That Food Guy
Thursday, September 07, 2017
Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen - Alcoa, Tennessee
250 Hamilton Crossing Dr, Alcoa, TN 37701
My birthday was coming soon and I was
told that I could pick the place for breakfast. I gave it a lot of thought
trying to select someplace new perhaps or maybe unique but not one that anyone
might object to. I wandered over my mental map of the area, thinking about any
recent drives and what I might have seen. Cheddar’s came to mind! After a quick
check of their web page I learned they opened late morning for lunch, no
breakfast service. I asked our go-for-grub pals if a lunch was okay and I
received positive replies. Then lunch, instead of breakfast, it would be.
The wife and I arrived a few minutes late. I noticed a change had taken place since my first Cheddar’s encounter. Cheddar’s Casual Café was now Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen. When Aubrey Good and Doug Rogers founded Cheddar’s in Arlington, Texas back in 1979 their stated credo was ”… when a meal is prepared and cooked fresh just for you, it not only tastes better, it makes you feel good.” Perhaps the name change is paying homage to their beginnings. There are a few stores in the Great Plains and some in the Southwest but by far the majority of the 164 Cheddar’s locations are in the Eastern half of the United States. In 2012, Zagat ranked Cheddar's the nation's No.1 full-service restaurant chain as well as Top Overall American Cuisine. Consumer Reports and others have given high ratings and customer satisfaction reports. We were about to see if the reports were true.
Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen
250 Hamilton Crossing Dr, Alcoa, TN 37701
(865)
983-5582 https://cheddars.com/
10:30Am
– 10:30PM (11:30PM week ends)
This would not be my first visit to a Cheddar’s
restaurant. In January of 2014 my wife’s dear Aunt Effie and Uncle Gilbert
treated us to lunch at their new discovery, Cheddar’s Casual Café in Pinellas
Park, Florida. It was a very positive experience and I looked forward to this
next encounter. You can see that blog here.
The wife and I arrived a few minutes late. I noticed a change had taken place since my first Cheddar’s encounter. Cheddar’s Casual Café was now Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen. When Aubrey Good and Doug Rogers founded Cheddar’s in Arlington, Texas back in 1979 their stated credo was ”… when a meal is prepared and cooked fresh just for you, it not only tastes better, it makes you feel good.” Perhaps the name change is paying homage to their beginnings. There are a few stores in the Great Plains and some in the Southwest but by far the majority of the 164 Cheddar’s locations are in the Eastern half of the United States. In 2012, Zagat ranked Cheddar's the nation's No.1 full-service restaurant chain as well as Top Overall American Cuisine. Consumer Reports and others have given high ratings and customer satisfaction reports. We were about to see if the reports were true.
Abbie and Mariano, our go-for-grub pals, had secured a
spacious booth next to a shaded window. It looked to be a cozy comfortable spot
for lunch. The waitress was already there taking beverage orders. I’m sorry I
didn’t get here name as I would have liked to thank her by name for her good
nature and thoughtful service. She wished me a happy birthday and I then knew I
had been setup by the go-for-grub pals.
I just hoped that Cheddar’s didn’t do fool-crazy things designed to
embarrass their patrons.
The wife Janis is a light eater
and her selection was the CLASSIC
LUNCH COMBO ($6.79 Select
two of the following: HALF CHEDDAR’S CLUB SANDWICH - HALF MONTE CRISTO -
BOWL OF SOUP - HOUSE SALAD - CAESAR SALAD - LOADED BAKED POTATO - BAKED SWEET
POTATO) Her particular choices were the half Club Sandwich and the Caesar
Salad. The salad was a nice bowl of crisp greens and some croutons, dressing
not too heavy, not to light. It was accompanied with a butter glazed croissant.
Her preference would have been without the butter but the croissant as well as
the salad was very good and fully enjoyed.
Our go-for-grub pals, Abbie
and Mariano, opted to share a big platter of HOUSE SMOKED BABY BACK RIBS (Add a
House or Caesar salad, $3.29 HALF RACK $10.99
FULL RACK $15.99 Homemade rub, slow smoked in-house, and grilled with a honey
BBQ sauce. Served with French fries and coleslaw.) Coleslaw is not their
favorite and at their request the server provided a house salad instead. The
serving of ribs and French fries was, to say the least, more than ample for two
hearty appetites (luckily for Mariano, Abbie is also a light eater). It was a
pretty serving thick and clingy barbecue sauce adding a delicious shine to the
ribs. The meat was very tender easily separating form the bone. Abbie and
Mariano had eagerly anticipated their visit to Cheddar’s for the ribs and I do believe
they enjoyed them very much.
