LongHorn Steakhouse SteakHouse Dinner for Two Review

I am always looking for a deal.  Since visiting Longhorn Steakhouse a few months ago with a gift certificate from a friend, I have been on their email list.  I got an email with the Steakhouse Dinner for Two and a coupon for a free dessert or appetizer. This was a deal that was too good to pass up.  The Steakhouse Dinner for Two is $25 and includes either an appetizer to share or dessert, two salads and two entrees (with one side dish each).  Included in my mailing was a coupon for a free appetizer or dessert, making this a four course meal for two for $25.

Ty and I went and had the calamari as the appetizer.  It's a ridiculously large portion of calamari and bell pepper strips battered and fried along with a sweet/smoky sauce.  I would have preferred marinara and it's not the best calamari I've ever had, but it is a good starter.  We each had a Caesar salad.  Again, very good, not great.  I had the 6 ounce filet for a $6 upcharge and Ty had the 7 ounce salmon which came on a bed of rice.  We each got "sweet potato bites" which were little chunks of sweet potatoes that were kind of candied.  I'm not sure how they were prepared exactly, but they were very good.  By the time for dessert we were stuffed, but it was free. So, of course, we got the dessert sampler which included small piece of strawberry cheesecake, a piece of chocolate cake, some ice cream and apple pie.

I had two glasses of wine with my meal.  Ty had a beer.  Our total bill, including alcohol and exclusive of tip was $50.  Amazingly inexpensive for what we had.

The service was excellent.  In fact, while we were there the District Manager and his boss were in town visiting the restaurant.  I told them we had come as a result of the deal we got.  We had a nice chat with them and they told us how with their buying power they are able to serve such good food at such low prices.  We had returned to the restaurant because we forgot our leftover sweet potato bites that we wanted to take home.  They made a fresh order for us, to go, no charge.

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• LongHorn Steakhouse - Free Dessert or Appetizer with Purchase

Meritage Restaurant- Glendale, OH - Review

Last night I had one of the best dining experiences I've ever had.  Good food at a restaurant is important, of course, but of as much importance is the ambiance and the service.  Meritage didin't disappoint in any of those areas.  Meritage used to be the Gas Light Cafe which was nice. But, the new owners have kicked it up a notch. Meritage is a converted house in historic Glendale.  The decor is contemporary but cozy.  There was a guitar player performing in the bar area where we had a short wait while waiting for a booth.  The dining room is small but doesn't feel overly crowded and isn't noisy.  

My wife and I were celebrating our 22nd wedding anniversary and wanted to splurge a little.  We started with the scallops which were prepared to perfection.  I don't know why so many people have trouble sautéing scallops which should be quite easy.  But, they are often overcooked or don't have enough color on them.  Ours were prepared to perfection, not overly done, and with a wonderful chili sauce.  The general manager recommended an excellent bottle of wine that I was not familiar with and we loved it.

My wife had the wedge salad and I had the Caesar salad.  The wedge salad was great, if you're a fan of bleu cheese (which we both are).  It was loaded with bleu cheese dressing with crumbles of bleu cheese a bit of a balsamic vinegar reduction.  I'm a traditionalist when it comes to Caesar salad.  I did notice the menu said it came with bacon. But, I skipped over the fact it came with red onions, too.  In my opinion, it wasn't really a Caesar salad.  But, it was good.

For the main course, my wife had a fish we can't recall the name of.  It was from South America and was really good. It was most similar to grouper. I had been to Merigae for lunch once and had a fish sandwich, I do recall that fish.  It was golden tile and it was the best fish sandwich I've ever had.  So, if you go to Meritage and you like fish, try the fish of the day even if you don't recognize the name of the fish. My wife's fish was pan fried and served over a bed of rice with asparagus.  I had the prime rib which was done to perfection.  That came with a loaded baked potato.  

For dessert, we were both stuffed.  But, we had to try to the creme brûlée.  Frankly, I'm not a huge fan of creme brûlée except for the caramelized sugar on top.  When it came we both sighed because the portion was huge.  But, we ate the whole thing.  I think it was the best creme brûlée I've had anywhere.

The service was excellent.  I like the little things like they kept our water glasses full and our server, instead of telling us to keep our forks between each course, brought out new silverware for every course.  The prices are reasonable for such good food and a wonderful atmosphere.

