In an attempt for a cheap date recently, my husband and I used the Restaurant.com website to purchase a gift certificate for Mickey Roos on Hillsboro Road in Franklin.
Restaurant.com was offering a $25 gift certificate for $10.
We also used the RetailMeNot.com website and found a discount code that actually let us buy the $25 gift certificate for $2 — a pretty good deal for a cheap date!
I had never been to Mickey Roos before, but I love barbeque so I was hoping for good things. I wasn’t disappointed.
First Impressions
Driving into the parking lot was my first good sign — the smell was amazing.
The folks at Mickey Roos say their smoker is smoking all day, and that smell is a great advertisement!
We were there around 6 p.m. on a Thursday and didn’t have any problems getting a table, although the place was comfortably busy.
The service was great — friendly and fast.
Prices & Specials
When you use a Restaurant.com gift certificate, there are often requirements. Ours indicated that we had to spend at least $35. Since we had paid $2 for a $25 gift certificate, this meant we could get $25 worth of food for $12 — a pretty good deal.
Menu prices at Mickey Roos are very reasonable — which meant that even on our “cheap date” we ordered sodas, 2 entrees, an appetizer and dessert.
How’s The Food?
The food was all fairly good; some things were better than others.
We both loved the Hat Tippin’ Nachos — lots of spice and great flavors. The nachos were covered in some fantastic chili. (I’ll have to remember to order chili next time.) We got a half order of nachos for our appetizer, and that was plenty.
For our main order, I got the No Bull Chicken, which was advertised as “half of a chicken cooked to perfection.” My husband got the Barbeque Plate with Brisket. Both the chicken and the brisket were well cooked. The chicken had a great smoky flavor to it and was incredibly moist. The brisket had a nice flavor to it, although it was a bit fatty — a problem that a lot of barbeque places have with their briskets.
In many restaurants that are known for their barbeque, I have found that their sides may not be all that great. Mickey Roos, however, does a fairly nice job with their sides. I ordered the onion straws and the corn on the cob. The onion straws had a good kick to them and although the corn didn’t taste like summer corn, it didn’t taste frozen either. The green beans were pretty plain — I would like to have seen them jazzed up a bit more with some bacon or pork, but their taste was good. The coleslaw had an excellent flavor.
We really enjoyed the barbeque, but we both agree that our favorite part of the meal was dessert! We shared a banana pudding, and I honestly thought we were going to take turns licking the bowl. It was wonderful — the kind that grandmas make — it was that good.
Entertainment And More
Mickey Roos serves as a bar and entertainment venue as well. There is live entertainment every night of the week.
Just as we were leaving, a band was getting ready to set up. It’s a relatively small place, which could make it good for listening to music. On the downside, if people are going there to talk, it may be a bit loud.
Strangely, I only had one real complaint with Mickey Roos. The place was super dark. I don’t think I’ve ever been in a restaurant that was that dark — it was a little hard to even see our food. Overall, it wasn’t that big of deal, but it was something that both my husband and I noticed right away.
If you want to get together a group of friends for a night out, Mickey Roos would be a great place to hang out for awhile. If you, like my husband and me, are looking for an inexpensive date restaurant, purchase a coupon from Restaurant.com and it makes a fairly inexpensive restaurant a cheap date.
I recently moved to the area and am on a fast track to getting to know my way around. I have 4 kids, so I will be writing a lot about family-friendly activities. I also network with several other mothers and am always looking for good ideas.