I like light meat chicken and love shrimp. The combination dinner plate of chicken tenders and shrimp caught my eye; CHICKEN TENDERS & SHRIMP ($11.19 Served with two sides. Add a House or Caesar salad, $3.29 Grilled or hand-battered fried shrimp with our homemade chicken tenders. See a list of sides at end of blog.) For sides I ordered mashed potatoes and gravy and coleslaw. For a big appetite the plate piled high with chicken, shrimp, mashed potatoes and coleslaw was a welcome sight. Included were cocktail sauce and honey mustard dipping sauce.
The
full menu
is available online in pdf format.
Her
sandwich arrived a short time later. A diagonally sliced sandwich of two slices
of toasted bread well filled with ham, turkey, cheese, bacon and tomato, it was
very similar to her order during our first Cheddar’s encounter. The only
significant difference was it was cut as a half sandwich instead of the more
traditional quarters. As with the salad, it was thoroughly enjoyed.
Our go-for-grub pals, Abbie
and Mariano, opted to share a big platter of HOUSE SMOKED BABY BACK RIBS (Add a
House or Caesar salad, $3.29 HALF RACK $10.99
FULL RACK $15.99 Homemade rub, slow smoked in-house, and grilled with a honey
BBQ sauce. Served with French fries and coleslaw.) Coleslaw is not their
favorite and at their request the server provided a house salad instead. The
serving of ribs and French fries was, to say the least, more than ample for two
hearty appetites (luckily for Mariano, Abbie is also a light eater). It was a
pretty serving thick and clingy barbecue sauce adding a delicious shine to the
ribs. The meat was very tender easily separating form the bone. Abbie and
Mariano had eagerly anticipated their visit to Cheddar’s for the ribs and I do believe
they enjoyed them very much.
I like light meat chicken and love shrimp. The combination dinner plate of chicken tenders and shrimp caught my eye; CHICKEN TENDERS & SHRIMP ($11.19 Served with two sides. Add a House or Caesar salad, $3.29 Grilled or hand-battered fried shrimp with our homemade chicken tenders. See a list of sides at end of blog.) For sides I ordered mashed potatoes and gravy and coleslaw. For a big appetite the plate piled high with chicken, shrimp, mashed potatoes and coleslaw was a welcome sight. Included were cocktail sauce and honey mustard dipping sauce.
The
coleslaw was dressed with a slightly seasoned sauce that added to the flavor
but itself did not clamor for attention. Nice crisp cabbage; I would call it a
good slaw. The mashed potatoes were of the industrial grade variety but
acceptably smooth. The gravy was very tasty and would be most welcome on a
chicken fried steak.
There were
four, possibly five (sorry, I didn’t count them) large butterflied, battered
and deep fried shrimp. The coating was golden brown and slightly crispy and
pleasingly not oily. They were large shrimp, the meat was cooked just right and
moist and tender. (As an aside: This serving of shrimp in a basket with some
French fries would have more than made a beach-front fish shack offering of a
shrimp basket.) They were very tasty fried shrimp.
There were
four very large “chicken tenders.” I suspect they are more than tenders, more
like a chicken breast sliced in two pieces. Breaded and deep fried to a golden
brown, well drained and not oily, the meat was tender and very moist; lots of
good chicken flavor. I tried a bit of the honey mustard sauce; a nice blend,
not to sweet, not to tart but good mustard flavor. I am on again – off again
with honey mustard and today wasn’t the day. I tried a bit of cocktail sauce;
good but a bit too much tang from the horseradish to go with the mild taste of
the chicken. I thought about asking for some plane old ketchup but decided to
just eat the tenders down to the finger lickin’ end as they were. They were
that good all by themselves. As you can probably guess, I really enjoyed that
meal.
In the few
years that we have been here, for various reasons two other local restaurants,
best described I guess as up-scale beer and burger places with lots of big
television screens, had become our fall back places to go. The food was good,
they were close; known entities were we felt comfortable. I feel that Cheddar’s
will replace the other restaurants as the spur-of-the-moment place to go. It is
still quite close to the house, the prices are competitive and the menu offers
more of a variety than the others. The interiors are brighter, more focused on the food and dining and
offering a more relaxed and casual (as in casual café perhaps) dining
experience. On this visit Cheddar’s has validated the aforementioned awards and
positive citations.
