Out Of Town: Kyoto Japanese Restaurant, Rolla MO

Restaurant: Kyoto Japanese Restaurant
Address: 1002 N Bishop Ave, Rolla, MO
Website: None that I saw.
Genres: Sushi, Chinese
Check Constraints: None noted.
Chain:No.

==Chamelaeon==
Ordered:

• Dumplings in Red Oil ($4.95)
• Sushi Set B ($12.50)
• 4 Sushi (Chef's choice)
• Spicy Tuna Roll
• Soup
• Salad

Once again, we were in Rolla, Missouri for our twice-annual visit. We only reviewed one restaurant this time, since we took things a little easier - Mecha, ND and I were all trying to decompress from work. It's almost a two-for-one deal, though, since Kyoto doesn't just do Japanese food and sushi, but does some interesting Chinese food as well. In its newer location along the "main drag" of Rolla, Kyoto has plenty of room inside, if not necessarily plenty of parking. The interior is fairly traditional in style, with several booths providing you the option of sitting with your legs underneath you.

But enough about the building. Onto the food! The dumplings were essentially large circular potstickers - meat and cabbage inside a layer of dough. They were steamed, and served in a bowl with a spoon, much like some sort of strange meatball cereal. They were also extremely hot, so be careful and let it cool before you spoon one into your mouth whole with eager anticipation, like I did. The "red oil" portion of the appetizer is a chili-flavored sesame oil, with which the dumplings were dressed. It added a nice peppery flavor and though I could have (of course) stood more heat, they were still deliciously spicy. Definitely Would Eat Again.

As with a lot of sushi places, the dinner I ordered came with soup and salad. The salad was good, although suffered from the "iceberg lettuce is the only lettuce" problem a lot of places have. Still, you get your fiber where you can. The soup was good, with what seemed to be an onion base - it had a deliciously oniony flavor to it. Still, a cup of it was probably enough. I don't think I'd opt for the bowl.

The sushi here was good. I wouldn't classify it as fantastic, though it's certainly not the worst sushi I've ever had. But given the circumstances - a college town in the middle of Missouri - it's got some remarkable tastiness to it. Granted, I have a very liberal hand with the wasabi so I'm not usually the best to comment on the subtle tastes of the nigiri. I can, however, say that both the nigiri and the rolls were well-crafted, and that the composition of the rolls made for some delicious eating. I sampled off a lot of people's plates and dishes, and they all fell into the "good" range for me. I don't think any of our party strayed off into the Chinese section of the menu, but I imagine the food is at least as good over there.

Someone at the table ordered red bean buns at the end of it all as dessert. I don't remember who that was, since I was kind of in a food-induced coma at that point. Regardless, they were chewy, delicious, and a good topper to the dinner.

We've been to Kyoto once before, and it's likely we'll be back. You don't have many choices when eating sushi in Rolla, but take heart in that your one choice is, in fact, enjoyable.

==NinjaDebugger==
Ordered:

• Triple Dinner ($16.95)
  • Chicken Teriyaki
  • Tekka Maki
  • 6 Sushi
• Rainbow Roll ($9.50)
• Inari ($3.00)
• Barley Tea ($2.50?)
  

I finally learned the proper way to have wasabi on your sushi. For the record, that's to mix it into the soy sauce in a dish, then dip it. I didn't know that. I'm not sure why.

In any case, the tea I had, which was roasted barley tea. It's their standard tea, and not listed as such, but now that I've figured out what it is, I looked it up, and the stuff I saw sitting in the tea was definitely barley. The first time I went there, we all got the stuff, practically, and wondered what the heck it was, and didn't like it very much. Now that I've figured out what it is, I can appreciate it as barley tea and not the green tea that I expected. Unfortunately, I have no basis for comparison of barley tea, so all I can tell you is that if you're not expecting green tea, it's decent tea. I think. It's also a pot plus a cup, and the pot's pretty good sized, so you're not going to run out quickly.

Inari rolls are a siren call to me. They're so very simple, reasonably priced for just grabbing to nosh, and are just plain good. I always get them now, wherever I go that has them. I prefer them hot, but cold seems to be the standard, the hot ones must have been an anomaly. These were the best cold ones I've had, though, as they were barely greasy at all, something that has plagued the cold rolls in the past. For those who are reading this as their first sushi review, Inari rolls are a blob of sushi rice with a tofu skin wrapped around it, then deep fried. I usually eat one straight up, and then dip the other in soy/wasabi mix, and they're both quite good.

