Toby Kieth's I Love This Bar & Grill

My best friend Karen wanted to go and check out the new Toby Kieth's I Love This Bar & Grill on the night before the 4th of July. After enjoying having the day off from work, shopping and going to the movies, I thought that it sounded like a good idea too. So I planned to meet Karen and her husband Kyle at the restaurant at 7:30 that night. My sister, Laura decided to come along too, so off we went to Mesa to check it out. Laura and I had actually been to one of his other locations in the Harrah's Casino in Las Vegas about two years ago, I didn't really remember much about it other than they served you your drinks in a mason jar, so I was looking forward to our adventure.

First of all, for those that aren't familiar with the shopping center, it is kind of difficult to find, and the signage isn't very good, but we eventually found it. My first thought when we were walking up to the restaurant was, "Where are all the people?" It is located right near a movie theatre with other restaurants, and it was a Friday night, so I thought that the area should have been busier. But we saw only about three or four people wandering around...maybe due to the holiday weekend? Upon entering the restaurant, we discovered where all the people were, they were at Toby Kieth's! We were told the wait would only be about 10 minutes, and I think it actually turned out to be less. The restaurant is huge, it has tons of tables and the biggest bar I have ever seen in my life situated right in the center of the restaurant. On one of the far sides is a stage, while the other side is comprised of just tables. We were lucky enough to score a booth (my first choice always) which turned out to be good, since it did give a bit of a sound barrier, because it was quite loud with the number of people and the music all mixed together.

As expected, the menu consisted of mostly down home country favorites, along with sandwiches and burgers. There were a few unusual items on the menu, and we just knew that we had to try a few of them out. After the waiter took our drink orders, he brought us out some warm cornbread with honey butter on the side to munch on while we decided on our meals. This was really good cornbread, set apart by the amazing honey butter! It had just the right amount of sweet and was room temperature so it spread easily (I just hate when they give you cold butter)! It was a good start to our meal.

We weren't quite sure if we really should get an appetizer, but once we say the Toby's Fried Macaroni and Cheese Balls on the menu, we just knew that we had to try them! None of us had ever had anything like this before, and as macaroni and cheese lovers, we figured we should give it a shot. Not knowing quite what to expect, we were intrigued by the three baseball sized balls that showed up at our table. We cut into one of the balls, and dipped it into the ranch dressing that was served on the side, and oh my, these were good!! For being fried and full of cheese, they were surprisingly not greasy at all. They just had a nice crisp coating to hold everything together, and the flavor of the cheese sauce was not overpowering at all. We all were very pleasantly surprised with our fondness for these, and were glad that we tried them out.

Since we were in a country themed restaurant, I thought that I would stick to the theme and order some good ole home cooking. Ever since I have eaten the chicken fried steak at Ranch House Grille, I have become addicted to it! At Ranch House Grille I order it for breakfast, so I thought I would change it up and order it for dinner on this night! It came with mashed potatoes and gravy, and then my choice of two additional sides. I questioned the waiter on this, thinking that the mashed potatoes counted for one of them, but nope, I got two more choices. Even though we had the macaroni and cheese balls, I still opted for yet more macaroni and cheese, and then of course, the baked beans! The plate looked promising when it was set in front of me, it was a ton of food! There were two portions of chicken fried steak covered in the creamy, white gravy. I took my first bite, and was immediately disappointed. The gravy had a nice flavor, but the steak was overcooked, making it tough. I also found the coating to be odd, it was not very flavorful at all, and didn't add anything to the overall dish. I guess I shouldn't have set my expectations so high, because Ranch House Grille's is just that good! The potatoes were your standard mashed potatoes, the macaroni and cheese seemed to be different than the one used in the balls. It had a spicy element to it, I liked it, but it sure wasn't what I was expecting. The beans were pretty good, not the best baked beans ever, but a decent attempt. After just a few bites of the steak, I decided that it was best to just save room for dessert!

