Ok. I like Sonic & everything… had one where I used to live… have some fun memories of taking my kids there. And I LOVE their coconut cream pie shakes… but
ENOUGH WITH THE FREAKIN’ CONES ALREADY!!! For crying out loud!! O-P-E-N!!! How long has it been open now? Months? At least two right? I’ve not been by there once lately where there weren’t several stalls open and the stupid cones are STILL in all the entrances & exits.
Okay… so we go there tonight (finally) and after the obstacle course hassle getting IN… we order shakes which come to us unblended & not quite frozen solid. Lotta good that straw did me.
My friends went there & said after a 45 minute wait in the “staging area”, they got cold hamburgers. They weren’t happy.
SO.
Here’s to hoping that they will STOP worrying about the cones & traffic and START worrying about the food. :)~
T.
Sorry.. I know this isn’t in Great Falls… but on my recent vacation in Vegas, I finally got to go back to Maggiano’s. If you ever get the chance, and you like Italian..? GO! Just be prepared to eat. A LOT. Portions are huge.
I had been to one once in Washington D.C. and absolutely loved it. So I dragged my family out down the strip to the Fashion Show Mall for a late dinner one night after wandering up & down the strip for most of the (very hot) day.
And it was FABULOUS. 
I had… (& this is straight off the menu and I highly reccomend it…):
Ricotta pasta simmered in a delicately balanced sauce prepared with our classic pomodoro cream and finished with vodka and roasted garlic.
I’ve attempted Vodka sauce before and so far have not been able to get it right. I found a $10 jar of a very good tomato vodka sauce at Williams-Sonoma recently. (but oh yeah… we dont have one of THOSE here either!) My daughter also loves vodka sauce. Now I might have to attempt the Gnocchi. I had never had it before.
It might be best if I don’t master it.
I still haven’t run quite enough to make up for all the great food we found in Vegas. (or the $1 beer & margaritas as we wandered in & out of the casinos on toasty 112 degree days!). We also visited the Cheesecake Factory in Caesar’s Palace, Hard Rock Cafe and a little bar on Freemont Street (old downtown Vegas) called Mickie Finnz where you get your food which rests on a bed of fries in little tin pails. Kinda cute. Unfortunately, we did NOT make it to PF Changs this time. I had taken my kids there for the first time when the three of us were recently in Seattle. They liked it too.
Next Time!
:)~
T.
Ya know… I’m not much of a meat eater. I’m not a true vegetarian (the world wouldn’t be the same without pepperoni pizza or real crisp bacon!) but meat is typically not my first choice. I am however, growing quite fond of the hamburgers at Fuddruckers. Oh PLEASE don’t anyone come along & ruin my (most likely short-lived) taste for them! Just kidding.. bring it on. haha. But for whatever reason, they do taste pretty good. I used to only ever get nacho’s there & then pick around the ground beef. But somewhere along the line - I think I had a bite of one my kids’ burgers - I changed my mind.
The one thing I do not like about them is that they won’t release their nutritional information. Probably don’t want to scare people off!!
I like their coconut cream pie too. and as previously mentioned… their chocolate shakes.
I don’t think I run nearly enough to eat there too often though!
I like the place. :) It’s kinda fun.
Warning - to those of you who love Chinese food in Great Falls? You might want to skip this post because it will probably anger you.
So my favorite Chinese food place on earth is P.F. Changs. I first went to one in McLean, VA at Tyson’s Mall. I was there for work and a big group of us went out. Lots of people ordered lots of food & we all shared. And everything I tried was great. The Lettuce Wraps are awesome. I can never remember the name of the chicken dish I have (Kung Pao Chicken?) but its hot & spicy, full of bright red chili pepers and crunchy peanuts. Their garlic noodles are wonderful as well as the Mongolian Beef. I’ve also been to the one in Vegas a couple times too. It has been great each time and in each location.
Chinese food restaurants are sometimes scary places. There’s always the jokes about cats & dogs & seagulls. Some of the food shows up on your table looking about as mysterious as the names on the menus. I don’t know how many Asian type restaurants are here in GF. So far, I’ve tried Maple Garden, Best Wok and New Peking. I don’t know if it still exists but one of the first Asian restaurants I ever tried here was … I think it was called “Lily’s” downtown? I can’t say that any of them were good. I don’t like the taste (or smell) of old oil or anything that is deep fried in it. And I don’t like the taste of real strong (old?) pork. At P.F. Changs, food arrives at your table with beautiful color, it smells wonderful and it tastes fresh and well made. Nothing tastes “old”. The restaurants are very clean and nicely decorated, fairly “upscale” with wait staff well dressed and knowledgeable of their fare. Dipping sauces are mixed for you at your table with your choice of “heat”. Real chopsticks are available if you choose. Tables set with linen napkins and clean dishes/silverware.
