Report Card: Gordon Biersch Brewery

Gordon Biersch Brewery in the Arena District

http://www.gordonbiersch.com/

Overall GrubGrade B

The Breakdown:

Atmosphere: Grade B-: In a moment of sheer lunacy, we decided to attend the Columbus Auto Show at the Columbus Convention Center in downtown, Columbus. Attending the car show wasn’t lunacy in itself, but attending it on the same day when Nationwide Arena was hosting some of the NCAA first round Men’s Basketball Tournament games. Downtown was a madhouse, and there was nary a parking space near the downtown area. We happened to luck out and find a parking garage that most people didn’t seem to know about, but that was after battling traffic and pedestrians for about a half hour. So once we were done at the car show, we were hungry and decided it would be the most convenient to hit some place downtown. We had stopped by a Gordon Biersch many years ago, and since there was one in the Arena District, we decided “Why not?” On the inside, Gordon Biersch was decorated nicely with almost a minimalistic theme. There wasn’t a ton of wall clutter, and we sat in a fairly empty area of the restaurant (most of the other patrons were gathered in and around the bar area, where the flat screen televisions were mounted). On the negative side, the menus at Gordon Biersch were possible the dirtiest menus we’ve ever had to hold. We mean these things were absolutely scuzzy. We hoped the filthy menus weren’t going to be a reoccurring theme for our visit.

High marks: Tasteful décor and quiet dining area (at least on this visit)

Low marks: No convenient parking, and the menus were GROSS

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Service: Grade B: Our server’s name was Stephanie. There wasn’t too much that was memorable about the service, but in Stephanie’s defense, all the action in the restaurant was located elsewhere. We had minimal wait for our food, and our order was delivered with no mistakes. We did find it a little odd that when I asked for a “to go” box when our entrees came out, I kind of got just a smidge of attitude. Actually, it was more like a weird look, but the size of this entree was enormous, and I am trying to watch my figure for Pete’s sake.

High marks: Solid, mistake free service

Low marks: Nothing spectacular, and some possible offense made by my box request

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Food/Spirits: Grade B: We skipped the appetizer on this occasion. I had just started my diet, and therefore was not willing to partake in the extra calories. I have since become less Nazi-ish in my adherence to my diet, so most of our future posts will include the appetizer. Katina ordered the sangria for her drink. It was good, but nothing too memorable. I ordered one of Gordon Biersch’s in-house specialty brews called a Rauchbier. This beer was unique in that it was smoked, so it had a really nice, hearty smoky flavor that is usually absent from most beers. It was delicious, and it happened to pair nicely with food. I would definitely consider the Rauchbier a “dinner” beer and not one that you’d drink just to have a beer. For her entree, Katina ordered the braised beef tips, and I opted for the Cajun pasta. The beef tips were very flavorful, but a little lite on the beef. Katina felt the dish was too veggie-laden to be a knock-out, but it was still tasty, which is quite the endorsement coming from someone whom I’ve rarely seen eat beef tips. The Cajun pasta was also really good, but I have had better versions of Cajun pasta. Gordon Biersch’s version suffers from the same flaw as many of the other Cajun pasta’s I’ve had – too little andouille sausage. For me, a good Cajun pasta has plentiful sausage, chicken, and shrimp. The less stellar versions are usually 90% chicken, 8% shrimp, and 2% andouille sausage. So, the pasta was tasty, but no flavor-gasm (that’s Katina’s word, not mine).

High marks: Delicious and unique beer

Low marks: Too little beef in the beef tips and too little sausage in the Cajun pasta

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Value: Grade B: I’ve seen reviews on Urbanspoon claiming that Gordon Biersch was overpriced, and we have to disagree. It’s not cheap, but we dropped $52 before tip, and that’s not too out of line with our expectations. Had the quality of the food been a tad bit higher, we might have bumped this score up to an A- or B+. But if you’re in the Arena District and you’re looking to grab a bite to eat, Gordon Biersch Brewery is a pretty solid choice.

High marks: Reasonable prices for food

Low marks: Quality needs to be a little better …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Autism Friendly Score: 3 We can’t really imagine a reason to take someone on the spectrum to Gordon Biersh unless your little one is a rabid sports fan or you just caught a concert at Nationwide. But just in case, you should be aware that the lack of convenient parking, online reservations, and online kids menu doesn’t bode well. There wasn’t much noise or visual stimuli to bother an autistic child, but if the place were packed we imagine it might be an overwhelming environment.

Report Card: El Acapulco

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Overall GrubGrade C+

The Breakdown:

Atmosphere: Grade B: There are pretty much “authentic” Mexican restaurants on almost every corner here in Columbus, so you need to be pretty special to stand out. El Acapulco falls pretty short of that. On the outside, El Acapulco is fairly non-descript, and it turned out to be as small on the inside as it looked on the outside. The interior was clean and decorated in typical authentic cheesy Mexican décor. There weren’t many diners when we arrived, but it was starting to get packed by the time we left. It stayed fairly quiet throughout the meal, with Mexican music softly playing through the speakers. Table spacing appeared to be adequate. We are going to be honest, we really wanted to score this lower as El Acapulco was not physically impressing (kind of like the Gary Coleman of Mexican restaurants).

