Chevy’s Fresh Mex

Linda’s Take

Coming back from our dance lesson I had asked Jason if there was a place near us that serves sushi, he said 2 places in the Mall of America do. My feet were aching so I didn’t really want to walk around the mall. But Jason was strongly hinting we should go so I made my way to the off ramp to go to the Monster Mall.

As I made my way to the East parking ramp, we noticed that there was a little Mexican restaurant off to the right hand side. We had seen Chevy’s Fresh Mex before and I had remembered that we had wanted to try it sometime.

Jason said, how does Mexican sound instead? Sounded great to me. It looked as if it was a good time to go as well. Busy but not solid packed.

We got to sit outside, the waitress we had was really nice. I wanted to try a signature drink and I told her what I kinda liked. She suggested prickly pear kinda pink drink. I loved it! I feel stupid that I can’t remember the name of the dam thing. Maybe I good idea, they cost $14.00 a piece.

I had a question about a menu item, there was a habanero sauce on a enchilada dish that looked appetizing. I’m really liking more and more spicy things to eat lately but I don’t want to burn my tongue off. Jason says it’s my best asset. So our waitress brought out some for me to taste, flavorful and not hot at all, just a little kick.

You get chips and salsa to nibble on but our waitress kept forgetting to bring ours out. She also forgot our water that we asked for during our meals. Pretty girl, but a little forgetful.

When we ordered our meals, they came out with in 8 minutes or so. It seemed really fast, which was nice, and everything on my plate tasted pretty good. I really liked this little yellow corn/rice ball that was on our plates. I have no idea what it was.

For the most part I liked the place, however one of the downsides is that it’s near the airport on the South side of the Moster Mall. So if you sit outside it’s kinda hard to hear people with the planes taking off. But they do karaoke on some nights, however we didn’t stay for that. I’m sure I would have just been hurting everyone’s ears if I were singing. I’m pretty sure Jason was happy that I didn’t want to do karaoke.

This place gets a 3 out of 5 pants off from me.

Jason’s Take

We were on our way home from dance lessons. Date night was canceled because the boy was sick, but we were hungry, dammit. Five minutes north of the dance studio is the Monster Mall, so we thought we’d go there for sushi. Mall sushi is known around the world as the best sushi, after all. Ancient samurai warriors used to head down to the local strip mall after beheading upstart peasants to get the best California rolls known to man.

It’s true, look it up.

As we pulled down the south side of the mall, I saw Chevy’s and immediately decided that tacos sounded better than eel. Ever since the 6th century BC when the Japanese allied with the Visigoths and sailed birch-bark canoes across the Baltic Sea to introduce the tortilla to Mexico, Mexico has made better tacos.

Seriously, when’s the last time you had a good taco at a Japanese restaurant?

Linda didn’t argue, because I only allow her to have opinions that she’s decided I’m allowed to provide for her. She gives me a list of pre-approved opinions every morning. It’s easier that way.

It was about 7:30 on a Friday and they weren’t packed. That’s never a good sign, but they are across the street from a giant freaking mutation of a mall and it meant we got seated right away, so what the heck, right?

Like every Americanized Mexican restaurant since the Aztecs conquered Russia and simultaneously invented almost-ethnic food, they served chips for everyone. The chips clearly didn’t come out of a bag. They came out warm with a glisten of oil clinging to them like butter on a biker magazine cover model. None of the appetizers sounded as good as the picture in my head of a butter-covered model, so we stuck to the chips, which were good.

We ordered drinks. I got a beer, and Linda ordered a prickly pear margarita. I got my beer, but she was delivered an ice cream pail of pink, prickly-pear-and-tequila-flavored deliciousness. If it would have been just a little bit warmer, I think I would have climbed in and had a little swim. It was worth the $14 price tag. 43 shots of tequila, three gallons of pink, and enough pear-flavored something to make it nummy. I’d recommend it.

The food was good too. I got the Mesquite Grilled tacos, one chicken and one steak. They were good, but I’d bet the chicken was cooked by a prep cook at 10AM instead of fresh to order. Still, it was a good mix of ingredients, not a chunk of chicken hiding in three pounds of lettuce. The beans were boring. The little ball of yellow corn thing-that-I-don’t-know-the-name of was incredible. Almost corn bread pudding, almost corn-flavored candy. I probably should have saved it for dessert.

We were too full to actually have dessert, and none of the options were screaming “take me, take me, oh god, take me” so I left them.

I give it 4 out of 5 pants off.

Total Score

3.5 out of 5 Pants Off

Yoga With Cher

By Jason Leave a Comment

Linda’s Take

Jason had a new idea to have us try a yoga class. I thought this was kinda odd coming from my man. But even know I was shocked at his suggestion, I told him that I know of someone who teaches yoga classes and I would contact her to get more information.

Turns out she is someone who graduated from my school, same class year. And her daughter and our youngest girl were in the same class last school year.

