Two25

While my husband is still mourning the loss of Uno's in the Mark Twain Hotel, we took a chance on lunch at the restaurant now occupying the space: Two25.
Walking through the lobby of the hotel at 225 NE Adams Street in Peoria, I noticed it has been updated since I last walked through. I liked the decor, and the library looked like a great place to park myself and hang out for the rest of the day. Too bad I had to get back to work.
Stepping into the restaurant, we were greeted by a gal manning the hostess stand who showed us to a booth.
The dining room has seen some decor changes since Uno's as well, which were a nice touch.
With loungy hits by Louis Armstrong and Frank Sinatra playing in the background, we checked out the menu.
On the appetizer list, the crab & artichoke gratin sounded good, as did the baked Brie. There were a couple of salads that I would like to try: the pear and the spinach salad. Moving on to pizzas, the thought of the White Pie had me salivating: olive oil, ricotta, spinach,
artichoke hearts and garlic. The menu also featured steaks, chicken and seafood, burgers, pasta and sandwiches.
Being lunch, however, I went with something a bit lighter, the salad bar with soup. The lunch endless salad bar was priced at $7, and adding French onion soup or the soup du jour is an extra $2. We had scoped out the salad bar after noticing it on the menu, and it looked worthy.
StfRon went with the salad bar as well, and added a sausage pizza bread for $1.
This salad bar made its way to my list of top three in Peoria since it had three choices of greens, a tri-colored pepper mix, grape tomatoes, cucumbers, peas, onions, sunflower seeds, candied walnuts, a couple of fruit choices, broccoli, cottage cheese, several dressing choices and more.
Our food arrived fairly quickly. The French onion soup was served in a large cappucino style mug on a saucer and the rich broth filled with onions was topped with some bread and melted cheese.
StfRon's pizza bread was sprinkled with chunks of savory sausage and had a nice crispness to the edges of the submarine style bread.
Glancing around as we were finishing our meal I noticed the dining room we were in was almost full and the voices of the patrons floated up into the high ceilings, mingling and echoing down, lending a nice touch to the atmosphere.
Our waitress was bustling around and cheerful, johnny-on-the-spot with refills, even after we paid our bill of $22 before tip, which included two iced teas.
On our way back to work we declared the last-minute decision for lunch a nice success, and we'll be sure to come back to Two25 again soon.

Reality Bites

No, it's not 90's movie night...I recently had occasion to visit Reality Bites, 414 N. Main Street in Bloomington.
It's too bad their menu would not come up on a Mac running OS 10.5.x in either Safari or Firefox, as I was going to give a more detailed description of my lunch, but suffice it to say that it was good.
As for the restaurant, it features nice exposed brick walls and wood floors, with a few earthy colored walls.
I've wanted to check the place out for quite some time. My friend M reminded me of it this week, and said she had recently had a nice orzo salad there.
Reality Bites was doing a pretty good lunch business at noon, with the sidewalk dining and inside bar tables, so I was offered a seat at the bar counter or upstairs. I decided to sit at the bar.
I didn't get too far into the menu before I saw the seared Ahi tuna on the cold plate menu, served with some sort of cucumber pepper salad with a puréed carrot dressing. I went with that, and scarfed down the tuna, accompanied by ginger, soy sauce and wasabi. Once I got to the salad, I found it interesting and attractive. After sampling some cucumbers I got to one of the peppers, which looked like strips of green bell peppers, but were surprisingly spicy. After biting into one and feeling the heat, I vaguely remembered thinking they would be spicy based on the menu description, but I had forgotten by the time my food arrived. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the salad and I managed to eat several of the pepper slices and all of the cucumbers.
The manager-type gentleman behind the bar was friendly and helpful, and my server was friendly and efficient, too.
With an iced tea, my bill came to $11.92 before tip.
There were many other entrées I would be interested in trying, and the dessert menu caught my eye, too.
I can say the film version of Reality Bites didn't live up to my expectations, but the restaurant was a nice surprise.

Reality Bites menu now works on a Mac running Safari 4.0. Excellent, as I will be visiting there again soon!