The triple combo's a pretty good value. More substantial than a bento, for not a hell of a lot more price. The chicken teriyaki was nothing special, as far as I can remember. The tekka maki I'm remembering as quite a bit better than most of what I've had, and the sushi assortment, well. I had to pass off a piece on account of not being able to stomach shrimp, but other than that, it was decent to good.

The real star of the dinner, for me, was the rainbow roll. I had never had one of these before, but now, I'm thinking I'm gonna have it more often. Take a nice long california roll, which I mostly tolerate, but don't go out of my way to get. Now layer along its entire length maybe half a dozen types of fish, with multiple types overlapping on any given area, and cut it into delicious chunks, and arrange to look kinda like a rainbow, only with stripes the wrong way. Okay, my description skills suck, but the rainbow roll doesn't. It was wonderful, from beginning to end, and even my somewhat touchy stomach ate it up.

As for the red bean buns... well, they were delicious, and now ND just wants to go outside and take it easy.

==Mecha==
Ordered:

• Triple Dinner ($16.95)
  • Chicken Teriyaki
  • Tekka Maki
  • 6 Sushi
• Hamachi (Yellow Tail) (4.25)

I actually can't remember if I got Maki or not. Is very long ago, and I can't find the recept despite paying. It's a shame I went to Hiro after this, because it kinda overrides my impressions.

The dumplings Cham got were at a good and not unedible heat, so all could enjoy. I got some a la carte sushi, as I often do, this time opting for the yellow tail. It's definitely a fish I could go for again, and unlike Cham I do not destroy the subtle flavors with more wasabi than should ever possibly go on that fish. The a la carte comes by 2 pieces here, as it seems most places do (making Sakura Bana the exception to Matsu, Hiro, and Kyoto's rule.)

Their triple dinner came in a bit of a bento box format (I think?) and was definitely comparable. It came with an appetizer of a salad, and while being full of iceberg, the dressing was a bit off what you usually get, and pretty good. I'm remembering sesame, but it's been a while. The 'chef's choice' sushi was, as is pretty much standard, tuna, whitefish, shrimp, salmon, etc. This has to be tougher to get in with good time than Omaha's sushi places, so their ability to have comparable sushi to Sakura Bana is definitely a positive note, and it isn't as if there's huge competition in the town. The chicken teriyaki, I think, was actually better than it was at Sakura Bana, at least slightly. It definitely delivers, and at similar price as well. And the dessert of red bean buns, I nipped at a bit before biting in. Very sweet, enjoyable. And then the check. Whuu. Mid 120s, if I remember, for 6 people, pre-tip. Which isn't bad at all (20 bucks a person, with some sharing? Yeah.)

The overall on the place is that it's a good place to eat, does good sushi even in the middle of nowhere, and the prices are perfectly reasonable. If you're the type, in the area, and you can find parking, I don't think we've got a reservation about sending you to Kyoto. Missouri.

Jack and Mary's Restaurant

Restaurant: Jack & Mary's Restaurant
Address: 655 N 114th St - In the minimall to the east of 114th, look for the sign with a chicken on it.
Website: None I could find.
Genres: Home-Style, Chicken. (Yes, that's really a tag.)
Check Constraints: 18% gratuity for 6 or more. $1 split plate charge.
Chain: No. | More Omaha Locations: No.

==Chamelaeon==
Ordered:

• Iced Tea($1.49)
• Onion Rings ($4.99)
• Regular Chicken Dinner ($7.99)
• Salad Bar
• Chicken Noodle Soup

We're not dead yet! Much as happened last month, the dire specter of work has arisen and laid claim to huge amounts of our time. Rest assured, we're still eating at places, we just haven't told you about them yet, so you as the reader should expect there to be a minor surge of reviews sometime in the next two weeks. But right now we have a restaurant to cover.

In looking around on the web I saw two competing addresses for Jack & Mary's. Whether this means they've moved or that they have two locations, I'm not sure, but since both of them are around the Dodge and 114th St area, I have to say it's more likely they moved and the internet hasn't entirely caught up with that fact yet. Regardless, there's a location off 114th St, and that is the one we ate at. We were actually shooting for Feta's Greek Restaurant, which is in the same minimall, but the place was so packed with lunchgoers we opted to try to find another place to eat.

