BEN'S RESTAURANT & BAR

What's better than finding a great place to enjoy the great outdoors and get interesting photographs? For me, it's finding a great new restaurant. That's an especially happy occasion now that my husband Jack and I don't go traveling the country (or even the state) as often as we once did - for the most part trying to keep the aging 2004 Pontiac Vibe that we love in good working condition and avoid having to buy a replacement.

This find happened after we visited Noah's Lost Ark near Berlin Center, Ohio - a wonderful sanctuary that provides shelter and care for exotic animals (think lions and tigers and bears, oh my!) that have been neglected and abused to the point that no one else wants them.

On the way to the sanctuary, we drove past a large building and noticed the sign - Ben's Restaurant & Bar. Ah, we said almost in unison, that looks like a really nice place. So when we left the sanctuary, it was time for a late lunch - and we made it a point to drive past the place again to see if it was open. It was (it's open for lunch on weekdays and breakfast on weekends), so of course we went in.

We were greeted in the lobby by one of the most beautiful (and large) floral wreaths I've ever seen. And as soon as we got inside the door, we were reminded of our many visits to the North Carolina Outer Banks; the two-level dining area is decorated in light teal with creamy white furniture, and wall art is similar to what is found in beach restaurants. There's a separate bar area with limited seating, but even though that's our usual choice, the dining room looked so inviting that we wandered in and found a table.

For the record, Ben's may be new to us, but it's certainly not new to the area; according to the menu, it was started in 1978 by Tom Bendetta and his wife Flo, who purchased an existing building. Ensuing years brought renovations and expansions, and today the restaurant seems to be thriving (offering catering and banquet menus as well as on-site dining and a full bar). 

Once we'd placed our drinks order (on-tap beers for both of us), we looked over the menu, starting, of course, with appetizers. Honestly, we weren't hungry enough at lunch to try one, but the sauteed mushrooms (prepared in a "special" homemade sauce for $6.99) and jumbo quesadillas were tempting - as was Tom's "famous" hot pepper salad.

As for the dinner options, we zeroed in on seafood (mostly because that's usually our choice for entrees and partly because of the dining room atmosphere), and we certainly weren't disappointed. Jack's eyes never left the deep sea scallops, sauteed and served on a bed of bow-tie pasta for $16.99. I was torn between the Cajun cod ($16.99) and orange roughy ($16.99), so when we go back for dinner - as we plan to do - I'm not sure which I'll choose. Oh yes, I also spotted prime rib - another special favorite of mine. Ah, what to do, what to do?

But we were here for lunch, and these days, we're simply not able to wolf down large quantities of food like we used to. Jack didn't take much time to make his choice - a batter-dipped scrod sandwich. He chose the larger version at $7.99, asking them to hold the bun. All lunches, BTW, come with fries and cole slaw.

Truth is, the scrod sounded wonderful to me as well, but I wanted to try something other than what Jack got (besides, I knew he'd offer me a bite of his). After waffling between the grilled Cajun chicken breast sandwich ($8.99) and a grilled Reuben ($9.99), I finally settled on the bleu cheeseburger on a Kaiser roll ($7.99). Since Jack got fries with his, I paid $1 more to get onion rings. 

Needless to say, we were happy with our choices. The scrod was plentiful (Jack even brought a piece home, where he gave me another bite), and the slaw was quite tasty. Usually, I'm not a big fan of slaw I didn't make myself, but I polished off almost all of my dish rather than giving it to Jack as I usually do. The fries and onion rings are good - I'm partial to the o-rings -  and my burger was yummy (at the server's prompting, I added tomato and onion, which complemented the bleu cheese perfectly). 

All that said, you can bet we'll be heading back to this place again, the sooner the better - this time for dinner. That Cajun cod has my name on it (well, okay, so does the prime rib, so we'll just have to go back at least two more times)!

