Houlihan's - Chanhassen

Mrs. D and I decided to do lunch at Houlihan's after seeing Ramona and Beezus (which was AWESOME) on a hot Sunday afternoon. Houlihan's is no stranger to us, but we like the food and so off we went.

We arrived about 2:30 or 3 and sat in a booth near the bar. I haven't been to Houlihan's for awhile, so I was pleased to see they have a new "small plates" menu , along with FOUR varities of fries (disco fries: Canadian ‘poutine’ (poot-sin) style with melty mozzarella, slow cooked pot roast and gravy - $4.) If you know me, you know about me and small plates. I relish variety, and small plates are made for this personality. I was doubly pleased to find they have happy hour ALL DAY every Sunday and monday. 2 for 1 rails, taps and house wines. Also, they have a list of "big small plates", which is basically standard appetizers (Spinach dip, Calamari), and they are on special during all happy hours for $6.75 for anything! I really like this. I could save up and easily spend the better part of Sunday here, and I intend to.

Since this was just a lunch, we didn't do the small plate feast. Instead, we ordered Goat Cheese and Artichoke Poppers (with fresh thyme and lemon zest- $5), the Farmhouse Club Sandwich (me: brown sugar and honey cured ham, mesquite turkey, bacon, basil pesto aioli, buttery gouda, whole-grain bread, with greek orzo as a side- $10.95) and Buffalo Chicken Tenders for Mrs. D.

Goat and Artichoke Poppers

Overall these were pretty tasty, but Mrs. D tried one and she was right..the goat cheese was kind of...perfumey tasting. I attributed this at first to the lemon (the white sauce was some sort of lemon sauce, the dark sauce was more salty) but then tasted it without and decided it was the goat cheese. For some reason, I've been hearing a lot of people who don't like goat cheese lately...I do not know how this is possible. I love it, but this was not the best I've had.

Club sandwich w/ orzo:

I didn't get a pic of anything else, but this sandwich was quite good. It was a little bread-ey for my tastes, but I just pulled it off. It certainly didn't ruin it for me, as the sandwich itself is nicely structured and not sloppy (my biggest sandwich pet peeve.) The orzo was good, but it doesn't wow me. I get it to pretend I'm being healthy.

The buffalo chicken was not as good as I remember it. I'm suuuuper picky about my buffalo wings. They are bad much too often. I like the Spring Street Taverns, but am still searching for the perfect "wing". I will accept donations to send me to the Buffalo Wing Fest in New York at any time!

For 2 rail drinks and all this food, our final bill came to $29 and some change.

Greats:

-Atmosphere. It's nothing special, but it's comfy, big, with varied seating. I just hate it when there isn't good seating. Fat girls lament.
-The happy hour
-The small plates
-Food is consistently good.

Not so greats
-Perfumey goat cheese
-Nothing here has wowed me yet
-Buffalo chicken isn't as good as I remember

http://www.houlihans.com/home.aspx