Restaurant Review: Five Guys

Five Guys Restaurant

If you’re looking for a “fast-food” burger that tastes like a backyard barbecue, Five Guys is your place. Started as a family burger joint in 1986 located near Washington DC, this restaurant serves up freshly-grilled burgers every time you order. On top of that, your burger gets made exactly as you wish… yep that’s right, every time. See, here’s where the backyard barbecue thing comes in to play. When you order your burger you get to choose any toppings you want from a fairly extensive list and it doesn’t cost a dime extra. That’s right. Free toppings.

Five Guys Burger

Mmmm… doesn’t that look tasty? Believe me it was. Now here’s a little more information to know before you go. The regular burgers come with two 1/4 pound patties which was a bit too much for me so I ordered a “little” cheeseburger, ya know, only one patty. And if you go, you must MUST try the french fries. We opted for the cajun variety (yum!), but the potatoes are really the stars here. The fries are freshly cut and the right amount of crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.

Five Guys French Fries

If all of this doesn’t convince you to give Five Guys a try, how about this? Free peanuts while you wait. :)

Peanuts

WIAW #6: Ska Beer Dinner

For this week’s What I Ate Wednesday, I’m taking a different approach. You’ll still get to see what I ate… however fascinating that really is, I don’t know, but today I’m featuring the menu from a beer dinner we went to last night at Heaven on Seven in Naperville, IL. The featured brewery was Ska Brewing out of Colorado.

The seven course meal (I’ve never been so full in my life) started with a Belgian-style welcome beer and each course after that was paired with a different beer. I’ve never done a food/drink pairing before, so I was really looking forward to that aspect of the dinner. Overall, it was a great time — lots of laughs and so. much. food. Take a looksy…

Here’s the menu:

Ska Beer Dinner Menu

Welcome Beer: Sethvleteren 8

Heaven on Seven

Andouille Wrap with Roasted Tomato Sauce
Beer pairing: Special E.S.B.

Rice Krispie Chicken

Rice Krispie Coated Chicken with Bacon-Honey Glaze
Beer pairing: True Blonde Ale

Beer Baked Pork Belly Grilled Cheese

Beer Baked Pork Belly & Pepper-Jack Grilled Cheese with Chipotle Aioli
Beer pairing: Ten Pin Porter

Poutine with debris gravy

‘Nawlins Poutine with Debris Gravy & Herbed Cheese Curds
Beer pairing: Modus Hoperandi

Francheezie with chow chow

 Francheezie with Homegrown Chow Chow
Beer pairing: Decadent IPA

BBQ pulled pork tacos

Chipotle BBQ Pork Tacos with Roasted Sweet Corn Salsa
Beer pairing: Buster Nut Brown Ale

Butterfinger S'more

Butterfinger S’more
Beer pairing: Steel Toe Stout

My favorites were the Rice Krispie Chicken – so crunchy and the perfect amount of salty to work well with the honey sauce; Poutine – one word: gravy; Butterfinger S’more – I mean who doesn’t love a s’more?!?

Favorite beer: Decadent IPA

Well I’m stuffed and feel like I’m going to pop! Enjoy and happy WIAW Wednesday!

Restaurant Review: Kona Grill Favorites

One of my favorite sushi spots, Kona Grill, is great not just for the sushi, but for everything else it has to offer as well. To begin with, the restaurant has one of the best happy hour deals in the area. There are a few drink specials, but the highlight of my trip is always the half-price sushi rolls and appetizers. Yum – California rolls for $3!! Love, love.

Anyways, last time I was there (a few days ago) I snapped some picks of a few of the other things that I found to be absolutely delicious.

Strawberry Basil Lemonade

Strawberry Basil Lemonade

Delicious sweet strawberries balanced out by basil leaves. Refreshing!

Red Velvet Cupcake

Red Velvet Cupcake

Some of the softest red velvet cake I’ve ever tried. Cream cheese frosting and fresh fruit are the perfect complementing flavors.

Restaurant Review: Geneva Ale House

With the motto “drink better beer” and more than 140 beer offerings, how could the Geneva Ale House do any wrong? The answer is I don’t know because I certainly couldn’t find anything. Located in the heart of downtown Geneva, this restaurant/bar is a great place to visit for a bite to eat or just to try a new beer. And with a beer list like this, you really should try a new beer. If you can’t find something new at the ale house, please let me know. I want to meet you — you’ve drank a lot of beer.

On a recent trip, I started out with a classic wheat beer with a twist — Breckenridge Agave Wheat (pictured above). I thought it was refreshing and true to the wheat style of beer. The agave was detectable, but not overwhelming. I thought it was a great beer to pair with a meal — mild flavors don’t overpower the food. And oh the food…

Door County Cheese Curds

Living in Wisconsin for 4 years makes you appreciate the finer things in life… ya know, like good cheese. I’ll admit I shuddered at the sound of the words cheese curds when I first heard them, but if you don’t ever try a fried cheese curd, you’re severely missing out. The curds at Geneva Ale house were beer-battered and served with a bacon aioli sauce. The aioli had real pieces of bacon in it — if there is one thing that could make fried cheese better, it’s bacon.

Grilled Pork Brisket

For my entree I had grilled pork brisket with a side of parmesan rigatoni carbonara. The meat was very tender and almost just melted in your mouth. The carbonara sauce was buttery and cheesy in all the right ways. I could have made a meal just out of the carbonara — it was so tasty I had to remind myself to eat the pork too. In the end, I only made it through about half of the entree and brought the rest home for good eating later.

Since no meal is complete without dessert, I chose to enjoy a Lindemans Framboise Lambic. A tart, but sweet, fruity treat!

Lindemans Framboise Lambic