Bison or Beef?
Written: Jan 02 '09
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: The food is good and their earth friendliness is appealing.
Cons: Some menu items can be pricey, e.g. Bison Tenderloin Filet at $31.99
The Bottom Line: The bottom line came in hungry and left full.
|
|
|
| nibor's Full Review: Ted's Montana Grill |
Thanks to a gift certificate I got from restaurants.com, hubby and I decided to check out Ted's Montana Grill yesterday.
We went around 2:30 in the afternoon and easily found a spot in the large, clean parking lot. There were other people inside but lots of empty tables and it only took a few minutes to be seated. While we were waiting in the lobby, we could see a nice bar area and a few items for sale at the cash register. From that distance, I could see hats and T-shirts for sale for $8-$15 and I was very impressed to see affordable bison key chains for only $2. These items can also be found at their website.
Our server arrived quickly and put some heavily salted cucumber slices on the table. She then asked what we would like to drink and recommended the freshly squeezed lemonade. Hubby ordered an unsweet tea and I had to try the lemon juice. We put in an order for our appetizers right away. The tea was acceptible and the lemonade was excellent. Hubby wouldn't touch the cucumbers. He says they make him burp but I enjoyed munching on them since I was starving when we got there. I would have preferred bread but I think this is a good idea and certainly healthier.
The Restaurant
The restaurant appeared very clean. I could see a few crumbs on the floor but I suspect it was from an earlier table and would be picked up later. The booths had high backs which work nicely to help dampen conversational noise from other tables. Non-offensive music was playing at a level loud enough to be noticeable but not loud enough to make conversation difficult. There were paintings on the walls with scenes of cows (or maybe they were bison) and every other booth had a quotation painted on the walls. I liked our John Wayne quote, “Talk low, talk slow and don't say too much.”
Menu
Along with the main menu, we were given a menu containing "The Real Deal." For $15, you can order an appetizer, an entree, two sides and a cookie. While this menu is limited, if you're in the mood for salmon, chicken or meatloaf, I don't think you can go wrong for $15.
Having a $25 coupon which stipulated a minimum spend of $50, we opted for items from the regular menu. The menu is 6 pages and contains lots of choices for chicken and beef items. There are a couple of seafood items available as well on the Featured Entrees page. For appetizers, we chose onion rings at $6.99 and crab cake at $11.99.
Our meal
The appetizers were delivered fairly quickly and we had lots of time to eat them while waiting for the main course. The onion rings came in a stack of ten with horseradish sauce. I liked the sauce a lot. The coating on the onion rings was sort of a cross between breading and batter. It tasted good but was a little crispy and hard to eat without big pieces of the coating falling off and making a bit of a mess. The crab cake was very disappointing for the price. There was just one on the plate and it was served with some guacamole and what looked like a spoonful of coleslaw. My husband cut it in half to share but after taking a bite, I told him he was welcome to the rest. (I'm not a big fan of shellfish) His opinion was that it was good but not the best he'd ever had.
For the main meal, I chose a Bison Kitchen Sink Burger and he chose the Bison Chili Cheese Burger. All the burgers can be made with either bison or beef with the bison burgers costing about $1.50 more than the beef.
My Burger was $14.69 and came with grilled ham, mushrooms, onions, fried egg, bacon & choice of cheese. The top bun was toasted and absolutely delicious. I usually take the bun off my hamburgers but this one tasted too good. The bison burger was juicy and had a different flavour from beef which wasn't unpleasant. The whole combination together was extremely delicious. The burger was large enough that I cut it in half as soon as I got it and took the rest home for the next day.
The take-home boxes are made from a paper material. It was easy to use and I was able to reheat my meal in the box.
Hubby liked his Chili Cheese Burger but he was disappointed that there wasn't much chili on it. His burger was $13.29.
The french fries were made from potatoes with the skin on. They were pretty good although their limpness made me think they had to have been frozen prior to cooking. Their menu states everything is cooked from fresh and I didn't ask so I'll just have to assume they were fresh potatoes. I certainly managed to eat most of them.
Dessert
The dessert menu is small. They have cookies, ice cream, floats, key lime pie and my husband's choice, KahlÚa Fudge Brownie. He asked for the brownie to go and was very impressed to see them package the ice cream in an insulated-type container. The sauce was also packaged separately so he was able to heat the sauce up later and put the whole thing together much as it would have been if he had eaten it at the restaurant.
www.tedsmontanagrill.com
Ted's Montana Grill has locations in quite a few states. When you go to the website, you can choose the location at which you'll be dining and bring up that particular menu. I love this feature as I like to be able to think about what I'm going to order before I get to the restaurant.
Here you'll also see photos of the interior of the restaurant and the items for sale. The website also goes into detail about how the restaurant is being environmentally friendly, from their paper straws to the biodegradable to-go cups. While I didn't especially like the paper straw, I'm very pleased with the commitment TMG is making.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
nibor
|
|
Member: Robin Yeatman
Location: Tallahassee FL
Reviews written: 48
Trusted by: 31 members
About Me:
I'm in Florida. I don't miss the cold but I miss my friends.
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.