Longhorn Steak House

I was given a $50 gift certificate to Longhorn Steakhouse for my birthday.  I took my wife and two daughters to the Longhorn in West Chester, OH on a Monday evening.  The restaurant was pretty crowded for a Monday night.  But, the wait was very short- around 10 minutes.  I had a glass of house wine and my wife had a draft beer in the bar while we waited.  Total for both drinks was around $12 including tip.

Longhorn is running a special called Steakhouse Dinner for Two.  The deal is two salads, two entrees (with one side item each) and a choice of a dessert or an appetizer to split.  Total price is $29.99.  This is a pretty good deal considering the entrees you can choose from are $13-15 each.  So, it's like getting the dessert or appetizer free.  My daughters split that.  I joined Longhorn's email club and got a coupon for a free Wild West Shrimp as an appetizer.  The shrimp was small salad sized shrimp battered and fried with cherry peppers and a ranch dipping sauce.  My younger daughter, who does not like shrimp, loved the appetizer.  The preparation reminded me of calamari I had at McCormick and Schmick's.  The shrimp itself being such small shrimp didn't have a lot of flavor- probably why my youngest liked it.  But, the batter was light and tasty.  With the peppers and the dipping sauce was very good.  The portion was huge. It was enough for at least two people.  As an appetizer, it was plenty for the four of us.  

The girls ordered the Parmesan Crusted Chicken and the Grilled Chicken with Stuffed Portabella Mushroom.  One ordered asparagus as her side dish and the other the mixed vegetables.  Our family doesn't use a lot of salt or butter on our food.  So, we quite often find restaurant food salty. My older daughter complained that her Grilled Chicken with Stuffed Portabella Mushroom was overly salty.  I tasted it and it was slightly on the salty side.  Not too bad.  My younger daughter complained that her Parmesan Crusted Chicken was salty. That was out of character for her because she loves salt and cheese.  I tasted that and it was off-the-charts salty.  They must use a pretty salty parmesan cheese or they season the chicken with salt before adding the cheese.  She also didn't care for the butter on the mixed vegetables although they were done nicely.

I wanted to get a filet, which was not an option on the Steakhouse Dinner for Two.  So, I got the filet with Cedar Plank Grilled Shrimp.  My wife got the grilled salmon over rice pilaf.  We each got the asparagus, which was a $1.49 upcharge over the included side items.  The salmon was $15.79 for the 7 ounce portion and my filet and shrimp combo was $22.99. Again, not bad prices considering they came with the choice of Caesar or Mixed Green Salad and a side dish.  I didn't bring my scale with me but my 7 ounce Flo's Filet looked a couple of ounces shy of 7 ounces to me.  I ordered it medium rare.  The first one they brought me looked overdone when they sat it down.  When I cut into it I knew it was way past medium rare- at least what I call medium rare- which is just warm all the way through.  I sent it back.  The waitress explained to me that when they cut through the center of it in the kitchen it was medium rare in the middle. But, they brought another one to me in just a few minutes and the second one was cooked perfectly.  They also brought me an additional order of asparagus with the second steak.  I had never had cedar plank shrimp before.  It took me a couple of shrimp to decide whether I liked it or not.  The shrimp had a garlic and butter crust over the top.  The shrimp really picked up a lot of flavor from the cedar plank, much more than salmon, which I've had prepared that way, does.  I did enjoy it a lot and will be making that at home.  My wife's salmon was very nice.  It was the right temperature.  She also enjoyed her rice pilaf.

The girls chose the Chocolate Stampede for their dessert. The Chocolate Stampede is two slabs of chocolate cake with various types of chocolate (ice cream) layered over it.  It's served with two scoops of vanilla bean ice cream.  I don't know what they were thinking when they created this dessert. But, it's massive.  It's more than enough for one or two people.  We split it between the four of us and ended up leaving some on the table after we were thoroughly satisfied.  It was quite possibly the second largest dessert I've ever had.  The largest being a dessert in a Chicago steak house.

The service was excellent.  Our waitress was very attentive and our food came out quickly.  Even with my filet having to be redone, we were out of there in very good time.  The total bill came to just around $85 with the free dessert deducted.  That's not including the $12 (including tip) we spent at the bar.  

Bistro Ginza Review

We were excited to find a Groupon deal on a sushi restaurant in Mason that we had wanted to try.  We had driven past Sushi Bistro Ginza several times and we're always up for trying another sushi restaurant. Unfortunately, our first experience there was a disaster in several ways.  Had we not bought two Groupon "deals" for the place, we would not return at all.

