We had occasion to eat at two Niles, Michigan restaurants and found both worthy of commmentary. So here goes.
On July 4th, we were heading back from being at Warren Dunes State Park. We decided we would stop in Niles instead of waiting to get all the way to South Bend. We really just wanted something that was open since it was Sunday and 4th of July to boot! We stopped at a little place called "The Nugget." I feel like it was a real find! The service was excellent. The waiter was very attentive to our needs, yet not too yackety. (You know what I mean? Have you ever had a wait staff that you felt like wanted to be your long lost relative by the time the meal was over? Yes, and all you wanted was for them to just shut up so you could enjoy your dinner?) Just by way of contrast, we had recently tried a newer restaurant in Goshen and within 10 minutes of being there, the waitress had Jay so thoroughly annoyed I thought we were going to have to leave. I will save that for another post, though. And only if you tell me you want to know.
The food at the Nugget was very good. The waiter brought out my soup-of-the-day, homemade chicken dumpling soup. As he handed it to me, he said, "I made that fresh this morning." I was getting ready for the requisite chuckle and the "yeah, right". But I looked at his face and saw he was serious. So I stifled. That soup was tremendous. I could have made a meal of the soup alone. Big chunky vegetables in a hearty broth with just the right amount of dumplings. Jay had chosen the salad, which was not as commendable as the soup. (Neither of us are real fans of iceberg lettuce based salad. More on this later.)
Jay had asked about the special of the day, which was a batter fried fish. But the waiter thought Jay might enjoy the cajun tilapia, which turned out to be a great choice. It was lightly hand breaded with cajun seasonings and was broiled rather than fried. I had grilled shrimp, and it was very impressive. Nice and moist, cooked just right and contained a lemon pepper seasoning. I am drooling just thinking about it. We were too full for dessert. Seems like we always are.
The second place we stopped in Niles was on the occasion of our 32 anniversary. While we were eating at the Nugget, we were reading our placemats there, which were cleverly put together by the Chamber of Commerce, I believe. It featured other businesses and restaurants to try in the area. This lead us to our discovery of the Riverfront Cafe. We had seen it on our way into town, but I was in the wrong lane to turn off the main drag to get there, and we didn't want to go back in case it was closed.
Maybe we should have taken the warning from the hostess that the air conditioner was on the blink. It was getting to be evening, though, by the time we got there. I didn't think it would be too uncomfortable, even though it had been pretty hot all day.
We were impressed by the brick interior walls and all the wood trim. It was the kind of restaurant you can dress up a little to go, or come in from a day of shopping and still feel comfortable. The table we sat at had bench seats, you can see us in the picture at the beginning of the blog.
The food was all very good and prices reasonable. I had a chicken portabella with marsala sauce accompanied by garlic mashed potatoes. Jay had a prime rib dinner with baby red roasted potatoes. Before they brought that out to us, though, we had our dinner salads. The salads were of fresh baby greens with crumbled blue cheese and spicy slivered almonds and dried cranberries. I had the house dressing which was a balsamic vinaigrette, Jay had blue cheese. (Or bleu cheese, if you prefer). I ate every bite of it! You may not believe me when I tell you, because I, like my daughter, love bread; but the least desirable item we were served was the cranberry apple walnut bread that accompanied the meal. I guess since I was expecting a nut bread, and it was clearly a yeast bread base, I was a little put off by it. But it doesn't matter. I was very satisfied with the rest of the meal. In fact I was so stuffed that I had to refuse even to split the cute little $2.00 desserts the waitress brought by after we had finished the meal. These were mostly of the cheesecake and mousse variety. They looked splendid! So if you go, be hungry!
The really sad part is that by the time the desserts came, Jay had just about all he could handle of the problem with the air conditioner not working there. The restaurant does have outdoor patio dining, and we could have chosen that. It is very rarely that I like eating on the patio anywhere. I don't like bugs. But there were a couple of flies in the restaurant, too, so...(By the way, I killed those two flies with a rolled up magazine I had picked up in the lobby while we were waiting to be seated.) Hopefully, the air conditioning problem has been fixed.
If you are going through Niles, I could recommend either one of these restaurants. Hope you enjoy your time there!
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