HuHot Mongolian Grill, Eau Claire WI

HuHot: Pillage with friends and family, all while watching the Packers
Sunday, January 9, 2011

When it comes to food, I'm usually pretty easy to please. Make it taste good, make it hot, and make sure the server isn't a tool and I'm a happy camper. That means it takes a really exception experience, either good or bad, to pull me back or push me away. My experience at Hu Hot Mongolian Grill in Eau Claire, WI, was nothing short of outstanding. As a matter of fact, my only complaint is its 90 miles from home.

What is HuHot?

For those of you how haven't been, HuHot is a "create your own stir fry ...or as some say, HuHot is where you create your own Mongolian Feast!"

It's pretty simple. Walk through a buffet of uncooked food, create your own sauce, and let the cooks stir fry it front of you. I could walk you through the menu myself, but why do all that typing when the guy who build HuHot.com did it for us already?

http://huhot.com/Menu/The_HuHot_Menu/Food_Bar

It is pretty simple, and the amount of selections one has to choose from makes the possibilities almost limitless.

HuHot in Eau Claire

My first experience with the store was to make a request. It was wild-card Sunday in the NFL, so I asked if we could sit by the TV to watch the Packer game. Not only did they honor that, but they even turned the TV for me so I could watch the game on two. Awesome.

My wife and kids have been to HuHot in Rochester, MN a few times, so we knew what to expect. My mom and my aunt, however, were first-timers. Luckily for us, we had easily the best server I've ever experienced. Jackie not only explained the menu and how, but brought us up to the food bar and showed us around. And he told my wife she couldn't drink the sherry in the sauce section. What a judge of character!

The food was excellent. All the raw materials were fresh, and the cooks did an excellent job. And, of course, the designer did a pretty damn good job.

Jackie was highly entertaining- probably the most engaged server I've been around. I'd go back just to have him serve us again.

Price

HuHot is very reasonably priced. The five of us were able to eat for less than $75.00 pre-tip. Considering everyone got exactly what they want and got to go through the line multiple times, it was a bargain.

As my mom said, now I have a reason to go to Eau Claire once in a while. Not many places are worth a 180 mile round trip. And maybe I'd be crazy to drive all the way there and back just to eat dinner, but I could see my mom and aunt while I'm there. So I'm sure we'll be making more frequent trips.

Rating
5 stars

Big Al's Too - Onalaska, WI

Best place to get a Mushroom and Swiss burger!

Big Al's Too off Main Street in Onalaska, Wisconsin has some of the best burgers in town.  Their Mushroom Burger is one of the best.

The Mushroom burger is always juicy, never dry, with plenty of sauteed mushrooms and cheese served on a bakery kaiser bun.  With every bite, you get a mouthful of flavor.

All this flavor for under $6.

Olive Garden - Onalaska, WI

Tonight warranted a visit to Olive Garden with friends.

Our family treated on the Smoked Mozzarella Fonduta for an appetizer.  It was yummy.  With the first bite, it was described as grilled.  It definitely tasted like something that had been grilled which gave it that smoked flavor.  The cheese was wonderful and the bread was soft.

For our entrees, we had the following:

• Soup, Salad, and Breadsticks
• Steak Gorgonzola-Alfredo (without the Gorgonzola)
• Capellini di Mare

The salad and breadsticks were to die for as always.  Every basket of breadsticks was soft and warm.  The salad was fresh and plentiful.

The Steak (Gorgonzola) Alfredo was delicious.  I ordered the steak medium.  I am not a gorgonzola fan, so I ordered without the gorgonzola.  There were four pieces of steak, approximately 2 ounces each probably. I was a little concerned that the dish would be overpowered with the taste of the alfredo since there was clearly a lot more of the noodles and alfredo sauce.  However, it ended up being just the right amount to pull out the flavor of the meat.  The sauce over the meat was very subtle, yet flavorful which came as a surprise.

The Capellini di Mare was good as well.  A full review of this dish will be coming soon.

Pizza Corral - Holmen, WI

If you are looking for a place to sit down for pizza, broasted chicken, and beer then look no further.

Pizza Corral is located on Highway 35 in Holmen, Wisconsin.  They make some of the best pizza.  Tonight was the Bacon Cheeseburger Pizza, which was very good.  The meat on the pizza was very tasty and the bacon was cooked perfectly.  We also had the four-piece white meat chicken dinner with broasted potatoes.  The chicken was moist and tender.  The skin was cooked just right with very little grease, which is always a good thing.  The potatoes were cooked thoroughly and were soft, possibly too soft but still delicious.

Top it off with a pitcher of beer and life couldn't get much better.

I will say, with some reservation, that we also got the three tacos which was a mistake tonight.  They weren't the best.  Now it is possible, this was just tonight, but since we have never had the tacos there we are unable to say for certain.  

Welcome to the Hungry Wanderer

Hello.  Welcome to the Hungry Wanderer. 

This blog will be used to review various restaurants that we visit, whether it is around our neighborhood or throughout our travels.  Of course this is only our opinion and you should always try a restaurant for yourself no matter what we say about it.