Petrow's Resturant (Visit 2)

Restaurant: Petrow's
Address: 5914 Center Street
Website: http://www.petrows.com/
Genres: American, Homestyle, Fried
Check Constraints: Split checks work fine (in contrast to Cham/ND's last experience)
Chain: No. | More Omaha Locations: No.

Hey! This is one of our first "revisits". All other reviews of this restaurant are available here.

==Mecha==
Ordered

• Steak Sandwich ($7.79)
• Steak Fries
• Two onion rings
• Bowl of Cheesy Potato and Ham Soup ($3.49)
• Hot Chocolate ($1.39)

Cham and ND were both unavailable this week for various reasons, and so we revisited Petrow's as, conveniently, none of us made the original review a year ago for reasons we can't quite remember. It's unfortunate that I think the sum-up is 'Not quite as good as they experienced.'

Getting it out of the way, the hot chocolate was decent warm hot chocolate, and it was a cold, cold day, so nothing wrong with that, but nothing to recommend it other than the sheer face-numbing cold. I went with a full bowl of the soup, as I'd rather have extra soup left over than not have enough of the good stuff. And this was pretty good potato soup. It actually reminded me, personally, of potatoes au-gratin as I had when I was younger, which is a fine starchy/filling flavor. Some hammy notes, but not a strong taste thereof. Fairly thick. Ultimately good, and sizable for the price (we guessed that I got two or three times as much as Maple did, for nowhere near two or three times the price.)

The steak sandwich was actually a pretty decent strip steak as the base (although not medium rare, nobody's shocked.) But it just did not have a strong enough flavor/mass to overpower any sort of additions of vegetables (which it came with, tomatoes, pickles, onions, lettuce), let alone the steak sauce the waitress offered me and I didn't put on, which made it a very meh sandwich. It actually came with damn fine steak fries, and very, very heavily breaded onion rings that just didn't appeal to me. I joked that they'd be the kind of onion rings ND would like, because they didn't taste like onion at all. Filling, but I was really hoping for some real flavor from the sandwich (if I just wanted a meat base for vegetables, I'd have just gotten a burger!)

If/when I go back, I'll have to try to hit something with a more obvious flavor component (maybe the pork Cham had such luck with), and definitely keep with the soup. And maybe hit a dessert this time. They looked like they had a great selection of dessert.

==MapleSyrup==
Ordered

• Chili Cheddar Burger($7.79)
• Steak Fries
• Two onion rings
• Cup of Cheesy Potato and Ham Soup ($2.59)

As Mecha said, it was an extremely cold day out, so I suggested we hit some place with warm-your-bones food and that's how we arrived at Petrow's. The parking was a bit scarce. We ended up having to squeeze Moogle's car into a space a little up the hill in the back.

I made the mistake of ordering the cup of soup instead of the bowl. Hopefully I'll learn sooner than later that it's always better to go with a bowl. The Cheesy Potato and Ham Soup was a thick and cheesy "broth" with a generous, but not overpowering taste of ham. The potatoes were cubed with the skin left on and cooked perfectly. They weren't mushy at all.

The Chili Cheddar Burger was disappointing. It was a meat patty smothered with meaty chili with lettuce, pickle, and onion on the side. The bottom bun was soggy, the chili had no real flavor, and what little flavor the burger itself had was easily overpowered by the little bit of pickle and onion on top. The steak fries were passable. I left them until after the burger, so they were a bit more soggy than I would have liked. The onion rings weren't very onion-y, but the breading was nice and crunchy, so I can forgive that.

If I go back, I'll definitely be getting a full bowl of the Cheesy Potato and Ham Soup and I'll probably be avoiding any of their burgers.

==Moogle==
Ordered

• Monterrey Chicken Sandwich ($7.79)
• Substitute a cup of potato/ham soup in for fries
  

The others have described the soup pretty well, so I'll just say that I liked it a lot. The ham was not too strong but added nicely to the cheese and potato. I probably could have/should have gone with a bowl as well, but I decided to swap out my fries for the soup.

The sandwich was pretty simple. It had a flattened grilled chicken breast, two somewhat thin grilled slices of ham (not deli-thin), and swiss cheese on sourdough. I'm not sure if there was a dressing of some sort on it as well, but it came with pickle slices on the side. It made for a good sized sandwich lengthwise but wasn't terribly tall. I suggest slapping those pickles on there because they went really well with the sandwich. I was kinda surprised the others were disappointed because my sandwich was delicious. You could taste all the flavors. The swiss didn't stand out as swiss to me, but it might have been mild. It wasn't terribly filling, so it had me considering dessert. However, by the time the waitress came back, it had settled and I was ready to head out. Fries might have made it more filling.

I would come back to hopefully try some more of their soups and sandwiches. I'd probably avoid the chili burger at first, even though it sounded interesting from the menu. My wife had come along with us and ordered the chili cheddar burger as well. Her opinion of it was about the same as Maple's.

Saigon Resturant

Restaurant: Saigon Resturant
Address: 12100 W. Center Rd.
Website: N/A
Genres: Vietnamese
Check Constraints: None known
Chain: No | More Omaha Locations: No

==NinjaDebugger==
Ordered:

• Egg Dropsoup ($2.15)
  
• Five Spice Chicken Wings($3.50)
  
• Five Spice Chicken ($6.25)
• Strawberry Bubble Tea ($3.25)

I do not like bubble tea. Well, that's an exaggeration. I kinda like the -tea- part of bubble tea, but the bubbles just will not do. I got some anyway, because the glass of water here came with a slice of cucumber in, and that's just not something I can go through a whole meal with as my only drink. Unfortunately, rather than 'strawberry', the flavor tasted rather strongly of strawberry bubble gum.

I also bear nothing but hatred for the egg dropsoup (that's how it's listed on the menu). Rather than the bowl of delicious liquid omelette that I expected and wanted, there was a pile of green onions floating on the top, and -regular- onions lurking in the bottom. The few spoonfuls of soup that I got were decent, but the onions just completely ruined it. On top of that, the five spice chicken wings were less than impressive. There were six of them, which is a plus, but I could hardly taste anything there. There was a bit of chicken flavor and a bit of spice, but it just wasn't that good.

From the appetizers other people ordered, the egg rolls were excellent, the spring rolls are something I need to remember I don't really care for, and the crab rangoon was good enough, if not outstanding.

