New and old ... all together

• FOOD REVIEW - Friday night I went out to dinner with a friend. The restaurant we selected is the new joint called "Laguna Grill" located on Dupont Road in the former Japanese restaurant "Mysono". I actually enjoyed that restaurant. Great sushi - had it's own sushi bar where fresh sushi was made. It also had a long cooking table with plasma screen televisions where you can watch the cooking in progress. Well, back to the food review of Laguna Grill. As you would expect on a Friday night at 6:00 p.m. in the restaurant world in Fort Wayne, the place was... well, it really wasn't busy. It was not standing room only, in fact there was no wait at all. In fact, there were not more than seven tables occupied. Ironically, when I walked into the entrance it smelled like a tanning salon. Oh, it is located next door to one, how appetizing! The former sushi bar is there but not operational. The real bar was also not operational, either. The plasma screens were showing cable television. The cooking table, well it sat empty. The building looks the same just no sushi. First gander at the menu and one may wonder if it was written by a person with ADD. Soups and salads are mixed in with the eggs, the pasta and the burgers. It was four pages and the prices were very reasonable. A special was announced by our oddly-friendly waitress. She returned to the table about four times before we had selected our entrees. We really were just enjoying our conversation, but I am certain she was making sure our order was in before the mad-rush would commence. My friend ordered a blue burger and a Caesar salad with the dressing on the side. I ordered the Cajun burger and a Caesar salad with the dressing on the side. Within minutes our waitress brought out a wooden sushi tray with a warm loaf of bread. (hmm, foreshadowing). Our salads arrived shortly thereafter on a flat plate a small flat "bowl" (that was formerly a soy sauce dipping plate). The salad was bag-ready so it was just like home cooking ought to be. When our dinner arrived, our hamburgers, they arrived on a larger flat plate. The burger was very large, and served open faced. The inside of the bun was toasted however the top was not. The blue burger had chunks of crumbled blue cheese on it, with a few slices of tomato and lettuce leaf. The Cajun burger had grilled onions, with a few slices of tomato and lettuce leaf. Uncertain why it was Cajun because it had not flavor of creole, or blackened. The burger was slightly pink. It tasted pretty good, but just seemed to be missing something. The table behind us ordered there hamburgers while we were eating and the waitress said that board of health prohibits hamburgers being cooked any other way except well. I wanted to lean back and said their "well" is pink centered. The restaurant never picked up speed. We enjoyed our time lingering in the restaurant, catching and this only upset the staff. On a scale of 1 to 10, one being Hardees and 10 being Eddie Merlots, Laguna Grill ranks a 3. I can't wait until the oriental restaurant that will replace it can use the space for what it was intended to be!