The Griffin Pub

One of the mainstays of the Battle Creek Downtown scene (if there is such a thing), the Griffin sports a good drink menu and a decent food menu.  I must admit that I used to frequent the Griffin before I got married but have only been back a few times in the 7 years since that fateful day, and have not eaten there for over 2 years. 

I ended up going with an item that I had not tried and an item I've had before.  The new item I tried was the Texas Chili Burger.  Served open-face, it is a burger on Texas toast, covered in chili and fried onion-strings.  I ordered the basked with fries and coleslaw.  I also ordered a bowl of Pepper-Jack potato soup, which is the item I've had before.  The soup was good, but different from what I remember of it.  The coleslaw was great, some of the best I've had.  The burger and fries were not even mediocre.  The fries are your basic frozen crinkle fries and tasted a bit overdone to me.  The chili on the burger was ok, but I would have been better eating chili by itself.  The burger meat was meh, and the Texas toast absorbed all the juices making it a spongy mess.  The flavors just didn’t seem to meld together well.  Food was 2 stars out of 5.

Regarding service.  Our waitress was pretty bad.  She couldn't remember who had what, including drinks, appetizers and main dishes.  I had asked her for ranch dressing when I ordered my food but she forgot to bring it out.  Then she brings out 2 cups of ranch, however one turned out to be tartar sauce.  Additionally, she was no Suzie-on-the-spot with the refills, which is important to me.  Finally, she screwed up and charged me for a pop when all I had was water.  Service was 1.5 stars out of 5. 

Overall rating was 1.75 stars out of 5.  Sadly, I have fonder memories of the Griffin than this and I don't anticipate returning there for a long time again.

TFOT

Being one of the mainstays in downtown area I must admit that I was pretty excited about trying their food.  I had only been to the Griffin one time and we were there for a sporting event, and did not try their food.  We sat ourselves and our waitress took our drink order.  I noted a lot of the décor was basic bar, but was impressed with the amount of Big Screen TV’s even though 4 of the 5 I could see were on various new stations when we could have been watching the British Open.

The server started off pretty good and even cracked a “no soup for you” joke.  Unfortunately that was the highlight of her day.  She was never around, and did a horrible job at keeping drinks full.  The Griffin has a list of daily specials, and I inquired about the Texas Turkey Burger and what was on it.  Her response”well, it is a burger, so lettuce and tomato.”  REALLY!?!?!  That is what you got?  Please tell me it is not the turkey meat that makes it “Texas”!!!!!  She had no food knowledge, and had no idea what was on the special list, as I observed her several times reading it to her customer’s off the wall.  Please, this is your occupation, make and effort!  As we were leaving we figured out why we could never find her.  She was bellied up to the bar facing the patrons eating her lunch…both plates.  Service was borderline worse we have seen.  And another thing about the pure professionalism of the establishment, our waitress was wearing a pink Aeropostale shirt, and none of the waitresses wore any sort of uniform, but they had a display cabinet for selling their own t-shirts.  Here’s a thought, make your waitresses promote your t-shirts, or at least make them look presentable.  I am still wondering if our waitress worked their or was simply a patron with a pad of paper. SERVICE 1.25 stars.

I started off my meal with one of their specialties Pepper Jack potato soup.  The flavor was good, but again I was left disappointed.  The pieces of potato varied in size, and although some were cooked perfectly others had to be quartered to make them bit size, and were crunchy because if it.  Sadly, it came up short.  The coleslaw was very good.  It was perfectly seasoned and had great sweet flavor right up to the point that I bit on a piece of hard plastic.  I was completely turned off be the experience, and had to flag down another waitress to complain…..as ours once again was no where to be found.  To the waitresses credit(the one I flagged down) she did offer to replace the coleslaw with more or even something else, but at that point is was too late.

For my entre I found myself ordering a club.  The Michigan Ave Club is made on “grilled folded ciabatta wrap.”   The sandwich was ok, but the bun was far from a ciabatta and they should be crusty or at least have some toughness to the exterior.  The bun (not wrap) was sliced in half, and was ok.  It had a floury / gritty taste to the bread.  The bacon did have a slight smoke to it, and was good.  The rest was your basic hard to screw up sandwich that required little to no effort to put together.  Yeah, I know I need to start digging a little deeper into the food, but I have been severely disappointed too many times lately, that I am scared to try something that had to be cooked for fear of a food born illness.  The fries were your basic from the store crinkle cut that were not seasoned and were very dry. All in all, I would count this a very disappointing trip that will not be made again.  FOOD 2 stars

OVERALL 1.5 stars

~TFM~

The Apple Core

Again, with the long drives.  Apparently we Fatties are trying to spread our wings and fly….stupid gravity.  Today’s we went to The Apple Core in Urbandale.  Upon entering the restaurant side it was a small quaint looking restaurant.  We seated ourselves, and our waitress promptly took our drink orders.  They had a huge dessert case with several different pies, brownies and cakes inside.  Although I did not try one, I am pretty sure I will come back sometime and try one…ok, two.  The waitress was pretty good.   She was friendly and was prompt with her service.  Appetizers came out quickly, and timing on the food was perfect.  She did a pretty decent job, but should familiarize herself with the menu better.  SERVICE 2.0 stars.

