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Billie Jeans Grasshopper Grill Gastonia, NC

Now that we have a new house in a new city, we have to find out about the local restaurants. Billie Jeans Grasshopper Grill is an American Fare restaurant located on Union Road about 10 minutes from our house.

Marlene had a steak salad and I had a half club with potato soup. We also had fried pickles. Service was quick and the food was fine. It was your typical American Fare. Price in the $8-12 range.

Sir Edmund Haley's Pub

Sir Edmund Haley's Pub is located in the Park Road Shopping center. It is pretty well hidden behind the crook in the middle. The pub had a pretty good write up in South Park Living Magazine so I thought we would give it a try.

On first inspection it looked pretty good. The menu wasn't the largest, but it did have a pretty unique selection for pub fare. It is not often that you see ostrich on the menu at a pub. I had a rueben sandwich with french fries. Marlene had fish and chips. The sandwich was Ok. It was what a rueben was supposed to be, just like every other rueben in Charlotte-nothing special. Marlene wasn't too impressed with the fish in the fish and chips. Let's face it, you need to be able to do good fish and chips at a British pub. I will say that the fries are probably the best I have had for quite some time.

The thing that got me the most was the service. I should actually say lack of service. It ranks as the worst service I have seen in a restaurant since Dakota's last year. It took almost 25 minutes just to get a drink order into the waiter.

I was really looking forward to a good experience after the review. I have to say that I couldn't recommend anything here. There are just too many other good pubs in Charlotte that serve same stuff with better service.

Toyo Sushi and Grill

The Toyo Sushi and Grill is located in Providence Square on International Drive, which happens to be in our apartment complex. After a long day with Sean's office move we decided we did not want to venture too far for dinner.
Although the place is pretty humble we were both pleasantly surprised by the warm atmosphere and friendly staff. Even though it was decorated with some of the kitschy things restaurants use to come up with a theme it was done sparingly and artistically. One of the couples that came in after us chose to sit at the bar where they could watch their sushi being prepared. Sean ordered the Beef Teriyaki Negamaki and I ordered the Spicy Mexican shrimp roll sushi and the California Roll. The presentation was really cool, especially my sushi plate which was a wooden platter, with wasabi, pickled ginger, the sushi laid out artistically and garnished with a carrot butterfly. Really really good sushi. The Mexican roll was $6 and the California roll was $3.50. We each had ice tea and then switched to red wine -- ok no wine list but as Sean said "it was a good day". For dessert we shared fried banana with vanilla ice cream. The bill came to $40 plus tip. This was definitely a case of not judging a book by it's cover. I know when my sister comes to visit we'll definitely have a great place to go for sushi. I took my fancy carrot garnish home so Sean could take a picture.

Red Rock Bakery and Cafe

The Red Rock Cafe Bar and Bakery is located at the intersection of Fairview and Providence Road in the Strawberry Hill shopping center. This is on the northeast corner of the intersection and can be easily missed while driving.

We went in for lunch on a Saturday afternoon. There were a few bridal showers going on, but the place was empty for the most part. We asked for a smoking table and were told there was only one. This is the new trend in the restaurant business these days. So we opted to sit at the bar. The bar is located right in the center of the restaurant. All of the partrons have to go through the bar to get anywhere else. It would have made more sense for them to have a smoking section with more than one table and not have smoking at the bar.

We ordered two beers, a rueben, and a hamburger. Nothing really to write home about here. The rueben was tasty, but very soggy. It seemed that it had been sitting waiting for the hamburger to be cooked. The fries were excellent. I wish Greg's would have these fries instead of the ones they serve.

Overall it was ok. It was about what you could expect from a Harpers, Ruby Tuesdays, or any other chain restaurant. I think the best part was using the match books later for the product shot.

Tsing Tao

Tsing Tao is a Chinese buffet located on Monroe road about 2 blocks north of NC 51/Pineville-Mathews Road. They offer a 50 item buffet for a reasonable price.

Overall we were not impressed. The inside is not the cleanest and the food was so so at best. You get what you pay for and we got it.

