Pier West - Twin Lakes, WI

We stumbled across this restaurant because we just discovered www.restaurant.com. This is where you can purchase discount certificates for many retaurants for a reduced price. For example, we purchased a $25 certificate for $2. The only restriction is that we had to spend $50 total. That is never hard for us to do.

You can search by restaurants in your area and that's how we found Pier West. We were excited - something new to try and it's open on Monday. It's located on Lake Mary, which is small, but it was still a good view.

We were seated right away and offered drinks by the person who sat us. A great start! When she came back with our drinks, we were not quite ready to order, so she said she would return. We kept seeing her waiting on people who were seated outside on the deck, people who came after us. We got to the point where we finished our glass of wine and she still had not come back. Literally it was 20 minutes. Finally we grabbed another server and she apologized, said she didn't know that she was supposed to take care of us. She took our order right away.

We ordered an appetizer, salad and entrees. She brought our salads out first. I hate that! And it happens more and more often. I don't get it. There are supposed to be rules to follow. Appetizers should come first!

We ordered the Seafood Feta Bruschetta, which was shrimp, scallops, lobster (don't really remember seeing the lobster) sauteed with garlic, feta cheese, olive oil, tomatoes and white wine served with french bread. We expected it to come on the bread, like bruschetta normally does, but we had to make our own. No big deal. It tasted great and at least it was more creative than the norm.

For our main course, I ordered the grilled shrimp and my husband ordered the grilled scallops. I'm not sure you can do much to screw up grilled shrimp, so it was as I expected. However, my husbands scallops seemed very bizarre. They were the whitest looking scallops I'd ever seen. They looked boiled rather than grilled. Very unappealing.

We both had the roasted sweet potato which was ok.

I doubt we will ever return.

www.pierwest.net

Ashling on the Lough - Kenosha, WI

If you look at our previous review, you can see that we liked this restaurant, but things have changed.

We don't know if it is the economy or just the lack of traffic in the Kenosha area, but this place is going downhill. I hope they can save it.

Our last three visits to Ashling have been miserable and we are taking it off our list. Two of the last times we went on a Monday since they are one of the few restaurants open on Monday and I seriously was looking for Gordon Ramsay. I figured he must be filming a version of Kitchen Nightmares!

Two visits ago we came in and were seated right away. There were only about five tables total with people at them. Our waiter took over 10 minutes to come and ask us about drinks, then we did not see him for another 10 minutes when he came back with our drinks and took our order. It took 15 minutes more to get our first course, which was a salad. The bad this was this was before our appetizer which showed up while we were eating our salad. During this time we ran out of drinks and we could not get the attention of our waiter and he never returned. Our main course arrived 20 minutes after we finished our appetizer and the bad thing was both meals were cold. We assume it had been sitting at the pass too long.

On our next and last visit we had fairly good service for a change except the food took a long time to come out, but at least it was hot so we know our server was doing her job well. The disappointing aspect was the food quality. My filet was over cooked and my wife;s risotto was not even risotto, it was plain white rice. We complained to our server and we were told that they ran out of risotto and the chef decided to replace it with white rice and he did not tell anyone.

In the first instance we were given a round of drinks at no charge because it took so long for the food and in the second instance we were not charged for the risotto. I can't imagine how they can stay in business if they have to keep comping items to make up for mistakes.

Basically from our observations management of the restaurant has dropped the ball. Serving staff is not trained and the kitchen is out of control.

I hope they get their act together, because this was a great restaurant and they could not ask for a better location. We wish them luck.

http://www.ashlingonthelough.com/home.html

Ten at the Eldridge - Lawrence, KS

Ten is a contemporary American restaurant located in the historic Eldridge hotel in the downtown area of Lawrence Kansas.

We ate here several nights and each night was a little different. This was due to a major change in the menu and the fact we never had the same person waiting on us twice. The last night we went there I was fairly disappointed, the waiter was not very attentive and we had to keep chasing him down. The food that night was good, but not exceptional. I blame this one the waiter for letting our food sit and get cold.

Our other two experiences here were great and no complaints. We had a variety of things to eat, so I'll just list our favorites;

Crab Cake Appetizer was cooked perfectly

Pan Seared Walleye with crispy pasta & mozzarella cake and lemon pesto sauce was probably one of the best Walleyes I have ever had.

Garlic & Thyme Rubbed Bison Short Ribs were very tender and flavorful (told to me by my guest)

Vanilla Poached Sea Bas with Lemon Risotto and Saffron broth, to die for...

I was told by people that go here often to make sure I order the Filet Mignon, they said it was the best steak in town. I had it the night with the bad waiter and it was over cooked and cold. I should have returned it, but frankly I was tired of arguing with the guy.

Regardless of the last night, two out of three stellar performances are not bad. I will return here the next time I am in town.

http://www.eldridgehotel.com/restaurant_bar.htm

Twin Oaks Country Inn - Wilmot, WI

We have dined here many times - I'm actually surprised we've never reviewed it before.

This place can be hit or miss, more hit than miss, but the misses are not bad enough to cross this restaurant off our list. Sometimes the service is slow to start, but once they get started, it's usually pretty good after that. This particular visit we had great service and they became quite busy while we were there.