After the wings, I was a little wary of the five spice chicken (once I got it, anyway. There was a wee mixup with the dish delivery and my first bite was a chunk of Cham's ginger chicken. Delicious, btw) but my concerns were entirely misplaced. There was only a modest serving of veggies, consisting of what we think was pickled daikon, plus pickled carrots and tomatoes. The tomatoes, obviously, went to a side dish, but as it so happens, I adore pickled carrots, and if that was daikon, I like pickled daikon, too. The chicken itself was a boneless breast done up in a five-spice glaze, rather than the dry, roasted surface of the wings, on top of a generous bed of rice, and it was high quality. Like, double plus would order again high quality.

In fact, the only thing here that I liked was the entrees, which I'm pretty sure we all sampled of each other's, because damn, it was high quality. MapleSyrup's barbeque wasn't as good as Moogle's, which was heavenly, but it was still pretty good, and came with the same helping of veggies as mine did, along with a delicious meatball of some sort. Mecha also ordered a plate of fried rice, which turned out to be freaking huge, and we pretty much all had some of that, and it was just as good as everything else.

My final recommendation here is dead simple. Skip the drinks, stick with the cucumber water. Skip the appetizers, just order a plate of fried rice to share among everybody. And then get as much in the way of main dishes as you think you can put away. They're delicious well beyond what their price would indicate.

==Mecha==
Ordered:

• Spring Rolls (4) ($3.50)
  
• Lemon Grass and Pepper Beef ($6.50)
  
• Combination Fried Rice ($6.25)
• Jasmine Bubble Tea ($3.25)

The spring rolls were fairly neutral, unfortunately. Strong cabbage and/or cilantro taste depending on the bite, not strong on other flavors. I actually did like the crab rangoon, which I'm not a huge fan of, but I will certainly admit that I could use some better examples of it to know what 'great' is, if this isn't it. It's certainly superior to what I've ever gotten in takeout, and equivalent to what I get at most sit-down restaurants. The five-spice wings were pretty decent, although I found them reminding me of the 'teriyaki' chicken appetizer I get from China Garden in texture and a bit in flavor. The egg rolls were delicious, but so few came. It was sad.

Also, I loves the bubble tea (and the cucumber water. Moogle's right. So crisp.) And jasmine is a flavor I do not get nearly enough of in everyday life. Oh, their bubble tea made me happy. On the other hand, I agree with ND's analysis of his, and I wouldn't much like it either with that flavor. Bleh. So good luck finding a bubble tea flavor you enjoy.

I've been getting in a bad habit of not managing breakfast recently (that I need to break. Again.) So I was hungry and made sure to get a couple dishes (to your great benfit, dear readers!) The combination fried rice had a really fantastic, deep flavor. I dare want to call it wok-hay (or like it), but I'm not enough of an expert in the subject to be sure. It might simply be the effects of a well seasoned pan. Either way, it was definitely the kind of fried rice you actually want to eat, not just, 'Well, it's on my plate and I'm not full yet.' Always a plus.

My lemongrass beef was also fantastic, as lemongrass is a flavor I've come to appreciate where I find it. It can be soft, or it can be powerful, and I really like it when it's used well as they did here. Just enough of it, mixed in with the other flavors. They do it with chicken and other dishes too, so no matter what your meat, I think they'll have you covered. Cham's chicken was pretty good, although it could use a little something in my opinion. Their pork they seem to do well, given Maple and Moogle's experience/dishes, and I don't think a pork dish will disappoint.

This is definitely a place to visit again when I can spare the time. Service was a bit inconsistent/slow with a slight mixup, but the main dish flavors are worth the trip. Bring a friend or a book for something to do while you wait!

==MapleSyrup==
Ordered:

• Crab Rangoon (6) ($3.25)
  
• Vietnamese Barbecued Pork Chop ($7.95)
  

After commenting on the rather cheap soda prices ($1.25), I was told of a vicious rumor that they serve cans of soda (a particular peeve of mine), so I went for water this time. The water was actually interesting. Below the ice that filled only 1/4 to 1/2 the glass was floating a slice of cucumber. I'm not sure if it's a Vietnamese thing or just an attempt to be different or higher class, but the taste is noticeable and not necessarily a bad thing.

The Crab Rangoon were ok. The shell didn't taste of old grease and wasn't too hard, however I prefer my filling a bit sweeter. The spring rolls were spring rolls. They came with a peanut sauce (that's what Cham and Mecha claimed it was. I didn't taste any peanut in there) which had a definite kick to it. I'd say it helped the spring rolls along a bit. Overall, I agree with the others. Skip the appetizers and get a dish of fried rice for the table.

The Vietnamese Barbecued Pork Chop was a Vietnamese Barbecued Pork Chop on a bed of white rice with a slice of beef ball and some pickled daikon and tomato and cucumber slices for garnish. The slice of beef ball was delicious. It was juicy with a mild and not overpowering taste of beef. The next time I go to this place, I'll be looking for a dish that is nothing but 4 or 5 of these things. The pickled daikon, as ND said, was good. The Chop itself had a nice teriyaki taste. It was a thinner piece of meat about the size of my hand. It wasn't too dry and I generally liked it. It came with a side of some very thin, transparent orange sauce. I'd recommend staying away from it unless you're a spicehag. I did a quick dip of my fork into the sauce and took a taste and felt it in my throat for the next couple minutes.

==Moogle==
Ordered:

• Egg Roll and BBQ Pork Vermicelli ($6.99)

The cucumber water was really interesting. It wasn't overpowering, but you could definitely taste it. It had a really clean taste to it, and I wish more places would actually do that. The chicken wings were ok. They were mostly all actual wings, which is only somewhat surprising because "chicken wings" doesn't usually mean chicken wings any more. There are better things to get for your money though. Same goes for the crab rangoon. They were ok, but I'm not a fan of them in general. The spring rolls didn't impress me, but the egg rolls were good. They had more meat in them than you usually get. If you are getting an appetizer, go with these or, as was said above, a plate of fried rice.

Vermicelli is a type of short, thin noodle for those who didn't know (like me). There are so many types of noodles out there it's hard to keep up. I picked this dish because I overheard someone at the next table say they had good vermicelli, the BBQ pork dish sounded interesting, and Maple claimed the BBQ pork first. It came in a fairly large bowl with a side of the same or similar spicy sauce. I got the egg roll and BBQ combo for variety, but it didn't actually add anything to the dish. In fact, I think it reduced the amount of pork, and I am sad I didn't have more pork. It was in small pieces and was thoroughly cooked, but that made the flavor that much stronger. It was really good. I'd suggest only going for the straight BBQ bowl. The noodles were good and mixed with various spears of vegetables. I'm sure there were a few daikon and some bean sprouts. I forget what else. The problem is that the noodles and veggies are fairly plain by themselves. The sauce gives it a bit of kick and the pork gives it a bunch of flavor. If you want the egg rolls, get them on the side.