If you go:

Ben's Restaurant & Bar
17729 W. Akron-Canfield Road
Berlin Center, Ohio 44401
(330) 547-7633

Open 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday through Thursday; 11 a.m. to 1 a.m. Friday; 8 a.m. to 1 a.m. Saturday; 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bensrestaurant1978?rf=119983394679379

STEAMERS

As most readers of my blog know by now, I love seafood. No, make that I love seafood. I love it so much, in fact, that on more than one of the trips my husband Jack and I have made to the North Carolina Outer Banks, I vowed to eat nothing else as an entree - including for breakfast. Admittedly, we rarely eat much of anything before lunch (at least not in a restaurant), but a couple of times we did, and yes, I managed to find something that once made its home in water.

Back here in landlocked Mineral Ridge, Ohio, I'm more likely than not to order seafood when it's on a menu, although I'm not shy about saying that's not always the best choice because (a) it's not fresh off the boat and (b) generally speaking, it's overcooked. So when we were shopping for an easy chair at Sheely's in North Lima several months ago, on a whim we asked a couple of employees if there was a good place nearby to have lunch. Their response? Steamers, not far away on Market Street - which specializes in seafood.


We found the place in something of a nondescript building we almost didn't spot in a small strip mall and attached to a Super 8 Motel. For whatever reason, we decided not to stop, choosing instead to head closer to home. But the recommendation by those folks at Sheely's stuck with us -- this is the place everyone around here goes, they'd said -- and one fine day when we were traveling around looking for things to photograph and were in the neighborhood, we said, let's give it a try.

Our first adventure there, I'm delighted to report, was nothing short of WOW!

It was somewhere between the usual lunch and dinner hours - typically when we visit restaurants to avoid the possibility of waiting, which we hate - and we were seated immediately in a booth not far from the bar. There's also a dining area, a banquet room and a closed-off outdoor patio when the weather's nice. 

Inside, though, it's quite a different story. On this first trip, just a glance at the menu told us we'd have to come back (in fact, we never made it past the appetizers before we'd made our choices). We decided to try three: the overloaded potato skins to share, peel-and-eat spiced shrimp for Jack and blackened tuna bites for me. 

Both of us were thrilled. The tuna bites ($9.99) were outstanding, though a bit spicy -- but not so much that Jack couldn't eat them - and for me of the cast-iron stomach, it was love at first bite. The shrimp (also $9.99), were saturated with Old Bay spices, and Jack said that while they aren't quite as fresh as his favorite food at Awful Arthur's Oyster Bar on the Outer Banks, they were every bit as tasty.

The potato skins were fabulous - without question the best we've had anywhere. That's quite a complement coming from me, a person who isn't all that fond of potato skins (the skins, after all, were what my mother discarded back on the farm where I grew up; ever since then it's been hard for me to think of them as much of a delicacy).

We did look at the dinner menu (which you'll find online at the website at the end of this review), and unless you're interested in chicken and pasta dishes that are in the $12 to $15 range, expect to spend a few bucks here. The Scallops Portabella, with jumbo scallops atop a portabella in asiago cream sauce with sliced tomatoes, for instance, is $23.99 (but it's got to be to die for). A hefty 16-ounce chargrilled ribeye tavern-style prime rib au jus is $21.99, so you get the point. 

There is a Happy Hour Monday through Thursday from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., with discounted alcoholic beverages and munchy specials depending on the day (Tuesday you get 10 jumbo wings for $4, for example). One of these days, we've decided, we absolutely must go on a Wednesday to try the $5 crab dip breadbowl.

Our next visit came on the way home from filling up our camera cards with fall foliage photos from the beautiful Beaver Creek State Park in Columbiana County - we'd timed our trip so we could stop at Steamers for a late lunch. When we arrived around 1:15 p.m., there were a number of cars in the parking lot, but we got a table on the bar side once again and the tables that were occupied cleared out within another 15 minutes or so. This time, our plan was to focus entirely on seafood.


We hadn't intended to try another appetizer, but then we spotted the Crabmeat Portabella ($9.99) stuffed with lump crabmeat in a tomato basil sauce. Oh what the heck, we said, let's go for it!