My sister loves a good sandwich, in fact, if you ask her what her favorite food is, I am pretty sure the answer will be a "sandwich." She pretty much likes all different kinds of sandwiches and goes through different phases at different times. When she saw the Turkey Melt on the menu, she was instantly sold. It included some of her all-time favorite ingredients, all rolled into one sandwich; turkey, cheddar cheese, bacon and honey mustard, all melted on sourdough bread. She loves honey mustard, and is always drawn to any item where she can get her fix. She took a bite of the sandwich and thought that it was tasty, it included plenty of meat and cheese, but couldn't really taste the honey mustard. She was a bit disappointed in the lack of honey mustard since that was one of the main selling points for her; but ultimately she was hungry and decided to just eat it rather than ask the waiter to bring her some more. She liked the fries as well, but didn't think they were anything special, but did like the ranch dressing that came on the side. A good ranch dressing is sometimes hard to come by, and theirs did pass the test.

Kyle was in the mood for a burger, and Toby Kieth's had 10 different ones to choose from. He couldn't quite decide on which one he wanted to try, so he asked the waiter for his opinion, he told him to go with the 4 x 4 Big Bacon & Cheeseburger, so that is what he did. He asked for it to be cooked medium rare. Well, when it came out, it was served medium-well, it even had the little stick that said so sticking out of it! It wasn't our waiter who brought the food, but a food runner; which I do find to be annoying sometimes, especially when things aren't right. But, like Laura, Kyle opted to just eat it rather than send it back. Overall, he did like the flavor, I mean what is not to like about a burger that has 4 slices of bacon and 4 slices of cheddar cheese!

Karen had a really hard time deciding what to order, and asked to order last as a result of it. She finally settled on T.K's "Diablo" Chile Chicken Sandwich. It was a grilled chicken breast, with hatch green chiles, Swiss cheese and bacon on a kaiser roll. I don't think she read the description on the menu, because after her first bite she was like, "This is so spicy!" I said well you ordered a chicken chile sandwich, she kept insisting that the menu didn't say anything about chiles, to which we all disagreed with! She said she like all the flavors, but it was just a bit too hot for her. I guess sometimes when you are flustered when you order you don't always know what you are going to end up with! Good thing it came with a slice of pickle, not only does she love pickles, but it helped to cool down her burning mouth!

We were having a nice time hanging out, and then a band got up on the stage and started playing so we decided to hang around for a bit longer. I was glad, because then there was time to have dessert! The waiter told us that they had a special that night, Strawberry Shortcakes, sounded good to us, so we decided to try it as one of our desserts. When it came out, we were all a bit confused, it sure didn't look like any strawberry shortcake that we had ever had. When I think of shortcake, I either think of those little sponge shells you can buy in the produce section or homemade biscuit shortcakes. This was basically just a slice of cake, that had some strawberry and cream fillings. It was very boring, and we could tell that they didn't even make it fresh in house because it was still frozen in the middle! Two thumbs down on the shortcake!

Luckily, we had ordered a second dessert as well, Deep Fried Twinkies!!! Now, I really had to push the group to go with me on this one, they all declared that they didn't like Twinkies, and I must admit I am not really a fan myself, but most anything is good fried! Let me just say, these were delicious! The outside got crispy and crunchy, then came the creamy filling. They were served with a strawberry sauce and whipped cream on top. Once I convinced everyone to try it, they all decided that I had made a good choice!

So I don't think I would make a special effort to go back to Toby Kieth's for the food, but it is a fun atmosphere and would be good for a large group. I also think it would be a good place to go and just hang out and listen to the music. I do have to say, I was a bit disappointed that they didn't give me my drink in a mason jar, it seems that at this location they only serve the beer in mason jars....how rude!

Toby Kieth's I Love This Bar & Grill

1065 N. Dobson Rd.

Mesa, AZ 85201
www.tobykiethusa.com