December 29, 2007 by chad.

Recently I sat down and tried to determine the number of Asian food restaurants in the St Cloud area. I used the broad stroke approach including Chinese, Japanese, Thai, and anything fitting into the whole mandarin culture and area. When it was all said and done I came to 11. That is not including the latest popular Mongolian craze or restaurants over 5 miles from St Cloud proper. That’s amazing. I would venture to bet that its the second or third most populated food type behind Americana and pizza (go figure on the later since it is a college town).

Next on my path through the prepared food world was the Great Wall Buffet. My opinion of buffets are they are pretty much the same thing from place to place, but in all cases it is best to pay attention to the details and the things that set them apart from their competitors. That is how we are going to approach this one too.

Food: 6

You will find most of the building blocks of any other Chinese buffet. The buffet is a medium sized buffet with a larger number of options for the diner. They dabble in sushi roles and on the kids plate they had something resembling Totino’s pizza rolls. Unfortunately the sauce was too bland to appreciate as much as Totino’s. For the life of me I cannot remember the name of their General Tso’s alternative chicken dish, and it does not appear on their website, but it was something different. If you are a vegetarian, then you will appreciate the buffet. Besides that it’s pretty status quo.

Service: 3 of NA

Par for the course. You really don’t go to a buffet if you are interested in being doted on by the serving staff. If anything our server, who also subbed as the cashier, was efficient and barely spoke a word as he swooped down on plates from vacated tables. Beverages are self served so there is no server dependence here. I look at Service here as almost a non-entity. We really did not see or interact with the server except when we came in and payed to strap on the old feed bag.

Atmosphere: 4

The restaurant is clean and laid out for the purpose of feeding the masses. Decorated as it always seems to be with large lit up pictures of different Chinese locales, mirrors, and traditional respectful references to classic Chinese decoration including the shrine to Budda. Nothing more to say here as atmosphere is counter to this type of restaurant setting. Just make sure there’s enough room in the aisle as I make my way to the trough.

Overall: 5

Nothing outstanding but the price is moderate and you get what you pay for. Just remember when going to a buffet, your goal is not to make sure the restaurant loses money on you because of how much you eat, just enjoy the variety of tastes in moderation and your belt will still cinch up to the same hole.

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December 28, 2007 by chad.

I just want to take a short minute to thank Minnesota Restaurant Search for being such a good resource to dinners throughout Minnesota. Their guide is helpful and definitely quickly updated. My only beef is that they have very few references to dining establishments farther north, but all in good time.  Here is a link to the St Cloud Dining Guide from which i pull all those great restaurant pics. Thanks!

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December 28, 2007 by chad.

House of Pizza has been around for over 40 years so you have to expect that there are certain things that will be covered in a dining experience. I mean, after 40 years most of the pitfalls restaurants go through in the process of perfecting their craft have to be resolved to make it that far. My family and I recently went to HOP for dinner and I thought it was an experience that would make a good review.

Food: 9

Bordering on outstanding! I love the variety of the offerings at HOP. They are one of he few pizza places that really embraces alfredo white sauce as opposed to just championing the red. Not that their red sauce is bad at all. In fact, it is a tasted sweet tomato with a hint of spice. No, the thing I really like off the menu is the Four Seasons specialty pizza with its garlic chicken, spinach, sun dried tomatoes and black olives. It creates such a variety of tastes on the pallet that you cant help but love it. They also have a full line of sandwiches and pastas. Sure, they may be an Italian style restaurant with those other menu items, but, don’t be fooled, their specialty is pizza.

Service: 7

The serving staff was well trained. They had excellent product knowledge (Something I am always trying to test servers on.) and great customer service. On the day of this review my kids were both pretty unruly and hard to control. This is a common side effect to being a tired pre-schooler and toddler {Not to self…avoid dining out when they are devil children} but the serving staff saw our plight and came the the rescue with clean pizza cardboard circles and crayons. My only concern is that they probably should have given us that when they seated us, but oh well.

Atmosphere: 7

Clean and newly remodeled, the dining area is wider in appearance and more spacious. Its still the upstairs of an older building downtown, so its not hat much wider, but it’s an improvement over what they had. The color scheme is comfortable and the rich colored stonework coupled with the warm wood tones makes for a pleasant experience. The remodel did away with 80’s interiors cushioned walls….much better now.

Overall: 8

I would say that the House of Pizza is one of the better restaurants in the area and definitely one of the best pizza’s in town. Just remember this is a premium pizza parlor, only one of a couple in the area, so you will pay more but your experience is worth it.

House of Pizza

19 5th Ave S
St Cloud
320-252-9300

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December 28, 2007 by chad.

For years I went to O’Hara’s Restaurant on the corner of 33rd Ave and 3rd street in St Cloud. It was a landmark on that corner for over 50 years. Times change and so in the aftermath of Tim O’Hara’s restaurant debacle, we have a new and improved restaurant at that famous intersection.

McCann’s (Notice the same Irish name) completely redesigned the restaurant, cutting out most of the excess space used for meetings by every organization imaginable in the St Cloud area. They kept the brewing equipment but I have unfortunately not tried any of the house beer. I know,”for shame, Chad!” Hey, I was in there on my lunch break with one of my salesmen. I really didnt want to tip too much beer and go back to work.

