The Angry Minnow

I dined at the Angry Minnow in Hayward today for lunch.  The atmosphere was quite nice until the restaurant filled up, then it was extremely loud, to the point I had to yell to converse with my lunch partner.  My suggestion there would be some sound boards or rugs to lessen the sound echoing.  Anyway, on to the food.  I ordered the "Hot & Angry" pretzels as an appetizer.  It was three large, soft, hot pretzels served with three sauces; dill sauce, wasabi sauce, and hot mustard sauce.  The presentation was excellent as was the service and the pretzels were excellent.  I strongly recommend the hot mustard sauce, it complemented the saltiness of the pretzel and really made the flavors pop.  For the entree I had the Thursday special, which was beef tacos served with fresh tortilla chips and black bean dip.  The two tacos were stuffed completely full on homemade soft shell tortillas with seasoned beef, fresh lettuce, tomatoes, and grated Monterrey jack cheese.  The taco was one of the best that I ever had, it had great flavors and all ingredients meshed with amazing freshness.  The tortilla chips and black bean dip were also outstanding.  The bean dip had just a hint of spice that make it fun to eat.  In all, this lunch was one of the best I have had in a long time.

Appearance (restaurant/staff) -  4
Presentation (Food) - 5
Taste (Food) - 5
Timeliness (Service/Receiving Orders) - 5
Attitude/Professionalism (Staff) - 4


Overall Rating of the Angry Minnow - 4.6

The Original Famous Daves

This weekend on Friday August 12th, I ate at The Original Famous Dave's Restaurant on Round Lake in Hayward, WI.  It was Linnie's at the lake this weekend so there were a lot of festivities going on.  The atmosphere on Friday was that of complete chaos.  There were a few staff members that seemed organized, but the rest had an apparent lack of training and professionalism amongst the majority of the employees.  The wait time for a table was 45 minutes to an hour and little effort was given to entertain those waiting to dine.  I ate the all you can eat fish fry entree for my meal.  It turned out the fish fry was buffet style, which was a disappointment having to fight through the crowds to the buffet line only to find over half of the bins for food empty.  After returning to my table, I soon discovered that the fish was mushy, under cooked, and almost raw.  The baked beans were soupy and overcooked, and the rib tips were so tough the meat would hardly come off the bone.  For desert I had their famous bread pudding.  Unfortunately for Famous Dave's, this too was far from good.  The bread was burned and the caramel sauce was so over simmered that it had a burnt taste.  All in all, this experience was not good and for claiming to be one of the best restaurants around, Famous Dave's came up far short of a good experience.  My ratings are as follows:

Appearance (restaurant/staff) -  4
Presentation (Food) - 2
Taste (Food) - 2
Timeliness (Service/Receiving Orders) - 3
Attitude/Professionalism (Staff) - 3

Overall Rating - 2.8

Introduction

Hello,
This blog will be used to rate restaurants in the Hayward, WI area and surrounding communities so the public will know what they can expect when choosing a place to dine.  The rating system will be based on appearance, presentation, taste, timeliness, and attitude of the staff.  I will rate on a 1 - 5 scale for each area and then give an overall average rating.  The best part will be that the restaurant will not be aware of being judged as the assessment will be completely incognito.

Please feel free to comment or add ideas that you may have or your own thoughts on certain places around Hayward, WI.

Thank you,

Secret Diner