This place is a little hard to find in the office park, but you
can mostly follow the signs off 116th street. It seems a rather strange place for
a restaurant, surrounded by the office buildings. The inside is nicely decorated,
and in good repair, but the ceiling is a bit strange: exposed ductwork painted navy
blue, not black. I suppose they wanted it to match the rest of the decor, but I'd
think black would be less noticeable. The place didn't seem very busy, but I think
this may be a feature of the seating arrangements. There's a sort of bar area in
the center of the restaurant (vacant at the time of our visit), with smaller dining
areas arranged around it. This may have also had the desirable effect of distributing
noise, because I had no problem hearing my fellow diners (on the other hand, I could
also hear BeeGees music playing in the background at one point, which wasn't all
that desirable). I didn't smell any smoke. The service was uniformly quite good.
Our waitress didn't seem surprised at all that so many of us ordered Reubens, which
is a refreshing change: I think that's a sign that they sell a lot of them. We also
noticed that Reubens are the Wednesday lunch special. Water was provided with lemon.
The sandwich came out with some good rippled chips, a pickle spear, and a big plastic
cup of dressing (good for dipping). The bread was marbled attractively, with big
swirls, and nicely toasted. I didn't notice the flavor of the bread so much (I was
rather surprised to hear Fred complaining about it) except one bite that had a burst
of caraway flavor. There was lots of meat and well-drained kraut, and in a refreshing
change over my last few Reubens, enough cheese that I could actually taste it. Our
waiter brought extra napkins without asking, and our bill was broken out individually
without any complaint (though we paid at the front counter, which perhaps helps
with breaking up the bill). It was a tasty meal, and I didn't walk away hungry.
Karen had the tuna steak, and though I think it was overcooked for the "medium"
level that she requested, she was also pleased with the place and said we should
come back some time. I wouldn't object to that.