the tasteful olive

www.thetastefulolive.com

what a great idea for a store.  they sell olive oils and balsamic vinegars.  all of them have fantastic tastes too.  just imagine that you are going to a wine tasting, but instead you get little paper cups to taste the oil and vinegar.  they even have recipe cards for mixing the oils and the vinegars.  they range from pineapple to chocolate to fig to wild mushroom.  great store.  i love to cook with these flavored oils.  it completely enhances the flavor of food.

Mr. G's Pizza and Pub

This is by far one of the best pizza places ever!  I love this place.  March 2010 we were in branson for my daughters spring break. We were headed to a greek restaurant (that is now out of business), and saw Mr. G's.  it was a little hole in the wall bar.  we decided that a pizza and beer sounded better than greek food, and i love hole in the walls too!  well turns out that the pizza was fantastic!!!  the service was lacking, but we were in no hurry at all.  the atmosphere goes with the space, (hole in the wall), but the staff was very nice.  We have since been back to Mr. G's pizza every time we go to Branson.  We manage to go there when we arrive and before we leave!  Cold beer and amazing pizza.  Nuff said!

go to it if you are in Branson, MO.  it is in the downtown area.

Mr. G's Pizza and Pub

202 1/2 N Commercial St

Branson, MO 65616-2406

(417) 335-8156

Taste in Downtown Overland Park

www.taste-kc.com


I was on a mission to try and find a new place to eat for lunch. I was driving and driving and came across Taste. It is located in downtown Overland Park across from Penzy spice and Tasteful Olive. I was out to lunch late, around 2:00 or 3:00, so there wasn't any crowd. I sat at the bar and just ordered a water. I don't think I have ever done that before.... Well anyway, the bartender was friendly, and handed me a menu. The menu i received was different from the lunch menu online, but still had some of those dishes. I got some sliders! you can mix and match them too! Well i got the Egg Salad Slider, Tuna Salad Slider, and a Seared Ahi Tuna with Wasabi Mayo Slider. I also ordered a side of Sweet Potato Fries. When i was served the food was nicely plated. Very appealing to the eye. There were mini sized lettuce, tomato, and onion to go on the sliders for garnish too. I'm gonna start telling you about the Egg Salad Slider. This was the BEST egg salad that i have ever had!! it comes on a leaf of green lettuce with some toasted bread on the side to make your own slider or eat it on top of them. The only way i could think to make this Egg Salad Slider better would be to add some Horseradish for some KICK! Well next i tasted the Tuna Salad Slider. This wasn't as great as the Egg Salad one. It was extremely Salty. If it hadn't been for the salt, i think it would have been a good Tuna Salad. this was served in the same manner as the Egg Salad(make your own). On to the Seared Ahi Tuna Slider. It was pretty darn good. The tuna was a good thickness and flavor. The Wasabi Mayo could have been more potent in my opinion. there were also sauteed mushrooms on this slider which were really good. Ok here is to my 2nd favorite part of the meal, the Sweet Potato fries. these were the best sweet potato fries i have ever had! they were sweet and salty and yummo! i could have drizzled melted butter and sprinkled brown sugar on top of them to eat for dessert, but i just dipped them in my ketchup. it is so hard to find a good sweet potato fry. most end up not flavorful enough, or crispy and burned. these were amazing! So my overall opinion of this place is: Go eat at it! Check out their menu on their website. all of it sounds delicious!

Webster House

So i have been wanting to try The Webster House www.websterhousekc.com for a really long time now. and all of sudden the fantastic website Groupon.com had a Webster House coupon. so i of course got one. because there is nothing better that a steal of a deal. so many people that i have talked to have said how wonderful of a place Webster House is to eat. their food is great! nothing but good things. So we made reservations and went! it was a Saturday night and they seemed pretty busy, as expected for a nice restaurant. but this place is and old school house of some sort that has been refurbished. They also sell things on the 1st floor and throughout the place(a bit overpriced if you ask me).

Well the hostess just gave a not nice vibe to start out with, then we are seated and our server was very nice. things were looking up. I believe his name was Joe???? well we ordered a drink and then ordered an appetizer. It was the Appetizer Trio Sampler, $18.00. It consisted of a lobster corn dog, calamari, and a scallop on fried green tomato. this was awesome. all were cooked perfectly with complimentary sauce flavors. then they brought out a butter trio with pretzel bun. the 1st butter was a molasses and honey, 2nd was a garlicy one, and the 3rd a sea salt one. loved them all! oh and the person i dined with ordered a Caesar salad. it was so~so. not bad not good, just so~so.

a couple that we knew called us and was going to stop by the Webster house for dessert and drinks. so i thought i would see if they could sit at one of the tables next to us that was about to leave. the hostess told us no and that they were extremely busy and had reservations for those tables already. well turns out that know one ended up sitting next to us for the next hour!!! and there were 7 other tables in the room that we dined in that remained unseated. not happy about this service either. our friends ended up sitting in the bar and waited for us to finish.

For dinner we ordered the steak. I had the 8oz prime beef tenderloin and he had the 13oz prime strip steak. both come served with Yukon gold potato crab puffs, roasted asparagus, carmelized onions and a black truffle demi-glace. Sounds awesome right??? well i order my steak med-rate and he orders his med-well. they come out nicely plated and smelling fantastic. the asparagus was nicely cooked. the steaks had great flavor, but when we cut into them more, they were no where close to the correct temperature that was to be cooked. Mine was completely Rare and the med-well was Med- Rare. So naturally i had to tell our server. and upscale restaurant should know how to properly cook a steak! So i call Joe over and explain to him that these steaks are no where near cooked the way they should be. he completely agreed and asked to take them back and cook them more, but i wasn't trying to complain, just trying to make the chef aware of what his kitchen is doing. or i guess not doing. Joe told the chef and he sent his apologies of course and Joe said dessert was on them.

We were already going to order dessert, but free dessert tastes way better. or so we thought.... He ordered the Creme brulee and i had the Fallen Chocolate Souffle. the Creme Brulee was pretty good. nothing to complain about there. but the fallen chocolate souffle that came with Brandied Cherries, wasn't the best. I have made Ghirardelli brownies better than those at home. and the brandied cherries were extremely potent!

after dessert we joined our friends in the bar for 1 more drink. the bar tender was a fun person. she is a good asset to this establishment.

Needless to say the entire dining experience wasn't the best. i don't know if they were just overly busy because everyone bought a groupon and was using that night or what??? but even if you are crazy busy, food level and service levels should never be lowered.

I will try this restaurant 1 more time. Probably during lunch to see if it was just an off night or not. You all go, and decide for yourselves and let me know what you think though.