Garnet "The Sex Educator" J.'s Profile

It's incredibly difficult to find a groomer who will take cats in this area. I never realized how easy we had it in Chicago. Jeff is willing to take them so we brought our two sweet boy cats to him. Now I know that cats aren't easy to shave. They squirm, shrink down, and try to escape. Our cats are very nice sweet cats so they don't fight but they definitely do their share of trying to avoid the whole situation. Jeff was good with our cats, but it's pretty obvious that he doesn't groom cats regularly. Their haircuts are very uneven and while they always look a bit silly after we get them shaved they look sillier than usual. We were used to a nice clean cut so we're a bit disappointed. However, his prices are more than reasonable. With his on-site coupon we paid just $39 per cat for bathing, shaving, claw trim, and ear cleaning.

I haven't decided whether or not we'll bring them back to Jeff next summer, but a lot of it will probably depend on where we move.

Went to The Rocking Horse a couple weeks ago because, like everyone else, we were ecstatic a new place opened up on the square.

Its ok. The decor is really nice and everything is sparkly and new. They have a good beer selection which is great for my wife and the food is decent. But I do not like beer. I'm more of a martini drinker so I asked the waitress what martinis they had, if any. She had no idea. Okay fine, new place whatever. She told me they could probably make me whatever I wanted so I daringly asked for a pomegranite martini. She looked at me like "yeah right" so I said "ok give me an apple martini." She went back to the bar and awhile came back and said that they couldn't do apple, but they could do cosmo, lemon drop, or a 3rd option I can't remember. I told her to get me a cosmo. About 5 minutes later this guy (I'm assuming the manager) came over with an apple martini saying that they didn't think they had it but he "found some in the back." Um ... what? You "found" it? I had suspicions that this was probably from a mix and when I tasted it I was pretty sure that was the case. It tasted very much like a low quality appletini. My wife tasted it and said it was awful. And on the bill it was quoted as "well vodka" with a "martini" upgrade. You DO NOT make a martini with well vodka. I will never get a martini there again thats for sure.

I did have a raspberry stoli and lemonade as well and that was fine, but not exactly difficult to make.

The other thing I didn't really like was that the waitress said that I couldn't get the fries that came with my burger upgraded. I rarely want to get fries for an appetizer since they come with burgers and whatnot, but I really wanted to try their poutine fries. I was totally willing to pay for the upcharge and it should totally be doable. I really hope they work that kink out and realize they can make more money by offering such an upgrade. So instead I got tatertots and they were pretty bland. I was disappointed in them.

The night we went there they were having a $6 burger and fries special. That's cool I like specials, but this was only a barebones burger. If you wanted anything on it they would charge you more or if you wanted one of their specialty burgers you are charged full price. So it really didn't feel like much of a special.

And, as other's have said, this place is noisy.

I'm sure we'll go back since its close and their food is decent, but I doubt we'll be spending much time or money there. We actually left earlier than we had expected to and went down the street to The Whistler where for 50 cents more than that awful martini I could get a tasty handcrafted drink.

Full disclosure: my fiance's rugby team is sponsored by this bar. But really, I know nothing about the owners or staff or anything of the sort. Its just that they go there for rugby get togethers and I tend to tag along which is probably the only reason I would've ever gone to this bar in the first place.  I wasn't expecting much, but I actually really kind of like it, but maybe thats just because I really like hanging out with the rugby team - they're a great bunch of girls.

As someone else said, the bar seems to try to play it off like they have a bad boy image, but they really don't play it off well at all. The decor is quite nice, its very clean, the staff is friendly, and they have a martini list. Martini list does not say bad boy bar at all.

The only food I've ordered is the chicken sandwich with cheese and bacon. So good! The chicken is very juicy and flame grilled. I like that they give you the option to choose beef burger, turkey burger, veggie burger, or chicken breast on a sandwich. As for the side options there are fries, tots, or salad. Nice that they have a healthy option. I've only had the tots and the first time they were good, but the last two times I've had them they tasted horrible, which is fine because I actually don't need a side when I'm having an enormous sandwich. Maybe next time I'll try one of the other sides.

The poison ivy and the chocolate martinis are really quite yummy. Those are the only two that have appealed to me and therefore the only two I've ordered. They are $10 each though so not cheap

The bartenders don't seem to be too knowledgeable about beer however. My fiance is a beer drinker and likes to order beers by describing flavors to the bartender and having them pick one out. The bartenders here tend to give her a confused look. So if you're in the mood to try something different, but aren't sure what Villains is not the place to go.

One of the great things is the location though. It is so close to the blue line that it makes getting home a cinch.

Went here yesterday after seeing Batman on IMAX (which was awesome by the way).  Honestly, I wasn't that impressed. It was just ok.

The service was friendly and quick. The food was fine, but there was no wow there at all. People rave about these burgers? Why? I mean yeah they're better than a frozen preformed fast food patty, but I've had way way way better. I found it to be a bit greasy to tell you the truth. It tasted like it was cooked on a flat grill; meaning that it tasted like it was cooked in its own grease as well as the grease of the food before it. I can't see myself going out of my way for it. But I would probably stop in again if I was hungry for burgers and was within a couple block radius.

