I'm Only Here for the Food!

On my second night in Merrillville, I had a bit more time to think about dinner. Since I arrived back to the hotel at around 5:30 p.m., I had the late afternoon/early evening to think about the options, not to mention about 3/4 tank of gas. I could have driven to Chicago; however that would have been easily a 2 hour drive and even then I wouldn’t know where to go.

In the end, I decided to stop by Southlake Mall, a nearby mall, to look for options. After all, when I went to Uno Chicago Grill for lunch, I saw a couple of restaurants there, like Potbelly Sandwich Works, Olive Garden and other similar chains nearby. However, none of them caught my attention and kept driving Lincoln Highway on both sides for a couple of clicks. I was tempted to stop on a Japanese restaurant called House of Kobe but decided against it. Driving like an idiot for over 20Km is not funny, specially when you don’t know where you are going so I decided to drive back, this time Merrillville Plaza, a mall across Southlake Mall, and stop at the first place that caught my attention. Old Country Buffet? Nah. TGI Fridays? Nope. At that point, I was starting to give up. Was there anything in the area that was not a chain? (Afterwards, in addition to House of Kobe, there was another restaurant called Gino’s. Oh, well, too late I guess). Finally, I stopped at a place that look different from the other chains (which, oddly still a chain)… Anyway, here is where I ended up:

It must have been a really slow night because, after I was seated (there were 4 other occupied tables), the waitress I was assigned to asked me where I was driving from. Now THAT was scary. It just happens she noticed the car I was driving had a plaque from Missouri… Oh, well…

I must say the ambiance of this place is really strange. There were some funny in-jokes written on the wall, a boat hanging (see below) and, the oddest of all, depending on what was being played, the waitresses would start dancing on the floor. OoooooK?

No, there is a hole in the table for the bucket…

As for the food,

I started with a lobster bisque. Didn’t taste that much like lobster but it was OK.

For the main entree, crab cakes. Yup, crab cakes… AGAIN!

I don’t think it is fair to compare it to the crab cake I had in Baltimore. It was different in so many ways; for example, this was more “flattened” (like a burger patty) and did not have a “crunchy” exterior. Also, the crab meat wasn’t as sweet as the one in Baltimore but the spices they added made it different enough. Fortunately, it was moist enough. Regardless, I must give them some credit considering this is a coastal city (though Lake Michigan is not that far, it ain’t an ocean).

Overall, given the restaurants in the area, this place was decent. However, if I compare it to the restaurants in Vancouver, it would be just another chain…