To celebrate a co-worker’s birthday my company, the whole lot of us, went to lunch Jim Brady’s in Royal Oak to celebrate. The restaurant accommodated the large (25) person group we had, and had a table waiting and set for us. The waitstaff was friendly and efficient.
Jim Brady’s has a whole section on their menu allocated just for “tots”. Well, they say “awesome tots”. We of course had to try some as an appetizer. The Ochos Totchos Tots, which were crispy tots loaded with Chipotle chicken, melted cheese sauce, Jalapeños, fresh Pico and cilantro sour cream were amazing. I wish in hindsight, I just ordered a big gooey plate of just these for my entree. Sharing with the group I got a mere tasting. Good for my waist, but not so good for satisfying my calorie overload needs.
We also ordered naked tots (how controversial). Which came as standard tots. Crispy and hot but not unusual. They did come however with some fun dipping sauces, including Spicy Buffalo – Buffalo sauce made with Franks Red Hot and butter, Choco-Tella – A combination of Nutella and chili spices, McClure’s Bloody Mary Ranch –Ranch infused with McClure’s Bloody Mary Mix, Maple-Sriracha – Maple syrup and Sriracha sauce, Rockin’ Rye BBQ –Jim Brady’s own recipe which includes Faygo Rockin’ Rye pop and lastly the Maple Bourban sauce, which literally tasted like a doughnut glaze, making your tot more of a desert than appetizer.
I decided I would behave myself and order a salad. I chose the Baby Kale with Grilled Salmon salad, which came with Delicate Baby Kale, Grilled Atlantic Salmon, Avocado, Grapefruit, Watermelon Radishes, Candied Walnuts, Feta Cheese, and Lemon Vinaigrette. I find salads that have ingredients like spinach or baby kale difficult to eat with the long stems that always accompany the leaves. I feel like I am constantly trying to look cool, yet cramming what looks like green worms into my mouth, but I digress.
The salad was disappointingly boring. I had high hopes for the myriad of interesting ingredients. The salmon was fishy to start, which tainted the salad from the start. Combine that with the difficulty in looking classy while trying to cram the leaves in your mouth, which really after a while just makes me angry. LOL. Add the weird bitterness of the kale, along with grapefruit, which in hindsight is not a good fruit for a savory salad and the need to hunt for the few candied walnuts that were there, made the meal quite a let down. The salad was under dressed, with a benign and understated lemon vinaigrette. That’s what I get, when I choose to eat healthy. Sometimes a salad can be a home run, but in this case was strikeout. The picture I have put in this blog is from the website, and resembled my salad if you took the salmon portion and cut it in half. More greens, less protein.
Other people ordered Cesar Salad, which was plentiful but I don’t think anything to write home about since most did not opt for carryout boxes. I think I ate at the healthy table, because we all got salads, while other tables partook of burgers, and sandwiches.
The highlight of the meal was when my co-worker Liz and I split a scoop of the Nutella-Chocolate ice cream. It was gooey and creamy, and far too large for one person so it was good we split it.
The ambiance of the restaurant pays homage to the original location at 7 Mile and Greenfield. The entire place has an eclectic retro mafioso speakeasy feel. They boast craft beers from local breweries, including ROAK and Michigan products like Faygo, Bettermade and Vernors. They also have live music weekend nights.
Due to the ambiance, friendliness of the staff and amazing Ochos Totchos tots I would go back. I would try a different dish, but probably would return.