Cheddar's, Wellington Fl

Cheddar's, Wellington Fl

It's been a while since we've done a review  (we don't get to go out as much since the birth of our third son), we got a chance to eat at Cheddar's located on SR-7 in Wellington, Fl.  We arrived a little after 6:30 Saturday evening and the place was packed.   Luckily they have ample parking.  We had a large party of 8, including the baby and other 2 boys, so we expected to have to wait a little while.  After checking in with the host, they told us it would be about 30 minutes or so and that there were several other large parties just ahead of us.  It ended up being about a 45 minute wait after all was said and done.  Which, when dealing with such a large party is not that uncommon.

When we first walked in, they thing we noticed is that the restaurant is dark.  The ambiance has little pockets of light but overall it's quite dim, though the large lighted fish tank that divides the Bar side from the Dinning Room side is a nice touch of color.

There isn't much to say about the service we had, it was acceptable not outstandingly great, but not bad by a long shot.  We had one issue where our original server had to leave because of an emergency and we had to get a replacement.  The transition was fairly seamless and we didn't have any problems with it.

As for the food, let's say that you really get WAY more than you pay for.  Portion sizes are large, out of the 7 people who ordered only 2 finished their meals.  Everyone else got to-go bags.  I ordered the "Baked Spasagna" which is spaghetti layered with cheese and baked with a meat sauce like a lasagna.  This is something that might be considered comfort food.  It's a large rich meal that definitely fills you up.  I would most certainly order this again.  The wifey ordered the Chicken Tender Salad, she didn't finish.  This was a large fresh salad topped with about 5 good sized chicken tenders.  The other people in our party ordered the Steak and Tender combo, the Chicken and Waffles, the Chicken Tender platter and the two older boys got the Monte Dogs, which are like corn dogs.  Everyone really enjoyed their meals and as said before the portion sizes are big.


Overall, we were very happy with our experience and we will be back.

Scores
Food: A+, Cooked well, served quickly and really I can't say enough about the portion sizes.
Service: A, even with the hiccups we didn't have any problems.
Price: A, you really get your moneys worth here

Rustlers Rooste, Phoenix, AZ

     Rustlers Rooste, is a very interesting dining experience.  Located in Phoenix, AZ, it's about 15 minutes south of PHX Sky harbor Airport and over looks the city of Phoenix.

      This is a country & western themed restaurant and it plays that theme to the max including having "Horny the Bull" a live steer who lives in front of the building.  After you enter and speak with the host, you'll walk on a pathway over an indoor waterfall over to the stairs and slide area.  The slide is quite steep, our (almost) 4 year old went down it once... and he was good that.  However, some of the older kids and younger adults (speaking of mindset not age) went down it several times.  Also, in keeping with the theme, the restaurant has a sawdust coating on the floor to help absorb spills.  This may turn some people off, but we weren't bothered by it.

 

     Despite being fairly busy, we were seated right away.  Also, there must have been some confusion and miscommunication between the hosts and the wait staff as we had 3 different servers come to the table to take our drink orders, but that all got worked out with no issues. 

 

     The menu has a good selection of items and as we were on vacation decided to splurge a little bit and ordered the "Cowboy Stuff" platter which has pretty much a bit of everything.  Everything on the platter was pretty good but I did have to add some salt to the steak kabobs. 

 

     All in all, this was a really nice time and I would recommend anyone who likes a western theme steakhouse to check it out.  However if "over-the-top" themes aren't your thing, you may want to try somewhere else.

 

Scores:

Food: B+ Good portions, cooked well, but needed some added flavor.

Service: B+ Started a little slow, but ended quite nicely.

Portion Size: A+ we were definitely full after we left.

 



Tusker House, Animal Kingdom, Orlando Florida.

The Tusker House, is located at Disney's Animal Kingdom park.  You'll find it just as you cross over the bridge when you walk into the "African land" part of the park.  As with most Disney restaurants, I HIGHLY recommend that you make reservations when you plan your trip.  Even with reservations,  some of the more popular places, you can expect to wait up to an hour to be seated.  One thing done to help occupy your wait is the offering of a character photo opportunity.

