Yats- good restaurant or local hangout?

The other days we went to the new Yats over by the Greenwod mall. This is a local chain of Cajun restaurants where everything is ordered ala cart and the menu changes daily.

Jeremy got red beans and sausage with rice, and I got etoufee. Tessa shared both with us and really like it too.

The food was great but it was noticeable that we were the only dining customers there. There was a large table of assorted teenagers and college age students just hanging out and not eating. Throughout the time we were there, many kids came and went. They were not rude or anything but after some time I felt like we were invading their territory, perhaps ruining their local hang out by actually eating there. And not to be a tightass but had my child been a little older I would have been pretty uncomfortable with their conversation (thinking spitting vs. swallowing, and that was the staff talking)

So the food was great and well priced but I can imagine that might be part of the reason nobody else was dining there. I would suggest the management make the restaurant a little more inviting to 'outsiders'.

Fast Food Proving Harder Than we Thought

I guess I never considered us fast food people. We probably eat it maybe once a week? Usually when I'm out and about and come home with lunch for everyone...usually chick-fil-a or Qdoba.

So I'm a little surprised at how difficult this project has been for those quick fast food, pick up a sandwich sorta meals. As of yet we have not eaten in any chain sit down restaurants, but we have cheated several times with fast food!

I'm blaming the fetus for Mcnugget cravings but also the travelling around we have been doing lately. It's pretty hard to eat non-chain while on the road or in an airport, so kudos to Jeremy for doing so much better than me!

Not giving up though...just hitting some unexpected roadblocks!

Two Great Places in Columbus

Satuma Japanese Restaurant
I love Japanese food. If I could eat sushi, teriyaki steak, and that yummy ginger salad dressing I would. We usually favor Kabuto in Greenwood as the best local place to get sushi, but I have to say that Satuma in Columbus may really be the best place around. Columbus is a smaller town than Greenwood, and a little further away from the 'big city', so I was a little surprised to find this quality and huge menu in Columbus.

The sushi at Satuma is incredible and well priced and they have a huge menu of other items for those who don't enjoy sushi. One of my favorite things that we ordered was actually a pan fried eggplant appetizer served with miso dipping sauce. Mmmm.

It's a little further away from home, but when we feel like a drive we just might have to go down to Columbus for our Japanese.

Arni's
We decided that Indiana based chains were okay to frequent because they are still locally owned, which allowed us to eat at Arni's. Anyone who's been around IN for any amount of time has either heard of or eaten at one of their many restaurants. I actually went there with my date prior to Prom.

Arni's is a mostly a pizzeria but also has very large menu of other items. One thing they are well known for is their salads, chocked full of ham, turkey, cheese, and veggies and served with homemade garlic bread. It's hard to say what makes one salad so much better than another, but Arni's has certainly figured it out.

From a parent standpoint the other great thing about Arni's is that they have some healthy option for little eater like cottage cheese, fruit bowls and steamed broccoli. Of course their unhealthy stuff like pizza and strombolis are pretty awesome too.

You're Not From Around Here..

Today we went to Edinburgh for a little antique shopping and lunch. The antique mall is right next to the outlet mall so it surrounded by chain restaurants on all sides. We decided to stick to our guns and scout out a local restaurant, so we went out of our way to old downtown Edinburgh.

We ran across three options, a diner, mexican and chinese. We opted for Bobbie Jo's Diner, a hole in the wall 'greasy spoon' sort of place. It was small and apparently filled with locals cause the minute we sat down the waitress said 'you folks aren't from around here'....haha. That's just a great thing about eating at small restaurants, the local familiarity and conversation that you might not get at Chili's.

The had lots of diner basics...burgers, pizzas, biscuits and gravy and homeade pies. Too bad we got there only 20 minutes past the breakfast cut off.

I ordered a fish sandwich which was HUGE and also awesome. It was probably the best fish sandwich I've had in years. And for only $14 for the three of us to eat lunch, I'm very pleased that we stopped there!

ETA: I noticed on the link that this place is actually called "Bobbie Jo's pizza and subs' but the waitress said they didn't use the oven until 4pm, so before then it's just sandwiches and whatnot.