Moonraker Restaurant & Lounge
544 W. Beadle Lake RoadWe are so happy the zoo is open for the season again. I sort of wish it was in Kalamazoo, but the drive to Battle Creek isn’t all that bad and L loves Binder Park Zoo.
We were able to take advantage of our membership for the first time this year this past weekend. It was predicted that the weather was going to be kind of crappy, but we figured we could just go for a little bit and if the weather got bad, we could bail. That’s the great thing about the membership. If the trip is a bust, you’re not out $40.
The weather turned out to be better than expected and we stayed for a couple hours. Afterwards, we wanted to grab lunch before heading home to Kalamazoo.
J had actually suggested just going to Buffalo Wild Wings, but I had just eaten there a few days earlier when I was stuck in Norton Shores with a co-worker. I like BW’s, but not enough to eat there twice in a week.
For some reason, I remembered a pub just down the street from Binder Park and pulled up a menu while we were snacking on popcorn after a ride on the Binda Carousel and showed J. She said it looked pretty good and that it was a good option for lunch.
Moonraker Restaurant and Lounge is on Beadle Lake Road just to the north of the I-94 interchange. There are two Moonrakers in Battle Creek…the other being on Columbia and one in Marshall (unsure on the relation to BC shops) that J and I ate at several years ago after we got lost on the way home from Goshen one day.
The restaurant was pretty empty when we walked in around 2:00 on a Sunday. There were a couple of tables of guys getting together for Sunday afternoon drinks.
The bartender saw us come in and followed us to a booth with menus. J and I both ordered right away off their expansive craft beer menu. I ordered a Founders Dirty Bastard while J ordered a Dark Horse Raspberry Ale.
The bartender was pretty quick and J wasn’t quite ready to order when she got back with drinks, so we asked for a few more minutes. In the meantime, L started playing with the crayons that the bartender brought for her and was pretending they were a birthday cake.
A few minutes later, the bartender came back and we were ready. I ordered the Buffalo Kickin’ Burger. The fresh ground burger is topped with buffalo sauce and bleu cheese crumbles. It’s served on a corn dusted bun with french fries on the side. They didn’t ask me how I wanted the burger cooked so it came out pretty medium well. It was still really juicy and the bleu cheese did a good job of dominating the flavor. The hot sauce was there, but it was a subtle background flavor. The only thing that could have made this better was a couple slices of bacon, but otherwise, the sandwich was delicious. I like that they went with bleu cheese crumbles and didn’t try mixing two sauces together. The fries, however, were pretty bland. They didn’t come with any salt and they just didn’t have much flavor. I did something J never sees me do. I grabbed the bottle of mustard on the table and dipped my fries in that.
J and L shared their meals. J started out with the Southwestern Egg Roll appetizer. The egg rolls are made with flour tortillas and stuffed with chicken, spinach, corn, and pepper jack cheese. L picked one up and burned her mouth, so that was all for her. J and I both liked them though and I’m not always a fan of these types of appetizers. The rolls had a little bit of a spiciness to them, but nothing that would burn your taste buds.
The other plate J and L split was the chicken strip basket. The basket came with five chicken strips and fries. L, of course, went right for the fries. We tried to get her to eat a chicken strip and even offered BBQ sauce and ketchup, but she was really interested in the fries…as usual. J ate a couple of the strips and the plan was to take the rest home, but I forgot the to-go box on the table when we left.
Our bill was just under $40 and before long, we were on our way back to Kalamazoo in no time. The Moonraker proved to be a pretty good choice for us. It’s the pub food we love plus a pretty good craft beer list. They do have a kid’s menu, but we chose not to order L anything hope she would eat off our plates, so the joint is pretty family friendly as well.
Dark Horse Raspberry Ale and Founders Dirty Bastard
Buffalo Kickin’ Burger
Southwest Egg Rolls
Chicken Strips Basket
SW Michigan Dining 