I have to mention that the service was a little slow, but only because there were maybe three people manning the building. I didn't see more than that. There may have been more cooks, but there wasn't nearly enough waitstaff.

==Chamelaeon==
Ordered:

• Mango/Pineapple Bubble Tea ($3.65)
• Egg Rolls ($3.25)
• Ginger & Pepper Chicken ($5.95)

First off, I should mention that we decided to try Saigon based on the recommendation of a commenter to our Vietnamese-Asian Restaurant review! Thanks for the suggestion, and everyone feel free to suggest your favorite restaurant. We'll get around to it eventually!

Echoing what Moogle was saying, the service was pretty poor. It's my guess the waiter was new, as he couldn't identify some of the dishes when they came out, and we wound up almost sending Maple's entree back to the kitchen because some of the dishes went to the wrong people and we wound up with something nobody thought they'd ordered. It all got put right in the end, though, so nothing was lost but a little time. That said, the restaurant was clearly understaffed for the lunch rush. No telling whether that's from bad management or someone just calling in sick and them not having a replacement.

Still, the food was definitely worth the wait. I have to side with Mecha on the bubble tea issue, as mine had a good flavor. It was probably on the average for bubble teas I've had, so it winds up just being a question of finding the right flavor. For what it's worth, I've never had a citrus or mango bubble tea wind up horrible. The appetizers were all pretty forgettable... nothing bad, and nothing overly good, though I will say that the egg rolls were more full of pork than of cabbage and other stuffing substances, which made for a strong flavor you don't usually get. Also, I totally disagree with ND on the issue of the Five Spice Chicken Wings; they had a very excellent chicken flavor, a crispy outside, and a very light hint of five spice powder, rendering out into a flavor combination which I think I'm going to have to replicate with a roast chicken at some point.

It's tough making a call on my main lunch dish. The ginger chicken tasted very, very much of ginger. I like ginger - I really like ginger - but the flavor was pretty much a unilateral thing, swamping chicken, vegetables, and all the other ingredients in the dish. This wound up not being too much of a problem, as the portions here were pretty small for the main dishes, so I didn't get bored with it. The dishes are still a good value for the price, I think, but if you're here with a group, go for the family-style meal: order a bunch of stuff and taste bits off everyone else's dishes, like we did. You'll wind up fuller and you'll experience a lot more of the deliciousness here.

For the record, the dinner menu offers a far larger variety of food, the prices increase by about $1.20 per dish, and the portions increase accordingly. It seems they even offer the "dinner menu" for weekend lunches, so that's a great opportunity to try some interesting dishes without having to risk Saturday night traffic at Center and 120th.

Gerda's Bakery and Restaurant

Restaurant: Gerda's Bakery and Restaurant
Address: 5180 Leavenworth St.
Website: None.
Genres: Bakery, German
Check Constraints: None.
Chain: No. | More Omaha Locations: No.

==Chamelaeon==
Ordered:

• Diet Pepsi ($1.00)
• Wienerschnitzel Special ($8.00)
• Potato Soup
• German Potato Salad
• Red Cabbage
• Black Forest Cake ($3.00)
  

Just to get it out of the way for the sake of the search engines out there: the restaurant is named Gerda's Bakery, but the sign on the side of the building calls it Gerda's Bäckerie (hint: that's German for "bakery"), and the menus themselves call the place Gerda's Bavarian Stube ("stube" translating to "room", more or less). That's a lot of names for a single restaurant, but trying to pin Gerda's down to a single role is a tough task. Like the Lithuanian Kafe and Bakery, Gerda's has a bakery attached to it; said bakery will sell you fresh donuts, breakfast breads, and a nice cup of coffee in the morning. When you come in for lunch, you're handed a small menu - which lacks prices - giving you your pick from several types of sandwich or the daily special. As you might note, Thursday's special is the wienerschnitzel. Based on the dinner menus, which we mistakenly grabbed first, at night the place turns into a much more involved affair, offering several types of schnitzel and several other classic German dishes, as well as a reasonable selection of beers. It seemed very clear to all of us that writing a review of the lunch dishes was going to give us a mere taste of the possible experiences here. Still, we're primarily a lunch blog, so until we all head there for dinner (spoiler on this review; that dinner's an inevitability), all we can do is report on the lunch offerings.

Don't get me wrong when I say there's only sandwiches and the special, here. There's a decent array of sandwiches, and as I mentioned the special changes daily, so you can still experience quite a bit. The special appears to have the option of soup or salad; it's starting to get cold out there, so I chose soup. The potato soup here is different from that of Petrow's or other such places. There, the potato flavor often melded with the cream and cheese or ham flavors, if such existed. Here, the potato sat up, grabbed you by the tongue, and forced you to acknowledge its position as primary flavor in the soup. That's not horrible, by any means - the soup was delicious, and the chunks of potato in it were well-saturated with the background flavors of butter and cream. If you're a fan of baked potatoes without all the overloading of toppings that can go on, then this soup is definitely your deal.

Once we'd finished with the soup, it wasn't long until the lunches started coming out. The wienerschnitzel special, as I noted at the top of the post, comes with a German potato salad, and some red cabbage. The cabbage was tender and flavorful, with a light vinegar taste to it - it was served room temperature, but that wasn't any impediment to the deliciousness. The potato salad was good as well, presenting a nice tangy flavor to the tongue.

The wienerschnitzel itself was - and you may be sensing a trend - also delicious. In a lesser restaurant you might expect such a piece of pork meat to have been heavily breaded and then casually deep fried, but here it was instead lightly coated in breading and pan-cooked until delicious. It eschewed spicing in favor of letting the flavor of the breading and pork shine through, which I think was an excellent decision. Don't look for an overwhelming taste power like chili or pizza here - instead, let the ingredients speak for themselves in their simplicity. Trust me, you won't be bored.

It would have been criminal to not try something from the bakery, so I opted for a piece of the Black Forest cake. And let me tell you, I was not disappointed. It was a generous piece, constructed out of homemade chocolate cake and glued together with hand-whipped cream... and that isn't even the best part. The cake was dotted with brandied cherries, and from the taste of it, they had not been shy about the brandy part of the equation. In fact, the brandied cherry taste seeped throughout the entire cake - I passed around pieces of nothing but the chocolate cake part, and everyone agreed that the taste was not only there, but strong. You might consider it a peculiar sort of German tiramisu, in fact. The alcohol is not uncommon in Germany, but it's decently rare in the US. Definitely grab a slice of this, but you might not want more than that if you're driving.

Gerda's is a fantastic culinary gem, and you can be sure that at some point we'll be back to review their dinner offerings - and their beers. There's sure to be a lager there with my name on it.

