Triangle Restaurant while chillin' in McMillan

While heading from Marquette towards the bridge, we wanted to stop somewhere for breakfast and desperately needed a sit down with real food, none of this sandwich from McDonald's business and then call it "breakfast" when you are still starving afterwords. My husband and his dad used to come here while on wrecker calls back when he had a towing business, and I have driven past it I don't know how many times so we decided to stop and try it out. 

The inside is pretty outdated. Judging by the cars in the lot, and the fact that most of them were large trucks, I expected it to be more of the old diner style. For the most part it at least seemed clean which is all that I usually care about. Our waitress was very kind and attentive, especially since our coffee cup seemed to diminish quite quickly that morning and she never let it empty. There were two tables that had other diners, who seemed to be locals, talking really loudly about local politics but it wasn't bothersome. We rather enjoyed listening to yooper local trash talk; it was pretty entertaining. 

I guess, judging from reviews and pictures on their Facebook page I was expecting a little bit more than what I received. I ordered the two eggs over-easy with hash browns and ham. Simple dish, nothing extravagant or crazy. I got about four bites out of the ham due to how the fat was marbled and my knife could barely cut through the fat. The hash browns, along with the eggs, were not at all seasoned with salt or pepper or any kind of seasoning to give the food flavor. I'm not scared by some runny whites still left around the egg yolks when I break into it with the toast but in this case it was almost too much for me. I just kept adding salt and pepper and at least finished the eggs.

I don't know what it is with these kinds of restaurants but the number one downfall in all of them, including this one, is that there is no simple seasoning with salt and pepper. Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING in restaurants (and every cooking show and Chef around the world will agree with this), NEEDS seasoning, on everything on the plate, and every step of the cooking process. The food was just bland, and under-impressive. Which is a shame because we are always driving by here. Maybe we will have to stop sometime at dinner time in the summer when the smoker is out. People seem to rave about it and hopefully since it is smoked meat, it will have some flavor.

Temaki and Tea

I have to admit, it has taken me a while to eat here. Even when I was going to Northern Michigan University (who runs the restaurant), I never ate here because I always had it in my head that all they had was sushi, which at the time I hadn't tried, nor do I really like fish. It is one of my mom's favorite restaurants in Marquette though, so my husband and I decided to try it out one night that she ordered it. We still haven't been inside the actual restaurant but we ordered takeout.

To try out a non- fish sushi, we ordered the Crunchy Shrimp Sushi. The shrimp is battered in tempura, with cucumber, avocado, green onion, and rolled in tempura crunchies and drizzled with teriyaki glaze. It really wasn't bad. I think I am just not a fan of seafood, but all of the other flavors went really well together. I am a huge shrimp fan and it was delicious with that tempura around it. I think had it not had the teriyaki glaze, I wouldn't have gone back for a second piece. And I love ginger, so of course I had a big piece of sushi ginger on my slice.

I ordered the Shanghai Peanut. It has fresh veggies, udon noodles, peanut sauce and choice of meat, which I chose chicken. Their noodle bowls are delicious. Anything usually has me if it is in a peanut or peanut butter sauce. There was also crushed peanuts and sliced green onion on top for a nice crunch.

Now that I have it out of my head that there is more than just sushi I will definitely order from here more often. Everything was visually simple and tasted very fresh. Definitely a good replacement for the Hardees that used to be in the building.

Rudy's "Country Store" Bar-B-Q

 

Please do not let the appearance of this restaurant from the outside fool you. GO INSIDE. It has a great Southern homey feeling with large community tables and picnic tables. Where we sat by the picnic tables, the windows on the wall are literally garage doors. It is filled with old metal signs and has TV's with different sports games on. If you subtracted the TV's it almost feels like you are eating at a BBQ in someone's backyard.

The menu is pretty straight forward. You walk through a line, pick up what beverage you want if it isn't from a fountain machine, any sides or desserts that are in the refrigerator part, and then order at the register. I ordered the half chicken with corn on the cob as a side. I was out of it while ordering, usually I'm not a huge fan of chicken on the bone because I am a stickler for chicken fat. My sister-in-law went back up to the window and ordered brisket for us to share and it was fantastic. They offer you bread, which you take, along with pickles and onions. They have homemade BBQ sauces on each table so I made myself a brisket sandwich. The smoke ring around this sliced meet was fantastic. I forgot to take a picture of the brisket but it was very juicy and packed with smokey flavor.

