Bull’s Head Tavern
188 Monroe Avenue NWAfter settling in to our hotel in Grand Rapids, we headed out for a walk. I knew there was a tavern across the street from the Amway Grand that had a pretty good-looking dinner menu, so that’s where we headed.
The Bull’s Head Tavern is on Monroe Avenue north of Pearl Street in downtown Grand Rapids. Right outside, there is a small outdoor patio area, but it was still a little too cold and no one was taking advantage of it.
The inside space is divided into two distinct areas. Downstairs is the bar and smoking area (for a few more weeks anyway). There are a few rows of tables squeezed in this narrow space that is dimly lit with hanging fixtures. On the walls are several animal heads and skulls.
There’s a stairway in the back corner that leads up to the non-smoking area. This area is somewhat secluded from the downstairs dining room but not totally. In this area, there are booths and freestanding tables that fill the area.
We were taken to a booth along the wall farthest from the stairs. Already on the table were a couple of wine glasses, cloth napkin wrapped silverware and another napkin laid out in a diamond shape in the middle of the table serving as a table-cloth.
We were left with menus, but not a drink menu, so when the waitress came over, J asked for the wine list. She ended up going with a White Wine from a Traverse City winery and I ordered a Budweiser. The wine list was only a wine list and not a drink menu, so I didn’t really know what else they had on tap.
After we got our drinks, a basket with two rolls were brought out. We split them and used the whipped butter that came in the tray. We were both really hungry by this point, so it was a good holdover until our sandwiches came out.
I ordered yet another burger. My selection this time was the Buffalo Bacon Blue Cheese Burger. Instead of ground beef, the patty is a 1/3 lb Buffalo burger topped with smoked bacon and crumbled blue cheese. I had the burger cooked to medium which is about as far as I would want to go with Buffalo meat. The patty still came out pretty juicy and it was topped with a huge mound of blue cheese. The bacon was a little chewy, but somehow still a little crispy too. It was a really well put together burger that packed a lot of flavor.
The sandwich came with home-made potato chips which were amazing. I love home-made chips and was not at all disappointed that it came with chips instead of fries. The individual chips were all pretty small and curled over fry the frying, but there was a large pile of them on the plate. For a while, I forgot I even had a burger. I completely ignored it and went straight for the chips.
J ordered the Southwestern Chicken Salad Wrap. She didn’t read the menu quite right thinking it was going to be warm wrap, but instead, it was a cold chicken salad. The diced chicken was mixed with a Southwestern black bean and corn mix then bound together with a chipotle mayo. The chicken mixture is then wrapped in a tomato tortilla with lettuce, tomato and Colby Jack cheese. While it wasn’t exactly what she thought she was ordering, she still said it tasted really good even though it wasn’t visually appealing. She wasn’t a huge fan of the wrap and ended up using the tortilla chips that came with the sandwich instead of the wrap. She just opened up the wrap and treated the chicken salad as a dip. The chips also came with a salsa which she said was delicious. It was hard to choose between using the chips for the chicken or the salsa.
With the two drinks, our bill was a little over $25. Since we beat the dinner rush, our meals came out really fast. I think this was another meal where we didn’t spend much more than a half hour in the restaurant. The fortunate thing was our timing. I’m not exactly sure what was being set up next to us, but it didn’t look good. There were four tables pushed together and two women setting up party favors. I don’t know if it was a birthday or a bachelorette party, but either way, it probably wasn’t going to be a pleasant dining experience for anyone else in the upstairs section. We got out of there before we could find out.
The Bull’s Head Tavern turned out to be a good stop. I really like the layout of the place and they have some good menu choices. You can go with sandwiches like we did, but they also have a good variety of entrée dishes if you want to make it more of a special night out.
Dinner Rolls w/Whipped Butter
Buffalo Bacon Blue Cheese Burger w/Home-Made Chips
Southwestern Chicken Salad Wrap
SW Michigan Dining 