As I mentioned last time, we were following the alphabet this year as a fun little add-on to Dining with Dad. This week should have been the letter O, which for being in Ohio, I surprisingly didn’t find many options. Alex will be going off to college in two weeks so this is the last Dining with Dad for now. Megan mentioned and idea to ask the kids if they wanted to stick with the alphabet or just have me find a nice place to go. They chose to select any place which was good because Olive Garden or O’Charley’s just don’t sound as good! 🤣. After looking around, somehow I ran across Houlihan’s which is down around the campus area.

We got a late start out of the house because work was crazy and we had a 5:30pm reservation. Getting through downtown at that time is never fun and the GPS told us of a backup but luckily took us on a shortcut that we did once before that saved us some time. We arrived at 5:32pm, which if you know me, you know I was anxious about! Once we walked in the hostess asked if we wanted to sit in the bar area as apparently only the bar area gets the Happy Hour deals, which were still going on until 6pm. That was music to my ears so of course we chose that option and they had a large corner booth that we got to sit in instead of a high top which was nice. I had the kids look over the Happy Hour appetizer specials while I picked out my first drink (a nice Mojito) and they went with the Pan fried Pork Dumplings. The first thing they mentioned when they arrived was how surprised they were that we got so many! I’d have to go back and re-read our past locations but we went somewhere that for Happy Hour they gave us 3! It was pathetic. I spotted a soup that I was going to get with my meal so I only had one and let the kids split the rest. After asking them how many each of them had, I realized we were given 7, which is much more appropriate I believe. They were also very good and the kids thought so as well.

I had looked at the menu obviously before we went and really thought Chloe was going to struggle deciding on what to order. It was partly one of the reasons I chose Houlihan’s because I saw they had so many great dishes that I knew both kids would enjoy. She spotted just about every dish that I thought she might (which I think was at least four different ones) but surprisingly didn’t struggle much on making her selection. Ever since she’s had Cap City’s meatloaf, she’s been hooked on a good meatloaf. The only thing she asked about was the red wine mushroom gravy as I think she was nervous because it had wine in it, but I assured her it would be good so she stuck to her guns. She ate every morsel of it and she let me have just a small bite to check it out. It was delicious!

Alex found his entree so quick! As they were munching on the dumplings I just casually asked them if they knew what they wanted for their entree, not really expecting an answer yet, and Alex said he knew! He really surprised me when he said he was going for the Pot Roast. I didn’t see that one coming. I’m not even sure if he’s had pot roast before. He made a great decision though, as just like Chloe, he allowed me to have a bite. It was so tender, juicy, and just fell apart as you ate it. It was also a great choice.

I know you’ve been on pins and needles wondering what soup I saw that I was going to have with my entree. 😁. They actually had a couple soups that I would have tried on their menu, but the one I was really in the mood for was the French Onion soup. It has been a while since I’ve had one and that hit the spot!!

I think it took me the longest to decide on what to get. I knew I was having the soup so I decided to go with something small so I didn’t walk away stuffed. I went for the 4oz filet as that with a couple sides would be just right. Obviously, I went with Medium-Rare as anything else is just WRONG! For the sides I went with those delicious garlic green beans that all of us ended up getting, and then the twice baked potatoes! It wasn’t necessarily the “best” steak I’ve had, but it wasn’t bad either. The green beans and potatoes though were on point! I was very happy with the choice.