Just before we left, the hostess came
by the table to offer her birthday congratulations. She brought a small bag
with two still hot, freshly baked chocolate chip cookies (sort of a mini
version of their giant cookie Sundae). I was grateful for the remembrance especially since it was
low key, quiet and private.
FYI: MADE-FROM-SCRATCH
SIDES – Substitute any side for a House or
Caesar salad for an additional .99 Steamed Fresh Broccoli, Buttered Off-The-Cob Corn, Freshly
Made Coleslaw, French Fries, Idaho Mashed Potatoes, Homemade Black Beans, Mac
and Cheese, Broccoli Cheese Casserole, Baked Sweet Potato, Loaded Baked
Potato, Seasoned Rice, Southern Green Beans.
Add a side to any order, 2.49
- Honey Butter Croissants, 3 for
2.99
Labels: baby back ribs, Caesar salad, casual café, Cheddar's, chicken tenders, club sandwich, cocktail sauce, coleslaw, French fries, fried shrimp, gravy, honey mustard, house salad, mashed potatoes, scratch café
¶ 12:30 PM 0 Comments
Monday, January 27, 2014
SPARC After Holiday Party - Kristina's Cafe
.jpg "Panorama of SPARC. I hope I got everyone in the picture. Sorry if I left you out.")
Kristina’s Café
3590 34th St N, St Petersburg, FL 33713 (727) 526-6673
The St Petersburg Amateur Radio Club holds an annual after the holidays party. Traditionally it is held at Kristina’s Café. From the perspective of the club members it is a time to meet, come face to face with voices on the radio, remake and rekindle or make new friendships and, well I “gotta” say it, catch up on all the gossip all while having a lot of fun.
From the perspective of the harried servers and cooks at Kristina’s it is the sudden arrival of fifty plus ravenous appetites, loud and laughing and having a good time (but otherwise well behaved) customers all ordering at the same time and from the full menu. How can you possibly plan for that?
A special note at this year’s party was the attendance of Woody, K4SCL. The club honored Woody with a plaque citing his over forty years of Amateur Radio Service both to the club and to the community. Active in the club, serving in many roles, of late he has been a net control operator and liaison to the National Traffic Net spending many hours every day handling traffic for the net. I have talked with Woody many times on the radio but had never met him in person. In later years, as Bob, KC4SXO said, “Woody sightings have become few and far between.” Over ninety years of age, Woody has decided it is time to slow down a bit. We were all honored to have him and his wife join us for the After Holiday Party.
Usually a restaurant will offer a limited menu for large group gatherings. The constraints of so many people, such short time and so many possible selections can be wholly intimidating. Each year the staff of Kristina’s is up to the daunting challenge.
Although I saw dishes from all parts of the menu being served, I will only report on my wife Janis’ and my selection. Memory can be persistent even if only subliminally. Janis and I both duplicated our order from last year’s party almost exactly. It was good then so it will most likely be good again.
.jpg "A bowl of tasty potato soup - soup of the day for Sunday.")
Janis started off with a bowl of the soup of the day. Kristina features a
different soup each day of the week. Since this was Sunday, the selection was
Cream of Potato Soup ($2.25 bowl).
It was a nice thick and creamy soup with lots of potatoes and vegetables served with several packets of saltine crackers. She said it was very good, very tasty and she certainly had no trouble finishing her bowl of soup.
.jpg "Roast beef and turkey club with coleslaw.")
The main part of her meal was to be the Roast Beef and Turkey Club ($6.25);
the same as last year. Since she was having the soup, she didn’t want the side
order that would come with her sandwich. Since my plate is a convenient
depository for unwanted food, she asked me what I wanted her to order. I chose
the coleslaw since I was already having French fries with my order. The sandwich
was made with the thinner, sandwich sliced bread and toasted nicely. The thin
slices of bread mean that the filling has to be more than adequate to make the
sandwich stand out. There is plenty of beef and turkey as well as the lettuce
and tomato to fill the sandwich.
Janis enjoyed her sandwich saying that it was very good but could only eat half and asked for a take home container for the other half to enjoy at a later time.
