We have visited the Bandana's on Manchester and McKnight on many occasions over the years, and I had always suggested trying the Altai Mongolian Grill just a few hundred feet away, but I had always been voted down. Alas, the Altai has closed down, but in its place (and its neighboring Baskins & Robbins space too) sits a brand new restaurant, the Slider House. So as today was my pick for lunch and the place had been open for about a week, I thought it was time to try it out.
You could immediately tell that the parking lot was more crowded near Bandana's as it is usually pretty empty in that corner of the shopping center. We arrived around 11:30 am and there were only a few patrons seated, and we were seated in a booth near the bar which seemed odd since we were placed between two other groups of people whereas many tables by the windows were empty. We were glad that half the seating there was padded though. The dining area is pretty large since they took down the wall between the old Altai and the Baskin & Robbins and they put in some very large ceiling fans. There were new HDTV's placed around the walls which were all playing soccer or lacrosse games. The place was a little bit noisy and we noticed the wait staff often sat down to take the orders which seemed a bit odd, and also got in the way a little when we were first getting seated.
The menus were a little difficult to read because of the plastic used in them, but we were evnetually able to order. My wife ordered the Lobster Cobb salad, my mother in law ordered the grilled cheese off the kids' menu (with chips), and my son and I both ordered the slider combinations for lunch. I selected the Texican and the Southern Comfort with fried pickles, and my son ordered two sliders I do not see listed on the online menu, the Fast Break (beef) and King's Ranch (chicken) along with the Parmesan fries. The order did take a while and I noticed the place was filling up.
When our order arrived we noticed my wife's salad was pretty large and served in an unusual slanted bowl, and the kids' menu grilled cheese was very small indeed along with a small serving of chips.
One thing we noticed right away were that the chips, fries and pickles were all very salty. Someone in the kitchen was much too liberal with the salt shaker. My wife's salad had a large lobster tail but she did not receive a knife so it was difficult to eat until she finally received one. Otherwise her salad was a bit bland with the bacon and cheese rather lacking without the dressing she received on the side. My mother-in-law was not too impressed with her tiny cheese sandwich nor the salty chips. As for the sliders, my Texican was pretty good, but not as tasty as I had hoped and the Southern Comfort was too dry and lacked sauce and flavor. My son agreed his chicken King's Ranch was a bit dry as well, and the beef slider was definitely better although nothing too special. Perhaps they are still perfecting the preparation of their recipes in the first weeks, but the food sounded better on the menus than they did when eaten.
The service was actually not too bad although it was a bit slow at times. My wife checked out the restroom and thought it was fine. Overall the place was not too bad, but not as good as we were hoping a new "gourmet slider" restaurant would be. None of us thought it was a place we wanted to rush back and try again, but maybe they can improve once they are around for a while..
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