Jack and Mary's is a restaurant which has a very broad love affair with chicken. A good 90% of their dishes are chicken-based, and some of the non-chicken items still wind up chicken-fried. So you can cease wondering what the rest of the geeks got, because we all got chicken of one form or another. We tried a couple appetizers first, though, one of these being the onion rings (thankfully free of chicken). They were good stuff, too. Remarkably reminiscent of the ones at Mama's Pizza without the interesting salt, the onion rings had a good helping of onion flavor paired with a crispy batter that didn't overpower or smother the onions at all. They don't come with ranch, but there's ketchup at the table. Verdict here is definitely Would Eat Again.

Their salad bar is perhaps a little lackluster compared to some, but it's serviceable. You won't find multiple types of greenery and the bar seemed to be missing staples like cucumber, but there were pepperoncini and olives, which always makes me a little giddy about my salads. It's filling, if nothing else, and one has to ingest one's vegetables somehow. The soup was adequate but nothing special. For a restaurant which prides itself on its chicken, the soup seemed to lack a good chickeny base to it. It wasn't horrible by any means, but I don't think I'd go for it again.

The fried chicken, which seems to be the bread and butter of this establishment, was simultaneously a surprise and a let-down; a duality of food, not unlike some kind of chickenish Tao. The chicken itself was the most moist and flavorful fried chicken meat I had ever tasted. I have brined and roasted chicken breasts before, which results in very juicy and properly seasoned breast meat - the fried chicken breast here was very similar. Were it a piece of grilled chicken, I suspect I would have been ecstatic over the meal. Alas, I ordered it fried, and the real letdown was the breading and the process used. The chicken was fried with skin, but I confess I initially remembered it as skinless - there was some remarkably uneven breading and even some almost bare spots. In addition, the breading was essentially flavorless, so that it was nearly superfluous. Its sole purpose seemed to be to give the chicken a crunchy texture, which I have to admit it did admirably - no soggy breading here.

In summation: the chicken here was better than at a lot of "country-style" restaurants, and I wouldn't even be averse to giving it another shot, in the hopes that it was just an off day for the chicken. Most of the rest of the geeks seemed satisfied with the meal, so giving the place a total writeoff's not a good idea. I suspect if I go again I'm going to try to get a piece of fried and a piece of grilled, and see what comes of it.

==NinjaDebugger==
Ordered:

• Iced Tea($1.49)
• Hot Chicken Sandwich ($7.99 ish)
• Salad Bar
• Cheese Soup
  

Work has been so busy that I can't really remember prices here, but it was all pretty close in price, so anyway, food. I tried one of the onion rings, and one bite was more than enough for me to know it was about a hundred times too oniony for me. What Cham calls a pleasant oniony flavor, I call "someone stuffed an onion up my nose."

The salad bar was decidedly lacking in anything resembling Italian dressing, so I was forced back to ranch, but it had enough of the standards that I got a good salad that was worth the money. The cheese soup wasn't so amazing as I had in other places, but it made an excellent dip for the bread that was placed before us in generous baskets. I approve of restaurants that give bread baskets, as a general rule.

The hot chicken sandwich was exactly as advertised, and as expected, mostly. A big slab of bread with chicken, mashed potatoes, and a thick coating of gravy. The chicken gravy wasn't the best I've had, or even close, though. It was very thick, and not really chickeny enough. The blandness didn't go well with the potatoes and chicken. Unless you're a fan of a big platter of bland, I wouldn't go for it. I know I would go for something else if we went back.

==Moogle==
Ordered:

• Hawaiian (Chicken Sandwich) ($6.99)
  

I actually liked the onion rings here better than those at Mama's Pizza. Maybe the others were too salty for me. If ND got an end-piece instead of an actual ring, I can see the "onion up the nose" argument. I did have one of those and it was pretty strong. Your average ring, I'd say, isn't so bad. The other appetizer ordered was a plate of way too many fried gizzards. I'd never eaten one before, and I will likely continue not eating them. I don't think it's the restaurant's fault, but I am not nearly qualified to judge gizzards. The flavor was very strong and not my favorite. The texture was unpleasant. I barely ate the one, but I gave it a shot at least.

The sandwich was pretty good. It was a grilled chicken breast marinated (or otherwise infused) with teriyaki, a pineapple ring, and a bit of cheese in a bun. I think it came with fries, and if so, they were forgettable. The chicken itself was good and tender inside with a bit of a tougher outside. The flavor of the sandwich in general wasn't very strong. It sounds like most dishes were relatively bland. The strongest thing I encountered were the gizzards. In general, I'd say it's pleasant but not amazing food. The price was ok. I would be willing to give the place a try. It'll be on my mental list of places for chicken or country/home-style food.

