Legends Pub and Grill

For my friend's birthday Sunday, a group of us went to dinner at Legends Pub and Grill.  The restaurant is right next to Edwards 22 Cinema (7609 W. Overland Road Boise 83709), which makes it very convenient if you are hoping to catch dinner and a movie.  They are a full service restaurant, bar, and small event center.  Next door to the eating area, they have an entertainment center with pool tables and darts.

The bar is open until 12:00 am every night and has two happy hours - one from 3 - 6 pm and the other from 9:30 -11 pm.  During happy hour, it is half price on rotating microbrews and all domestic bottles and drafts (16 oz and 22 oz).   Also, we went on a Sunday and she told us it was happy hour all day!  It was totally awesome because happy hour also includes half off well alcohol and special appetizer prices.

They have a $6.95 lunch menu, which I am going to keep in mind for the next time I check out a matinee.  I love a good soup/salad deal for a light lunch.

The dinner menu is what I had to work with, and the picture won't post large enough to be of any use to you. They basically have a little bit of everything - appetizers, salads, burgers, pasta, soups, specialties, steak, salmon, pizza, sandwiches and wraps.  The most expensive menu item is the Rib Eye Steak (12 oz 100% Angus certified rib eye, seasoned and grilled your way) for $18.  The cheapest item is a cup of Soup de Jour for $3.99.  Most items fall in the $9-$12 price range, so this is definitely an affordable restaurant.  
Yelpers rate Legends a solid 3.5.  Positive reviews cite the "friendly staff," with a "quality happy hour menu and a regular menu to suit just about everyone" plus "great food."  Negative reviews seem to disagree with the friendly staff comments, and say, " Waitstaff sucks!" and "the waitresses were incredibly unfriendly," with food that is "poor quality and prepared with average skill and imagination."

Most of the negative reviews are from a year or so ago, and the positive reviews are from more recently, so maybe management or staff has changed recently.  When we were there, our waitress was an absolute DOLL.  She was fabulous, very attentive, split the check perfectly, and got us everything we needed.  I even told her they had poor yelp reviews and she was single-handedly proving yelp wrong!

To eat, I split a California BBQ chicken pizza with my friend.  I think it was $15.50 for a large pizza (good size) which probably had about 8 slices.  I love California BBQ pizza, so it is hard for me to be critical any time I eat such a delicious pizza.  However, there really isn't anything negative to report.  The pizza was great!

I only had to pay $22 (including tip!) for THREE Rose Kennedys (vodka, soda water, splash of cranberry with limes) and half a pizza.  Quite the deal.

Next time I go to the movies on a Sunday, I will make sure to hit up Legends for a happy hour cocktail prior to the film.

Lockout

Last weekend I also went to see Lockout (not my choice - it was for a friend's birthday and the birthday boy got to decide).

The basic concept of the movie is there is a prison in outer space where prisoners go, are placed under sedation, and sleep for their entire sentence.  Emilie, who happens to be the President's daughter, goes in her role as a psychologist.  She is trying to determine the side effects of the sedation drugs, which are thought to cause aggression.  She begins by interviewing prisoners, and the prisoners get out, wake each other up and all hell breaks loose.

Guy Pearce plays Snow:

 and Maggie Grace plays Emilie Warnock.

Rotten Tomatoes critics give the movie 33% and audience members rated it 53%.

One critic who didn't like the movie put it this way - "It is the kind of movie where someone tumbling in space above the earth's atmosphere opens a parachute and lands gently on earth without even gasping for a breath." Another called it "85 minutes of shoddy plotting, direction, and full on boredom."

Those who liked the movie seemed to see past the predictability, with one critic saying "it is cliched, ridiculous and very entertaining," and another says they did a fine job of "coming up with obstacle after obstacle for our two leads to dodge - not the least of which happens to be good old-fashioned logic." 

So yes, it may not be the most thoughtful, revolutionary, or barrier-breaking movie.  But let's be honest - you can go to The Flicks for that.  Sometimes it is nice to sit down for a good old action movie and let your brain take a break.

I do agree with the critic who said it is the type of movie where the parachute opens and they land gently.  That sums it every very well - everything seems to constantly, magically, work out exactly as it should.  Also, the movie attempts to be smart with "unique" subplots, but I think they were totally confusing and didn't add much to the movie without a more thorough understanding of what was going on.  It was like they decided, "we need to make this more 'intellectual'" so the writers threw in some twists.  The add-ons seemed totally irrelevant to the rest of the movie and were never hanging (in the way where you know they will desperately attempt a sequel).

