Storm chasing dinner - Portobello Grille

We started our storm chasing weekend in Elk City. Figured it was a pretty central location for Saturday's forecast. Searching through Yelp, there were only 2 highly recommended places to eat since I'm shying away from fastfood places. After checking into the hotel and getting their recommendation, we headed across the street to the Portobello Grille. The Hubby and I both ordered burgers - mushroom and swiss for him, and cheese and avocado for me. No lie, they looked and tasted like I made and grilled them at home. For the $10 each, it was so worth it! For my side i chose the homemade tomato basil soup and after the burger I shouldn't have been surprised. One word - deliciousness. I look forward to storm chasing in Elk City again!

The Machine Shed, Des Moines

On a brief trip visiting the kids, we decided on a popular restaurant in Clive called The Machine Shed. It's a  Cracker Barrel meets Iowa type place with a gift shop in the front, lots of tractors outside, funny signs on the walls, large tables (like the size of barn door!!), very rustic, and to top it all off we drank out of mason jars.

Note: sharing is good - the portions are extra large!

Our server was Cassidy and Sarah (my daughter would give her a grade of A because she was attentive, friendly, gave us suggestions on her favorite meals). I concur on every point. Great positive attitude and took very good care of us.

(I was so hire her!)

The four of us shared a chose two appetizer and two main course meals and we could barely finish it! The Beer Cheese Fondue comes with soft and thick pretzel sticks and it was my favorite. It was enjoyed thoroughly by the whole family. The other appetizer was potato skins with shredded beef and BBQ sauce. Sarah said it has everything on it she would ever want. (lol) Jason (my son) said his favorite part of the meal was the sweet potato with cinnamon butter that came on the side of the fried chicken.

In asking my husband what his favorite part of the meal, he answered "the water pitcher on the table was cool"; laughing he said the flavor of the gravy in the pot roast was also his favorite. Followed by the pretzel stick and then he wished he saved room for a piece of the 11" apple pie in the case as we left.

It did have a very diverse menu, expensive steaks, large burgers, flavorful fish, and home-style favorites. My son says now he wants to go back and have dessert. Ah...kids. :)

The Keeter Center, Branson, MO

 We had a wonderful week in Branson, thanks partly to our great friends who gifted, yes gifted, us their timeshare for the week. It was nice to be able to cook breakfast every morning and a few of the nights we were in town. It helped keep costs down and provided a more family atmosphere that we were looking for since it was a family Christmas after all. On Wednesday morning at 9am, we took the kids back to their Dad’s house in LeGrand, IA and then turned around and came back to Branson, MO for two more nights. We arrived back in Branson at 3:30am on Thursday. Wow…

After trying to recover a bit Thursday night, The Hubby surprised me with a dinner date to The Keeter Center. While others may just see a huge log cabin, amazing interior and incredible food, I found the place tremendously astounding. The Keeter Center is on the property of the College of the Ozarks in Point Lookout, MO. The students at the college all work on campus in some sort of fashion in order to graduate debt-free. Their workstations include the restaurant as servers and cooks, the mill, where they grind their own flour and sell bread mixes, the fruitcake and jelly kitchen, the dairy, milking cows, and many other places. There are 44 majors in the college and are internationally accredited.

Service was impeccable from Reagan, and the food was beyond spectacular. 

I ordered the special, Chicken Cordon Bleu and the sauce was literally mouthwatering. Grilled carrots fresh from the garden along with asparagus that couldn’t have been cooked any better. The Hubby ordered the Chicken Duet with mashed potatoes and the same veggies. The meat practically fell off the bone. The Hubby actually had room for dessert!! White Chocolate Bread Pudding with an apple cider sauce... oh my goodness... During the meal, another student came in and graced us with her wonderful piano playing abilities. What a great night! He sure does know how to touch my heart in the hospitality field. What a dear!

I can’t wait until we go back to Branson for many reasons, but one specifically being to take the tour of the campus and eat in the restaurant again. They also have a 15 room bed and breakfast I just might have to try out as well.

