Alright, European-fusion or American-New I don't know, but what I do know is that Bastones has good pomme frites. That really should be all that you need to know to stop in. Their food is good. I have sampled a variety of their sandwiches and appetizers. But to be honest, I really just like their fries and potato soup. Is that weird? I basically will stop in to get those two items and drink. Royal Oak locals love this place, but a great majority of Royal Oak locals never leave Royal Oak. So (I'm going to generalize), but they love places like Oak City Grille, Black Finn, and Tequila Blue. I won't even ever bother reviewing those places because I don't frequent there. Have I been there? Of course, I checked them out. Can't make an assessment until you go. But do I like them? Ehhhh... I just can't go places where the men spend more time on their wardrobe and hair than I do and the women have fried themselves at the tanning bed and wore their best stilettos just to meet up with a man that's prettier than them wearing an Ed Hardy shirt and fist pounding the air. Ha! I just like more low-key places where you can actually hear the people you are with. At some of the places the food is quite good, but I can get cheaper versions of the food at my local Chilis/Applebees. Ok, back to Bastones. It's not my favorite place, but if a friend wants to meet after work for a drink here I won't refuse. However, I wouldn't go back on my own free will. Bastone's Website
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The Earle Downtown is a great date spot. It's in the basement, dimly lit, and if you are on a good night you can hear the tantalizing acoustics of some fine musicians. Really a great atmosphere for talking, meeting with friends, or having a nice glass of wine at the end of the week.
The Earle is known for being quite pricey, but having delicious food. So, when one is a teacher and makes no money, what do they do? They get a groupon! Woot! So off I went to enjoy the Groupon and some yummy food. First up, the crab cakes. The crab cakes were fine, but I'm one of those people that has a peev about consistency. I don't like crab cakes to be all soft and mushy. I like to have a break up of that with fresh vegetables and good flavors. They have the flavor, but it's just one big crab cake. My favorite crab cakes come from Cafe Zola. They just do them exactly how I like them and top it off with a smoked paprika aioli. MMMMmmm! Two mushroom goat cheese bruschettas were tasted which were fine. The really excellent dish was the peppercorn steak ( Rolled in coarsely ground black pepper, and served with a brandy sauce, garnished with mushrooms. Served with potatoes). It just had that je nais se pas... I thought the boneless duck breast was going to be what I dreamed about later, but nope. It was the steak. Pretty much every time I go I will dish up the 30 bucks and get the steak. If you don't like pepper you won't like this steak. IF you do like pepper and steak this is the obvious choice. You can thank me later. Find yourself a Groupon and head on over! The Earle's Website Another place that has a great location, but seems like it just misses the target is Republica. Republica in Berkley, Michigan has all of the right ingredients to make a great dish - but something still seems off. The menu sounds wonderful. We were drawn in with talk of roasted whole cauliflower with roasted garlic walnut sauce and house made lamb burgers with, feta, dill, scallions & greek yogurt.
served on brioche bun w/ a side of yiayia’s beans, and a gluten-free grilled cheese. The huge draw to this place was the gluten-free/vegan options. The lamb burger was good. But honestly, I have had better lamb burgers that were juicier with better toppings in the comfort of my own home (see Lamb Pork Burger - Homecookin'). The gluten-free grilled cheese was fine. It was a lot of gluten free bread and not enough filling. I would suggest making it more and adding MORE cheese or thinning out the bread. The cauliflower was really the highlight of the meal. It was well done in presentation and the walnut roasted garlic sauce was excellent. You can't get this anywhere else around town so it's nice they have some signature dishes that will keep people coming in. They have a variety of MICHIGAN craft beers. So they are supporting the great state of Michigan, which is always nice. I think I will try this place one more time, but I'm not expecting to have my world changed. I will probably get a decent burger/sandwich out of it. I'm hoping they start looking at reviews and see that they need to have their signature dishes and they need to do them well. Republica's Website I was excited when this place opened. I thought, "good! Bastones is finally utilizing their space and are opening an awesome microbrew place!" So, I scheduled a time after work one day to go check it out on their happy hour down time. I honestly was first caught by their clean website and nicely done logo (graphics nerd alert), but disliked that they still have their cafehabana.com domain. Come on guys, go buy the domain and then redirect. Ok. non-food rant over.
They have a wide variety of belgian beers to choose from, which I can't have since they aren't gluten-free, but beer lovers will enjoy new beers that aren't at the other local watering holes. From the descriptions of their food one would think this is a goto place every week. Mussels, burgers, mac and cheeses, waffle sandwiches!@#@(! With descriptions like, "Pork belly, house made tasso ham, bacon pancetta, spiced bbq sauce..." who has time to think about going anywhere else. This obviously is the right choice to go to... THEN you go there. You order. You taste and you feel a little sadness in your heart. The wonderful descriptions that made your mouth water suddenly left you with deep deep food regrets. I will give them the benefit of the doubt and say maybe they were off that day (They only had two customers - me being one of them). Maybe they were still fixing the kinks and they weren't quite ready for customers. I mean Rock City Eatery was kind of like that. But I knew that Rock City Eatery was going to be great if they fixed their sh*t. But I'm not so sure about Beer Monk. I think that they will always be an OK place. The ahi tuna burger was overcooked (super dry) and the flavors didn't quite mesh well together. The hummus and kimchi didn't really work. Maybe try something pickled and keep the siracha mayo? Then there were the sliders. You can pick any three from the main burgers and have a mini version of them (Char-grilled elk, maytag bleu cheese and pancetta with French fried onions, hand-pattied Belgian Blue beef, barbecued pork belly, cheddar, apple slaw and Hand-pattied Belgian Blue beef with housemade bacon, edam). The best one of the burgers was the regular belgian blue beef with bacon. All the other burgers were overcooked and again their flavors didn't mesh well. I think the items were made to go together, but something went wrong in the execution. The pork should be tender and moist. It doesn't really need the cheddar hiding the BBQ and the apple slaw. That is, if it's good. The grilled elk was really dry so I can't make an accurate assessment of what it would taste like because I stopped eating it. The fries were fine. They come from bastones and they are made on the regular. It's really hard to mess up fries unless they are drenched in grease, ridiculously over salted and cold. So that went well. I haven't been back to BMA. Maybe I will someday, but it's not looking good in the near future. Beer Monk's Website I remember eating at this place years ago and liking them. I now don't live as close and Sy Thai is so close... excuses, excuses I know. It wasn't amazing, but it wasn't a place I would write off my eating list.
I really just want to say I loved their pork fried wontons and sweet and sour dip. You can stop in for an appetizer snack and a drink. Mantra in Koh Samui, Thailand had some similar snacks and now I just want to sit around and eat crackling pork and wontons. Thailand... you ruined me. :) |
Giving you a taste of what I taste. From gourmet to everyday. No pretentious bull - just good food.
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