Picking our entrees proved difficult for Jack once again, but finally he opted for the lunch portion of breaded cod ($7.99) with cole slaw and fries as his sides. My choice was quite easy: Once I saw the 8-ounce tuna steak, chargrilled with remoulade sauce ($10.99), I was hooked. For sides, I got a tossed salad and rice pilaf. Since this isn't Ahi tuna, I was a bit hesitant to ask for medium or medium rare and went with medium well. 

Our server brought a basket of two warm rolls along with the appetizer, whispering that the bread is perfect for dipping in the tomato basil sauce in which that large stuffed mushroom was swimming. She was right; and Jack said the mushroom was outstanding, worth every single penny and at least as good, if not better, than any crab dish he's had in Maryland.

Jack's cod portion was quite substantial, maybe a foot long and 4 inches wide, as well as flaky and tender. The slaw wasn't his favorite, and when I tasted it I understood why: It was more like a Waldorf salad, with a slight apple flavor in the mayonnaise dressing. Too bad you don't care for it much, I said as I polished it off. 

My salad, with ranch dressing, was quite good (well, except for the cucumber slice, which I picked out immediately so it wouldn't contaminate the rest of the greens), and the rice pilaf had a nice flavor. As for the tuna steak, I was sorry I hadn't listened to my inner voice and asked for a less-cooked version. It was very good, mind you, and the portion was so large that I brought half of it home for another meal. But it was more well done (and therefore not as tender) than I really love (my bad, not the restaurant's), and next time I'll go with my first instincts.

Steamers
10078 Market St.
North Lima, Ohio 44452
(330) 549-9041
www.enjoysteamers.com

Open at 11:30 a.m to 10 p.m. Monday through Friday; noon to 11 p.m. on Saturday; closed Sunday.

TRAX RESTAURANT

Restaurant food in the Mahoning and Shenango valleys is as good (or better) than I've found anywhere else in the country, in my humble opinion -- with one exception: Seafood. For the most part, that's not because we're basically landlocked in these parts; rather, it's because it's inevitably overcooked to the point of being relatively tasteless and tough.

And for a seafood lover like me, that's a big disappointment; I'm always a bit leery of ordering it, knowing it's likely to be less than "perfect." So when I noticed lemon pepper swordfish on the daily specials menu at Trax Restaurant in Austintown, I hesitated -- but since swordfish is hard to find and is my favorite fish to eat -- I decided to reel it in. As a special, it came with one side and a salad for just $10.95, so I figured I wouldn't lose all that much if it wasn't all that great.

Ah, I'm delighted to report it was wonderful! I chose spaghetti as my side - as you'll find out in a minute, I'd tasted the sauce here before and liked it. This time I'd say it could have used a bit more sauce, but quite honestly I was too full to care after devouring every mouth-watering bite of the sizable chunk of swordfish steak. Not only was it juicy, the lemon flavor was subtle but noticeable and the cracked pepper added just the right touch of zest. Yum!

We arrived here this time for an early dinner, just before 4 p.m.; our server brought a list of lunch specials even at this late hour, which was nice because there were loads of great things from which to choose, including cavatelli-stuffed and chili cheese stuffed breadbowls ($8.50). I also considered the Italian sausage hero at $8.99 before spotting that swordfish.

Jack had a bit more trouble deciding, finally settling on the Yankee pot roast ($10.50), described as beef and carrots with au jus and one side. He opted for slaw instead of salad and picked mashed potatoes and gravy as his side, which seemed a natural fit for the pot roast. When he placed the order, our server assured him it was delicious - in fact, she'd had a big mound of it for her lunch earlier in the day.

Turns out she was right on the money; the pot roast was yummy with a large amount of fork-tender meat. And even though he made a point of reminding me he doesn't like carrots, he scarfed down all of these chunks (noting that he was doing so because they didn't taste much like carrots after simmering in all that juice for what must have been a long time). At his request, the server brought a container of extra gravy, which was rich, thick and delicious.

