Greg’s Gourmet
6650 S. Westnedge Avenue, Suite 129It’s my favorite time of the year again. The time of the year I’m guaranteed some overtime every week.
It’s a thing that happens every fall. I spend all summer really needing the overtime due to our figure skating travels but there just isn’t much overtime available.
Fall is different though. As the world returns to somewhat normal and the kids are back in school, I start to get more overtime opportunity.
It started last week on Thursday night. I did my normal shift then had a shift that started in Portage in the evening.
I always try to get something to eat between my regular shift and my normal shift. I had time to do so and since I was heading to Portage, I was able to cross another restaurant off my list.
I put in an order at Greg’s Gourmet inside the Crossroads Mall on South Westnedge Avenue and JL Hudson Drive. The restaurant is not part of the food court but rather right inside the main entrance between JC Penny and Macy’s. You can park right in front of the entrance like you’re going to shop and you’ll run right in this new spot for Greg’s Gourmet.
Greg’s Gourmet is right inside the entrance to the mall across from VO’s Coffee and right next to Chico’s. The space has been empty for a while. It used to be an Olga’s Kitchen but that closed in 2019. For the longest time, there were signs advertising that Taqueria El Tejano was going to open up there but that never happened. They instead opened a restaurant in Three Rivers. Greg’s Gourmet decided to take the space instead. They closed the restaurant on Riverview Drive and after a longer than expected process, opened up in The Crossroads Mall in May of this year.
The old location on Riverview Drive was a carry-out location but I didn’t know how this one was going to work. Is it counter service? Is it a full service sit down restaurant? I took the easy way out and just ordered online. That way I didn’t have to figure it out when I got there.
Greg’s Gourmet has a pretty diverse menu and a lot of things you can’t get at other restaurants in town. I’m really boring though and I just wanted a burger. It’s what I ordered last time I ate at Greg’s Gourmet Dishes on Riverview Drive and remember thinking the burger was interesting. The menu online can be a little overwhelming so I took the easy way out and just searched for a burger using the search function. It brought up an option for the Barnyard Burger with a fried egg, bacon, and jam. That sounded delicious so I ordered it. A few minutes later, I get a phone call from the restaurant. They said I shouldn’t have been able to order that because it’s only available at breakfast. The owner wasn’t in so they didn’t have a way to cancel the order so I just told them to give me the Supreme Burger Basket instead. There was a $2 difference in price and they didn’t have any suggestion on giving me that $2 back so I told them just throw in a drink and I’ll call it close enough.
I put the order in while I was still downtown at work. I had about a twenty minute drive to the mall and that was the timeframe I was given for the order to be ready.
This space is such a massive upgrade for the restaurant. Like I figured, they’re more of a sit down full service restaurant now. The space isn’t very big but there are a number of different seating options in two different dining rooms. The dining room closest to the entrance is more casual with tables. The dining room a little bit further in has more booth seating and is a little more intimate. I was only in Olga’s once a long time ago and I really have no memory of what that place looked like before it closed down.
Right to your left when you walk in is a pick up counter. There are cash registers there so I assume you could place an order to go that way. It took a few minutes for someone in the kitchen to see me standing there but once they did, they assumed I was the pick up order and brought out a bag of food then asked me what I wanted to drink.
As soon as I got back to the car, I started in with the fries. My eyes lit up when I opened up the box. If you’ve read my blog posts about Italian beef places in Chicago, you know I like my fries a certain way. I don’t know if it’s intentional but these fries are exactly what I want to see any time I walk in to a beef place in Chicago. They’re fresh cut, really dark on the outside but still kind of limp in the middle. They’re a little on the greasy fine which is fine with me. These kind of fries are soooooo different from just opening up a bag and tossing them in the fryer. I absolutely love this style of fry and I was super disappointed when I finished them. I wanted more.
The Supreme Burger is a six oz beef patty topped with cheese, lettuce, pickles, onion, tomato, and Supreme Sauce. The sandwich just looks like a gourmet burger as soon as you open the box. It’s served on a fresh bun with sea salt and parsley on top as a garnish. The burger patty is juicy and flavorful on it’s own but there’s actually quite a compliment to it when you bite through portions of the bun that has the salt on top. The Supreme sauce seemed to be some kind of spicy mayo but I couldn’t place the flavors. It was fine but I’m not a big sauce guy. I like burgers that do the basics well and this one actually does. Every layer of it was tasty.
The cost of my meal was a little over $18.
I liked Greg’s Gourmet Dishes when it was on Riverview Drive. I had burgers there a few times and I think I even got chicken once. This new restaurant in Portage delivers on all the flavor the old restaurant did. It’s just in a location with a little more foot traffic. They have a menu unlike pretty much anywhere in the city which makes Greg’s Gourmet a place you have to consider when you want something other than bar food.
SW Michigan Dining 