Culver's Restaurant - Appleton East

This place has the best fast food burgers in the state of Wisconsin. The butter burgers are juicy and full of flavor and loaded with veggies. My personal favorite is the double butter burger with cheese (you can also get jumbo and deluxe burgers).

A better brand of beef makes a butter burger better. Why do they call them butterburgers? Because they lightly coat the inside of the bun with butter.

Culver's also has a large menu featuring a Wisconsin melt, a Philly sandwich, various fish and shrimp plates, jumbo sized salads (including their wonderful cashew chicken salad and their healthy and filing garden fresco salad, which is what I get with my double butterburger)

But Culver's is known for the custard which they make right there in the restaurant, and for their on tap root beer which is brewed right there as well. They feature a custard flavor of the day, as well as chocolate and vanilla.

No trip to the Fox Valley is complete without a meal at Culver's! This place gets my vote as the best fast food restaurant in Appleton.

Tom's Drive In

Jeanne and I ate here today after church (October 15th). We had heard that this place was serving some of the tastiest burgers in the Fox Valley. I ordered the Tominator (which is equivalent to a Whopper from Burger King. It was a good burger, ( a big burger), but the meat could have used a little more seasoning.

I also had a very nice side salad and a diet coke. The inside of the place definitely caters to the kids, with the Halloween decorations and the free pieces of candy available on the cashier counter top.

This place also has an enormous menu, especially for a fast food joint. You can get shrimp baskets and haddock baskets and all different sizes and types of burgers (including a veggie burger). The dessert menu, with it's various floats and malts and sundaes and ice creams is overwhelming.

I will have to try more menu items before I hand down a final verdict. I liked my hamburger, but not as much as a Culver's Double Butter Burger with cheese or a Big Mac or a Whopper or especially not a Red Robin Blue Ribbon Burger.

But I will have to go back and try a Works Burger and a Big Tom (the equivalent of a Big Mac).

Victoria's Restaurant - Grand Chute, WI - College Avenue

My wife and I love the Victoria's restaurant in downtown Appleton. They have the best Italian food I've ever had, and the portions are humongous. You can eat three meals off of one entree! Plus, the salads are fresh and lush, and the garlic bread is buttery and flavorful. The menu is one of the most large and detailed menus I have ever read.

So we decided to try the Victoria's by highway 41. This franchise has a salad and soup bar, and we were quite pleased with both. The minestrone soup is to die for (figuratively speaking)! I ordered the classic linguini with meat sauce (they have the tasty and tangy meat sauce simmering all day in a pot), and it was the best I have had in ages! My wife had a seafood salad that was really nice.

One thing we noticed is that the portion sizes were noticeaby smaller at this Victoria's. I don't know if it is because of what we ordered or if they are deliberately trying to cut back at this Victoria's. Having said that, I still enjoyed two feedings off of my entree. It's just that compared to the enormous portios of the past, it was something of a surprise to get a more normal sized plate of food.

But it was delicious, and the southern waitress we had was very friendly and attentive. We will be back! But I will probably go back to the downtown one first to see if the portions are still huge.

Applebee's Restaurant - Darboy, Wisconsin

I love Applebee's restaurant. I especially like the Riblets, the honey glazed salmon, the grilled Teriyaki bowl, the pasta Jambalaya, and the orange chicken bowl (can you tell that I like to eat :). We even celebrated my wife's birthdday at this Applebees earlier in the year.

But the last Friday of September 2006 was an off-night for this East Appleton Applebees franchise. Even though the restaurant was fairly empty, the hostess tried to seat us in the bar. Then it took almost 15 minutes for a waitress (a trainee) to come and bring us water. She promised to bring us coffee, but she forgot. It's not like the staff was terribly busy, as we saw a number of red shirted staff just hanging out and talking with each other.

After a while, a more seasoned waitress apologized for the bad service, and she gave me a salad and the coffee on the house. The manager seemed deeply embarrassed when he came to our table and asked how we were doing, and I told him that it was an off-night.

Anyone can have a bad night, and so I'm not going to write this restaurant off. I'll eat at this particular Applebees again. But I sincerely hope that they will resolve any service or staffing issues.

