The first time I went into MacKenzie River Pizza Grill & Pub I knew that I would have to bring my husband, Bobby, back to try it. There was just something about the place and the fact that though they originated from Montana, it was their pizza they were known for, so it was a no brainer that I would be back with my pizza-loving husband. That was almost one year ago, but I finally accomplished this during a recent trip to Columbus.
Friends of ours, Ron and Jan Maxwell, had invited us to join them for the MercyMe concert held at Nationwide Arena in the Arena District of Columbus. Because the concert was on the same day as a home game of The Ohio State Buckeye football team, we weren’t sure how bad the traffic would be. So when conversations around what restaurant to go to before the concert, the chance arose for me to suggest MacKenzie River, located at the Polaris exit, north of the city.
What I loved about the first time I went and truly got to enjoy this time, was the ambience. They have trees, white birch trees, as part of their decor! I’m much more a mountain person than a beach person, so this definitely was inspiring to me. We were able to get a table right by the trees. And I got to sit right by them. Plus the fact that it was pretty early for dinner, it was just us four in the section for quite some time.
The last time I had gone, I had a pasta dish and it was very good. But I will admit that I was a little nervous that the rest of the group wouldn’t enjoy the place as much as I had. I worried needlessly because MacKenzie River has just about anything you would want for a meal.
We were pretty hungry, having not had lunch because we would be having an early dinner. That meant we would begin our culinary adventure with ordering more than we could eat at one time. We ordered from the starters menu, the pizza menu, the “from the grill” menu, the flatbreads menu and the dessert menus. (Although we did wait until the end of our meal to order desserts.)
Here’s a hint — download the River Rewards app and get a flatbread free with a $15 order (at the time this writing). We had all wanted to try a couple of the flatbreads, but when our waitress told us about this, it sealed the deal!
Because the menu was pretty varied it did take a little while for us to pin down exactly what we wanted, but I finally settled on the Poutine burger. It is 1/2 lb all beef burger with crispy fries, bacon, white cheddar cheese curds, beef gravy & scallions on a brioche bun. I asked them to keep the scallions off. Bobby later reminded me that Poutine is a Canadian dish. All I can tell you is that it was amazing! I’m usually the person that orders mayo, ketchup and mustard to go on a burger. Not this time.
The gravy was all the burger needed as far as a condiment goes (if you can call gravy a condiment). Everything on the sandwich worked so well together. The only thing that I can say to the negative is that it was a bit messy. It does have gravy, you know. I also thought it was neat to have the initials of MacKenzie River Pizza branded in the bun.
Bobby ordered a cheese pizza and buffalo wings. (The wings were on the starters menu, but he had our waitress bring them out with the rest of the meal.) The pizza wasn’t cooked directly on bricks or stones, rather in a pan. Bobby prefers Neapolitan-style pizza cooked in a brick oven. Though it wasn’t cooked this way, the pizza was good for being a cheese pizza. I know I have told you before, I like pizza with lots of toppings, but Bobby doesn’t. Because I had already ordered my meal, he had the final say. So only cheese was what we got. Bobby says that if you like Gionino’s pizza, then you will like MacKenzie River Pizza. It reminded him a lot like that.
He said the wings, which were Buffalo style, were good. They were breaded wings. They had a good flavor and were a good size, too. Bobby surmises that the breading helped to hold some of the sauce on the wings, which allowed the Buffalo flavor to come through more strongly than if they hadn’t been breaded. Sometimes, traditional Buffalo wings do not have much of a flavor, especially if they have been sitting around and the sauce drips off.
Ron made the decision to go with the Street Taco Trio. The dish included a pork carnitas taco, an ancho grilled shrimp taco and a southwest chicken taco. Each of the tacos come with a house specialty hot sauce. The plate presentation of the dish was pretty cool and the specialty sauces came out in a little eye dropper type thing. (See picture.) Ron really liked his meal.
Jan decided to go with the Black and Bleu Bites starter and the Apple and Chicken flatbread for her meal — which she shared with the rest of the table. Thanks, Jan! The Black and Bleu bites are blackened sirloin bits with bleu cheese crumbles and a warm bleu cheese sauce. They had the type of bite you would expect from both blackened seasoning and bleu cheese. I don’t think I could do a whole steak like that, but as bites, they were pretty terrific.
The Apple and Chicken flatbread was made with garlic infused olive oil, smoked Gouda and cheddar topped with roasted Gala apples, chicken, hickory smoked bacon and caramelized onions. Thankfully Jan decided to not get it with caramelized onions so that I could try it. Thanks, Jan! It is drizzled with a bourbon BBQ sauce, which kind of reminded me of a balsamic vinegar.
The other flatbread we tried was the Pear and Bleu. It consisted of a flatbread covered with a bleu cheese sauce and mozzarella topped with pears, candied walnuts and dried cranberries. They topped it with baby arugula that had been tossed in a citrus honey vinaigrette.
Of the two flatbreads, I liked the Apple and Chicken one better than the Pear and Bleu. Even with the blue cheese sauce, the pear flatbread was pretty mild, but not as sweet as I expected it to be with pears, candied walnuts and dried cranberries. The apple and chicken flatbread seemed like it had more substance to it.
You might think that we were done. I mean we knew we were taking food home with us, but I learned my lesson of missing out on a dessert when we were in Washington, D.C. (That’s another story for another time, but let me just tell you, I left a restaurant without trying a yellow layered cake with chocolate frosting and have regretted it ever since.) Therefore, if I see a dessert that I want to try at a restaurant not in a location where I am frequently, I will order it. While I would normally go with chocolate dessert over anything else, the Kentucky Toast was just too tempting. It is a butter pound cake deep-fried covered with a bourbon caramel sauce served with vanilla ice cream. They top it all off with a dusting of smoked sea salt flakes. Now, tell me where else are you going to find a dessert like that? I’ve never had deep-fried pound cake, but now that I have, I will most likely get it again. The crispy exterior and the soft interior work so well together! With the sauce and the ice cream and salt flakes and cake it makes the dessert scrumptious. Instead of just deep-frying the pound cake, Bobby said he thinks it would have been better if it had been dipped in some kind of breading or batter, perhaps a funnel cake batter.
Ron and Jan ordered the Mack Lovin’ dessert. Which is chocolate chip cookies in a “piping hot skillet” with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce. Again, because we asked for enough spoons to allow us all to share the desserts, I got my cake and got to eat chocolate chip cookies, too!