.jpg "Steak Hoagie with beef, onions, peppers, mushrooms and Mozzarella cheese. What is not to like?")
My Déjà vu order was the Steak Hoagie ($6.25); similar to a Philly
cheesesteak sandwich but with sautéed onions, peppers, mushrooms and melted
Mozzarella cheese all on a hot, toasted hoagie bun. My side of choice was French
fries but don’t forget, I was also having coleslaw. On arrival it was a full
plate and included a spear of dill pickle.
The sandwich was full of all kinds of good things, meat, peppers onions, mushrooms and cheese. So much in fact that picking up the sandwich dumped lots of the filling on the plate. No matter, it tasted just as good off a fork. It was nice tender beef with lots of flavor from the vegetables and cheese; a thoroughly and filling sandwich. The coleslaw, a small serving actually, was good. It is a finely chopped cabbage with a mild dressing, not too tart and not too sweet; enough to moisten the cabbage but not compete with the flavor and not too much to drip into the serving plate.A good accompaniment but not an all-star to stand by itself. The French fries, still hot from the fryer, were not oily, were crisp and tasty. They were good French fries. I enjoyed my meal very much. It was good food to start with but being surrounded by so many, as Donn, N4KII, would say, “hamsters” made it even more enjoyable. I am already looking forward to next year.
.jpg "Woody. K4SCL, receiving plaque of appreciation from Club President, Bob, N2ESP")
Kristina’s Café
3590 34th St N, St Petersburg, FL 33713 (727) 526-6673
The St Petersburg Amateur Radio Club holds an annual after the holidays party. Traditionally it is held at Kristina’s Café. From the perspective of the club members it is a time to meet, come face to face with voices on the radio, remake and rekindle or make new friendships and, well I “gotta” say it, catch up on all the gossip all while having a lot of fun.
From the perspective of the harried servers and cooks at Kristina’s it is the sudden arrival of fifty plus ravenous appetites, loud and laughing and having a good time (but otherwise well behaved) customers all ordering at the same time and from the full menu. How can you possibly plan for that?
A special note at this year’s party was the attendance of Woody, K4SCL. The club honored Woody with a plaque citing his over forty years of Amateur Radio Service both to the club and to the community. Active in the club, serving in many roles, of late he has been a net control operator and liaison to the National Traffic Net spending many hours every day handling traffic for the net. I have talked with Woody many times on the radio but had never met him in person. In later years, as Bob, KC4SXO said, “Woody sightings have become few and far between.” Over ninety years of age, Woody has decided it is time to slow down a bit. We were all honored to have him and his wife join us for the After Holiday Party.
Usually a restaurant will offer a limited menu for large group gatherings. The constraints of so many people, such short time and so many possible selections can be wholly intimidating. Each year the staff of Kristina’s is up to the daunting challenge.
Although I saw dishes from all parts of the menu being served, I will only report on my wife Janis’ and my selection. Memory can be persistent even if only subliminally. Janis and I both duplicated our order from last year’s party almost exactly. It was good then so it will most likely be good again.
Janis started off with a bowl of the soup of the day. Kristina features a
different soup each day of the week. Since this was Sunday, the selection was
Cream of Potato Soup ($2.25 bowl).It was a nice thick and creamy soup with lots of potatoes and vegetables served with several packets of saltine crackers. She said it was very good, very tasty and she certainly had no trouble finishing her bowl of soup.
The main part of her meal was to be the Roast Beef and Turkey Club ($6.25);
the same as last year. Since she was having the soup, she didn’t want the side
order that would come with her sandwich. Since my plate is a convenient
depository for unwanted food, she asked me what I wanted her to order. I chose
the coleslaw since I was already having French fries with my order. The sandwich
was made with the thinner, sandwich sliced bread and toasted nicely. The thin
slices of bread mean that the filling has to be more than adequate to make the
sandwich stand out. There is plenty of beef and turkey as well as the lettuce
and tomato to fill the sandwich.Janis enjoyed her sandwich saying that it was very good but could only eat half and asked for a take home container for the other half to enjoy at a later time.