We started with a crab cake appetizer, which was served with a red pepper sauce, yellow pepper sauce and a bernaise sauce. The crab was very good and the sauces went well.

For my main course I had the Pesto Chicken, which was a seared breast of chicken on top of a portobello mushroom. It was to be served with a red pepper sauce and a pesto sauce. I asked for the sauces on the side and they were both good individually, I'm just not sure how they would have been on the plate. It came with a Three Cheese Polenta Cake which was very good, I didn't really notice the cheese.

My husband had a special which was pork lightly breaded and sauteed stuffed with provolone cheese and smoked chicken served over fettucine. He loved it. I had a couple bites too and really liked the flavors together.

No complaints this visit.

The Billabong Australian Restaurant & Bar - Winnipeg, MB Canada

The restaurant was recommended to us by a woman that worked at the hotel we were staying at.  Always a bit skeptical, we did not know what to expect, but in the end we were very surprised by the quality and variety of the food.

We started our meal with:

Sydney Rocks Yum Cha (Dim Sum) - Served with ginger-chili dip.

2 Alligator and Manitoba Pickerel Pot stickers
2 Barramundi Shrimp, and Black bean Spring rolls
2 Pork, Scallop, and Shark Wontons

Wow - this was fantastic and the flavors just came together so well. I like to try different things when I go back to a restaurant, but I might have to have this again. If you were not sharing this could be a main course

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For my main course I had Barbecued Kangaroo - Barbecued Kangaroo Loin medallions served with fried quail eggs, pumpkin and sweet potato pouches, pineapple and beetroot relish, then drizzled in a carrot and horseradish cream. Once again, fantastic. The meat was moist and cooked a perfect medium rare. I think if you cooked it more it might have gotten tough. The pumpkin sweet potato pouches are a great side.

My coworker had the Barramundi Wrap - Australia’s premier native fish, steamed in a banana leaf with shitake mushroom sticky rice and lime-coconut broth. Served with seasonal vegetables. This was not only delicious it was more or less healthy, at least it looked like it. I was able to steal a taste and it reminded me of being in Hawaii.

The restaurant was slow that night, but I have a feeling they get crowded on the weekends. It is not that large of a place, so you might want to call ahead. Prices are between $20 and $30 for the main entrée, but the price seems fair for the area.

If you get stuck in Winnipeg, it is worth stopping by.

They don't have their own website, which they should remedy, but you can find them at: http://maps.google.com/maps/place?um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=billabong+winnipeg&fb=1&gl=us&hq=billabong&hnear=winnipeg&cid=12511849320540702790 or http://www.menumanitoba.com/billabong.htm

Chop Steakhouse & Bar - Winnipeg, MB, Canada

I happened to be up in Winnipeg on business and was tired of eating at the same old restaurant, so I was looking for a treat. Well, I found it at Chop!

This restaurant is by far the best place I have dined at in Winnipeg. The food was prepared perfectly and the service was exceptional. We were there on a night they were not so crowded, so maybe we got better attention.

They had a special Lobster menu when I was there so I got the lobster salad and it was fantastic. For my main course I wanted to try their lobster risotto, but they had run out, so I had the Halibut Chop which was on their regular menu. I thought it was very good, but it did have too much lemon for my liking. I do not think I would have it again.

My guest had the Beef Tenderloin Carpaccio appetizer and for his main course he had the Wasabi Crusted Ahi Tuna. He said both were exceptional. He ordered a side of Wasabi mashed potatoes and let me have a taste, make sure you order them.

Since we had been eating at less charming restaurants, it was nice to see a full wine menu. I was tired of only haveing the choice of white or red wine. The pours would good, but a little pricey, like everything else in Canada.

Winnipeg is generally very expensive when it comes to eating. The main course at Chop will run you around $30 US, so this is not really expensive. You will pay the same amount going to most chain resturants.

Next time we are in the area, we will be going back to this restaurant.

http://www.chop.ca/

Twisted Cuisine, Kenosha, WI- UPDATE

I still like the idea of this restaurant, but they have some issues. First, I really don't like that there is no hostess station when you first walk in. It's not a problem when they are not busy, because someone usually sees you pretty quickly, but when they are busy, you could be standing there for too long. This particular time, they were very busy and they are not good at being busy. Mainly the service really suffers.

A pet peeve of mine is when it takes forever for your server to come to your table, then they want to take your drink and food order at the same time! If you give both at the same time, you are guaranteed a long wait for drinks. This happened on this visit. I had never seen this server before, so I don't know if she is new. We had a favorite server, I believe her name was Tanya, but she has not been there the last few times. Too bad.

Now to the food. Normally I order the scallops wrapped in bacon with a lemon buerre blanc sauce. The last couple times the scallops were so salty I didn't want to risk it again. I love salt, I normally salt everything, but this was too much even for me. So, I ordered the filet which was served with a jimaca salsa. I took my first bite of the steak and it tasted very weird. I asked my husband to taste it and he said it tasted like their grill was really dirty. I had to trim off all the edges, which as you can imagine, did not leave much meat. It tasted fine on the inside, so it was definitely what the grill left behind. I will never risk ordering beef there again. I will say that the jicama salsa was really good.

My husband had the stuffed halibut, which was actually very good. It is stuffed with an herbed cream cheese.

Right now I'm not sure that we will return for a while.