I write of all this because of an experience I had at New Peking the other night. I’m still not over it! We had tried it once before and I didn’t like it but was going with a group of friends and so I was willing to give it another shot. I should have stayed home. When you sit down at a table and the cups and silverware are dirty? That’s a bad sign. I turned over two tea cups of the several that were on the table and each was coated with a layer of grit inside. So I gave up on the idea of some tea. My water glass didn’t appear to be clean either so water was out as well. In my world? When I go to a restaurant, my minimal expectation is that the dishes be clean. We ordered… the waitress was abrupt and impatient. And that is putting it nicely.
The appetizers arrived. I don’t know what it was called but here is what it consisted of: a piece of pork, a piece of shrimp, wrapped with a piece of bacon, battered and then deep fried in what must have been ancient oil. I like shrimp and I like bacon so I tried one. I tasted just the breading first… and that’s where I picked up on the age of the oil. Then I tried the rest of it. The bacon was not completely cooked.. still white & slimy. It also had that really strong, “old pork” flavor to it. REALLY strong. Overpowering strong. So I didn’t get very far with that. I thought about trying the spring roll but I’m sure it was fried in the same oil, probably right along side the bacon/pork/shrimp thing. So I passed and just sat & waited the dinner. It arrived. I had ordered the #3 which consisted of deep fried shrimp, pork fried rice and chicken chow mein. The chow mein had NO color to it. It was this mound of over done mushy chinese noodles with chicken in it somewhere - which by this point I wasnt too interested in finding. The Shrimp was fried in the same nasty oil as the rest of it so those were ruined and the fried rice was dry and mostly flavorless with a couple pieces of the pink edged pork that looked questionable. I picked at the rice - mostly because it had never been breathing so I thought maybe it was safe. The rest - I left on my plate. I was, by this time extremely thirsty and wanted the old pork flavor gone so I attempted to order a Coors Light - thinking beer in a bottle should be safe and relatively clean. ( I wasn’t about to use a glass - but that was ok because they didn’t bring me one anyway). It took two tries to get the bottle to the table but it did finally arrive - but in the form of a Bud Light. So a Bud Light and a fortune cookie were what I had for dinner that night. and it cost me $14.
I won’t be back and unfortunately, I am now even less inclined to attempt any other Asian restaurants here either. Had enough I think.
(P.S. But I DO like the Mongolian Grill at 3D’s.)
Probably my top two pet peeves in Great Falls is A) being served COLD food and B) sitting in an arctic restaurant. B most likely contributing to A. If I wanted cold food, I would eat cold pepperoni pizza in the door of my fridge. However, when I go to a restaurant, my expectation is, if I am ordering a “hot meal”, that the food arrive HOT at the table. I’m not sure why this is such a complicated concept here other than the fact that the A/C has to be on full blast, so food doesnt have a chance to arrive at the table hot.
Tony Roma’s was infamous for having an extremely cold temperature. There were several times I would walk in and when asked if I wanted the dining room or the bar I would say “which is warmer?” Or the number of times I requested that the A/C be turned down - never to have that request honored. It was utterly ridiculous at times. For a while I thought it was just me until I started hearing it from others too.
Being served cold food in a cold restaurant is almost standard here… much like the fact that I have never once been even remotely warm in the movie theater here either. Its like… a given.
WHAT is with that?
Eddies Supper Club Campfire steak and their house salad. (But its been a really long time since I’ve eaten there. More than several years.)
Mackenzie River’s Pepperoni Pizza and their house salad with ranch. (Minus the pears )
Tony Roma’s Potato Soup, Fish & Chips and Coconut Shrimp - will be missed.
Chili’s Big Mouth Bites - little hamburgers that are great when they actually cook them. (They tend to serve their burgers exceedingly rare.)
Dante’s Shrimp Linguiskey
Cattleman’s Cut DINNER Halibut. (not the Van de Kamp’s style lunch serving of processed white fish triangles)
3-D’s Manicotti
I’ve always loved Pizza Hut’s Pan Pizza -wherever I am.
Taco Del Mar’s burritos (I love the tortillas - they are excellent)
Jaker’s Potstickers
Fudrucker’s chocolate milkshakes
Hi again… a NICE comment about a Great Falls chain that I really liked!
I OFTEN wonder what happened to Dagwoods. They had the BEST turkey sandwiches I have ever had. I loved the bread. It was amazing. If anyone knows what happened to them.. I would be interested to hear. They were here for most of our first 10 years here… but then they disappeared. They’ve been gone so long… but i often still find myself craving one of those sandwiches. Too bad they aren’t still around what with the “healthy sandwich” craze.