The Keeter Center gets a huge 5 stars in my book!!

Des Moines Outback

While passing through Des Moines, IA we decided to stop at a favorite of ours, Outback. We have eaten at this particular location once before, so figured it was a good choice.

The wait wasn't long although misquoted horribly; service was okay; and the food/presentation left something to be desired. The Hubby and I split most meals because we just don't eat the size portions that are served in the restaurants today. We usually order an appetizer and one meal to split. Every other time we split a meal at Outback, it comes on two plates. This time, I guess either the server didn't ring it in properly or the expo cook didn't bother. Either way, we had to ask for another plate for both courses.

My favorite thing at Outback is their wedge salad. Not this visit. Presentation and taste left a lot to be desired. Never mind the fact that I asked for no onions and they didn't bother to adhere to that request. Overall it was an okay visit. I'm sure we will try them again, for as many times as we travel up that way.

Dean & Deluca... not impressed

The Hubby 

Kansas City, MO
Upon rave recommendations from good friends in Kansas City, we opted to try Dean & Deluca for dinner on our way through Kansas City. It's a store that has a deli, bakery, and barista inside. Unique concept - well lit, well stocked, and had a feel of a New York style deli to us. After perusing the aisles of creative food items, we both ordered sandwiches from the less than friendly sandwich maker. He wasn't rude at all, just no smiles or friendly greeting, only 'what can I get you'. Strange for such a well setup place. No real hospitality.

The Hubby ordered the tuna and I chose the turkey and brie on sourdough. His tuna was chock full of onions, so much so that he took it back and ordered something different - roast beef. In his words - it's better than the tuna, not bad.

Mine was okay - it had an apricot mustard that overpowered everything else in the sandwich. After taking the sandwich apart and eating only the inside, it was... okay.

I picked out a snickerdoodle cookie and hot tea for afterwards and they were both good. Everything was over priced and had a stuffy feel to the whole thing. Will we go back, even if someone else was paying? Probably not. Next!

The Venetian for dinner and a movie

It's a movie theater, so no pictures. Not sure the 15 other people in the theater would have been too appreciative. ;)

The Hubby and I waiting until mid-week to see The Hobbit because we wanted to make sure we got a good seat in the theater. He had bought Groupons for the new dinner theater in Carrollton called the Venetian. It's an old grocery store that has been remodeled and in my opinion with too much gold paint (I mean like 50 gallons too much). Service was very 'wa-wa' although the Hubby enjoyed his burger thoroughly.

For chairs, viewing this 2+ hour movie, we sat in high back leather desk chairs. Yes, I said desk chairs. Like we didn't just sit in desk chairs all day. Not able to lean back or get reasonably comfortable, I would have rather dined at home and watched the movie elsewhere.

Hospitality was great at the front desk, but that's where it stopped. Bartender was less than thrilled to even be awake it seemed and our server was more mono-toned and straight faced than an IRS agent. They need some serious hospitality training in that place. At least the cook knew how to do his job. Blah...

Cattlemen's in Oklahoma City

Oh my yumminess... (is yumminess a word?)

The Hubby has been raving about Cattlemen's restaurant in the historic Stockyard City by Oklahoma City since we met, and on the way home from an Iowa trip, I finally got to sink my teeth into the most tender, delicious steak ever. From the picture you can see the juices on the steak plate, yes, it was that moist.

Note: This is one person's meal... thank goodness we shared

Setting: I'm not sure if anything has changed except for some basic updates since the restaurant opened 1910. However, it is very well kept and looks clean even behind the open counter setup.

People: There must be something in the air for the niceness that comes out of every worker. Besides being friendly at the table, they were friendly to each other, and other restaurant patrons. Classic thing that actually happened - a police officer walked in, said hi to the server by name as he sat up at the open kitchen bar, and   other server called from the other side - Hi Sam! Felt like we were in the cowboy version of Cheers.

I look forward to going back and enjoying the rest of the cute town!