We also shared a plate of the spuds, which were potato skins filled with cheddar and scallions with a sour cream on the side. Surprising that there was no bacon in these, but overall they were good.

Today we went in search of lunch and if you've been to downtown Springfield you know how difficult that is on a weekend. First we tried The Feed Store, which now has new hours and is no longer open on weekends. Then we started walking towards Bread Stretchers just to find a sign in the window that said it was for lease. Luckily we stumbled upon Cafe Moxo. I didn't have my hopes up high since we've found some pretty terrible places to eat while just stumbling around this town, but it actually was really good.

I had a half a club sandwich, a bowl of cheddar potato soup, and a strawberry banana smoothie. All of them tasted very good and the waitstaff was very friendly.

The fiance had a roastbeef sandwich and a berry smoothie which she also found to be very tasty.

We were so impressed in fact that we decided to pick up a couple of cookies for later in the day. Had them a few hours later and they were very good. I had a chocolate chip cookie and I swear it tasted just like my grandmother used to make. The fiance had a peanutbutter cookie and she said it was really good as well.

We will definitely be back the next time we're in Springfield ... that is if they don't close or change their hours.

Went to this place based on the reviews here. We wanted to find a decent local bar and the supposed wide range of beers appealed to the fiance. We went and we were not impressed. There weren't that many beers. Maybe this is a lot for Springfield, but we're used to Chicago where bars specialize in this kind of thing.

But really where it counted most was that it was hot and humid in there.  We were uncomfortable and sweaty. Was the ac broken? No idea, but looking around it seemed like none of the other patrons even noticed the humidity in there, which makes me wonder if it is always like that. Plus the place smelled like mold. Bleck!

We ended up leaving pretty early. We would've stayed longer if it hadn't been so warm and moist in there. We were amazed at the cheapness of the place when we got the bill so we may return when it is a bit cooler out.

My fiance and I went here last night and I have to say that it was kind of a strange experience.

First, lets talk about the food. Oh My Lord it was amazing. I ordered the New York Strip and she ordered the lamb. That was honestly one of the best steaks I've ever had. Granted I haven't had a ton of experience eating steak, but this thing was amazing. Normally I like my steak to be somewhere between medium and medium rare. I feel like when I order medium rare at a steakhouse they always give it to me too rare, but this was pretty damn rare and still fantastic! It was seasoned so perfectly and just sooo good. I think I remember seeing that the menu said something about the steak being seasoned in a french onion soup type deal and then covered in gruyere. My mouth waters just thinking about it. It also came with mashed potatoes and a mixture of veggies. The mashed potatoes were also very yummy. The veggies were on the tasteless side, which was disappointing, but I've also been spoiled lately from eating fresh veggies from my garden.

The fiance said that her lamb was not as good as the steak, but that it was still really good. She seemed to enjoy the entire meal, just not as much as I enjoyed mine.

Lets back up a little and talk about before dinner. First we were served hot rolls and cold butter. I'm not really sure who eats cold butter. The idea is cool especially since the butter was actually on a coldstone, but it was impossible to spread and made the hot rolls cold almost instantly. I normally love a good roll, but these weren't all that great. I say skip the bread and fill up on the steak.

For drinks I ordered a basic flavored vodka and juice cocktail, but it came in this ridiculously fancy glass. I thought that was pretty odd. The fiance ordered an oatmeal stout which she was a big fan of. They offered her a glass to pour it into, but oddly enough it was the same glass that I had gotten my cocktail in.

We also ordered dessert. We weren't really sure we wanted any since we were pretty full from our entrees, but I told the waiter we'd look at the dessert menu. Oh persuasive bastards! There was no dessert menu. He actually brought out a plate of desserts and told us about each one. That is just pure evil. You can't say no to that! We had the chocolate lava cake with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. The cake was very rich and super dense and oh so good. I wish they would've given us a bit of a bigger scoop of vanilla ice cream to balance off the richness of the cake, but they seemed to be going more for presentation on that one. I was glad that the dessert portions weren't enormous like they often are at chain restaurants. I really don't need an enormous dessert, nor do I want one.

So this all sounds fantastic, right? So why was the experience weird and why after all that gushing about how fantastic the food is does this place only get 4 stars?

With a menu like this restaurant has and the prices you're paying (not super expensive, but $30 for a meal in Springfield where I can get a pizza for like $7 is not a cheap place) the decor should really be nice and classy. I understand that they're trying to go for a casual dining environment, but you can still pull that off and look classy. The ambiance of the restaurant really needs to match the food, the wait service (which was very good), and the prices. You can still wear casual clothes and visit a classy establishment.

The decor was absolutely atrocious! It was a hodge podge of different styles that clashed when put all together in a room. From the greek murals on the wall (some of them of extremely naked large breasted women) to the almost cartoonish framed pictures of buildings and abe lincoln, to the canyon painting, to the flowered carpet, to the different room dividers, to the tiled ceiling (high school anyone?), to the track lighting, to the paper cone holding breadsticks on each table, to the painted spoon sculptures of flowers. This was just a mess of different types of design that did not go well together at all. And some of it was so bad that it shouldn't be anywhere near this restaurant. I expect this type of decor from a kitschy restaurant, but not from a place with fantastic steaks.

