George Martin's Grillfire

When I visit my mother and step father in Long Beach, NY, we often go to George Martin’s Grillfire and I have always very much enjoyed it. I actually request it when I'm visiting because they give you freshly baked hot pretzels at the beginning of the meal! When I learned that a Grillfire was opening near Arundel Mills, I of course knew I’d have to check it out (alas, I learned that there are no pretzels with dinner service here).

I meet some of my non city friends for lunch ~once a month and we decided on this venue. It’s located not far from the Arundel Mills Mall in The Hotel at Arundel Preserves. Going there I was a little annoyed because the exit was closed, but the detour was quick. However, since I started off a little irritated, I was less than forgiving when there was no parking out front! Until I realized there was a free garage connected to the hotel. My bad. So parking was great and it’s really easy to get to from the Arundel Mills exit from 295!

I had placed a reservation since it was 3 adults, 2 kids a little over one, and 2 preschoolers. Sometimes I find the restaurants I reserve through opentable.com don’t read the comments when I ask for high chairs, but this one did. We had a great table with two high chairs already set up next to each other (so Mr. B could sit next to his date, Miss A). I always love bench seats for kids because I feel they need the sprawling room, so L and her friend G got to sit next to each other on that side.They gave us some crayons for the kids, but no special activities or pictures on the kids' menu.

 Their kids menu  had the standard fare as well as things like kids’ salads and steaks listed, which I thought was nice and allowed for kids to eat like adults. The kids’ entrees were a little pricey, I thought, with the kids’ chicken tenders and fries coming in at $7, but not so egregious that I refused to pay it. The waitress was competent and pretty speedy, so we got the kids’ meals not long after we placed the order. I told L that if she split her meal with B I would get her one of the $3 kids’ desserts so that’s what we did. She opted for the aforementioned chicken tenders and I was so distracted getting them fed that I didn’t take a picture until midway through their meal! Oops. Here is what some of it looked like. 

I opted for the chopped tomato and bleu cheese salad with a bowl of the French Onion Soup and thought that was a little high but not enough to make me balk at $10. I’ve had the salad in NY and I was not disappointed with it here. Overdressed for those who don’t like a lot of dressing, but the perfect amount for a standard chopped salad I think. Very tasty and filling and I will get it again. The accompanying soup was pretty much what you’d get anywhere else. It fits the standard formula but it isn’t special. Again, half my salad was gone before I remembered the pic.

Since I promised the girl dessert, I ordered her the $3 ice cream sundae and it came topped with some fresh berries, which I very much appreciated. The adult desserts seem run around $9 (I didn’t see a menu, just asked on the price) so I passed on that. I instead ordered B a $3 brownie ala mode and split it with him. I was pretty disappointed that he wanted to eat as much of it as he did. Oh well, better for my waist line. He enjoyed it so much that he actually kept picking up his plate to lick it. They do offer a s'mores dessert over an open flame, but with the crowd I was keeping that seemed a little too dangerous. The kids’ dessert portions were nicely sized– the way they should be without being so big and delicious that you keep eating it well after you’re full and you end up sick.  

Traditionally at dinner service, the check arrives with fresh spun cotton candy. One of the servers who kept oohing and ahhing at the babies came by with a cone for each kid, which they very much enjoyed. Well, L and her friend did, the babies not so much. Be refused to try it and Miss A seemed to think it was a hairbrush and kept trying to brush her hair (and B’s) with it. Overall, sticky, but adorable! And now my kids are so very high on sugar. At least once the cotton candy came out, L chose not to finish her ice cream, so that's a small consolation. 

The bathrooms were clean and had a nice changing table. The wait staff was attentive without being overbearing. The kids were not too loud, but it wasn’t so crowded that I worried too much.  It is definitely geared more toward adults, though I would bring kids here again. However, I would like even more to go with my husband and stay in the beautiful hotel afterwards!

