Sorrento's Restaurant - A Re-visit

We visited Sorrento's Restaurant in September and I wanted to go back and try their Chicken Marsala.  You can read about our previous visit here. 

Our meal started out the same as last time with a relish tray as well as a cheese spread and bread and butter.

Our meals came with soup and salad.  I had the minestrone and Jeff had the french onion.

I decided to order the Veal Marsala instead of the Chicken Marsala.

Veal Marsala

My meal was good.  The veal was good.  I could taste the marsala in a few bites, but it was not as strong as I like. I enjoyed it though.

Jeff ordered the prime rib.  We were surprised by the size. It took up a large plate.

He was not able to finish it and brought home about a 1/3 of it which our dogs enjoyed over three days.  He said it was good.

I am glad we were able to eat here a second time because I really wanted to try one of their Italian dishes.  This is a very enjoyable place to eat.

Vintage @501

Vintage @501 is located in downtown Rockford, IL.

The restaurant has a nice decor.

I liked the mason jar light fixtures.

I think I am going to start taking photos of the restrooms in restaurants because I am seeing more and more that are unique.

Jackie Kennedy

I thought the picture of Jackie Kennedy in the restroom was unusual.  I asked Jeff is the men's restroom had a picture of JFK and he said "NO".

We started our meal with an appetizer.  We had heard from someone else that they had really good fried pickles, so you know we had to try them.

Battered Pickle Spears

The batter on the pickle spears was not seasoned, so that was a little disappointing.  They are served with a spicy range sauce. We liked them, but they needed a little something more.

I ordered the Western Burger. It had bacon, onion straws, cheddar cheese and tangy BBQ sauce.  I didn't care much for the BBQ sauce. I did like everything else though.  The fries were hand cut and they were good.

Western Burger

Jeff ordered the 50/50 Burger which is 50% Beef and 50% Bacon. It is topped with cheddar cheese, sriracha and an egg on a pretzel bun.  The bacon is inside the burger. He said the burger was really good and he enjoyed the fries.

50/50 Burger

 We enjoyed eating here. The service was great. The prices were average.

O'Leary's Restaurant & Pub

We have an O'Leary's in St. Louis that is co-owned by the actor John Goodman, but this restaurant is not related to that one. We were told this one is family-owned.

We ate here on a Sunday afternoon.  We were seated promptly.  Football games were on the big screen TVs.

Our meal started out with an appetizer. We chose a three appetizer combo which included wings, mozzarella sticks and onion rings.  We wanted to try their egg rolls, but they were out.

The appetizer.

The mozzarella sticks were a little cold.  The onions rings and chicken wings were good.

I ordered a half order of baby back ribs and fries.

The ribs had a really nice texture to them. They fell off the bone.  The sauce was a little sweet, but it was good.  I haven't had good ribs in a while, but these were very good.

Jeff ordered the baby back ribs (spicy jerk style) and shrimp dinner. His meal came with two sides, so he chose the spicy coleslaw and fries.

Jeff was surprised by the size and the amount of shrimp he received.  He expected maybe three and for them to be small.  He said they were really good.  His ribs were supposed to be spicy jerk, but they were plain.  He liked them, but agreed the sauce was a little sweet.

Our waitress was MIA after our appetizer came out. It took us a while to get our food due to this. Another employee brought out our food and filled our teas.  Our waitress did bring us our check. Maybe she was on break when she was MIA.

We enjoyed eating here and we may make another visit especially since their Saturday night special is baby back ribs and a salad is included.

Los Rancheros

We had not heard a thing about this restaurant, but decided to give it a try.  It turned out to be our favorite Mexican restaurant in the area.

We were very surprised when we walked into a packed restaurant on a Saturday evening.  We really didn't expect that because we had driven by many times and never noticed a crowd.

The service was good, although the food was a little slow coming out.  I noticed that our waiter was not happy about the slow service from the kitchen.  We ate our chips and salsa while we waited, so it wasn't a big deal.

I ordered my regular meal at a Mexican restaurant which is a beef chimichanga.

The chimichanga was a little small, but it was good.  It had chunks of beef which I prefer over ground beef.

