This past weekend I drove the long drive of 31 miles to Stanton, Nebraska, to check out the Uptown Brewery. With the brewaery being in a small town I figured I could dress for comfort not for style, but this brewery was way fancier than I thought. My boyfriend and I sat down in the café part, which was much more relaxed for our gym shorts and t-shirts. The other side was more of an elegant restaurant style; table cloths were covering the tables and lights were hanging. The place was old, antiquey, and there was wood literally everywhere.

Since the school year is winding down and food reviews are coming to an end, I thought I would splurge on the shrimp scampi, but for $13.95 I just couldn’t justify it — so I went with a little the less expensive $9.95 seafood stuffed mushrooms. I was trying to be adventurous without spending a fortune, but I probably should have spent my fortune.

To start off, a salad came with my entrée, so I went to the very tiny salad bar and got my cold fresh salad — no croutons, so I was very sad. Anyway, not sure if our meals were taking a long time or if the staff was just really friendly, but they let my boyfriend and I get some pancakes from the buffet. The pancakes were amazing, let me tell you, I should have had that as my entrée, but they didn’t even offer it.

When our meals did come, I was a little sad with the portion size. I had seven regular sized mushrooms stuffed with seafood, and no extra side. My boyfriend got a grilled chicken sandwich, no side, so depressing.

Anyway, the mushrooms were upside down and carved out and stuffed to the brim with seafood. The type of seafood wasn’t written out on the menu, but I was guessing it was crab, I could be wrong so don’t quote me on that.

The seven mushrooms were covered in a light-colored orange sauce that was very thick. I have no idea what it was, but it was interesting. There was paprika sprinkled over top of everything to finish it off. The sauce had a weird type of lumpy texture, the mushrooms were mushy but leathery, and the seafood was watery and stringy.

All in all, it was packed with flavor that I feel only a person with an acquired taste could appreciate. Being the broke, non-cultured college student that I am, I do not have that acquired taste. After four mushrooms, I was done; I couldn’t finish the rest, so I paid a lot of money for not a lot of food.

I ended up paying even more money for a piece of cheesecake so I could eat something else and hopefully get full. I didn’t get full, but the cheesecake was pretty decent. It was just plain cheese cake and they had different sauces they could drizzle on, but we chose chocolate and caramel.

In the end, I feel like I was being too adventurous and maybe if I had tried something “normal,” I would have been more impressed. They should give you more food (and honestly a side because what entrée doesn’t have a side, not counting the salad). They also don’t have that much on their menu but advertise as “Norfolk’s best restaurant, is in Stanton.” They should add more of a variety, cut down the price, and I’d be back in a heartbeat to try and redeem my bad first impression of this restaurant.