Linn St. Cafe

Linn St. Cafe is considered by many to be Iowa City's nicest restaurant. We go there several times a year (only when they have a Groupon). While I think that the food is really good, I think that it is overpriced. The Linn St. Cafe presents itself as an upscale restaurant but every time that we go, both Leigha and I think that the ambiance is truly lacking. They have mismatched chairs and plastic covered tables. The kicker is that every single time that we are there, the manager paces back and forth while answering the phone and talking loudly.

House of Lords

House of Lords is a restaurant that specializes in prime rib and kitsch. It is located inside the Best Western in Coralville. As you walk in to the hotel, there is a sign welcoming you to the House of Lords but Leigha and I couldn't figure out where to go. We were told to go down the stairs at room 14, to which Leigha replied "We go into a room and down the stairs from there?"

"No," we were told. "Go to the room and THEN go down the stairs."

Apricot Danish

As I walked by their display case, this Danish was literally eyeing me down. When I walked up to the case, it seemed less like like a giant eyeball and more like an egg in the middle of a pastry.

Cinnamon Roll

Tate has started Tee-ball. Unfortunately, three of the eight practices have been cancelled. During the latest cancellation, I let him pick something else to do. So what does a five year old pick? Go to the library and pick out movies and books. Once we were done, we went across the street to the Bread Garden and met up with Leigha. Once there, we let him pick out a drink and a treat. He picked this cinnamon roll and

Blueberry Scone

The Bread Garden makes a bunch of tasty treats that you can buy for half price after 4 p.m. I got this Blueberry Scone and was pleased when it wasn't

Airliner Pizza

Nearly every single Sunday for two and a half years, I went to the Airliner for their $1 slices of pizza. It was a staple of my college life. Each week, a group of my friends would meet here without fail and without calling each other first. One thing about going to the Airliner was that you never knew what

Jimmy Jack's Barbecue

As a disclaimer, I would like to say that it annoys me when people say barbecue when they mean grilling. It is like the difference between champagne and sparkling white wine. To most, there is no difference, but there is. To qualify as barbecue, it must involve smoke and low (generally indirect) heat. I personally own a smoker and have created several of my own recipes for spice rubs. If I rotated between eating barbecue and pizza every day, everyday I would swear that I was eating my favorite food. One good thing about living in a college town is that there are 22 pizza places for a city of roughly 68k. One bad thing about living in Iowa is that my options are much more limited for barbecue (3). Even more so if I am looking for QUALITY barbecue. Jimmy Jack's makes good barbecue, regardless of where you live.

Bacon Pecan Maple Danish

Every day at the Java House, they offer a two-for one deal for products that weren't purchased the day before. As I was walking by, I glanced at this. When I came back later, it caught my eye again so I walked over to see what it was. Two danishes for $2 is a pretty good deal in itself, but when I saw the flavor, I knew that I had to buy it.

Panchero's Carnitas Burrito

As I've written before, I love Panchero's. For those of you that don't know, carnitas are made when you slow braise or slow roast a heavily marbled piece of pork such as the butt (shoulder). Once this is done, the meat should be tender and easily pulled apart. The the meat is placed in a shallow pan along with some of the rendered juices and roasted at a high heat. The beauty of Panchero's is that

Bo James

Bo James is knows for their drink specials for Friday after class (FAC) in Iowa City. After having the terrible burger at Okoboji, I wasn't really in the mood for a burger, but I was up for having a lunch date with Leigha. As is commonly the case, we had a coupon. I ordered the Texas Burger. The two burgers were eerily similar in description, but where the Okoboji Burger went wrong, this burger was

The Atlas



For my friend, Corey's birthday, a group of us met up at the Atlas. I have never had a bad meal here; and this meal was no exception. Before coming, I had checked out their menu online and decided to knock something off of my 101 foods list. When I got there, I changed my mind on what to get. Then I saw the special menu and changed my mind again. What I finally ended up getting was

Casa Tequila

February 22nd is National Margarita Day. So we celebrated by going to Casa Tequila, one of two restaurants located in Tiffin. Leigha had gotten an amazing groupon where we received two entrées, two giant margaritas and an appetizer. I was excited because I was going to mark something off my 101 foods list, Mole Poblano. As it turns out, their menu had changed since last time that we were there, and they no longer had that anymore. It appeared as if they had removed a lot more of their authentic Mexican food. But what I did get was still quite good.

Crêpes De Luxe Café

I've eaten here since before Crêpes De Luxe Café was a full-blown restaurant and the owner Hicham Chehouani had a street cart in the Pedestrian Mall. It was just like the crêpes that you get on the street in France.

Quinton's

When I was in college, I considered Quinton's to be a decent bar with pretty good food. What I really like was that they didn't just serve the typical bar food of chicken wings and nachos. They were known for their soup bowls and sandwiches. I hadn’t been to Quinton’s in years, but we were armed with two hungry kids, a Groupon and nostalgia. Both of the kids loved the idea of eating the bowl that we ate the soup out of. The four of us split two sandwiches and two soup bowls.

Java House Cinnamon Roll

                                                                                      

 I am not a cofee drinker, but I am a sucker for pasteries.

Panchero's

This picture doesn't do justice to how good this burrito was.

Petra Falafal House

Falafel with cucumber, tomatoes, lettuce, and tahini. The homemade pickles were a nice surprise. Their acidity really brought the whole sandwich together. It was really good.    

Sam's Steamed Caboose Burgers

While this burger tasted fine, I wasn't a big fan of the steamed method of cooking the burger. To get technical, the meat was a bit mooshy. The bun was over-sized and tasted fresh. I personally prefer big buns, so that was nice.

Mesa Pizza

Barbeque Bacon Cheddarburger and Pepperoni Sausage

At first, I thought that it was pepperoni and gyro meat. It was still amazing.