Celery Seed Warning

Am I the sole person out there who eats out only when invited by friends who are flush enough to pick up the check? The problem is that the most generous and frequent inviter in my life prefers restaurants that I don't like. Too tired to cook, however, last night, too grateful to look a gift horse in the mouth, and too broke to buy groceries, I accepted his invitation to, gulp, dinner at the Boca Ale House on Yamato. Suffice it to say, it's very hard to find something good to eat at this place, and I don't care whose paying: I am not going to waste anyone's $20+ on an "entree" at the Boca Ale House. 

Twice before I ordered the off-menu grilled cheese and tomato sandwich, which is very good, by the way.  Last night, though, I wanted more veggies than that offered, and tried a new item on this menu, an Apple-Walnut salad. The good news is that this is an all-Romaine salad. The bad news is that the dressing is loaded with celery seeds. If you like celery seeds, go for it, but if not, beware.  Truth be told, I asked about the dressing while ordering the salad, and the waitress told me that the servers called it simply, "the apple-walnut dressing," I presumed not because those were its ingredients but because it went with that salad. So, I elected the dressing intended for the salad. Not so good. I can tolerate some celery seed in a cole slaw, but this was just too much.

The salad is good, however, even if the scattering of gorgonzola (and walnuts) was a little stingy. On the flip side, the allotment of dried cranberries was too generous, as the salad dressing and chopped apple trained it toward the sweet anyway. Still, this salad looked much better than the plates of everything else drifting by.  Next month is my birthday, so perhaps I will pick the restaurant then.  In the meantime, I will ferret out the best options on the menus of  the bar-themed, and corporate restaurants that my friend frequents.

A Good Buy at a Corporate Restaurant

After my doctor-prescribed 1 hour walk last night (in the mall because of the recent heat), my friend and I cast about for a place to eat nearby, and settled on Chang's. Despite the ghost-town feel of the mall and then the empty tables at McCormick's & Alexander's at University Commons, a table at P.F. Chang's we were told would mean a 15-20 minute wait, with no empty seats in either the bar or vestibule, so we turned back to Alexander's. Its dark, wood-toned  interior is not a favorite of mine, nor is the heavy food, but since I wasn't paying, I decided to make the best of it, and with careful menu scrutiny, succeeded.

My complaints with J. Alexander's are these: if you want any protein at all, minus a burger, say, or a chicken sandwich, it's going to be a huge helping and well over $20. No small steaks here, at dinner anyway (until 4 the restaurant offers what it calls "lunch cuts"), and the appetizers last night at least were carb-based. The salads are nice, but I've never been much for these monster salads topped with a pile of sliced chicken or steak.  Salad is salad, and the protein course is the protein course. The restaurant also offers few wines by the glass. I settled on an $8 glass of Santa Ema Merlot, a few bottles of which I've bought before from Total Wine, but which last night seemed much higher in alcohol than I remembered. It was too jammy and too hot last night, but possibly was the wrong wine with my food, turning now at last to the good part of the meal, and my recommendation.

At dinner, you can get a soup and salad for $13 at J. Alexander's, portioned generously enough to create a meal. Two soups were offered last night, a Chicken Pasta (listed on the menu) and the chef's soup of the day, which the server identified. Last night's offering, and my choice,  was Chef's Gumbo, which arrived in a large white bowl topped with a mound of brown rice to stir into the thick, brown, roux-based gumbo.  The gumbo offered small bites of sausage, shrimp, and chicken, along with garlic, green pepper and lots of spicy flavor.  Then followed my salad. For the soup & salad $13 deal, you can order either the house salad, called "Alex's Salad" (mixed greens and, alas, some iceberg; halved cherry tomatoes, bacon, garlic croutons, cucumbers, and shredded cheddar), or the Caesar.  I opted for Alex's and was happy with this choice. The waitress seemed to be pushing the herb vinaigrette, but I ordered the cilantro vinaigrette, and liked it. According to the menu, all of the dressings are made in the restaurant, which is nice. (If I'm going to be served a Sysco salad dressing, what's the point of eating out? I would rather save myself some money and buy a bottle of Kraft or something and eat at home.)  Following this meal of soup and salad, I was satisfied, and felt that at this chain restaurant, I'd had a reasonably healthy meal at, especially considering it was Boca, a great price.

So, if you get stuck at Alexander's and don't feel like a huge steak or burger, and don't feel like spending a lot of dough, go for this $13 soup and salad deal. It's a nice little hidden value buried in a menu of big prices and large servings.