Today was a day to celebrate!! My girlfriend had the car for a few hours and she choose to pick me up and take me to lunch. What a treat. She has tons of friends so she could have easily chose another one, but today was my day. I chose Jack's Urban Eats as it's close to Capital Park and I could have walked there if I wanted to, but she offered a ride and it being 80 degrees out already I couldn't say no.
Parking is a pain in downtown and especially near the restaurants. Luckily someone was pulling out in front and we snagged a spot. Unfortunately, it was still a paid spot and the downside was you have to use a app. That was a challenge. My husband has the app already on his phone and makes it look like a breeze. It's not. I miss when the side streets used to be free parking.
I like eating at Jack's Urban Eats. They serve fresh, made to order salads. I almost ordered the blackened salmon cobb salad, but at last minute read the sign that said Chimichurri Steak Bowl next to their checkout counter. I went with the new offering as it hasn't been put on the menu yet. The Chimichurri Steak Bowl has the following in it: Chargrilled tri tip, arugula, cilantro lime rice, pickled onions, tomatoes, and sweet potato with fried shallots and chimichurri for $15.95. Two dollars cheaper then the Salmon salad I was looking at.
The salad was ok, but I wouldn't order it again. First, I'm not a fan of arugula. It gets caught in my throat and makes me cough. It's also hard to eat as it's so long and pieces stick out of your mouth when you're trying to get a mouthful. It's just not a pretty sight. The cilantro lime rice was a really good touch. I enjoyed it so much more then the arugula. A bite of anything and the rice was tasty. The tomatoes were only a few, but they were really good. I don't recall any fried shallots on my dish or maybe those were the grilled onion looking things. I expected them to be fried like when you top the green bean casserole. The tri tip was ok. A bit on the tough side, it was hard to chew and got swallowed in one bite. Overall I'll order a different salad next time, probably the blackened salmon salad as that was my first choice.
She also ordered some garlic fries that we shared. they were tasty, but limp. I'm not a fan of limp fries, I like mine crispy. I usually order crispy fries and they fry them twice or leave them in longer, I'm not sure what they do, but they come out crispy.
Timing is everything. We arrived at 11am when they opened and got the last parking space available so we picked the right time to arrive. We were second in line when we arrived and ordered quickly and got our meals brough out to us on the patio. When we left at Noon there was a long line to order and lots of the tables were taken with people eating.
They have a really nice patio to eat at, but by noon it's all in the sun. When we arrived we were partially shaded and it was pleasant, but by the time we left the sun had moved into my eyes. There were several other people enjoying the spring time weather we are having.
I'll be back because I really like Jack's Urban Eats, but I will be ordering something different. read more