there, they had a 60-90 minute wait, so we went elsewhere. This time, we took advantage of their call-ahead seating option and called as soon as we left our dancing lesson. When we got there, we only had a 10 minute wait to get seated. Yay, us!

The Yardhouse has an impressive beer selection; over 150 beers on tap. Our waitress had a pretty good handle on the beers, so we told what kind of beer we like and she came back with good choices. The pear cider and apricot ale are good if you like things sweet. The double chocolote thing tastes like a milkshake, but without a hint of sweetness. The Delirium Tremens clocks in at 10% alcohol and tastes good. It’s a great way to catch a quick buzz without having to buy a bunch of beer.

I’ve read reviews that say the place is too noisy, but I disagree. They keep the music loud enough to drown out surrounding conversations, but not so loud you can’t easily hear the people at your table. The music provides privacy, which is great in a joint with an open floor plan.

Now, the food:

When we first looked into the place, I saw a giant menu that didn’t hit any particular niche. You can get tacos, sushi, steak, or pizza. How can a restaurant make good food when there’s a thousand* items on the menu and no theme?

I don’t know the answer to that, but they managed.

We started with the spicy deviled eggs and mu shu egg rolls. Both were great. I can eat a pile of deviled eggs, so I’m happy there were only 3 on the plate. Appetizers were excellent.

For the second course, we got the chicken tortilla soup, which comes with an avocado slice on top. I could have gotten a bowl of that and gone home happy. Holy crap, that was good.

My entree was the taco plate with garlic fries. The fries were phenomenal. Easily ranking in the top 5 french fries I’ve had in my life. The tacos were okay, but not mind-blowing. I had a baja taco and a carnitas taco. Good, not great.

For dessert, I really wanted to get the salted caramel butterscotch pudding, but did you read the list of food we did get? There was no room for more.

Totally worth going. We got some great beer and food, and spent $93 including the tip. I will be going back.

I give it 5 out of 5 pants off.

Linda’s Take

We finally got a chance to go to this place over at the West End Shops. If you even want to get in, you can call ahead and have your name added to the wait list, they will tell you how long the wait it is for a table and you can head there closer to the wait time.

They don’t take reservations.

OMG, the list of beers on tap, if you want it, they will have it! And the neat thing you can do is sample up to 2 different beers at a time to find out what you like.

I think one thing I didn’t like about this place is that there is so much on the menu that it takes a while for you to figure out what you want to eat. I do like that for everything on the menu, they have at the end of description they will indicate if it’s a vegetarian and/or under 600 calorie dish. That way I don’t have to pick the waitress’s brain.

They have an awesome list of appetizers to choose from, not your regular listing of appetizers. I liked what Jason chose, both were yummy. I ordered a chipotle lime grilled shrimp; the shrimp tasted awesome, however I didn’t like the sides that came with it. We both tried the chicken tortilla soup and that was awesome!

I would just go back for beer and soup!
Overall, 4 out of 5 pants off

Total Score

4.5 Pants Off!

*Slight exaggeration