Francine "the rampaging vegetarian" K.'s Profile

A nice option for a bite to eat at the park, the cafe serves a nice range of salads, sandwiches, soups and pizzas and has a welcome number of vegetarian options. The prices are quite reasonable for a museum/tourist site cafe and the eating area is clean and welcoming. They also use biodegradable cups and forks, and compost their waste, which is nice to see. They also focus on organic, local food. Though my salad wasn't anything super special, it was tasty enough and I'd happily go back to support Phipps and its cafe.

A beautiful place to spend a few hours! The conservatory is quite large with tons of different plant exhibits. My favorites were the orchids and the cacti. There's also currently a Frabel glass exhibit so among the plants and flowers you'll find figures, fairies, bowls and the awesomely elongated "longfellows." On weekends you will find some areas closed off for weddings -- there was one indoors and another outdoors when I was there on Saturday, but there was still plenty to see.

What a wonderful little place!

Though we had some trouble finding it -- as others have noted, look for the "Rest" sign, not the miniscule "Stone Road Grille" one -- we had a wonderful meal in a cozy location. The restaurant was bustling, the owner was incredibly friendly, and the menu focused on seasonal, local fare, including the best local wines, which were paired with the dishes.

I had the organic green bouquets, a very light and leafy salad option, and the puffed mushroom crepe, which was incredibly delicious. The prices were really reasonable, too, and the entrees are all available in half size -- and at nearly half price -- so you can try out more than one, or just have a lighter dinner.

Definitely worth the drive for the friendly and knowledgeable service, relaxed and elegantly quirky atmosphere, and scrumptious food and drink.

I went to Eleven on Friday night for a late dinner and got some delicious food but rather bizarre service.

We made a reservation, but got there a bit earlier than expected, so we asked the hostess about getting a table overlooking the bar if one opened up, and went to go sit in the lounge to have a drink.

I had a delicious Red Ruby martini with pomegranate and blood orange, and the bf had a Pear-secco, which he enjoyed.

We didn't have to wait as long as expected, and were taken to a table on the upstairs patio. It was a nice night, but the space was pretty generic and there were open tables in the area we'd asked for, overlooking the bar, so we asked to be moved.

When we got to our new table and started perusing the menu, I noticed that the tasting menus weren't there, which I'd read about online. I finally asked about the tasting menu and the waitress said that they don't serve it on the patio, and asked if I'd like to see it. I did, and it was what I ended up ordering (the vegetarian one), but I felt the whole situation was weird and uncomfortable. I just wished the waitress talked a bit more about the food in general. She never talked about what was on the menu, told us about what was good or tried to elaborate beyond the most basic answers to questions we asked.

The bread server, on the other hand, told us all about the three different bread selections, the type of wheat used in each bread and what made them unique. It was more in line with what I was expecting from the waitress and left me thinking, "someone needs to give this guy a promotion, stat."

The meal itself was very good. It started with a taste of grilled cheese from the chef, then I had an artichoke soup and mushrooms on toast. I then had a small bowl of fettuccine in an olive sauce, which was a bit too olivey for my tastes, and a delicious grilled mushroom on black rice. I had the wine pairings with the dishes, which I liked--and it ensured that my glass was always full--and I got the chocolate peanut butter pretzel for dessert, which was a bit crunchier than I was expecting, but tasty.

I'm sure our experience would have been different with another server and another host, and overall I was really pleased with the quality of the food and the thought put into the dishes, especially the vegetarian tasting menu.

Tender Greens just makes me feel good. The food is fresh, the portions are generous without being wasteful, and the atmosphere is a nice cafe casual. There's also a large patio that wraps around the building making for lots of outdoor seating.  

The pricing is simple, with salads at $10.50, and you can check out the ingredients before you order. And there's a big emphasis on organic, local food. There's a also a nice selection of fruit-based sodas.

I've been to the Village Idiot a few times now, and I've had a different but enjoyable experience each time.

The first time, I went for a party that was held in the back room. The room was big enough to comfortably fit about 50 people and it was nice to be set away from the bustle of the bar on a Saturday night. It would definitely be worth reserving for a big group.

