Steven Helmer Publications

I took the family to the Mackenzie Center in Poynette this past weekend and invited my mom to come along with us. She insisted on buying us lunch and, not wanting to spend more money than she could afford, I looked for something reasonably priced and close to where we were. I had never eaten at the Red Apple Restaurant before and wasn't really sure what to expect from it. However, it looked like a good fit so we wound up going there. As it turns out, it ended up being a great choice. First of all, I was very impressed with how reasonable the prices were at this restaurant. For example, I ended up ordering a mushroom burger. It came with soup and fries and was just $7.99, which is actually pretty comparable to the average value menu price at our local McDonald's (minus the soup). My wife's liver and onions was just $8.49 including salad and mashed potatoes. The portion sizes were also surprisingly large. I couldn't even make it halfway through my burger and wou...

Even though the weather was less than ideal yesterday, my wife really wanted to get the girls' picture taken with the Easter Bunny so we ended up making a trip to Madison and the East Towne Mall. It had been a while since we had been there and we noticed they added some new restaurants to the food court area, including Lulu's 13 Pub. We had never heard of this particular restaurant before but, when we realized the Easter Bunny gave the girls coupons for free kids' meals, we decided to give it a try. To tell you the truth, I was a bit surprised to see this kind of restaurant in the mall food court, partly because it had a bar. But, after eating there, I have to say I was very impressed. While I was somewhat tempted to order one of their breakfast entrees, I ended up ordering the mushroom Swiss burger. This ended up being a good choice. The burger was larger than some others I've purchased for about the same price and, with the homemade chips I ordered with it, was ...

My wife and I finally had a chance to have a belated anniversary celebration and decided to do so by heading out of town, visiting Fond du Lac (about 40 minutes away) and having an anniversary lunch. A friend of ours recommended Salty's Seafood & Spirits and, since we don't have a big selection of seafood restaurants around here, I decided to check it out. We got there a little after 1 yesterday afternoon and were both very impressed. First of all, the food there was amazing. I would especially recommend their "award winning" cheese seafood soup. My wife and I shared a cup of that and, after leaving the restaurant, kind of regretting not placing a to-go order for more of it. We loved every bite (although it did make me a bit thirsty). In addition to the soup, I ordered their perch lunch and thought the fish was pretty good as well. The breading was perfectly crisp and had just the right amount of seasonings. And, it proved to be a lot more filling than I ...