We were greeted immediately by a waitress who asked if we had reservations.  I kind of chuckled since the very small restaurant was pretty much empty when we got there.  "Why would we have made reservations?" I thought to myself.  This morning while searching for their website, I found out why.  More on that later.  We were seated immediately and the waitress asked us if we were Groupon customers, another question I found just a little odd.  "Yes." I replied excitedly thinking we were going to get special treatment or something.  Well, we did.  We were informed that, as Groupon customers, any place on the menu where we saw "Regular Price" and "Special Price", we would be given the opportunity to pay the "Regular Price".  I was a little peeved because, for example, on the create-your-own stir fry menu, the regular price was $2.00 more than the special price.  OK.  I understand.  No double dipping.  We had purchased a $25 gift certificate from Groupon for $10, a great savings already. We were told that, as Groupon customers, we got a 30% discount on a bottle of wine.  Sweet!  So, maybe the Groupon thing would work out after all.  The waitress informed us that they were out of several of the wines on their not exactly extensive wine list anyway.

We weren't planning to get wine.  But, for a 30% discount.  Hey, why not?  I took a glance at the wine list.  For comparison sake, I went down to Yellowtail Chardonnay which sells for well less than $10 in stores.  I think a fair markup for a bottle of wine in a restaurant is about double retail.  Well, Yellowtail was $29 on their list.  Using our Groupon discount would bring it down to around $20.  Still above what I would consider to be a good or fair price for Yellowtail. So, we passed on the wine.  I love sake. But, their cold sakes were $16.  A little steep for me.  So, I ordered a Sapporo for $6.00.  My wife ordered a mojito.  The waitress told us they had no fresh mint for the mojito.  My wife decided to try one anyway The girls got Sprite which was served in a can with a glass of ice.

Normally when I go out for sushi, being the bargain shopper I am, I look for the Chef's Choice which is typically 8-10 pieces of sushi and a sushi roll priced at a pretty decent discount.  I found the one I wanted on the menu for $27, kind of steep.  But, well within reason.  The only problem is for Groupon members, it was $40.  That's right.  $13 more if I used my Groupon discount.  Given that I had saved $15 by buying the certificate, that would eat up just about all of my "savings".  Since my wife got the stir fry, by buying the Groupon discount, we would have broken even, assuming the girls didn't order any of the "Special Price" items.  I figured if I was going to pay full price for my sushi dinner, I might as well order a la carte.  The sushi prices were reasonable. My wife got the stir fry.  My older daughter got the Udon bowl with shrimp tempura.  And, my younger daughter ordered the chicken teriyaki with french fries from the kids' menu.

Often when we go out to dinner and I get sushi, I end up having to wait because the sushi chef is backed up.  Not this time. I was pleasantly surprised when the main part of my sushi came out very early.  I got the scallops, tuna, yellowtail and other pieces of sushi I had ordered.  The waitress informed me the rest of the sushi would follow shortly.  She didn't say anything about everyone else' meals.  The good thing is sushi is served cold because it was at least 10 minutes before they brought out my younger daughter's meal.  I sat and eagerly enjoyed the aroma of my sushi while waiting. A few minutes after bringing out her meal, they brought the other sushi, a spicy tuna roll for me, a salmon roll for my wife and a tuna roll for the girls to split.  Each roll barely had enough fish in it to identify which roll it was supposed to be.  The sushi chef cut the fish into strips that were maybe as big around as one a stick ball point pen.  I'm pretty sure one piece of my spicy tuna roll had no tuna in it at all.  At this point, my wife had still not gotten her meal.  But, at least she could start on her salmon roll.  So, we all began eating.

The sushi was actually good, in spite of the fact that the roll had very little fish in it.  The sushi rice was still kind of warm (which is one of my pet peeves.  It should be allowed to cool thoroughly in my opinion).  The portions of the sushi were generous enough for the price and the quality of the fish was excellent.  The chef was just a little heavy with the wasabi.  But, I prefer that over chefs who don't put enough on the sushi.

My wife's mojito was terrible.  The mix that we buy and make mojitos at home is better than the mojito she got there.  Finally, she asked about her meal and her stir fry was brought out.  She had ordered beef, scallops, baby corn, eggplant, mushrooms and asparagus in her stir fry. She got most of what she ordered, but no baby corn and no egg plant.  The sauce was way overbearing loaded with soy and just completely masked the taste of the rest of the ingredients. It was dark brown (very dark) and thick.  The stir fry was served fajita style, complete with a sizzling, steaming plate.

