Midwest Grill: Lunch Review

Grilled meat overload!

I stopped by the new Midwest Grill on Rt.1 North in Saugus for lunch. I am a big fan of their Cambridge restaurant so hoped that the Saugus location would be comparable.

The dining room holds about forty tables. At the front of the restaurant, near the entrance, is a place for a couple musicians as the restaurant has live music some nights. The rear of the restaurant has the buffet and kitchen. The front and the left sides of the restaurant has large windows looking out into the parking lot and Rt.1.

They have a full bar, including some special Brazilian drinks like the Caipirinha. The wine list has a couple dozen choices, including wines from Brazil, Portugal, Spain and elsewhere.

For lunch, the Rodizio, the all you can eat BBQ, costs $18.95 ($1 higher than the price on their website). Please note that they add 18% to your bill as a tip. I am not sure that I like an automatic tip added to the bill. I can understand it for large parties, but not for parties of two.

The Hot Foods Buffet and Cold Salads Station is large, similar to the one at their Cambridge restaurant. There are several different types of salads. There are dishes including white rice, fried yucca, french fries, beans, fried chicken, and more. I like the variety but most of the foods I tried were not really hot. As they had just opened for lunch, the foods definitely should have all been hot. This is something they need to work on.

The succession of grilled meats then began to come on skewers. They included sirloin, garlic beef, lamb, chicken wrapped in bacon, chicken breast, kielbasa, Brazilian sausage, pork loin, chicken hearts and garlic bread. For the most point, the meats were very good. The initial pork loin we were served obviously was from the day before and was very dry. This is the only meat though that seemed to have been from the prior day. When they brought a fresh pork loin, it was delicious. The garlic beef and lamb were especially good. As was the garlic bread. I did not like the sausage as I did not care for its flavor.

Service was excellent. Everyone was personable and helpful. They brought clean plates when needed, and asked what meats we wanted after the initial line-up was delivered to our table. they kept my water glass filled and made sure everything else was good.

The restaurant has only been open about two weeks. It still has a few kinks to work out. The main problem is ensuring the food on the hot buffet is actually hot. It definitely has the potential to be comparable to their Cambridge restaurant. I am hopeful that the restaurant will improve over the next weeks. It has the typical growing pains of most new restaurants.

I will return there, for lunch and dinner, in the near future and will see if things change.

Midwest Grill
910 Broadway (Rte 1)
Saugus, MA 01906