I Live in Montana ...
Alrighty then, last night we went to the IMM party at Kona Jack's up in Clay Terrace. The party was a bit disappointing as they promised appetizers and brought out 1 plate of calamari (delicious, but a very puny serving) and 1 tray of potstickers which disappeared instantly. Pretty much 90% of the attendees didn't get any food unless they bought it and since we were promised free eats, it was pretty disappointing overall. If we hadn't had the Ted's card, we would have ordered a few of the happy hour specials (others did and they looked great) but we decided to go ahead and finally give Ted's the second chance they asked us for.
So, we went over to Ted's Montana Grill. If you read yesterday’s post, it contained a link to last year's write-up of "our worst restaurant experience ever". After I posted that, I sent an email to Ted's website including a link to the write-up which got an immediate response and resulted in them sending us a $40.00 gift card so that we would go back and give them another chance. Well, last night we finally did and I must say: I am quite glad we did.
I walked in and was seated right away. It did take about 5 minutes to get our drink orders taken but once they were, the service was really good and never faltered. Our server, Laura (Shreves) was bubbly and perky and not only attentive but very good about making suggestions regarding the menu. Our drinks never got less than half full and our food came out in a very timely manner.
Since I was really craving a slab of meat and the gift card made every menu item accessible, I splurged and ordered the Delmonico filet of Bison (medium rare) accompanied by a baked sweet potato and squash casserole. The meat was cooked a bit more towards rare but I was fine with that. It was a large hunk of meat and was very tender and really brought out the flavor of the meat well. I was once again, disappointed by the fact that although they carry the entire rest of the line of Heinz brand sauces, they do not have Heinz 57 sauce and only offer A1. Due to the flavor of the meat, I think it would have been better complimented by the 57 sauce. I made a mixture from Worcestershire, hot sauce, and a dash of ketchup that was acceptable but never really complemented the meat and I really would have liked a different sauce choice.
Anyway, back to the food. The squash casserole was good but a bit dry. Although since it's so hard to find it anywhere up here, it was more than acceptable. The potato looked really unappetizing as it was very charred and scrawny looking (actually, the plates were so huge, everything looked puny). However, the charring made the skin slip right off and helped better caramelize the natural sugars of the potato so it was not as bad as it first seemed.
beldar ordered the bison meatloaf (comes with garlic mashed potatoes and squash casserole) and thought his food was quite delicious. He tried a bite of my bison and thought the meat tasted too livery for his liking. We also had house salads with our meals (cost extra, but really worth it). He ordered his with the BLT ranch dressing and was really blown away by how bacony it tasted. I went for the honey mustard as I don't really care for tomatoes and was unsure how his dressing would taste. Both dressings were delicious and I was really impressed that my salad seemed to have extra bacon bits added since I had the tomato omitted. We also had some bread (free upon request) and were surprised by the tiny (and I mean tiny) biscuit-like rolls that they have. I cut a bite of my steak off and stuffed it inside one to make a "Montana slider" (White Castle rolls are actually twice the size that these were to give you a comparison). It was good but lacking due to sauce issues. It would have been nice if they had had honey butter with the rolls too.
I ended up taking half of my steak home (as I figured I would) and am planning to use it in a version of Shepherd's Pie (which would be a good menu addition for Ted's to consider). Anyway, when Laura asked about dessert she mentioned that their dessert special was a strawberry shortcake (using fresh strawberries which are deliciously in season) so we split an order. It's a good think we split it too, it was really huge. They used a scone recipe for the biscuit and while it was tasty, it was a bit denser than I would have liked. Sandwiched between the scone halves were two large scoops of Dreamery vanilla Ice Cream. I would have liked to have had more fresh strawberries and less strawberry syrup but it was so delicious that I really didn't mind.
Afterwards, we asked Laura to speak with her manager (Jill Palm) in order to let them know what had brought us there that evening and praise their efforts in winning us back as customers. We tried to explain to Laura that she hadn't done anything wrong but she was still worried. Anyway, we told Jill the whole story and let her know that we had had a really great experience and would come back again (they have a Pecan Crusted Trout on Friday's that I'm dying to try).