My older daughter's udon soup was very good.  It was a generous portion served in a nice bowl.  She very much enjoyed it and I'm glad she got a great meal since it was her 14th birthday celebration. 

My younger daughter devoured her chicken teriyaki.  She declared her french fries the second best she had ever had (second to Burger King).

After we had eaten, we had that experience when after you're done, you can't find a waitress.  I didn't note the time when we got to the restaurant.  But, I think it was between 7:00 and 7:15.  We didn't leave until almost 8:30.  Kind of long for that type of meal.

Oh, back to why they asked about reservations and why it seems to many people had made reservations.  We did notice several tables were reserved as we walked through the restaurant.  Sushi Bistro Ginza had a special this month, 50% off sushi and 50% off wine if you were a "member" and made a reservation.  I found that out on their Facebook page this morning.  I wish I had done that instead of buying the Groupon deal. 

I felt like the Groupon deal was a bait and switch.  I will complain to Groupon about someone promoting their restaurant by offering a discounted certificate and then charging you more than other people who just walked in the door for having paid for the discount.  But, even putting that aside, the service was atrocious.  No one came back and asked if we wanted more drinks, how our food was.  And, it's just basic restaurant service 101 that you don't bring people's meals out one a time over 10 minutes apart.

Overall, I give Sushi Bistro Ginza 2 out of 10 stars.  Since we bought two Groupon deals, we probably will go back to recover the $10 we spent on the second one. But, unless we have a completely different experience, that will be the last time.

McCormick and Schmick's Review

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My wife and I went out to McCormick and Schmick's Saturday night in celebration of our 20th Wedding Anniversary.  It was my second visit to McCormick and Schmick's.  Neither the service nor the food disappointed.  McCormick and Schmick's is a little more upscale than we usually go for.  The closest one is about 20 miles from our house.  However, it was our anniversary and we had a gift card (as we had had for the first visit a couple of years ago).


I am a big fan of using available technology.  We were going to call for reservations at 8 o'clock.  When we visited the website,  we found we could make the reservations ourselves on-line.  Nice!  When we arrived at 8 o'clock, we were seated within five minutes of our arrival.  Our menu had "Happy 20th Anniversary" printed on it.  What a coincidence I thought, it's their 20th Anniversary, too.  The waitress informed me that they had printed that on our menus based on information my wife had put on the website.  That was another pleasant touch.


Our waitress was well informed, bubbly and maybe just a bit too talkative.  My wife and I love a bargain. So, we were happy to hear that several of the wines were half off the night we were there.  We chose the Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc which was wonderful and a bargain at $19.  BAs I went to look up the name of the wine on their menu, I see that two days before we visited, it was $29.  On the night we were there, it was listed at $38.  A couple of the other wines that were 50% off were also marked up a few dollars between the Thursday menu that's still on the internet and the Saturday menu we were handed.  Disappointing that they would do that. But, the wine was great and it was still a very good price.


Our waitress insisted that we have the calamari.  She said it would be the best we had ever had or we'd get our money back.  Well, she was right.  I don't know what they do to their calamari.  I've had calamari several times in many different places.  But, this is the most tender calamari I've ever had.  It's lightly breaded and fried and served with a fire roasted tomato sauce and banana peppers so mild even my wife can eat them.  She said if all banana peppers tasted like that, she'd eat them more often.

For our main course, my wife chose "The Perfect Combination" which was a selection of 3 entrees from five.  The choices were Grilled Jumbo Shrimp, Seared Parmesan Tilapia, Grilled Atlantic Salmon, Seared Lump Crab Cake and Grilled Swordfish.  She had the crabcake, tilapia and shrimp.  Her meal came with orzo and "Chef's Fresh Vegetables" which turned out to be asparagus.  The combination was $26.95.  She definitely made the best choice.  The shrimp were done to perfection and there were four large shrimp.  The tilapia was wonderful- nice and crusty on the outside and flaky on the inside.  The crab cake was also very good.  I chose the Stuffed Filet of Sole for $23.95.   The sole was rolled and stuffed with artichokes, goat cheese, sundried tomatoes and lemon tarragon butter.  It was serve on a bed of orzo.  I was a little disappointed with my choice.  My first instinct was to go with the "Wild" Sea Scallops. But, I make scallops at home all the time and wanted something I couldn't get at home.  There were very few sundried tomatoes in the sole and the artichokes didn't provide much flavor.  So, the creaminess of the goat cheese wasn't really balanced by any other flavors.  With no vegetables on the side, the dish just kind of fell flat. It was good. But, not great.


