I was in the Pineville area on Sunday and we decided to go to the Olive Garden - one of my mother-in-laws favorite restaurants. I assume most of you are familiar with Olive Garden - a large chain of 611 restaurants throughout the United States and Canada. I rarely think to go eat at an Olive Garden as my first choice, but I am unsure why. The service is usually above grade - especially for a restaurant in its price range. The food has always been very good when I have been as well. And the decor and atmosphere are always pleasing.

This Sunday offered very little out of the ordinary for an Olive Garden experience - very good service, great food at a reasonable price, in a great atmosphere. I always have a hard time ordering at many Italian restaurants because the menu is usually so large and there are so many items that seem similar to me. This time, I ordered the Five Cheese Stuffed Rigatoni with Sausage which is a limited time item. It was outstanding. Each bite of the Rigatoni bursted with the flavor of the cheeses inside. It was covered in tomato alfredo sauce and topped with grilled Italian sausage. The Italian sausage was extremely tender and rich in Italian spices. I am a big fan of this dish and am a bit dissappointed that it is only available for a limited time - especially with a price of only $9.95 including salad.

As always, the salad was packed full of fresh veggies and covered in Italian dressing. I am usually a Ranch Dressing type person, but the Italian dressing seems to go with the salad there for some reason. Anyway, it was a great salad. Another nice touch that Olive Garden adds that most restaurants do not is that they serve the salad on a chilled plate. I am not sure why, but this seems to make the salad better?

My wife ordered the Five Cheese Ziti al Forno. This is ziti pasta in a five cheese marinara sauce and covered in Italian cheeses - and then baked. This dish was also excellent. At $12.75, it was pricier in comparison to my dish and I am not sure it was worth that much more than mine.

My mother-in-law had the Chicken Parmigiana. The dish consisted of a parmesan breaded chicken breast, fried and topped with marinara sauce and mozzarella cheese. The overall taste of this dish was satisfying. The chicken was very moist and tender. They could have provided a little more spaghetti as it seems that there was not a lot there. They should up the portion considerably. Spaghetti is cheap. I suggest to double or possibly triple the portion of spaghetti for a $10.75 dish.

Other items of note on this visit:

- Sweet tea needs vast improvement. It was almost unsweet. Add more sugar.
- The breadsticks were great.
- The service was very good. I would even classify it as a tad short of exceptional considering the price range of the restaurant.
- I am always pleasantly surprised by the wonder Andes Chocolate mint provided at the end. (I always remember Christmas time at my grandmothers. I would get a box of these and would secretly eat almost the whole thing that day.)

All in all, Olive Garden was an excellent value for the money. I guess that is why they always seem so busy whenever we go there.

After a long week of “roughing it” on my fishing trip to the Outer Banks, I was looking for a great meal. Unfortunately, I was still tired from driving back the night before and did not feel like waiting for a table at a busy restaurant or driving more than about 10-15 minutes. After heading out we finally decided to go to the Six Pence Pub in Baxter. I had eaten here three times before and all of the meals resulted in good service with a smile and an excellent meal.

When I went in, I was surprised that they were not busier than they were as it was around 6:30pm on a Saturday night. We were able to be seated immediately. I later learned that the roof terrace was open and apparantly most people were opting to sit up there due to the beautiful weather.

The Six Pence is a beautiful restaurant on the inside and has an air of an upscale atmosphere to it. The good news is that while it looks extremely nice and upscale, the prices are far from what you would pay at an upscale restaurant. There were numerous sandwiches on the menu for around $8 including side items. Most entrees were typically between $10 and $12 with kids menu items around $5 to $6.

Tonight, I had Beef Guiness. According to their menu, it is “a bread bowl full of tender beef tips marinated in Guiness Stout, simmered in a brown sauce with mushrooms, peas, carrots, and onions and served with a salad of crisp greens, onion, tomato, and cucumbers. The salad was exceptionally fresh with crisp veggies. I was a bit disappointed in the main course though. It was good, but just not what I was expecting. Whenever I see beef tips I think back to the marinated beef tips I used to get at another restaurant long ago that were served over egg noodles and were quite remarkable. The beef tips I got tonight were more of a beef stew. They were also very very heavy on the peas. It was packed tight with peas. I was hoping for it to be packed tight with beef tips with a few peas, carrots, mushrooms and onions mixed around it. Like I said it was good, but knowing some of the other items on the menu, I will not order it again. I suggest the Reuben or the Chicken Salad as I have had them in the past and they are both excellent.

