The title (Mainstreet Pub) has nothing to do with Bob Seger, but a restaurant in Allendale Michigan where I have had lunch with my daughter Samantha when I am in town visiting her at school. I did not know that this is part of a restaurant chain. Normally, if you follow our blog you know I usually try to avoid chain restaurants, especially when I am out with my wife, however, my daughter suggested this place so we went there.
The place was busy at lunch time which is always a good sign and we didn’t have to wait to be seated, another bonus. The server came over and my daughter knew the young lady from her school and the two chatted a bit before she took our drink order. Samantha ordered a flavored lemonade and I ordered a Perrin Black Ale. Now one thing about Western Michigan, is that there are a ton of local breweries located there, Perrin, Founders, Bells, just to name a few. I always like it when local establishments showcase the products of the area. The beer was black not a thick creamy black like Guinness but a thinner black color. The beer was cold delicious and not at all heavy and went down quickly.
The affable server whose name I cannot remember (my apologies) came back and took our order. Sam ordered the pretzel bites as an appetizer and a pub burger with fries. I ordered the Cuatro burger. The pub burger is just an 8oz burger with lettuce, tomato and onion. Sam ordered American cheese on it as well. The Cuatro burger is an 8oz burger that had pepper jack cheese, chipotle mayo, lettuce, pico de gallo and jalapeno haystacks on it. This also came with fries as well.
The pretzel bites were bountiful, eighteen in all. Sam loved them and as suspected, she made that most of her lunch and ended up taking the burger home. Strictly speaking, the bites were good but nothing more than a frozen food product you could buy at Costco or GFS. The pretzels were not homemade but never the less Sam loved them. My burger was good but not great. I am finding it hard to find any place that can blow me away with their burgers. The Mexican touches on my burger worked very well even the Chipotle mayo which I normally do not like.
Overall, Mainstreet Pub is a place that could be a lot of fun for a group of college age kids to come in and unwind after classes and especially on the weekends and put away a pint or two of local beer and some decent but hardly fancy gourmet food. But I guess that is the point of this place, sit back relax and have a few laughs. And since they don’t pretend to be anything else, the place works just fine for me.