Round Table Pizza

Round Table Pizza located in the Five Mile Shopping Mall, 1908 W Francis Ave, and it was the destination for this outing with two of my dear friends for lunch. I had never been here before and they go here a lot because they really like the lunch special.  I can hardly refuse an invitation to lunch, especially with people I love, so off I went.  

We were Salad Bar Surfing in no time at all.

In addition to the salads, one friend had a mini pizza and I did the lunch special which included the salad bar, pizza bar and a drink.  The pizza bar had a pasts dish offered as well as pizza that day. 

I have since learned that there are Round Table Pizza restaurants at a lot of locations....  I really need to get out more I hguess.  I have actually heard of it, drived past even many times before... but I know this now fer sure, fershizzle,, because  I checked it out on the web!  They are in several states and in a lot of cities, in Spokane alone there are three...one on the South Hill and one in the Valley too!  This means when you order up a King Arthur Supreme in CA, OR, AK or WA you know what you will be getting kinda like a Pizza Hut or 'Mickey D's" (MacDoonalds, if you please)

They are popular.  Here is their menu link.

Here is my lovely salad.  

My friends/ salads were lovely too, but I didn't get good photos of them, nor of our pizza, past or anything else that day.  

As this is currently one of my friends'... these two sisters's... favorite lunch stops, I just may go again sometime with them, but then, once they read my blog, they just might want to "restaurant around" with me a bit. 

Until then,  I can at least say that I have eaten at the Round Table Pizza, and I concur with my friends, it's a great little place to have a quick and tasty lunch, another great-little-restaurant-in-Spokane.

Shakey's Pizza Parlor

This place was an experience.  I mean, three of us went and we all were a little struck with the uniqueness and business of it all.  Thankfully the servers answered all of my questions and directed us in what to do.

Shakey's  is relatively new to this location, (9602 N. Newport Hwy) It's another one of those places I have wanted to try, but never did  quite have the opportunity.  (I blame the yummy little "Panda Express" next door.) But you know, when an opportunity presents itself, sometimes you just have to take it, and the other day I did.

I remember Shakey's as a child.  It was not here in Spokane, in a completely different city in fact, but it was still Shakey's Pizza, even way back "when."   I remember, way back then, the big ta-so was a guy with a banjo playing while my family ate pizza.

Times have changed, now there is big screen TV, an a kids arcade.

Golf was on at the time, to which my daughter who was with us, and who is really good at "goofy golf," and who knew it was World Cup season, automatically subtracted ten points from the overall restaurant score.  (She probably would have given them some points for a banjo player though.)  Sports bar or no sports bar, which they also have here, we are not keeping score.. just enjoying the dining experience and the food, and... for the record, just as I remember as a child, the pizza was superb!

We ordered the Firehouse Special on thin crust.  I love it.  Being a basil lover, I thoroughly enjoyed the fresh basil and the thin crust was probably the best I have even had. It was hard to choose what to order, as there is quite a selection, even a make your own option.  Here is the menu!

We enjoyed a salad and some buffalo wings too.  Because they specialize in MOjo's we had to try that too, so we had a small order of chicken and mojo's...  yum!

They offer a beautiful salad bar.  I personally do not care for iceberg lettuce, but Geo loves it.  If you are a romaine lover like me, there's a plethora of optional add ins.  They do not offer a one trip salad option however, except in their luncheon specials.  This was kind of a bummer.

They utilized these groovy little homing devices to help them find your table and bring your order to you when it is ready.   This might also call your server to the table , I am not sure, but it is a rather neat little invention I must say.  I should have pressed the button to see if it worked, and called a server to get my drink for me, I didn't like standing in line, the one and only line in the whole place,  to pour my own drink. 

I did ask the server who answered most of my "first timer" questions  if she liked working here and she said it was a great place to work.  She said nothing but positive things about it and praised here manager saying that everyone liked working here.  It shows.  Shakey's Pizza Parlor, as crazy of an atmosphere as it was for us first timers was definitely a great place to eat, and they have a great, old fashioned,  sense of humor here too...

Definately a winner in the Pizza department... right up there with the best, that is for sure!

The Elk Public House

This is the street view of The Elk, located at 1933 W. Pacific Ave in Spokane.  I have been wanting to go to this place for a while, but the thing that has been preventing me is our love for Asian food. I still love Asian food, it was just time for something else.... so I got to go here, finally!

I think the thing that has drawn me to want to visit the Elk is that it is tucked away in an older part of town, one with big lofty houses, and arboreously green parks and, one of my favorite things about a city... there are sidewalks.

Call me "crazy"... but I love to walk down sidewalks.  I love old buildings and houses too.

(I think it is a remnant of my childhood.)  The Elk is right, smack dab, in the middle of it all.

On the inside The Elk is a bit of a pub.

Like all good pubs. it is an eating establishment as well.  Here is the menu, the backside of the menu is a listing of the wines and beers they serve.

Here is my coaster:

For an appetizer we had garlic bread and I have to say, IT may well be the best I have had anywhere yet!  When they say "smothered in garlic"  they mean it!

Geo went for the 74th St. Gumbo, a dish with chicken, sausage, shrimp and vegetables served over rice.  It was a rather spicy dish... a bit of a sailors stew, I would say, not really y kind of thing, but he loved it.  He detected the sichuan pepper spice right away.  It was really good with the bread they served with it.















I went for the Ruben sandwich....

...It was  corned beef, Swiss, (house made) sauerkraut and Thousand Island dressing on toasted rye bread.  I choose the cucumber salad for a side.  I didn't know it would come with peanuts on it.  This was surprise and most unusual to me.  I kinda liked it.  The Rueben was really, really good!  IT was so good Geo wanted to help me eat it. 

 The decor was simple,  the scene a little bit trendy...(an art deco neon "Drugs" sign was lit up over the door.)  I even got to read a local independent underground kinda  "rag." 

Our food was great, our server was fantastic....and afterwards we went for a walk looking at some of the spectacular neighborhod houses along the City Tour route. 

The Elk's kitchen hours are Sun, Mon, Tues, Wed 11am to 10pm/ Thurs, Fri, Sat 11am to 11pm, and you can get take out food too, but it will cost you 25 cents extra each. 

The perfect ending to an evening on the town.