I had not been here in almost 15 years, so when the family and I were out looking for someplace different to eat, we decided to give Urbana Garden a try. Since the last time I was here, the outside has been renovated quite a bit, but the inside is almost exactly the same. It appeared to be reasonably clean, but it is very dated looking. They have a HUGE menu, which was a drawing card even 15 years ago when I was last here.
We were there on a Friday night, when they have a AYCE Walleye special (fish, side, soup or 1-trip salad), which is what I ended up getting. There was a small salad bar at the front, but it didn't look too appetizing, so I chose soup. The choices were broccoli cheese or clam chowder. I chose clam chowder, as did one other, and the other two in our party chose broccoli cheese. One of the broccoli cheese soups had a single piece of broccoli in it that -- I am not joking now -- took up more than half the size of the cup. The clam chowder was nearly inedible. It was basically a really bland cream of potato soup that was gritty sludge, and had no clams in it that I could taste at all.
Orders:
- AYCE Walleye special + fries
- Monte Cristo sandwich + fries
- 2x Bacon cheeseburger + fries
The Monte Cristo was not fried crisp at all, which meant the bread was soggy, but the meat in the sandwich tasted good. That's a shame, because the whole point of the Monte Cristo is the toast. The burgers were average at best, and that's about what was expected. The fries were just barely warm all around. The fish was good, but was VERY greasy and I was only able to eat a couple extra pieces on top of the original portion.
I think they would probably be good for big groups, since they have large dining areas that can accomodate multiple tables put together. I just couldn't get past the glaring issues with the soups and food quality issues. Sorry, but we won't be coming back. At that price point, there are too many other better options out there.