Kem’s Restaurant & Lounge

2 Reviews on “Kem’s Restaurant & Lounge”

• Zac Bond

  Fine dining simulacrum. My wife and I went to Kem’s (located in the Holiday Inn next to Wal-Mart in CHristiansburg) for dinner tonight. We began with a spinach and artichoke dip appetizer. The chips were freshly fried, but incorrectly (or possibly just left out too long) because about half were crisp and the rest were tough and chewy. I wasn’t sure what to make of the dip; it had large pieces of artichoke and cut spinach leaves but the gelatinous texture suggested a bottled or frozen product. It had zero cheese, which is unusual for a spinach and artichoke dip. We also had salads and a special soup–beef and mushroom. The latter was good, with large pieces of sliced mushroom, a beef broth, and a few pieces of beef floating around. For the salads, I inquired which dressings were made in-house. The server said the ranch and blue cheese were, so I chose ranch. Sadly, however, my wife recognized its texture and flavor as the same dressing her workplace gets in bulk from U.S. Foods (also the source for the brand of saltines accompanying our soup). I also agreed–I didn’t taste the creaminess that I expect from freshly-made dressings. I don’t know if our server was dishonest or misinformed. The salad itself was a nice mix of generic bagged salad plus some nicely shaved cucumbers, onions and a three grape tomatoes. I can’t speak to my wife’s salmon (she said it was OK), but I wasn’t super impressed with my ribeye. I ordered it medium-rare and it was a bit on the rare side. That’s OK; what’s not OK is that it was completely devoid of seasoning. It also was rubbery and difficult to cut. It did have prominent and perfectly symmetrical square grill marks, which suggests a reheated frozen product to me. On the other hand, I enjoyed the grilled mixed vegetables, which were 90% green beans with a few tiny fragments of zucchini and bell pepper tossed in. The mashed potatoes were also nice. They seemed to be red potatoes with a vast amount of cream, or possibly some kind of cream substitute–although good, they seemed more oily than creamy.That brings us to dessert. We ordered the citrus honey pound cake because it sounded interesting, but in retrospect it’s not clear why a very sweet pound cake needs a big dose of honey. The pound cake itself resembled a snack-cake pound cake you might get at a gas station, and had been briefly grilled on one side only for some reason. We asked for a scoop of ice cream to help it go down. Overall, the restaurant has the attentive server and the menu (and the prices!) to suggest quality, but I get the sense that the management is just too cheap to deliver. Probably they don’t get sufficient business to afford freshly-made food all the time, which oddly enough ensures they won’t ever get that level of businessIn short, I can’t recommend eating here.

  February 9, 2014, 2:57 am

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• Roger Wise

  Great spot, very fresh ingredients, a menu full of creative dishes. Hidden inside Holiday Inn across from the mall. Glad I found it.

  December 20, 2013, 9:20 pm

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