If I came back here I would try one of the sandwiches, like the pulled pork. Then it comes hassle free already in the bread for you.... Definitely worth the stop.

Rudy's BBQ, Killeen Menu

387 restaurant and beer parlor

Well, since Sydney's had been purchased by new owners and renamed, "renovated", and had a complete menu change, we had high hopes that it would be a better place to eat in Munising, Michigan. We first stopped here last spring in late May, and after having a not so spectacular experience, we decided to give it another try last month for Valentines Day. Both experiences were less than memorable.

For an appetizer, or as they call them "shareables", we ordered the boneless chicken wings. Now, correct me if I am wrong, especially by looking at that picture, but those are chicken tenders. They also have chicken tenders on the menu as a "shareable" so I am thinking maybe they just got our order confused. They weren't bad mind you, but all they were was deep fried chicken pieces with a side of ranch.

For lunch, my husband ordered the Whitefish Platter, which comes with a roll and choice of side dish. He said the fish wasn't bad and seasoned pretty well, but the mashed potatoes and gravy left something to be desired.

I ordered the 387 Specialty Burger, thinking that since it was named after the restaurant it must be pretty good. It is a patty on top of french fries smothered in a white cheese sauce (like Poutine), and topped with sauteed mushrooms. You get a choice of fries so I ordered the sweet potato fries, which were delicious. The mushrooms weren't from a can, thank god, and were seasoned really well. The white cheese Poutine sauce was super fresh, and one of the best cheese sauces I've had in the U.P. The burger, which I ordered medium, was not seasoned, the consistency of shoe leather, and the perfect frozen patty shape. They almost had a gold mine with this one! Why on earth, would you put a crappy burger like that, that literally tasted freezer burned, with everything else that is so delicious!?!?

When we went back on Valentines Day with two other family members and their young one, it wasn't looking so hot from the minute we walked in the door. It was around 5:30 PM and had it not been for the "open" sign, you wouldn't have even realized it was open. We were the ONLY people in the restaurant other than staff. Since we were supposed to get pretty bad weather we chalked it up to that and got seated in the bar area. When we left at about 7PM, there were two other tables that had come in since. That really is not a good sign. Now as for the service....

Other than the main menu, they had a few Valentines specials. Three of us went ahead and ordered the steak and side of pasta, but we all ordered different sides, pastas, and weird combinations. You are supposed to get a soup or salad first, but our waitress asked us all what kind of potato we wanted. We just figured maybe they forgot to put it on the printed out version and it came with the meal, so she took the rest of our order. One of us wanted the steak with a side of pasta with alfredo sauce, and two of us wanted the steak with the lasagna. She came back about 10 minutes later and finally said we were supposed to get a salad or soup, no potato, but that they would still be giving us the potato option free of charge. Two of us ordered salads and my husband ordered the broccoli cheese soup. The soup was the consistency of a condensed soup out of a can and looked terrible. He asked me if I wanted to try it, while glopping it on the spoon and letting it fall back into the bowl, but I opted out.

Our side salads came, and instead of a lettuce mix with veggies in it, or small amount of fresh cut veggies on top of a nice bed of lettuce, we got whole baby carrots, long onion strips and cut up cucumber which was fine, and large wedges of tomatoes. It was more like a veggies and dip tray than a salad but we all picked off of it and ate it regardless.

Finally, our main dishes came out. From the description of what we ordered I'm sure you can already see one main thing that is wrong here. One of us ordered the pasta with cheese sauce, and two ordered the lasagna. Somehow, we all ended up with the noodles but we were already an hour and a half in at this point and didn't feel like asking the waitress to fix it. The pasta sauce wasn't bad, and that was the only thing I ate fully on my plate. The steak cuts for everyone at the table were terrible. If you are going to charge anywhere near $25 for a steak dinner, you best make sure that the cut actually has meat on it. After dodging bones and cutting around fatty areas, I got a total of 5 bites of meat. The gravy on the meat was spectacular, but I think I could have butchered a better piece myself at home and certainly would not have paid over $12 for that plate of food we received.

To sum up 387, I'm not impressed. I'm sure the owners are nice, like everyone has told me, and the staff is nice, but nice people with inconsistent and not that great of food is an uneven combination that will only lead to nice people shutting down a disappointing restaurant. They need to train their staff better, get better ingredients to work with, and after they have fixed those problems, find a way to advertise more to fill the seats in the restaurant. The menu has amazing ideas that sound delicious, but they aren't being executed properly. If they are still open in the future, maybe we will stop in again and try it out but at this point, it is nowhere I would purposely choose to eat at.

