Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Doubleday's Grill & Tavern - Centerville, Ohio

I wanted to treat my mom to lunch today, at someplace other than the gastrointestinal delight that is Bob Evans. Only problem is, she works right at 48 and Alex-Bell, which leaves surprisingly few options besides Bob's and Schlotzky's. We tried to hit Doubleday's the last time we had lunch, but there was not a single parking space left by 11:30 a.m. We tried it again today and snagged the last spot. I expected it to be packed inside, but just over half the tables were full. Even stranger, they sat just the two of us in one of their largest booths.

For what is essentially a sports bar, I've always thought Doubleday's was a bit on the pricey side. Like, $9 salad pricey. But, they have a few lunch and daily specials that aren't too shabby, all well under $10. Their menu is incredibly extensive - between lunch, dinner, appetizers and Sunday brunch, I think it comes to eight pages total. Entire sections are devoted to baked pastas and quesadillas.

Ma FvF ordered the small chicken strip salad and I opted for the soup & salad combo, with a house salad and black bean & sausage soup. The food came out quickly and was much larger than we expected for lunch portions. The salads both came on large, plate-like pasta bowls. Ma's came with a garlic bread stick and mine with pumpernickel oat. I'll go as far as saying the salad was boss. When you order a side salad in a restaurant, you usually end up with some iceberg, a slice of unripened tomato and a clump of cheese. This baby came equipped with mixed greens, julienned carrots, cucumbers, diced ripe tomatoes, red onion, cheese and both dark and light croutons. The soup was great, too, but didn't have nearly as much sausage as I recall. In fact, I couldn't find any actual pieces of sausage, just sausage flavor. Ma said her salad was also tops, and was so big she couldn't even finish it.

In a not at all surprising turn of events, I forgot all about photos until I'd plowed through my entire meal. As far as service, it's fine. Not stellar, not memorable, but fine. They have a lot of daily specials, like soups and whatnot, that are on the board when you first walk in, but I have yet to have any of the servers tell em about the specials once I'm seated. That said, there was no lack of refills, we didn't feel rushed (although they were packing in by the time we left), and she made the effort to ask if we needed one or two checks.

4 out of 5 sporks!

Doubleday's Grill & Tavern on Urbanspoon

1 comments:

Valerie Strickland said...

Heck to tha yes! I love everything I've eaten there. Moster pizzas are killer. I had the same "meh" experience with the service though.

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