Get Her to the Greek

Our Tuesday night schedule did not allow us the opportunity to celebrate Valentine's Day. So, Nicole and I decided to have a belated Valentine's Day celebration by having lunch together on Thursday at The Isaacs Restaurant in Grandin Village. From the people I'd talked to, I wouldn't say The Isaacs has the best reputation, but they have recently changed ownership and we were hoping for a good experience. It's always fun to try a new place, especially one with a little international flair.

Even though The Isaacs focuses on serving Greek/Mediterranean food, we weren't particularly adventurous with our lunch choices. We both ordered the salad bar, which was all-you-can-eat and also came with a selection of three different soups. I tried the potato & feta soup (it was decent but not anything worth bragging about) and loaded up on multiple trips to the salad bar.  At first glance, the salad bar seemed small, but it actually had a good selection of items. Along with a choice of mixed greens or spinach, they had tons of fresh veggies - including red & green peppers, red onions, broccoli, tomatoes, cucumbers, almonds, and cauliflower. There were also some unique additions such as homemade croutons, dill potatoes, greek yogurt, and curried chicken salad. I believe the salad dressings were also homemade. For a simple salad bar, I was rather impressed.

I'd say the salad bar lunch is a very reasonable deal at around $7. My only complaint about our lunch would be that the restaurant seemed under-staffed. For a rather large dining area with a decent amount of people, I only saw one server waiting tables. We had to wait to be seated, it took a while to receive our drinks, and we ended up with a pile of dishes on our table by the end of the meal. I wouldn't blame the server - I'd blame management for not having more people working to provide the waiter some help. They were also pretty slow with keeping the salad bar stocked, which is dangerous when Nicole and I are on the prowl!

Overall, I think the new owners at The Isaacs have things going in the right direction. The food tasted fresh and the prices made for a very good value. I'd assume they are in a transition period and trying to be very careful about labor and costs, but they need to make sure customers are receiving great service. If they can get those issues worked out, I think The Isaacs will do very well.