Our little family waiting to be seated

Despite waiting about 45 minutes, the Tusker House, in our opinion, was very much worth the wait.  The restaurant is in a buffet style that has a very large selection of hot and cold foods, plus a very nice dessert bar.  One of the more interesting parts of the restaurant is the "Wall of Fire", an 18 foot long rotisserie style grill that continually cooks the grilled meats that are served.  Some of these grilled selections included pork loin, roast beef, rotisserie chicken and much more.

The service was quite acceptable, our waiter was very friendly and promptly kept the drinks refilled and the empty plates off the table.  Which when it comes to buffet's is really all you can ask for.  In addition to the characters outside, the inside portion is also character dining.  Four Disney characters circulate around the room offering photo opportunities.  We were able to get our Pictures taken with Goofy, Micky, Daisy and Donald.  Having them walk around was a really big plus for us because of our little ones.  Also, they periodically have a miniature parade, and the little ones are given African noise makers and they can get up and walk around with Goofy and the other cast members

Little man with his Grandma during the parade

Price wise, it was a little steep, but you definitely get what you pay for.  All-in-all, this was a really fun dinning adventure, one that we would like to do again.

Scores:
Food: A (Outstanding selection, and really tasty)
Service: B (It's a buffet)
Portion size: N/A (Again, buffet)

Longhorn Steakhouse, West Palm Beach, Fl

Longhorn Steakhouse, located on Okeechobee Blvd West of the FL Turnpike.

The Wifey and I were lucky enough to have a date night and we wanted to treat ourselves to a nice night out,  we decided on trying Longhorn again.  We went out on a Tuesday night around 7:30pm, and this time they weren't too crowded but we still had to wait about 15 minutes before a table cleared up.  The last several times we tried to go, the wait had been an hour plus so we never stayed.

Once you walk inside they have very subdued lighting without being gloomy it actually has a very cozy feel to it. The decor is VERY western themed, as you might expect, with lots of red, brown and tan hues.  The effect was done quite well.

We were seated and the server gave us a few moments before she came by to look over the menu and start us out with our drinks.  The wifey ordered the new White Peach Margarita which, taking the description from the website, is 1800 100% Blue Agave tequila, white peach puree, Peach Schnapps and fresh lemon and lime juice and I just had a draft beer.  She said that her drink was really refreshing with all the fruit and citrus flavoring and had just the right amount of that tequila to not be overpowering but still strong enough to be worth the price.

The menu has an average number of choices, although this being a steakhouse, a large majority of them are red meat options.  We started the meal with a couple of the appetizers the Texas Tonion Crispy onion petals drizzled with sour cream and served with zesty dipping sauce and the LongHorn Shrimp & Lobster Dip Shrimp and lobster baked with creamy mozzarella, smoked Gouda and sun-dried tomatoes. Served with warm tortilla chips. The starters came out very quickly, the shrimp and lobster dip was outstanding with a deep and rich flavor that kept us trying more and more.  The Tonion was also good the dipping sauce was very flavorful.

All entrees come with bread, a side and salad.  For the main course I ordered the 12oz Renegade Top Sirloin medium rare and a splurged a bit and got the Steakhouse Mac & Cheese as a side. The wifey ordered the Parmesan Crusted Chicken with baked potato.  The steak was seasoned and cooked to perfection, I haven't had a steak that was this good while eating out in a long time,I was extremely pleased and impressed with the product.  the side dish of Mac & Cheese was good, but with all the other things we ordered was a little too rich and heavy, even for me.  I would have probably been better off ordering something a little bit lighter like rice or a vegetable.  The chicken was also cooked and seasoned very well, and had a really great flavor.  The mixture of Parmesan and garlic compliment each other nicely.

With everything we ordered there was absolutely no room for desert, and we ended up having to take two to-go boxes home.  Portion sizes were not an issue here.

As for the service, I couldn't ask for more.  Our server was friendly and attentive without being pushy or "overbearing".  She seemed to know when we needed her and when to not be around.  This was some of the best service we've had out in a while.  In addition to that, none of the orders were messed up in anyway. The combination of these qualities is, quite frankly, rare in our experience and we were very satisfied.