My Déjà vu order was the Steak Hoagie ($6.25); similar to a Philly
cheesesteak sandwich but with sautéed onions, peppers, mushrooms and melted
Mozzarella cheese all on a hot, toasted hoagie bun. My side of choice was French
fries but don’t forget, I was also having coleslaw. On arrival it was a full
plate and included a spear of dill pickle. The sandwich was full of all kinds of good things, meat, peppers onions, mushrooms and cheese. So much in fact that picking up the sandwich dumped lots of the filling on the plate. No matter, it tasted just as good off a fork. It was nice tender beef with lots of flavor from the vegetables and cheese; a thoroughly and filling sandwich. The coleslaw, a small serving actually, was good. It is a finely chopped cabbage with a mild dressing, not too tart and not too sweet; enough to moisten the cabbage but not compete with the flavor and not too much to drip into the serving plate.A good accompaniment but not an all-star to stand by itself. The French fries, still hot from the fryer, were not oily, were crisp and tasty. They were good French fries. I enjoyed my meal very much. It was good food to start with but being surrounded by so many, as Donn, N4KII, would say, “hamsters” made it even more enjoyable. I am already looking forward to next year.
Labels: After Holidays Party, Amateur Radio, cheese, cheesesteak, club sandwich, coleslaw, French fries, hoagie, Kristina's, mozzarella, mushrooms, pepper. onions, potato soup, roast beef, SPARC, St Petersburg, steak, turkey
¶ 10:05 AM 0 Comments
Friday, January 24, 2014
Cheddar's Casual Cafe
On arrival we were greeted by the maître de and shown
directly to a table. It was our luck to arrive at a lull in the lunch crowd
rush which was later very busy. Although the café is “casual,” the décor is more
upscale than expected, much more so than other casual cafes, from their own
applied description. Almost immediately we were greeted by our server, Angel,
who is aptly named. She was a very personable young lady, seemingly always busy
but never too busy to refill glasses or check on our progress, close at hand
but never hovering. Her attention added
to the pleasure of our meal.
This was a family get-together, time to exchange gossip and
enjoy family company. That called for an appetizer and beverages so we could
linger a bit before ordering. From previous visits, Uncle Gill suggested the onion
rings. (Homemade Onion Rings $4.49
Hand-battered, served with homemade ranch and Cajun dipping sauce.) It is
an impressive interleaved, plateful stack of onion rings. Light batter, fried
crispy and golden brown, the best description I can come up with is
tempura-like. Small bowls of the dipping sauces accompany the stack of onion
rings. The ranch dip is very good and makes an excellent accompaniment for the
excellent onion rings. The Cajun dipping sauce, on the other hand, has to be
what is called an acquired taste. I really don’t want to work that hard to
learn to like that sauce so if I were ever to order these onion rings again I
would ask for both dipping bowls to be the ranch variety. Of note, these onion
rings would also be excellent with tentsuyu, tempura dipping sauce. With the
slight exception of the Cajun sauce, I consider these onion rings to be the
best I have ever tasted even surpassing even the legendary stack of rings from
Red Robin.
The Salads & Soup menu section
offers the Ultimate Lunch Combination
(Chose 2: Choice of half sandwich and one
pairing $5.99, or Chose 3: Choice of half sandwich and two pairings. Sandwiches: Double Decker Club, Monte
Cristo or Buffalo Chicken Wrapper. Pairings:
Bowl of Soup, House Salad, Loaded Baked Potato or Caesar Salad.) Effie and
Gilbert ordered the same, a Club Sandwich (Potato
bread, smoked ham, turkey, bacon. Aged Cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato and
seasoned mayo) with the Chicken Tortilla Soup (Grilled chicken, tomatoes and onions simmered with Southwestern spices,
grated Cheddar cheese and tortilla strips). Janis ordered from the same
area of the menu. She chose the club sandwich and the Baked Potato Soup (Made fresh in our kitchen from select
potatoes, celery, onions, grated Cheddar cheese and bacon). Each enjoyed
their meal finding them tasteful and leaving nothing for a doggie bag. Effie
and Gilbert may have found the tortilla soup spicier than they remembered and,
after seeing Janis’ bowl of soup, will probably go for the baked potato soup on
any future visit. Janis did enjoy her soup. It was a thick creamy soup with
lots of cheese and bacon on top; comfort food for a chilly day.
