Doc Pierce's Restaurant

I am going to begin by asking you not to judge the amount of fried food you are going to see in this post! And now that we have that out of the way, I am going to tell you about some of the best onion rings I have found, thus beginning the talk of fried food! Doc Pierce's Restaurant has onion rings that are huge, and I'm not just talking kind of huge, I'm talking "I can wear this as a bracelet" huge, and the batter on them is just perfectly seasoned and crispy. We also ordered fried mushrooms, and all I have to say is "wow!" I truly have never seen mushrooms this big, let alone fried mushrooms, which, like the onion rings, were coated in a delicious, crispy batter.

 While the menu at Doc Pierce's is widely varied with steak, seafood, sandwiches, salads, and soups, I chose Doc's Double Dose, which is a plate of gulf shrimp and sirloin steak tips coated in their delicious batter and fried (Remember when I asked you not to judge? This is that point!). The gulf shrimp were delicious, they were big and sweet, and tasted just like the shrimp we would get from South Carolina when my brother was stationed there, you just don't often get shrimp like this in a state not on the ocean, especially Indiana. The fried steak was a new experience, and actually quite delicious, the batter on the steak got a little soggy on the bottom, but for the most part was still crispy and tasty. I also had a salad alongside my steak and shrimp, and while it was just an average, iceberg lettuce salad it was kicked up a notch with their croutons, which I am fairly certain were housemade, and very delicious.

My hubby and mother in law both had burgers; Hubby's was a traditional cheese burger with provolone and sauteed mushrooms and his momma got the black and bleu burger. Both liked their burgers, but felt that the actual hamburger could have used some seasoning to enhance it.

The atmosphere in Doc Pierce's Restaurant is a little dark, but gets a unique feel from the many stained glass windows and Tiffany lamps. Next time you are in the mood for good, comfort food head to downtown Mishawaka and enjoy a tasty meal at Doc Pierce's Restaurant.

Temper Grille

If you have never eaten tapas, you should, there is just something about a meal that includes small plates that you get to share, tasting a little of this and a little of that, for someone who prefers to "graze," it really is a dream meal. What is also a dream, is the food coming out of Chef Sean's kitchen at Temper Grille! The menu has a wide array of tapas with meat, seafood, and cheese plus delicious salads, soups, and veggies to eat alongside your small plates. We opted to share several small plates and each got a side dish/veggie, we started our meal with the steak bites, which were recommended by a friend, and were delicious! We got a plate of perfectly, medium rare bite size pieces of steak covered in a tasty remoulade sauce with pita wedges on the side, the steak was a little spicy for me (which means people without a completely wimpy palette will find these perfectly spiced), but with the pita bread to take some of the heat I was still able to nosh on these yummy bites.

What you should know about tapas, is that you will not get your food all at once, it will come out as the kitchen finishes cooking it, which, again, grazers dream come true! The next dish to come out was my creamed corn, which was described to be as "life changing," and frankly it definitely was a game changer in the veggie arena. I know some of you are turning your nose up at creamed corn, but this corn starts in a hot skillet with salt, pepper, and sugar to get it caramelized and then continues to cook in heavy cream as it reduces down to make this delicious sweet sauce, and then is finished with a red pepper sauce, it truly is a scrumptious and inventive way to serve up a side dish once only eaten in nursing homes.

Next my hubby's mac and cheese came out, he opted to eat it plain, but you can order it with pork belly, lobster knuckle meat, roasted peppers, and one other option we don't remember. He really liked the cavatappi pasta used in this dish, his only qualm was that the cheese sauce was in the bottom of the dish instead of coating all of the pasta, but he said it was a good and admitted that this is a popular way to make this dish.

The next dish that came out was one that we ordered without dispute, the pork belly, tasty, tasty morsels of the best part of the pig, smoked to perfection. If you have never tried pork belly, and I'm not just talking about bacon, you should know that it tends to be a little salty, and very rich, but when cooked properly, and it was, it is truly a food experience that you should have at least once in your life.

Our final dish to come out was the ceviche tostada, I wish I had a picture for you because this dish is as beautiful as it is delicious, but when it came out we started chatting with the chef and I forgot to snap a pic. If you like seafood and salsa, this is the perfect dish for you, it is very light and refreshing and was an ideal ending to our meal, well that and my hubby getting the chance to check out the chef's smoker. Temper Grille is a unique food experience and one you should definitely have!