Tony Roma's

Tony Roma's is a pretty decent place. I've always seen it as I walked through the Mall of America... I have never stopped in though. Tonight we were actually supposed to go to Kokomo's... my favorite salad place, but we got to the mall around 7:30PM (it's a Sunday by the way) and all the stores close at 7PM... so strangely the only place open to eat was Tony Roma's.

We all looked at the menue and were trying to figure out what to get when I suggested to get the 2 sampler platters.... sure Bill (the_Bill), Alyssa (Alyssa_OB) and Michael said... so we grabbed the 2 samplers, St. Louis Rib Sampler which is A dozen St. Louis Ribs in four flavors: Original, Carolina Honeys, Blue Ridge Smokies and Tony Roma’s Red Hots and the Rib Combo Dinners and each were $20 a plate...

We got them and there were 4 small racks (3 ribs each) on each plate so each or us had 2 each. So this is the first time I ever had ribs in a restaurant... I've had ribs from work parties where we grill them and use Kyles super secret sauce and rubs and also I just went to Rib Fest up in Braham... look about one or two blogs before this... and had them up there... and there a full rack of ribs was $9.

I do think that I have gotten more for the money before (well, free and cheap) but these did have decent amount of meat on the bones... and they were moist rather than dry!

Next was dessert... I did want to try the chocolate Volcano at Rain Forest Cafe that Meghan (petrarchanprincess) suggested so I googled the number on my phone and called them up... this is about 8:45PM. A guy answers the phone and I ask what time they close... 8PM he said... confused I asked him what time it was... uhhh... a quarter to 9 he said almost laughing... I said thanx and hung up.

So we decided to get dessert at Tony's. Alyssa and I decided to get the Chocolate Brownie Sundae. When we looked at the menu I saw the brownie sunday has vanilla ice cream on it... so I asked the waitress if it came with chocolate and she said yes and I said OK, we'll split the brownie sundae. When it came out it had vanilla ice cream... the waitress didn't put two and two together so she brought me out a cup of chocolate. But the Brownie Sundae looked which looked huge on the plate...but was only a brownie about 4 inches by 4 inches and the rest was whipped cream. While the boys got the alcoholic deserts of the Chocolate Martini for Bill and Michael got a Chocolate Brownie Martini... which started out light but got stronger as they went along!

We ended up leaving aroun 10PMish... after the restaurant was already closed... they never bothered to kick us out... so we just kept talking and talking as TBers always do!

This Tony Roma's is located on the south side third floor of the Mall of America just below the AMC theatres. It is yet another chain restaurant known for its ribs, seafood and chicken. Michael, Alyssa, Julie and I decided order a couple of the rib samplers since that was their specialty. And while the ribs were very good and tender with the meat falling off the bones as any good ribs should, they were overpriced for amount of food you got. We also splurged for dessert, a couple of chocolate martinis and a chocolate brownie sundae. The chocolate martinis were good, but all the alcohol had settled at the bottom so they got stronger with the more you drank. The chocolate brownie sundae also was pretty popular. Unless you're allergic, when isn't chocolate popular? :)

Tony Roma's basic menu
http://www.tonyromas.com/uploaded/Generic%20Roma%20Menu.pdf

We had a mini meetup at Tony Roma's in Mall of America. Julie, Michael, Bill and I met to sample the ribs. (I think that is their specialty). We ordered two sampler platters and split them among the four of us. There were plenty of ribs to go around! The ribs were very tender and juicy but a little overpriced.

We also got desserts. Julie and I split an enormous brownie sunday. Actually, the brownie wasn't that big under all that whipped cream. Bill and Michael got some alcoholic dessert martinis. All in all, they were pretty good ribs and desserts, just expensive.