I was a bit different in my selection. I chose from the Half-Pound
Burgers (Grilled medium well. Add French fries, coleslaw or red beans and rice
$1.99). Of the five choices, I chose the Mushroom Swiss Burger ($5.79 Sautéed mushrooms, Swiss cheese,
onions and Cheddar’s dressing). An interesting note, the mushrooms are
sautéed whole mushrooms, caps and stems. The melted Swiss cheese does a good
job of anchoring them on top of the meat patty. The meat was cooked medium well
with just a bit of pink in the middle; still juicy and not dried out. The
lettuce was fresh and crisp enough to have a mouth feel. I had wondered what
they do with the center section of the onions they use for the onion rings. The
answer is they chop them and they find their way into the sandwiches and
presumably the soups. My hamburger had a nice scattering of the chopped onions;
enough to add to the flavor but not too many to be offensive. All in all, it
was a very tasty sandwich. The meat was juicy and flavorful, cooked just right,
the greens crisp and fresh and there were plenty of mushrooms (always a good
thing). That brings us to the Cheddar’s sauce. It had a distinct taste. It
certainly didn’t taste bad. However, if I were to order this burger again, I
would ask for it to be served dry with a spot of regular mayonnaise on the side
instead. The French fries, cut from whole unpeeled potatoes, were cooked to a
nice golden brown, were lightly salted, were not oily and had a good flavor.
They were okay French fries. I did enjoy my burger and fries, a very filling
meal especially with the refills of the soda.
As the dishes were cleared away the conversation continued
until it was suddenly decided that dessert was in order. Gilbert ordered the
Cheddar’s Monster Cookie Sundae ($4.99 A
homemade skillet-baked chocolate chip cookie topped with premium vanilla ice
cream, hot fudge, whipped cream, nuts and a cherry. Please allow a few minutes).
A meal by itself, too big to be a solo dessert, it is meant to be shared. After
a short wait, apparently the cookies are bake to order, Angel arrived with the
luscious looking dessert and four long-handled spoons. Everyone dug in at once,
much like a four way fencing match, spoons clanking. As a result, I didn’t get
a presentation picture and I had to borrow a picture from the menu. As to how
good the Monster Cookie Sundae was, all I can offer is a picture of the
aftermath.
Cheddar’s Casual Café
4101 Park Blvd
Pinellas Park, FL 33781
727 544-8518 www.cheddars.com/
My wife Janis’ Aunt Effie and Uncle Gilbert called the other
day. Seems they had found a nice new place to dine out and wanted to share with
us. When someone wants to treat me to a
meal where they serve good food I’m ready. Let’s go!
The Cheddar’s concept is, according to their website, the
brainchild of Aubrey Good and Doug Rogers. Their vision was a casual,
comfortable eatery with scratch prepared good food at reasonable prices. They
opened their first establishment, located in Arlington, Texas, in 1979. They
have grown sine with many, many stores in many states.On arrival we were greeted by the maître de and shown
directly to a table. It was our luck to arrive at a lull in the lunch crowd
rush which was later very busy. Although the café is “casual,” the décor is more
upscale than expected, much more so than other casual cafes, from their own
applied description. Almost immediately we were greeted by our server, Angel,
who is aptly named. She was a very personable young lady, seemingly always busy
but never too busy to refill glasses or check on our progress, close at hand
but never hovering. Her attention added
to the pleasure of our meal.
Cheddar’s has a full menu featuring appetizers, soups,
salads and combos, a regular dinner menu as well as hot and cold sandwiches,
burgers in their own little section, a low calorie section, a children’s menu,
desserts. Each table has a color menu of their bar offerings, many of which are
colorful and inviting. Non-alcoholic beverages, coffee, tea, soft drinks, fruit
lemonade and fruit teas are offered with free refills.
