Fuddruckers

Fuddruckers is a popular restaurant in the Chicagoland area (are there Fuddruckers elsewhere? I don't know). We went there the other day as part of a birthday celebration and the food was very yummy. But, how are the rings? There was a difference of opinion for this restaurant.

Mommy - likes Fuddruckers onion rings. While not perfect they are consistent. The onions are always sweet and they are never over-cooked. She'd give them a 6 out of 10 rating.

Daddy - does not like Fuddruckers rings. They are mushy and the onions themselves are slimy. But the breading is tasty. I usually just eat the breading.

Ian - is not that happy with them. The onions aren't cooked enough and when he bites into them he can't bite through the onions, so the whole onion comes out of the breading like a long worm.

Cami - likes Fuddruckers chocolate shakes. We all like them, which sort of bums her out because we snarf a lot of her shake.

Bottom line, Fuddruckers has good food (but getting pricier as time goes on), but unless you like large mushy rings I would get the fries.

Das Dutchman Essenhaus

On our trip to Shipshewana we stopped for dinner at the Das Dutchman Essenhaus restaurant. It's a fun place and the food is really good, and reasonably priced in my opinion. It's worth a stop if you're in the Nappanee, Indiana area. For my dinner I got a chance to choose my "sides" so I picked onion rings (what else?). Our thoughts:

Mommy: Thought they were pretty good, but not amazing.

Daddy: I liked these rings. I would put them only behind Portillo's as my favorite so far. They are not spectacular, but better than I expected. They were crispy, which is the way I like them. I'm not a fan of big gooey rings.

Ian: Liked them a lot. He ended up eating many of the rings I was given.

Cami: She didn't get a malt at this restaurant, so we'll have to wait for our next visit to critique those.

Das Dutchman Essenhaus is a good family restaurant. They give you decent amounts of food and it's not as expensive as you might expect in a tourist area.

Splash Universe in Shipshewana, Indiana

For Spring Break, 2011, we went for a couple of days to Splash Universe in Shipshewana, Indiana. It's a fun place and we got a fairly decent deal on our room. The kids had a great time in the water park and we had a good time too. The water park is smallish as water parks go, but that works with smaller kids because there aren't a lot of places for the kids to disappear to. Off to one side is the food area (where a lot of parents hang out) where you can order pizzas and nachos and, of course, onion rings. So, we tried a small order. Here are our opinions:

Mommy: The rings had very little flavor but they had a decent texture. She wouldn't order them again given the chance, especially since they were expensive as onion rings go.

Daddy: Agreed with Mommy that the rings didn't have much flavor, but he liked them all the same. However, the price is prohibitive (to be fair everything there was expensive). Daddy wound up eating most of the rings.

Ian: Ian thought they were ok, but not worth a trip back to get them. He ate a few but didn't seem all that interested, which in itself is an indication of his view of them.

Cami: We got her a chocolate malt from the "Creamery" there at the hotel. She really liked it, as did Daddy and Ian. I wish we had gotten more of them. However, the malt still was not as good as the ones we get at Oberweiss.

Splash Universe is a fun place and while you're there you may get the opportunity to buy some rings at the snack shop. Go ahead and get them, if you have the cash to do so, but don't expect to be wow'ed.