As I mentioned before, this stop for dinner wasn't the first time we've been to Trax; on one occasion, we sat on the separate bar side for a couple of quick sandwiches and beers. The interior, by the way, is a darkish red and gray and features lots of old photos, most related to the B&O Railroad -- especially interesting to us because Jack's late uncle, Robert M. Semple, for many years was the local yardmaster. There's also a large outdoor patio that's open in good weather, and we hear there's live music out there now and again.

A couple of weeks before my encounter with the swordfish, we stopped for lunch mostly because we had a coupon for $5 off a $25 purchase, including alcohol. Speaking of alcohol, there's an extensive wine and beer list plus a few on tap including our favorite Yuengling. Some of the menu items are things I haven't seen in a while, like city chicken ($9.50 for the dinner portion). I also noticed Cincinnati chili ($9.50) -- another favorite of mine. Most dinners come with a potato or salad plus bread and butter.

Any time stuffed cabbage or peppers is on the menu, it's hard for Jack to resist. This time it was cabbage, which usually comes with mashed potatoes. He asked for slaw instead, plus a salad with balsamic viniagrette dressing, all for $9.50.

I was in the mood for plain old spaghetti, and when I asked our server about the difference between the marinara and "regular" red sauce, she explained that the marinara at Trax "isn't like others" and is filled with lots of vegetables whereas the red sauce has two meatballs. I opted for the red sauce over spaghetti (ziti was my other choice), salad with bleu cheese dressing and a cup of wedding soup for $8.29.

Jack liked that the stuffed cabbage was topped with an abundance of sauce, which all too often isn't the case. There were a couple of slices of kielbasi in it as well, which he passed on to me and they were delicious. Our server also brought a basket of good-sized rolls and butter, but we had so much else to eat that we brought them home.

The salads were your garden-variety head lettuce with some sliced black olives, one tomato slice and one of those yummy small hot peppers (the latter of which Jack gave to me since he's not into anything spicy hot). Dressings are served on the side, and both of our choices were very good. As is his custom, Jack asked for "extra" and got two containers, which was plenty to make him happy.

My wedding soup was quite tasty, filled with lots of greens, carrots and one of those teeny meatballs. My only complaint was that it was almost lukewarm (but keep in mind I like soup almost at the boiling point). The red sauce was delicious as well, and the meatballs were outstanding. The bowl was ample, giving me about half to take home for another day.

When we finished up, we noticed several desserts listed on a chalkboard - among them cocoanut creme and lemon merangue pie at ($3.50 a slice). They sounded wonderful, but we had absolutely no room left. For the record, they were still on the list the next time we visited, but the same thing happened: Our stomachs were so full with the main courses that we couldn't have downed another bite. Oh well, guess we've got a couple more reasons to go back!

If you go:

Trax Restaurant
4250 New Road
Austintown, Ohio 44515
(330) 799-2245

Open for lunch and dinner Monday through Saturday at 11 a.m.; Sunday 3 p.m. to 9 p.m.

MOJO'S PUB & GRILL

As my husband Jack was driving me and Niles friends Jerry and Barb on one of the rare occasions that we didn't know ahead of time where we wanted to have dinner, Barb and I started digging through our purses and flipping through the extra Entertainment Book I keep in the car for discount coupons, figuring that would help us decide. We started to laugh, but then reality hit as Barb asked, "When was the last time you ate out without using a coupon?"

Fact is, it's hard to remember. And to underscore the importance of coupons to the restaurant industry these days, I'll say that without this kind of incentive -- this time in the form of a gift card our "kids" Chris and Jerry gave us for Christmas -- we might never have tried a place that's since become a favorite: Mojo's Pub & Grill.

I mention this because I'm pretty sure most restaurants view coupons as a necessary evil -- emphasis on the evil part. On occasion, I suppose they are; I admit we've visited a few eateries only because they were offering some kind of discount; and when we were less than impressed with the quality of food and/or service, we never entered their doors again. But others -- and Mojo's is a great example -- we like so much that it's on our short list of places to stop any time we're in the area (as well as worth going a little bit out of the way for). If there's a moral here, it's that if you've got a great product or service and want to increase your customer base, coupons can be a great incentive and a great way to generate repeat business.