==NinjaDebugger==
Ordered:

• Turkey Club ($7.25)
• Potato Chips
  
• Pickle
• Bowl of Potato Soup ($3.50)
  
• German Chocolate Cake ($3.00)
  

First things first. The soup came out early, and though I much prefer the Petrow's or Brazen Head ham + bacon + cheese potato soup, this was an excellent potato soup and I happily devoured the entire bowl. It was worth every last penny, especially after a light dose of salt and pepper. At least one person was disappointed at not having more of the soup, and jealous of my comparatively large bowl. Personally, I'm quite glad I learned from my prior mistake and opted for the bowl instead of the cup.

The club was very, very impressive. A double decker sandwich, for starters, on your choice of bread, and this being a bakery, their selection is pretty large. The sandwich was essentially nothing but tomatoes, bacon, and turkey. A LOT of turkey. No, more than that. An entire turkey was slaughtered just to make this sandwich. It was definitely an upper class turkey, too, possibly having worn a monacle before its slaughter. The bacon was done just well enough to be easy to bite off, but not so well done that it tasted even close to burnt. And the tomatoes, well, they stayed on the plate, sadly, but we all have our little foibles.

The german chocolate cake does not include alcohol, so it's safe for the designated driver, unlike the black forest cocktail Cham got. I actually turned down a refill of water for a moment while ordering the cake, but quickly rethought my decision. As it so happens, I didn't actually need the refill. The cake was as moist as it could be without falling apart. It was, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the most delicious german chocolate cake I have ever had the pleasure to eat, and I took considerable pleasure in doing so.

Really, the only bad thing about Gerda's was the parking. I would be most happy to return here to try the dinner, as there were a number of things on the menu that looked enticing. Unfortunately, it's probably going to have to be after the holidays.

==Moogle==
Ordered:

• Wienerschnitzel Special ($8.00)
• Potato Soup
• German Potato Salad
• Red Cabbage
• Apfelstrudel ($1.50?)
  

I opted for the special as well. Most of the other options aren't necessarily German, unlike the daily specials. I echo the sentiments above. It really is a pretty simple but delicious soup. It's almost like a bowl of diced potato cooked until extremely soft with just a bit of cream and butter.

The potatoes that came with the dish were actually pretty similar. They were a bit firmer and had more of a tangy flavor that Cham mentioned. It might surprise you if you're not expecting it, but this type of potato side seems typical. Edelweiss in Bellevue had them as well. The cabbage was delicious. It had a bit of a sweet taste along with the very light vinegar taste. The schnitzel was just right. There wasn't any topping with it, but it didn't need it. It had a good flavor by itself.

From the bakery, I got an apfelstrudel, a pastry with apple filling and powdered sugar on top. It came somewhat chilled and was tasty. It was light and flaky, and there was just enough filling. It is a fairly lightweight dessert, and the price is pretty lightweight too.

It's a pretty nice place. The people are friendly. The parking is a little awkward. They have only four or five spaces in front of the actual restaurant, but they have a parking lot with their name on it a little ways east of the building. Now that I know where it is, I'll be sure to stop by now and then. I was afraid that there weren't any more German restaurants after Edelweiss closed.

==Mecha==
Ordered:

• Reuben ($7.??)
  
• Potato Soup
• Chips
• German Chocolate Cake ($3.00)
  

I am the aforementioned one who wished I'd gotten more soup. It was such delicious soup. It's been nice to have things that I hated in my childhood (fish, potato soup, etc) done right, and tasting delicious.

A note: Getting chips, don't bother. They're a bag of fairly standard chips, and I won't be making that mistake again! Now, on to the sandwich. The Reuben was a substantial sandwich, exactly what it seemed. Corned Beef, Sauerkraut, Thousand Island. Couldn't really taste the swiss, if it was there, that is apparently in some. It was on rye, and it was really hard for me to look at and eat at the same time, but it was fantastic. I've tried reubens here and there in town, and they've always been a bit different. My guess is that this is the most 'traditional' Reuben, and I guess I like tradition. Lots of meat, reasonably messy as such things go, pretty well balanced with a lot of strong flavors, which is something I always appreciate. If there was swiss, as I said, I missed it, which I guess is a ding, but there was no obvious swiss to my eyes from the side. Just the mass of meat and kraut and dressing.

The german chocolate cake was, as ND pointed out, very good. I always expect these to be dense and difficult to eat, but this delivered on a better chocolate cake experience.... although I'm going to have to go with the black forest next time. I like cherries, and I like brandy, and nobody lets me drive anywhere anyway. All in all, the parking's the only thing that makes this a downer for me, and there's a lot nearby as Moogle pointed out. Oh, also. You do not pick up the dinner menu at lunch. Do not make Gerda angry at you. (This is also why we have to go back another time.)

==MapleSyrup==
Ordered:

• Diet Pepsi ($1.00)
• Wienerschnitzel Special ($8.00)
• Potato Soup
• German Potato Salad
• Red Cabbage

The lunch menu is unfortunately scant, comprising some sandwiches and then the daily special. Feeling a bit Germany and having never had it, I opted for the Wienerschnitzel that was on special. The potato salad and red cabbage that accompanied the special had a refreshing, mild pickled flavor to them. The potato soup was very simple, not featuring any ham or bacon or cheese, but was still delicious.

As I said, I've never had Wienerschnitzel and have actually never had occasion to find out what it is. All I knew was that it was some preparation of pork--maybe. I've spent the last 25 years in Indiana. I've been to many state and county fairs. I've been to many family and hole-in-the-wall restaurants. This Wienerschnitzel was the best breaded pork tenderloin I've ever had. The breading was light and had a delicious buttery flavor. The meat inside was tender and had just the right amount of give as I bit into it. And despite it looking like a medium-sized portion it was filling and satisfying.

Besides the parking, the only other issue I had was that it was a can o' soda. I can understand being a small business and not wanting to bother with the fees and trouble of getting a soda fountain, but say on your menu what you're offering! Nevertheless, I look forward to going back for dinner.

Omaha Food Blog Shenanigans

First off, let me say Happy New Year, Omaha.

There, pleasantries out of the way. It's been a little over a year since the four original geeks started typing their thoughts out and sending them into the ether under the assumption that other people might give a damn about what we thought about food. Since that time, we've added a fifth to our number, seen our daily hit counts trend upward, and been lucky enough to have some big names from the Omaha blogging scene drop by and leave comments (snekse from http://www.gastronomicfightclub.com/ and The Critical Wife from http://omahacritic.com/, to name-drop). Snekse in particular has been very welcoming, and has been pushing for a while in an attempt to meld the disparate pieces of Omaha food culture on the internet into some kind of coherent whole.