387 Main Website

Taquerias Mexico

While down in Texas, I asked my sister-in-law to take me to one of her favorite Mexican restaurants. We stopped here after a long day driving to Dallas and back and I am so glad we did! It really hit the spot.

For an appetizer, we ordered the cheese sauce. This is one of my favorite things that I always order. I just can't help that ooey gooeyness of it all. The sauce was absolutely delicious when mixed in with the spicy salsa.

For dinner I ordered the chicken chimichanga. It came with a side of rice, refried beans, guacamole and sour cream. The shredded chicken mixture inside the chimichanga was delicious. The right amount of seasoning and the meat was really tender. The shell wasn't soggy after being fried, and everything was smothered in cheese sauce, which I also loved.

For dessert, I ordered one of my favorites, the sopapillas. Crunchy, drizzled with honey and chocolate sauce, and served with a side of whipped cream. Amazing, even though I barely had any room!

Although I didn't order the fried ice cream, there were three of these shared at the table. They probably all could have shared one! The phrase "as big as my head" is almost not even an exaggeration.

This restaurant was definitely a great place to have stopped. The food was amazing and the staff was really nice. The only downfall was that there was a woman sitting at a table close to us, purposely on her phone the entire time trying to find people to call, and literally screaming instead of talking, and also singing to herself. Other than the annoying lady, it was a great experience.

Shilo Restaurant

While visiting my sister-in-law down in Texas this past month, we stayed at the Shilo Inn Suites which is an absolutely amazing hotel. The pool was huge, they had an indoor AND outdoor hot tub (which for us Michiganders was amazing when it cooled down at night). It was a great place to stay. Not only that, but the number one rated restaurant in Killeen is the Shilo Restaurant in the hotel itself.

We ordered from here twice, the first time being room service, and racked up around $100 of food to share for 6 people. It was all amazing, but we were so hungry that I could have eaten shoe leather at that point. Finally, we had a chance to sit down in the restaurant.

For an appetizer, we ordered the fried pickles, which are my favorite just about everywhere I go for a starter. The breading, which looks thick, was very fluffy and instead of serving it with ranch dressing like everywhere else I've had them, they were served with a garlic aioli. I wish I could have bottled that aioli up and taken it home with me to mass produce it. It was delicious.

For dinner, I ordered the Top Sirloin and Shrimp Scampi. You had the choice of two different side dishes and I ordered the mac and cheese, and the mashed potatoes. The mac and cheese was the best homemade mac I've had. It was creamy, and whatever bechamel sauce they used was to die for. The mashed potatoes were soft and fluffy with the right amount of seasoning and i'm assuming cream. The shrimp was garlicky and full of flavor and fresh herbs and went great with a bite of steak.

My steak came out amazing. Oh my goodness. Not only was it still very juicy, but I ordered it medium and it came out perfectly. The butter herb sauce on top kept it moist and flavorful (because melted butter always makes things taste so much better....) and every bite I had was as good as the last.

This meal, overall, was amazing. The food was all cooked perfectly. We had crabby children at the table with us and our waiter was so kind and helpful. The food itself looked as pretty as all of the pictures they took professionally on their website. It was literally a picture perfect meal.

Shilo Restaurant, Main Website

Billy Bob's Burgers

While visiting family in Texas, and after a long day of painting and fixing up a house, we decided to get something quick to eat for dinner. There is a restaurant in Wisconsin that serves up some old fashioned burgers, even one in the Upper Peninsula where we live, and the menu for Billy Bob's sounded similar only with way more options, so we went through the drive-through.  It is so weird because the outside of the building looks like an old garage. Other than serving up some delicious burgers, they also serve ice cream shakes, locally made desserts and have live music.

For a side with my burger, I ordered the cheese fries. Although it wasn't my favorite kind of runny cheese that is good for dipping your fries in, they were definitely some cheesy fries! No sauce necessary.

I ordered a single Southwest Burger. It was topped with Swiss and American cheese, A1 and BBQ sauce, lettuce, tomato, and battered fried jalapeno sticks. The burger was amazing. It wasn't too greasy, the jalapeno sticks added a nice kick that got cooled down by the melted American and Swiss. This was just an all-around good burger. It definitely reminded me a lot of the one we have up in the Upper Peninsula only again, many more options.

I have not tried any other of their locations, but this one is definitely worth stopping at. The food came out really quickly, and with all of us in the car being a pain, everything came out perfect.

Billy Bob's Facebook Page