Ted's Montana Grill

[mdt]

Stopped into Ted's Montana Grill today for lunch since it is close to where I am now working. It is near the Hoffman 22 theaters on Eisenhower Ave. in Alexandria. Large place that was packed to the gills when I arrived at around 12:15p. After a short wait we were seated and started to review the rather large menu. Normal items for this type of place, chicken, burgers, steaks, meatloaf, pot roast, salads, soups, etc. Our server told us that every item is made fresh. All the beef items come with an option to get bison instead, which inreases the price by a couple or so dollars.

I had a burger for lunch and it was very crumbly (seemed liked the meat was ground to finely) which made it hard to eat. The fries were crisp and tasty. Overall average, but not bad for the location.

One interesting thing about the wine list on of about 10 different bottles of red they sell is Opus One for $185 (or pretty close to that). Very odd choice if you ask me. I wonder how many of those they keep in stock.

[morela]

One interesting thing about the wine list on of about 10 different bottles of red they sell is Opus One for $185 (or pretty close to that).  Very odd choice if you ask me.  I wonder how many of those they keep in stock.

←

Bet Ted has something to do with that. Maybe it's for when he comes to visit...

[mnebergall]

The folks who work at all the new office space down there must love it, they don't have to cross Duke Street to eat lunch anymore. I'll bet Stella's and Joe Theisman's are hating it. I'd also bet that they do a much lighter business at dinner. That section of town probably dries up and blows away after rush hour. It's kind of hard to get to. Maybe I'll take my two boys down there for dinner tonight.

[JPW]

I had a burger for lunch and it was very crumbly (seemed liked the meat was ground to finely) which made it hard to eat.  The fries were crisp and tasty.  Overall average, but not bad for the location.

←

If this was a buffalo burger, there is another potential source of the crumbliness. Buffalo is too lean to hold together very well when ground.

[wmsmurray]

Had lunch there this weekend and was pleasantly surprised. I figured it would be on par with a TGI Fridays or something. The interior was pretty much what I expected - dark wood, paintings of the west, a bison head. I had a bison burger and it was much better than I expected. As was noted above bison is a much leaner meat than beef and is easily overcooked. I asked for medium and it came perfectly pink throughout. The burger didn't crumble on me and was very juicy. They had an OK beer selection, good service and I enjoyed the fries. All in all, someplace I would go back so that I could try other items on the menu.

[mnebergall]

Well, I took to of my kinds to Ted's for dinner on Friday evening. The movie theater around the corner seems to provide plenty of patron for the Ted's because we had to wait about 10 minutes for a table.

The atmosphere has sort of an "old San Francisco" feel to it. I seem to recall a fish place in SF called Sam's that Ted's rips off to a T. The music that they play is sort of a cowboy type (lots of Hank Williams, the Bonanza theme).

mdt is right about the menu. Lots of steaks, each available in either beef or bison with $4-6 upcharge for bison. Bison pot roast and meat loaf, chicken, cedar planked salmon fillet.

We started out with an order of the onion rings and the chili cheese fries. Big mistake. First of all, they are going for the world record on the onion rings, I have never seen such big ORs. They are good but if you order anything for dinner you will only be able to eat about half of it. Plus, you can get rings with your dinner if you really like them. Huge order of chili cheese fries. I was hungry and ate a bunch of them. I would not order these again and this just presents too much food. Although a platter of them for a table of 4 would probably be OK.

My daughter had the Delmonico beef steak which came our rare like she ordered it. With garlic mashed potatoes and some more of those huge rings. 10-year old son ordered the pot roast. This was the best thing on our table that evening. Really tender bison chunks that daughter tried to get my son to trade for bites of her steak. The boy wouldn't go for it. His came with more fries.

I had the meat loaf, bison as well. It was OK with a sort of sweet gravy. I ordered fries as well. We had fries coming out the wazzoo.

The service is about what you would expect in such a joint, mediocre at best.

The place is not bad, if you are going to the movies and need a bite before hand, it's OK. I would not make it a destination.

edited to run spell checker.

Edited February 7, 2005 by mnebergall (log)

[Chef Shogun]

So, it's a decent place? Think they're opening one over by Oyamel.