What's for Dinner

Christine and I sometimes like to go out for an inexpensive quick dinner or lunch. There are a lot of options to choose from in the East Cooper area. One of the ways that we decide (when we don’t have a coupon or gift certificate) is through the “restaurant bowl”. We have written the names of several inexpensive area restaurants on slips of paper, folded them and placed them in a bowl that sits on the microwave. When we want to go out, and don’t know where we want to go, we choose from the bowl. This game keeps us from forgetting about some of our favorites and keeps us rotating around.

The general rules for our bowl are (you can make up your own):

1. Dinner for two for under $20 or so.
2. Good food and service.
3. Locally owned
4. Must be in Mount Pleasant, Sullivan’s Island, Isle of Palms (preferably within 10-15 minutes of Highway 41).

Currently, the selections in the bowl are:

• Five Guys Burgers –I already broke the rules. They are not local. They are the exception to the rule
• Benito’s
• Andolini’s
• Zeus
• Blue’s Wings
• Kickin’ Chicken - This restaurant has the cleverest website
• Pick Again - if one of us gets this, the other person gets to pick from the bowl.

I would love to have a great Mexican place in there. The one we had has gone so far downhill that we took it out. I am considering adding Poe’s and Budiroes. Poe’s is great. But, it is too hard to park around there from May to September. Budiroes new place is pretty good. I will have to see if I can get it by the other half of the approval committee. Sullivan’s is great. I just can’t get out of there for under $20 for the two of us. We still go there; they just aren’t in the bowl.

The pickin’s are slim right now due to The Loop closing and some bad experiences at some of the other restaurants. Any suggestions would be welcome.