Bright’s Northfield Restaurant Blog

Perkins Restaurant
1401 Riverview Drive
Northfield, MN 55057
(507)645-4830
Open seven days, early to late.

Wednesday, 5:15PM

We came in hungry and not wanting to spend a lot of time or money on a good hearty meal. We came to the right place. There is usually a special deal going on at Perkins all the time. This day the deal is on a select group of meals from about 3pm to 6pm for $6.99.

I ordered the lightly floured Atlantic cod fillets with two sides; I always get the salad with bleu cheese dressing and mashed potatoes with turkey gravy. I have tried the macaroni and cheese in the past and that is one I give a big thumbs down. The cheese sauces does not taste or feel like any of the cheese I know.

The cod fillets are tender and fresh tasting, nothing much else to say about good fish, except they serve it with a lovely fresh lemon wedge and good tartar sauce, creamy, and light. The mashed potatoes are good. Not sure if they are from a mix or not, but they seem quite delectable and with a choice of beef
or turkey gravy, you can’t really go wrong.

The side salad is the usual Romaine lettuce, ice berg, carrots and purple cabbage pieces and the bleu cheese dressing, served on the side always, is very good.

Another reason we like Perkins is the service, which is always friendly, steady and good. One of my pet peeves is to go into a restaurant where we are trying to have a conversation and are interrupted by a waitperson over and over again. So big star for Perkins on that note.

When we go to Perkins, we also use one of two booths with electrical outlet for our air machine. We try to come during off times so that we can get the booth right away, or we do call ahead if we need to stop in during the rush hour.

The use of the plug in air machine is a big plus for us because the portable air tanks are very costly and can double the cost of our food outing when we use them. Plugging in the portable air machine only costs literally pennies per hour for the restaurant where we might plug in. We are good tippers, so hopefully it all
evens out in the end.

http://www.perkinsrestaurants.com/home.html

Froggy Bottom’s River Pub

305 S. Water Street

507-660-0260

We went to a Face to Face meeting at Froggy’s.
Susan H. hosted the meet. Susan is a gracious
and entertaining hostess. There was fresh
salsa and chips for everyone.

We learned quite a bit about Froggy’s while
we were there. For instance, we didn’t know
you could put the in-laws up for a few days
there in the hotel, which I hear has decent
rates. Didn’t know you could buy Froggy’s own
Tie Dye T-Shirts for your Dad for Father’s Day,
or any other day. Didn’t know they had several
rooms for parties and outdoor seating by the
Cannon River. Didn’t know all that. Now we do.

On to the good food stuff. I ordered the Rachel,
the female version of the Reuben, with smoked
turkey instead of corned beef, and thousand
island dressing served on the side on lovely
pumpernickel bread.

Even the sauerkraut was tender and tasty.
Oh, I loved it so much I ate the whole thing!

D had Chicken Cordon Bleu on croissant.
with delicious crinkle cut French fries, while
I had the Pat’s Potatoes, which were baby red potatoes
cubed and fried very nice and brown. D said it was good.
That means a lot coming from him.

Both sandwich plates included fresh crisp dill spears,
something which I haven’t seen around for awhile
and the tomatoes D had were actually red. There was
lemon in the unsweetened tea and in the sweet raspberry
tea that actually tasted like raspberries, but a bit
sweet for my taste, still I drank it all up. So, I
maybe lie to myself a little bit.

Condiments were brought to the table in a six pack holder.
Nice touch and very generous, btw.
Anyway, these touches of food and color and friendliness

make it all worth the trip for me. The prices are reasonable.

See them also for rooms to let.

Summary

Food-Just right.
Drinks-Big and juicy, meaning large glasses and more drink than ice.
Service-Special conditions, so we reserve judgment.
Ambiance-Different places to check out.
Music-Didn’t hear any, but they do feature live music.
Friendliness-Yes, very nice people

See the website for all information;

http://www.froggybottoms.com

Mandarin Garden

107 East 4th Street

Northfield, MN

Call for Take Out or Reservations; 507-645-7101
Closed Sundays and Mondays.
Open for Lunch Wed-Friday 11:30AM to 2PM
Dinner Tues-Thurs 4:30PM-9:00PM
Friday and Saturday 4:30PM-10:00PM
Come no later that one half hour before closing.

Thursday, May 15, 5:45PM. We walk in, no one is there.
But, as this is our 25th time or so, we know that is
soon to change. By 6:10PM, the house is half full.
Thankfully, we have our dinners already. We just got
the Four Seasons and Kung Pao Chicken. My husband
always gets the same thing once he has found his
gastro niche. I always change. I like it that way.
New experiences, new tales to tell.

Four Seasons consists of shrimp, chicken, pork and
tiny-mini scallops. There are also carrots, onions,
mushrooms, Chinese lettuce, baby corn on the cob,
and broccoli. The shrimp is the best part, and
it is very succulent medium size deveined shrimp.
The chicken is alright and the one piece of pork
I found was fatty and inedible as were the stems
of broccoli. The scallops were good, but so
tiny and so few, maybe 10 pieces, that I would
leave them out altogether, but then who has ever heard
of Three Seasons, besides Artic Pole dwellers?
The sauce however, pulls it all together and
is excellent. A little salty for my palette,
but many love the salty soy ingredient.

My husband’s Kung Pao Chicken was less spicy
than usual, but good. He eats the chicken
and peanuts and leaves most of the green onions
for the zoo animals, I guess. The sauce is the
thing, once again, and it is sticky, gooey,
full of flavor and layers of interest.

We love the caraf of fresh lemon ice water, free by request.
The $1.00 pot of jasmine tea is very nice for one or two people.
Good strong tea if you come after 5:15 or so. Before that, it is
weak and just like the hot water Gramma used to make.
I use the chop sticks and hope everyone gives it a try.

The early service is very good, and if no one is there,
you will get excellent service. If you are in a hurry,
call ahead for take out. This is a more leisurely style
restaurant and is not all about great, fast service.

The meals are always served hot and we do recommend
the house appetizer, which is usually quite good if
not overdone. Ask for it not overdone. It is especially
good if you are really really hungry and cannot wait
because they usually bring it very quickly.

At the end, the fortune cookies come and the fortune
comes, too. Very standard, but always fun.

Also, we love the music they play, usually a popular
female singer of China, or lovely flute and waterfall
classics.

Food: Cheap Eats; 6.8 Stars
Drinks: No Coffee Hurray! A Ten!
Service: Wonderful. If you are in a hurry, order out from their lovely take out menu. Ask for sauces.
Visual Ambiance: Fair to Middlin’-but do check out the Chinese paintings on the walls.
Music: Perfect, when it is being played.
Friendliness: None Better