- Restaurants |
- Nightlife |
- Shopping |
- Movies |
- All
31 Hundred
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- Yes
- Take-out:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Alcohol:
- Full Bar
3 reviews for 31 Hundred
After an 8.5 hour drive from the East Coast, I was too lazy to go out to search for food after I checked into the Hilton Hotel, so I settled on eating dinner at 31 Hundred. Since it's a Saturday night, I figured that there would be a fair amount of diners...I was wrong. There was only one other table that was occupied...by a couple that seemed to be on a date. Haha, they had the entire restaurant to themselves and then I came along to ruin the vibe. I'm guessing the emptiness can be attributed to the fact that it's Halloween night.
I ordered the Caesar Salad for starters and it was only average. The amount of dressing was rather skimpy and I didn't like how the outer edge of the plate was dressed up with drizzles of balsamic vinegar.
For the main course, I ordered the Black Pearl Pork Chops. All in all, it was pretty good. However, the maple syrup sauce that it sat in masked some of the natural pork flavor. The caramelized onions that rested on top of the pork chop would've been enough.
For the choice of a side dish, I ordered the Chef's Vegetable, and the vegetable of the day was broccolini. This by far was the best dish of the night, and it's a freakin' side dish! Dressed with just the right amount of olive oil and butter, it was fresh, flavorful, and crispy.
The complimentary bread deserves a shout out as well...or maybe that I was just real hungry after my long drive and I did baptize the bread with loads of whipped butter.
The location for this type of restaurant (semi-classy, upscale-wanna-be) does seem out of place. I figure business would be better if it was somewhere else. Location, location, location! I give this place a 3.5, but since I can't rate it at that score, I'll give it a 4. Oh yeah, like the other two reviewers, I completely missed this place and I had to turn around, and I had the GPS on.
I had meant to check out 31 Hundred a couple of weeks ago, so when my GPS led me to Star Diner then, I wrongfully assumed that the system simply had a mind of its own. However, 31 Hundred is indeed located at 3100 Glendale Avenue; it's just located adjacent to the Hilton.
I made a second trip back to catch up with an old friend from high school over lunch and am pretty glad I did; it truly is a hidden gem. The lunch menu is somewhat limited mostly to salads and sandwiches, with a few appetizer options. I personally was wavering between the Asian Chicken Salad and the Signature 31Hundred Burger, but opted for the former since salad sounded like a better choice on a humid afternoon. Ronnie also had a hard time choosing between the Portabella Burger and the Warm Goat Cheese Salad and went with the latter for the same reason.
My salad came out looking more like a chicken entree since it was chock-full of chicken with a few measly pieces of lettuce. Works for me! The plum sauce complimented everything else (cashew, bamboo shoots, grapes, etc.) quite nicely and it was a refreshing change overall. It might even mark my return to ordering and eating salad too. Ronnie's salad came with a chunk of goat cheese and two large croutons; it seemed like he enjoyed it just as much minus the rock hard croutons.
Prices are fairly decent (averaging ~$10 for lunch), although I plan on checking out their breakfast buffet and dinner menu sometime in the near future. I had to dock off a star for the service, which was a bit slow; we were led to a table 20 minutes after arriving when there wasn't anyone else waiting and only one other table of diners. Never once, however, did we feel rushed as we caught up on the last 4-5 years of our lives.
Like Fen said, good luck finding this place based on the address. The pleasantly declarative "You have arrived" from my car's nav system took place in front of what I took to be a hospital grounds. There's nothing close to the road; it's all back a few hundred meters on a windy driveway. What exists at this address is actually the University of Toledo medical center (right) and a Hilton hotel (left). The restaurant is inside the hotel.
At first I thought that their slick, over-animated website had sold me a bill of goods. There was NOBODY else there. Restaurant pickings on Sunday night in Toledo are slim, so I thought that I had lucked out to find a legitimate, classy restaurant with top-notch food and a swanky vibe. Nope. It was handsome in that hotel-restaurant way, so there was no impediment to enjoying my meal but nothing to sell the place either. And the absence of other diners is usually a strong point, but nobody wants to walk into a completely empty restaurant, right? Thankfully, the food redeemed them.
Lamb chops, B+: You can tell that these weren't the choicest cuts of meat, but they were prepared very nicely in a rosemary and red-wine demiglace. Very tasty.
Calamari, B: Fried squid is always worth eating, but there is definitely good calamari and mediocre calamari. This avoided mediocrity by sporting a lighter batter and being served with a savory, chunky marinara.
Thai cashew rolls, C: The weak link. I had forgotten that they had cashews and thought that there were crunchy chunks of carrot in the rolls. There was something unpleasantly creamy inside the roll, almost like cream cheese. It wasn't listed on the ingredients for this dish, though. The sweet chili sauce saved this dish from being a total wash.
Crab cakes, A: The star of the meal. These were some of the best crab cakes I've ever tasted, and that's saying something. In Toledo, OH? Yes! Simple--just crab meat and a few vegetables, still mostly crunchy. No bullshit fillers or flavorings. There was a lemony sort of dressing which set off the crab cakes (and the accompanying salad) very well. Delicious.
