Tag: fried bologna

Food Review: Minute Club in Mountain View, AR

The Minute Club is a long-awaited new restaurant that took over Mikey’s Smoked Meats and Deli down Hwy 5. I went in to dine solo after a hike one day and was thoroughly impressed. Here’s the breakdown:

ENVIRONMENT

The bright blue of the outside of the newly updated building does set the perfect precedent for the entire atmosphere of Minute Club. Everything is updated, new, clean, and shiny! With a blue and red theme (your drink even comes in a red solo cup), tv’s playing sports all around, and a digital juke box, this place is fun! While there’s plenty of tables to sit at, there’s also a bar. There’s even a nice patio outside for when the weather isn’t freezing.

What stuck out to me most when I arrived, however, was how genuinely friendly the staff is. The waitress was beyond nice and patient with me as I tried to quickly decide on what to order. She let me know her favorites and didn’t rush me in the least. Then, I believe the owner (or manager?) came by a couple times to answer questions, make sure the food was good, and he was just as friendly as could be! I really appreciated everyone being so kind and talkative, especially when I was dining solo.

MENU

While the menu is typical southern food, mostly sandwiches, they have some unique items not found around the area. They have cheese curds, fried mushrooms, beignets, fried oreos, and daily specials. However, they are best known for their many different burgers, which are supposed to be the best in town. Their pizzas look very enticing, as well!

FOOD

The first thing you see when you walk into the restaurant is this full dessert display case full of at least one thing you’ll want to try. I couldn’t decide, so went with the owner’s suggestion of the strawberry pie to go. I know we should talk about dessert last, but we’re already here.

STRAWBERRY PIE- $5

With a graham cracker crust, a sweet and creamy filling topped with perfectly delicious macerated strawberries, this pie was very tasty!

BIG ROG- $12 with hand-cut fries.

This sandwich comes with fried bologna, cheese, bacon, lettuce, and mayo on a hoagie bun. I got mine without the cheese, but added an over-easy egg, which they did not charge for. Yay! Instead of house-cut fries, I opted for the beer-battered onion rings instead for $2. These rings were delicous! Crispy, not greasy. Dang near perfection! I didn’t even need the ketchup they provided.

The sandwich was the star, however. Was it messy and required me to use SIX napkins?? Yes. But that’s okay- any good fried bologna sandwich is a big ole mess to eat. It was sooo good! There’s the right amount of bolonga and all the toppings. The crispy bacon was a delicious addition I had never tried on fried bologna sandwiches before. The egg, though MADE IT! Perfectly cooked egg with nature’s gravy (egg yolk) running throughout the sandwich. I loved it!

The only downfall was the price. I ate all my food and took home a dessert for almost $20, not including tip. This is a little steep for the area, but worth it for a nice meal out.

If you give this place a try, let me know what I should get there next!

Food Review: Best Sandwich Ever? I think so….Heidi’s Ugly Cakes in Norfork, AR.

Update: I have since been to Heidi’s about 4 more times since I wrote this. I am updating and adding what other awesome desserts we have had.

Have you heard of Norfork? Me neither. However, it is about an hour away from  Mountain View, where we were camping this weekend. We went on a day trip to see some places in-between, but the lunch we had at Norfork was the highlight. If you Google food in Norfork, Heidi’s pops up…multiple times. Apparently she has the best reubens around, so clearly I had to stop in. And it was SO worth it! Here’s the breakdown:

Environment

This quaint town is a perfect place for this quaint restaurant….but there’s one problem. It is too far from Maumelle, where I live. But the restaurant is small,  decorated with tons of cute decor I’m sure Heidi picked out herself.

Heidi used to be in a different building, but now she is right in the middle of downtown Norfork, on the main highway. With the pandemic, she added on a very large outdoor eating area, with spaced out tables. She even has an outdoor window for contact-less ordering!

You can still walk in, order, and eat indoors as well. On my last trip (which is probably the 5th time I have visited Heidi’s), dhe let us know that it was “bake sale day” and all baked items were half off. I believe this is every Saturday!

