Milo's City Cafe

Tonight I went to dinner again with the foodies from work. The original plan was for two groups at two restaurants, but we all ended up at one location: Milo's City Cafe.

The decor is fairly airy, with both front doors wide open on a very nice evening. Otherwise, the interior is unremarkable, little bit o' stainless along the kitchen area. Our waitress seemed nice. She was earnest, and kept her composure rather well despite being rather harried. She knew how to get the attention of a noisy group. She couldn't get anything I ordered right, but everyone else did fine...

My food was decent. I started with the Milo's Stout, which is brewed by the Raccoon Lodge Brewpub over on the west side. I've eaten there too, and been pleased with their product. My beer and I got along great! I had another with dinner, and it also made friends with my meal. The waitress brought bread and butter, which we all found delicious.

Two appetizers - Corn & zucchini fritters with Cajun rémoulade was meh, fritters were okay but the spicy sauce straight squashed 'em. I spread some more of the rémoulade on my bread as I rather liked it. Second appetizer - Saganaki! - Greek cheese on fire. I was really looking forward to this, as it basically combines my two favorite things in life. Cheese & fire, together at last! I didn't really get anything out of it than toasty mozzarella. Not that it was bad, mind... It did make for a nice show, though they left off the shout of "Opa!".

I ordered a cup of their Hungarian mushroom soup - very nice presentation with the sour cream cut into artwork on the top. They didn't spare the dill or the mushrooms, and I really enjoyed it. Compared to the dish by the same name at the Truffle Hunter, this was a masterpiece!

Entrée for me was the vegetarian selection, essentially a fancy stack of portobella mushrooms with sautéed roma tomatoes and almost-caramelized onions between. There was a small pile of zucchini and asparagus on one side, and another one of the corn and zucchini fritters on the other side. It came with a lukewarm Santa Fe chili beurre blanc in a ramekin to dress the vegetables. I chose mushroom couscous as the filler for the rest of the plate. It was all slightly over salted, but at least they used good salt. The vegetables weren't overcooked, and while the beurre blanc didn't thrill, it didn't kill either. Overall the dish was tasty, but not outstanding. I heard wonderful things about the salmon...

Overall, it would probably have been a better meal for a twosome rather than an octet. However, sometimes the entertainment and discussion among a larger group is worth the extra hassle. I feel that was the case with this outing. Our dinner tonight was supposed to be less than $20 per person and our tab without tip was about $190. A fun and delicious evening well spent in all respects.