By Luke Kirtley ’15 | Graphics Editor

Yet another restaurant has popped up around Grosse Pointe, but this one has shown its face in the park area. Red Crown is an American comfort food restaurant that opened on Wednesday, March 6.

I arrived ten minutes after the restaurant officially opened and needless to say, it was packed. Given the fact that I only had to wait about ten minutes to be seated, the crowding wasn’t an issue.

I was seated at a fairly small table in the bar area with my friend. The lack of booths was a minor annoyance, but I didn’t sit near the actual tables anyways. After skimming the menu everything looked fairly delicious. They had some interesting menu items such as a soft pretzel, but let’s get into the items I ordered.

The water they brought was in what seemed to resemble a wine bottle, which was a unique twist. The wait staff was friendly, social, and seemed to have some experience, which added to the atmosphere. Also the fact that it was an old Standard Oil building made it pretty cool, but still doesn’t compete against places like Vinsetta Garage in Birmingham, which also features an old auto shop theme. Despite being fairly loud, I enjoyed the atmosphere regardless.

I quickly jumped to the conclusion that I should order a burger. Restaurants usually have a signature burger available, so I went ahead and got the “Red Crown Burger”. Also I ordered a milkshake that was $7. In my opinion, no milkshake is worth $7, but I had to see what it was all about.

I waited an average amount of time for my food (a solid 20 minutes), but was not compensated with bread or anything to snack on. When it arrived, I was pleased with the appearance of the burger and the fries looked delicious as well. The milkshake was not worth $7, to say the least, and the burger was pretty good. It had the “fancy sauce” which seemed to be a mild Big Mac sauce, onions, lettuce, and pickles. But it’s time to disregard that, since they took the burger off of the menu after the first week. I really was looking forward to getting it again because it was actually affordable.

Second time around I ordered quite a few things, and shared meals with a friend. As stated before, there were no booths, and the tables were very close. First I ordered the onion rings as an appetizer. They brought me the pretzel bites by accident so it extended my wait time for the onion rings. When they arrived I was disappointed. There were five. Five onion rings for $8. They were not worth $8. They were interesting because they had more of a “chicken fried” breading compared to how they usually are prepared. They fixed their “fancy sauce” that was on the burger, which tastes so much better now.

The entrees my friend and I ordered were the perch and chips and the ribs with mac and cheese, cornbread, and fries. The perch batter was too thick. There was more batter than fish and with perch being a small cut, it shouldn’t even be battered. The fries were delicious as always, but then again, it’s not that difficult to make good fries.

The ribs were interesting. It definitely matters what ones preference is, but it tasted like I was eating a firework. It was too smoky. I called the waiter over and asked for barbecue sauce to help get rid of the smoke taste but alas, they had none. The sides were great, I loved the cornbread; it was soft and buttery, and the mac and cheese was delicious as well.

With a wonderful wait staff and some good food, prepare to be treated at this restaurant, but expect to pay quite a bit of cash and order quite a bit, due to the small portion sizes. I would rate “Red Crown” a C- because of some OK food and high prices, but it has only been its first month and they are bound to improve.