Bariola's Pizzeria

Well, Guido's in Fayetteville has been Bariola's for a month now.  And I'm not sure I like what I see.  As I mentioned before, we always get our pizza to go - but they seem to be having issues with the drive-thru.  As in, no one can hear you honk, so Frank usually goes inside now to pick up our order.  And it's not like they were busy when we ordered.

We got a pepperoni pizza again, because it's usually pretty tasty.  This time the pizza was off.  The crust didn't crisp up properly.  Frank says it looked more like they spread the crust in a pan instead of throwing it.  Also, it was greasy.  The Guido's pizzas usually aren't very greasy, but this one was.  It tasted okay, but not as tasty as normal.

One thing they do properly, though, is that they don't skimp on cheese or crushed peppers.  I asked for both and got 4 containers of cheese and 2 of crushed red peppers.  That was about the only thing they got right this time.  I'm lowering them to 3-1/2 stars.  Let's hope this was a fluke, and not the new management style.

Hunan Manor

I've been eating here ever since they moved to Wedington Drive.  I'll admit to not having eaten at a lot of Chinese restaurants in Fayetteville, but that's because for the past decade, in 4 different cities, pretty much every Chinese restaurant I've eaten at has been bad.  I mean bland, and Americanized to death.  The Super Buffet has killed Chinese food.  The first restaurant I tried in Fayetteville was typical (and went out of business right after that).  Luckily, Hunan Manor is the exception!

Their food tastes different from other Chinese restaurants, in general, because their sauce is black bean based (according to Frank).  This gives a darker color and taste to their food.  I rarely eat in, but the drive-thru is usually fast, even when the line is long.  The inside has a small buffet, with tables and a high ceiling.  The ambiance isn't too bad.  I would stay away from the buffet and order off the menu.

My favorite dish is the Hot Crispy Beef.  It's a little spicy, and very crispy and totally yummy!  It takes a little while to cook, so order it ahead of time if you use the drive-thru.  The General Tso's Chicken is also good, but it tastes a bit strong to me.  Other semi-spicy dishes that are good are the Double Cooked Pork and the Hunan Pork.  If you want something milder, try the Pork with Spring Onions.  No spice (except the onion) but lots of flavor.  (Can you tell I love pork?)

For appetizers, I'm partial to the Beef Teriyaki.  You get 4 skewers, and it's pretty good.  The egg rolls are a bit generic though.  Frank says the Steamed Dumplings are good, especially the ginger-soy sauce they come with.  I only had the Fried Jumbo Shrimp once, and it seemed somewhat generic too.

Hunan Manor also has Vegetarian dishes and Fried Rice, Low Mein, and Chow Mein.  The Low Mein is just spaghetti noodles, like most Chinese restaurants nowadays.  I'm not too fond of their Fried Rice.  Frank likes the Pork Fried Rice, but not the Chicken - too generic.  I tried the Shrimp Fried Rice, but I couldn't eat it.  It had an odd taste to it, the shrimp and the rice.  I guess I just don't like whatever spice they put in there.

This is a hard restaurant for me to review, star-wise.  I mean, it's one of my favorite restaurants and I use the drive-thru all the time.  But there are some items that are kind of generic.  In the interests of fairness, I guess I'll have to say 3-1/2 to 4 stars.

Tokyo Japanese Steakhouse

This is another restaurant in West Monroe, Louisiana.  I've eaten here off and on for years, and I especially love their Shrimp Tempura Roll.  I was looking at the reviews on Urban Spoon, and over the summer the reviews were pretty bad.  I did eat here over the summer, and I will say my California Roll smelled off, and I couldn't eat it, so apparently it wasn't just me.  But I've eaten here so much that I had to give them another chance.  And I'm glad I did!

I had the squid salad, and we ordered a mix of various sushi:  California Roll, Shrimp Tempura Roll, Eel Roll, Soft-Shell Crab Roll, and my aunt had gyoza.  The squid salad was great.  Big hunks of squid with cucumbers and stuff (seaweed, I think), in some kind of dressing.  I really can't get more specific, because I'm not entirely sure what's in there.  (HINT:  For an extra tasty treat, get squid salad and seaweed salad, and mix them together.  Very filling too!)   The California Roll was good, although, like most sushi places nowadays, they do use shredded Krab, not the whole pieces.  The Shrimp Tempura Roll is excellent!  It's my favorite.  Fried shrimp and avocado with a hint of wasabi, and some kind of soy sauce (I think).  The other rolls were good too.  And the service was quick.  I mean, there must have been a lull when we ordered, because our sushi came out fast.

