Kodiak Jack's

Yesterday Yoda and I went out to dinner at Kodiak Jack's, the steak and seafood place that is relatively new in Oshkosh and that has people raving. And by "people" I mean middle aged customers and coworkers that I encounter. So we just happened to be at Walmart at 6:30 at night on a Thursday buying 24" bypass loppers and a machete, and Kodiak's just happened to be right next door, and we just happened to end up there.

So we register at the hostess station (as there's almost always a wait at this particular restaurant, from all accounts) and my favorite thing happens.
Hostess: Your first name?
Me: Anoush. (I am about to spell it...)
Hostess: No, your FIRST name.
Me: Yes, that is my first name. A...N...
I really am not trying to trick you into accepting some non-first name. I promise.

So we wander around, and eventually score ourselves a rustic wooden bench, and entertain ourselves by making fun of this big group of 40-50 year olds who insist on standing in the middle of the aisle, blocking the other bench, the bubbler, the bathroom entrance, and the walkway. They are totally oblivious. This old lady escorting an even older lady out of the bathroom (older lady had one of those elaborate four-legged canes, and was being held up by the other lady) repeatedly says "Excuse me! EXCUSE ME!" to get them to move aside, and they just ignore her, so they finally just jostle the group with the cane and start screaming "EXCUSE ME!" and then the old lady says "Jesus Christ!" as they force their way past. I mean, this group will not move for anyone, and many people tried. So we just started talking about them openly, secure in the knowledge that they would not notice. (As an aside, the same old ladies were leaving after the big group was seated but before we were seated, and they were telling their friends the story, and it was SO funny. "And I told them to 'get the hell out of the way, moron!'"

So we're finally seated, and we order the fried cheese basket as an appetizer, I get coffee and medium rare prime rib with a baked potato, and Yoda gets a root beer, an elk burger, and adds on the soup and salad bar (my meal came with it). We get our soups (chicken vegetable) and salads, and a nice loaf of fresh bread.

First, the soup is not that great--I didn't eat mine. It tasted like canned veggies. And it was really bland. But the salad bar is great--really elaborate and fresh. The bread is good, but the knives they have there are all the same (all steak knives that are about an inch wide, with a round tip, and only serrated for the first few inches of blade), and it was a bit hard to slice with these big rounded knives.

Our appetizer basket is also really good for fried cheese--the cheese curds are still springy and taste really fresh, and the jalapeno poppers are particularly cheddary. And it looks like they batter everything themselves.

We get our meal, and my prime rib was good, though not quite as bloody as I was expecting, and it was a bit hard to dissect the fat from the meat with my round knife. Yoda's elk burger was also good.

We decide to order the Bananas Foster ice cream pie, which was delicious. Not too hard, very banana-y, just a perfect dessert. And I took home half of my steak, and most of my potato, and a box of cheese and bread products. So here's how it all breaks down:

Service: Good but dorky (our waiter wasn't really waiter-y, but he got the job done with a smile). 8/10
Ambiance: If you enjoy dead animals posed in unnatural tableaus, and lots of light polyurithaned "hunting lodge" wood, and the image above, you might just like it. 6/10. (10/10 if you're a redneck.)
Food: Better food can be had for similar or lesser amounts of $, but it certainly wasn't bad--it just wasn't spectacular. 7.5/10. (Salad Bar: 11/10--they had those round red cinnamon apples!)
Overall Notes: Be prepared to wait. Be prepared for high prices. Be prepared for drunk, old rednecks. As we left we were killed in a bar fight.
Price for Two: about $55

(I know this is really unrelated to the food, but check out the picture above. Notice the bear's jaw. Why does it mingle with Jack's shoulder? I just don't get it. Also, feel free to go to http://www.kodiakjacks.net/ and learn more about this amazing character.)