Fish House

I can't believe that apparently I haven't devoted an entry to the Fish House yet.
I had the best birthday dinner there a couple of years ago. It was a complete blast!
The Fish House has been serving fine seafood at 4919 N. University Street in Peoria since 1976.
The atmosphere is one of almost cabin-like coziness, with lots of dark wood and sedate lighting throughout the restaurant.
The bar has a nice cozy feel as well. Not so much one where we'd hang out just for drinks, but we have passed some nice times waiting for tables there bellied up to the lounge bar.
I've had many great seafood meals there, from the tuna to the grouper Oscar. StfRon, not so much of a seafood fan, enjoys their filet. They also have au gratin potatoes as a side dish choice, always creamy, cheesy and a little sweet.
On our most recent visit, a couple of weeks ago, we met up with some family and a friend for dinner.
StfRon and I both had the pistachio crusted sea bass. The crust was enjoyable and the dish was well-prepared, but apparently I'm not a big sea bass fan. I guess I prefer a meatier sort of fish.
The halibut my dad had looked great.
Our service on this visit, as usual, was very good. I would also assume that the Fish House is a pretty good place to work, considering the bar staff has been the same for as long as I can remember.

Jim's Steakhouse

I've never really eaten at Jim's Steakhouse. We did have an office Christmas party there one year, but I think the menu was selected for us.
Jim's location at 100 SW Jefferson in Peoria was suggested to us for our birthday dinner, so we decided it was high time to try it out.
We went in at about 5:00 on Sunday and had a drink in the lounge while waiting for the rest of our dining party. The only table in the restaurant that was occupied when we arrived hosted Aaron Schock and his dining companion.
The bar is decorated in greens and dark wood, with brass accents and wide plank wood flooring. The piano was silent on a Sunday night.
I had a glass of Rodney Strong Cabernet and StfRon had a Sam Adams. There wasn't a wide selection of imports. When my dad arrived, he went with a Newcastle.
The bartender informed us that since they only had reservations for six people all night, they were not serving prime rib.
We decided to go take our table and let the meal begin. Looking over the menu, I saw a porterhouse steak priced at $44, the stroganoff, which my mom assures me is wonderful, priced at $18, and filets priced at around $22. There were also some seafood selections on the menu.
I decided to try the filet medallions oscar, a dish I've enjoyed lots of places, which was $26 and included a soup or salad and a side. I went with the salad with brittney dressing and green beans as my side. I guess there were daily side choices as well, which I heard another server mention later in our meal.
The soup of the day was cream of chicken, which sounded kind of dull to me, but we saw a bowl later, and it looked very good.
StfRon went with the tortellini, prepared in a cream sauce, with bacon and peas, for about $18. He also had the salad with brittney dressing.
My parents both went with a filet, and salads with brittney dressing.
The dressing was quite good, not too sweet, like some brittneys I've tried.
I had ordered my steak medium rare, and it did seem to be more on the rare side, being very red inside, but was hot, as were my green beans and asparagus. The steak also had a brown sauce on top, which took me by surprise, and a huge amount of crab in the middle. The asparagus was topped with hollandaise. The meal proved way too much for me to eat.
StfRon said the tortellini was wonderful.
By this time, there were three more tables of people in the dining room, and the two waitresses were busier. Our waitress became a bit more scarce toward the end of our meal. My parents were out of wine for a while, but we ended up just requesting the bill.
Walking through the bar, I also noticed the bartender was serving food to a couple of tables dining in the lounge.
Maybe if I'd chosen a different entree, I would have been bowled over. We did have a nice time, though, due to good company.

Jonah's Seafood House & 2601 Oyster Bar

Jonah's, 2601 N. Main Street, East Peoria, is an obvious choice if you are looking for a great seafood restaurant. However, I like the place more for their entertainment factor.

They do have great live music every Saturday night in the oyster bar, usually blues or jazz. I'm a low-key gal. I like hanging out in the restaurant bar next door, where it's generally more quiet and they serve up a mean dish of spicy nut mix. I'll order a good glass of wine or two and generally will be tempted by the fact that they are one of the few places in the area that I know of where you can enjoy a nice cheese plate with your wine. They serve a plate of cheese and fruit along with a great seeded mustard to dip your cheese in. It's heaven to a girl like me. And StfRon will usually put up with it, since they have Pilsner Urquell there.

The other thing I love about Jonah's is the back patio area. On a nice Saturday night you can hang out on the patio and enjoy drinks, a good view of the river AND the sounds of the band drifting out. Let's face it, for the most part, East Peoria has the better deal on the river in this area anyway. They don't have to look at the Wal-Mart Supercenter.
Update, April 2007 - Rumor has it that Jonah's no longer features live entertainment. I will have to go check it out.

Dixon's Fisheries, Inc.

Dixon's has been involved in the fish industry in Illinois since the early 1900s. They offer a large, fresh supply of seafood at 6926 N. University in Peoria. Especially popular during the holidays are the seafood trays.