The Gold Nugget Tavern and Grill/ Minnetonka

I'm not sure if the Gold Nugget is new or just improved. This is the first I have heard of it, through a friend who suggested we meet there. Alas, we did not meet this time. But Mr. H and I took our hungry stomachs there, while in the area one evening.

The decor and atmosphere is nothing special. It reminds me of a small version of Houlihan's. I like Houlihan's - but I get sick of the same atmosphere almost every restaurant I go to in the 'burbs. It seems they are either dingy and old, or super yuppie. I would love to see someone open innovative and fun places,. Psycho Suzi's? Galactic PIzza? SOMETHING?

We opted to sit outside, since it was a nice Tuesday evening. We were a-thirstin (when AREN'T we a-thirstin'??) so we ordered up off the drink menu. Usually, these menu's scare me at $8.00 or so per drink (and usually real crappy ones.) Nope! These were around $5.25-6. Nice work. I ordered an Electric Lemondae. Citrus vodka, limoncello, blue curacao, and sour? 7-uP? Lemonade?? BAH. I don't remember (that'll teach me to wait so long before blogging!!) Mr. H ordered what was basically the equvalent of a gin based Mojito.

They came soon enough. Our waiter was so-so, service was not super fast and he made no lasting impression on me. Except when I asked to use his pen, he said "ok...but make sure I get it back!!" like he was really concerned. Ummm, ok there fella. Anyways, our drinks came, and I am pleased to say they more than made up for our waiters d-bag attitude. (i stole that term from you, Chad!) Let me introduce!

Electric Lemonade

I must say that lemonade drinks often scare me. They are too sour or sweet fo my taste. Seeing there was blue curacao in this soothed me, since that will mellow out any sour with it's mild orange flavor. Plus, it's a purdy color! This drink was really good. Sweet, not too strong, just right. Yum

The Gin Mojito thingy!

When I think of mojito's, I feel sort of bewildered and sad. The ingredients are my thing, so much so it makes me want to burst into song. However, the 3 or 4 mojito's I've had simply aren't that...good. And they are usually expensive. This one was no exception, ringing in at $7.50. But then....I drank some. I almost sang. It lived up to every expectation my taste buds and brain hold for these ingredients. Before you even sip any, when the glass comes up to your lips, take in the aroma of earthy fresh mint, clean gin and bubbly soda water. I had some major drink-envy going on here.

After all that adoration, we ordered food. They have lots of basic things on the menu - sandwiches, salads, chili, soup and...2 different kinds of pasta (which confuses me. Why only two, I wonder?) It isn't the cheapest place - you will pay around 9 or 10 bux for a burger, 12 bux + for pasta's, entree's e.t.c. I got the roast turkey sandwich: turkey, provolone, avocado, bacon, and garlic mayo on sourdough. With fries. Mr. H got the pulled pork sandwich. Here's my breakdown:

Turkey sandwich:

This sandwich was goooood. Anything with bacon + avocado combo wins me. However, these can both be a texture challenge. This sandwich did just fine. It was firm, and not goopy, not mushy or too soft (all pet peeves, unless you are eating a PBJ!) The bacon was nice and firm, without being too chewy or tough. Nice job. The fries were shoestring style, which is my least favorite. However, these were really decent. I didn't have to salt them. And even though they're thin, they are quite satisfying. My only gripe (and is usually always my gripe with toasted bread sandwiches) was the bread. It Captain Crunch'ed up my mouth for the next few days. How can this tough scratchy bread dilemma be resolved??




The pork sandwich
I have no idea, but my Mr. H seemed to be in heaven judging from the ridiculous facial expressions I observed.

Greats:

-The specialty drinks = cheap and gooood.

-The fries are yummy and salty enough on thier own

-Solid sandwich ingredients = yummy sandwich you cant stop eating.

Not so-greats:

-The waiter was kind of a tool

-It's the same as every other restaurant i attend in the suburbs

-The sammwich ruffed up me' mouth

-It's too expensive for a broke bum like me to go to very often

http://www.goldnuggettavernandgrille.com/

NEXT.

Next, I will be reviewing the Gold Nugget. Stay tuuuned!

Suzi's : Part 2.

On a sunny, breezy Tuesday afternoon, I found myself with the lunch dilemma. Grilled cheese at home? With havarti! Or Uncle Franky's down the street? Or...Suzi's lunch special? Yes. Being to Suzi's many times, I'll say I've always liked Suzi's. Let's say I like Suzi as more than a friend. We flirt from time to time. I was feeling amorous. I also haven't had the pizza for years, and found myself curious after just re-watching the triple D segment. So off I went, into the lunch-ey specialness.

Not having been to Suzi's much during the day, I was more appreciative of the details this time around. (forgive my crappy cell phone pics please.)

We all know it's a nice funky little place. We are in agreement on what's entertaining. I appreciate this.
Suzi's lunch specials are very simple. They have: A) a personal sized pizza with mozarella, and choice of 2 toppings for $6.85, a buck each extra. Side salad if you want, for $1.65. Or B) a half sandwich combo, with soup or salad for around the same price. I, of course, opted for the pizza, and side salad. On the pizza, you choose tomato sauce, white sauce or BBQ sauce. I chose: a chicken, spinach and tomato pizza with white wine garlic sauce and salad with Italian dressing. For my breakdown, I will do great and not so great, ala my previous Psycho Suzi's review!

Great things about Suze (see we are that close now.)

