Sick of choosing between three kinds of baked chicken at the dining hall? Unable to choke down any more breadsticks at the Tree House? Believe it or not, other dining options close to class are available.
Located on the Corner, Michael's Bistro and Tap House offers trendy food and a pleasant atmosphere in a setting accessible even to students who don't have cars.
We really liked the layout. On nice days, one can eat on the balcony, but the inside is not so bad either. The high-backed wooden booths have fresh flowers on the table and local art decorates the walls. These works rotate periodically and actually have price tags, so if you like you can take a piece of the eatery with you.
There are multiple interior levels of seating and a bar on the extreme right as you enter. As a tap house, Michael's carries a large assortment of good beer. It even offers a beer sampler that lets you try several different kinds of beer without actually having to buy a full glass.
The service at Michael's deserves a mixed review. The actual waitresses were competent. Our drinks were continually refilled and the food came out quickly. The management however seems to be lacking. There seems to be a problem with division of labor.
We had several different people serving us over the course of the meal. The result of this arrangement was that we received our entrees before our appetizers. Our meals arrived with considerable speed, but all the same we would have appreciated being served in the right order, especially when our appetizers arrived five minutes later. The large entrees took a while to eat, so by the time we started what should have been our first course, the appetizers were cold.
Since the entrees came first, we'll address them before the appetizers. We were in a seafood mood this weekend, but the menu offers a variety of foods to choose from.
We first tried the Sesame Crusted Ahi ($13), mid-rare tuna tossed with fresh greens and pickled cucumbers in ponzu. The tuna itself was perfectly cooked and did not taste fishy at all. The seasonings used were too salty, but the overall flavor was still worth the price.
If you order this dish, don't order a salad. There are enough greens in this dish to make ordering one redundant. The thinly-sliced pickled cucumbers were by far the most surprising and delicious part of this entrée. We recommend it.
Our second choice was not worth getting. The Malaysian Shrimp Saute ($14) consists of garlic shrimp with vegetables, pineapple, coconut milk, and rice. It was extremely spicy. In fact, the hot spices overpowered the flavor rather than complementing it. As long as the pineapple lasts, you'll be able to fight off the heat. After it runs out, you probably won't want to eat any more. Better choices are available. Stay away from this one.
The Halibut Escabeche ($14) was served with a garlic, lemon, ginger and white wine sauce over a bed of rice. While the halibut was tasty, it was not nearly as good as the tuna. Like most of our other dishes, this one was too salty.
The other choices on the menu looked pretty tempting. The steak special rotates daily both in content and price, so check the blackboard when you walk in. We didn't try it, but we've heard that Michael's grills a mean steak.
Other choices include the Thai Chicken Curry ($10) and an eight-ounce Bison Burger ($8). Rounding out the menu with Pork Loin ($16), Michael's covers all the critical meats, so you should be able to find something you like.
To end any meal at Michael's, you'll want to try the appetizers. The salad and appetizer menus combined are much larger than the actual entrée menu.
Salad choices range from the Big Salad ($5) to the Blackened Duck Breast Salad ($12). For those of you who just want something healthy, the Big Salad is a basic salad with homemade dressing.
For the diner pretending to be on a diet, the Blackened Duck Breast Salad allows one to simultaneously get a full meal and be able to say, "Just a salad for me." This dish is basically a large amount of meat on top of a large amount of greens.
The duck meat was extremely tender and delicate, but cut off the ridiculously strong and salty seasonings that sit on top of it or else the flavor will be masked. The salad ingredients were good, but nothing special.
Overall this dish was a little awkward. It tastes fine, but it seems like two different dishes are combined into one. There's no effort to make the flavors complementary or even to make it look like the ingredients belong together.
The Fried Calamari ($8) actually was difficult to eat. It was so unbelievably salty that it was almost unbearable, especially when we had just finished several other over-salted dishes. Hopefully this result was an aberration, but all the same we can't recommend it.
The Spring Bruschetta ($7) was the best appetizer we tried. This combination of mozzarella, prosciutto, garlic, and Roma tomatoes on toasted baguettes was great. It only comes with three slices, so if you have a party of more than three, you might have to fight over it.
The bread was fresh and crispy and the other ingredients were in perfect balance. If you've never tried bruschetta, you should definitely get this dish.
We have mixed feelings over the appetizers in general. As a whole, they really run the gamut from repulsive to extraordinary. Proceed with caution.
Dessert doesn't even come on a written menu, but the one we ordered was delicious. Our chocolate cheesecake ($4) was great because it didn't taste too much like ordinary cheesecake but still preserved the cheesecake texture.
Our attitude toward Michael's Bistro is ambivalent. We loved the atmosphere and thought some of the food was great, but the inconsistency of the service and the excessive seasoning on the food detracted from the overall dining experience.
We're willing to recommend Michael's, but we're not too enthusiastic about it. Compared to dining hall food, perhaps any alternative is desirable.
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