Kyle H.'s Profile

My wife and I were in the Chicago area this past weekend and we had a chance to make reservations at The Capital Grille. Now, I know what you're saying, "You traveled to Chicago and went to a chain restaurant?" Well, yes, technically we went to a chain restaurant, but it was well worth it, especially when it's just a few steps from the Intercontinental Hotel we were staying.

We started the evening with the Pan Fried Calamari with Hot Cherry Peppers. It was an excellent suggestion by our server. It was a little spicier than I expected at first, but it was perfectly prepared with a great consistency and taste.

Next was the main meal. Our server said they pride themselves on their dry-aged steaks and I'm glad to say they didn't disappoint. On another suggestion from our server, I ordered the Bone-In Kona Crusted Sirloin with Carmelized Shallot Butter. All I can say is wow! It was spectacular. It is probably one of the best steaks I have ever had. It was perfectly cooked (medium for me) and the coffee rub and shallot butter made for an excellent and unique tasting steak.

For our sides, we had mashed potatoes, which were lumpy and creamy at the same time (just the way I like 'em). Very good. We also had the lobster mac and cheese. It was a really great compliment to our meal. The noodles were cooked al dente and their were generously large lobster pieces on top. All the tastes fit together perfectly.

The service was beyond expectations. Our host that seated us was courteous and friendly and definitely made you feel welcome and cared for. He stopped by a few times during the evening to make sure everything was OK (and didn't make you feel awkward like the manager at Applebee's when he's trolling around because they have to). The waitstaff was friendly and professional. Our server was knowledgeable, friendly, and made great suggestions. We took her lead on almost all of our selections and none of them were disappointing.

The whole experience at The Capital Grille was excellent. We were sitting near the kitchen so it gave us a great feel for the how everything was being accomplished, and the entire staff seemed to be working with each other to make everyone feel special. To explain further, at one point, the candle on our table went out. Another server walked past right after it went out, noticed it was no longer lit, picked up and exchanged it with one that was lit on another table. Before we knew it, we had a lit candle and another server had already replaced the candle on the other table. You just got a sense that everyone cared about what they were doing and wanted to show how much they care to their customers.

Overall, it was a great experience. Granted, you are going to have to open the wallet on this dinner. It isn't something we normally would do, but it was something special for our trip. I would especially suggest it for special occasions. It was pricey, but the food, service, and experience was over and above our expectations.

Simply put, this a great greasy-spoon diner. I met up with a friend on a Friday morning at 9AM. It wasn't busy at all and we were able to be seated right away. The breakfast menu was typical diner fare, (i.e. eggs, toast, sausage, bacon, omelet's, french toast, and pancakes). Almost everything on the menu is under $10, and most was around $6 to $7.

We both had black coffee's. Nothing spectacular but it was a good cup of coffee. I ordered a full order of French Toast. They were really good, but the syrup was out of a plastic single-serve container. It was still good and I would definitely order it again.

The service was excellent. Our waitress was on top of our coffee and our food was out almost after we ordered.

Overall, it's exactly what I would expect from a diner. The food was good, the service was excellent and friendly, and it was quick and easy. It allowed us to focus on catching up with friends instead of worrying about the service or the food.

I am by no way an expert in Thai Cuisine, but I have had my share of Pad Thai, and this restaurant by far has the best I've ever had. There's a reason my coworkers started "Thai Tuesday's" at work. It's a little out of the way from our office building, but they are willing to do it every week.

I have only ordered 1 dish from Pi's, the Pad Thai with shrimp. The noodles are a perfect consistency, the sauce is a perfect sweetness, there are plenty of tasty shrimp and it includes peanuts, bean sprouts and a lime wedge. It plain just tastes great. The portion is pretty hefty and could serve 2 people, but I don't think I could ever give up such a great meal. I usually order it with mild spice, which is always enough for me. My other co-workers, who are a little more adventurous, tend to get medium and medium plus. They say it can get pretty hot, sometimes a little too much, so it might be good to order a little less spicy the first time to gauge it.

We always get carry-out and I've never picked it up, so I can't comment on the actual restaurant. All I can say is, don't miss out on this place. It has great, tasty Thai food and I would suggest you check it out the next time you have a craving for some excellent Thai food in the Detroit area.

We had a few friends tell us to visit this restaurant/bar while we were around the ATL airport and we were glad they did. This place is a quirky, yet tasty seafood restaurant just on the north side of the ATL-Hartsfield airport.