In that vein, I present a link to Gastronomic Fight Club, where snekse announces the creation of the Omaha Food Bloggers blogroll. As he notes in his post, most of the food bloggers for Omaha aren't professional critics (this makes G.R(F) the Pee-Wee Football of food blogs, I suppose). Since a lot of us we do this in our spare time, updates can be occasionally sporadic as the demands of Real Life rear their ugly head. With the amalgamated blog roll, you're guaranteed to get the fastest delivery of content without having to find and set up feeds for each individual blog.

When I've recovered a little more from last night's celebrations, we have a review of a truly interesting restaurant to post, and I will get the feed set up on the sidebar of the blog. I'm sure I speak for all the geeks when I say we thank you for your readership, and we look forward to eating our way through another year of Omaha cuisine, and then telling you all about it.

Fuddrucker's

Restaurant: Fuddrucker's
Address: 7059 Dodge Street - At the corner of 72nd and Dodge.
Website: http://www.fuddruckers.com/
Genres: Burgers
Check Constraints: Short-order.
Chain: Yes. | More Omaha Locations: Yes.

==Chamelaeon==
Ordered:

• #2 Combo ($9.29)
  
• 2/3rd Lb Burger
• Fries
  
• Drink
• Black & Bleu Specialty Burger ($1.00)

I admit to feeling guilty each time we review a large chain restaurant for this blog. In some sense the restaurants clearly fit within our bailiwick, since they are restaurants, they are in Omaha, and you could eat at them as easily as we do. But on the other hand these places are already well-reviewed and, excepting quality issues, they're pretty much homogeneous between locations. On the gripping hand, however, we could look at these reviews as sacrifices, of a sort - us throwing ourselves on the hand grenade of food construction manuals and paper hats, screaming "Find somewhere else to eat!"... or perhaps a less dramatic metaphor would work.

Regardless, we went to Fuddrucker's this week. We have eaten here before - in fact, before we'd started the blog - so we weren't going in blind. The location is slightly new, though. They revamped the building, and in the process they seem to have decided that the solution to the parking problem in that entire retail corner was to add more stores alongside it. It might be because I was trained as an engineer, but that seems hardly ideal.

But we are here to review the food, and so we shall. Mecha ordered some nachos, which arrived early as an appetizer should, but which were thoroughly underwhelming. In fact, you might call that the theme of the meal itself. I initially attempted to order a 2/3 lb buffalo burger, but they only do the buffalo and turkey patties in the 1/2 lb sizes, so be forewarned. It also turns out that you can add special toppings to the meals for not much, so doing that's a better price option than trying to assemble a combo around a specific burger. The order-takers will helpfully do this for you - at least, ours did. As is usual at Fuddrucker's, ordering was a pretty painless process.

I only wish the same could be said for the burger. I recieved a heaping helping of blue cheese on top of a large patty of beef, with a sparse scattering of caramelized onions on top. It sounds like a delicious combination, doesn't it? That's what I thought, until I bit into the burger and realized that the whole deal was mostly tasteless. Once I got to the midpoint of the cheese pile, where it was roughly half an inch deep, I finally got some rather empty blue cheese flavor which completely overpowered the already-weak beef. I didn't put any ketchup on the thing, and I'm glad, because if I had I would have tasted little else but ketchup.

It was probably a mistake to review this place with the memories of Brewburger's so fresh in our minds - certainly when comparing it to, say, Burger King, I'd claim that Fuddrucker's wins without a moment's hesitation. But it suffers from the inconsistency and lack of quality ingredients that a lot of chain restaurants have, without really dropping its price point much.

==NinjaDebugger==
Ordered:

• Bacon & Swiss Chicken Sandwich($9.29)
  
• Fries
  
• Drink
• Strawberry Shake (3.50?)

They forgot to give me a flasher, and took my recipt when I went to get my food, so I'm a little fuzzy on the prices, but this sounds about right. Mecha ordered some chicken nachos as an appetizer. I think we all sort of regret that. The chips were on the stale side, the chicken had an undertone of fish, and didn't have much taste otherwise, and the cheese sauce was awful. I didn't try any of the other assorted toppings, but given the way they continued to sit on the pile of untouched nachos, they can't have been much better.

As far as the fries go, they're solid fries, and I identified the spice coating them liberally as Lowry's seasoning salt, or a variant thereof. They're very sturdy fries, about halfway between 'fries' and 'steak fries', and frankly, they were one of the best parts of the meal, especially given Fuddrucker's excellent selection of things to dip them in.

The shake was a classically prepared one, rather than from a fast food shake machine, which is a tick in their favor. It filled the glass and had plenty left over in the metal shake cup, and was made with real strawberries, putting it in the "worth the money" class of shakes.

Unfortunately, that takes me to the sandwich. It is very, very difficult to get a chicken, bacon, and swiss sandwich wrong, but somehow, Fuddruckers managed it. the swiss cheese was fine, their toppings bar was fine, but the bacon didn't taste like bacon, and the chicken didn't taste like chicken, and both of them were hard to get a solid bite out of, making the sandwich a tasteless chore to eat. For the price I paid, I'd much rather have gone back to Brewburgers and tried another meat that I've never had before.

That's pretty much the conclusion we reached halfway through the meal. Fuddruckers costs about the same as Brewburgers, but has worse appetizers, worse burgers, worse drinks, and a worse atmosphere.

==Moogle==
Ordered:

• 1/2 lb Chipotle BBQ burger meal ($9.59)
  
• Fries
  
• Drink

I had actually forgotten about the nachos, and that's about all I have to add about them. The poor burger looked so small in the giant bun it came with. It had a little bit of "chipotle" bbq sauce and a couple strips of bacon on top. I ordered it medium-well, and it came with no pink in the middle, which is fine with me. I threw on some lettuce, pickle, and pico de gallo from the topping bar. The ketchup pumps were out, but they still had some bottles of ketchup there. The burger itself was decent. I didn't really taste the chipotle part of the chipotle bbq. The fries were decent steak fries with a little seasoning. For the price, I wasn't impressed. It's a little more expensive than an equivalent burger at some place like Applebee's or Chilli's. I didn't go to Brewburgers, so I can't compare there. I suppose the draw for Fuddrucker's over another chain with burgers would be the number of options and speed. You can get any burger (well, beef burgers, apparently) anywhere from 1/3 to a full pound and can order it at your preferred level of doneness. There are plenty topping options as well. I would eat here again, but it probably won't be my first choice.