HuHot Mongolian Grill, Appleton, Wisconsin

If you look at all the restaurants on this blog, you'll notice a preference for Asian food. And the HuHot Mongolian grill serves up some of the best in the Fox Valley. My wife and I ate there on Friday, August 25th, 2006. We got there around 6pm, and there was a 10-15 minute wait. Once we were seated, the waitress came around and explained the rules of the buffet. You can go up and fill your bowl with whatever you want, put in a minimum of 5-6 sauces of your choice, then give it to the cooks to grill.

When you first go up, there are a number of meats to choose from: Beef, pork, chicken, crabmeat and (on this night) Mahi-Mahi fish.

Next in the line is a long selection of fresh, scrumptious veggies (brussel sprouts, celery, spinach leaves, pineapple, corn coblets, tomatoes, and more). Then, you choose from a huge variety of sauces (lots of hot and mild sauces, also some lemon juices and ginger and sherry)

Then you come up to this huge Mongolian grill with 4 chefs. Each one ha sa job: One cleans the grill, the other three cook, and somehow, they keep track of whose food belongs to who.

From the time I got in line to the time I sat down with supper, it took about 10-12 minutes. (Right after you get your bowl of food, there are pinenuts and cococut and seeds that you out on top of your entree)

When I got back to my table, I was pleased to see a delightful looking Mandarin salad and a bowl of white rice on the table. I must tell you that the meal was delicious and the salad was excellent as well. You can go back as many times as you like for more food (at $11.25 a person, it's a good deal), but Jeanne and I were satisfied with the one trip plus the salads and soft tortilla wrap they give you.

This is the best Mongolian BBQ joint in the Fox Valley. I recommend getting there early on a Friday night, but most nights, you shouldn't have a problem getting a seat.

Update - October 2006 - We have been back a second time, and they were just as tasty and fresh as before!

Victoria's Restaurant, Downtown Appleton

My family and I ate here on Monday, August 13th. This restaurant is renowned for their huge portions and generally excellent Italian food. This turned out to be the case once again. We ordered the Chicken Parmigiana, the Chicken Teriyaki with rice and veggies (sounds REAL Italian, I know), and a couple of other Italian dishes whose names I cannot pronounce or spell or remember. One of the dishes came with a huge ribeye steak that was absolutely delicious!

The meal starts with rolls and elegantly decorated salads, followed by the overwhelmingly tasty entrees. The menu is so big that you could probably order something different every day for A year and not have the same thing.

Plus, you really get your money's worth, because you can usually get two or three meals out of every entree you order.

The restaurant is tastefully decorated with murals of the old country, including splendid ceiling art and chandeliers.

I have eaten their for lunch, and you get the same huge portions at the midday meal as what you would get at suppertime, with most of the meals coming in at less than $10.

This restaurant is the best Italian place I've been to in Appleton by far. Nothing comes close, not even that chain restaurant over by the Fox River Mall next to Hooter's. It is highly recommended.

Koreana Restaurant

My wife and I ate here for our wedding anniversary on June 21st, and what a treat it was! We had the bbq beef bul-go-gi over bamboo shoots and we also had the bah-bim-bi over white rice and lettuce. Before the main courses arrive, you get three sides: some hot Kim-chi, made of cabbage and spicy red sauce, some fosh cakes, which look more liked pieces of stringed smoke fish (they were delicious!), and some brussel sprouts.

But the BBQ Bul-Go Gi was one of the best meals I have had in Appleton this year. The second dish was very good, but the Bul-Go-Gi was life altering, mind-blowingly good!

Moreover, the lunch prices are very reasonable: The Bul-Go-Gi was $6.95, and you can have it with fish or chicken, or with a different kind of sauce.

The Ba-Bim-Bi was $8.95, I believe. But even the dinner entrees were below $15. There is also a sushi bar in the restaurant where two men in kimonos cooked carefully and intensely, I don't know if they looked up the whole time we were there.

This place gets my highest recommendation as one of the best Asian restaurants in the Appleton area, and one of the best restaurants overall. It is located on county road 00 in Appleton, just west of Ballard road.

Texas Roadhouse Appleton Wisconsin

My wife is a teacher, and so I asked her where we should go to dinner to celebrate the end of another good school year. She said, "What about Texas Roadhouse?" We have eaten there several times, and we always enjoyed it. The Dallas Filet Mignon steaks are very tasty, and the bbq ribs were delicious, too (not as good as Famous Dave's mind you, but very good nonetheless).