Greg's BBQ

Greg's BBQ is located on Monroe road about 1 mile north of the NC 51/Pineville Matthews Road. They have been in business for over 30 years and as the name suggests they serve BBQ. They are typical of North Carolina in that they do not serve ribs. They serve chopped or sliced plates and sandwiches. They have a bigger menu than the name suggests with daily specials. They also offer pita type sandwiches-Gyros, Chicken, etc.

30 years of history generates quite a few characters. The location is a in a strip center, but the ambiance inside is more country. The conversations from the staff were more reminiscent of a backwater Carolina venue. Not a distraction, more like free entertainment.

I had the chopped Big BBQ Sandwich with slaw and fries. Marlene had the chicken pita with fries. The sandwich came out in the typical wax paper. It looked really tiny until I opened it up. It was stuffed with BBQ! Like most NC BBQ, it needed some sauce and the one at the table provided suitable 'tang' to the meat. Marlene's chicken pita was better than she and I expected. Who expects Pita's in a BBQ joint. We both ended up being stuffed for the 12 dollars we spent between the meals and tea. The only complaint I had was that the fries were not the most spectacular. They looked like out of the bag frozen fries that you could pick up in a grocery store. They would do themselves well to get a better brand of fries.

Overall it was a good place for heavy lunch or a light dinner.

Southend Brewery

Southend Brewery and Smokehouse opened in Charlotte, NC's South End on April 22, 1995. Stainless steel vats are visible amidst exposed brick, wood, rafters, and pipes inside this renovated mill. The atmosphere is very low-key and everyone will feel at home.

Marlene and I started out with an order of onion rings served with BBQ and Blue Cheese sauces. This whet our appetite for the main course of BBQ'ed Baby Back ribs. The ribs were served Southern Style. Which means slow cooked with sauce vs. Memphis style which is a dry rub. The ribs were accompanied by French fries and cole-slaw. The ribs were excellent with a just enough bite in the sauce to leave a tang. We also had a couple of beers with dinner.

They have a very good deal on beer as well. They craft brew eight varieties of beer from Southern Blond to Oatmeal Stout. They have a beer-club where you can buy a full 24OZ glass of beer with your name engraved on it for $25.00. It's refillable everyday for a year for the 16oz price. That is 8 free ounces of beer for those of you that cannot add. They also allow you to take home and refill 64oz Growlers.

Overall it was a good experience. It is definitely not the fanciest place in the world, but had good service, food, and atmosphere

Dakotas

My wife and I recently decided to try Dakotas in the Arboretum shopping center. I had been hearing about the the restaurant from Al Gardner a member of Charlotte’s Morning News on my talk radio station WBT 1110 talking about this place.

I listen to these guys every morning on my drive into work. I thought Al seemed to love the place. Of course that was probably advertising. Marlene wanted to go to dinner, so I thought we would try it.

The interior is what you would expect. The soft lighting gave warm tones to the walls making the place nice and cozy. We were seated at a table for two up near the windows.

The table we were sitting at had a wobble. This was rather disappointing in any restaurant, but is by no means an uncommon occurrence. Normally the wait staff would stabilize the table with a matchbook or some other item. Our waitress was clueless. She spent 5 minutes trying to figure out which side was wobbling. This would have been ok if there had not been so many other empty tables about. We were finally reseated at another table 5 feet from this one.

Finally, we could open the menus. To my dismay, it was only two pages. This is a place with dishes in the 15-30 dollar range. I expected a little bit more variety than 6 appetizers, 6 salads, and 6 entrees. Ok maybe I am a spoiled heathen. Marlene ordered the potato encrusted Salmon. I ordered the meatloaf. I had recently had another meatloaf up the street at City Tavern (Sorry about the annoying music) and wanted to compare the two. The meatloaf at CT is GREAT.

The wine list was pretty good. Marlene had a gewürztraminer and I had a Shiraz. The food took a little longer than I had expected with the small crowd.

Marlene loved the salmon. It was very tasty and perfectly cooked. I was not impressed with my $17.00 meatloaf. It was bland and the fork tines were too big for the sides that came with the meal.

Our overall impression is that it has potential, but they need to improve their menu and their service. A place where dinner for two with a bottle of wine cost $100 should have been more spectacular This was our first time there and first impressions are important. Our first impression is that there are too many other good places in Charlotte that we will go to and recommend before Dakota’s