The Loop, St. Louis Park

Linda’s Take

One of the new restaurants at the West End Shops in St. Louis Park is The Loop. I’ve driven past it a few time; the outside of the place didn’t look too appealing to me, but Jason really wanted to try the place so we had lunch there.

When I walked in, the staff was really inviting and kind. The place looks really different on the inside. Warm wood tones and big booths along the wall. Kinda country and kinda new age. Different, but nice.

They have a separate & smaller lunch menu from the dinner menu, I like that. Less time searching for what you want.

We ordered a meat platter with toasted flat bread and sauces. High quality meats, pretty tasty. I also ordered a hummus platter, which I’ve never seen on a menu before. This I really liked! It was served with cucumbers, olives, tomatoes, and artichokes all mixed with a Mediterranean style sauce and warm pita bread. Only bummer about this dish was wanting more bread.

I had an apple and cherry salad for the main course. This was really fresh and crisp. I loved all of the different greens in the salad. You can add meat for an additional cost, but I loved it just the way it was.

Jason had a Juicy Loopy, their version of the Juicy Lucy. He said it was good but he liked the Juicy Lucy better.

Oh, my hummus platter came out a little late so the manager came over and gave it to us for free. I thought that was really nice. We never even complained about it at all.
I did like this place, a little pricey, but not by much.

I give it 3 out of 5 pants off

Jason’s Take

There’s one restaurant slot at the West End that just doesn’t have any luck. Every year or two, there’s a new restaurant in there. The current restaurant is The Loop.

We’re on a quest to review all of the restaurants at the West End, so this one had to go on the list, though honestly, judging a book by its cover and being absolutely non-politically correct, I thought it was a gay bar at first glance. If you can ignorantly stereotype what the outside of a gay bar in a nice neighborhood looks like.

Inside, it’s a nice place. The woods are nice, and the bar has phone charging stations every 6 feet, which is pretty sweet.

The staff was nice, but I’m pretty sure our waiter was either new, or will be a former waiter soon. He wasn’t great and the manager knew he wasn’t. She came over to check and make sure that he’d been over to help us.

So, food:

No booze. This was lunch on a work day, so we didn’t drink.

For appetizers, we got the charcuterie board and the hummus plate. The pile of olives and marinated vegetables made the hummus plate totally worth the $11. Good olives. Good hummus. The charcuterie board had some sweet choices, like liver, some fancy bologna-like stuff, and bacon jam. It works well.

Linda has rabbit-food for the main course. I was going to get the Pork Banh Mi sandwich, but they were out of both the chicken liver and the pork pate, so I got the Juicy Loopy instead. That’s a juicy lucy stuffed with bacon, onions, and cheddar. It was good, but the 5-8 Club does juicy lucy’s better. The fries were awesome. More accurately, the garlic and parsley aioli that is served with the fries was phenomenal.

I give it 4 out of 5 pants off.

Total Score

3.5 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

Cooper Irish Pub

By Jason Leave a Comment

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.

Linda’s Take

Jason’s Take

Total Score

Linda’s Take

Jason’s Take

Total Score

Jason’s Take

Linda’s Take

Total Score

Linda’s Take

Jason’s Take

Total Score: 4.5 Pants Off.