Laredo Restaurants Continued.....Dinner

(Please read the TWO ealier posts before you read this one.)

We had not planned on staying in Laredo this late but due to the tailor (still not being finished and who promised to have it ready by 5 P.M.) we had to get a bite to eat. We drove to a nearby place called Coyote Creek. Coyote Creek is very interesting. Each room we saw had a different theme. There was a room that seemed it was straight out of Gone With The Wind. Another was like an old Western town. The room we were in was the Big Game room where they had stuffed animals. DISCLAIMER: IF YOU are a vegetarian don't come here. If you don't like seeing dead animals mounted to the wall don't come here. If you have a problem with those poor, defenseless, bears, wildcats, foxes, ibexs, and rams don't come here. I got no problem with it! I love animals...THEY TASTE SO GOOD! Since this was great day to get some new reviews in we were going to cap it off big. We were promptly seated and served quickly. I had the Texas Trio which consisted of Brisket, Sausage, and Chicken along with some Borracho Beans, and Potato Salad. I must first lament that the brisket did not stand on it's own (see Bubba's Review and you'll understand) It had to have the sauce and it wasn't very tender. The chicken was dry and had no flavor. This chicken couldn't hold a candle to Pastor Jehu's. That's was the first thought I had as far as BBQ'd chicken standards are concerned. I had certainly hoped for something as good but was a bit disappointed. The sausage was flavorful and not fatty in the least bit. BEANS! Oh the Beans were the saving grace of my meal. The potato salad was great too and had some ingredients I couldn't recognize although I'm thinking possibly very small carrots. TEENY, ITSY BITSY, MINISCULE. That's how small. Bread was dry. BBQ sauce was on point and probably store bought. I wouldn't call this meal poor but it was fair. Elizabeth had a burger with American Cheese, Avocado, and Jalapenos. She said the Jalapenos cancelled out the Avocado. She did get a couple of bites when it was just the Avocado flavor but she really liked it. It came with Fries and Onion Rings. Onion Rings were tasty but I felt they probably came out of bag and were not hand made there on site. Kandra had some Shrimp skewers. I sense that my daughter likes shrimps. I better be careful when she chooses a fiancee someday. LORD HELP ME! How tall is Nick Jonas anyway? No te creas, Mijita. I was just playing. I am surprised she didn't eat shrimp tacos for breakfast. The skewers had shrimp, pineapple, and tomatoes on them and were very tasty. Shrimp were basted in a flavorful sauce that had a slight sweetness. She also had some rice that was very tasty and some sauteed veggies. She sure knows how to pick them! She also had a dessert of a Bunuelo with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream sprinkled with cinnamon and chocolate syrup. Very tasty. This place gets and A++ on atmosphere and a B because of my wife's and daughter's food. I don't recommend the BBQ however. Price is par for the course here which means medium to high depending on what you get. Of course I would come back and try it again. Service was stellar. Our server was very friendly and reminded my wife of our great friend Abby, who we miss so much. We need to seriously go and visit her. It was a great day but I really missed my boys who stayed with the best mother-in-law in the world. We didn't make it home until around 11 P.M. and got straight into bed. I wish I had the pictures. Ask Elizabeth to see them.

