Archer's Tavern has been open for a couple of years now, and I'd heard almost a 50/50 share of great and terrible things about the place.  It's close to Ma and Pa FvF's, so we figured when we could give it a try before picking up Lil FvF from a night with the grandparents.  We're not college football watchers, but we were still aware of the OSU/Michigan rivalry game - but we figured we'd be going for lunch early enough to miss most of the hooplah and fanboys.  The parking lot had enough spots left that I figured we'd made a safe bet - but the second we opened the car doors and heard the yells coming from inside, we knew we were wrong. I'd promised this review to another entity (who later decided they didn't want it), so we pressed on instead of trying to find a quieter eatery.  This is my warning to all of your Archer's loyalists (I can tell there are a few) that yes - I realize I chose a bad time to review them - but a restaurant should be on their A-game for new patrons at ALL times.

The roars got louder as we approached and opened the door, and I could feel my blood pressure rising.  The hostess was perfectly pleasant, as was our server.  As we were lead to our seats, we noted the layout that the bar was mostly separated from most of the restaurant by a wooden and glass partition, which would contain a lot of the whooping going on toward the game.  Unfortunately, there some serious assholes there that think it's kosher to bring your wife and small children to the main dining room, pound almost half a dozen Captain and Cokes, and scream at the TV in the main dining area.  It became painfully and quickly evident that this family are probably regulars and the staff made zero effort to ask this douche to bring it down a peg or two, regardless of the other families with children and older patrons trying to have a meal near them.  They just kept letting this guy breathe up all of the good air and run up his bill.  Sorry, natives - but this is the kind of drunken entitlement that Centervillers are known for.  This is why I almost never, ever eat in your town.

Anyhow, the food was par.  We ordered fried pickles, the Mister had a Brat Burger and I had a cheesesteak.  His burger was actually pretty impressive, but cancelled out by how dry and bland my cheesesteak was.  Yes, I just said a DRY cheesesteak.  I actually had to ask for mayo to get through it.  \T


The pickles were pickles - nothing to write home about.  I'm sure there's some inside joke or bizarre logic to the pricing, but nothing was a nice round number.  This annoyed me for an unknown reason.

And as much as I wanted to try the Drunken Noodles, I went for the Tamarind Beef.

The portions are huuuuuuuge, considering the price. You could easily order one dish between two people, like most Asian-fare restaurants. I only tried a nibble of the stir fry, since I was trying to avoid the shrimp, but what I had was great. Crisp veggies, light sauce, and beautifully plated.

I met up with two of my best gals, Ginger and her adorable daughter, a few days before the wedding for a little ladies' lunch. Beef's is right around the corner from them, so I met them there to make it easier, in case they wanted to walk.

Long story short, I wasn't terribly impressed. The food was pretty good, but not outstanding, and the service was laughable. We stood around for a minute upon entering, considering the sign said "please wait to be seated," but waited around for a guy to tell us to sit where ever we wanted. He seemed overly flustered, considering most of the tables were empty, and didn't bother offering us a high chair or booster seat for the little one until after Gin had pilfered one from another table.

It took almost 40 minutes for our food to arrive. If I'd been on a regular work schedule, I would have walked out by this point. I ordered the Smokin' Jack Sliders with pineapple cole slaw and mashed potatoes with Guiness Gravy.

The sliders were good, but nowhere near what they were billed as in the photo or description. The taters & gravy were good, but honestly - not much more impressive than KFC. The cole slaw was just regular slaw - not the slighest hint of pineapple could be found.

I sipped on an empty cup a few times, until a girl came to refill it. The great part was, she'd take off with the cup and be gone for five minutes instead of bringing me another one, while I tried to finish off my salty food with no beverage.

Pretty disappointing, and it's safe to say I won't be back.

We dug into Summer Restaurant week this evening, with our first choice - Meadowlark Restaurant. I've been wanting to go there for quite some time, it's just not really in the budget for a couple of scrappy young kids saving up for a wedding. I figured I'd wait for a special occasion to check it out, but better yet - Restaurant Week.

In case you don't already know, most mid-large market cities hold a restaurant week once or twice per year (Dayton has two), when local eateries offer special menus for a special price, part of the portions benefiting a local charity. In this case, you can get a three-course meal at Meadowlark for only $20.10. Hell of a deal.

I didn't think about making a reservation, as a lot of places don't even take them during this promotion. There was certainly a crowd, but the hostess said there was only a 30 minute wait, which didn't seem too shabby. We browsed around looking at furniture next door for a while, then came back in just under 30. Unfortunately, we waited almost another 30 minutes after returning from our window shopping. Meadowlark is situated very unassumingly in a shopping plaza near the Dayton Mall. Space inside is very limited, which means all but 5 people waiting have to hang outside. When it's 90 degrees out, that's nothing but a stone-cold bummer.

As packed as they were, none of the staff seemed flustered - everyone was still friendly and attentive. Our drink & meal orders were taken quickly. The only thing that struck me as odd is that if you order soda, it comes in a 20 oz. bottle. I've noticed a lot of small independent restaurants doing this, and I can't say I'm a fan. I always order water, but Mr. FvF likes his Sprite. Just seems like it's more cost-effective do have fountain sodas (certainly is for the consumer - no free refills here!). Then again, I'm not a restaurant owner or a buyer.

