Jake's Restaurant

www.eatatjakes.com

Jake’s a Place for Steaks has never witnessed me order a steak. Actually, I don’t think that I’ve ordered a steak out at a restaurant in all my time dining in and around Wooster. I remember a friend got sick from Pepper Steak once at a Thai restaurant in Canal Fulton, but other than that I was a steakless-wanderer.

Jake’s is known in my mind for other things: an endless menu, cheap ice cream sundae shots, and wonderful times with friends. I went there on retreats, after driving long distances, for my birthday, and just randomly. The crab legs, the burgers, and the soups my friends have enjoyed. However, I remember jake’s for its really good Caesar salad, its pasta, and its really big queso burrito! One awesome feature of ordering a salad at Jake's is that it comes with a hulking, well seasoned bread stick. Giddy-up!

I also remember dining on their fudge brownie one night, which was sensational. Anything that resembles a lava cake to me and has molten chocolate oozing out of it is a must-eat menu item. Their fudge brownie compared, quite well actually, to the best lava cake I have ever eaten, which was at wild ginger just down the road.

One of my friends ordered a teriyaki chicken skillet at Jake's once and came away really enjoying it, but with a little too much food. If I had one complaint to make of Jake's it would be that the amount of food you get is a little hefty.

Also Jake’s menu has changed within recent years (duh.. that makes sense!) so that it now offers a more precise seafood menu and less pasta items. The seafood friends have ordered there has all been wonderful; however, I just wish that they’d bring the pasta items back to the menu. It would be nice to reconvene there with pasta dishes.

Their drink selection and pricing is a little better than some places and the atmosphere is that of tumbleweed. You have your bar area, which looks fancy and well-equipped. Several booth chambers up high that line the windows and then an open seating floor with booths surrounding it. While Jake’s is a local chain with two other locations, one in Mount Vernon and the other in Ashland, I wouldn’t classify their food as spectacularly local. It seems that the chain, unlike broken rocks or city square steakhouse, is more of a TGI-Fridays atmosphere and standing. It’s a middle-class working crowd with kids, not an older, bag-o-money sort of place.

I’d be remiss to add that I have sampled one of their soups that is excellent. I simply love their beer cheese soup! Second-best I’ve had in my entire life. You can put wonderful croutons in it and walk away feeling like a cup slurped was a double-meal indulgence!