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| - More like 2 1/2 stars for the price
A few years back whenever I was in town I'd have at least one meal at Harper's in South Park. The place always feels extremely comfortable to me, it's like home away from home. The right amount of brick and wood, the right amount of bustle and noise, lively but not raucous. The service is the way I like it efficient but not obtrusive. The American comfort food was of good quality and well worth the price.
Flash forward to now, the tasty grilled Portobello sandwich is gone. The smallish 11 oz prime rib is $20 and comes with only one side. Keep in mind that prime rib is ALWAYS very fatty, I trim about 1/3 rd of it. What was left was less than 1/2 pound. Worse is that I asked for the fried sweet potato and it's now the frozen, pre-seasoned fast food type where it used to be simply real potato.
The prime rib was as rare as I asked but -as it's often the case- the chef had rubbed way too much salt on the slab before cooking it and there's no desalting it. Most people do like it prepared that way but what about those who don't or who have to cut their sodium intake?
It's way too obvious that it's a franchise and management cuts way too many corners for the prices they charge. Physically it's still the same location but the food is like Orlando, FL.
Then I think about the Texas Roadhouse. I hate that type of theme restaurants with peanuts, overly cheery (and overly young) servers ... but know what? For those same $20 I got a large 16 oz prime rib every bit as good or better as Harper's, a couple of decent sides ( the sweet potato was baked but it was a fresh potato) they threw free appetizers at me and we drank five buck Margaritas or Martinis.
So the place is messy, full of kids and has no class but the economy is tough these days. For my money I'll get my beef (or smoked pork chops) there instead of Harper's. Wow, I would have never "thunk" this
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