My Iowa City Restaurant Reviews

There is a tea room called the Leaf Kitchen here in Iowa City that I drive by every day on my way to the post office, but never gone into until I read a glowing review in the paper, so we went this week. First, I am intrigued at the decor, 1960s tag sale furniture and dishes, the menu looks great, I can hardly choose, so many favorites, from curried chicken salad to quiche Lorraine to a chicken club, all made with fresh local ingredients. Unfortunately, this was all dashed by the very slow service, then the very disappointing meal. My curried chicken salad was edible, but I never would have guessed "fresh" as being the byword for this. My own curried chicken salad is SOOO much better, as is my quiche Lorraine, which is what Grace ordered. Anna got the chicken club, all announced that I am a much better cook, and I am certainly not ready for Top Chef. The only winning dish for us was the lentil soup, we all thought it was great, but I'm guessing Tom Colicchio would pronounce the lentils undercooked.

Also this week, we went to the Brown Bottle, been here in Iowa City for forever and the food snobs would not tell you to go there for dinner, but they would be wrong, the Brown Bottle makes the most delicious alfredo sauce and their creamy garlic salad dressing is amazing. I must also recommend the bread served with olive oil with a roasted garlic in it, which really could be a meal all by itself. We usually don't get it, just because we never have room for dinner after! I must make a note that my husband hates their food, but he also will put barbeque sauce on any food and once asked me when I was going to learn to make casserole topped with crumbled potato chips on the night I made chicken crepes for dinner.

Now, I have to take the girls to see the Lorax, because they love Taylor Swift almost as much as Harry Potter and Alice in Wonderland, but I will be back to list my fingers to the bone, here are the photos of the little robins egg collection (big robins egg collection to follow.) My blue and white dream antiques are in the top photos.