Buddies Pub and Grill

We finally resumed our gustatory journey down Grand River Avenue this week. The next stop was Buddies Pub and Grill, a strip mall restaurant/bar that I've always threatened to take my kids to, but never followed through on the threat. It has taken 17 years to eat there.

Worth the wait? Not really. It was utterly ordinary restaurant/bar food. Not bad, not great. Not overpriced, not particularly cheap. I had chicken enchiladas. They came with tastelessly seasoned white rice and tasteless refried bean mush. The enchiladas themselves had a sauce that tasted like it came out of a can. Insignificant chunks of chicken. Cindy's turkey reuben was equally uninspiring. She said the best part of her meal was the french fries, which were particularly crispy and tasty.

I'm sure that Buddies is a regular hangout for some people. I suspect their burgers are fine. I suspect their beer is fine.

Rating on a scale of 1-10: 5.
Will we go back? Probably not.

The Tap Room (Dusty's)

Next up the street was the little add-on to Dusty's Cellar, called The Tap Room. Styling itself a sort of strip-mall pub, the restaurant features relatively few small, tall tables, a long beer list, and a menu full of comfort food. Burgers and sandwiches, fish and chips, burritos, pasta, steaks, chops, pot pies, salads. Unlike Dusty's itself, the prices are pretty good.

We started with the artichoke and chips appetizer. Like the rest of the meal, it was basic but good. Odd shaped bowl prevented scraping out the last of the sauce, but that's a minor quibble.

Cindy and our son (home from college) had burgers. Mushroom/swiss, something like that. I had a burrito. All were exactly as good as their price would have you believe. I mean that as a compliment. Unlike Dusty's Cellar, where the food should have been MUCH MUCH better for the price, in the Tap Room the taste:cost ratio was just right. Perfectly good food for a reasonable price. The restaurant was as cozy as a strip mall restaurant can be. We liked it.

Rating on a scale of 1-10: 8
Will we go back: Yes.

Dusty's Cellar

Cindy and I like good restaurants. We go to Philadelphia every year for reasons other than the food, but the great Philly restaurants are always the high point, from the pork sandwich stand in Reading Terminal Market to the great little arty 8-table holes in the wall down by South St. So when we go to a local restaurant that is presenting itself as "fine dining" in the class of real (expensive) restaurants, we tend to view it through more critical eyes (and mouths) than we do the local red sauce joint.

Dusty's Cellar, the next restaurant on Grand River, poses as a fine restaurant. Entrees run in the mid-20s to upper-30s. So let's rate it as such.

And what's the short answer? Pretty bad, for a gourmet restaurant. As Cindy put it, it tastes like good banquet food. (She doesn't mean that as much of a compliment.) As if there's a competent cook in the kitchen but not a chef.

My pork loins crusted with macadamia yadayada and maple glaze: Banquet food all the way. Dry, gristly, relatively tasteless (let's face it) pork chops. The stir-fry veggies were even cold. Cindy's something-or-other crusted white fish? Same deal. Eh. Not bad. But we were paying mid-20s for this banquet food, so I think we have a right to be a little critical.

But here's the real clincher: The rolls, always a good first test, had been brushed with water and reheated (we all know that trick). They were rock hard (but crispy) to start with, becoming just rock hard as they cooled. Almost impossible to eat. How hard is it to serve decent bread or rolls? Too hard, apparently. I didn't bother giving Dusty's my final test: How's the coffee? (It's amazing how often fancy restaurants have mediocre or bad coffee.) So I can't report on that.

Final tally:
Will we go back? Probably, when we need to take a job applicant out to dinner. Certainly never when it's on our dime.
Rating on a scale of 1-10 = 5.

Cottage Inn Pizza

I grew up in Ann Arbor in the 70s, so I knew the "real" Cottage Inn on William St, near the Diag. That was our favorite pizza. (Some would argue that the Lamplighter was better, but I was a Cottage Inn boy.)

So now here's this "Cottage Inn" in the strip mall, a little carry out deal next door to the Chinese Restaurant. We ordered a deep dish veggie.

And? Not so great. The crust was bready and boring, the toppings were skimpy. Not horrible. Not great.

Will we go back? No. Jet's and Giorgio's are still our favorites.
Rating, on a scale of 1-10? 4.

