Mikey C.
Yelp
I love gambling. L-O-V-E it. I'm always up for hitting the casino, any casino. I love all the games.
But one thing I don't like to gamble on is restaurants. I want a sure thing, just about every time. That's one of the reasons I love Yelp. I can stack the odds of having a good meal in my favor by researching reviews of restaurants and observing photos of their food.
I almost never hit up a restaurant without Yelping it first. But this place I went in Yelpless.
We actually discovered this wonderful Cafe totally by chance. Originally we intended to grab a burger at Kirk's SteakBurgers. But that plan fell apart.
Parking at the Town & Country Village Shopping Center is always a bit challenging, and this time it was particularly so. We ended up on the opposite side of the shopping center and noticed how busy this place was on the way to Kirk's. We peeked inside and checked out the menu. Boy, that's a nice menu!
When we got to Kirk's the restaurant was completely empty. We had anticipated we would have to wait for a table, but instead we actually had to ask if they were open or closed, as there were no other customers inside. They informed us they were in fact open. Perplexed, we took a step back to reconsider our choice.
We couldn't figure out how it was that no one was eating at Kirk's. I mean, it was right around dinner time, when you would expect the place to be packed. Things that make you go, Hmmmm.
We made the difficult call to bail on Kirk's and backtrack to that busy "French place" we had passed on the walk over, figuring anyplace that popular had to be good. We weren't wrong. It turned out it was very good!
When we glanced at the menu on the way to Kirk's I had noticed that they served Croque Monsieur/Madame here. So I knew that's exactly what I was going to get. My wife had her eye on a Turkey Sandwich.
So that's what we ordered, and just because I'm a fiend for French Onion Soup, I ordered a bowl of that too.
The French Onion soup, to be perfectly honest, was a bit of a disappointment. It was delicious, but it was served on the cooler side of lukewarm. The soup was topped with a couple small slices of baguette and cheese. But apparently this isn't one of those places that pass the soup under a salamander to toast the cheese. And since the soup itself wasn't hot enough to melt the cheese, the pieces of cheese just floated around listlessly on top. Boo!
I quickly forgot about that initial disappointment when my Croque Madame arrived at the table. I could tell as soon as I saw it I had hit the Jackpot. I savored every bite of that beautiful sandwich, especially the ham. It was, as they say, magnifique!
I ordered a Cappucino to go with my meal and it was really good.
My wife loved her Turkey Sandwich. I was hoping she wouldn't offer me a bite, because then I would have to offer her a bite of my sandwich, and I was pretty sure mine was better than hers. But my wife has way better manners than me, and, of course, she offered up a bite of her sandwich. I begrudgingly reciprocated.
I loved her sandwich too, but the exchange confirmed my suspicion. The Croque Madam was way better. The Croque Madame could kick the Turkey Sandwich's ass any day of the week. No doubt about it.
And it's not like I sulked for about an hour afterwards because I was forced to give up a bite of my sandwich or anything like that. If you hear differently just ignore that noise. I was happy to share that bite.
Did that sound sincere? Because I've been working on trying to sound sincere. Not working on trying to BE sincere. Just working on trying to SOUND sincere. LOL.
I really look forward to visiting this place again. There are a bunch of things on the menu I'd like to try.
Mike C says: Liberté, égalité, fraternité, baby!