==Mecha==
Ordered:

• Regular Chicken Dinner ($7.99)
• Salad Bar
• Cheese Soup

Mmm. Chicken. Ahem. Pretty much everyone else nailed the comparison to Mama's, with less of the popcorn salt and more of the onion flavor. I was very pro-these-rings, although I think just a little less salt would do a better job of bringing out the flavor without having the obvious salty flavor. Still, salt makes things good. The cheese soup was thick and tasty. Not amazing, but a good choice. And the salad bar was okay for providing, well, salad. No real ew to it, which is the reak thing that salad bars risk. Also, totally avoided gizzards. No thanks.

As for the chicken, Cham is right that the meat itself was juicy and likely brined, and also right about the lack of skin/breading flavor, which is a real surprise. They definitely do a good job on the meat, but the outer coat is not just for crispiness and contrast, in my mind, it's for taste. You can do so much more with skin/breading, and it may be just because they're home-style/traditional that they haven't moved that way, but I really wish they would. Still, there's a good variety of other things to try (I'm really interested in the burger Moogle got), so another go wouldn't be a problem with me.(Unfortunately, it's competing with a lot of other enjoyable places in that same area that I'm a sucker for (Thai Pepper and the Taj), so I don't know if it'd be my first pick on my own.)

==MapleSyrup==
Ordered:

• Chicken Fried Chicken ($7?)
• Wisconsin Cheese Soup

The cheese soup was surprisingly good. There were chunks of celery in there for a nice crunch and there was a spice to it that gave it that little extra that I've never seen from a cheese soup. The Chicken Fried Chicken was a bed of mashed potatoes with a large chunk of chicken fried chicken on top with white gravy on top of that. I thought it was delicious. The Chicken itself was fried crunchy but not crack your teeth hard and overall it worked and it filled. I don't recall whether I ordered the special or just off the lunch menu, but regardless, I'd get it again.

McKenna's Blues, Booze, and BBQ

Restaurant: McKenna's Blues, Booze, and BBQ
Address: 7425 Pacific St
Website: http://www.mckennasbbb.com/
Genres: BBQ
Check Constraints: None.
Chain: Yes (sort of). | More Omaha Locations: No.

==Chamelaeon==
Ordered:

• Ten-Hour Smoked Brisket Sandwich ($7.99)
• Red Beans & Rice
• Jalapeno Cornbread ($1.39)
• Drink ($1.99)

A while ago, the ownership of McKenna's... changed hands. It was closed for a couple months, and during that time business apparently fell off. We had heard several good things about its barbecue, and we all felt that we wanted to give them a fair shot at serving up some goodness. For that reason we held off, and tried some of the other BBQ places in town, to mixed results. However, the BBQ bug struck one Thursday morning, and we swiftly decided that it was time to try the restaurant.

It doesn't smell very much like wood smoke outside McKenna's, but there's a very good reason for that. The clever yet evil people seem to vent the delicious smells directly into the restaurant. Now, don't get me wrong, it's not actually smoky inside, but when you walk in and the aroma hits you, you suddenly feel like ordering a lot more food. I actually did smell a bit like I'd been near a campfire when I got home from work that day, which was kind of an interesting effect. Regardless, the agony of waiting for food while that smell just hangs in the air is pretty intense. We ordered appetizers as per usual, and though I'll let the others hold forth on those I will say that I preferred the black eyed pea dip - it was definitely a notch above a generic refried bean concoction.

You would hope that with the good smoke aroma hanging around, McKenna's would have a good smoke on their meat. This is quite definitely the case. The brisket, sans sauce, was deliciously meaty and was tender without being overly dry or falling apart. It could have perhaps been a little more moist, but since it's being eaten with barbecue sauce that's less of a complaint. The sauce was deliciously tangy, with strong hints of molasses, and it went pretty well with... well, with just about everything at the table. All McKenna's sandwiches are served between thick slices of what appeared to be an egg bread. The sandwich, then, was several folded strips of brisket, a splash of sauce (not enough to drown the meat, which is a huge thumbs-up), and the bread. It was absolutely delicious, although the size of the bread slices versus the layout of the brisket on the sandwich meant I got some bites that were mostly bread. It tasted good, though, so I didn't much mind. The verdict here is quite definitely Would Eat Again.

I couldn't taste the jalapenos in the cornbread, but it was good... for Northern-style cornbread. It was perhaps a little dry for northern-style, but I repurposed some of the butter delivered to the table and it helped a lot. The butter had some kind of green herb or spice in it, but we couldn't taste anything. It may have just been parsely.