Something entertaining I would like to start.. just for fun. Tell me your WORST GF dining moments…. just little things. I know I’ve had a “few”. We can do the BEST too… but I’ll start off with a few of the worst/strangest things that have happened:
*** Sitting waiting for a meal in a fairly empty restaurant. One table next to us had cleared. Was a fairly large group. We signaled the waitress for more water. She picked up the half empty pitchers of water off the newly vacated table & brought them to us, poured them in our pitchers and walked off.
*** We walked into a restaurant where the sign said, “Please wait to be seated”. So we waited. The waitress walked by us several times on her way to nowhere. Finally we signaled to her to ask for a table. She said “sit anywhere you like” and walked off. So we chose a table. And again.. we waited for her. She walked by us several times. We finally signaled her down again and asked if we could get menus and she said with an irritated tone, ”Yes, but you can’t sit here” and made us move. (We later got cold food).
*** New Years Eve Reservations. It is one of those infamous Montana 40 below nights. We have a large group of people. We are seated along an outside wall. As we start talking we begin to realize… its REALLY fricking cold where we are sitting. We can feel a strong breeze coming from somewhere. We start looking around and soon enough.. we find a hole in the wall… to the outside. We ask the waiter about it and get a shrug. So in order to remain at the table… we pile all of our coats up against the hole.
YOUR TURN.
T.
This is a really old story, as told to a friend of mine in a different city. He got a chuckle from the story… I hope you do too. A couple of the restaurants in the story remain open today. I’ve not been back to any of them since I wrote this. So I would be willing to allow for change at any of them. Its just how it was “back then”. Its rather long.. but I hope worth the read. :)
PRIMETIME…
Its a Friday evening… we’re sitting around, half asleep on the couch whilst the kidlings finish watching a movie… trying to think of what to do for dinner. Chriss wants to go out. I’m scared. My only thought is… WHERE?
So we load up into the car… Christopher is pushing for McDonalds… ewww… Jordan wants a “sit down” meal. Chriss throws out a couple suggestions… Cody Bills? ummm no honey… not in the mood for a cigarette flavored steak in a dark, dank casino. Hmmm. JB’s was bought by someone… so that’s a bit scary… Chinese? hmmm. no… the chicken tasted a bit “off” last time… So Chriss suggests “The Sting”. I say okay… we went there once a long time ago… I had a crappy sandwich… I still remember it… ewwwwwwwww… soggy frozen lettuce… (yes… FROZEN lettuce…) soggy bread…because… well… the lettuce started to melt I guess… brown spotted turkey… (just how difficult can a turkey sandwich be?) BUT… I’m willing to believe that they might have improved. Besides… I’m not that hungry anyway. We go to The Sting & as we make our way through the flashing machines, beer drinking patrons & smoke… we realize that all the little tables have plastic “Reserved” signs on them. hmmm. darn. Can’t eat here. soooo off we go… on to the next restaurant.
We get back in the car… kids are getting frustrated… husband is grumpy & hungry now. So he suggests “that place down by king motors..” Which one, honey? You KNOW… THAT place. OOOOOOHHHHHH… THAT place. okay… gotcha. (husband/wife language which requires heightened sense of ESP on wife’s part) Prime Time Grill & Casino. Used to be The Cattle Company… Stuart Andersons/Black Angus. We had one back home & it was always really nice. I remember the GF version as pretty good.. So…. I say… well… Okay. Let’s try there. We get there… walk in the door… things look nice so far. Nice lighting… nice silk plants… hmmmm…LOTS of silk plants… everywhere…& of course the obligatory CASINO. Hostess asks if we want smoking or non smoking and I say non smoking please. She says “I have a table up in the smoking area but there’s no one smoking up there right now. Is that okay?” Ummmm nooooooo… “You don’t have a No Smoking Section?” “Well, yes, yes we do… but I have a table up there & there’s no one smoking right now.” (Yes till we get seated… THEN what?) “No thank you. No Smoking please.” Thought I might have to get flash cards for her pretty soon… “Cigarette” “Nose” “food” “yuck” “good lungs” “bad lungs”. So… They seat us right away when she figured out where her non-smoking section was. I look around… & I slowly realize… There’s not a soul in this restaurant under the age of 65-70… HAHAHAHAHA… NOT A ONE. And it’s fairly full. So I sit down… kind of watching the people come in the door… not ONE person coming through the door after us was under 65 or so… not one. Suddenly feeling oddly out of place… I mention it to Chriss and he looks around… hmmmm… you’re right… We’re both smiling because we had partied there on a New Years Eve of long ago. We remember it full of drunken airmen being loud & obnoxious… I guess they don’t have room for drunken airmen anymore what with all the keno & poker machines in the way. So… we get the “menu”…two large laminated cards with about 6 choices on each. Kids pick… Chriss picks… I hem & haw around a bit.. .ask the waitress how the Chicken Penne’ is & how it is prepared. She tells me “It’s brand new… I haven’t served it yet…” I say, “oh… do you know what the sauce is?” “No… I haven’t even seen it yet.. I’m sorry. But it’s not red and it’s not alfredo…” “oh… okay…” I say…? completely confused. Then she says… “BUT… it’s GOOD! I’ve had it! It is good!” I smile & think to myself… “What? Did you eat it with your eyes closed then?” Oh okay… what the hell… I’ll be brave… I’ll try it. So she writes it down and skips away with our order (yes…she’s about 12 or so..) Comes back with our salads & soup… Jordan’s tomato soup looks rather scary…. The waitress then tells me she asked how the Chicken Penne’ is prepared & it’s a marinara sauce over pasta with grilled chicken & sausage. Sausage? hmmm. okay. A marinara sauce.. by definition is meatless… then lets toss in a bunch of chicken and sausage… ? I ask her if she can leave the sausage out. “Nope… it’s all in there together.” “Ohhh.. okay. Can you bring me the baked halibut with garlic mashed potatoes then?” “Okay.” “Thank you.”