In this case, even with our gift certificate we almost missed the place. For whatever reason, we put off using the card till late March; and when we pulled up at the location behind Marino's Restaurant in Austintown, the lights were off and the doors were locked tighter than a drum. Uh, oh, we said -- we've waited too long.

But since we knew that Mojo's is owned by the same folks who own Marino's, we figured we'd pop in there and ask. If Mojo's were closed, after all, we could eat here -- we love the place. In fact, Marino's was one of the first restaurants I added to my blog.

Surprise! What we learned was that Mojo's had relocated a couple of weeks earlier further west on Mahoning Avenue not far from the Austintown Plaza. So, offering our apologies for not staying at Marino's and promising to return, we made our way there.

As it turns out, that was the first of many visits. For openers, we love the roomy black-and-gray main dining area that offers easy access to a semi-enclosed bar; upstairs, we were told, is a rock-and-roll bar, while the lower level is a sports bar.

Mostly, though, we love the food. For newbies, lunch is a good time to give the place a try, although it's really hard to choose from all the sandwich offerings, which come with a substantial portion of hand-cut fries. The Bleu hamburger with bleu cheese ($7.59) and Reuben ($7.29) sounded wonderful on our initial lunch outing, but in the end Jack settled on the Swiss and Mushroom burger ($7.29) and, since I wanted to try the pulled pork, I decided the Double-Decker, with the barbecue-sauced pork on top of a hamburger, would be a good way to see if I wanted a larger portion of the pork.

The fries are similar to those at the old Idora Park, though perhaps a bit thicker, and very good. Those who don't want fries may substitute onion rings for an extra $1.19; cole slaw can be added for 99 cents.

Everything was delicious, including the pulled pork, which is very tender with a wonderful barbecue flavor; I made a mental note to try a whole sandwich on one of our return trips. The sandwiches aren't small, I should add; we both brought half home for later. As we were finishing up, our server tried to tempt us with Mojo's new dessert cart -- something like four kinds of cheesecake (locally made), a yummy-looking chocolate cake and a brownie sundae. Already stuffed to the gills, we declined, but then she convinced us to take a piece of cheesecake home -- we chose raspberry topping -- and it sure was scrumptious.

Interestingly, Mojo's is a great place for seafood, even crab legs on occasion, and barbecue. The menu is loaded with fish entrees as well as barbecue ribs, chicken and the aforementioned pulled pork. Several varieties of wings are available as well. Largely because of the seafood choices, I'm particularly fond of eating here, and we've come here several times for dinner. The first time, I tried the haddock (broiled, not lightly breaded and fried) for $11.49; it comes with cole slaw and one side, and I chose a baked potato with butter and sour cream. Meanwhile, Jack ordered the Mojo Melt ($12.99), a charbroiled chicken breast topped with barbecue sauce, bacon and American and provolone cheese. For sides, he picked fries and slaw.

A bit of a surprise came in the form of a basket of "Mama" Marino's homemade bread (her huge fresh-baked dinner rolls at Marino's restaurant are known far and wide), and the bread was fabulous as well. As for the fish, it was perhaps boiled a bit longer than necessary, but it wasn't overdone and was nicely flavored. Jack loved his chicken, too, and the slaw, with two kinds of cabbage and carrots in a mayonnaise-based dressing, is exceptional.

On still another late-afternoon visit, I tried the haddock dinner, slightly different than the earlier version because it comes with a salad and one side ($12.99). I stuck with a baked potato and ranch dressing; and for the record, there's a nearly $2 upcharge if you want to substitute soup for the salad, which I decided against. Jack, tried something a bit different - Portabella Chicken, grilled and topped with portabella mushrooms, red peppers and provolone ($13.49).

Once again, the fish had a wonderful flavor but tasted as if it had been baked for a while and then put under the broiler; it was cooked too long to say I absolutely loved it, but I ate every bite just the same.

