The Hunt Club

The adventure continues.   This time it was FBB turn to choose, and he decided on The Hunt Club on

Columbia Ave.

   This restaurant has changed ownership a couple of times, but it was not hard to figure out who owns it now.  The Atmosphere was nice.  Some of the other areas were shut down due to a lack of business, but it had a decent restaurant vibe.  Unfortunately, that is where the positives ended.  Previously known as a quality restaurant in town, I was surprised when we walked in and were told to “pick a table.”  Having 5 members makes it somewhat difficult to find somewhere to sit, but we made the best of it.  Upon sitting down we looked at some of the specials and immediately noticed all of the small menus on the table said “Moonraker West.”  The menu said Hunt Club, but was identical to the Moonraker previously visited.  It was like witnessing an identity crisis.

 A waitress told us our server would be with us shortly, and she did eventually come out of the kitchen area and take our drink orders.  Now, when you only have one table you would think they would work hard for their tip, but this waitress did not.  In fact, she barely even tried.  After refilling two peoples drinks she basically gave up and brought a pitcher to the table and stated, “I can’t keep up.”  We had been there for 10 minutes and had already put in our order and we were her only table.  What else did she have to do?  She wrote down all five orders, and then messed them up.  Then, after bringing us our food, says “I owe you guys a ketchup.  I will be right back.”  She then goes back to the kitchen.  After five minutes I asked the table next to us for their ketchup.  Later, when she returned she did not have the ketchup, but was there to clear plates.  This leads me to another issue, servers….Make your presence known!!!  Don’t stand next to the table, but make an effort you will be the one who gains (financially) in the long run.  By far the worst waitress we have experienced so far.  SERVICE 1 star.

As always we fatties porked up some on the appetizers.  We had an order of onion rings, and deep fried pickle spears.  I must say personally I liked the onion rings from the Moonraker better which is weird as they should have been the same.  The dill pickle spears were your basic out of the box breaded pickles…nothing special.

I had the turkey club and sweet potato fries for my meal.  The Club was ok, definitely not the best I have ever eaten.  Turkey was your basic out of the package lunch meat.  Bacon was forgettable, and the bread was over toasted.  The sweet potato fries were well below average.  They were small, and soggy.  I could not find a crisp one in the entire bunch.  I left this place disappointed.  Not only for the Hunt Club, but also, for the Moonraker.  I hope we did not just have an accidental good experience at the Moonraker.

This owner needs to take a stand.  Hunt Club is set up to be a restaurant, and Moonraker is more of a  bar.  They have different atmospheres, and require different menus.  Otherwise, the Hunt Club is in its last days. FOOD 1.5 stars

TOTAL: 1.25 stars

~TFM~

So I am sitting here and had a rather peculiar thought. Have you ever wondered by sumo wrestler ware those big diapers?  Well these four sumo's found out exactly why after our last adventure, boy those giant diapers would have came in handy.  Good thing we keep a rather large stock of napkins handy.  Relax, I'm kidding.

Anyway back to the serious discussion of food.  This week I got to choose where we were going to go and off of my enormous list of places to eat in the area, I chose The Hunt Club or was it The Moonraker?  I am not quite sure as the building and sign say Hunt Club while the stuff on the table said The Moonraker, along with a menu nearly identical to The Moonraker.  The owner seems a bit confused or torn.  Let me give a tip "JUST DECIDE", I would not have picked The Hunt Club if I would have known it is The Moonraker in a newer building.  Plus to say it is The Moonraker is a little deceiving because this experience does not even come close to the good experience I had at The Moonraker.  It is important to note that these two establishments are believed to be owned by the same individual.  Which makes you wonder why have two establishments that serve the same cuisine in the same area.  Dude, you are splitting business with yourself.  Well anyway.

This time I ordered the nachos.  The positive of this experience was, you guessed it; no processed cheese.  However, the nachos were soaked in grease and instead of being loosely placed on the plate they were a cheese glued slab of chips.  I was not impressed.  You should be able to pull your chips apart if the nachos are done correctly, you should not have to cut them and eat them with a fork.

FOOD: 2.5 Stars

Now on to the service.  I do not know what happened at this location, because the service at Moonrakers was good.  This waitress appeared to not like her job.  She did get us the correct drinks, but then decided coming to the table to give refills was too much work so she slapped a pitcher on the table saying she can not keep up.  Obviously she was not joking as she also messed up one of the orders and then forgot to bring the ketchup.  The crazy thing is we were her only table.  Also when it came time to divide the checks she put the wrong items on my receipt. I will give her the benefit of the doubt and write it off as a bad day, at least I hope that is all it was.  Either way I will not be returning to this establishment, I would rather just go to The Moonraker. 

Service: 1.5 Stars

Overall:  The owner should make up his mind.  People like to know where they are eating so you need to have one name not two.  Also if you are going to have two establishments this close to each other you should offer something different at one of the locations.  Either way that is just good business.  As for the food and service way below par.  Sorry guys this is not a winner.

OVERALL: 2 Stars

FBB

Well, the atmosphere was nice and I was able to carry on conversation with all those at our table. In fact we were able to converse with the persons at the next table as well and it’s a good thing because we received better service from the patrons at the next table as we had to borrow their ketchup.  There were only 4 tables being served in the place and our server had just our table. The server spent more time in the kitchen doing who knows what rather than being out on the floor. I ordered the walleye sandwich and waffle fries and asked for shredded cheddar cheese on the fries.  What came to the table was a walleye fish sandwich with cheddar cheese on the walleye fillet and regular french fries.  The server was told of the error and she stated that she must have miss understood my order.  Who puts cheddar cheese on a walleye fillet?  All the persons at our table understood my order and relayed to me that my order was clear and simple to understand. The waitress stated she would take care of it but when she returned she had plain waffle fries. I gave up. The Walleye sandwich was a bit over done. I just made the best I could of the situation as our lunch time is limited. I will not return.

Rating: 1 star and that was for the atmosphere.

Biggin.   

I had a jalapeño Burger with pepper jack cheese, and jalapeños on it, with regular fries.  It was ok, but the layer of jalapeños was thicker than the burger.  Made for more jalapeños than I was looking for.  

TVC

This week's foray out of the office (or out of the closet if you are the fat Mexican) brings us to the Hunt Club in Battle Creek.  The business has had a run of tough luck and is under new ownership now.  From what I understand, the owners of the Moonraker also run the Hunt Club now, which explains why their menus are very similar.  The restaurant looks very nice on the inside and out. It wasn't very busy when we arrived at lunch time.  We seated ourselves and had a younger waitress that didn't seem the most competent.  She had made some mistakes with some of the meals other members of our party ordered.  She then proceeded to compound this by denying her mistake (which anyone in food service knows is a no-no, even if the customer is wrong).  I did not have any problems with my meal so I tipped her rather generously, but I know that her tip suffered from everyone else.  She was not around very much either.  Service receives 2 out of 5 stars.

I ordered the chicken nachos with a side of onion rings.  While the onion rings were good, they were not as good as the Moonraker's onion rings, which is ironic as I'm pretty sure they are the same onion rings.  The difference appeared to be the preparation, with the Hunt Club onion rings suffering from overcooking.  The nachos were dry, not very much cheese on them and the chicken was very sparse.  The sour cream and salsa served with the nachos was not sufficient to cover the entire plate.  I was not impressed; I honestly felt I've made better nachos at home.  Food gets 2.5 out of 5 stars.

Overall, I wouldn't go back other than to visit the place for the purposes of their bar, which look well-stocked.  Overall score was 2.25 stars out of 5.

TFR/TFOT