Kid Friendliness:  4/5

Service: 4/5

Prices: 3/5

Taste: 4/5

IKEA

I dithered a bit about blogging my lunch experience at IKEA because, well, it's just IKEA, right? Will I next blog about my lunch experience at a mall food court? Well, maybe I would, I haven't put that one to the test yet.  But here I go. To the vast majority of the population who frequent IKEA with children, what I'm about to discuss is probably old news.

Anywho. Poor Mr. B caught whatever horrible ailment struck me in the early part of this week - I mean, it was seriously so bad I had to miss a Moms' Night Out with some rocking mamas at Chazz! Ugh! - so he stayed home and slept while I picked up L from school and brought her with me to IKEA to pick up some frames and have some lunch. If you don't already know it, they offer family parking right near the entrance, which is such a welcome convenience. Even when people in big fancy Lexuses (Lexi?) and no physical impairment I could see choose to use it themselves. Jerk.
This was our first jaunt there since my girl decided to no longer be potty trained. For those in the know, this was a very sticky wicket. You see, IKEA has this fantastic too good to be true place called Smaland (sorry, I don't know how to do accents) where you can drop off your potty trained child for one hour while you shop. For free. And someone else watches them while you browse, struggle with oversized Swedish boxes, or even just sit in the cafe and enjoy a cinnamon roll. As soon as we pulled up to the store, L asked if she could go to Small World (as she calls it) and I had to explain to her, without shaming her, that the rule is that everyone has to be potty trained. She told me that she decided she was ready to wear underwear now. Nice try, kid. But as luck would have it, she accepted the explanation and we made it past the entrance of this mystical place without incident. I think it was because she was really hungry.

Up to the Cafe we go, we each pick up our own sized tray, and enter the cafeteria line to order lunch. And not only do they have a kids' sized tray, they have little rolling carts so your not fumbling your way through the tables balancing two trays, a diaper bag, and trying to keep your eye on your child. I actually was that fumbling adult today because even though I walked right past the carts, noted how awesomely convenient that feature was (in my head), and picked up our trays, I never bothered to grab one. I is smrt.

I, of course, ordered the Swedish Meatball Combo ($5.99) which comes with 15 of the aforementioned meatballs, mashed potatoes, lingonberries (yuck), and a side salad. If you don't like swedish meatballs, this is not for you. If you like high quality very expensive swedish meatballs, this is not for you. These are cheap little balls of processed goodness that really hit the spot when you're craving some comfort food. The salad was enh - you serve yourself from a salad bar full of an iceberg lettuce mix, some cucumbers, tomatoes, and croutons. It was what you'd expect, but the poppyseed dressing was actually very tasty.

L got chicken tenders, fries, and an apple juice box. She also could have chosen white milk, chocolate milk, lingonberry juice, and (I think) elderflower juice. I meant to go back up to check, but forgot.You could have also chosen a different side but I didn't think that would fly when she knew french fries were an option. She likes them so much, she even took one off of another girl's plate during this jaunt. Real nice.

 The entire dining room was a great place to take a kid to lunch. As already mentioned, they had kid sized trays, an incredibly cheap kids meal - $2.49, except on Tuesdays, when kids eat free - and, as you can see, toys for them to play with. There are also some kid sized tables set up, outdoor dining, and a bottle warming station. The bathrooms, which are located in the store, are also equipped with emergency diaper kits in case you were out.

While we finished our lunches, L chased around the little girl for awhile (seriously, other kid, if you're going to sit at the same table as my child when there is another child's table right next to it, you can't get all shy or ignore mine when she keeps asking your name. And in L's defense, this was long before she stole her french fry). Finally, we headed out and into the store itself. Another thing I love about this place is that even though we couldn't go into Smaland, they have the kids toy section set up for kids to play as well, so we spent some time there before heading downstairs to get the few things we came for and L enjoyed following the arrows around the Marketplace section.

I've got to say, I don't often take advantage of IKEA just for kicks, but I think I need to frequent it a bit more in the future. Especially when someone decides they're going to be potty trained again!

Kid Friendliness:  5/5

Service: 3/5 (self-serve and I do a decent job)

Prices: 5/5

Taste: 3/5