The Menu

As small as this menu seems, it definitely will find a hit with any picky eater. I, personally, find no reason to offer anything other than the two sandwiches we tried…more on that in a minute, but I always find a smaller menu means each of the items are perfected. And they are. Sandwiches is what you will find mostly here, besides a ton of ridiculously luscious desserts.

The Food

Fried Bologna Sandwich with chips; $6.50, comes with whatever toppings you want.

I have had a pretty great fried bologna sandwich with a medium egg at Skinny J’s in Argenta, I would definitely get that again. But this one was even better. Every aspect was perfect. Buttery, toasted bread, thick, griddled bologna, “yolk-y” egg, crisp veggies, perfection! I couldn’t put it down to even try my half of the reuben, it was too good.  Definitely order this!

The Reuben with chips, $6.99

When I made it to the Reuben, with high expectations, it did not disappoint. Even without cheese, it was so juicy and tender and buttery…ugh, I’m drooling now just thinking about it.  It was definitely the best (or tied for the best) Reuben I have had. The only other contender is the Burger Barn in Ozone, AR, though the owner, who has recently passed, was a hard man to deal with…and who knows how their food is now that he isn’t cooking it? Drew agreed this was the best Reuben he has had.

Now where I got in trouble was with these desserts. There was a refrigerator full of cold “ugly” cakes and pies and also a shelf of baked hand-pies. I am not a dessert person. I never order dessert. But they were half off (originally $4.50 a slice…a huge slice) so for this review, I had to. It’s your fault.  Since I couldn’t pick just one, we ordered three.

We tried (and ate for 2 days) the coconut cream cake, the peanut butter pie, and the “holy cow ” cake.

The coconut cream cake was my favorite. It was like a tres leches cake, sooo moist, not too sweet, but utterly decadent. The peanut butter pie was very dense and rich and definitely hit the spot. The “holy cow” cake was chocolate cake with a delicious caramel, topped with a great vanilla icing (again, not too sweet) and butterfinger crumbs. While it was my least favorite, it was still delicious! If you visit Heidi’s, you MUST try a dessert, you won’t be disappointed.

Past Trips Food Report:

I ALWAYS get the fried bologna with an egg. I have decided I like that better than the reuben, so that’s my official favorite sandwich here.
As for desserts, I can’t pick a favorite, but I’m working on trying them all!
One time, this was our line up:

Cinnamon roll, “holy cow” cake, and banana pudding cake.

This was, no doubt, the BEST cinnamon roll I’ve ever had. I don’t like even one bite to be missing out on icing. This one was encrusted (it was fresh earlier that day) in a perfectly large amount of sweet cinnamon-y goodness. The roll is thin, but soft, so you get bites full of bread, cinnamon, and icing. It didn’t even need to be reheated it was so good. I’ll get these everytime!

The holy cow cake was still rich and delicious!

The banana pudding cake is my favorite cake now. It was SO moist! It tasted like the perfect banana pudding mixed with a delicious yellow cake. It blended wonderfully.

On my last trip, we got the coconut cream cake again, the peanut butter pie again, and tried the lemon icebox cake and the amaretto carrot cake.

The peanut butter pie cake was still super rich and tasty. The coconut cake was a little drier than previously. I think I’ll stick to corner pieces from now on. The amaretto carrot cake- wow! I have never liked carrot cake, but this was a dense, moist, flavor bomb. Delicious! The amaretto paired perfectly with the spices in the cake. I’ll have to make a carrot cake with almond extract to replicate this! The lemon icebox cake was exactly what you’d expect, in a good. Sour, moist, and very light!

Overall, I will drive here if I am ever within an hour again. It was the highlight of my weekend and Heidi was the best. While the reuben was amazing, I am longing more for that fried bologna sandwich, so I’ll probably never try anything else.

Those of you close to me know that I have been dieting all year and this may seem like I “fell off the wagon”. Don’t worry, I didn’t. I jumped off the wagon! And it was worth it.