Another food adventure

When Petey and I were trying to figure out where we wanted to celebrate our anniversary, I posted my restaurant query on Facebook.  There were several great suggestions.  As you know (if you've been reading along), we wound up at Clearbrook in Saugatuck which we loved, loved, loved.

Meanwhile, I kept a mental list (which is scary right there) of the other places.

One in particular was mentioned and one I've wanted to try for quite a while.  Well, last night we decided was finally the time to visit . . . 

 It's in Mattawan which we've only driven through on our way to Chicago - once.  Secondly, it's in a tiny strip mall and easy to miss.  
Thirdly (that's a word, I'm sure) it's small.  Fourthly (again - a word), if you think you're going to beat the crowd by going on a Tuesday night instead of the weekend - forget it!  

I'm not a fan of waiting more than 10 minutes to be seated but the rave reviews kept us standing around.  If the weather had been horrid, we could have walked a few steps to the Main Street Grill to wait in their bar but Mother Nature favored us with another beautiful evening so we hung out in the parking lot.

Just when I thought I was going to pass out from hunger we got lucky.  There was a "communal" table open and we hooked up with 3 people from St.Joe, 1 from Plainwell and 1 from the Detroit area.  We had a blast!  Great conversation with our 5 new BFFs.

Oh and the food.  OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Out of this world.  Wanna see?

Jim (we used to work together, ironically, in the red shirt.  His soon-to-be-wife, Jessica on the left.  John, his wife, Tammy and the back of Debbie's head were the folks from St.Joe.  Because we all agreed to sit at the "communal" table we got a little extra cold noodle dish.  Tasty, baby!

These crunchy goodies were waiting for us when we sat down.  I wanted to drink that dipping sauce.

Next, each group was served this delicious tomato salad with yet another yummy sauce.

Tammy ordered this appetizer and caved when Peter gave her that "puppy dog" look.  She shared.  I was impressed.

I was all set to order the Pad Thai but after the surprise cold noodle thing I changed my mind and went with a hibachi dish.  Those are crunchy onions on the side.  I like crunchy things.  I'm clueless as to the 4 grapes, though.  Maybe they ran out of cantaloupe. 

 Will we return?  Oh, hell yes.  Next time, however, maybe we'll plan to arrive at 5p.

I wiped a tear from my eye as we parted ways with our table buddies.  We plan to do it again - same time next year. hehe