One other word of caution: If you want to get a seat here, come for lunch or before 6 p.m. We've driven past several times wanting to stop for dinner and found that the parking lot is spilling-over full. Mojo's has live entertainment in the evenings as well as a party-down crowd from after work till late in the evening, so it's best to get here early.

If you go: Mojo's Pub & Grill
6292 Mahoning Ave.
Austintown, Ohio 44515
(330) 773-6656
www.mojospubngrill.com (Note: the site was still in development at the time of this posting, so check back).

Opens at 11 a.m. daily.

RED LOBSTER

So much do I love seafood that sometimes I suspect I was born with a few gills. Or, maybe it's because I was born on the cusp between Pisces and Aries and, although the fire sign that officially begins on March 21 wins out overall, I got a healthy dose of the fish as well. Whatever the reason, no matter when or where my husband Jack and I go out to eat, it's likely that my choice will be some kind of seafood. On at least one of our almost annual treks to the North Carolina Outer Banks, for instance, I vowed that every entree I ate on the way, while we were there and on the way home would be seafood -- and I stuck to my guns (we rarely eat breakfast, but I did learn that crab cakes taste pretty good even early in the morning)!

That's one reason we love going anywhere there's lots of water -- and that's where you'll find some of our all-time favorite restaurants: Mulligan's Raw Bar & Grille, Awful Arthur's Oyster Bar and Fisherman's Wharf on the North Carolina Outer Banks, the Crab Claw in St. Michaels, Maryland, The Wharf in Erie, Pa., and Pickle Bill's and Brennan's in Grand River, Ohio.

Of course, nothing beats the freshness that comes from dragging dinner straight from the water to the table; back inland, it's a bit more difficult to find anything that remotely compares (especially since most restaurants tend to cook fish way beyond the point at which it tastes best). One of our favorite places -- Red Lobster -- may come as somewhat of a surprise. Chain restaurants aren't typically our favorite places, but over the years we've found that the fish here tends to be properly cooked and consistently delicious.

Most of the time, we visit the restaurant on the U.S. Route 422 "strip" in Niles, although on occasion we've ventured in to other locations. Such was the case a couple of weeks ago, when Jack and I met up with our son Scott, his wife Lilla, and Lilla's mother Sheila at the Red Lobster in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio (that's Lilla and Scott in the photo at the left. The first thing we noticed is that the restaurant layout isn't exactly the same as the Niles location -- lots more dark wood and what appears to be a larger main dining room. Although it isn't listed as such on the Web site, we suspect it's been remodeled as part of the company's new "Bar Harbor" design project in which almost all existing restaurants will be getting a facelift by 2014.

Menus can vary from restaurant to restaurant as well; if you go online to check Red Lobster's Web site (see below), you'll be asked to enter a Zip Code to see what's available at the one you're interested in. Besides that, menu specials change relatively often, so always check what's new before you decide. One that's noteworthy at press time, for instance, is a choice of three "Surf & Turf" combinations for under $20 each -- chardonnay-grilled shrimp, grilled Maine lobster tail or snow crab legs paired with an 8-ounce peppercorn sirloin. Yum!

Red Lobster is, for the record, part of the Darden Restaurants stable that includes the Olive Garden and Bahama Breeze names. The first Red Lobster opened in Lakeland, Florida, in 1968, according to company reports, and today there are somewhere around 700 locations throughout the United States and Canada.

At our Cuyahoga Falls get together, we went whole hog (or more accurately, whole fish). Even though it was lunch time, one of us picked the Ultimate Feast that includes a split Maine lobster tail, steamed snow crab legs, garlic shrimp scampi and Walt's Favorite Shrimp ($24.99). Another picked the broiled seafood platter, with bay scallops, garlic shrimp scampi and stuffed flounder ($13.99).