1. The side salad was great. I'm picky about salads. I do not appreciate iceberg letdowns, or hodge podge overloads. This one is mixed greens, crutons, tomatoes, onions. And it's firm and fresh tasting. The italian is strong and zesty - alone it is very strong, but the salad is the perfect skin to absorb and balance this. Bonus points for serving it in a wooden bowl!

(those are crutons, not cheese. crappy cell phone!)


2. The pizza (which I could not get a decent pic of) is good. It is ooey-gooey cheesy alright. And the crust is not thin, but it is light and not greasy at all. Bonus BONUS points for the cornmeal incorporated into the crust, making little crispy bread-crumb like bits in your mouth. Pizza Hut also does this, which I will shamelessly say I am a fan of. Good work!

3. The vinyl roller chair I had. I was comfortable and satisfied. No easy feat for me and restaurant seating.

4. The waitress wasn't annoying or rude. She kept me filled up with diet coke. Good 'nuff for me.

5. It's fun to look at the decor, and all the tiki glasses.

Not so great things about Suzi's

1. The white wine garlic sauce was bland. I found myself wanting more...garlic? I know white sauces tend to be mild, and maybe it was my fault for ordering 3 toppings to compete with it. Maybe it's my fault I'm not Les Stroud. Regardless, the toppings were kind of blah as well. The chicken was in big chunks, appealing to the eye for sure. But not seasoned enough. The tomato was balnd (i will get sun dried next time) and the spinach was spinach. I put some crushed reds on there to kick it up. Next time, I will be sure to try a red sauce.

2. The parking. Having a parking lot is cool, but not if you are uncomfortable in tight spaces.

3. They don't have the geisha drink that I want anymore.

That's about it! Suzi, we will rendevous again.

http://www.psychosuzis.com/

King's Place/ Miesville, MN

Let me start my introduction to King's Place by directing you to look at my main blog picture. That is a burger with: cheddar cheese, bacon, a fried egg, and a hot dog on top of it. Booyah!

My interest in King's Place started when my mom showed me the menu. Having gone there a few times after several casino-excursions, she somehow got a photo copied version of their menu. Their website does not include a menu. Let me describe it to you:

A) a 1/3 pound burger with: B) any combination of dozens of ingredients!!! Ingredients you'll not see on burgers anywhere else in MN. (that I know of anyhow.)

So, on a nice Sunday afternoon, Mr. H and I decided to make the trek to Miesville, MN (right outside of Redwing-a good hour away from the city) to visit King's Place. I was really excited. The drive itself was interesting. Yes I'm a native Minnesotan, but it's been a long time since I drove through farm-town USA. What do people...do in them there parts? What do the kids do for fun? Ah the wonder of it all. After this excitement, we arrived.

King's Place is sort of a dive. There are about 5 parking spots in a small parking area. There were quite a few motorcycles out front, however a biker bar it is not. Inside, it's a normal bar setting with some additional seating for eating and such. Booths, a few tables, things like that.

We were-a-thirstin', so we immediately a coupla bloodys. They were standard-I found mine too salty, but Mr. H's was just fine. The menu is long, and so it took us about 20 minutes to decide what we wanted. King's Place literally has 30+ different burger combo's. They have other stuff too, like chicken sandwiches, wings, fries e.t.c. The surcharge for fries is like 1.75 or something, which usually perturbs me. However, the burgers here range from a measly $4-$7 (i think? maybe even $6 at the most...) for 1/3 pound, so I did not mind as much.

First we ordered waffle fries. For our burgers, I opted for the cottage cheese, mozarella and marinara burger (i told you.) Mr. H opted for the burger I described above, and in my picture.
The waffle fries were good. I'm hard pressed to find any better than Elsie's, and these were just ok. They were quite greasy, and the seasoned sour cream was standard. Overall, it was satisfactory because I was super hungry. The burgers came about 15 minutes later. Upon first sight, they are larger than I thought they would be. Maybe due to all the stuff piled on top of them?!

My burger: My biggest concern is that this would be really messy. All that sauceiness?? No worries. They have it figured out. Instead of a buncha slop on a bun, this burger has the cottage cheese and marinara tucked neatly away under a nice layer of mozarella. Genius.

Despite my mom's warning that the burgers were nothing special, I was enthusiastic. And for good reason. My burger was delicious. I am not an expert on all things meat-but I know what I DON'T like (too much grease, meat too loose, over-cooked) and this burger was none of them. The bun is a standard bun, which is fine with me and compliments everything nicely. I made sure not to put any sauces on my burger, as to let the original ingredients shine. Alone, the marinara/cottage cheese combo did not pack much punch. In my brain, i was kinda thinking...lasagna?? But there wasn't much flavor that could stand up to the beefiness of the burger. Overall though- the components all tasted good, and the combo actually worked well. They just weren't that super flavor experience I wanted.

Mr. H's burger: Well. Just look at it. It's a burger...with a HOT DOG on it. And BACON. And an EGG. And CHEDDAR. OH MY! Of course I had a bite. Or two, maybe :-). I had some big-time food envy going on here. I hate to admit that something so wrong was so STUNNING. It was ridculous. Hilarious. Absurd. Awesome. The short story is that it was just damn good. It was flavor awesomeness!

My only regret about going there was that I could not fit about 3 more burgers in my belly. I will definitely be back, so stay tuned! (this time with more pics!)

http://kingburgers.com/

ALSO: Look here and watch when KSTP went to the place. It will make you want to go there, if this blog hasn't already.

http://kstp.com/article/stories/s810975.shtml?cat=105466