Laredo Restaurants Continued LUNCH

After getting a few great deals on some new clothes and waiting for the alterations to be done by a guy who has been a tailor for 50 years (who still wasn't done by 9:30 P.M. but that's a whole other story) we were on our way to have some lunch. We decided to try a local favorite: Mariscos El Pescador. This is a fairly large building right on the I-35 access road. There is more than 1 location (I saw another one while we were driving later in the afternoon) here in Laredo. The Menu was very nicely laid out with great pictures. TONS of choices were available. They had some platters that started out around 15 dollars were you could get a little taste of just about every seafood choice they had available including Octopus, Oysters, Fish, Shrimp and a host of others. We didn't have those platters but they looked really great. Those platters doubled in price on the menu by adding 2 more people on so it would have been a great feast. Everything else on the menu was moderately priced for Seafood in my opinion. The plate I had was listed as $7.49 on the menu as was Elizabeth's. I had the Filete ala Veracruza which consisted of Fish lightly grilled with a sauce containing olives, onions, tomato, celery and other herbs and spices. This sauce reminded me (except the olives) of the kind of sauce you get on a Spanish Steak at a Mexican food restaurant which leads to another question. Why is it called Spanish Steak when it's Mexican food or Tex-Mex cuisine? I often wonder about that! I had a baked potato and some steamed Normandy Vegetables. The fish was a little bland but the sauce made up for it. Elizabeth had a grilled fish and it was also a little bland and I started to understand why there were 4 types of bottle hot sauce including a Habanero sauce, and a couple of Tabasco style or Louisiana style sauces. Habanero hit Elizabeth pretty hard. I thought it was pretty tasty. She had Rice and Veggies with her meal. They were good accompaniments to the meal but as I had told my wife and my daughter they were really nothing to jump up and down about. Now Kandra had the best meal on the table. She chose the Fettucine Alfredo with Shrimp. The sauce was so creamy and tasty and we all thought that it was even better than the Olive Garden version. I enjoyed my meal and Elizabeth did too even though it was a little bland the extra sauces would have made them a little more flavorful. Of course they did ask if we wanted tartar sauce but Elizabeth doesn't like it and I wanted to experience the flavor of the Veracruzana sauce without any outside interference. I would recommend this place because I know there were some other choices that would have probably been more likeable. Another thing I liked was the atmosphere (sans the CNN). In the foyer there are nets and shells and all the other high seas appointments. Very nice! Inside there are pictures covering most of the walls of famous people including Elvis, Frank Sinatra, Selena, Marilyn Monroe, Sylvester Stallone, Burt Reynolds, and even DARTH VADER. Not really impressed with all that but the truth must be told! Service was excellent. FLAN was on a different plane. It was heavenly to say the least. I haven't had Flan that good EVER in my life. I was thoroughly impressed with it. The surprise of the day was the bill. I didn't realize that what my wife and I were having was on special. SO instead of $7.49 we paid $4.99. I LOVE SAVING on a meal. Oh and did I mention they had Fish Soup and Shrimp Soup? I say give it a try

ROAD TRIP EDITION - LAREDO TEXAS RESTAURANTS

I've been on the road with my family over the Thanksgiving holiday and we had a great meal on Thursday with lots of Turkey, Dressing (not stuffing, LOL) and the other accompaniments that are customary. As is usually the case when we are on the road we get a couple of chances to go out to eat and we had a few good choices.

Our first place was bright and early (7:30 A.M.) in Laredo. Elizabeth, Kandra, and I took off to Laredo to take advantage of some Black Friday sales and so we rolled into town and stopped at Taco Palenque. Taco Palenque has 9 locations in South Texas including stores in Brownsville, McAllen and they are set to open a new store in San Antonio very soon at North Star Mall. They have a wide variety of South Texas favorites. See their menu here: http://www.tacopalenque.com/ourmenu.html . Their salsa bar is phenomenal with 7 different choices along with veggies to put on your tacos including cucumber, radishes, lettuce, and others. I tried 4 of the salsas with my barbacoa tacos. A green tomatillo salsa that was mild in flavor but very tasty. Pico de Gallo was another traditional favorite I had and it was fairly mild but also a great addition to the tacos. I also tried their hot and mild salsas and both were very good. Everything was so fresh so that's a big plus in my book. Elizabeth had a bacon and egg taco that she seemed to really enjoy. One of the cool things is that it's very easy to get full on 2 tacos. You don't have to eat 3 or 4 to make it. IN fact 2 was almost too much for a HUGE dude like me. In South Texas they are called tacos not burritos. Burritos down here are deep fried. These tacos are thick with lots of filling in a Norteno (should have a tilde over the second N) style thin tortillas. This was very enjoyable. Plenty of drink choices and quick service. This was an excellent choice to start of the day with. Atmosphere is appropriate and prices are medium-high. When you come down this way try it out

Bubba's Smokehouse - San Angelo, Texas

Bubba's Smokehouse is a brand new BBQ place in San Angelo, Texas but you wouldn't know it by the meat they serve. I was in today for my first try and being the BBQ aficionado (in my mind THINK NACHO LIBRE, LOL) I am I must say the meat impressed me. From the looks of things they have 4 choices on the menu as far as the meats are concerned. Brisket, Pork Ribs, Sausages (2 flavors), and Chicken. I tried the 3 meat platter with Brisket, Ribs, and regular sausage. The pitmaster obviously believes in the old tried and true axiom which is: THE MEAT MUST STAND ON ITS OWN! This means that sauces are a choice and not automatically drizzled, squirted, or showered on the meat. When I saw that I knew this place was for real. Brisket was tender and juicy with a good smoke ring, a black crust, and plenty of flavor. The ribs came right off the bone with a little work and were delicious. Again, these ribs were not drenched in sauce. The sausage was also very tasty. I tried each meat with and without sauce. They had 2 sauce choices. The rib sauce (as it was called) was a sweet sauce while the BBQ sauce was a bit more tangy with very little sweetness behind it. Mrs. Baird's bread was on the table and she's always a great choice. I did have a couple of minor issues to speak of. The beans are canned and the potato salad is also store bought as far as I can tell. The meat more than makes up for that and Bush's does make some good beans BUT not as good as the slow cooked, homemade beans. They also had baked beans but I didn't get to try them. Sweet and unsweet tea are available along with Coca-Cola products. If I'm not mistaken they also had cobblers available and other sides like corn on the cob. Don't come for the atmosphere to Bubba's although I'm sure as it grows that will get better. DO come for some of San Angelo's best tasting BBQ with moderate prices. Right now there is no other better BBQ (except at home) for the money.