We started our experience as we often do…by asking the waitress several questions about the menu.  She stated that they hand dipped their onion rings, mushrooms and pickles.  There were also several signs out front for their New Mexican food.  I ordered some of the “mucho nachos” for the group to share.  The order was far from “mucho” and I really had more issues with it than you have time to read.  The chips were stale, and not just a little.  They were VERY stale.  I specifically asked the waitress what kind of cheese came on it, and she said shredded, but they could put a sauce on it if desired.  I told her I did not want the processed cheese sauce, and FOT even made a joke of my lack of love for the processed cheese.  The order arrived smothered with processed cheese, with a very small amount of shredded cheese on it.  There was a ton of refried beans and very little meat.  It came with a side of sour cream and salsa.  The salsa was house made, but should not be made in any house.  Of the four of us that dined we all could taste a very distinct beer taste in the salsa, and no you could never slip beer past me without me noticing…just saying.  Anyway, the beer did not work.  It turned into a carbonated salsa, with a bad aftertaste. No, I will not be ordering this again.

For an entrée I tried to play it safe and ordered “The Core club” with fries $7.99.  Even though it was made with basic deli turkey, and a honey ham it was a very good club.  It came on three pieces of Texas toast with good bacon.  I will say that I think the key to a good club is to not over cook the toast.  If is over cooked it makes a good sandwich taste dry.  This particular sandwich was toasted perfectly.  The fries were nothing special.  They were a basic crinkle cut that were average.  FOOD 2.5 stars

Overall, this is another place that had its positives and negatives.  Again, after the first impression of the desserts I was pretty excited about trying the food, and the club was good, but they could remove the Mexican food from the menu and it would not bother me.  Their chips were beyond stale, and that is a big disappointment when it comes to a $8.99 appetizer.  OVERALL 2.25 stars

The Apple Core Café in Level Park (Urbandale) is a business that seems to fly under the radar as it is sort of out of the way, but has been there for years, recently adding an ice cream stand as well.  The menu contained more than I expected.  I ended up ordering the onion ring appetizer and a grilled chicken wrap for my entrée.  The chicken wrap came with homemade potato chips.  The onion rings get good points for being hand cut and dipped. They were over-done, however.  The main meal arrived and the chicken wrap was excellent.  Could have used some more chicken but the flavor was good and the ingredients were fresh.  The homemade chips are a nice twist, but they didn't have much flavor to them.  Food gets 3 out of 5 stars.

Service was good.  While I was a little leery due to there only being 1 waitress for the entire place, she was very competent and did not forget things, was frequent on the refills, etc.  Service gets 3.5 out of 5 stars. 

Overall was a 3.25 star rating.  I would go back again and would definitely like to try some of the desserts which are homemade as well.

TFOT

Player's Bar and Grill

Today’s adventure takes us a bit further down the road than usual.  We dined at the Players Club in Augusta.  First impressions were average.  The décor was very similar to that of any other bar, dive, or grille we have eaten at.  To be honest it reminded me of Moonraker east with the video games and .25 cent machines that your kids drive you crazy because the MUST HAVE the toy out of it only to lose or break it before you leave the restaurant.

Service was good.  I was more than impressed with the waitress and her timeliness and refills.  She did a wonderful job of taking orders and got everything correct.  Too often people forget the importance of wait staff and the impression they can leave on a customer.  SERVICE 3.5 stars

For an appetizer I shared an order of wings with “FOT.”  We shared the 12 wings because that was the minimum order that could be made in order to get two different sauces.  Although the wings were a breaded, frozen wing they were good.  Upon asking we discovered that all the wing sauces were made at the establishment.  I tried the Kentucky Bourbon sauce.  It was good, but sweet for my taste.  I will give them some credit though they did inspire me to tinker with a bourbon baked bean recipe, and also a bourbon barbeque sauce over the next several days.  (Which was good, but needs some tweaking of it own)

For my entrée I had a Spicy bacon burger with hot pepper bacon and pepper jack cheese.  It came with a pile of fresh made curly fries.  The food was average though.  The burger was a hand made patty that was made fresh and would have been good, but tasted like the cook dumped a container of garlic powder on it.  There was definitely something wrong with it as the flavor followed me for several hours after leaving the establishment.  The hot pepper bacon was good, and did not over-power the rest of the burger (although I wished it would have).  The bun was excellent!!!  It was fresh and you could tell it was made either on-site or at a local bakery.  The hand cut curly fries were a good touch, but in my opinion the only was to cook fresh fries is to double fry them.  These were not and got a little soggy or rubbery which is what happens if you only cook them once. FOOD 2 stars

