A Restaurant Review

Here's my first (and possibly only) attempt at writing a review of a dining experience.

I had heard from my old boss that The Library on the South Side was one of her favorite places to grab a bite to eat. I was looking for a new place to dine yesterday so I went to their website and perused the menu. The nerd in me was so giddy at the names of the menu items as they are mostly all based on works of literature or the literary geniuses who penned them. Going in there, I had a few ideas of items I would like to try but I had to narrow it down. I had also learned that from 5-7 they have happy hour during which most of their draft beers are $3 and all appetizers are half-priced. Not bad, right? They boast an impressive beer menu and Dan tried something new. To my knowledge, he enjoyed it. I decided to skip over the beer and look at the mixed drink menu. I am not very into liquor and usually prefer beer to any kind of alcoholic beverage but these drinks sounded delicious. I was torn between a couple different ones but eventually settled on Dracula. I'm sure it's obvious to many who know me why I chose this one. That particular beverage was potent! The menu told me that it was made of Jim Beam Black Bourban, DeKuyper Sour Apple Pucker and Cranberry juice. It was tasty but it took me the duration of our visit to finish it. Again, I'm not very fond of liquor but I had to try it.

The appetizer and dinner decisions were a bit more difficult. Mostly everything sounded wonderful. Menus are brought to your table in various books. For instance, Dan received a large atlas and glued into the first few pages was the menu. I thought that was clever. I became just as giddy looking at the physical menu as I had when I looked at it online. So many delicious-sounding items with such fantastic names. For appetizers we chose Edgar Allen Potatoes which though not spelled properly, was a generous portion of hand-cut french fries. They came out piping hot, crunchy and barely salted. I enjoy salty foods but I grow tired of establishments that pour salt over everything. These were enjoyable and filling. Definitely more than enough for 2 people to share. We also chose The Magic Pretzel. This was 3 soft pretzel sticks with beer cheese for dipping. I love getting pretzels with cheese as an appetizer but so many places have so much salt on the pretzels that I have to scrape it all off. There was barely any salt to this dish and it was much appreciated by us. The cheese sauce seemed as if it had been sitting out while the food was cooking and it had that cheese skin on top. I could have done without that but I worked through it. Overall, the appetizers were satisfying, especially at half-price.

For dinner, Dan chose the Porky Pig sandwich. It was a large pulled pork sandwich and with it, he got Edgar Allen Sweet Potatoes and an order of fried pickles. He enjoyed it and I stole a bite of the pork and it was pretty tasty. I didn't try the fries as I'm not a fan of those in general but I did try to fried pickles. It's an interesting concept. They give a very large portion of them and I'm not sure it's something that can be eaten in large portions. I had one and that was enough for me at the time. I chose The Two Towers. It was 2 pieces of filet mignon each stacked with 2 large scallops and two grilled shrimp. It was accompanied by asparagus and rissoto which were the vegetable and starch of the day. My meal was just okay. I had asked for the filet to be cooked medium-rare as I love meat more rare than cooked. I tend to cook rare at home but when I go out to eat, I'm never sure how the restaurant will cook so I figure medium-rare is usually safe. It usually tends to be more on the rare side anyway which is okay by me. This time, instead of medium-rare, my filet came out more well-done. Filet mignon is not supposed to be well-done ever. Still, it wasn't bad. I ate one of the pieces and saved the other to take home. The shrimp was also overcooked and didn't really have any flavor. The scallops were not overcooked but they did not have much flavor either. I should say that I have never much been a fan of scallops but I've tried them a few times more recently and found that, if prepared properly, I can enjoy them. By themselves, they taste like nothing and I don't like them but they do pick up flavors very well and can be enjoyable. These scallops didn't seem to have any flavors to pick up so I wasn't too keen on them. I saved a few of those to bring home as well. As for the sides, the rissoto was actually quite tasty but asparagus, again, I don't like it normally so I didn't really eat it. I took a bite only to say "yeah, I still don't like asparagus" and moved it to the side for Dan. I brought home my leftover filet, scallops, rissoto and asparagus and just had them for lunch (minus the asparagus). I heated the scallops in some butter and garlic powder and it really made a huge difference. Much better today than they were last night. All in all, my meal wasn't the best but it wasn't bad either. It was edible but not worth $28. I wouldn't think anything of paying that much for the same meal if it had been better-prepared.

All in all, our experience was pleasant. We didn't have to wait for a table, the drink selections were plentiful, the wait staff was very kind and the food was mostly good. I enjoyed the novelty of it all and I will definitely go back there and try other entrees. I think next time I'll get the Hunter S. Thompson as it sounds very delicious. I say for this trip, 3 stars out of 5.