So she offers a beginner yoga class on Sundays starting at 12:30pm for only $12.00 dollars, and also she offers a kids yoga class starting at noon for only $8.00 dollars per child.

I thought wow, something new for the whole family to try. However our teenage son didn’t want to go. No matter how much we tried, yoga isn’t as cool as computer games. She teaches her classes at The Iron Gym in St Louis Park. They have pretty much a full working gym, but none of the high power technology machines. However it’s quiet and that makes it perfect for yoga, because as I found out it’s about a lot of breathing.

I never thought that holding positions and stretches while breathing would make you so sweaty. It’s a workout!

I think we are going to go again, also our girls liked it as well and want to come again too. And we found out that our neighbor would like to check it out!

This is an idea for the whole family to do.
I give it 4 out of 5 pants off!

Jason’s Take

I recently read The First 20 Hours. It’s a book about learning the basics of any skill in…wait for it…20 hours. One of the skills the author documented was yoga. Before reading the book, I’d never given yoga any thought. I’d always mentally dropped into the “chick stuff” category and forgotten about it.

I read the book, and decided to give yoga a shot. I mentioned it to Linda and she said she had a friend who taught. A dozen Facebook messages later, we were signed up and ready to go.

The class is at a gym in a warehouse space on the border of St. Louis Park and Hopkins. It was hot yoga that day, but only because it was almost 100 degrees outside and we were in a warehouse space.

We brought the girls for the kids yoga class immediately before the adult class. They liked in, but our youngest thought it was too hot and the wait for the adult class was too long. I told her to bring a book next time.

Thing I didn’t realize about yoga: It’s a workout. I always pictured it as the thing soccer mommies did instead of something. I was wrong. It’s a solid workout that includes strength and flexibility training. Who doesn’t want to be more flexible? Sex swings are always more fun with high-end acrobatics, right?

Totally worth doing. I give it 4 out of 5 pants off.

Total Score

4 out of 5 Pants Off

Best of India

By Jason Leave a Comment

Linda’s Take

Well both thought it would be a good idea to expose our kids to different types of ethic foods. The first place that came to my mind was a little hole-in-the-wall place in a strip mall near by called Best of India. I like the idea of the buffet for the kids. That way they can look at the food to see what they want to try, then go back and try something else.

The lunch buffet wasn’t very expensive.

This is a small place. The staff was really nice and asked us a few times if the kids were having fun and liked items they were serving.

Just about everything that I tried was really good. I can’t complain about any of the food to much. Some of it was a little dry, but for the most part the manager made sure everything was fresh on the buffet.

However, the only thing that kinda turned me off to this place is that the buffer was located in the far back kinda in the kitchen/cleaning area,but understand that this is a small place. Also the buffet is very small; not a lot of items to choose from. However, the manager noticed that Jason got a couple of helpings of mango pudding and he said that he made it himself. I have to admit, the mango pudding was very tasty.

Overall I give this place only 2 out of 5 pants off.

I just wasn’t really impressed.

Jason’s Take

I dig Indian food. That probably comes from spending six years working for an Indian immigrant who liked to throw parties at his house and serve Indian food.

I also like forcing my kids to try new food.

That combination led us to Best of India in the TexaTonka neighborhood of St. Louis Park.

The place is small; it probably seats 25 people. With so little room, they set up the buffet in the kitchen, which is weird. And the buffet is small, though the food was good. The naan was great. The mango pudding was wonderful.

Side note: I love mango pudding, and the formerly-best-place-to-get-it started making it out of a box or something nasty, so I hadn’t had any in a while.

The food was good, and cheap. I like that combination. One of my kids was a brat and only ate naan, which was irritating.

No dancing girls, which was expected.

I give it 3 out of 5 pants off.

Total Score

2.5 out of 5 Pants Off

Cowboy Jack’s, Bloomington

By Jason Leave a Comment

Linda’s Take

Jason had idea to try this place, he had been to one before out in Woodbury, MN and thought I would like it. We invited 2 friends and got there about 8pm.

If you go during dinner time you’re going to be waiting for a while.

I really liked the place, they have free popcorn to snack on while you’re waiting for your table. I thought that was kinda nice. I love the country atmosphere and decor, I’m just a country girl that grew up in the city. The tables are nice and roomie too. That’s always a good thing since Jason is a tall guy. (ed. Big and tall!)

The food is good, it’s wholesome and very tasty. I also like that they have a light area on the menu as well. I like good American food, but I don’t want everything to be a grease bomb.
You have to get the corn bread here! It is the best I have ever had! I ordered a salad and sirloin tips and they were cooked perfect!

Only thing is that I wish is that it would be awesome if they had a dance floor and live music in the late evening! I almost wish I could combine Toby Keith’s and Cowboy Jacks together and this would rock!

I would definitely come back!

4 out of 5 pants off

Jason’s Take

Cowboy Jack’s is a country bar, but the waitresses are less scantily-clad than some other country bars, relatively speaking. Since I don’t go to restaurants look to ogle T&A, that’s not really a disappointment for me.