All in all we consider this dinner to be an outstanding success and we will definitely be going back again sometime.

Scores

Food: A+

Service: A+

Portion size: A+

Beefeeders, Palm Springs, Fl

Beefeeders Steakhouse has re-opened (again) in Palm Springs, Fl.  It is located on Forrest Hill, just West of Congress Ave on the south side of the roadway.  I'll start out by showing a picture from inside the restaurant. 



The ambiance is done really well, and they have a very "old school" elegance inside.  Beefeeders is dark with out being dreary.  It almost reminds me of restaurants from up north. 

We went with a fairly large party (7 including both boys) for a birthday party.  We had reservations set up for 6pm on a Saturday, but we probably didn't need them as the restaurant was not very crowded. 

As for the Food and Service, I'll be honest, we weren't impressed.  This is, for this area, a pretty pricey establishment.  Average entre' costs are between $20-40, if you don't get one of the "early bird specials", then you can expect to put down a pretty large chunk of change.  As for the steaks, I wasn't impressed.  While they were excellent cuts of meat, there was hardly any flavor.  It just tasted, dull.  There was no pop or kick or pizazz.  Our server though very friendly and personable, just didn't seem like he was interested in the quality.  It's little stuff, like asking if people want anymore drinks, or making sure the correct side dishes go on the right plates.  You know, basic service type of things.  Another thing that dropped Beefeeders down, is that they got rid of their Salad Bar.  Now you have a choice of House Salad (lawn clipping style aka Mixed greens.) or Caesar, no more do you have the option of getting the unlimited salad bar, with that awesome green ranch dressing.  The reasoning behind it is that they were loosing too much money on the salad bar.

Overall I was highly disappointed with this trip out and unless some changes are made, I can't recommend this restaurant

Scores
Service: C (Friendly, but with messed up orders)
Portion size: C
Food: D

Duffy's, West Palm Beach, Fl

Wow, it sure has been a while since we've done a review.  Seems like it might be time for another.

Tonight the wife and I went out on a very much needed date night.  We thought we might hit up Longhorn, as we didn't think it would be that busy at 6:30 (ish) on a Thursday night.  This turned out to not to be the case.  The wait for 2 was 35-45 minutes and unfortunately we just didn't want to wait that long.  Luckily though there was a Duffy's right across the parking lot, so we figured we might as well check and see what the wait time would be.  Lo and behold, no wait, sounds like we had a winner!

The first thing we noticed as we walked in was a little "DJ" style booth with a lady sitting in it.  As we were walking by, she announced to the crowd "Welcome to Thursday night Trivia"!  We got to our seats and the hostess reminded us that it was 2-4-1 drinks till closing.  So far, Duffy's was on the right track with us. :)

The menu, though not very large size-wise, has a pretty good selection of items.  You've got some pretty standard appetizers, along with your normal Burgers & wings type of offerings.  We started with the appetizer sampler, which comes with Boneless (or bone-in) wings and your choice of sauce, Tex-Mex egg rolls and Friend mozzarella.  The sampler had fairly small portions of each item (to be expected though) but everything was very flavorful.  The fried cheese had what tasted like a homemade batter, the wings were very meaty and about half a size bigger than "bite size", and the surprise for me were the egg rolls.  These had a really good flavor with little bits of chicken, cheese and corn all mixed in.  Next time we might just get an order of these by themselves.

For the main course, the wifey ordered the Rodeo Burger which comes with cheese, BBQ sauce and a literal tower of onion rings.  She said the flavor was ok, and it was a big burger, but it's not something she would order again.  I had the Churrasco Steak, which is an 8oz skirt steak w/ Chimichurri and comes with Black beans, rice and plantains.  Portion size was great, they gave a whole mess of the beans and rice, and the steak was a pretty good size also.  As for the flavor, all I can say is.... WOW!  This is probably one of the most flavor meals I've had in a very long time.  The steak was cooked to perfection and the rice and bean combo was outstanding.  I was tempted to order another one, just so I could take it with me and have it for lunch at work.  I really can't say enough about it, if you like the Latin style of steak, then you'll probably love this.