The red beans and rice deserve their own paragraph. Now, I've not been to Louisiana, so it's hard for me to speak to authenticity. I will say that of the red beans and rice dishes I have had, this one was very different. The beans were not cooked until they fell apart, for starters, and so the appearance of the dish was much more a "beans on top of rice" affair, as opposed to a bean-based sauce. There wasn't much attempt to overspice them, either - the bean flavor shone through. I might have used a shorter-grain rice for a little added stickiness, but that's not that big a complaint. Most importantly, the bean flavor was accompanied by a delicious heat which came out of nowhere a second or two after taking a bite. It was probably out of the heat range of everyone else at the table, but man, it was fantastic for me. I can say it with 100% certainty; unless there is an all-you-can-eat ribs special on the next time we go - and there will be a next time - I'm going to get their red beans and rice/smoked sausage platter. Probably with some cornbread to sop up some of the delicious leftovers.

For the price, it's damn hard to beat this much bbq at this quality. McKenna's brings blues acts through the area, and I am positive that between the food, a good beer, and some good music, you'll have trouble finding a better time on Saturday nights.

==NinjaDebugger==
Ordered:

• Brisket Dinner Platter ($11.99)
• Jalapeno Cornbread
  
• Cottage Cheese
• Corn on the Cob
  
• Drink ($1.99)

I've been okay with the idea of hitting this place for quite a while. Our adventures in barbecue so far have been disappointing to me, with Ozark Smoked Meat Company coming closest to being actually good. I was pleasantly surprised by McKenna's, for the most part, though I have a maxim to impart that will be good for your dining experience.

The brisket was well smoked, with a readily visible and thick smoke line. Mine came without bread, so I was eating pure meat and sauce. The meat was just tender enough to be edible without falling apart, except for one slice I got that was way too thin, and when rolled up, they were great for dipping.

The corn cob was half a cob or so, and utterly unremarkable. It did remind me of why I don't eat corn on the cob often, though. The cottage cheese was apparently prepared and then let sit out while the rest of the dish was prepared, because it was warm. Not lukewarm, but actually warm. Warm cottage cheese is a travesty and a crying shame. Also, don't listen to those other knuckleheads about not tasting the jalapenos in the cornbread. You can taste them if you're not in the habit of regularly torturing your mouth with absurd amounts of capsaicin. The cornbread is, however, VERY dry. If you don't get butter, ask for some.

The appetizers selected were, strangely, both chips and dip. Mainly because they didn't have much -but- chips and dip. The black eyed pea dip was quality, but not something I can really expound on. The chicken nachos were quite good, and had whole beans rather than refried, but they came layered under a quarter inch of melted cheddar. Well, it HAD been melted, anyway. It was a quarter inch sheet of solid cheese by the time we got it, and it was actually work to get a chunk of nachos out. Aside from that, it was good, and not bogged down with things like tomatoes and onions. If they switched from cheddar to cheddar sauce, they would be perfect.

So anyway, the moral, for your dining enjoyment at McKenna's is this: If it involves barbeque sauce, it will be delicious. If it does not, it will probably be much less so. It was still far and away the best barbeque place we've done thus far, and I would willingly eat there again. I'd just get much different sides with the dinner.

==MapleSyrup==
Ordered:

• BBQ Smoked St. Louis Spare Rib Basket ($8.99)
• BBQ Baked Beans
  
• Drink ($1.99)

It took me a while to find the smaller/cheaper portion of ribs which resides in the "Sandwiches" section. I suppose, if you wanted to stretch a bit, you could call it an open faced rib sandwich--it was a rack of 5 or 6 ribs served on top of a large piece of bread. Nevertheless, they were delicious. They had a good smoke; they didn't have any chunks of char; they were very tender and just fell off the bone; and they weren't drowning in sauce (but they did come with a small side of bbq sauce you could apply yourself). The sauce itself worked really well. It wasn't very sweet and had a a nice little kick and a smokey flavor to it. The BBQ beans were a bit too much. I think they could have gone with about half as much bbq sauce in the beans and been fine. As it was, it was like eating the barbecue sauce.

The appetizers were surprisingly good for just chips and dip. I particularly liked the Smoked Chicken Nachos. Once you got through the quarter inch layer of cheese (I'm disappointed that I have to complain about such, really), you could get a delicious scoop of beans, chicken, and some nice green tomato-y pico de gallo.