And then what really made the experience strange, but I wouldn't actually take into consideration when rating the place was the extremely loud woman conversing with two older people that I guessed were her parents. She bitched and moaned about her personal life very loudly the entire time, but the topper was when she started talking about her incurable foot fungus. That is not appropriate restaurant conversation! I don't care if you're done with your meal, I wasn't done with mine and I don't need to be picturing your foot fungus while I'm eating. That is disgusting and you need to get some manners.

I will definitely be returning to this place for their fantastic food and I will hope that they change the decor by the time I return.

Went here with the gf for the Yelp Eats Week and I was pretty darn impressed.

Our reservations were for 9:30 and we got there about 15 minutes early, but they sat us right away.

Out waiter was really nice and happy and pronounced himself a queen.

The decor was beautiful. I really really liked the way the place looked, smelled, and sounded. The people watching was great and I prefer a bit of an older crowd so I was happy and comfortable.

I ordered the salad, steak, and mousse for dessert off of the Yelp menu as well as a very good glass of sauvignon blanc that was expensive (11.50 for a glass) but really good. The bread and butter served before the meal was delish. The salad was nothing exceptional. The steak was yummy and so were the pommes frites that came with it. The mousse was to die for. I really like that their dessert portions aren't enormous. They're too rich to be really big.

The gf had the french onion soup, the steak, and the lemon tart. I tasted her soup and liked it. She said it was some of the best she'd ever had. I tasted the lemon tart and didn't like it, but I knew I wouldn't. It was just too tart for me, but she thought it was fantastic.

My only complaint of the night was that it took forever for the waiter to bring us the bill. I don't mind waiting between courses, but I hate waiting for the bill. The whole meal took about an hour, but we waited for the bill for about a half hour while our waiter chatted people up at other tables. I understand that he was probably slowing down a bit since they were closing, but I really don't appreciate having to wait that long.

*Edit: After having an amazing steak elsewhere I decided to come back and revise this review. The steak at Kiki's was just ok. It was nothing great and I'm now giving this place 3 stars instead of 4. I'm not sure its really worth going back to this place for the quality of food and the high prices.*

I love Duk's! I wish it was closer ... or maybe actually I don't since I'd eat there way too much. Yeah, its not classy. It is what it is and it does it well. This is the real deal fast food. This ain't a crappy mcdonald's or a burger king. This stuff tastes way better and is still extremely cheap. I adore their cheeseburgers and cheese fries and can't seem to stray from that option, but I've had friends who have ordered other things and really liked them. I've taken a sip of a shake before too and it was pretty darn tasty.

One of the reasons I love living in this city is the awesome little fast food joints that aren't chains.

The outside seating is pretty nice too when its warm out. I would never want to actually sit inside of Duks and eat.

The gf and I went here for the first time tonight and were very unimpressed. From the outside the restaurant looks like it could be pretty nice and that's what I thought when walking by before so I thought we should give it a try. Once on the inside you see how tacky the decor really is. We're talking horridly tacky wood paneling. Ugh!

The waitress we had was nice enough, but when I saw her and the wood paneling I started getting a little scared. She was the type of waitress you normally see at a greasy spoon. She looked all dried up and old. The kind of look where you expect her to call you sweety or honey.

First we got bread. Normally when there is a basket of bread it is one or more types of a relatively bland bread like italian or something, but this was over the top greasy garlic bread. Now I love garlic bread so normally I wouldn't complain about this, but it wasn't real garlic bread. They were rolls sliced in half and dipped in an orange oily garlic concoction. Strange really. Especially strange that along with the bread they also delivered a small plate with four pats of butter on it. Not like wrapped in that little plastic and foil thing, but just four pats of butter. God not like it needed it, the bread was so oily.

I also got a cup of chicken noodle soup with the bread. It was pretty good. The noodles weren't mushy and the veggies were pretty solid. A little salty, but overall pretty decent.

Then came the entrees. I had the grilled basil chicken panini with steamed broccoli. The panini was pretty good except that the basil wasn't fresh. It basically just looked like basil seasoning that someone mixed with oil and spread on the bread. Still, not too bad. The broccoli was terrible. How hard can it be to steam broccoli? It was really dry and easily compressed. I was totally weirded out by it. I gave a piece to the gf to try and she thought it was disgusting.

The gf got the pasta primavera and quoted it as the worst meal she's ever had. She said the sauce was too sweet. I tasted it and it tasted like typical cheap restaurant marinara. She said the veggies were ok, but she likes overcooked vegetables. And then on the way home she started to complain of an upset stomach because the veggies were oily which combined with the oily bread that they had served us.

As another reviewer said, if they just put real ingredients in the food it would be excellent. The menu really makes you think this place is going to be great, but it just does not deliver. We will not be going back here.