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Monday, October 8, 2012

94th Aero Squadron Review

Everyone knows how much I love a good deal.  Everyone also knows how much I love a good prime rib.  And everyone should know how much I loved the All-You-Can-Eat-Prime-Rib-Buffet-for-$11.75 before it shut down (fun fact: I once ate 4 steaks in one sitting).  While it's hard to find a similar buffet, I've found possibly the next best thing - an early bird meal purchased for $16 between 4-6 PM that includes a nice slab of prime rib, mashed potatoes, creamed corn, soup/salad, and dessert.  Bread is also included for the table.  Ladies and gents, I give you the 94th Aero Squadron.

Soup doesn't generally excite me unless I'm watching a Seinfeld episode and nobody really cares about salad, so usually the appetizer is a wash.  But the 94th features an amazing beer cheese soup that's almost a meal within itself.  Observe:

Mmmmm beer.  Mmmmm cheese

This stuff is so heavy and warm that you can feel it pumping throughout your body.  I'd imagine this would taste even better on a cold winter evening. 

The main course, of course, doesn't need much explanation:

Orgasm

And here's dessert, even though the picture kinda sucks cause my camera doesn't have a flash and the restaurant is very dimly lit:

Chocolate cake with a chocolate sauce

So 94th Aero Squadron is situated beside Montgomery Field and takes on a complementary World War I theme and atmosphere.  Being a history buff, I absolutely love the decor.  There's plenty of decorations of the era from the military to aviation to politics.  A portrait of Woodrow Wilson rests behind the front desk.  Overall a nice ambiance.  

Does the food live up to the atmosphere?  Unfortunately it's not always a sure thing.  There's been times where the food was excellent, yet for some reason it seems like the kitchen here struggles to cook meat at the proper temperature.  I always ask for medium and almost always get well done.  At a family dinner not too long ago my sister asked for well done and got rare.  Pretty fundamental stuff here.  There's always the thought that "well, you can just send it back if it's not cooked properly" and if it's undercooked I would agree.  But here's my issue: if it's well done (and there's no doubt about it - medium should have some pink and the steak I received had none) and I send it back then that means they have to fire up a whole new slab of meat and I'm sitting there waiting while everyone else is enjoying their dinners.  It's inconvenient and annoying.

And it's not like the well done steak doesn't taste good.  Well, okay, one time it didn't taste that good because they didn't season it properly - but otherwise the well done steak tastes fine.  It's just that I like my meat to still be kicking a little bit, you know?  And it's just really annoying that you can order a steak at a certain temperature and it'll be a total crapshoot whether or not that's actually achieved.

However, I would like to give a special shoutout to Kevin, who works as a server at the 94th.  Kevin is the epitome of quality customer service and may be the best server I've ever met at any restaurant, ever.  The experience he provides alone is reason enough to continue to come back.  Yeah, the steak may not be cooked as a perfect medium, but the food is still good, the atmosphere is nice, it's a big parking lot, and when Kevin's working the tables it's a real pleasure.  After I get my corporation going I'm gonna hire him for our human resources department.  

So - 94th Aero Squadron.  I'd recommend it.  It's a nice place, pretty typical menu, but it's a good place to go for a quiet night out.