==Mecha==
Ordered:

• Tricked-Out Chicken Nachos ($7.??)
• 1/2 lb Chili burger meal ($9.59)
  
• Fries
  
• Drink

Okay, need to get this done. Moogle and the others are right, really, on the nachos front. They were just not that good. Standard 'tough to get stuff' problems. Very meh. Figured we should give it a shot, though.

The chili burger isn't on their online menu list that I can find, so I'm guessing on the price. The chili on the burger actually kinda looked decent, but the flavor was awful weak. Tough to get a good consistent bite of flavor on it. Not unlike the fries at Brewburgers, in that respect, but the difference is that this is a big mouthful of burger, not a fry trying to pick up a meaty cheesy chili. It should be more flavorful or consistent. The fries were okay, but just fries. The actual burger was solid, to my tastes, but... well, I didn't just get a burger, I got a burger with stuff on it. I think it had cheese on it, but I don't remember much about it.

The overall is more or less how ND put it. Coulda gone to Brewburgers and gotten better for the same cost. I remember the place as much better before the change.  The big plus here is the easy basic fixings addition, and that's nice, but.. yeah. If I go again for whatever reason, I'm getting a bog standard cheeseburger, putting some normal stuff on it, and calling it a day.

Brewburger's Burgers and Brew

Restaurant: Brewburger's Burgers and Brew
Address: 4629 S. 108th St. - In the same parking lot as the Holiday Inn Express
Website: http://www.brewburgersomaha.com/
Genres: Burgers, Sports Bar
Check Constraints: None that we noticed.
Chain: No | More Omaha Locations: No

==Chamelaeon==
Ordered:

• Diet Pepsi ($2.00)
• Tableside Guacamole ($7.95)
• West Texas Burger ($8.95)
• Fries
  

Brewburger's, located just inside the I-680 loop, used to be a steak restaurant that I never got the chance to eat at before it closed. In its place, Brewburger's was built. On its surface, the restaurant doesn't look like someplace I'd be very inclined to eat; I am fairly indifferent to sporting events in general - especially football - and the exterior of the restaurant makes absolutely no bones about the fact that it was conceived of and executed by people who like sports, and especially the Nebraska Cornhuskers. Thankfully for us cultural transplants, the restaurant owners also seem to like food.

As should probably not be shocking, the menu items at the forefront of the restaurant are their burgers, of which they have a fairly large variety, including buffalo, salmon, tuna, lamb, turkey, a vegetarian patty (of mostly mushroom) and of course beef. They also seem to pride themselves on their appetizers - perhaps rightfully so. The Tableside Guacamole (as the name might suggest) is made right at your table, and you have the option of what you want to add into the mix with the base avocado flavor. The server then grinds it in a large mortar and pestle, which results in a very nice textural counterpoint between avocado paste and avocado chunks in the finished guacamole. Available ingredients include onion, cilantro, salsa, jalapenos, and several more options. This kind of thing isn't new by any means (I have had it before but cannot precisely recall where) but it is delicious. You get a large amount of guacamole to pair with the homemade chips, and because you picked the flavors, it is more than likely delicious. However, I recommend using more ingredients than you initially think you might need, as there is a lot of avocado in that mortar.

The West Texas burger was topped with a heapin' helpin' of fried: fried jalapeno and onion strips fought for dominance on top of some cheddar cheese and a beef patty. Oddly enough, the strongest flavor in the whole burger was the beef - I could barely taste the cheese, and the fried toppings provided little but crunch. I can't lie, the beef itself was excellent, and cooked medium rare exactly as I requested... but I was expecting a little bit more from a $9 burger. I suspect I would have been happier ordering one of the more exotic burgers in their repertoire, or just building one myself off their menu (though that is definitely more expensive). Still, the decision of toppings aside, it was a good burger and deserves recognition as such.

I did not try any of their alcoholic beverages, but they had a rather impressive beer list (predictably most of it is bottled) involving most of the regional favorites like Fat Tire and Boulevard. It also isn't cheap, but you can definitely find something that strikes your fancy - or you can rely on the menu to suggest a beer that matches the meal for you.

If you find yourself of a mood for some interesting meats, have some extra cash to spare, and a football game to watch, definitely drop in. If only the first two apply, you should still give it a try, if you think you can ignore the college sports team logos on the ceiling tiles.

==NinjaDebugger==
Ordered:

• Bison Burger ($9.95)
  
• Garlic Parmesan Fries ($1.45 upgrade)
  
• Lemonade ($1.95)

Today, I added two more meats to my list of things I have eaten. They were both pretty good. The deep fried alligator reminded me mainly of somewhat tougher chicken bites, with just a hint of turkey, but you could pretty easily tell that it wasn't either of those. I declined to sample the guacamole, as I have tried many variations and never even come close to liking them, but the deep fried white cheddar curds were good, as was the dipping marinara they came with, and I'm pretty sure they were breaded there, rather than purchased as-is.

The garlic parmesan fries are... well. I will not say they were bad, but you have to be careful with them. Most especially, do not get these at lunch. Your coworkers will hate you, because they apparently see fit to top the fries with equal parts garlic and parmesan. There had to be at least a dozen cloves, minced, on that plate. And it wasn't a very big plate! The first bite, I did NOT expect that much garlic, and it was like a kick in the nose. Not even a cookie and some root beer could adequately get the taste and smell out of my mouth for the rest of the work day. Aside from that, if you like garlic and parmesan, go for it.

The bison burger actually did come out the medium rare I ordered it, just like Cham's texas burger. The meat reminded me mainly of a very lean beef that somehow didn't sacrifice any juicy goodness. it was quite good, though the smattering of gorgonzola on top really didn't do it any favors. I thought it clashed quite badly with the bison, and would have been far better if replaced with feta, like the lamb burger got. The barbeque sauce wasn't anything outstanding, but also didn't get in the way of tasting the meat, so that's sort of a point in its favor, and aside from the fairly hefty price tag, it was a pretty damn good burger.

Brewburgers' schtick pretty much seems to be a lot of very good burger options, plus a lot of beer options, plus sports bar. I don't know about the beer, but the burgers part, it does damn well, if a bit on the pricey side. Okay, a fair bit on the pricey side. On the other hand, the sheer variety of meats available may well make it worth it. Just... not very often.

==Mecha==
Ordered:

• Lamb Burger ($9.95)
  
• Chili Fries ($1.45 upgrade)
• Alligator Bites ($9.95)

Guacamole: Fantastic. Oh man, was it fantastic guac. Fresh and full of deliciousness, made at the table? Oh yes. Cheese curds: Pretty good, and I think part of why they are made there is that they're made with Nebraska cheese. I doubt that one can buy generic cheese curds with Nebraska cheese. The alligator bites were pretty enjoyable, and they came with a nice sauce. I assume that the price premium of 10 bucks is due to rarity/distance/etc, but all the appetizers were a bit on the expensive side. On the other hand, all solid, which is something we don't generally get from our appetizer sampling. And plenty of them, too, none of this 'six pieces for 7 bucks' stuff. Definitely worth giving them a shot yourselves on these.