The second time, I went for dinner. This gastropub has an interestng menu, with lots of intriguing salads, meats and even an acorn squash risotto, which I enjoyed. I also had the beet and horseradish greens salad, which was perfect to share. And we had the ginger bread pudding with guinness gelato for dessert, which was just amazing -- spicy, savory and sweet all blended together to create a dessert unlike any other I'd ever had.

Another person tried the chocolate chip cookie which wasn't nearly as tasty or exciting.

If you're going for dinner, go earlier in the week to avoid the crowds. If you're there on a weekend after 8 or 9, you'll have a lot of people standing over you with their drinks.

The most recent time I went there was for a Friday-night party. We had a little trouble finding a space, but were able to take over a couch and some floor space in the back area. When standing, it was a bit crowded and people were frequently pushing past us to get to the bathrooms and back room, but sitting or standing off to the side was fine.

I like this place. The beer and wine selection is good, the food is interesting, the decor is funky and it's a bit of a scene without being overly pretentious.

I'm ready to make the switch to non-menu restaurants. I like having limited choices, and having course after course of food just appear.

The waiters were attentive and recited the menu is a hilariously dramatic fashion. There was a veggie option (though I wish the zucchini taco weren't the same as the zucchini enchilada on the entree) and the veggie soup didn't seem as good as the albondigas.

The guy going around playing guitar knew the song we wanted to hear and performed it well. Usually we don't go for that sort of thing, but it turned out to be quite romantic in a rather cheesy and fun way.

The margaritas, which aren't actual margaritas since they only have a beer and wine license, are made with wine and guava juice and come by the liter. They weren't as tasty as I'd hoped, probably because I'm not a big guava fan, but we managed to nearly polish it all off between us.

We were so full by dessert that we decided to pass.

This place is definitely an experience! And as a party of 2, we were seated within 10 minutes of getting there at 8 on a Friday night. Bigger parties seemed to have to wait longer. And the valet was only $3.

I went to Aroma Cafe for a late night dinner earlier this week and am still feeling guilty about how much food was wasted. After staring at the seriously overwhelming menu for ages, I ordered a salad and the bf ordered a wrap.

When they came to the table, we were absolutely shocked at the portion sizes. My salad was fit for a family of 5 and his wrap would have been more than enough for 2 people to share. My salad also wasn't what I expected from the menu description and photo.

By the time we were stuffed -- and we're not light eaters, and had even been skiing that day -- there were still two full plates of food sitting in front of us. It just felt so wasteful and unnecessary.

I'd had a good lunch here before, when it was pretty new to the mall, but when I went back today, I found it lacking. I had the one veggie soup option -- tomato basil (the cauliflower one has chicken stock) -- and it was pretty bland and a little lumpy. I also had a salad that was ok, but a bit uninspired compared to one I'd had there before, which wasn't on the menu anymore. I also only got one very small slice of bread, which just wasn't enough.

Other people looked like they had better food than I did and I was a bit jealous. The panini and salad combos looked nice, and there were some larger salads that looked good, too.

The tables are also way too close together. I nearly ended up in the guy sitting at the next table's lap trying to slide into my bench seat. It was a bit embarrassing.

I did like my latte and since I've had a good meal here before, I'm willing to head back again and try something else.

I was very disappointed with just about everything at Lulu's. First, we had a reservation, but had to wait around for about 20 minutes for our table to be ready and there was nowhere to stand but the entrance hall to the restaurant.

Then, when we sat down, our server tried to insist on us having everything family style when nobody wanted their meals that way.

There were a few vegetarian options on the menu and my sister and I decided to share the portobello mushroom with polenta and the pear pizza. Both had little to no flavor. The pizza tasted like melted mozzarella on bread (there was no sauce and nothing else to give it flavor save for the overcooked, anemic-looking pears), the mushroom was bland, and the polenta tasted like grits or cream of wheat--extraordinarily bland, mushy and just generally not what you want to eat with your dinner.

The whole operation just seemed so disorganized. I considered giving it a second star because some other people enjoyed their meals that night and I feel that the place can do so much better, but as far as I'm concerned, I'm not interested in going back.