The biggest disappointment for me is that they have live music almost every night, but no dance floor. That makes me sad, since Toby Keith’s fills up quickly after 10pm.

For an appetizer, we got the jalepeno cheese curds. You can taste the pepper, but there’s really no burn. Cheese curds are good, though. We also got the corn bread skillet, which was yummy, but I went home and figured out how to make it better. I’m not entirely sure why Linda is so in love with their’s.

I got the mushroom and swiss burger, which is kind of my default burger when I go out. It was good, and reasonably priced. The tater tots that came with it were also worth the price of admission.

Good food, good prices. I give it 4 out of 5 pants off.

Total Score

4 out of 5 Pants Off

The Loop, St. Louis Park

By Jason Leave a Comment

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

Surabhi

By Jason Leave a Comment

Linda’s Take

Surabhi

Jason and I also wanted to start going to restaurants with different ethnic foods to add some variety to what we eat.

Jason had been to Surabhi before and I was willing to give it a shot.

We ordered a few things off the menu. One of the things I noticed right away, at an Indian restaurant, they have a huge menu, practically everything of every dish you can order. If you have never ordered before from a place like this, I really recommending going with a few people and getting a few things to try.

The food is not ready right away; it takes time, which means they put heart into what they make. However it is really good and tasty.

This is a nice place to go, great for catching up with friends and having pleasant conversation while having good Indian food.

Another thing you can always do is go for their lunch buffet. Sample a bit of everything!

I give this place 3 out of 5 pants off

Jason’s Take

I used to work just down the road from Surabhi…with some Indians. We had lunch at a bunch of different Indian restaurants.

Surabhi is one of the better ones. They’ve got a massive menu, but everything I’ve had is really good.

Don’t go if you’re in a hurry. The food is made to order, which means it’s coming out slow and delicious.

If you’re not familiar with Indian food, go at lunch and enjoy the buffet. I totally recommend the goat curry. And the garlic naan. The naan is worth going all by itself.

I give it 4 out of 5 pants off.

Total Score: 3.5 out of 5 pants off.

Aji Contemporary Japanese

By Jason Leave a Comment

Linda’s Take

Aji Contemporary Japanese

Jason and I want to try some different sushi restaurants around us, and we want to work our way through the restaurants in Hopkins. We found Aji and thought Hopkins, “Great! It’s nearby and it looked nice, being right on main street.”

All I have to say is, really? This place sucks!

Bad service, the food is not much better than going to any Chinese buffet shushi.

Just don’t go.

1 out of 5 pants off!

Jason’s Take

Ditto.

The service was awful and the food was bland. It’s an all-you-can-eat sushi place and it took at least 15 minutes to place our order. “Yep, we want the sushi” should be a fast order to take.

If you’re considering going to Aji, do yourself a favor and reconsider.

1 out of 5 pants off.

Total score: 1 out of 5 pants off.

Pittsburgh Blue

By Jason Leave a Comment

Linda’s Take

Pittsburgh Blue is by far one of the best restaurants you can ever go to.

I love eating here!!!!

Now you are going to drop a pretty penny when you go here, but it is sooooo worth it.

First of all, save a few bucks if you want and bypass the drinks, they do a great job with anyone you choose, but you can drop close to $10.00 a drink. DO order any of the steaks! My favorite is the horseradish crusted filet minion. Also the scalloped appetizers are melt in your mouth wonderful!

The best part about this restaurant is the staff. I have never had anything bad to say about the service here. They treat you like you are royalty! I even dropped one of my appetizers and they fixed me one more so I would get exactly what we paid for.

I wouldn’t mind eating here once a month, but of course the budget won’t let us do that. However I think at least 2 or 3 times a year is perfect!

I give this restaurant 5 out of 5 pants off!

Jason’s Take

Pittsburgh Blue has phenomenal food. I’ve been there more times than I can count. It’s pricey, unless you go at happy hour and stick to the happy hour menu, then it’s priced like any regular restaurant.

If you go for dinner and order appetizers, and steaks, and drinks, you’re going to drop a couple of hundred dollars, easy.

But it’s so worth it.

The bacon wrapped scallops are so good, words fail me. I feel like I need to do the walk of shame the morning after I eat them, it is so good.

The french onion soup is also great. It’s served with half an inch of cheese melted over the top. So bad for you. Yum.

You can’t go wrong with any of their steaks. Don’t bother with fish. This is a steak house.

Sides are served family style. I recommend the onion & cheese hashbrowns, the asparagus, the mushrooms, and the mashed potatoes, but not all in the same meal.

For dessert, get the crème brûlée. Trust me. If you’re going to have that anywhere, have it here.

This is the easiest 5 out of 5 pants off I’ve ever given.

Total Score: 5 out of 5 Pants Off

98 Pounds Buffet

By Jason Leave a Comment

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