The Lamb Burger was lamb (they didn't ask me how they wanted it cooked), topped with a ridiculous amount of feta and cucumber sauce (AKA, tzatziki or a close relative). I was glad that it came with lettuce, tomato, and onion. Anything to blunt the strength of the feta, to me. Good meat, and good burger on the overall, but perhaps a little strong for me with the feta. ND pointed out that it was a bit of a lesser version of the Greek Isles burger, and that may be worth considering: If you like lamb and feta burgers, they might be a better choice if you're striking out for it. The two resturants are pretty far apart, though. I'll probably try something else next time I go, but don't let that steer you away from it if you're in the area and like your feta.

I used the upgrade option to go with Chili on my fries. They had a fairly meaty chili here that made for some pretty darn good chili fries. It wasn't the best at binding to the fries, so it took a bit of work to get chunks of meat or bean with your fries, but the flavor was all there. I'll probably try some of the other fry modification options when I go back.

On the overall, the place is definitely a cut above, and the price is also a cut above. In the sense that it's kinda high. It looks like they have several deals throughout the week, and those might help various people enjoy things more without hitting the wallet quite so much. We also did not sample any of the 'brew' part of the equation, which may also help. Also, the sports bar component seemed reasonably strong, but Thursday Lunch does not give you a huge opportunity to feel the Husker fans, among any others. Give this place a shot in your rotation, and I don't think you'll regret it.

==MapleSyrup==
Ordered:

• Maverick Burger ($8.50)
  
• White Cheddar Cheese Bites ($6.95)

The Guacamole was delicious and well worth the price. It had a fresh and cool taste with a hint of salt and a tiny, tiny kick. Be sure to eat it while it's still fresh though. It suffers a little getting warm. The cheese curds were also delicious. I'd wondered where they managed to get their cheese curds, since you rarely see them this far out from Wisconsin because they lose their luster in transit, but Mecha's probably right. I didn't bother with the marinara. They were good enough on their own. The alligator bites tasted like a gamier chicken bite. They were served with what I still maintain was hoisin sauce. If it wasn't, it was something damned close. They were good, but you could have gotten the same amount of appetizer for $3 less by going with the cheese curds, so you're paying extra for their exotic nature.

The Maverick Burger was a beef patty with sliced onions mixed in topped with jack cheese. I ordered mine medium-rare and it looked to be cooked through. The onions mixed in with the meat made the burger crumbly and didn't contribute any flavor, so I'm not sure how much they contributed to the burger as a whole. They could have added some juiciness (it was a juicy burger), but unfortunately I can't empirically conclude that. It also came with a horseradish sauce on the side which I smeared generously on the upper bun. The horseradish sauce was disappointingly tame. I was hoping for a good nasal kick on each bite but never got it. Overall, it was a very good chunk of meat, but all of the fancy didn't contribute to that at all and it was a rather small burger for the price.

Shuck's Fish House and Oyster Bar

Restaurant: Shuck's Fish House & Oyster Bar
Address: 1218 S. 119th Street
Website: http://www.absolutelyfresh.com/
Genres: Seafood
Check Constraints: None.
Chain: No. | More Omaha Locations: No.

==Chamelaeon==
Ordered:

• Diet Coke ($1.95)
• Shuck's Sampler ($16.95)
• Fried Clam Strips
• Fried Oysters
• Fried Shrimp
• Fried Calamari
  
• Baby Cake Potatoes
  
• Louisiana Gumbo, Cup ($3.95)
• Catfish Po' Boy ($7.95)
• Coleslaw
• Baby Cake Potatoes

I am continually amazed that the transportation infrastructure in this country is good enough to get fresh fish delivered to a city and state several thousand miles away from the nearest salty body of water. Amazed, and made very hungry. Seafood was not something I liked in my youth (unless it was square, coated in batter, and deep-fried into unrecognizability) but as my palate's matured I can definitely say that I am way more into our finned friends than I used to be.

Shuck's, I am told, arose out of a Wednesday night food tasting that the Absolutely Fresh fish company used to hold. The food was apparently good enough they were turning away people until one of them had the bright idea to open a restaurant - and so they did. You actually enter the restaurant through the store proper, giving you a good opportunity to wander over and examine what may be your imminent meal. The restaurant itself emanates a very "crab shack" feel to it, with the tables being covered in butcher paper and the walls being made of faux planking, and despite being a little crowded it's a reasonably nice place for lunch.

The sampler platter was a heaping helping of fried. Shuck's boldly claims on their menu that they have "the thinnest breading in town", and the platter certainly helped their story - the breading on everything but the clam strips was thin and delightfully crunchy. The clam strips were still delightful, but the breading on them was rather thick. The platter came with ketchup, cocktail sauce, and some unnamed Asian-flavored concoction which went well with the shrimp but was not as good as the Kowloon sauce (as Mecha will later attest).

The gumbo had a very thick flavor to it. It was served with a dollop of rice in the middle, which was then dusted with what I think was filé powder. Both okra and chunks of sausage were visible in the bowl - and it was very much a bowl, despite me ordering a cup - but I think the dish had been cooked so long that all the flavors in it had melded into a single note of flavor. It wasn't bad, but it didn't make for much variety when eating. A couple jots of Louisiana-style hot sauce improved the bowl a lot, if only by lightening the flavor a little.

The catfish po' boy was very good. Their catfish was fried much the same was as the sampler, with very thin batter that still managed to give some good flavor to the fish - not that the fish needed much help. I'm pretty sure I've not had catfish that fresh since my grandmother used to fry up the ones my grandfather and I had caught that day. The po' boy came with remoulade sauce, and the menu claimed it came with "muffaleta relish", which I assume is meant to be the olive-based relish in the muffaletta sandwich. Sadly, I could find no trace of such, and instead recieved only chopped romaine lettuce in mine. Still, it was some good stuff and the remoulade paired well with the catfish. The whole deal came in a sub bun which had been quite liberally buttered and then grilled on a flat griddle, so that it tasted quite a bit like a correctly-done grilled cheese sandwich (minus the cheese). I will state for clarity, though: do not order this sandwich if you don't like the taste of grilled buttered bread. It is very prevalent in the sandwich and I had to adjust my perceptions of what I thought the sandwich should taste like before I really started to enjoy it. Again, though, some hot sauce really took the sandwich to the next level. But then, if you've been reading the blog for a while you are not surprised that I would say that in the slightest.

