Canyon Southwest Café
The aroma of exotic foods creates an eccentric taste for food lovers. The captivating ambiance and amazing atmosphere of The Canyon Southwest Café offers famous Asian, Central and South American dishes that will surely delight your taste buds.

Fine Dining at the Grill Room on Las Olas
Fine dining in Fort Lauderdale Restaurants is best savored at Grill Room along Las Olas Blvd. The restaurant offers a wide range of New American specialties delicately combined from the contemporary with traditional, fused with Latin zest as part of their continental favorites. Guests will surely enjoy a superb dining experience as the Grill Room displays its lavish decor and neatly dressed attendants take orders, while choosing from its top-rated dishes like rack of lamb, yellow fin tuna, sauteed jumbo shrimp, and succulent veal chop while enjoying a glass of good quality wine from its wine cellar which can store 1500 bottles.

3030 Ocean
3030 Ocean in Marriott’s Harbor Beach Resort offers an amazing summer soothing menu, prefect to refresh your hunger for garden-fresh salads and fresh seafoods. Their unique salads are filled with the green and freshly-picked ingredients starting from appetizers such as the watermelon and French feta salad, main courses include wild arugula salad with passion fruit vinaigrette or tempura tuna with sweet rice. There is also a separate menu for thirst quenching beverages such as the Goombay Smash which is prepared with sweet mix of banana liqueur, orange and pineapple juices, and rum or try the special Frozen Oreo Mudslide that is made up of vanilla vodka, Kahlua, and of course Oreos and cream.

Sunfish Grill
Beach goers shouldn’t miss a delightful seafood meal at Sunfish Grill, a platter from their authentic seafood menu will surely give you gastronomical delight in an instant. The restaurant also offers a superb menu of juicy beef and chicken dishes glazed with their flavorful sauces as well as an assortment of freshly bakes breads, and sweet homemade desserts you can order anytime.

The Ho Chunk’s restaurants are on the second floor, away from the sounds and excitement of the first floor casino and this makes for a quieter dining experience.  The StandRock Buffet has always been okay, but the Friday Fish Fry Buffet was excellent.  Even for a fish fry the selection of fish was amazing.  There were twelve varieties of fish and seafood including salmon (two ways),  blue gill, craw fish, swordfish, cod, walleye,tuna, stuffed grouper, and fried shrimp.

Fish were the featured items, but there was an abundant selection of meats and vegetables, a fresh salad bar, and a wonderful variety of desserts.  Like many casinos this size, drinks are self serve.

The Friday night Fish Fry was very reasonably priced at$13.99.  But you can get a 10% discount on all meals by using your player’s card and new player’s club members get an ever larger discount.

Our party of six enjoyed the Stand Rock’s fish fry and heartily recommend it.  I felt the quality of food had definitely gone up a notch or two since our last visit and no longer hesitate to include the Ho Chunk Stand Rock Buffet on my list of excellent and yummy mealtime destinations.

Ho Chunk Casino’s Stand Rock Buffet
S3214 Highway 12
Baraboo, Wisconsin 53913
Toll-free: (800) 746-2486
http://www.ho-chunk.com

On a recent trip to Quincy, Illinois my parents took us to the Village Inn for Sunday lunch. Going to any restaurant on Sunday at lunchtime is a long line just waiting to happen. We arrived at 12:30 and only had a 10 minute wait. So far so good. The waitress was prompt with our menus and drinks and came back for our order in a reasonable amount of time. She didn’t seem particularly happy about being there, but maybe it had been a long morning.
The Village Inn menu was full of interesting possibilities, but you can’t have everything the on the first visit. I ordered the Boulder Sausage Skillet, which included Italian sausage, bratwurst, and ham on top of chunky hash browns, smothered with melted cheese, and topped with two scrambled eggs. Three pancakes on the side rounded out the order. The sausage skillet was great. The hash browns tasted like they were homemade, not a frozen heat-up item. The sliced and chopped meats were yummy and a perfect combination with the potatoes, cheese, and scrambled eggs. The pancakes were okay, nothing special, but with the sweet syrup they added a nice contrast to the rest of the meal.

The menu includes a huge variety of breakfast items which are available at all times, an interesting mix of entrees and pies galore. Prices are very reasonable and the menu includes a special section of smaller portion/lower price items.

Everyone in my party enjoyed the Village Inn’s food, the atmosphere and building décor were pleasant, but the service was a little iffy. Our waitress didn’t seem to have a real good handle on customer service and we had a long wait for our order. However, during a Sunday lunch rush, speedy service may be too much to expect. I am willing to consider this an aberration unless I don’t see an improvement the next time I visit.