I would say go see this movie if you want action, explosions and good looking people.  Don't see it if you want thoughtful, intellectual, or deep.  If you go with the right expectations, it can be an enjoyable movie.

#023 Best Beers on Tap

Yesterday, my visiting (ex) roommates and I headed to downtown Boise to check out the Boise Market.  I had warned them that last time I didn't think there were many fruits and veggies, but I thought I might have just not stumbled upon the right place.  Well, this time we found out the same...there are lots of arts and crafts, some cheeses, lots of plants/flowers, and other goods, but not a whole lot of fruits and vegetables.  Maybe we are just spoiled from the Moscow Farmer's Market or maybe it is not that time of year yet?  All I know is I really wanted cucumber and couldn't find that anywhere...

Next time I go, I have my eye on some feta cheese and possibly some vegetable or herb I can grow.

At the market,  I bought some horchata (spelling??) to drink.  It is a Mexican rice-milk with cinnamon.  It was a little sweet for me, and I prefer the one from Patty's Kitchen in Moscow, but it was still tasty and refreshing. 

After the market, we went to Bittercreek Alehouse, the brother to Red Feather Lounge (same owners, same eat-local idea).

Living Social says #023 Bittercreek Alehouse is Boise's Best Beers on Tap. They have 39 beers on tap, from Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Montana, California, and Colorado. The atmosphere was also perfect for a nice summer day.  It was really cool inside, with lots of natural lighting.

Yelpers say "It doesn't get any better than Bittercreek," and the "beer selection is as good as the food."  Many rave about the Spicy Lamb Burger.  Lucky for us, it was another meal with no wait.

After all this talk of beer, we ended up going with a hard cider, as it was the only gluten free option and one of us was gluten free. However, the cider was delicious. I think the pitcher was $15 and it was about a beer and a half for three people.

I decided to order the "All Day Special" which consisted of a Caesar salad and either a cup of chowder or the soup of the day.  The soup of the day was turkey with wild rice, and I went for the chowder.

I love that it came with a fresh lemon and little toasts with herbed butter.  The crackers for the soup seemed homemade and they were delicious.  Somehow this filled me up immensely and I almost couldn't finish.  Not to mention -- all this for $6.50 which I think is a great deal.

After that, we went to a few other stores (The Chocolat Bar and The City Peanut Shop) and then did some shopping.  I got two things from Loft. The website isn't working right now, but I got a pink and white striped tee shirt, and a short-sleeve white sweater with see through crochet bits.  They were a little spendy, at a total of $70, but I love them both.

We wanted to go see X men, and had a bit of time before the next showing, so we decided to check out "The Ozone!" Check out the link if you are curious, but it's basically Boise's only condom-only shop.  They have tons of mix and match condoms...it was kinda interesting and funny to check out.  The lady took her job pretty seriously though and I think it made us all a bit uncomfortable.

Enough time had passed and we decided to go to Edwards Theater and see Xmen.

 I really liked the movie.  It was pretty long (2 hours 12 minutes) but it provided a lot of back story.  I feel like I should watch the other X men movies now, and I would have a much better idea of what was going on.  Our movie broke in the middle (lights came on, film stopped rolling) and I didn't think there was anyway it was going to be fixed.  However, they fixed it in less than five minutes and we were back to our movie!

As snacks, I smuggled in salt and vinegar almonds (soooo good) and a Sobe Lifewater.  I tried to be adventurous and got a new flavor, Macintosh Apple Cherry, but didn't like it much at all.  Should stick to the best -- Yumberry Pomegranite!

After that, we headed home and things took a turn for the worse!  I chose not to go out because I wasn't feeling well, and little did I know that I really wouldn't feel well.  My temperature was going up pretty quickly, and got as high as 101.6 which freaked me out a bit.  However, my boyfriend called every half an hour and even with him in Moscow, it was nice to have someone to complain to :)

Needless to say, I didn't sleep well last night so I am hoping I fall asleep quickly tonight. Tomorrow is the big day -- first day at my new job.

PS Check out the Bittercreek Dessert menu.  How delicious do Huckleberry Doughnuts sound?  Which would you choose??