One last note before I pronounce verdict: the drinks here are a little more expensive than some places, but the glasses are gigantic, and there are free refills.

Schuck's is by no means a "classy" establishment (all the dishes are disposable), and you can find other seafood around town that's just as fresh (though not for retail sale), but the prices here for the quality absolutely cannot be beat. The speed at which you get food isn't shabby either. This has just become my first choice for good seafood.

==NinjaDebugger==
Ordered:

• Mr. Pibb($1.95)
• Shrimp Alfredo($9.95)
• Small Salad ($1.95)
• Baby Cakes ($1.95)

Let's get this out in the open. I'm not a born seafood fan. I like seafood, as a general sort of thing, but it doesn't come naturally to me. Like I said in some of the sushi posts before, at some point while I'm eating a seafood heavy meal, my stomach will catch up with reality, wonder what the hell I am feeding it, and demand retribution. In spite of this, I like a fair variety of seafood. When I say in a review that my stomach couldn't take the dish after a point, it's not an indictment of the dish, it's my stomach being itself.

Okay, from there, I'm ready to proceed. The baby cakes are small potato patties, what we called "hash browns" (the non-homemade type) when I was a kid. They're small, they're fried and potatoey, and they're lightly herbed. Not bad, but not worth two freaking bucks, either.

The small salad is, for once, actually not bad. I wasn't a fan, because it's got large portions of tomato and onion, but it had NO iceberg lettuce, instead consisting mostly of romaine. If you're the sort, you can try their vidalia onion based house dressing. I went italian. If you're a salady sort, go ahead and grab it.

The shrimp alfredo was the second time in a row that I've had alfredo. Luckily, this one left the bitter at home, and had a decent amount of parmesan flavor. A superior alfredo to the ones I've been having lately. There was, however, a surprise in addition to the shrimp. Namely, artichoke hearts. Properly prepared, artichoke hearts are pretty good, I remember having something involving them at another italian restaurant a while back, with a bunch of other stuff in, and it was decent. In alfredo... not so much. It was a decidedly unwelcome burst of artichoke flavor, and it was really strong, like a kick in the teeth. the little tinge of flavor it added to the alfredo itself was good, but the bits of artichoke themselves got left on the plate. So did some of the shrimp, but again, that's because of my angry stomach, not because they weren't good. The shrimp were a little on the chewy side, so I'd probably grab something else, like the jambalaya I was considering instead, if I went back, but it's certainly better italian food than I expected to find in a seafood bar.

==MapleSyrup==
Ordered:

• Diet Coke($1.95)
• Clam Chowda ($3.95)
• Jambalaya ($8.95)

The Appetizer Sampler was a good choice. My favorite bit was the calamari. It was lightly breaded and when dipped in the sweet & sour-like sauce that came with it was great.

For my entree, I went for the Clam Chowda and Jambalaya. The Clam Chowda was unfortunately lacking in clam flavor and the little bits of clam you usually find in there. It was also unfortunately abundant in potato chunks. It was decent enough, but I think they could have benefited from shifting around some of their ratios. The Jambalaya was a mixture of rice, andouille sausage, little bits of chicken, and spice and was a little drier than what I'd expected. The sausage was tasty, but the whole dish was way too peppery. I ended up putting on a good dallop of the Louisiana hot sauce to add some kick and cover up some of the pepper.

Overall, I look forward to going back. All of the items on the appetizer sampler were delicious. I popped a couple of ND's alfredo shrimps and they were cooked perfectly. And the po' boys looked scrumptious. However, I won't be getting again what I ordered this time.

==Mecha==
Ordered:

• Fried Kowloon Shrimp ($8.95)
• Louisiana Gumbo ($3.95)
  
• Trout Amandine ($10.95)

So, I got the quite expensive (for a handful of shrimp) Fried Kowloon Shrimp. Now, they were well done, certainly, and that's not a problem. But the thing of most note, and a positive note at that, was that they came drizzled with (and served with) a sauce with complexity and spice and sweetness. Upon table reflection, it might have been two sauces, but it wasn't completely sure. Similarly, the sampler came with a sauce kinda like it, but again, the table disagreed. Whatever I got was the best, in the group opinion.

The sampler, by the way, was a good variety of fried stuffs, of a decent size for 4 or 5 people. The clam strips were the oddest, with a little bit of grindy crunchiness that slightly turned me off from the otherwise decent flavor. The gumbo was indeed thick and I agree that it looked like a dusting of file atop rice atop the main gumbo.

Now, like ND, I am not a huge fish person traditionally (although am much better with random seafood), but a well cooked fish (or well uncooked fish, in sushi's case), can appeal to my tastebuds, and this was a very well cooked fish. It fell apart as it should, the skin was edible and not a huge ugly burst of fishy flavor, and the almonds provided a little crunch. My biggest problem with the trout amandine was a thorough lack of almond flavor. Not even really subtle, just not there. I'd like a little more to add to the flavor (although not too much), but it was still well done, and it gives me a bit more confidence to try some of their other fish-based offering. It came with some veggies that were covered with powered parmesean to the point of reminding me of alfredo. Okay, but I wasn't quite willing to finish them over the fish or other things.

Ultimately a very positive and relatively fast experience, and there's plenty more to try. Maybe even room for dessert next time. (Also, I'm making sure to put the word 'dessert' in almost every entry, to anger Cham when I mispell it (because it amuses me) until I don't.)

==Moogle==
Ordered:

• Shrimp Po' Boy ($8.95)
• Coleslaw
• Baby Cake Potatoes

All the fried appetizer items were quite tasty. None of it was rubbery. I didn't find the grittiness in the clam that Mecha did. They were actually one of my favorites. The fried calamari was probably the best calamari I've had, and even though I haven't had it from many places, I think I'd be hard pressed to find much better. The others were good, but didn't catch my attention as much as the clam and calamari. Due to the size of the platter, I'd say it's a great appetizer to share with four or more.

The po' boy was good as well. There were fewer individual shrimp on it than I expected to see, but they were enough. The shrimp were breaded, and it had the shredded lettuce and a sauce. I can't remember exactly what the sauce was. The bread was fairly prevalent in my sandwich as well. That bread to shrimp ratio would be my only complaint, but it's a minor one. The sandwich was filling and tasty. The coleslaw is worth mentioning as well. This may be the best coleslaw I've had in a restaurant for a long time. It was the creamy style served chilled. I also liked having the baby cake potatoes as a side instead of the usual fries.

Though the dining area is a bit cramped, I will definitely come back. The good news is that they are opening an new restaurant further out west. Hopefully space won't be an issue there.