Jeff ordered something unusual and I can't remember what it is called.  I have looked over a menu that I found online and unfortunately it only gives names and not descriptions of the food, so I am unable to figure out what he ate.

Isn't it different?  LOL   It has chunks of cheese, beef, chicken, peppers, sausage, shrimp, onion and cacti.  Everything was whole, so he had to slice it himself.  Tortillas are provided to make it into a taco. His meal was huge.  He really enjoyed it.  They also have a seafood version of this and he wants to try that sometime.  Can you believe it?  We are going to repeat a restaurant!

Ruby Tuesdays

If you are regular reader of my blog, you know that we normally do not eat at chain restaurants that we have in St. Louis.  Why? Well, we like to try the local cuisine. We have not been to a Ruby Tuesday's in probably two years and I really wanted their croutons.  Have you had them?  They are so good!  A few years ago, I started making my own but haven't since we have been on the road.

Their salad bar is so good and now it is included with some of the meals.  It used to be an additional charge and that used to aggravate me.  The salad bar at the DeKalb location was really good. The food all looked fresh.  It was early in the day, but still.  The salad bar had the usual items along with potato salad, broccoli salad, pasta salad and coleslaw.

This is my salad creation.  Notice the black croutons.  Yum!

I ordered the rib-eye with a stuffed baked potato.  The rib-eye was thin, but had a nice flavor to it.  I enjoyed it.  The potato was good.  How could it not be good with butter, sour cream, cheese, bacon and green onions?

Jeff ordered the shrimp and baby back ribs.  He really liked the shrimp. They were wrapped in bacon.  He said the ribs were good.

I really enjoyed my meal.  I am hoping I can convince Jeff to make a return trip even though it is against our "rules" since it is a chain and we try not to repeat restaurants.

World Famous Pizza

We have heard good things about World Famous Pizza, so we decided to give it a try.  I tried to find a coupon, but wasn't able to come up with one.  I always look for coupons when I order pizza.

We decided to order the World Famous Can. You choose seven toppings.  We chose: sausage, pepperoni, mushrooms, onions, crumbled bacon and extra cheese.  Extra cheese counts as two toppings.  We ordered the 16".  The menu said it would serve 3-4 people, but they have never seen me eat pizza.  However, in this case, they were correct.  This pizza was huge and weighed a lot.

Jeff and I both agreed that it would have been better without the sausage.  We liked the pizza though.  It was a thin crust and didn't have too much tomato sauce.

We had enough leftovers for two more lunches for me.

I would order from here again. I just wish they included coupons on the pizza box.  This pizza was $24.

Nat's On Maple

We ate here on a Saturday night.  We almost didn't eat here because I thought the dress code might be dressier than what I like.  Since we are living in our RV, I do not own anything but jeans.  I was happy when we walked in and found other people in jeans and t-shirts.

A nice wall hanging inside Nat's.

Decor is nice.

We started our meal with fried dill pickles as an appetizer. I was really surprised by the price which was $8.25  The menu that I saw online showed the price as $5.95.  Jeff said maybe the lower price is their lunch price.  We went ahead and ordered them as I really wanted to try them.

Fried Dill Pickles

The order of fried pickles was huge!  The pickle slices were thick. They look like they were hand cut. They were very good.  The ranch dipping sauce was good, too.

The menu consists of a lot of comfort foods.  There is meatloaf as well as meatloaf sandwiches. They also serve steaks, hamburgers, seafood and pasta.  I decided to order a pasta and it took me a while to decide which one.  I chose the Chicken Saltimbocca which is fresh asparagus, mushrooms and crispy Pancetta tossed with penne pasta in a garlic Parmesan cheese sauce.

Chicken Saltimbocca

 The pasta dish was huge!  I ended up taking more than half of it home.  I really liked the mushrooms and asparagus.  It had a lot of cheese, but I thought it lacked flavor.  It needed something more.

Jeff ordered Crab Cakes.  He liked his food, but he has had better.  I told him he needs to order crab cakes in a seafood restaurant. 

Crab Cakes

Our meals came with a salad.  I thought the salad was really good.  The cherry tomatoes were really sweet.  The croutons were homemade and so good!

I really liked eating here and hope we can make a return visit.