The service was pretty average, not really outstanding, but nothing to complain about either.  One thing to note though, is that it was most definitely NOT a quiet place, what with the TVs playing and the Trivia game going on, along with the regular restaurant & Bar crowd, the sound level was pretty loud. 

All-in-all, this was a good night out and surprisingly pleasant.  We would definitely go back, and next time we might even bring some friends.  Here is a link to the Menu.  They also have a gluten free selection for those that may need it.

Service: C
Food: A
Portion Size: A

Overall: A-

Flanigans, Lake Worth, FL

After the Adventure at Red Lobster we decided on Flanigan's for dinner, and we were NOT disappointed.

We arrived at the restaurant just about 7:30, it wasn't crowded, and we were sat by the hostess right away. Because of the problem at Red Lobster we decided to "time" our servers and see just how fast or slow they really were. With in a few moments of being sat at our table, we were greeted by a server who said she'd be right with us. Less than a minute or so later, she had taken out drink orders and gave us some time to look over the menu. Long story short, the service was MUCH faster than the other restaurant we tried this evening.

Food wise, we shared some Joe's Rockin Rib Rolls as an appetizer. The wifey had the Dolphin Francaise w/ dirty rice and I had the Lemon Chicken Pasta. The fish was light and flaky and the dirty rice was filling and had a savory after taste. The lemon chicken pasta (as usual) was great. I love the lemon garlic dipping sauce it's got a really rich and unique flavor, that compliment the chicken and pasta nicely. The portion sizes were large enough for both of us to need to-go boxes.

For people who've never been to Flanigan's before, should know this this a laid back kind of establishment. There are all sorts of decorations on the wall consisting of picture of people fishing,having fun on the water/boats and other nautical themes. One of my favorite things about Flanigan's is that they have trivia cards (usually Trivial Pursuit) at every table. It's a nice way to spend some time while waiting for the food, or if you need an "ice-breaker" for any sort of date type situations.

Overall we had a great time out, which was a nice change from how the evening started

Grades:
Food: B+
Service: B+
Portion Size: B+

Smokey Bones Wellington, Fl.

Tonight as a spur of the moment decision, we decided to eat out. We chose Smokey Bones because it had been a while since we had been there. We arrived around 4:30 PM and the restaurant wasn't too crowded. Sadly, they didn't seem to be very organized. The hostess started to sit us down, but one of the waitresses told her that she was leaving, and there wasn't any coverage in that section. So the hostess had us go back to waiting area.

After another short wait, not even 5 minutes, they got us seated. That being said, and for those who've worked in the restaurant business will understand this, our poor server dude got sat 2 parties at once. Our party which was just me and the wife, and another party with about 6 people in it. As you can expect, the service level was slower than normal. What was really annoying, was the fact that although our server was busting his but trying to take care of his tables. The rest of the staff was just standing around the kitchen area just talking. It seemed like there was NO teamwork at all. Also, in my opinion, in the restaurant industry, if you as a server are not actively getting something for a customer or cleaning something, then you should NOT be seen. The last thing a customer wants is to have an empty drink and see staff members laughing and joking with one another.

Now I'm sure there were other circumstances such as the ones standing around were either the oncoming dinner crew or something. But still, it's just not professional and shouldn't be done.

As for the food, the wife just ordered an appetizer sampler called the "Crowd Pleaser", which she really enjoyed and said she would order again. It came with seasoned fries, chicken tenders and South West spring rolls. Portion size was good for an appetizer, with enough left over (after one person eating) to take some home. I ordered the pulled pork platter, and I wasn't impressed. The pork was too dry, even with extra BBQ sauce at the table. And there were lots of inedible fatty parts. The pulled pork is not something I would order again from here.

All in all, we were disappointed by our adventure out. Although it was obvious our server was really making an effort, he remembered special requests such as extra ranch and he brought full drinks with out being asked, he was hindered by the lack of teamwork. He was sat with way too many tables (I believe he had 4 or 5 more in addition to us and the large party) at one time.

Grades:
Service C- (Our server was at least a B+, but all the others standing around not doing anything made it slower and lower)
Food: C (Wife liked hers, I wasn't a fan)
Portion Size: B