blue water bay

We decided to meet at blue water bay for our outing this month and even though only 3 couples showed up we all had a great time. Most of us had the buffet I would say seafood buffet but it did not have as much on it as it used to. I have been there several times and I was greatly disappointed at the buffet that was offered. I would not go back and get the buffet again as I thought the price was not reflective of what was offered. One of our group ordered steak and it was brought late and over cooked. I think that our experience this month was not one of our better choices and I am very sad as I have always liked going to this venue. I do hope that in the future they will try and make some changes to how they are doing things there and maybe then I will give it a try again.

Sunday we met for our August dinner at Leonardo's 706 in Gainesville. It was a place that most of us had not been in a long while. What a great surprise to us all that the food was wonderful along with the atmosphere. We were a group of 14 that had a wonderful time. If you are going with a large group I would suggest that you call ahead for reservations. We did and were placed in the private dining room with just our group. Our server was named Catherine (I hope that I spelled that right) and she was very attentive to all of us at the table. Everyone had a different dish which was nice as we got lots of feed back from each one, and nobody had anything bad to say about the food. The appetizers were delicious as I had the Cedar Key clams that were excellent. I thought that the price for them was a little high 13.95 for a dozen, but again were very good. The dessert is generous in proportion and all of it comes highly recommended by our group as we all tried different desserts and shared them up and down the table. The wine list is good and they also have a full bar to serve you from. I would recommended this establishment to anyone that would like to have a wonderful dinner whether you come by yourself or in a group.

Today I will write about our outing in July and that will catch us up until we meet this month which will be sunday nite at Leonardos 706. What a great time we had in july. Instead of going to a resturarant we decided to try a night of bowling with bowling food. We all met at the new alley called Splitz and it was great fun. The men were one team and the women the other. I have to say it was close on both games but I think the men won. It was fun watching how the men thought they were going to lose and then it was game on. THe food was ok. We had lots of snacky foods to try out. The bowling alley has great accomadations for groups if you are thinking about going. If you go as a group you can bowl by the hour or by the game. I think if we go again we will pay by the game hourly is kind of expensive and if yougo over your hour it is costly to finish your game. If you go as a group be sure and take the side with the couches as a waitress will take care of you and if you are on the other side they do not. Overall I think that all of us had a great time and will do this again it was fun to watch Rodger roll to the wall and jump up like nothing happened. I guess it was a good thing it didn't because we were all laughing so much we couldn't have helped him anyway. Hope if you have a group you will take the time to do something fun like this.

June at Bonefish Grill

Now that I have May done I suppose that I should get June and July done since we meet this Sunday for August. In June we went to the Bonefish Grill in Gainesville . This restaurant was an excellent choice for all of us. Several of us got there early and sat in the bar area. The drinks and appitiziers were wonderful and the service was excellent. After everybody arrived we were escorted into the dining area where we were greeted by a waitress and waiter who were very attentive to us. They were very helpful to all with what to order on the menu as some of us had never eaten there before along with keeping everyone happy during the evening. The price of the dishes are around average for the Gaineville area running from 12 to around 25 dollars a plate. After dinner several of us ordered different desserts and shared them around the table I don't think that there was anything that we did not like. If you are looking for a restaurant that has great food and great service this if definitely a place for you to try.

I have beem remiss in the fact that I have not blogged about our last 2 meals that we had so I am going to try and catch everyone up to date.
May we went to a resturant that has been around for a very long time. I can remember going there as a child with my parents. It is the Yearling resturant in Cross Creek where Margarie Rawlings lived. It is again out in the middle of nowhere (funny how we keep going to these places). It has beem reopened by a couple of guys that used to run rescue in this county. There is a wide range of food to be offered and there is plenty of it. Everyone had a large time as we were in the back of the resturant. Our waitress was wonderful with explaning everything on the menu and giving feedback as to what we should order. There were many different things ordered ranging from froglegs to steak. I had the froglegs and can say that they do not taste like chicken but were very good. Everyone enjoyed the food and the price was in the medium range plates ran from 15-25 dollars. If you go you should try the fried green tomates they are excellent. THe atmosphere is a little rustic and there was a two piece band playing old folk songs which was fun to listen to. They also have a full bar to serve you from. If you would like to go somewhere off the beaten path for a good florida cracker meal this is the place for you.

Wow, Friday night was our monthly meeting of the minds and what a meeting it was. We had decided last month to try out a place that is in the middle of BFE if you know what I mean. We had to travel to Bronson which is a small town about 40 miles from our house in Alachua. Then on top of that you had to travel 10 more miles past Bronson to get there. We finally arrived on time (not like some of us who turned around because they thought they had gone to far ie Pete and Donna) and had to laugh at the building when we got there. We walked in to find part of our group already there and holding a table for us thanks Rusty and Lori for that. After getting everyone seated we had the most wonderful waitress come and take our drink orders her name was Tina and she was a blast. The bartender (I'm sorry I don't remember your name) made wonderful drinks even though the bar was limited with what they had to offer. Next came the meal, if you ever want a wonderful steak this is the place to go. This is one of the best steaks any of us had ever had. I am not sure what they use to marinate the steak with but it melted in your mouth. If you go on the weekend they had a live band and a small dance floor that we all took advantage of. The owner of the place is very friendly, and was there to make sure that everything you needed was done correctly. Everyone in our group had a great time especially laughing at Donna. I am sure next month it will be someone else that we laugh at even though it was fun to laugh at Donna. If you want to have a great steak meal and you don't want to spend a fortune this is the place for you. If you get lost just stop in town and everyone can tell you how to get there. The prices are very reasonable a 20 oz steak dinner runs around 18.00 which is a great bargin these days, and the best part of all is you don't have to dress up jeans are great. I can't wait to take my family back there for dinner . Watch for next month as we will be going to the Yearling.

LaAvina Mexican Resturant was the site for our monthly dinning experience this month.
We all met on saturaday and had a wonderful time. This is a hole in the wall place in the very small town of Archer, Fl. You can't miss it as it is the only resturant you come to at the traffic light there. The food is wonderful and plenty of it. I think for mexican food it was pretty authinic, and plenty of it. I would suggest that if you are going as a couple to share a dish as each of us had more than half of our dinner left. The service was good but a little hard to understand. This could have been because of the band that was playing at the time. I think that the place is run by a family but not sure. The prices were excellent. You can get almost any dish for under $10.00 and as I said earlier there was more food than you could eat. Everyone in our group gave the overall score of 8 or above to this place which is saying alot for us. The only draw back is that they do not have a bar but they do sell beer and wine. I think that we will all agree that this is an establishment that we would all like to go back and try again. If you are in this area and looking for a great mexican place to eat I would recommand it to anyone. Hope you find this post helpful. Have a great month, we will be going to Bronson next month to Willards to try it out as it was written up in the Gainesville Sun as having wonderful steak. I guess we will see soon.