We were there for lunch and it wasn't too busy. Pretty consistent with people coming in and out, but there definitely seats at the bar and at the tables. It has a Joe's Crab shack look scrunched into a bar. Seating is either wood booths, high top tables or stools at the bar. The decor is not very kid-friendly, with different t-shirts and framed slogans.

The food was excellent though. My wife and I had a bowl of clam chowder and then we split a bucket of shrimp and crab (1lb. total). The clam chowder was really, really good. It was creamy, had good chunks of potato and plenty of hearty pieces of clam. It just tasted great.

The shrimp and snow crab were decorated with salt and pepper and then steamed perfectly. The gulf-coast shrimp had to be peeled, but it was definitely worth the work. The crab was salty, but very tasty. It took a bit of work to get them out of the shell, but that's the way it always is. We chose to get the garlic butter instead of the regular liquid butter, and it didn't disappoint.

The service was great, but a little uninformed. I was expecting them to know the menu a little bit better. I also wasn't impressed with their parking. Everything is valet-only and it was difficult to really find the entrance to the parking lot. More descriptive or well-placed signs were needed.

Over all, definitely a place I would go back to.

I had some high expectations going into Slows last night. Everyone told me it would be busy, that it was great BBQ, and it was a great atmosphere.

Well, everything turned out to be just what they said. We arrived at about 5PM on a Saturday evening. It was fairly busy and we were told the wait would be around 30 to 40 minutes for a table for two. The bar is first come/first serve and full service, but we were willing to wait. More and more people were coming in, to the point where the hostess moved the wait back to an hour or more. The waiting space is quite small, especially during the winter when you can't wait outside. Everyone huddles around the bar as much as possible and you make do.

We waited around 30 minutes to get into a booth and I think the food was worth it.

We started off with the Okra and Split Pea fritters. We wanted to try something different, and this was definitely it. The fritters were like a large hush puppy filled with a green vegetable mash. It was topped with sliced dill pickles and set on top of a runny, spicy sauce. It was a good appetizer, but not a great one.

I ordered the St. Louis Style ribs and brisket combo with a side of sweet mashed potatoes and the mac'n'cheese. The sides were excellent. The sweet mashed tasted great with the right consistency and the mac'n'cheese was a creamy, shells and cheese. Both meats came out dry, no BBQ sauce. The sauces were out on the table. The brisket was great. Good portion and great taste. The brisket mixed the best with the Spicy BBQ, a Texas style sauce. The St. Louis style ribs were blackened on the outside and fairly meaty. The sweet BBQ sauce drenched my ribs. I also got a chance to try the baby back ribs. They were especially meaty and very flavorful. I used the Apple BBQ, a Michigan apple based sauce, on the baby backs. It was a unique sauce and quite tasty. The portions were very generous on both the entree's and the sides. They were perfect.

To finish our night, we split the Chuck Norris. It is a triple fudge brownie, topped with coffee ice cream and caramel sauce. It was an excellent dessert. Very, very rich, almost too much, but it tasted so good.

The letdowns? The service was somewhat slow. Our server was not to be found at times and it was sometimes difficult to get drink refills. On the other hand, the food came out pretty quickly. We didn't wait at all for the appetizer and the main entree's came out right after we finished the fritters.

Also, they don't except reservations for less than 6, so unless you have a party, expect to wait. It's a trendy, hip restaurant, and it has become wildly popular. With that popularity, comes the expected wait time.

The last thing, the BBQ sauces were not to die for. Nothing too unique or outside the cast. They were good enough, but it could've been more.

Overall, we had a great experience. The food overcame any of letdowns and the atmosphere and prices didn't disappoint.

This is a perfect place for soup on any day. They have around 12 soups every day at pretty good prices and they taste great.

The service is friendly and very fast at this location. I was in at 6PM on a Friday, so there wasn't much of a crowd. I ordered all of my soups to go and everything stayed warm for the 20 minutes I needed to have it in their insulated bowls. The bread was also fresh and delicious.

I wish there was one closer to home. It's somewhat out of the way for me to get there on my way home from work.

I decided to eat here at the last second and I wish I had found another place. I was pretty unimpressed and disappointed with the entire experience. It was around 1:30PM on a Thursday, so the lunch crowd was gone and there was only one other person in the restaurant when I sat down at my table.

The first thing I noticed (other than the fact that their name is kind of redundant, isn't a Bistro and a Cafe kind of the same thing?), at least half of the tables in the small dining room were littered with dirty plates and glasses. They were not bussed the entire 30 minutes I was there. It was disappointing especially since I was really the only person they were serving at the time. There were only 2 walk ins while I was there. This is something simple and necessary to customer satisfaction.

