Siam Thai Restaurant for Lunch

Near the corner of King and 32nd St on Henesta in the West End, Dairy Queen around the corner.

We were disappointed yesterday, Monday, when we found them closed. So we went back today, Tuesday and had some good food. Amongst the three Billings Thai restaurants that I have sampled in the last couple of weeks the standouts are this place, Siam Thai Restaurant, and Lemon Grass Thai Restaurant, also in the West End. I'm going to have to check them out a little more. I'm fairly new to Thai cuisine. I like the tastes. 

They give the former Mustard Seed—I liked it much better then than now when it is called Noodle Express—and Sweet Ginger some competition. It's been awhile since we've been to the last, so I will need to check them out too in order to come to a conclusion. Rather than grade them I may have to use the pass/fail system and maybe add a plus or two or a minus or two.

We had some Lunch combos with fried rice, the latter very good—I agree with Jessica—and spring rolls and pork with ginger and vegetables. My daughter remembered that coconut milk soup was often very good, so we had some Tom K(h)a Gai. It was very nice, sweet with ginger and chicken.

Worth going back to.

McCormick's on Montana Ave.

I reviewed this place a few years ago on another blog. As far as I can tell it is still pretty good, especially for breakfast and lunch. Oh, wait a minute, they are only open for breakfast and lunch.

I especially liked their Carlin Angus Burger, although my wife tells me that the Falafel Sandwich is pretty good too.

Lunch at Perkins

This is fairly new to the Perkins menu, a shrimp and spinach salad with bacon with a lovely dipping sauce on the side (you can just make out the spoon on the left). It looked so good I had to dive right in before I thought to get my camera out of my pocket. Shrimp are really more plentiful than they look here. I've had this three times in a row, it is so good. Usually with a cup of soup, just right. Sometimes Carol and I share an order Tangler onions.

UrbanSpoon Says Billings Has 336 Restaurants

And this is supposedly a picture at night with multiple little dots to represent them all. I will wait until next week to see if they increase it to 337 as there is a Sushi place opening on Grand soon.

UrbanSpoon is kind of like Matt Drudge, collecting all sorts of news, only for restaurants. People write reviews of the various restaurants, or they hook up to blog entries. And you can enter your likes and dislikes. I'm not sure it really works in a town the size of Billings, but maybe when they get enough ordinary people to vote on restaurants and write reviews maybe it will be useful, at least for those just passing through. I wonder if they have a category for places that are only open when they are playing baseball at Dehler Park?

Juicy Lucy From The Burger Dive Gets High Score

I didn't see the sign above at The Burger Dive on 27th St, near the corner of 1st Ave and 27th St. This is the logo I borrowed from their presence on Facebook. What I did see is taken from near the sidewalk entrance. See below.

I surfed around on the Net and found some info on the place in Jan Falstad's column from early September of 2010. There are multiple Facebook entries and of course, UrbanSpoon has some reviews and other things.

I was reminded of some burger joints I knew from my earlier days prowling around Milwaukee and Chicago. That would be in the 40s and 50s of the last century.

 Maybe someone should nominate these folks for the 3rd edition of George Motz's Hamburger America. The second edition should be out soon, supposed to add quite a few to the 100 or so places featured in the 1st edition. I visited a few of those, one just south of Denver, another just outside Santa Fe, another in Sacramento, and two in Minneapolis featuring Juicy Lucys. They were all good though Motz seemed to emphasize small and down home sort of places, the kind that makes you wonder how anything so good can come from a place like that.

The place seemed clean and the customers and waitpeople were agreeable; the latter were very helpful. They are only open for lunch during the week, about 10:30 to 3:00 or so. No beer/wine.

The menu featured a lot of special burgers, including the above-mentioned Juicy Lucys: these are two quarter pounders with a decent-sized chunk of American cheese between them. Be careful when you first bite into it as the cheese is very hot and can squirt in an explosive way. Stick your fork or knife in it to let off the pressure. The piece of bacon is optional. The buns were pretty good too, slightly toasted on the insides.

Next time I go I will try the "Blackened Sabbath" Burger even if it alludes to some anti-Christian ideas as bleu—is that the way we spell it now?—cheese, blackened by spices, and topped with bacon are mighty alluring to me.

My picture of the menu didn't come out but it looked like there were some good shakes and malts, as well as things besides burgers, like Nathan's hot dogs. The soups change from day to day. Mine was a nice bacon and potato chowder on Monday.

This is a place worth going back too, especially if your alias is J Wellington Wimpy.

New Restaurant on Grand and 13th

Making a lunch run on Grand and 13th the other day I noticed this sign about two doors down from Quiznos' entrance. The folks sitting in front seemed fairly friendly and said the restaurant was going to open next week. Looks like an interesting menu, though no pictures yet on their website.

Red Rooster Cafe on Broadwater

Not very fancy on the outside, on the corner of Broadwater and 15th, near the American Legion Club, is the Red Rooster Cafe, open since some time in January of this year.

Down home menu, open from 7am to 3pm, breakfast until 11:30am, no beer or wine. Pleasant waittresses. I had a breakfast there this morning and was surprised when that included two good tasting and really good-sized sausage patties. They don't compete on price but they are not expensive either.

I told my wife about it, so we went back for a late lunch. Good creamy chicken and vegetable soup and a very nice 4 cheese grilled sandwich with tomato and bacon. She had some macaroni chili that looked good.

Worth another visit early or late.

Run by nice people for ordinary people. In addition to the usual stuff on the menu they also had a nice supply of jams and jellies, home-made on the premises.

So if you forgot to pick up some at the Farmer's Market this is the place to go.

There is take-out too if you are in a hurry.

New on the Menu at Red Robin

I found this very tasty macaroni and cheese on the menu at Red Robin Restaurant in the newly refurbished West Park Plaza. It needed a little pepper. This gives Enzo's a good run for their money in the Mac & Cheese category. The accompanying salad and bread was pretty good too. And of course, the whole thing was washed down with some excellent Pig's Ass Porter fresh from Belt MT, from Harvest Moon Brewing Company, just outside Great Falls. There are a lot of other good things on the menu. They have some decent wine and beer and they are kid-friendly too. Good for lunch or dinner.

Mamacita's Becomes Cafe DeCamp

The newest restaurant on our feeding frenzy itinerary in Billings was Cafe DeCamp on 6th Ave, very close to the turn off from Main St in the Heights. If you are coming from that direction you need to move over to the left quickly. Actually, since 6th Ave is a one way street headed toward downtown Billings, that is what you need to do anyway.

Most of us foodies remember this place as Mamacita's which used to serve some good Mexican food in a very small place. The space is not any larger but the food has certainly become more diverse. I had some very good soup and some quiche as well while wife Carol had a down home meatloaf sandwich. The potato chips were close to very thin fried potatoes and very good. On pleasant days in the spring, summer, fall and winter they do have some outdoor space in the back. We went for lunch but they are also open for dinner. Beer and wine served.