So there you have it, restaurant redemption. We had a nice evening and a great dinner (and the basis for another one) and I am very happy with the way it all turned out.
Have a great weekend everyone!
TTFN!
So, we went over to Ted's Montana Grill. If you read yesterday’s post, it contained a link to last year's write-up of "our worst restaurant experience ever". After I posted that, I sent an email to Ted's website including a link to the write-up which got an immediate response and resulted in them sending us a $40.00 gift card so that we would go back and give them another chance. Well, last night we finally did and I must say: I am quite glad we did.
I walked in and was seated right away. It did take about 5 minutes to get our drink orders taken but once they were, the service was really good and never faltered. Our server, Laura (Shreves) was bubbly and perky and not only attentive but very good about making suggestions regarding the menu. Our drinks never got less than half full and our food came out in a very timely manner.
Since I was really craving a slab of meat and the gift card made every menu item accessible, I splurged and ordered the Delmonico filet of Bison (medium rare) accompanied by a baked sweet potato and squash casserole. The meat was cooked a bit more towards rare but I was fine with that. It was a large hunk of meat and was very tender and really brought out the flavor of the meat well. I was once again, disappointed by the fact that although they carry the entire rest of the line of Heinz brand sauces, they do not have Heinz 57 sauce and only offer A1. Due to the flavor of the meat, I think it would have been better complimented by the 57 sauce. I made a mixture from Worcestershire, hot sauce, and a dash of ketchup that was acceptable but never really complemented the meat and I really would have liked a different sauce choice.
Anyway, back to the food. The squash casserole was good but a bit dry. Although since it's so hard to find it anywhere up here, it was more than acceptable. The potato looked really unappetizing as it was very charred and scrawny looking (actually, the plates were so huge, everything looked puny). However, the charring made the skin slip right off and helped better caramelize the natural sugars of the potato so it was not as bad as it first seemed.
beldar ordered the bison meatloaf (comes with garlic mashed potatoes and squash casserole) and thought his food was quite delicious. He tried a bite of my bison and thought the meat tasted too livery for his liking. We also had house salads with our meals (cost extra, but really worth it). He ordered his with the BLT ranch dressing and was really blown away by how bacony it tasted. I went for the honey mustard as I don't really care for tomatoes and was unsure how his dressing would taste. Both dressings were delicious and I was really impressed that my salad seemed to have extra bacon bits added since I had the tomato omitted. We also had some bread (free upon request) and were surprised by the tiny (and I mean tiny) biscuit-like rolls that they have. I cut a bite of my steak off and stuffed it inside one to make a "Montana slider" (White Castle rolls are actually twice the size that these were to give you a comparison). It was good but lacking due to sauce issues. It would have been nice if they had had honey butter with the rolls too.
I ended up taking half of my steak home (as I figured I would) and am planning to use it in a version of Shepherd's Pie (which would be a good menu addition for Ted's to consider). Anyway, when Laura asked about dessert she mentioned that their dessert special was a strawberry shortcake (using fresh strawberries which are deliciously in season) so we split an order. It's a good think we split it too, it was really huge. They used a scone recipe for the biscuit and while it was tasty, it was a bit denser than I would have liked. Sandwiched between the scone halves were two large scoops of Dreamery vanilla Ice Cream. I would have liked to have had more fresh strawberries and less strawberry syrup but it was so delicious that I really didn't mind.
Afterwards, we asked Laura to speak with her manager (Jill Palm) in order to let them know what had brought us there that evening and praise their efforts in winning us back as customers. We tried to explain to Laura that she hadn't done anything wrong but she was still worried. Anyway, we told Jill the whole story and let her know that we had had a really great experience and would come back again (they have a Pecan Crusted Trout on Friday's that I'm dying to try).
So there you have it, restaurant redemption. We had a nice evening and a great dinner (and the basis for another one) and I am very happy with the way it all turned out.
Have a great weekend everyone!
TTFN!