The bright point of the visit was that the service was friendly and punctual. That was mostly due to me being the only one being served at the time. But nothing can replace a friendly smile.

When I placed my order, I was given a soup as a starter. I don't know the name or type of soup, but it was a very peppery egg drop type soup. It was actually pretty tasty and much better than my entree.

I ordered Pad Thai with Shrimp. It was a pretty large portion, but a large portion of sub par food doesn't really make for a pleasant experience. The noodles were a little rubbery, but OK. There were bean sprouts on one side and crushed peanuts on the other side. I had ordered the dish with mild spice, but could hardly recognize the spice as I ate. The most disappointing part of the dish was the Pad Thai sauce. There was so much of it, it was almost like a syrup. The taste of the dish was OK, but the sauce was way over done.

The restaurant's environment was pretty typical. There were signs of it wanting to be more up scale, but the tacky pictures and decor were what you'd expect in an Asian restaurant.

They had signs up that they were under new management, but I'm wondering if the previous management had problems getting patrons to come in. Probably the best thing going for them is they are in close proximity to a lot of office buildings, which will bring some more people in.

My conclusion; I won't be going back and I won't be suggesting it for the next office lunch. I really wanted it to be better.

I've been to Kalamata's 2 times now and I haven't been disappointed. They're trademarked slogan is "Really Good Greek" and I'd have to agree. The gyro meat was seasoned perfectly and just tasted great. They have a variety of styles to get the Gyro in. The spinach pie was pretty good and their salads are great and full of fresh vegetables.

I've only been there in the afternoon, one time being a very busy time. The food looked like it was put together in assembly line fashion, but it was put together quickly. By the time I walked to the pick-up counter, everything was ready for me. The service has been excellent also, coming by to pick up trays and clean tables and give a friendly smile. If they can keep it up, it's an important distinction between other retaurants in the same marketplace (Potbellys, Qdoba, Chipotle's, Noodles).

One thing is clear, this is not a Coney place. It is distinctively a Greek cafe with Greek food. I was somewhat disappointed they didn't have more Greek offereings (for some reason I really wanted some Mousaka when I first went in). It's also a little pricey, compared to fast food. But you are paying for a fresh meal and great service. The combo with a Gyro is probably the best deal. Gyro, drink, and a side for around $7.50. On the other hand, a greek salad with chicken breast and a drink will take you over $10.

I don't go out to eat a lot for lunch on work days, but Kalamata's will continue to stay at the top of my list.

I was practically impressed. Pineland had excellent food and very friendly service. I've never eaten Lebanese food before, but I'm a big fan of Greek foods. This was my first experience with this type of food and it was all very good.

I split a combination meal called the Pineland with my wife and there was plenty enough to have for left-overs the next day. There were beef and chicken dishes, and they all tasted great. The hummus was also excellent. Good enough that we would consider just getting the hummus to go.

The atmosphere was all right. There was some mediterranean music on in the background. The walls have murals and pictures from Lebanon. It most reminded me of a Chinese restaurant. Just somewhat tacky.

The food is definitely worth the short-comings of the atmosphere, especially since they offer take out. I'm sure we'll be back.

I was pleasantly surprised by my outing to this Outback Steakhouse. I think I was more surprised by the excellent service, which you sometimes don't get with a Franchise Chain.

I was with a party of 13. My wife and I split the Coconut Shrimp appetizer and the Alice Springs Chicken. The shrimp dish was great. Love the dipping sauce and the coconut shell is cooked to perfection. The chicken dish was average/good. I felt the portion was somewhat smaller than expected. It had a good flavor and it was served with Honey Mustard sauce. I think I ended up drenching it in the Honey Mustard to make up for the taste.

As stated above, I thought the service at this  location was excellent. Even with a party so large, the waitstaff was always on top of drinks and making sure we had everything we needed. I never felt abandoned. They were able to correct a small billing problem easily and they were able to split the appetizers just as well. They even had separate plates for us to split our dinner without even asking. They always seemed to be on top of it as far as customer service.

As for the prices, I believe the meals are a little over priced, as are the appetizers. 6 shrimp cost $7.99(or maybe it was $8.99). While the entrees are mostly $10 or more.

All in all, great experience, especially for a chain. I would go back for sure, but the prices may keep us away if we're wanting to be a little more budget friendly.