Gus's Family Restraunt (Jackson st Sioux City, IA

7-24-2010

While in sioux city i asked a local where they recommended i eat at and they said well if u want family style try Gus's. So thats where i headed off too. This place is easy to find has a nice big sign at the intersection, and as i went around it i noticed something not many private owned home cooked style places have, a drive thru. this had me even more intrigued about the place and how good the food must be, not disappointed.

Well we walked in and there is an average sized flat screen tv with golf on it, and we were told by our server to sit whereever we want. got a lil table and looked around and saw some neat decor. For drinks i got an iced tea and it was pretty good.

Now for the food, I ordered their sirloin tips and onions dinner (dinners include choice of potato, soup or salad, veggie of the day, and a dessert). With it i had baked potato, soup(fresh made chicken noodle), green beans, and vanilla pudding. Christina had the 8oz sirloin, baked, salad, green beans, and pudding also.

The 8oz sirloin was cooked med well to well, juicy as can be, and just the right amount of seasonings.

The tips and onions were ordered medium, cooked perfectly,and most importantly the onions were tender and easy to eat.

The potato was about the size of an average fist so not to bad for the cost. Obviously its kinda hard to mess up a baked potato as long as u offer the basics. the nice part about the potatos was that you can tell they werent over done there werent any hard spots from being over cooked.

The green beans were nicely cooked and not real soggy they still had a good bite to them, and a good amount of seasonings added to them.

The salad nice plain nothing special salad mix. good for clearing the palate if u wait to eat it durning ur meal.

The pudding was the dessert that came free with the meal and it was a good tasting pudding with a nice heaping amout of whipped topping, not bad for being included in the price.

Now the soup, my first impression of the soup was that the broth was to thin just by looking. then i tasted it, this was the down side of the meal, it was very salty, and tasted like soup u get out of a can that had sat and condensed and added water to the next day. I asked a person who seemed to be in charge of the place if it was canned soup and she assured me it was not and that it was made fresh that morning, so i gave her a few tips on how i would fix the problem and she made sure to assure me that they would try it.

So for the over all review, I would definitely like to go there again. And would reccomend this place to any one in the area looking for a good hearty meal for a really reasonable price. my meal was 7.95 i beleive and it was well worth it, for the 8oz sirloin it was only 8.95 for the meal. and for the fish lovers out there they offer a salmon steak (8oz) for only 8.95. with the soup being the only problem of the meal, i would still have to give this restaurant a must visit review and due to the willing ness of the person i talked to to fix the problem with the soup im giving Gus's a 4.8/5 So stop in and enjoy a good clean atmosphere and some great food.

Farmers Kitchen ; Atlantic, Iowa

So due to some interesting events, me and my girl Christina ended up in Atlatic iowa. In this lil comunitee we found a mechanic working late so he got us a new tire and we asked him "where is the place to eat in town" so he pointed us to farmers market, so I called and asked what time they close, the response was "bout 20 minutes but come on down" so we get there and the scene is a nice little quaint place that has a down home feel. Complete with self done repairs on the seats.
Now for the food. For an appetizer the waitress recomended the fried pickle spears. They were very well done with a thin hand battered coating, fried perfectly golden brown.
My next choice was to try some award winning chili, won the award in 2007. Marks chili(as its called) was very thick and hearty with amazing flavor, for those of u who know me and think that means it will set u on fire u are wrong,the seasoning was perfect and I enjoy being able to see what is in my chili.
The next menu item was their hamburger steak. This was half poud fresh beef cooked slightly less than medium well,upon request, with thick cut white mushrooms sauteed perfectly and a good hearty beef gravy. Each item by its self was a treat then tasting them all to gether was just amazing.
The side that went with that was mashed potatoes. Made fresh everyday hand peeled mashed potatos. With the beef gravy. What more can I say they definitely know how to please the locals with them.
Next I had their country fried steak. This was unique. The cut was thick, and it was panfried so it wasn't the thin crispy version I was used to. Now there was one downfall to this, cause of the thickness it made it a little tough to chewbut this could easily be fixed by tenderizing the meat more. But enjoyed the flavor.
The sides that I chose were the Farmer Fries (plain unseasoned potato wedges) were a little bit of a disappointment, but the sage dressing was perfect. It had a great consistency and all the flavors were mixed well.
For desert I had a piece of their blue ribbon winning peanutbutter explosion pie. This was a rich and well enjoyed desert even though I had to wait to eat it since I didn't have room for it after all the food.

Overall I would say this restraunt is a must to revisit if I'm in the area and for anyone traveling I-80 between nebraska and des moines. The price was definitely a fair price for the amount of food that was given. Making it a value also. My rating is 4.7 /5

My ideas of what i want this blog to be

First thanks for taking the time to read this. with this blog i intend to put down my own personal reviews of restraunts i eat at. There are a few reasons im doing this, 1st i love food (great excuse to eat), 2nd is i have been told before i should do something like this and just now getting around to it, 3rd is that i feel as though the small restraunts need acknowledgement too.
My mission statement is simple, Provide fair and well thought out reviews for restraunts on a level that others will be able to appreciate and use as a viable source.
I will not judge one restraunt based on what i expect from another, the bbq places will be with bbq, french with french so on and so forth. also i will list what i chose to eat and base it on my personal opinion but also what others may feel as well, lets face it we all have different ideas of how spicy chili should be or how much of a condiment should be used so i will attempt to implement that info in my reviews as well.