Since we ordered off the RW menu, I knew our food would come out quickly. Since most of the patrons had been waiting on line, the chef was thoughtful enough to send an extra small plate out to all of the tables - crispy, seeded flatbreads with pimento spread. Doesn't sound like much, but it was just enough of a nibble to get your appetite going. Plus, the mister doesn't care for pimento, so - more for me! Our menu appetizer came out next, and we'd both ordered the same thing - Griddled Summer Squash with Falafel, Blistered Tomatoes, Herbs, Feta, Lemon Oil and Za’atar. It was the most appetizing things I'd seen in years.
This would be a good time to mention that Meadowlark is a chef-owned restaurant, which is also mutually exclusive with having amazing food. Chef Elizabeth Wiley's creations at Meadowlark are certainly no exception. This tasted every bit as good as it looked. Mister Picky Pants doesn't care for tomatoes, so again - more for me.

Just after they cleared these plates, like clockwork, our dinners came out. I opted for the Braised Pork Shoulder with Red Chile Jus, Tortilla Budin and Vegetable Slaw...

and Mr. FvF had the Seared Red Snapper with Smoked Shrimp Hash and Fresh Corn Butter Sauce.

The first bite of mine was divine, and that feeling stuck around until I'd cleaned my plate. The pork was so tender, I'm not even sure why they bothered bringing a steak knife with the dish. As good pork shoulder should, it just fell apart at the touch of a fork. Between the sauce and the seasonings, it reminded me a lot of carnitas done very, very well. The red chile jus underneath and around the pork couldn't have been more complimentary. The veggie slaw was great - just enough vinegar and capers to bring it to life, but not soak or overpower the cabbage. I could have done without the tortilla budin. It wasn't bad, it just didn't bring much to the dish and was a bit on the bland side.

I don't dig on seafood at all (okay, now you can call ME picky), so I just have to take Mister's word on the fish dish. He gave it an overall 8 out of 10. According to him, the shrimp in the hash wasn't very detectable, and the snapper was good, just not remarkable. Keep in mind he's quite a finicky eater and lived in coastal towns for much of his life, so for him, that's a pretty good rating for seafood.

For dessert he ordered the warm eclair with French chocolate mousse, and I had the Dolcessa Gelato Fresh Peach Ice Cream with Butter Cake and Bourbon Sauce. We both traded bites of our desserts, and I have to say, the eclair wasn't memorable. It was good for an eclair, that's just not the type of dessert that impresses me. It was definitely better than Perkins-grade, but nothing you couldn't get at a local bakery. Pastries very rarely get my goat, so take this with a grain of salt.

My dessert was pretty boss. It had to be for me to keep eating it, considering cold food gives me a painful reminder that I need a root canal.
My only real complaint is that I think I may have been shorted the bourbon sauce. Basically, what I got was some great pound cake with some kick-ass gelato on top. I really despise fruit-flavored things, but love the taste of actual fresh summer stone fruits in a gelato, which Dayton's own Dolcessa Gelato very successfully provided.

I'm not sure Meadowlark will shoot quickly to the top of our favorite places to splurge, but I'll definitely make it in another time to check out their regular menu offerings.

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.

Last night we went out for a late dinner with our friends Andrew and Katie and met up at China Cottage on Far Hills in Centerville. I'm a North China girl myself, but Andrew loves his China Cottage. Mr. FvF ordered the Szechuan Chicken with hot & sour soup and a spring roll and I has the Mongolian Beef (and his aforementioned spring roll). We also ordered a bottle of Clos du Bois for the table.

Mr. FvF was totally in love with the hot & sour soup, claiming it's the best he's ever had. The roll was tops, too - I love the thinner wrappers they use so you can actually taste the filling. The service couldn't have been any better. One of the managers who seated us and poured our wine made sure she gave us all fliers for their Chinese New Year celebration that takes place on February 22 & 23 where they'll be serving 11 specialty dishes. Not something we'll likely be attending, though, as the price is $50 per person. I'm sure it's worth it, but some things just aren't in the average bird's budget.

Our entrees arrived to the table looking scrumptralescent.





My only complaint is that I had way, WAY more onions than beef in my dish. I love onions pretty hard, but that's not what I'm paying $10 for. The mister's Szechuan chicken was fantastic, but could have been brought up a peg or two on the spice level. They did make a mistake on our bill, but it was only a matter of one of our friends' dishes ending up on our ticket. More easily remedied between us than asking them to take it back and fix it.


4.5 out of 5 sporks!






As a side note, we stopped at Murray's Place on South Dixie for a cocktail after dinner. The sign on the door says "Kettering's Best Kept Secret." In my opinion, that secret is that they have of the BEST karaoke around. I didn't say the most entertaining, I said the best. Mostly old timers that really know there way around a great tune. I tried to snap a crappy camera phone pic of the dapper-dressed fella singing all the great Motown jams, but like everything else my camera phone captures, it looked like a Big Foot spotting.
Almost every table was full, but it was far from a rowdy crowd. The waitresses were top notch, checking in on us at least half a dozen times in our visit, which was only just over an hour. They even came over and asked if we thought it was too warm and adjusted their thermostat accordingly. Between the two of us, we had two Miller Lites and two Jack & Diet doubles and it was only around $15.
Another thing to keep in mind, Murray's is open for lunch and serves up a great burger. It's no Tank burger, but it's a very close front runner in my book.



5 out of 5 shots!