I must emphasize, however, that one of the things I crave most from Red Lobster isn't seafood at all; it's those wonderful Cheddar Bay biscuits. So popular are these cheesy biscuits that Red Lobster reportedly bakes and serves more than 395 million every year -- making them from scratch and baking them every 15 minutes. The folks at Red Lobster won't divulge the recipe (nor do I blame them), but if you Google "Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuits" you'll find some recipes that come pretty darned close to the real thing.

Our most recent visit was for a spur-of-the-moment late lunch on Christmas Eve Day. The stockings were hung, the gifts were wrapped, and we'd be alone for the rest of the evenings since our family get-togethers were on Christmas Day and the day after that -- so I guess we were feeling a little blue and decided a blast of fresh seafood (and a couple of beers) would cheer us up fast.

Here, we usually sit on the relatively small bar side of the restaurant; the tables border on tiny, but for just the two of us, we manage -- and hey, we're right next to the bar. We were armed with a $10 gift card I'd earned at MyPoints.com, a site at which you earn points by viewing (and possibly purchasing) offers that are sent by e-mail. I always cash in my points with restaurant gift cards (most often from Darden Restaurants), and over the past few years I estimate I've earned at least a dozen.

Besides that, earlier that morning we'd cashed a small dividend check from a local bank, and when Jack put on an Ohio State University winter jacket he hadn't worn for at least a year, he found $15 in one of the pockets! Put all that together, and we decided that for once, money was no object.

In mid-afternoon we were seated immediately, although we've never been to a Red Lobster that was devoid of customers at any hour. Happily for me, Blue Moon was one of the draft choices; Jack was less happy to learn they were out of all the Sam Adams brews on tap, but he settled for a Sam Adams Winter Lager in a bottle. I will warn that beer isn't cheap here; his bottle cost $3.99 and my glass (larger) was $4.50.

For starters, we decided to share a Seafood Sampler ($10.75); this large plate was filled with four lobster-crab-seafood stuffed mushrooms, a handful of fried clam strips and a skewer of four bacon-wrapped sea scallops. The scallops, in particular, are mouth-watering; although our initial plan was to divvy up everything equally, offering a sweet smile and batting my baby blues got me three of the scallops in exchange for that fourth stuffed mushroom, a favorite of Jack's.

As we munched, we noticed a number of customers who were picking up what appeared to be party trays -- this was Christmas Eve day, remember -- and we made a mental note that next time we needed to bring something to a party, this could be a great place to go.

For our entrees, Jack stuck with his usual baked stuffed flounder (the same as he'd had in Cuyahoga Falls) at $8.99; his sides of choice were cole slaw and fries with sea salt. It took me a little longer to decide -- I like the "create your own" entree, from which you can choose any two fish items (for lunch, it's $9.50) and the shrimp linguini Alfredo. In the end, though, I opted for the Sailor's Platter, made up of breaded fried shrimp, garlic shrimp scampi and an oven-broiled fish filet for $9.75. For sides, I picked a garden salad and rice pilaf.

I feel compelled to mention that I used to love the Caesar salad here (you have a choice between that and a garden salad as sides), but they've changed the dressing so it's now heavier and gloppy (my word) compared to what it used to be. The garden salad, though, is very good, as is the ranch dressing I picked. The rice pilaf, though, contains wild rice and plenty of flavor, unlike the rice pilaf I've had at other restaurants (to the point that I rarely order it because so much of it has been under-flavored, over-flavored and otherwise virtually inedible).

Only once in the many times we've eaten at a Red Lobster have we had room for dessert -- it was a piece of delicious key lime pie ($4.99) -- but if you can possibly stuff it in, there are plenty of delectables from which to choose. Jack's had his eye on the warm chocolate chip lava cookie for quite some time now -- a warm, thick cookie with a molten chocolate center topped with vanilla ice cream and drizzled with chocolate sauce ($5.99). Hopefully, he'll give me a bite or two!

If you go: Red Lobster
5701 Youngstown-Warren Road
Niles, Ohio 44446
(330) 544-1321
http://www.redlobster.com
Open Sunday through Thursday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Check the Web site for hours at other Red Lobster locations.