This was a family get-together, time to exchange gossip and
enjoy family company. That called for an appetizer and beverages so we could
linger a bit before ordering. From previous visits, Uncle Gill suggested the onion
rings. (Homemade Onion Rings $4.49
Hand-battered, served with homemade ranch and Cajun dipping sauce.) It is
an impressive interleaved, plateful stack of onion rings. Light batter, fried
crispy and golden brown, the best description I can come up with is
tempura-like. Small bowls of the dipping sauces accompany the stack of onion
rings. The ranch dip is very good and makes an excellent accompaniment for the
excellent onion rings. The Cajun dipping sauce, on the other hand, has to be
what is called an acquired taste. I really don’t want to work that hard to
learn to like that sauce so if I were ever to order these onion rings again I
would ask for both dipping bowls to be the ranch variety. Of note, these onion
rings would also be excellent with tentsuyu, tempura dipping sauce. With the
slight exception of the Cajun sauce, I consider these onion rings to be the
best I have ever tasted even surpassing even the legendary stack of rings from
Red Robin.The Salads & Soup menu section
offers the Ultimate Lunch Combination
(Chose 2: Choice of half sandwich and one
pairing $5.99, or Chose 3: Choice of half sandwich and two pairings. Sandwiches: Double Decker Club, Monte
Cristo or Buffalo Chicken Wrapper. Pairings:
Bowl of Soup, House Salad, Loaded Baked Potato or Caesar Salad.) Effie and
Gilbert ordered the same, a Club Sandwich (Potato
bread, smoked ham, turkey, bacon. Aged Cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato and
seasoned mayo) with the Chicken Tortilla Soup (Grilled chicken, tomatoes and onions simmered with Southwestern spices,
grated Cheddar cheese and tortilla strips). Janis ordered from the same
area of the menu. She chose the club sandwich and the Baked Potato Soup (Made fresh in our kitchen from select
potatoes, celery, onions, grated Cheddar cheese and bacon). Each enjoyed
their meal finding them tasteful and leaving nothing for a doggie bag. Effie
and Gilbert may have found the tortilla soup spicier than they remembered and,
after seeing Janis’ bowl of soup, will probably go for the baked potato soup on
any future visit. Janis did enjoy her soup. It was a thick creamy soup with
lots of cheese and bacon on top; comfort food for a chilly day.I was a bit different in my selection. I chose from the Half-Pound
Burgers (Grilled medium well. Add French fries, coleslaw or red beans and rice
$1.99). Of the five choices, I chose the Mushroom Swiss Burger ($5.79 Sautéed mushrooms, Swiss cheese,
onions and Cheddar’s dressing). An interesting note, the mushrooms are
sautéed whole mushrooms, caps and stems. The melted Swiss cheese does a good
job of anchoring them on top of the meat patty. The meat was cooked medium well
with just a bit of pink in the middle; still juicy and not dried out. The
lettuce was fresh and crisp enough to have a mouth feel. I had wondered what
they do with the center section of the onions they use for the onion rings. The
answer is they chop them and they find their way into the sandwiches and
presumably the soups. My hamburger had a nice scattering of the chopped onions;
enough to add to the flavor but not too many to be offensive. All in all, it
was a very tasty sandwich. The meat was juicy and flavorful, cooked just right,
the greens crisp and fresh and there were plenty of mushrooms (always a good
thing). That brings us to the Cheddar’s sauce. It had a distinct taste. It
certainly didn’t taste bad. However, if I were to order this burger again, I
would ask for it to be served dry with a spot of regular mayonnaise on the side
instead. The French fries, cut from whole unpeeled potatoes, were cooked to a
nice golden brown, were lightly salted, were not oily and had a good flavor.
They were okay French fries. I did enjoy my burger and fries, a very filling
meal especially with the refills of the soda.As the dishes were cleared away the conversation continued
until it was suddenly decided that dessert was in order. Gilbert ordered the
Cheddar’s Monster Cookie Sundae ($4.99 A
homemade skillet-baked chocolate chip cookie topped with premium vanilla ice
cream, hot fudge, whipped cream, nuts and a cherry. Please allow a few minutes).
A meal by itself, too big to be a solo dessert, it is meant to be shared. After
a short wait, apparently the cookies are bake to order, Angel arrived with the
luscious looking dessert and four long-handled spoons. Everyone dug in at once,
much like a four way fencing match, spoons clanking. As a result, I didn’t get
a presentation picture and I had to borrow a picture from the menu. As to how
good the Monster Cookie Sundae was, all I can offer is a picture of the
aftermath.
It was a very enjoyable interlude and I thoroughly enjoyed
the company of the in-laws. Being their treat didn’t hurt either. The time
together was great, the conversation wonderful and the food for the most part
was very good. All the elements made for a most enjoyable afternoon. If a
revisit to Cheddar’s is ever in the offing (even if we have to pay) we shall
certainly do so. If you try them I think you will find most of their offerings
to your liking.
Labels: baked, baked potato soup, Cajun, Cheddar's, club sandwich, cookie, French fries, monster, mushroom Swiss burger, onion rings, ranch, soup, sundae, tortilla soup
¶ 2:24 PM 0 Comments
