98 Pounds Buffet

Linda’s Take

Jason has been to 98 Pounds Buffet many times for lunch meetings, and he said that they have a pretty good sushi bar. I wasn’t very hopeful, thinking that it was going to be like most Chinese buffet places, but I was really pleased.

The Chinese food choices are not huge, but they make up for that in quality of the food. Everything tasted really good for a buffet, and I did notice that they changed out the food on a regular basis so that it was fresh.

My favorite was the sushi buffet! Yummy, and delish! I would go back over and over again, a fair price for good quality buffet food.

I give it 4 out of 5 pants off.

Jason’s Take

First off, sushi has to be judged by category:

Sushi restaurants
Buffet sushi
Vending machine sushi
Old bait

98 Pounds Buffet has the best buffet sushi in the state, hands down. While it may not be in competition with Ichiban, it is good and fresh. It’s worth the $11 lunch price just to fill up on sushi.

The rest of the food is good too. The serving tables are kept at a good temperature, and the food is rotated regularly. Quite honestly, I’ve never eaten anything here that sucks.

I give it 5 out of 5 pants off. Best Chinese buffet around.

Total Score: 4.5 out of 5 Pants Off

Granite City

By Jason Leave a Comment

Linda’s Take

So one night I wanted to go someplace local but with a menu that we haven’t eaten for awhile.

Don’t get me wrong, you’re going to see more sushi restaurant reviews posted later on, but it’s nice to switch it up once in a while.

So we picked Granite City; they are a chain restaurant, but there are not so many around. That’s because they also brew their own beer right at the restaurant! I thought that was inspiring because they also cook with the beer they brew.

The drinks we had were good, I really liked the one I ordered, I don’t remember the name of it other than it had the word “Monkey” in the name, but it was sweet and fruity, and it gave me a good buzz! That works for me!

I also tried French Onion Soup for the first time, I really liked how they made it, flavorful but not to rich. The appetizer we had really filled me up and it was full of flavor!

For my main dish I ordered the London Broiled steak, it was really tender and good, but not much seasoning with it. However I was so full already I wasn’t sure how many bites I could even take.

All and all this was a place that fit the budget to go out to eat, with better quality food an other chain restaurants.
I would go here again.

I give it 3 out of 5 pants off

Jason’s Take

Granite City is a restaurant and micro-brewery. It is a chain, but not a large chain, and it’s a
local chain.

Given the fact that it’s a microbrewery, they have a biased sense of how great their beer is, and
charge accordingly. It’s not outragious, but the beer isn’t cheap.

We started with the shrimp appetizer, which came with a slaw and was really good.

Next, we had the French Onion soup, because linda had never tried it before and onions are a sharedexperience on a date. You should never let just one person on a date have onions. It was good,but not good enough to knock my pants off.

I had burger X for my main course, which was also good-but-not-great.

For dessert, we had the apple tort-thing. It was an insanely dry puff pastry filled with applefilling that just wasn’t great. Pass on this.

I give it 3 pants off.

Total Score

3 out of 5 Pants Off

Hope Rides Harvest Day

By Jason Leave a Comment

Linda’s Take

There is a wonderful non profit organization that a great woman runs. She doesn’t do it alone; she has great friends to help. My cousin introduced me to her. Her name is Vollie and the organization that she runs is called Hope Rides. She runs this place in Mayer, MN. It allows children that have trouble opening up, have been scared and need someone to trust, have had abuse in their lives, or love being around horses and just get the chance to work and be with horses for free.

A few times a year Vollie throws fundraiser events that are completely geared towards kids and family. I asked Jason if he minded having the whole family go out there to get some fresh air and to have some fun. To my delight, he said yes, and everyone did have fun!

Our son got to learn how to juggle; Jason was also working on this. Our two girls loved the amusement park games and they got like a million suckers as prizes. They also had tables where they had face painting, caricatures, henna tattoos, and someone teaching kids how to draw horses. All of the activities were free and super fun for kids and adults!

There was also food, a silent auction, and Hope Rides merchandise to buy, with all proceeds going to Hope Rides.

Nothing is more rewarding then seeing all of the smiles on my kids faces, and to see Jason with a smile on his face when he is with his family. I wish I saw more of it!

I give this event 5 out of 5 pants off!

Jason’s Take

When Linda asked me to go to the Hope Rides Harvest Day fundraiser, I was less than thrilled. As much as I support her ~~obsession~~ interest in horses, I don’t share it. But family time is important, so off we went.

We walked in, and the first thing we saw was the driveway roped off and a juggling team teaching people to juggle. I’ve been trying to learn lately, so I dragged Brat #1 over there and we gave it a shot. I got bored of dropping the balls within about 15 minutes, but he stuck around for over an hour. He’s not great, but he’s actually juggling, now.

They had henna tattoos, face painting, a little carnival, horse rides, and a bunch of other stuff going on. We all had fun and threw some money at the charity. It was a good time for a good cause, and we’ll be back.

The horse racing was the best.

5 out of 5 stars.

Linda’s Take

Jason’s Take

Total Score: 4.5 out of 5 Pants Off

Linda’s Take

Jason’s Take

Total Score

Linda’s Take

Jason’s Take

Total Score: 5 out or 5 stars.