The experience

DSC_0013Today we are celebrating Oma’s birthday since she will be out of town on her real birthday.  We had explicit instructions to be at The Shire at 6pm with birthday candle in hand.  Well, Team Phipps arrived about 15-20 minutes late as usual.  Not to mention that on the way to the restaurant, Benji was being quite the pain in the rear…or for Mina and pain on her scalp.  He was pulling her hair and refusing to say sorry (normally, if he says he’s sorry, he really is and won’t do it again.  if he doesn’t say sorry, it means he plans on doing it again).   Anyway, he refused to say sorry and was crying because we told him that we were not happy about that and he could not reconcile the two.

We arrived and gave him no option but to sit in a high chair, which he was also not pleased about.  He pretty much stayed in this foul mood until food arrived.  Thankfully, Grandpoo already ordered some appetizers.  We also ordered some bread, stat, as we ordered dinner for ourselves.

Benji’s improved with the mozarella sticks and bread…with butter.

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Meanwhile, Mina was happy to be sitting next to Oma and helping her open birthday presents and cards.  We talked about the ballet as we were letting Oma choose tickets to a few ballets this season. 
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We had a perfect amount of time to chat and enjoy our appetizers (and salad for Ogre) before the entrees came out. 

Everyone was happy to being eating a very good prime rib and we made note that Ogre and I very oppositely eat our prime rib.  He loves the part that I think is too fatty (the outer rim) and I prefer the middle meaty part.  Neither one of us finished our prime rib and you could almost put the two pieces left and make a whole one!

Next up, time to sing happy birthday and let O blow out her candle!  Benji and Mina were very cute singing and the rest of us were off key. 

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After that, we packed up and headed home.

 

The food

Upscale Bar Food is what I’ll call it. (Salads, Burgers, Prime Rib, Fish and Chips, etc.)

DSC_0002We ordered deviled eggs and mozzarella sticks to start.  Everyone liked the deviled eggs.  They have more of a relish/pickle flavor than a sweet/mustardy flavor.  We all loved the mozzarella sticks.  Nice fat sticks of mozzarella with a light breading.  DSC_0001Definitely not like most places where you can imagine they took it straight out of the freezer to the fryer.

 

DSC_0006Ogre also had a salad, which he thought was very tasty.  Had a nice bleu cheese dressing and the lettuce was chopped small, which we both like.

 

DSC_0007We all ordered the Prime Rib (replacing the peas with asparagus) and it’s served with whipped potatoes.  It was definitely an above average Prime Rib.  Prepared perfectly to the requested medium rare and had a very good au jus served with it.

DSC_0008The kids had chicken and fries, which looked pretty good, but I didn’t try it.

 

 

For dessert, Oma had the cranberry pineapple cake, which I didn’t try, but Oma, Grandpoo, and Ogre all thought it was very moist and flavorful. 

 

 

The service

Pretty average.  Nothing spectacular, but nothing bad either.  Food comes out at a good tempo.

 

The kids

They don’t have any kids activities or kids menu items, but they did accommodate our request for chicken strips and fries.  They have a front room and a back room.  They ushered us to the back room, which may have been because we were a large party, but may also have been because we had kids with us.  There was another large party with kids in the back room also.

We liked the prime rib here.  Ogre is very annoyed by the lack of beer on tap (or any beverage on tap) for that matter, so that may limit our repeat visits.  Oma and Grandpoo love it, though!

 

The total: $195

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