Nuttin' But Wings CLOSED

OK OK OK......I've been hearing about this place for a while so WE finally took the plunge. Well unfortunately there are a few things I just couldn't get past. At the location on South Chadbourne we walked in and really weren't welcomed into the restaurant. It seemed we were an interruption more than a welcome sight on what looked like a very slow day. I was always taught that we have jobs because we have customers and that they are not interruptions but the very basis for our business to exist. I can't say I got that kind of vibe here. It's hard to get good help nowadays I guess! We did go up and order from the menu and had a few good choices. I ordered 2 different kinds of hot wings, the too _am_ hot (a moniker that doesn't even come close to fitting the bill,) and the original hot. They were served with Rojos when they came out (at the same time our drinks were served by the way...a little over 20 minutes after we ordered.) The Rojos were tasty but weren't authentic. In this town any unpealed, sliced, and breaded potato is being called a Rojo. A lot of them don't live up to excitement the name creates for me. These fall into that category. Good but not great. We had the 2 can dine special of 16 wings, Rojos, and 20 oz drinks and had to pay extra for ranch dressing. Jared had a burger AGAIN! LOL. Kandra had chicken strips. These are the kind you buy from a foodservice provider already breaded off premises to save time. They were actually tasty as were the home made french fries. I'm a sucker for doing stuff in house! Fresh, handbreaded, home made, are all words I like to hear from a restaurant. Opinions, aren't they great?!?! Jonah had a corn dog. Don't come here for atmosphere. This old Dairy Queen restaurant needs a revamp with a more festive atmosphere that goes along with what Hot Wings are all about. For example: tailgating, sports, parties. A couple of TVs, some sport memorabilia, maybe a couple of video games and what a difference. One more thing that is very unfortunate and I'm sure they heard about it from my kids because they yelled it out at least 5 times, the restrooms stunk horribly. Jared says, "The restroom stinks," and his mom tries to shush him. SO then he yells out, "The restroom SMELLS BAD." Oh yeah that's a big difference Jared! Yes they did STINK and not just in there but out in the dining area. We were at least 30 feet away from the restrooms and could still smell that stench. Restaurants definitely can't have that and expect to have a lot of dine in customers who will come back. Unless you enjoy that kind of thing. The wings and Rojos were ok but bad service, no atmosphere, and stinking restrooms simply won't allow me to come back here again. OH and lets not forget the rap or hip hop music coming from the kitchen. Totally inappropriate. The only place for wings in San Angelo as far as I'm concerned is Wing Stop. They are truly the wing experts.

OCTOBER 31st LIL Gil's CLOSED/REPLACED BY MENDEZ CAFE

It was good to recently see some activity at what has been a few restaurants over the last 5 or 6 years. Catfish used to be served at this location (I don't remember if it was Katfish Korner or Catfish Haven or some other catfish place....If it was Catfish Haven it really wasn't a "safe haven" for them now was it?) Hamburgers also used to be served at the former burger shop (Barney's Burgers) and now Lil Gil's has opened up shop. One of the good things about this (or bad things depending on how you look at it) is the fact that this place is VERY close to where I live. Quick, convenient, and easy from that standpoint. Lil Gil's offers Mexican food at modest prices but big on taste. The night we came in there was one waiter and normally this would bother me because of a lack of good service but in this case he had everything under control. I had a Mexican dinner which consisted of a taco, enchilada, rice, beans and I will say that this meal was very good. Plenty of flavor and plenty of food. Elizabeth had cheese enchiladas and she enjoyed them. Jared of course had a burger which is nothing new and I'm sure he enjoyed as he inhaled it, I mean ate it. My son did get his love for food from me! Of course I am trying to teach him to savor it just a bit more though. Kandra had fried shrimp and I actually got a sample of it. It was very tasty. Jonah had enchiladas too and I think he ate them all so I know they were good. We also had some beef and bean nachos for an appetizer which we tend to do when we know there is going to be a review coming up. With prices that are fair and food that is very good I would recommend this place. Although some changes have been made to the asthetics of the building, atmosphere isn't what this place is about. The food is really tasty and I'm sure that you and your family will enjoy it. I feel a guy's night out coming on. LOL.