If you are in the area, Six Pence is one of the better places to try. It is clean and the service is great - especially for a restaurant in its price range. It is located at 933 Market St in the Village at Baxter in Fort Mill- just off I-77. There are also locations in Blowing Rock, NC and Savannah, GA, although I have not eaten at either of those in order to compare.

Just a short 10 minute drive past Lake Wylie, in the town of Clover, sits Courtney’s BBQ. When I hear the word “BBQ” around here, I always think of pork barbecue. Courtney’s has great pork BBQ, but it does not stop there. They have a host of other items on the menu as well, including award winning ribs and some of the best barbecue chicken you will find at any restaurant. They even have excellent fried seafood. For a long while, I was in the habit of ordering the all I could eat fried perch which are lightly breaded and fried to perfection. The fried shrimp are also great. Unlike many other restaurants who serve shrimp flavor breading, Courtney’s lightly breads their shrimp and fries them just right providing some of the best fried shrimp in the area.

Back to my review of this visit. As usual, the service was very good- although, I always seem to drink my tea faster than the glass gets full. This isn’t as bad as many restaurants though because all of the staff seem to help out in making sure all of the glasses are full -not just the tables in their section.

This time, I ordered a half-BBQ chicken and pork BBQ combo. As usual, my eyes were bigger than my stomach as I could not finish it. I think my mind was thinking 1/4 BBQ chicken instead of a half. The chicken was amazing. It was tender and juicy throughout and provided a great smoked flavor that could be supplemented with several of Courtney’s signature sauces. The BBQ was some of the best I have had in the area - moist throughout with a perfect blend of spices to flavor the meat.

The only bad part of my visit was that when I was placing my leftover chicken breast and wing in the to go container, I dropped it on the floor. I was so bummed out.

If anyone is in the area or if they are just tired of the same old chain barbeque joints in Charlotte, they should drive out and give Courtney’s a try. Just be sure to check their website for hours. They are only open full days on Thursday through Saturday, and a half day on Sundays (until 2:30).

I just got back from lunch at Damon’s Grill at 13230 Carowinds Blvd (Corner of Carowinds and S. Tryon St.) For those that are not familiar with Damon’s, it is a chain restaurant that is known for its ribs. Most of the restaurants have a sort of sports bar feel to them. The one on Carowinds Blvd. has four monster screen televisions located on the main wall of the dining area which broadcast varying games (or whatever is on at the time).

Overall, my food was good. The waiter talked me into a Marinated Prime Rib Sandwich special that they were having. The sandwich was good, but not spectacular -as the price would suggest at $12.95. The regular Prime Rib Sandwich was only $9.95. I don’t think the difference could have been that much. It was a good sized sandwich and was loaded with red and green peppers as well as onions smothered in cheese.

My wife ordered chicken fingers and for some reason, they had a strong cinnamon taste in them. Not being a fan of cinnamon - especially on chicken fingers - she only at about a half of one. I am not sure the purpose of putting these extra spices in the chicken fingers. My guess is that anyone wanting to eat chicken fingers is looking for something plain to begin with. Why make it something other than plain by adding extra spices?

My mother in law had the new Angus-Kobe Mini Burgers. She got 4 miniature burgers made of seasoned Angus-Kobe beef and toppings. She only finished three of them. The burgers were juicy and had a flame grilled taste. The burgers came with homemade potato chips which were a little dry, but crunchy. She felt that the meal was satisfying and filling and would be a good choice to share as an appetizer, instead of as her meal.

The sweet tea was really good, but it was borderline too sweet - even for me. So, if you don’t like it really sweet, I would choose another option.

All in all, I am sure we will go back there, mainly due to the location. Today’s service was very good for this level of restaurant. The food is above average but I have never been overly impressed enough to become a regular. Most of the sandwich items on the menu seem to be over priced by $1 to $2 compared to similar restaurants. The sandwich I had today was overpriced by about $5. It seems that every time I go, I am looking for something spectacular and I get something ordinary. Perhaps I should just lower my expectations a bit.