Tonight, I ordered the grilled salmon, and my wife had the USDA six ounce Choice Sirloin steak (medium well). I should have ordered the steak. It was fabulous! (Thank God that my wonderful beautiful wife was willing to share with me!) It was one of the best steaks I have ever tasted at a restaurant. Very juicy, no fat, grill marks on the surface, it was just perfect!

The huge sweet potato covered with marshmallows was also delicious, almost like eating candy.

You can order two sides with your steak, and I chose the house salad. It had fresh greens, egg pieces, croutons, tomatoes, and I added crumbled pieces of blue cheese. It was terrific. I also had the seasoned rice, which was only ok. It tasted like Rice-a Roni.

Now on to the grilled salmon. It was tender and juicy, and covered with butter. It was very good. If you like salmon, you can't go wrong.

But the steak was heavenly.

We were also tremendously impressed with the friendly service. The hostesses seated us right away, and we were served promptly, and the waitress even stayed around to watch Jeanne cut into her steak to make sure that it was cooked to order.

I would have to give Texas Roadhouse an award for 2006's best steak chain. The steaks are far superior to the ones you get at Ponderosa and Golden Corral. And the baked potatoes are huge and delicious, especially with lots of butter.

Atlanta Bread Company

This is a restaurant chain that is known especially for its bread (big surprise there) and for its pastries and its bagels. I love their french breads, their multigrain white breads, and the soft white bread wiuth the crunchy crust that comes with the soups.

On Thursday, May 25th, my wife and I stopped in at the Atlanta Bread in Darboy. I ordered a turkey sandwich on multigrain bread, with a tomato, deli mustard, a pickle spear on the side, and a bag of chips. The chips were ok, not the thick crunchy kind that I prefer, but the sandwich was divine.

My wife ordered a half of a turkey sandwich, plus a red peppercorn soup that was hot and delicious. It came with

The bagels are better than average, and there are quite a few flavors to choose from. But they fall short of the high standard set by Big Apple Bagels right across the street (E. Calumet Street). The cookies are excellent, I really like the big chocolate chips.

I am also a fan of the tangy roast beef sandwich at Atlanta Bread, as well as their scrumptious salads.

If you are looking f0r a good sandwich, a quiet atmosphere (and free wireless internet), I recommend Atlanta Bread Company.

Min Du Buffet - Appleton, WI

Jeff Lindsay refers to this little buffet as one of the best values in the area, because the supper buffet is less than $7 a pop and there is a sushi bar. There is also a banner outside the little restaurant that proudly claims to have 88 buffet items (I didn't count nearly that many - maybe 20 entrees at best).

My wife and I entered the establishment around 6pm on Friday, May 19th, and we were seated right away. After a brief word of prayer, we went to work. There is a fruit bar with canned pineapple, canned apricots, canned peaches, etc. Then to the hot buffet. The Shanghai Beef was mostly good, some pieces were a bit on the rubbery side. The small fried cocunut shrimp were delicious, one of the best items on the buffet. The fried rice was an improvement over what we had at Asian Garden Buffet, but still lacking the robust flavor I have come to expect from good fried rice.

The small eggrolls were great: Crunchy skin with pork on the inside, just the way I like it. They also had barbecue chicken on a stick - very tasty! There was also a sauteed shrimp dish that was very good. Other dishes look liked they had been on the buffet for some time, and I was not quite as enticed by those items. There was also some chinese fried chicken wings and drummies that looked good. My wife liked the chicken with garlic sauce. It looked good.

This is a much smaller buffet than the China Buffet on OO on the north side of Appleton, and way smaller than the Asian Garden Buffet by the Fox River Mall. If you're looking for a large buffet with crab legs, a salad bar, salmon, lots of different dishes, an ice cream bar, and a Mongolian Barbecue, then keep driving: This is a budget buffet, right down to the canned fruit. If you choose this over the China Buffet or the Asian Garden Buffet, you are making a mistake, it's not that good.

But this was still a nice, cozy little eating experience, and I can't remember the last time my wife and I ate in a nice restaurant with all you can eat for $14.45. So I recommend this restaurant if you are in the area, and you are on a budget (I understand the lunch buffet is $5.85), but it is not a first choice, and is not likely to win over patrons used to the mighty aforementioned buffets.

I give this restaurant a B. You'll find it at 100 West Wisconsin Avenue, about 2 blocks west of Richmond Street, in a strip mall on the north side of Wisconsin.