Restaurant Review

So, when I first started the cooking portion of my blog, Kohler Eats, I had thoughts of blogging about area restaurants and how my experience went while eating inside the establishment with children.  I think, long ago, I blogged about a pizza joint here in town called Guidos (which my family loves).

My family visited another local restaurant called Home Plate recently.  It's gone through a few different owners and each one gets a story in our local newspaper claiming to be better than before.  New chef, new interior, new menu, new staff, etc.  When it first opened a few years ago, we took the kids to eat.  I'm all for supporting local eat-in restaurants!  My kids ordered chicken strips, My Man a steak and me a salad.  The first red flag was that they didn't make their own salad dressing.  When a restaurant opens and claim that they have a professionally trained chef in the kitchen...and he doesn't make his own salad dressing...that is a problem.  We didn't go back.  The prices were a bit high and the food wasn't any better than Sonic.

So, a new owner, new manager, new chef is on board now.  And again, we tried it out.  My Man ordered a tenderloin sandwich which he said was "alright."  My children ordered chicken tenders (really, how could you go wrong on those?) and I ordered a cheeseburger.  Aside from the fact that the burger was hand made and I didn't have to do any cooking, the food was just "okay."  My Man can make a better burger for me.  The french fries that are served with the chicken tenders are some strange spicey kind that are pre-frozen.  Why can't a self-owned restaurant make hand-cut fries??  But the real reason we'll not go back is because of the smoke.  Some area towns have started a no-smoking rule inside restaurants.  Our little town has not put it into effect yet and this restaurant was bad.  The smoke smell repulsed me and I definately didn't want my kids around it, much less ingest food while it floated all around my body. 

We had to crack windows on the drive home and I made everyone strip down in the laundry room as soon as we walked in the door so I could wash clothes.  Plus, I sent everyone immediately to the shower for a scrub-down.  I'd just showered and washed my hair before going out and was a bit miffed that I would need to shower again before bed.  The thought of getting my smoke-stink hair on my sheets was gross.

So, while I enjoy trying out new restaurants and supporting our community, it saddens me that our little sweet town can't produce another good, family-friendly, sit-down, great atmosphere, great quality food restaurant!  I guess we'll stick to Sonic and Guidos.