And visit again, we will. I have no reservations in recommending the Village Inn for an excellent family style cooked meal. I can’t wait to explore their menu again soon.

Village Inn
200 North 36th Street
Quincy, Illinois 62301-3743
217-228-1817

On a recent trip to Alton we took guests to Tony’s Restaurant for their first visit.  As in our evening visits, the atmosphere was pleasant, though a little dark, the service was good, and the food better.

I ordered the baked cannelloni and can highly recommend it.  The noodles were just right, the meat filling was hearty, the marinara sauce tasty, and everything was covered with melted Italian cheese.  Very yummy food.  The serving size was more than enough for lunch or any meal.  I also ordered a small sausage and mushroom pizza as an appetizer so we could try Tony’s take on this Italian favorite.  It was a St. Louis-style thin crust pizza and very good.

One person in our party ordered the house salad with her meal and it was huge.  If you are a salad person you will be pleased.  My son ordered the Italian beef sandwich which he enjoyed very much.  However, unlike most Italian beef sandwiches that come on a hoagie/sub type bun, Tony’s uses a kaiser roll.  Not good or bad, just different.

After entrees, pizza, and lots of their homemade bread, dessert was out of the question.  We did observe cheesecake being served to other diners and it made us wish we still had room for dessert.  Also on the must try in the future list is one of their 1/2 pound burgers – they are made from ground tenderloin!

With lunchtime prices ranging from $6 to $10, its not dirt cheap but the quality of the food easily makes for a high price/value/quality meal.

Tony’s Restaurant
312 Piasa St
Alton, IL 62002
(618) 462-8384

Thursday evening is Crab Leg Night and Friday night features seafood. Both nights are a little pricier than usual, $17.95, but if you are a crab lover, the monster legs they offer will be enticing. 

I am very picky about my mashed potatoes. No one makes better mashed potatoes than my mother. I grew up thinking that if mashed potatoes were lumpy or had potato skins showing, well, they just weren’t good mashed potatoes. At restaurants (since they can’t make them like my mom), I have learned that skins and lumps are a good sign. These previously to-be-avoided characteristics are a sign that these potatoes are “real potatoes” not the detested instant variety that are so common. The Captain’s Table has very good mashed potatoes, (skins visible), that unlike so many mashed potatoes, taste like potatoes. 

Everyone will will find a good meal here with a nice variety and meat eaters will appreciate the fresh sliced prime rib, and ham.

Recommendation: Go early in the mealtime to avoid the crowd and to get the freshest food. After mealtime, a low volume of diners can result in some items staying in the serving area a little too long. 

Tip: If you are 50 or older, be sure to get the free Argosy Preferred Card at the casino entrance and save 10% on your meal.


The Captain’s Table Buffet
Argosy Casino Alton
Alton, Illinois

And a very good buffet it is.  A yummy selection of meats including smoked chicken, spare ribs,  pork shoulder and smoked sausage is augmented by the standard buffet items  –  green beans, mashed potatoes and gravy, slaw, etc.  What is not standard to most buffets are the red beans and rice, corn whiskey pudding, BBQ baked beans, turnip greens, cooked cabbage, and maple peaches.

Everything I tried, I enjoyed.  But surprisingly to me, amidst all of the tasty items, my favorites were the smoked sausage and red beans.  Others in my group, claimed the turnip greens and the cabbage were also exceptional.

When entering the restaurant, we were greeted by Mrs. Bill Shanle, one of the owners.   Her husband, Bill, ironically, is from our hometown of Jacksonville, Illinois.  They moved to Memphis twenty years ago and have become a fixture in the downtown restaurant scene with the opening of Leonard’s BBQ Buffet.

Leonard’s offers two types of buffets for the downtown business customers that need to get in and out quickly.  The less expensive is the BBQ sandwich and salad bar or what we opted for – the eat everything that’s not tied down buffet.  The full buffet costs about nine dollars with tax included but due to increasing costs expect an increase of about one dollar and fifty cents soon.

Just a few blocks from Beale Street and Auto Zone Park, and a short drive from the Memphis Zoo, Leonard’s makes an ideal lunch stop.  Located on a part of Main Street that is available by foot or trolley only, Leonard’s is well hidden from the normal city traffic.   With luck you will be able to park nearby, but make sure you pay the meter.  We observed lots of cars with parking tickets attached.

The Memphis downtown area has many very good restaurants, but the lunch only Leonard’s BBQ Buffet is a great start to exploring Memphis barbecue.

Update May 2009 – Just as good as on our last trip, but they’ve added a weekday evening buffet.

Leonard’s BBQ Downtown103 N. Main StreetMemphis, TNPhone 901.528.0825Fax 901.528.0882