For our anniversary last night, Cindy and I went out to Bud's Skyline Inn next to the Quad City International Airport across the river in Moline, IL. (see map)
Bud's is a classic Midwestern style supper club that has been around since the 30's. It is fairly casual and caters to more of an older crowd. Even though we don't feel that we're old, we certainly like going out there. Cindy and I went out there for dinner the night before I went to France.
Bud's interior is cozy and plain. The bar area is big enough to handle the inevitable weekend night overflow of people waiting to get a table. Reservations are suggested, but I think the longest we've had to wait for a table on the weekend is about 30 minutes. The older crowd, they get their food and get out.
It wasn't that busy when we got there around 7:15. We had to wait, maybe, 3 minutes for them to clean a table and then they sat us down. I don't think we've ever gotten in so quickly on a Friday or Saturday night out there.
Being that it's next to the airport, there's a lot of aviation-themed pictures, models and other motif. The windows are big so you can see the planes land and take off. And they have a video screen near the bar that has not only the airline schedules for departing and arriving flights, but they also show a U.S. map with real time images of where the planes going to and from the Quad City airport are positioned.
I've had the prime rib many times when we've gone in the past. I had that on my last visit the night before I went to France, but I wanted something different for dinner last night. I thought about the Orange Roughy, but I still haven't been able to handle fish since I got sick in France. I had beef on Thursday night, so I thought about getting the Chicken Cordon Bleu. But when Cindy ordered her favorite - the beef filet tournedos in a Bearnaise sauce - I knew I had to follow suit. She got hers cooked medium and I got mine medium rare.
A trip to Bud's also means a trip to their salad bar which features many made-in-house items including their dressing. They have a good French dressing and Cindy always opts for the garlic dressing. Last night, the garlic dressing was so strong and fresh, it was spicy. Have you ever had fresh garlic on anything and it tasted spicy? We laughed at how garlic laden it was.
The beef tournedos were great. Tender meat, rich Bearnaise sauce. We each got their signature hash browns with cheese and onions on top. Topped off with a shrimp cocktail before dinner, the bill - with drinks - came to just about $80 before tip. We did it up right. And we realized that a meal like this in Chicago (or at other "higher end" restaurants in the Quad Cities would have easily been over $100).
Our waitress, we've had wait on us before, and she was as good as gold again last night. Cindy wanted some of their pickled beets from the salad bar, but they were out of them at the time. She mentioned something to the waitress when she came back to take a drink order and the waitress brought out a big bowl of the pickled beets for us. I never liked pickled beets until I had Cindy's grandmother's pickled beets and the ones at Bud's are almost as good.
We were out of there by 8:20 - by far the earliest we'd ever gotten out of Bud's. Maybe we are like the old people. But we went out drinking and listening to music after that.
It's kind of funny - Cindy and I each talked to separate people on Friday who have lived here all their lives (they both were in their late 40's, early 50's) and they both said they'd never eaten at Bud's before in their life. They don't know what they're missing.
Bud's Skyline Inn is not the fanciest place to eat in the Quad Cities, but it could be the most underrated restaurant we have here. The food - and service - is consistently good all the time.
(Update May 2011 - While Bud's was one of our favorite places to go to for a great meal, we began to notice that the food quality had begun to noticeably slip in 2010. A lot. We kept giving them a chance to come back to the level they were at when we first began to go there, but they haven't. I have an update on Bud's and how we feel the quality has gone down since this post was originally entered. Click here to see the update.)
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