High marks: Clean and fairly quiet, acceptable table spacing

Low marks: Very small and under-whelming

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Service: Grade B-: We have no idea who our server was. His name wasn’t printed on the postage stamp sized receipt we received, but he spoke perfect English with minimal accent, so no language barrier. However, when we first walked into the restaurant, we were greeted with a sign that advised us to “Seat Yourself.” Okay, lets all agree on something – if we have to seat ourselves, your restaurant should have a drive-thru. Which would be okay in El Acapulco’s case since their food ranked right about even with Taco Bell. Service was okay and worthy of a B or B+ grade, but we cannot forgive having to seat ourselves – that sets a bad tone for the meal. Food arrived very quickly as is par for the course with Mexican restaurants in general, and our order was accurately prepared.

High marks: No language barrier, accurate and quick service

Low marks: “Seat Yourselves”– ’nuff said

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Food/Spirits: Grade C: We are 99% certain the complimentary chips and salsa came from a bag and jar, respectively. They were not impressive at all. For her drink, Katina ordered a strawberry daiquiri, which ended up being pretty small and tasted like there was zero alcohol in it. I stuck with the traditional Coronas served with a slice of lime. Despite what is technically the way beer is supposed to be served (sans fruit slices), Corona tastes like what I would expect a sweaty sock tastes like without the lime slice added. We ordered the queso with sausage for an appetizer. When it arrived, it was served with a few warm tortillas. We now believe that we were supposed to spread the queso on the tortillas since the queso was really too thick to use as a dip. Taste-wise, the queso was okay, but the consistency should have been much thinner (plus, a thinner texture could have helped hide the abundance of grease present from the sausage). Katina decided to get crazy and ordered the chicken fajitas (sarcasm). She found the fajitas thin on meat and heavy on the veggies, and the meat that was present was bland. Whatever time they used to marinate their meat, it wasn’t long enough. Katina rated the fajitas “not very good” and “average to below average.” Ouch! I ordered a combination platter that had 1 beef tips burrito and 1 chicken burrito. The beef burrito was sparsely filled with tough, under-seasoned beef. The chicken burrito was actually much better. The chicken actually had some flavor and just a hint of heat – plus there was a bunch of it in the burrito. They probably had a bunch left since they obviously did not use the same chicken they used in my burrito in Katina’s fajitas. The re-fried beans were okay, but nothing special.

High marks: Chicken burrito was actually pretty good

Low marks: Pretty much the rest of the food – while not awful, not impressive either

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Value: Grade C: We dropped $75 on dinner (granted, we had our kids with us, but their portion of the bill was negligible. Food quality was not high enough for us to recommend El Acapulco as a place to eat. If you drive past it in either direction, a better Mexican restaurant is probably right up the road.

High marks: None, really

Low marks: Poor quality and too pricey

Report Card: Plaza Azteca

 

Plaza Azteca

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Overall GrubGrade C

 

The Breakdown:

 

Atmosphere: Grade B: If you bothered to read our previous post, then you’ll know that Keagan’s Irish Pub won the prize for the best place we dined at during our vacation. On the flip side of that coin, Plaza Azteca wins the prize for the worst. We stopped at the Plaza Azteca in Williamsburg to kill some time before we checked into our next hotel. We’d have been better served just taking a nap in the car. On the plus side, Plaza Azteca was huge – both outside and inside. But, it probably doesn’t cost too much to build a warehouse-sized restaurant when most of it appears to be built of plastic. The place looked clean, but the other diners…not so much. We followed a young couple into the restaurant, and the female of the pair looked like she was wearing an outfit she outgrew a decade ago. Yummy. The place was fairly quiet, but also fairly empty. That should have been our first clue as to what was to come.

High marks: Large and quiet

Low marks: Cheap looking and cheap feeling

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Service: Grade C: Sometimes the language barrier we encounter when dining at Mexican restaurants can seem funny or even cute. However, in the case of Plaza Azteca, this was not the case. We had to practically shout our order slowly, even though the place was quiet, and the look of confusion on our server’s face did not bode well for a good outcome. That being said, our server got everything correct, but was very flat. We were served with minimal to no enthusiasm. Wait time for drinks and dishes was acceptable, but we can’t shake the feeling that the only reason the service wasn’t a complete disaster was good old-fashioned luck. Asking questions about the items on the menu was definitely out of the question, and a small mix-up with our drinks really left us disappointed.

