Red Robin (Portage)
5710 S. Westnedge AvenueI’m not much of a chain restaurant person but my parents, on the other hand, really are.
They were in town last weekend for the kids’ synchronized skating competition at Wings Event Center. L’s team competed on Saturday. B’s competed on Sunday.
L’s team is a little more advanced than B’s and they do more than just compete. They also had a judge’s critique after the competition which means they had to stick around for a few more hours. I didn’t see a reason to make my parents there and watch team that didn’t have her grandkids on them so I suggested we take B and just go eat somewhere.
If there’s some place I want to eat, I will usually tell them that’s where we’re going. There really isn’t any place I could think of that I knew they would like so I threw out a couple of chain restaurants knowing that is always easy and they’ll be happy with the meal.
There have been a lot of new restaurants come in to the main shopping areas by my parents since I left town over 20 years ago. But there’s one that my mom really likes that still hasn’t opened a restaurant by them.
Red Robin’s Portage location is on South Westnedge Avenue south of the I-94 interchange and near Idaho Street. The restaurant shares a parking lot with Carrabba’s Italian Grill and can be accessed either from Westnedge or Idaho.
We’ve eaten at Red Robin several times with my parents over the last fifteen years but the last time I wrote a blog about the place was in October of 2009 not long after we moved here. It was one of the first I wrote for this blog after moving over from Lansing.
The restaurant is pretty typical for a chain restaurant. There’s a host stand right inside the door and a large dining room behind it. Most of the table have either a bench seat on one side or are full on booths. There’s a lot of bright colors and a lot of red throughout the decor. Neon lights and large prints make up most of the wall decor.
The hostess took us to a table with bench seating on one side and chairs on the other. We grabbed the menus right away as we ordered drinks. I didn’t really need a beer so I stuck to Coke while my parents just ordered water.
B, on the other hand, went a little fancier and got the Oreo Cookie Magic Milkshake. I told him to go slow because he’d need it once he got his food……but you know he didn’t listen….how could he? The thing looked delicious.. He went through it pretty fast and I made him ask for a water to drink with his meal when the waitress came back.
My mom wanted to order fried pickles but I’m not usually a huge fan of fried pickles. I told her to do it if she wanted it and I would eat some. I was actually kind of surprised by these fried pickles because they were good. They weren’t too thick. The breading didn’t fall off in one bite. They came with a “Campfire Mayo” to dip them in. It’s a combination of mayo and BBQ sauce with some hot sauce thrown in for good measure.
I don’t really have a “go-to” burger when it comes to Red Robin. They all taste pretty much the same so it just depends on how I’m feeling that day.
On this particular day, I was feeling like I wanted spicy so I ordered the Scorpion burger. This sandwich is topped with pepper jack cheese, fried jalapenos, Scorpion sauce, pickles, hot rings, lettuce, tomato, and a roasted garlic aioli. This burger ended up looking nothing like the picture and it had caramelized onions. Luckily I noticed that before I took a bite and was able to get them off. The sandwich didn’t really have any heat to it either. It was a pretty standard Red Robin burger. Good. Not great. And it was pretty filling. I was just hoping for some heat.
The cool thing about Red Robin is that you get bottomless fries when you order a sandwich. The fries are steak fries that are covered with their own seasoning salt….which they also have on the table if there isn’t enough on these fries. I love that they have bottomless fries but I almost never ask for more. I typically end up eating one of the kids’ leftovers and that’s what I did on this day with B’s so I just had the fries that came with my meal.
B chose the Grilled Cheese with fries for his meal. Guess what? He wasn’t really hungry after drinking that milkshake and eating all the popcorn he did at the arena before we went to lunch. The Grilled Cheese is pretty standard grilled cheese. I got him to eat half then I ate the other half and what was left of his fries.
The bill for our four meals was right around $65 before tip. Really not bad considering we got an appetizer and B got a milkshake. I didn’t get a beer so that helped keep the price down some.
Red Robin is one of those places that you always know what you’re going to get. It’s a pretty standard burger, not super exciting but it’s the way the burger is topped that makes them unique. Red Robin is always a safe bet with my family and it was this day too. We all got some food before heading to the mall to do a little Christmas shopping like it’s 1994.
SW Michigan Dining 