We did get a young server, and I have to wonder if he was new.  Usually the server brings you plates for your sushi order, but we had to ask for them.  He seemed surprised that we wanted plates, and asked if everyone wanted one.  Other than that, it was really good.  So hopefully things are back to normal now, and this wasn't just a fluke.  Four stars.

Cracker Barrel

So, I was down in West Monroe, Louisiana for Thanksgiving, which was kind of a last minute affair, so we decided to eat out.  And we chose Cracker Barrel.  Remember, this is Thanksgiving Day, so it was PACKED.  We got there around 10:30 and I went in and stood in line to get our name on the list (party of 6).  The rest of our group showed up around 11:00 and we got in around 11:15.  I was fairly impressed.  By that time, the place was even more packed (if that's possible) and they seated a party of 15 just before us.

They had a special for Thanksgiving.  You got a drink, 2 slices of turkey (white meat) with gravy, dressing, vegetable, sweet potato casserole, 1 slice of ham, the usual biscuits or cornbread, and a piece of pie for dessert.  The pie was pumpkin, with a thick crumb/struesel layer on top.  It was fabulous!  The turkey was great, but there wasn't really enough gravy for the dressing.  Luckily I got the mashed potatoes and gravy as my veggie.  I like sweet potatoes, but the casserole just tasted funny to me.  The ham was good, but I was getting kind of full by then.  And, did I mention the best part?  That whole meal was only $8.99 per person!  You can even order ahead of time and get it to go if you want.  The service wasn't even that slow considering how packed they were, and everyone was friendly.  So 4 for 4-1/2 stars for Thanksgiving at Cracker Barrel!

ReRico's Brazilian Grill

This restaurant is in Springfield, near Highway 65.  If you've never had Brazilian before, they bring around skewers of meat and cut pieces off at your table.  If I understood correctly, this one only does that for supper, not for lunch.  Also, this restaurant was a bit different from the other Brazilian restaurants I've been to.  They start with a soup, and you go to the salad bar, and they bring out yummy Brazilian bread balls (they looked kind of like cream puffs, but buttery on the inside).  They also gave us a complimentary California Roll, which was pretty generic, even for a California Roll.

After they try to fill you up on all of that, then the meat comes out.  Luckily, I paced myself properly - what can I say, I loved grilled meat!  The meat was great!  It was medium rare, which a few people in our group weren't too happy about, but in my mind, that's how good meat should be cooked.  And it was good quality meat.  There was teriyaki beef, sausage, horseradish crusted beef, parmesan crusted beef, BBQ pork loin (well done, of course), and a few others.  There was generic fried shrimp, that was way too lemony.  They also brought out samples of what they called Brazilian Meatloaf.  It was good too, although the sauce on it reminded me of the sauce on the California Roll.

Overall, they were okay.  Good meat, fairly good salad bar; I especially enjoyed the squid salad.  Delicious rolls.  I wasn't too fond of the Potato and Corn Chowder though.  The wait staff was good, and the meat servers were funny.  I even had the chocolate mousse for dessert (costs extra).  But for some reason, it comes across as a little generic.  Maybe because we were in the main section by the bar, and a large TV was on in the corner.  I really feel that televisions should be relegated to sports bars or wing joints.  But the food was good, so 3-1/2 stars.

Mel's Hard Luck Diner

This restaurant is in Branson, and it's really good.  We went on a Friday night, the first weekend of the Christmas shows in Branson, so it was packed.  And it still managed to be good.  I had the pot roast sandwich, which was called something like the Hot Beefin' Somethingorother.  It's actual pot roast, cut into cubes, on a hoagie, with brown gravy.  Add mashed potatoes and the vegetable of the day (green beans) and it's amazing.  This is the best open-face roast beef sandwich I have ever had.  Most places use sliced deli meat, although Cracker Barrel uses a slice of pot roast.  But not Mel's!  You get huge cubes of pot roast!  The green beans were a bit generic, but the mashed potatoes were great, the gravy was great, and the beef is almost falling apart.  I had to pick off a few pieces of fat, but there should be fat on a pot roast.  My only complaint was that I wish there was a bit more hoagie.