Lucky House Chinese Restaurant

The third stop on our epic quest was Lucky House Chinese Restaurant, in the same mini-strip mall as the coney grill. Again, it is a restaurant we have passed dozens of times, never giving it a second glance. A tiny hole in the wall Chinese restaurant with three tables, but mostly a carry-out place. (As we ate, a few people came in to pick up orders; by the time we left, all three tables were occupied.)

We are trying to eat in every restaurant, so we marched in, studied the menu, and placed our orders: Cindy had the chef's special . . . deep-fried sole (I think) with ginger sauce and vegetables. I had, basically, General Tso's chicken and shrimp.

Both were pretty good. Way more than we could eat, $20 for the two dishes, which seemed pretty cheap. My General Tso (equivalent) was better than some. Not spicy (it never is, despite every restaurant's claims that it's spicy), but the sauce had a pleasant flavor and a suitably sticky cornstarched up consistency, just the way we expect it. But it was pretty good. Broccoli, mushrooms, onions, lots of chicken and shrimp.

Cindy's was also good. The fish was breaded and deep fried. Lots of veggies (celery, bamboo shoots, onions), very gingery sauce.

It was as good as the place we usually get carry-out from, but much much closer and cheaper.

Rating, on a scale of 1-10: 7
Will we go back? Definitely After some very unfortunate (and gruesome) news about Lucky House in the area media recently, we have lost a bit of our appetite for it. Not really fair, but still. I need to revise this to "doubtful."

T & D Coney Grill

Located on the corner of Grand River and Dobie, T & G Coney Grill took over the space occupied by the frou-frou overpriced and not particularly good Restaurant Villegas. They seem to have changed almost nothing about the decor, which is still dark and rustic, an odd setting for a coney dog place. We have driven by many times, never very tempted. But on our Quest, we try every restaurant.

It was pretty good, for a coney grill. We were pleased to learn that it is not a chain, so we knew we were supporting real people, not a corporation (not that there's anything really wrong with corporations).

Cindy had the Gyro, which she said was good, better than at Lou and Harry's around the corner. I had a coney dog with chili fries. The coney dog was fine. Good dog (Koegel's, I'd guess, nice and snappy), and adequate chili. The chili fries were OK; the fries were good, the chili was a bit gummy; it was OK on a dog, not so great spooned over a pile of fries.

Overall, we liked it. It felt sort of like a small-time family-owned restaurant (in an odd, pompous space, but that's not their fault).

Will we go back? Maybe.
Rating on a scale of 1-10: 5.

Spagnuolo's

This was the restaurant that started our quest. Located on the far eastern edge of Okemos, Spagnuolo's is in the middle of nowhere, commerce-wise. The only business nearby is a naughty nightie store. But Spagnuolo's is an old standard that people are willing to drive to, so the location doesn't matter.

It is a classic red sauce Italian restaurant. Great calzones, good fried calamari, lovely baked ziti. We haven't had the pizza, but I bet it's good.

Everything is inexpensive, the service is great. This is the gold standard for cozy corner restaurants.

Will we go back? Many times.
Overall, on a scale of 1-10: 10.

The Challenge

My wife and I are empty nesters. I try to cook for us every night, but on Mondays I leave for work at 6:00 am and get home at 6:30 pm, and I just don't want to cook.

So we decided that we'd go out to eat every Monday night. It's just the two of us, so we can afford it. As we were eating at one of our favorite restaurants, Spagnuolo's on the far eastern edge of Okemos, we decided that it might be fun to sample some of the restaurants in our area that we have never tried. Then we decided, heck, why not sample ALL of them? (Not all at once.) And then write a report.

My wife, being somewhat OCD, liked this idea of moving steadily west down Grand River Avenue, one restaurant at a time. I laughed and asked, "Do we have to eat at McDonald's" har har har? She looked at me seriously, and said, "Yes." "Old Country Buffet?" "Yes." "IHOP?!" "Yes."

Suddenly it was seeming less fun. But she says that the job won't be done, the reviews won't be complete, unless we eat at EVERY RESTAURANT.

So we'll give it a go. Every restaurant in Okemos along Grand River Avenue, from Spagnolo's to Coral Gables (which is actually in East Lansing). We only have 15 weeks this semester, so we won't hit them all. And I don't know what our schedules will be next semester, so the experiment is not a sure thing.

But for now, we should be able to get to, oh, Okemos Rd, by the end of December. Stay tuned.