4 new things to eat: The Mitchell Olson takeover

We cover new restaurant openings literally all the time at our sister site, SiouxFalls.Business, which also means we can dig into the menu so you know what’s in store for you.

But this week, we handed 4 new things to eat over to our friend Mitchell Olson. You probably know him for his role on “Survivor.” But we think he could hold his own on the Food Network too.

He and husband Mark celebrated Mark’s birthday last week with nine days of dining out (!) and he agreed to do this takeover to share his top four meals with you:

Mama’s Ladas turns 20 years old this year! It’s one of my favorite places for a number of reasons. Their indoor dining is so unique inside the quaint, itty-bitty brick boiler room turned restaurant! Their menu is as compact as their location. It’s basically just enchiladas! Chicken or beef – and shrimp on the weekends. I did one chicken and one shrimp. They also do a delicious and chunky homemade salsa! It’s safe to say that the biggest part of Mama’s Ladas is the taste!

I can’t believe I’ve never tried hibachi until Fuji Sushi & Hibachi Grill! Maybe the idea of it scared me off. It was nice to see that people walked in with or without reservations.

You don’t need a large group in order to get the full treatment. I even saw a father and his 4-year-old child sitting all alone by a grill and receiving the full service with tricks and a flamboyant show – from flipping shrimp into their chef hat and catching eggs in the air on their cooking utensil. It’s a fairly simple ordering process. You basically just pick a protein: chicken, steak, fish, veggie. Then sit back, and enjoy the show!

Here’s another location with a very simple menu: R Wine Bar & Kitchen. They specialize in a few delicious appetizers and a handful of pastas. I had the Pasta Al Pesto Genovese. It’s a rotini pasta with roasted red peppers and cremini mushrooms that’s tossed in a pesto sauce with Romano cheese. I also added chicken.

The food was fantastic, as was the entertainment. They had a jazz ensemble that welcomed other local artists to join them on the stage. It was like an open mic for all musicians –BYO instrument!

22Ten Kitchen is one of my favorite locations with its large open seating area, outdoor deck and daily happy hour specials. We purposely chose this restaurant because they often have a seasonal menu, and we wanted to try their spring specials. We ordered chicken fuego tacos as well as a fiesta bowl.

And we even had the strawberry pretzel salad for dessert. Everything was so tasty! The tacos were shredded chicken, pepper slaw and jalapenos drizzled with blood orange dressing. The fiesta bowl was green chile chicken, black beans, roasted corn, avocado, pico and cilantro lime cream.

Would you like to take over 4 new things to eat some week? Send your pitch to [email protected]! Thanks, Mitchell and Mark!