North American eateries
Ratings are on a scale of 0 to 24.
The scale used to be 0 to 10, so restaurants written about
before 2012 may have only had their ratings adjusted by formula and
not by hand (hence all the 2s, 5s, 8s, etc.)
The scale works as follows:
PRO 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 |
pro 15 14 13 12 11 10 |
mixed 9 8 7 6 5 4 |
con 3 2 1 |
CON 0 |
An asymmetrical 0 to 24 scale may not be intuitive, I
realize.
But as a rule of thumb: a double-digit score means I liked it, while a
single-digit score… less so.
Also, as you might expect, scores from many years ago may not be very
reliable, so do check the dates.
Midwest
I'll have a large corn with a side of corn and a glass of
corn, please.
Click on the column titles to sort the entries!
Name |
Cuisine |
Address |
Last update |
Score | |
Amelia's | Bakery | Virginia & Norwood, Indianapolis, IN | 2018-07-27 | 10 |
Things I have tried from here: peach croissant (okay), cinnamon roll (fine), chocolate chip cookie (also fine), oatmeal pecan cookie (quite good). Nothing to make me eager to buy tickets back to Indianapolis, but enough to make for pleasant munchies on the second leg of a cross-country road trip. |
Anthony's Gourmet Pizza | Pizza | Packard btw King George/Pine Valley, Ann Arbor, MI | 2006-06-23 | 11 |
The stuffed pizza is not as good as Zachary's, or even Giordano's. But it's better
than Patxi's. About on par with Little Star, I guess. |
Biaggi's | Italian | Utica Ridge & 53rd, Davenport, IA | 2005-10-12 | 14 |
This is a branch of what is apparently quite a large chain here in flyover
country. I was skeptical but hungry and couldn't quickly find a more promising
prospect near my hotel. As it turned out, I was pleasantly surprised: my bruschetta
was very good with large slices of bread, decent tomatoes even in October, unmelted
fresh mozzarella and lots of basil; the ravioli appetizer in scallion cream sauce
was even better, and the bread pudding with hot white chocolate sauce and strawberries
was also a fine choice. I guess this shows that the tide of decent food is bit by bit
lifting all boats... nowadays I have had enough exposure to good food that I can't
really stand the big chains like the Olive Garden and Chili's and such, but I grew
up in suburbia in the 1980s, and I can tell you when restaurants like these started
appearing in our shopping centers we greeted them as liberators, because they were
such a huge step up from the Burger King and Taco Bell and Denny's. Now fifteen years
later you can get a meal that is another standard deviation or two above the Olive
Garden even in a strip mall in Davenport, Iowa, and that is very encouraging. |
Gratitude Cafe & Bakery | Bakery | Cotner & Fairfax, Lincoln, NE | 2018-07-28 | 9 |
Of the two bakeries I went to in Lincoln, this is the one that is the "little old lady bakes sticky buns" variety rather than the "honh honh, French pastry" type. I got a chocolate cherry scone and a Cinnabon type thing. They were fine. |
Her Soup Kitchen | Lunch | Dubuque & Wright, Iowa City, IA | 2018-07-27 | N/A |
I'm not going to rate this one: we went there because it had rave reviews, but the corn chowder I got was close to flavorless and my traveling companion didn't like her sandwich either. But a lot of the raves were for the service, and the folks here were so amazingly nice that I'm calling it a positive experience even though the actual food didn't thrill us. |
Juice Stop | Smoothies | local chain, Lincoln, NE | 2018-07-28 | 19 |
This was my favorite smoothie place when I lived in Orange County in the late '90s, but then it disappeared: the chain had over-expanded, apparently, and retreated back to just five shops in Lincoln, Nebraska. Which I then forgot, so when we were passing through Lincoln and she said, "Hey, look, a smoothie place," and I saw that it was Juice Stop, my head kind of exploded. The menu was a little bigger but otherwise the same, and we each got a smoothie, and they were both great, and, yeah, these are just way better than any other storebought smoothies I've ever had. It helps a lot that they're trying to make tasty drinks rather than something that purports to be virtuous! |
Le Quartier Bakery & Café | Bakery | regional chain, Nebraska | 2018-07-28 | 8 |
This is the "we serve fancy French pastries" bakery we went to in Lincoln. I got a chocolate-almond croissant; it was fine. |
Leadbelly | American | 8th & Q, Lincoln, NE | 2018-07-27 | 11 |
The macaroni and cheese didn't impress me, but I really enjoyed the southwestern salad I got here: it was very fresh with a good balance and variety of flavors. |
Nada | Mexican-ish | regional chain | 2018-07-26 | 9 |
On the one hand, it goes to show how times are a'changing that in Indianapolis we can now get chile-glazed potatoes, poblano mac and cheese, high-end avocado tacos, and butterscotch flan in a hip, friendly space. But, as great as it was to find these dishes on the menu... they were actually just okay. If this place were here on Solano Avenue I wouldn't actually go very often. |
The Oven | Indian | 8th & P, Lincoln, NE | 2005-10-13 | 8 |
The mulligatawny suggested great things to come, but the pureed saag paneer
and ketchuppy dal were as mediocre as you'd expect from an Indian restaurant
in cowboy country. I was reading some of the clippings out front as I waited
for the place to open, and they said pretty much what you might expect: the
place caters in large part to people who have come from the coasts for
conventions (or, as in my case, because they're going from one coast to another
and Nebraska is in the way and this might be the last recognizable food in a
long while). |
Zingerman's Delicatessen | Sandwiches | Detroit btw 5th/Kingsley, Ann Arbor, MI | 2006-06-24 | 11 |
Crazy-expensive grilled sandwiches: for twelve bucks I expected a huge sub,
not a square sandwich like I used to find in my lunch bag back in fourth grade.
The gourmet food items are similarly overpriced compared to their counterparts
in other cities. But all that said, the sandwiches are pretty good. |
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