The service was pretty good. The waitress got a bit confused with ordering our drinks because the other four of us arrived about 10 minutes after ND, but I can excuse that. She kept our drinks filled. And she was actually able to go through Mecha's rib platter and tell him which was what (and seemed eager to do so).

I'm eager to go back. I'd probably go in the evening when they have their blues acts going.

==Mecha==
Ordered:

• Chicken Nachos (~$7.50?)
  
• Ultimate Rib Dinner Sampler ($25.99)
• Jalapeno Cornbread
  
• BBQ Baked Beans
  
• Corn on the Cob
  

I decided to go whole hog, as it were, and get the largest sampler of ribs they had. It was probably about 1.5-2 racks worth of meat, so it was a given I would not finish it.

First, though, the appetizers. The Black Bean Dip + Chips was pretty good. The chips weren't anything amazing, but the dip really did have a pleasant flavor that isn't too common in dips. The chicken nachos were definitely good, and I probably ate too many of them given what I had to deal with. They came with a good chunky salsa, and were indeed buried under some difficult to manage melted cheese, but if you're not too afraid of getting your hands dirty, you can get all the flavors together on a chip.

As for the rib sampler, they had 5 types of ribs. The featherbones were something I'm not familiar with, but apparently they're not only an Omaha thing (see the google for the associations) but supposed to be a good way to get good meat on the cheap. Unfortunately, these were pretty darn tough. The flavor was good, but tough. The Country Pork Ribs were pretty darn juicy, being boneless, although perhaps a bit fatty for some. Think real boneless BBQ with big pieces of meat. The BBQ smoked pork baby backs came a bit tough, but again, the sauce was decent and the flavor decent, just old/overcooked. The St. Louis style, which I'm also not particularly familiar with, was again somewhat tender and easy to get at, and I remember it as a bit more pure.

The shining part here, which I've waited to describe until we were through the the batch of lunchtime inconsistency, was the Hawaiian. The Hawaiian style ribs were exactly what ribs should be. Fall off the bone tender, flavorful, smoky, and they came with a plum-based sauce which 1) worked extremely well with them 2) most of the table was convinced was 80 proof. I refused to leave a single bit of that particular flavor on my plate, and you should as well. On the overall, the platter was decent, but if it had not had inconsistency issues, it could have been amazing on a scale I'd never had before on both scale and flavor. The place was sparsely populated, and I imagined few people were getting what I'd gotten. Nothing was too particularly spicy, but that's not a bad thing. Just a note.

Red beans and rice is not something I have a lot, but this had both strong heat and a good flavor for the beans. A bit too strong on the heat, but the place unabashedly sells milk (which is good to keep in mind if you head for something spicy.) The cornbread I didn't really get through, due to the large plate of food.

I would definitely try this place again, and I want to try it when it's busy enough and I'm not in a rush, because I think then it'll move away from 'frustratingly inconsistent' into something... well, hopefully as good as those Hawaiian-style ribs hinted that they could be.

==Moogle==
Ordered:

• BBQ Smoked Badwich ($7.99)
• Coleslaw
• Black-eyed-pea Dip with Chips ($5.29)
• Lemonade ($1.99)

The nachos were tasty. There were a lot of interesting things mixed in. It was a little bit dry though, so it was harder to keep things on the chips. That seemed to be the style, though (as opposed to accidentally dry or overcooked). The chicken was good and the flavors mixed well. The dip was really good. This one seemed a little too soupy, but it didn't end up being a problem. The peas were whole and the dip held together well enough. The flavor was pretty mild, and made for a great change from regular refried bean dips. The lemonade was pretty good too. It wasn't too sour or too sweet. You get unlimited refills with it too. That may mean it's fountain-style, but I didn't really notice.

The main attraction, the Badwich sandwich, was an interesting beast. It's a pulled pork AND beef sandwich. It was slightly over sauced, but that was about what I was looking for that day. It definitely wasn't flooded, which is good. It came between two large pieces of bread and was a pretty good size. The meat was pretty tender. The BBQ sauce was good, but I didn't taste the meat too much over the sauce. It had a good amount of heat to it. I had a bit of the jalepeno cornbread too. I couldn't detect any heat due to the sauce, but I could taste the jalepeno peppers. The creamy coleslaw was a little light on the "creamy". I didn't realize before, but after ND mentioned that his cottage cheese was warm, I noticed that the coleslaw wasn't very cold. I wasn't a fan.

I would come back. I'd say stick to the intentionally warm side dishes, and go for some of their more unique dishes. They have plenty of interesting options that are off the beaten path.