An added bonus at Mel's is the singing servers.  Yes, the wait staff takes turns singing, while they are filling your order.  You can even buy their CDs in the gift shop.  They all have amazing voices and I was actually tempted to buy a CD or two.  I also caught a glimpse of one of their sundaes, and it was so huge I'm not sure 2 people could finish it.  The sandwich was so good that I have to give them 4-1/2 stars.  Great food, great singing, great service, even though they were packed.

Edit: added photo from May 2012.

Mimi's Cafe

We went up to Mimi's today.  It's next to Borders, at the Pinnacle Hills mall.  I've eaten at Mimi's several times, but I haven't been there in a few years; they're slipping a little.  My mom and I arrived early and had to wait for one of her friends to join us.  The service was really good for getting us a seat, and they even asked for the name of the person we were waiting for.  Our waitress came over not long after and we ordered drinks and then waited for our third person.

Once she arrived we ordered.  I had the Petite Filet with Asparagus and Balsamic Greens.  It took a while for our food to arrive, and when it did, it was okay.  The filet was cooked properly (medium), but it was a bit raggedy-looking.  I usually don't use steak sauce with good steaks, but I did with this one.  The balsamic greens were kind of a spring mix, but there wasn't any dressing.  The asparagus was grilled, and it was good, but there was a problem:  Mimi's has these large 3-tined forks, and the stalks were so small that they fit between the fork tines; I actually had to eat the asparagus with my fingers!

The last time I was here they brought out fresh bread and some of their scrumptious carrot cake after you placed your order.  You got to nosh on that at the beginning of the meal.  This time, there was nothing.  The service was a little slow, the food was a little slow, and the food was only okay.  A few years ago I would have given Mimi's 4-1/2 stars, but now, they're only about 3 to 3-1/2.

Kobe Hibachi Grill & Sushi

My mom's in town, so we went out for dinner last night and wound up at Kobe.  It's in the little side strip mall by Target and Kohl's.  I really like it.  It's dark and has teppanyaki tables on one side and a sushi bar on the other.  In between are tables, and the ones against the wall have those built in "booth" style seats.

We both got their kind of box meal.  They have a lunch version and a dinner version.  For dinner, you get a salad with some kind of miso dressing, soup (miso), and then your order comes on a tray divided into compartments.  You get 2 or 3 choices of "entree" plus white rice, edamame, and gyoza (those crescent-shaped fried dumpling things).

I ordered the Shrimp Tempura Sushi and Chicken Teriyaki.  My mom had the same sushi, but Beef Teriyaki.  It was great!  Tender white meat chicken in a light, sweet teriyaki sauce.  The beef was the normal sliced beef you get in Asian restaurants.  One reason I love their teriyaki is because they don't overdo it.  It's not too salty and it's not too sweet either.  The sushi has the tempura shrimp, avocado, shredded fake crab, and some kind of sauce over it.  I think there's some panko crumbs on the outside too.  I prefer just the shrimp, but the other stuff is fine.  Overall, I'd give them 4 to 4-1/2 stars.  The ambiance is good, the service is good, the prices are good, and the food was great! 

Royal Donut Company

If there's one thing Frank and I agree on, it's that there isn't a good doughnut place in this town.  Generally, if I want a chocolate-covered doughnut, I just go to Harp's.  They're not great, but they're okay.  Frank prefers cake doughnuts though, and good ones are harder to come by.  Now, before you tell me to try Rick's, let me explain that I just want a freaking doughnut store, not a bakery.  It makes me desperate for a Dunkin's!

Anyway, Royal Donut is not bad.  This is the one on Shiloh.  They open early, like they should, and you can even drop by around 2 am if you use the drive-up window.  In fact, if you place a large enough order, they'll even deliver it!  They have the usual doughnuts and coffee, but they also have sausage rolls and biscuits and gravy on their menu.  We have tried them yet, but Frank is game.  My favorite is the doughnut holes.

When we first moved here, we tried Royal Donut, and at that point they kind of sucked.  They've recently improved, but their doughnuts are still a little dry.  That's one reason the doughnut holes are my favorite - because they're small enough that they aren't as dry.  Also, you get a dozen for a dollar!  What more could you ask for?  Well, I believe they're available in several flavors.  I just usually get the plain glazed ones.  Overall, I'd have to give them 3 stars.  Not great, but good.  (Especially the doughnut holes!)