Overall, I wanted to like this place a lot.  It had a lot of positives with both the waiting staff and the food especially since they were taking the extra effort to make things themselves instead of buying the premade frozen substitutes.  There are several negatives, but they could be corrected relatively easy.  The Players’ Club Grille is headed in the right direction, but still needs some tweaking.  OVERALL 2.5 stars

~TFM~

The Players Grill in Augusta is a sports bar that I had been to once prior several years ago.  I don't remember what I ate or how the experience was so I thought it would be good for our weekly foray.

The menu has lots of interesting choices.  I ended up going with the Whiskey River Chicken Sandwich and ordered a side of Teriyaki chicken wings.  The wings were good, not stupendous, but were not your typical breaded and dipped variety.  They were what I consider to be real wings, no batter, just good meat and flavor.  The sandwich wasn't bad but not exactly impressive.  Made with a homemade Whiskey River Bar-B-Q sauce, it was good but I wouldn't order it again.  Fries were good, not the typical frozen type.  Food gets 3 out of 5 stars from me.

Service was great.  The waitress was courteous, prompt and competent.  She seemed familiar with the menu and answered any questions we had regarding ingredients. She even laughed at the lame jokes the midget and fat Mexican were dishing out.  Service gets 3.75 stars from me

Overall a 3.5 rating from me and I would go back again for sure.

TFOT

Bill's Pizza Factory

This week our adventures take us to Bill’s Pizza Factory in Battle Creek.  The building is a little hard to find, but in my opinion is worth a visit.  This establishment also had a Bill’s Hot Dog Factory inside, that was open at different hours.  The establishment is clean, and open.  The waitress was friendly, but it should be noted that you get your own refills, so there should not be any complaints about waiting too long for refills.  We are fat and like to eat, but are not lazy.  Service 3 Stars (There was not much to rate her on)

I ordered a medium Rajin Cajun Pizza which had Spicy Cajun Sauce, Onions, Jalapenos, Banana Peppers, Green Peppers with Chicken and Cheese Blend.  I split it with FBB for half of his Italian sausage stromboli (which was their version of a calzone).  Both were very good, but I enjoyed the pizza more.  It had great spice, and excellent flavor.  The jalapeños were not over-powering but simply added to the layers of flavor.  The stromboli was good and had a good mixture of meat, onions and peppers.  I would have liked the stromboli better had it been hot (temperature), but it was simply warm which took away from the overall flavor.  It was good food, and I would definitely recommend people at least trying it.  Overall 3 stars

~TFM~

We set out to Bills Pizza Factory out by the airport.  Upon entering the establishment you immediately notice a clean and very cool motif.  They had street signs with all the local city’s names on them.  The floor was painted to look like a parking lot and in true Battle Creek fashion the represented the city with car, hot air balloon and plane décor.

The menu at this particular establishment contained items ranging from Pizza to hot dogs.  They also carried grinder type sandwiches and calzones.  On this particular day I tried RAGIN CAJUN PIZZA: Spicy Cajun Sauce, Onions, Jalapenos, Banana Peppers, Green Peppers with Chicken or Spicy Sausage and Cheese Blend; Medium $12.99;   Large $14.99;   Ex-Large $16.99 and the Italian sausage Calzone.  Both of these items were served in large portions.  The pizza was well flavored and when they say spicy they mean it.  The spiciness of the pizza came from the jalapeños that were full of seeds, as we all know that is where the jalapeños get their bite. This would definitely be the item to get if you are having sinus issues on that particular day.  As for the calzone bring your appetite because it is large like I had mentioned and it comes loaded.  The crust was good but nothing special but overall they do a good job at preparing this item.  The drinks were self serve, which eliminated the issue of having your drink go empty.
It should be noted that service was iffy.  It did take a long time to get our food so allow your self at minimum of an hour.  There was only one server that day and she was also cashing people out.  So service does not score that well.
Overall:  Good place for lunch at a decent price.     Food = 3 stars        Service = 2
FBB

Bill’s Pizza Factory located across the street from Kellogg Airport.  Upon arrival, we were greeted by friendly staff and were directed to takes seats where ever we liked.  Service was prompt in taking our orders and getting our orders to the table however the fountain drinks were self serve.  The décor was local area street signs of towns near by and was done tastefully.  The club grinder I ordered was plentiful in size but of average flavor. The detractor to my meal was that my grinder was not warmed all the way through.  Service 2.5 stars.  Food  2.5 stars.

Biggin