Bar Louie – Not Flat At All

With all the rain we have had, I didn’t think I could get Lois to go to dinner with me, but she seems to like joining me on my little hobby. We looked for a restaurant that I had heard about but couldn’t find it, so I called them and asked them where they were located. They are actually in the mall at Hamilton Place. I hoped that it wouldn’t be like the last place I tried at the mall.

A sign said to seat ourselves, so we chose to be in the corner away from everyone, (it’s easier to take pictures).

After a while, Caleb our server came to take our order. I wanted to try an appetizer of flat bread with roasted veggies for $5.50

It came on a cutting board and it was sure flat! I liked that though - it was nice to have a little something while waiting on the meal but nothing that will fill you up before you get your main dish! Of course, we left some pieces to take home, but it was good. The thin crust was filled with roasted red peppers, artichoke hearts, tomato and onion and topped with cheeses and fresh cilantro.

Lois has always been a creature of habit and usually orders what she knows she likes, but I was able to convince her to try something new. She wanted a burger and asked me what the Portobello burger was. I explained that it was a vegetarian burger with minced Portobello mushrooms made into a patty but it was a meaty mushroom and made for a nice alternative. Lois got spunky and decided to try it! It was $10.00

I wanted the pear salad for $9.50 (I had one before at St. John’s restaurant and knew I would love it) but if I wanted to add salmon that was another $6.00.

When Caleb brought our meals (he was the friendliest boy!) I had to tell Lois to wait and let me get a picture. She had already started putting her bun together and, when I went to get the picture, she begged me not to mess it up. I wanted to take it back apart like they brought it, but I didn’t think Lois would appreciate me handling her food.

My salad looked good but bigger than what I could eat – especially after the flat bread. I thought I saw granny apples. I knew it didn’t say it came with them so then I realized those were the pears. I was a little disappointed because the one I remembered that I liked so well was ‘roasted pear’ salad. I guess I didn’t read the menu very well. No matter, I liked it. I was surprised for a mall place to have this good of food. I guess a franchise is a franchise and it just depends on which one you go to for what is good or not.

I got tickled when I saw Lois trying to take a bite of her burger – it was bigger than she was! It was funny to see her handle the big burger and trying to get her mouth around it. I didn’t let her know that I got a kick out of that though. I minded my own business.

My salad had blue cheese, cran-raisins, pecans, pear slices, mixed lettuce and balsamic dressing. The flavors were good. The salmon was enough for two. I took home the other half, so it was worth the extra 6 bucks.

I don’t think Lois appreciated her Portobello burger not being ‘hamburger’. “It’s different…” she said (you can’t teach Lois new tricks).

Caleb made such an effort to check on us and make sure we enjoyed our meal that we sort of helped bus our own table by stacking our dishes and straightening the table a bit, putting the pepper shaker back and gathering our straw wrappers. Just as he was on his way over to give us the check and take our dishes, would you believe I caught Lois trying to blow her spilled salt over to my side right when the boy brought our check!

If she weren’t my best friend, I might have embarrassed her and told the boy that Lois blew some on the floor too! But I minded my own business.

Bar Louie was definitely a place you would have a hard time deciding on what you wanted – it all looked so good! A little pricey for a place that doesn’t roast their pears, but it was still good. Try them out, but make sure you get their flat bread to start. The flavor won’t leave you flat!