For dessert, our waitress recommended a cobbler of strawberries, rhubarb and cherries.  My wife asked about something chocolate and they were out of their one chocolate dessert.  That was surprising and very disappointing.  But, we decided to go with the waitresses' recommendation.  The cobbler was covered with a walnut crust and served ala mode with Graeter's Vanilla Bean ice cream.  The dessert was  the perfect ending to an excellent meal.

Overall, I'd give McCormick and Schmick's a 9 out of 10 stars.  Great service, very good food and not too bad a price.  Our bill came to $89 before the tip.

Macaroni Grill Review

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I have been eating at Macaroni Grill for close to 25 years now. Sadly, it has gone from a pleasant inexpensive restaurant with a charming atmosphere to a mediocre to below average establishment. 

When I first started eating at Macaroni Grill the wait staff would serenade you at the table, write their names in crayon on the paper that covered the tablecloth and you could order a bottle of wine and keep count with crayon on the paper table cloth covering. The food was a pretty good value. I think in the dozens of times I have been there I got something other than seafood maybe once or twice. However, I have noticed over the years the quality of their food and service has steadily declined.

Saturday evening, we decided to pop out for a bite to eat.  We first visited Bravo's which had about an hour wait.  Since I was starving, we decided to call over to Macaroni Grill and go there instead.  We called ahead and they put our name on the "list". When we arrived, there was no one in line.  This should have been a sign to us since for years this particular Macaroni Grill has been busy every time we've been there on a Saturday.  It was pretty early for dinner (around 7 o'clock).  The  waitress asked my wife and I if we wanted to taste the chianti.  She asked each of us and each of us said "yes".  Yet, somehow she heard "no".  My daughter ordered a soft drink, which the waitress brought without a straw (even though they carry straws in their aprons).  Gone were the days when the waitress would write her name upside down on the table (so you could read it as she wrote it).  We didn't even get the waitress' name.  No matter since it was an experience we'd rather forget anyway.

I ordered the Center-Cut Lamb Spiedini which is described as being grilled on skewers with fresh rosemary.  Normally when I've seen a dish described like that it's served with fresh rosemary skewers (which I saw on someone else's table). I got no rosemary skewers. The waitress didn't ask me the temperature I preferred my lamb.  So, I caught her before she left the table and informed her I would like it medium rare.  One of the reasons I went for the lamb is I am trying to watch my weight and so I steered away from my normal pasta dish (with seafood).  However, I wasn't trying that hard to watch my weight. The portion of lamb I got looked like a Weight Watcher's meal.  I know a health portion of meat is supposed to be about three ounces (the size of a deck of cards).  I didn't have my scale with me.  But, this was no more than four ounces of lamb.  The roasted vegetables could have been delicious. It was a medley of potatoes, red and yellow bell peppers, zucchini and eggplant.  However, they were stone cold.  I informed the waitress expecting to be brought a new order.  Instead, she took them back and presumably microwaved them.  They came back lukewarm.  Acceptable.

My wife ordered the Seafood Linguine which is described as "Seared sea scallops, jumbo shrimp and sweet clams sauteed with extra virgin olive oil, oven-roasted tomatoes and fresh arugula".  There wasn't a sign of any arugula in it.  Had she known that she would not have ordered it. When you order a dish like this you don't expect all of the ingredients to be listed.  However, there was a pretty large amount of crushed red pepper in the dish.  There should have been some warning on the menu that this dish was fairly spicy.  I love spicy food.  My wife's stomach can't tolerate it.  Normally, when a dish is described as spicy she will either avoid it or ask if it can be made more mild.  When I taste her dish that she complains about being "spicy", the vast majority of the time I can barely make out the "bite" in the dish.  Not this time.  This was a medium on my scale of spicy dishes, way too hot for her tastes.

My daughter ordered the Shrimp Portofino, which I have had many times.  It was excellent.

The last few times I've been to Macaroni Grill there has been something or other that's kind of turned me off. While this was the singular worst experience I've had there in all the years I've been going, I think it's going to be my last.  There are just too many other places out there to visit.  Next time, we'll wait it out at Bravo's.