Hey look, we’re back to bar & grilles for this week’s WTGW. We can only keep up a streak of non burger-and-wing places (where we still sometimes order burgers and wings) for so long, I guess.
We’ve also run out of places in the immediate area – I’m still not sure what kind of portal opened up that enabled us to find those last two after all these years – hence why our adventures have us driving to Canton this week.
I think I found Loby’s on a Google Maps search of the area, just trying to seek out places we haven’t hit yet. Oops, giving away our trade secrets for picks here. Sorry.
The place sits in an interesting strip plaza on a corner lot. What is it with Canton and bars/restaurants in strip plazas? This one looked a bit shady (the Discount Drugmart is probably legit, but I’m not sure I want to know what goes on inside the storefront labeled “Triple 7 Fever”) but I guess compared to some of the places we’ve been in the area it’s really not that bad.
The first thing we noticed was the “seat yourself” sign when you walk in. There’s a landmine waiting to happen. Let’s just say Ted, Shane and I spent the next few minutes playing a bit of musical tables trying to find the right place to sit. It was a little like watching Sheldon on Big Bang Theory trying to find a seat in a new room.
And not entirely our fault, as the place has a bit of an odd setup. There’s a bar area when you first walk in, an open dining area to the side of that (with no wall in between), and several booths along the far walls.
If you want TVs, the bar area is your best bet, as there are almost an overload of them there. Most were tuned to sports, but some even had random Hallmark Christmas movies, so I guess we’re catering to everyone at Loby’s. But then if you go away from that area into the dining room, there’s zero atmosphere at all. And the booths along the walls have these high backs on them so you you’re pretty much secluded from everything. Kind of an odd thing to do at a place where you tell people to seat themselves, no? Like how do the servers see you sitting there and know to come over? Is there a silent buzzer on the seat that alerts someone in the kitchen? Is there a guy in the backroom just watching cameras all day to see who sits there and when? HOW??
We never really got to find out.
Of course our first attempt was to scan the bar area – as you all know that’s our preferred area to sit (and someone other than me was quite interested in the Hallmark movies) – but all the tables were full, and I think we’ve established anymore that we order way too much food to try and squeeze into spaces at the bar itself. So our next option was one of those high backed booths … until we had pretty much the same conversation outlined above, and decided we didn’t want to wait it out. So we ended up in a table in the open dining area. Which is also odd – if you sit on one side you can see some of he TVs in the bar, but if not, you get to look at a wall.
Poor Ted, he got that option.
So they still had pumpkin beer on tap – and on special, even – so Ted and I went that route. Since I kinda feel like I missed out on most of the pumpkin beers this season, this was welcome. I mean, who cares if that keg has been hooked up since October? We drink Summer Shandy in January if we still find it somewhere, and we haven’t died yet. Call us daredevils.
Shane and I ordered the fried mac & cheese bites as an app. Surprisingly Ted didn’t want to share with us. Weird.
They came out of the kitchen super quick and were super warm – and were also super good. Not too crispy, very cheesy and gooey. They also came with a queso dip – because why not serve fried cheese with more cheese? This place is after my own heart.
I got the 1/3 lb siracha blue burger. It comes with fries, and I also got a side salad, because you know why not try to be a little healthy.
After our last few weeks of bowls of cheese disguised as salad, I was more than a bit disappointed to see this one come out looking like a real salad. Like actual lettuce and vegetables. What the hell?
My burger was really, really good. Lots of flavor, but very messy. I commented though that I almost didn’t taste the burger itself because of everything else that was going on there.
Shane got the hot patty melt burger. He was going to get the half pound patty, but the server mentioned she could likely make that one the $5 special if he got the smaller one (I guess on Wednesdays they have a $5 build your own burger special), so he switched to that option.Economics trumps hunger sometimes.
Plus he also got five of the hot garlic parm wings. Because, well, you know the drill on that anymore. I might need to rename this blog “Where to Go For Wings on Wednesdays.”
His wings actually came out as just hot garlic – and we knew this because Ted also ordered the hot garlic, and they looked surprisingly similar – so when we said something they took Shane’s wings back and just added parm cheese to them. At least we know that secret now.
Shane liked his burger, said it was really tasty. And spicy. But he didn’t really care for the wings.
Ted got the 10 oz strip steak special, plus – as mentioned – five of the hot garlic wings. The steak came with either a soup or a salad, so he opted for the soup – after the server told him that the special was the Hungarian hot pepper. Even I was intrigued by that. If I’d known my salad wouldn’t include half a bowl of cheese, I might’ve gone the soup route instead.
Ted said the steak was good. He’s not usually a fan of pan seared, but said this one was good. He also liked the seasoning, said it was a touch salty but still good.
Both Shane and Ted didn’t have much to say about the wings. Especially after the ones they had last week, these were quite disappointing. Maybe we should try not ordering them every week? Like absence makes the taste buds grow fonder?
Aside from the wings, our only other complaint was the service. Our server was very brisk, and we felt like from the moment we sat down we should just be preparing ourselves to get back up again and leave. Nothing says welcome like rushing you out the door, right? She tried to take our app away when there was still one left in the basket – but at least she was polite enough to ask us if we were going to eat that last one before the basket flew off the table? She also grabbed my burger basket when there were still half of the fires left – which, I mean, let’s be honest, I didn’t want them anymore anyway, but I think I had probably come to that realization about 30 seconds before she got to the table, and it’s not like I had thrown my napkin in the basket or given any other universal signs of “I’m finished with this, thanks.” It’s like she just doesn’t like to see baskets of half eaten food on tables, regardless of if you’re actually done with them or not. And then she offered to get our bills together right as she took the last baskets away. Not “can I get you any more drinks” or “dessert, anyone?” or even “can I get you anything else” – it was “so I’ll just get your bills ready then?” At least she had the courtesy to make it a question?
Overall, the food was good for the most part, but the distance from our house and the feeling of being rushed out (maybe she knew we had a long drive home and was just trying to get us there earlier?) probably means we won’t be returning anytime soon. Unless maybe we finally decide to figure out what goes on inside the “Triple 7s” and then get hungry. Hmm.
Picked by: Steph
Next pick: Amanda
Where To Go Wednesdays 