Friday, August 13, 2010

Review of Butch's Restaurant in Holland Michigan

Butch's Restaurant, is located in downtown Holland, about 30 minutes from our Inn.

They feature an extensive offering of spirits, wine, and beers. If you like to sample, they offer various flights of wines such as Michigan Whites, Big Reds, even a flight of three Single-Malt Scotch's, one from each of the major distilling regions of Scotland.

The food offerings were varied, imaginative, and expertly prepared. Here's what we had:

A petit 6 oz brie round filled with a Michigan cherry butter, topped with a balsamic honey syrup and served with de Boer Bakkerij baguette

Grilled sashimi tuna glazed with Honey balsamic vinaigrette and served with
apple bacon risotto

Grilled apple marinated hanger steak with caramelized onion,
smoked gouda, smashed, butter potatoesThree-Berry Cobbler with Vanilla Gelato



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Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Review of Wild Dog Grille, Douglas Michigan

Wild Dog Grille is located in Douglas, Michigan; a sister city of Saugatuck, about 30 minutes from our Inn. The setting is in the center of a very quaint and artsy small village. They have an outdoor courtyard which was the perfect setting for lunch for Ruth and I recently.

We recommend this restaurant for lunch or dinner, the food is very good and features fresh and high quality ingredients prepared in an imaginative way. The waitstaff is very accommodating yet not the least bit pretentious. The Wild Dog Burger is probably the best hamburger in the area-see below.

We started with the freshly made Vegetarian California Rolls, featuring fresh Avocado, Scallion, Cucumber, Carrot, Cabbage and a Wasabi Cream Cheese, Sesame Seeds and Sushi Rice delicately wrapped in a Nori Roll served with Wasabi, Pickled Ginger and a Ponzu dipping sauce with Radish Sprouts:
Then for the main entree, I had the Tilapia Fish Tacos, featuring perfectly prepared adobo spiced and grilled Tilapia with red cabbage slaw and the usual fish toco fixins:
Ruth went for the signature Wild Dog Burger, which is Cajun seasoned and topped with Gorgonzola, avocado mayo, grape tomato jam and crispy haystack onions.
Ruth like the grape tomato jam so much she talked our waiter into selling us an additional amount to take home. Why use bottled Catsup when you can have this? They routinely sell their dressings, the most popular being their Lemon-Grass Chile Vinaigrette.

Next to our seating area was an open courtyard of the neighboring retail shop. We wondered if the mild-mannered dog there was the namesake of this restaurant.
If you see him, his name is Sam. We later saw him following his owner down the sidewalk, carrying his leash in his mouth. It appears Douglas is very pet-friendly.



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