So I start to eat my salad.. hmmm. interesting flavored lettuce. It has that “it’s been bagged in plastic since it was removed from whatever greenhouse it was grown in in Argentina” taste. That plasticy “its was never rinsed flavor…” yum yum. The croutons are okay though… so I eat those. I look at Jordan’s Tomato soup & I’m not envying her one bit that soup. She says “it has a LOT of parmesan in it mom.” Parmesan? hmmm. I really HOPE that’s what that is honey. I let her have the rest of my salad. I stirred the spoon around in the soup… trying to get up
the nerve to taste it… but.. I just couldn’t. So after a while… our food arrives.. all on the big tray. She hands the kids theirs… for some odd reason they had ordered Chicken fried steak… I look at it… It doesn’t look like anything a normal person would pay to eat. The gravy is a nice bright yellow color & congealed…greasy looking. The steak is nice grayish brown. The mashed potatoes look fairly normal though. She puts my halibut down in front of me… I’m frightened to look at it. I do… I’m facing a nice big piece of fish cartilage spiney bone thing staring at me. The fish is swimming in some orangey buttery stuff… I assumed it was paprika. I said to myself… “no matter what tina… this “halibut” will not ruin your taste for the wonderful Halibut you get on the coast..” This hunk of ocean (or lake bottom feeder.. which ever it might have been) was laying on a nicely wilted piece of green lettuce. This lettuce could have used some of the preservatives from the salad from earlier… I glance at Chriss’ steak & prawns… & almost busted out laughing… because I realized… you know how when you go to a cafeteria… & all your condiments & such are served in little plastic containers with pull off paper tops? The sour cream, tartar sauce, butter, cocktail sauce… all of it came in those little plastic containers… all nicely lined up around the plate…. It was just so frickin’ comical… I really did start to laugh… I was eating cafeteria
food in a “Grill”! I looked back at the kids meals & yup.. the whole bright yellow congealed gravy thing? cafeteria food. I did take a couple bites of the “fish”… it was okay.. but I couldn’t get away from the unappetizing bunch of spinal column laying there watching me. The garlic mashed potatoes had a somewhat off taste. So I sipped my COKE… & kept my mouth shut, tried not to laugh when the little waitress came back & asked me if I needed a to go box. My husband could tell I was not a happy diner & he was quite irritated.. I was being “too picky”. So I ate some of it to keep him appeased….
Because… heaven forbid.. anyone should complain! Something might CHANGE!!!!
T.
Hey there! Since the day I moved back to Great Falls in 2002, I’ve wanted to tell the stories about the “fun” I’ve had dining in this town. A friend of mine has also wanted to do restaurant reviews for establishments in & around Great Falls. We had originally thought to devote an entire website to the endeavor, but I thought maybe a simple blog would be more fun… and maybe then others could participate and share their stories.
I’ve traveled a bit and have had wonderful meals in other cities. I’ve lived in other places - most recenlty near Denver, CO. I come from near Portland, Oregon. I spend time in Washington D.C. for work so I have had opportunity to eat in some great restaurants along the way. I’ve seen Great Falls go from “the only chain restaurant here is McDonalds” to the growing variety of dining options we have now (finally); both “chains” like Chili’s as well as great home-grown spots like The Breaks.
I hope the blog is both entertaining and informative.
Enjoy!
T.
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August 14, 2009 1:43 am | 
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