Alex kept asking me this week if I could take them somewhere “special” like Melting Pot. He didn’t want an “ordinary” restaurant. Have I spoiled them too much with this tradition? Well, maybe. I had this location planned earlier this week and really didn’t know much about it. I did look at their website however and felt like this might meet his request.

We had reservations for 5:30 but were all hungry so we headed up to Johnstown a little early. We were told that the table wasn’t quite ready and to hang out in the little lobby area, so we were able to grab a quick picture of it before they then told us they rearranged some things and could seat us. We sat over on the bar side of the restaurant in a comfortable booth next to the exposed brick wall. One unique feature we noticed was that every table had their own bottle of hand sanitizer. We’ve been eating out throughout this pandemic and this is the first place we’ve seen with this small gesture.

Let’s jump right into the food, as there’s much to share. Chloe decided this week to order off the kids menu. Chloe’s go to meal for the longest time has been chicken tenders/nuggets. Once she saw these on the menu, she quickly made her decision. The tenders came with what the menu calls “crispy fries”, but they were hand cut fries; definitely wouldn’t classify them as “crispy” but they were very good.

Alex looked over the kids menu and the adult menu and quickly narrowed down his choice to Wagyu burger. He ordered it cooked medium-well and it was cooked perfectly. They charred the bun, which he doesn’t particularly like, but I thought was delicious and added to the flavor for sure! His favorite part was actually the dijonaise sauce. He thought it reminded him of the cucumber sauce you get at a Greek restaurant. He ate most of it so clearly it worked!

Now to what I thought was the best meal of all three. I ordered the Salmon, which just like the burger was cooked perfectly. It sits on a bed of a medley of vegetables (potato hash, butternut squash, charred leaks, mushrooms, spinach, white balsamic maple vinaigrette). At many restaurants, I almost consider this as a filler, something to throw on the plate with the main dish. In this case, I could have had this as my meal, it was THAT good! The salmon was fantastic as well and combined very well with the rest of the plate.

When viewing the menu online earlier this week, I took a sneak peek at the dessert menu. I found what is probably my favorite dessert of all time, bread pudding! I knew before we even left the house, I was definitely getting this. The salmon was very light so I actually had plenty of room to enjoy dessert, which doesn’t happen often!

I’ve never had bread pudding with cherries before and am now sad that I never had. They were delicious in there. What was really unique about this though was the almond brittle that they had on top. In no way was it necessary, but I’m sure glad they decided to add it to the dish. It added just another bit of class to an already excellent dessert. I definitely know where I’ll be heading the next time I have an urge for bread pudding.

I couldn’t eat dessert alone, although it certainly wouldn’t have bothered me. So the kids also found something on the menu that each of them wanted.

One of Alex’s favorite desserts is Churro’s. When we were at Disney we had to hunt these down, asking vendor after vendor where the Churro stand was until he finally got his Churros. These churro’s came with a caramel dipping sauce that topped these off well.

Last but not least, Chloe got the oversized chocolate chip cookie with a bowl of homemade vanilla bean ice cream. I think we pretty much all got our favorite desserts as Chloe loves her ice cream. I think the only thing that would top that would be cheesecake.

When you add up the service, which was excellent, the atmosphere, the cleanliness, the entrees, and the desserts, Ghostwriter was definitely a home run of a restaurant. I don’t want to get in the business of ranking the restaurants that we visit, but I will say that this is definitely in the top. I can’t wait to go back at some point and try more dishes. If you live in Columbus, I’d highly recommend making the drive up to Johnstown to give this a try.