Good Time Rating: 3 out of 5 cheese covered soups
Wheelchair Rating: 2 out of 5 strangers watching you take a piss
11/01/24
Buffalo, NY
November 1st is my mom-in-law's birthday and I was pleasantly surprised to find that plane tickets were dirt cheap. We decided to fly Mom out and take her to dinner.
I say this with all the love in the world, but between her food sensitivities and dislikes, Mom is pickier than a six-year-old in a French restaurant. I've met toddlers with more adventurous palettes. What we needed was some basic, American fare, done well, at a reasonable price (because the plane tickets weren't THAT cheap). And it would have been a shame to take Mom to a chain restaurant on her first trip to Buffalo.
Oh, and accessibility would be nice.
I was nervous when we got inside. The front door opens to the bar side of the restaurant and on a Friday night the place was packed. I must have hit every purse, jacket, and elbow as I maneuvered my way past tables to the bathrooms in the back. It's a small restaurant, and they've clearly tried to fully utilize their space by cramming in tables tight as sardines. A long table was situated right in front of the ladies room door, and I ended up needing someone at that table to hold the very narrow door open for me.
The ladies room door opens to a small alcove and from there you can enter one of two doors. Those doors are essentially the bathroom "stalls", opening to a tiny room with a toilet and a sink. If you're attempting this in a wheelchair, you should know that you CAN get into the stall. What you can't do is wheel in and close the door behind you. My choices were to either leave my chair outside the stall, or chance any rando walking into the atrium and watching me pee. I'm ambulatory, so I chose option #1, but I hate to think of anyone with less mobility being stuck with option #2. A simple lock on the atrium door would partially fix this issue, but still presents some problems. If you need to park next to the toilet in order to transfer, you're not gonna be able to do that.
Harrowing trip to the bathroom completed, we had some drinks. The cocktails at Mike & Pop's are excellent. I got a pumpkin white Russian because I am a pumpkin slut. It didn't taste particularly like a white Russian, but it was so delicious I didn't care. Beer list wasn't crazy extensive, but nice.
Mike & Pop's is famous for their French onion soup, so we absolutely had to order that. I didn't think it was possible to complain about too much cheese, but dang, they put a lot of cheese on that soup. I could barely cut through it with my spoon to get to the soup part of the soup. You could have tap danced on the cheesey surface of that soup. Once I jackhammered my way through it, the soup itself was almost cloyingly sweet, like they'd supplemented the natural sweetness of the caramelized onions with sugar. Not a fan. That said, my better half LOVED his, so this might be a personal taste issue not a quality one.
The service was slow - they seemed to be a little understaffed for the crowd. However, our server was the bees knees. I really appreciated how patient she was with my small blonde child - who ordered a build-your-own sandwich and dithered over every ingredient option. Treating kids well is kind of my litmus test for the quality of someone's character.
Hubby and I both got the fish fry, which was a little under seasoned, but cooked to golden, crispy perfection. Nothing a sprinkle of salt couldn't fix.
But never mind our meals- let's talk about the birthday girl. Mom got the club sandwich, a dish that made two grievous sins- the bacon was skimpy, and it was burnt. Meanwhile Small Blonde Child's sandwich had perfectly cooked bacon stacked sky high. Mom had serious bacon envy.
They have a dessert of the night in lieu of a menu - and that night it was red velvet cake. Small blonde child and I split a piece, which we totally ordered so I could give a thorough assessment of the restaurant, and not just because I'm a fat kid who really likes red velvet cake. It was dry, which is a shame because the icing was absolutely divine. That cake was definitely delicious at some point in its life.
The next day I sent a White Lady Email to the restaurant and got a fairly prompt response back from Pop's himself. He was nice enough and said, "We will most certainly look into your recommendations" concerning the bathroom door situation. I do hope he meant it.
Faithful readers, have you been to Mike & Pop's lately? Is that atrium door lockable yet? I'll have to check back myself at some point, though maybe I'll just stick to drinks this time.
That's it for this review, other than to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM! (and I'm sorry for all those things I said about how picky you are)
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