Food: 6

While it was no particularly outstanding, the menu consists of a lot of bar related food. They had a roast beef sandwich as the special. I will admit, I am not a big beef person. Give me pork, any kind of foul, or fish and I am satisfied. Oh, and burgers are much better when they are beef as well. The beef was definitely tender and the portion size was good. The prices seemed a little on the high side of low…as in middle of the road.

Service: 4

We were mostly served by the jovial bar back but the service level was more a kin to sports bar traffic than actual fine dining, which is a shame. They still have a good sized dining room and hopefully they will develop that kind of dining which is seriously lacking in the whole St Cloud area.

Atmosphere: 4

They must have spent a bundle on the remodel. There is a lot of decorative stonework covering the walls and a lighter color scheme. The downside to any stonework is that you need to counter the cold of stone with the warmth of decorations. Unfortunately they must have run out of money or time in the decorating area as the walls that were not coved with stone were devoid of the nicky nacky types of things that can warm up a room. It felt very sterile. They opened recently so we can only hope that this type of thing develops over time. Hopefully sooner than later. Even college students like a little character inside their haunts and the locals may object to the changes from the landmark restaurant location they now occupy.

Overall: 5

They have potential. With a smaller restaurant space, retooled look, and preservation of the massive pool table room in the basemen, this place can once again reclaim its designation as a college student hang out. For the restaurant portion, it still needs a little work. I will eat there again with the hopes that they are still developing their dining experience. If not there might be another open space for rent in the next year or so.

McCann’s Food & Brew

3310 3rd St N
St Cloud
320-217-5800

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December 27, 2007 by chad.

It has been a long timer since I posted a review of a restaurant. Since I am still living then it is safe to assume that I am eating and it is likely that I have eaten out at least sometime in the last couple months. Now that we have fully established the logical reasoning, let’s start to talk about Sugar’s.

Sugar’s BBQ has moved from the east side of town where it was little known and even less seen. Now it is located in a strip mall on the west side of town near where O’Hara’s Brew Pub used to be(Which is now called McCann’s, but that’s a review for a separate post.). As BBQ ribs go, I am kind of a rib snob. I expect tender meat, good sauce, and low gristle. It doesn’t sound like all that much to ask but you would be suprised at how many BBQ restaurants can’t get the balance right.

Food: 7 If its good 3 if its not

As my office is now located just down the street from Sugar’s, I have had their food a few times and it seems rather inconsistent. I have been there when the meat was very tender and then there is the last time I was there. The rib tips were so dry it resembled beef jerky rather then ribs meet. On the upside I had a “Sloppy Sugar” sandwich which was piled high with moist sliced meat and slathered with their own barbecue. That’s one good thing you can say about the food at Sugar’s, there’s a lot of it. The barbecue comes in three flavors. Its not three unique tastes as the base for all three is the same but you can get it in regular, spicy or honey varieties. Would I eat there again? Probably, but more out of convenience then out of choice.

Service: 2

While a couple of the staff there have personalities, for the most part I feel like an inconvenience to their day than a paying customer. This is one of the most disconcerting parts of my experience. When someone goes to the counter to order their food it is customary to smile and greet them warmly. Instead its closer to the deadpan stare of Ben Stein. Maybe its because I am a guy. Who knows?

Atmosphere: 4

Ok, let me defend this one by saying that they just opened not too long ago and their walls are barren. As I understand it the muralist has not come to paint the wall yet. When that happens hopefully it will warm up the cafeteria feel. Plain white walls and absence of all decorations besides a Pepsi wall clock make for no inner life to the place. I would normally rate this kind of display lower but giving them a pass because of their recent re-opening and it really is a very clean looking restaurant.

Overall: 4 (Recommended to carry-out only)

I would expect a lot of these scores to change over time. This is not a chain so they are stuck with the resources they have to get going. For that I know that, if they can stay open, they will likely develop into the kind of restaurant that I would be happy to send people to. Until there I will watch and wait.

BTW, check out their not quite finished website. It has a pretty cool theme so hopefully that is indicative of what their restaurant will look like.

Sugar’s BBQ

3413 3rd Ave N

Pantown Mall

St Cloud, MN 56303

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December 26, 2007 by chad.

There is nothing so pleasing as to have survived the Christmas holiday season and getting back to work after it. There is always so much to do at work that you often think how nice it will be to have time at home, but then the craziness of all the driving and parties…and if you have kids there’s lots of added stress. When it’s a said and done, the eggnog is drank, the best thing in the world is getting back to normalcy. When Robin and I were driving home in the car from my parent’s house I reached that singular moment when I was ready for Christmas to end. Robin was as tired as I was and she quite quickly let me know that it was going to be all down and packed away by the 2nd of January. I asked why and it was a very simple answer. If she didn’t do it by then then she wasn’t going to get it done for a long time because she goes back to work on the 3rd. Aaaah.

We are not the scrooge type of people. We like the season, really we do, but its very taxing on us. Both of us run such hectic lives that it is hard to slow down and appreciate it. It’s such a shame to since our kids are at a fun age when the magic of the season is still so real. When else can you read both a story about Santa Claus and Jesus to your kids and they are both as real as the bed they are lying in?  We can only hope that next year is a little less hectic and a little more relaxing…then maybe, just MAYBE, the holiday season will be more than a rapid succession of parties and gifts and running about like chickens with our heads cut off. We will see.

I need to jet off to Menards now and pick up some sheet rock for the office. We removed a wall and a door, combining 2 smaller offices into one room. The tapper will probably be in tomorrow to finish the work and that sheetrock has to be there and up for him to finish it off.

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