Panera

Panera is one of my go-to spots for comfort food. I went to the one on Rt. 26 by Giant around dinner time so it was a little busy.

When I first walked in, there was a line so I had to wait for 5 minutes or so. I was trying to decide what to get and I noticed they added pasta to their menu. They added three different kinds: tortellini alfredo, rustic penne bolognese, and pesto sachettini. I ordered the "Pick Two" deal and got a small bowl of tortellini alfredo and a small bowl of broccoli cheddar soup with a baguette on the side. I took my order from one of the annoying cashiers, paid for my meal, and went to wait on the other side of the restaurant to pick up my food.

I waited for another 5 minutes and got my food and sat down. The tortellini alfredo was actually pretty good, but a little on the salty side. I like my food salty, but if it was too salty for me, then it must have been really salty for an average person eating it. The soup was really good because it was nice and hot and it was not too watery or too thick. Dipping the baguette in the soup is one of the best ways to eat their soup and that's exactly what I did!

Panera is definitely one of the best places to grab a quick meal. The food tastes good every time, but sometimes the baguettes are too cold and hard. I would not recommend getting their Caesar salads though because their dressing tastes like seafood to me, weird, but true! The food can be rather expensive, but I can't seem to find another place to go to for quick comfort food. Other than that, I would recommend going to Panera.

Buffalo Wild Wings

I went to Buffalo Wild Wings in Urbana this past weekend and it was quite memorable. First off, I went during the UFC Fight so I was expecting the same lousy service I usually get at this place. The service turned out to be the best service I have ever received from any restaurant.

UFC nights are always busy at BWW. There was probably about a five minute wait and we asked for a booth, but we ended up sitting at a table. Not such a big deal, but it kind of confused the host because two different hosts were trying to help our table of five and one host thought there were four people in our group. I just thought it showed some type of miscommunication, but I was not upset. We sat down after putting two tables together and were greeted by our server, John.

When we ordered our food, John was very tentative to our requests. While we waited for our food, we asked if we could play the fight on the big projector screen and about two minutes later, it popped up on the big screen. The food took a while, but it's understandable because of how busy it was. Our food food came out just like how we ordered it and we were even being annoying and asked for ranch, southwest ranch, and salsa after they brought out the food and they were happy to get them for us.

While we were eating, John came back to check on our table every 10 minutes or so. He was very nice and told us to take our time. He did not seem like he tried to rush us or anything. We were there for about three and a half hours and not one time was he rude or forgot about us. The quality of the food was good. It could have been better, but I don't think you can expect much from Buffalo Wild Wings. I ordered "The Sampler," which consists of some nachos, onion rings, mozzarella sticks, but substituted for french fries, and wings (pictured above).

Overall, the service was spectacular. Even when John gave us our checks, he still told us to just ask him if we needed anything. After he took our checks, he said the same thing again. He told us we can stay as long as we wanted to watch the fight until it was over and he would still come over to check on us. The food was good, it filled me up and it was putting me to sleep especially being there around midnight. I would go back to Buffalo Wild Wings if John was my server again! He definitely knows how to treat his customers right, which will definitely bring back business.