High marks: Normal wait time for food and drinks

Low marks:   Bland service, huge language barrier

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Food/Spirits: Grade C: Plaza Azteca has a banana margarita on the menu (cue violins). However, these margaritas had no banana flavor at all. They did have some unidentified fruity taste, but it wasn’t banana (false alarm on those violins). Katina also ordered a raspberry mojito, but received a raspberry margarita instead. She toughed it out and drank it, because who knows what would have come from the bar had she sent it back. For her entrée, Katina ordered the chicken fajitas (as you can see, she’s branching out) which she characterized as average at best. Definitely not the best she’s had, but she claims not the worst either (I bet if you challenge her to name where she got worse chicken fajitas, she couldn’t answer, though). I ordered a dish called Chori-Steak. From the menu description, it should have been heavenly. An 11 ounce NY strip covered in chorizo and cheese sauce. I can vouch for the cheese sauce, and I think there was chorizo on the other meat. The NY strip, on the other hand, was suspect. Almost beef jerky like in texture and toughness, the meat was pretty much just gristle wrapped in a lovely layer of fat. I ended up leaving the steak and just ate the sausage, beans, and rice. You have to understand that my leaving steak on the plate is equivalent to Steve Buscemi winning a best smile contest – it just doesn’t happen (we love you Steve…but that grill is something else). We were quite disappointed with the entrees. On a final note, even the chips and salsa were substandard, with stale chips and a salsa that tasted like it came from a jar.

High marks:  Great menu descriptions

Low marks: Execution on the entrees left a lot to be desired

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Value: Grade C: It really doesn’t matter how much we spent, the poor food quality and almost painful service does not allow us to consider Plaza Azteca a good value. In fact, we recommend passing right on by the place. If you do pull in, do yourself a favor and take a nap instead of going in. When you wake up, use your navigation system to find a better place.

High marks: None

Low marks: Poor quality and service

 

 

Report Card: Barrel 44

Barrel 44 in the Short North

http://www.barrel44.com/shortnorth.html

Overall GrubGrade C+

 

The Breakdown:

 

Atmosphere: Grade B-: Barrel 44 is a whiskey bar located in the Short North. Inside, the place is small and quaint, and looks exactly like what you would expect a whiskey bar to look like. The inside is dominated by a large bar that is surrounded by black and white pictures and some battered tables, which gave the place an authentic feel. When we arrived, we were the only ones dining. We thought the music was a little loud, and we could imagine a raucous environment when the place fills up. Initially, Barrel 44 came off as really clean and tidy, but once we unwrapped our silverware, we found it to be absolutely disgustingly dirty. Hopefully, the silverware wasn’t a harbinger of bad things to come.

High marks: Quaint and authentic looking

Low marks: Music a little loud, really dirty silverware

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Service: Grade B-: Our server swapped out our silverware once we pointed out how dirty it was and we were off and running. Our server was pretty short, which we have no problem with except that every time she went behind the bar we completely lost track of her – like not being able to see that really ancient lady from behind when she’s in the driver’s seat. Service was alright, though. We had a little bit of a wait for our food, which seemed odd since we were the only ones in the restaurant. Our service was accurate, but it was kind of just blah. I would have expected more with nothing else to distract our server. If you really want to hear what great service is like, make sure you check out the next post.

High marks: Accurate

Low marks:   Slow service, hard to keep track of server

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Food/Spirits: Grade C+: For drinks, Katina ordered something called an Irish Spring and I just had a beer. The Irish Spring was really tasty. It had a nice mix of sweet and sour with some peachy undertones. For our appetizer, we ordered the Chili Mac & Cheese. The Chili Mac & Cheese was cheesy and hardy, with a couple of different types of beans and corn thrown into the mix. All of the flavors really mixed well, and no one flavor dominated the dish. It was very well balanced. However, from there the food went downhill. For her entrée, Katina ordered the Barrel Bourbon Burger cooked medium-well. What she received was a burger cooked medium. Again, we still seem to have trouble getting restaurants to nail the medium-well burger (here’s a hint – if there’s a pool of blood beneath the meat, it probably needs to be cooked longer. So, Katina spent half the meal tearing off the bloody parts of the burger, which left a nice clump of mauled meat on her plate when she was done. She thought the parts she did eat were fine, but she couldn’t taste the bourbon glaze that was supposed to come with the burger, and actually the fries were the best part of the entrée. That says it all. I opted for the Shrimp and Sausage Flatbread. Not going to sugar coat it, my friends – it was pretty gross. The shrimp were a little too large (non-jumbo shrimp would have probably been better from a texture standpoint), and the sauce/salsa was just all wrong. It was too sweet and it completely dominated the dish. I couldn’t even taste the Andouille sausage, which has some pretty strong flavors (it didn’t help that there were only a few small bits of sausage on the whole flatbread). I was really disappointed.

High marks: Good drink and appetizer 

Low marks: Burger not cooked to correct temperature, flatbread was not good

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Value: Grade C: The driving force for the value score in this instance is a lack of quality. Considering the low food quality, reasonable portion sizes, and the fact we each only had one drink, we feel like we overpaid. Unfortunately, we recommend you all pass on this one. There are plenty of other places to eat in the Short North.

High marks: None

Low marks: Low quality means poor value