Cedar Lodge, malone, WI

started dinner with a delicious Moscow Mule made with Tito's Vodka.

Dinner itself consisted of a ribeye & scallops for me & prime rib for Dan. Every meal starts with either fresh fruit or a fritter.The meals have both soup & salad,unless a lighter meal is chosen. 

My ribeye was ordered rare, and for once it really was rare, just singed on both sides -like I prefer.

The scallops I had were sauteed, and were succulent & juicy. 

Dan's prime rib was juicy & done to perfection.

The wait was extreme- we arrived at 5:15 and did not sit down to eat until 7:15.

However, this is a place quite popular with the locals, as we made conversation with many people from Dotyville. Sheboygan & beyond. 

Dinner was good, however , Dan still enjoyed the prime rib @ Schwarz's over this. We both felt we could have received a similar meal at the Roxy in Oshkosh.

We may be back, but we have a long list of places to try in 

the meantime.

Be happy my friends.... Til next time.... 

J's BBQ- Ripon, WI

Today we ventured over to Green Lake Harvestfest & had the Opportunity to try some yummy BBQ goodness from J's BBQ.

I had not heard of J's prior to today,but found out they are located in the Plaza Bowl building in Ripon. 

First up, Dan tried the Beef Brisket on a pretzel roll. It was served with a side of cranberry BBQ - what better flavor combo for a fall day! The brisket was oh,so tender and flavorful. 

By round 2, the tent had attracted quite the line. For this round, we opted to share the Mac n cheese, BBQ beans & wings. 

Can we just say "wow"? Because this was so tasty. J's is definitely doing something right.

If this is what is served up out of a tent, we cannot wait to see what comes out of the restaurant kitchen!

Some evening, we plan on making the small jaunt over to Ripon and trying a slab of ribs (and maybe some fried okra!) 

Yum-yum

Kitty O'Reilly's, Sturgeon Bay

Kitty O'Reillys was out destination of choice this lunch. We started out with a delicious bloody Mary filled with all the good stuff. For all you bloody officianados, this place was rated #4 on top 10 in state. It was filled with all sorts of goodies.

For food, we started with the calamari. It was amazing. Flaky, light breading. Tender calamari (not at all rubbery,like some can be). 

I had the Texas wrap, layers of shaved ribeye, with mushrooms, glazed onions, tator tots & cheese. It was so juicy & really, really good.

Dan enjoyed the special of the day, which was beer battered cod. The batter was really good, fish very flaky.

The service was good & the outdoor patio kitschy. Overall this was a great option to stop for lunch. If we are ever back in the area, I know we'll be stopping again!

Center House

On our quest for a good Wisconsin Fish Fry, our journey led us to Center House.

I personally have not visited Center House for probably 20 years. I remember being there when I was still living at home. Dan has never been there.

Center House has a reputation for Margaritas - yes, surprising, from this little burb in the middle of nowhere - which is not established as a Mexican restaurant. Nonetheless though, I had to give one a try. There were two flavors offered - mango & strawberry - and since I couldn't make up my mind, had them mix the two together.  It was quite a refreshing delight.

For fish options, there were the basics, all you can eat cod & chicken, shrimp, walleye. Potato options included fries, baked, sweet potato fries of tater salad. They also offered cole-slaw or applesauce.

AUCE included the salad bar, where individual plates offered the addition of the salad bar for just under $4.

Dan took them up on the offer of AUCE cod & chicken, as he does love his broasted chicken. I love a good piece of walleye, so opted for the fried walleye.

Chicken was very moist, cod was flaky. My walleye had a nice crunchy batter on it & came out piping hot - good thing I had that icy margarita to chill my mouth.

Overall, we had a good experience & good food. However, one word of caution - if you do get chicken, you will wait. Do not order if you want to eat & go. When the second helping was ordered, we did wait a considerable amount of time.

If you're in the area, come check them out!

BeBoppin BBQ

BeBoppin BBQ is a food truck native to the Oshkosh area.  It can currently be found on Main St, near Ski's meats & across from what used to be King Clift Auto- down in the Roxy area of town.

I saw the truck yesterday as I drove past the area & jumped on the opportunity to pick up some dinner (as I have wanted to try it for some time).

I picked up a full rack of ribs, which comes with 2 sides (I upsized both) and the pulled chicken dinner, which also gets your choice of 2 sides.  For the sides, I naturally had to try the baked beans - we are talking BBQ here - plus the Cole slaw & potato salad.

I lugged my finds back to work to safely pop in the fridge till it was time to go home.  (Side note- careful if you store in a public fridge, it smells pretty amazing, good chance it could disappear on you!)

I lugged my containers home in suspense  to try this BBQ. I started opening containers, and to my surprise, the slaw turned out to be another portion of tater salad.  The chicken was a hefty portion and the ribs were meaty & falling off the bone. The beans were thick and hearty.

I quickly popped the food in a 350° oven for a quick warm-through.  The ribs were quite tasty, the meat easy to pull off the bone with a fork.  The beans were amazing, but a tad too spicy for the kids. The potato salad was great (I am really picky about potato salad). All 3 kids ate the potato salad, which is unusual, and all liked it.  Even though we enjoyed the salad, I am a little sad of the slaw mix-up, we would have loved to have tried it too.

The stand also offers brisket, pulled pork & their own take on burritos (with your choice of meat).  I did see a few burritos leave the truck, and they were impressively sized.

Overall, the purchase made was about $30. There was plenty of food to feed 2 adults & 3 children with leftovers.

If you're in Oshkosh & craving BBQ, come hunt down the truck - but come early :)

Clock Tower Restaurant

First review - not too far from home...

Let me just first disclose that I am a pretty good cook/baker. So when I go out to eat, I like to have food better than what I can make at home or is just too much work to make myself.

We visited the Clock Tower the other evening as a I-survived-the-first-day-of-school treat for the kiddies.

I ordered the Fettucine Alfredo, which was really reasonably priced at under $9.00. It came with soup or salad (I think the menu said it would come with both, but I was only delivered a salad) & 2 breadsticks. The portion was plentiful enough for me & my 7 yr old to share. There was also quite a bit of sauce, which surprised me.  The Alfredo was just ok for me. It was very bland. It would have been better if they had sauteed some garlic in the butter prior to adding cream & parmesan, or maybe just salting it.  Whether the noodles had not been cooked in salted water, or the sauce had not been salted, it was just bland. My little guy even commented it didn't have much flavor.

Dan ordered the special of the night - the House Stromboli - which included 3 meats & cheeses. The corner I tasted was delicious. As Dan worked his way to the middle, he thought it was saltier as he went. This could have been partially due to the three meats, plus cheeses. The stromboli itself was also reasonably priced and could potentially feed 2 people with moderate appetites (possibly with the addition of a side salad) or one really hungry person.

My daughter had silver dollar pancakes - breakfast is served all day long. Nothing to report there, pancakes are pancakes.

Overall, we would give the place another shot. We realize they have only been open a week or so. There is definitely potential & we hope the best for them - because Berlin definitely needs more options for dining.