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Restaurant Reviews
For Cinco de Mayo we ended up in Niagara Falls, New York at our favorite Mexican restaurant. There was a line out the door. We have been there many times before, but usually not for dinner, so we had never waited in line before. It took about 20 minutes to get a table. The only special was $2 Mexican beer. I had a Negro Modelo and Mel had a margarita. They have homemade chips and delicious salsa. The kids had fun daring each other to eat more salsa–it wasn’t too spicy. The kids ordered Beans and Rice with a Taco from the kids menu. I ordered Steak and Camarones (shrimp). It came with tortillas, guacamole, and lettuce and tomato. Mel ordered an Enchilada Special Plate with 3 enchiladas. This place has some of the best beans and rice I have had anywhere. They were absolutely delicious. My steak was fairly tough and not a great cut of meat but had pretty good flavor for $16.95. The guacamole had good flavor. The boys enjoyed their meals which they call “messy plate.” Mel enjoyed his enchiladas. This is a greasy spoon kind of place. They make their food from scratch and it is good. Food quality isn’t incredibly high but what they do, they do well. I send people here all the time. Mel loves this place more than I do, but then again, I get back to New Mexico a couple of times a year. I give this restaurant 3.5 Stars 8215 Niagara Falls Blvd, Niagara Falls, NY...
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Mel’s dad was in town and we were looking for something to do. He had heard about an amazing exhibit of Florentine Art at the Art Gallery of Ontario and he took us out for the day. We had a great time! It was also a fun day for 8-year-old boys which was unexpected. I will try to share what made it great for them, too. We drove into Toronto, exited the Gardiner Expressway at Spadina, turned right on Dundas and parked in a parking garage. This allowed us to explore China Town and walk to the AGO a block away. We went to a Dim Sum restaurant that seemed to be for a Chinese clientele rather than a tourist crowd. They had a big sign out front that said “All Day Dim Sum.” It is 2 doors down from Rol Jui right next to a bank. I can see it on Google street view but it doesn’t seem to have an English sign. We sat down and food started arriving. This was one of the parts that made this day great for my 8-year-olds. They got to pick food off the carts and they loved it. They got to eat a lot of shrimp. We had dumplings and fried sashimi and a dish with duck and vegetables. We got a giant bowl of wonton soup to share and it was lovely. The dumplings were very tasty. The Sticky Rice was good. I loved eating family style and sharing all the bits. We finished off with sesame balls for dessert. The atmosphere was vibrant and alive. I have ordered Dim Sum before in restaurants but this was my first time in a Dim Sum restaurant. It was fantastic. Next we walked through Chinatown and looked at the many curios and foods on display as we made our way to the museum. We were on an adventure. The boys enjoyed the walking. The only glitch was the boys had tea at lunch and ended up a bit jacked...
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We were impressed by the quick greeting we got from a staff member taking our order. We needed to check some food allergies and they brought out some very useful food sheets that made ordering easy. They took our order and our money and we waited in line.
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We decided on Friday to drive across the border to have dinner in Niagara Falls–the American Side. It is an hour drive and we wanted to pick up some mail at our post office box. We have been traveling and using Trip Advisor to pick restaurants and have found it to work fairly well. We wanted to try it out near home as well. We try to eat in a restaurant that is in the top 20 restaurants on Tripadvisor and although we are sometimes disappointed, our hit rate is much higher using this strategy than just looking around and picking a restaurant. I have a corn allergy which is making it harder to eat out, so I have to try to find restaurants that can help me get a meal that will work for me. On Friday we decided to try the Red Coach Inn. It had some good reviews and I looked at their menu online. It looked good and very reasonable in terms of price. We got there and it is lovely. The location is great. The waitress did an amazing job of taking care of us and of managing my corn allergy. She went to the kitchen to ask questions, looked at labels and generally was kind and helpful. We ordered a shrimp cocktail, a Caesar salad, and a house salad that comes with almonds, blue cheese, and strawberries. Our kids ordered a lobster trio and we each ordered the surf and turf. While the service was outstanding, our meal just wasn’t up to the standards we expect when we spend $180 for dinner with tip. We want something better than average. My frustration was with the amount of food the kitchen was serving that they don’t make on-site. They don’t make their salad dressings, they don’t make their wings, and they use cornstarch to “hold” their Bearnaise sauce. We had an opportunity to speak to the manager. He came to our table to apologize for a very small error with my meal (this error was really...
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We had a meal recently that went too long. I wont tell you where because it isn’t about that. It was interesting for my brain to contemplate the idea that even amazing slow food can actually be too slow. Eventually at about 8:00 pm, we got the appetizer which was an absolutely gorgeous single scallop. But it wasn’t enough. We were hungry for too long. More bread? No, we really should try to hold out for the food. There was a smoked trout course that was very nice with roasted tomato, eggplant, and peppers that were out of this world. There was another course that was a white fish that was yummy. Then came the veal ribs that were served rare and were gorgeous. They were served with Jerusalem artichoke paste and crispy artichoke. Magnificent. The meal finished smoked chocolate and meringue and dessert was an apple tart with crispy caramel ice cream. Delicious. The meal was great. I couldn’t fault a bit of the food. But overall it didn’t feel good. We left about 11:30 so we had been there about 5 hours. We were a table of 6 and it was fun to be with our friends but this meal pushed the limits of casual conversation. First of all, it is difficult to have fun when you are ready to eat your table-mate’s right arm. It is also hard to be “stuck” for that long. It was interesting to find this limit for me. It was completely unexpected. I really thought a dinner couldn’t go on too long for me. Now I know. It is also phenomenally interesting to me to consider this effect of timing on pleasure. It was just too long to be pleasantly hungry. The lateness of the food service made us try too hard to be “good sports” and we were fatigued by our effort. Now, to be fair, this was a culinary school so it was a learning environment. Not sure what the moral of the story is, but...
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Owl Cafe Green Chile Burger vs. Buckhorn Tavern Green Chile Burger I stopped in San Antonio, New Mexico for lunch the other day. I wanted to go to the Owl Cafe, which is famous for its green chile cheeseburger. Now, it is in the middle of nowhere on the way to nowhere (apologies to the 3 people who live there) but it has been a popular stopping point my whole life. As I got off the highway, I noticed a “newer” burger restaurant with signs proclaiming that it offers the #7 burger in the nation. I was intrigued. The Buckhorn Tavern (the “new” restaurant) had a full parking lot while the Owl Cafe was looking pretty lonely. I decided to do my own comparison. Step 1: I start at the Owl Cafe. I order their green chile burger without cheese because they only have nacho cheese and american cheese which both have corn in them and I am allergic. The waitress is probably in her late 50s to early 60s. She has worked there a long time. I am pretty sure she has waited on me before. She doesn’t seem to care whether I’m happy or not. See their very empty dining room in the photo below. As usual, the fries are brought by one server and the hamburger is delivered several minutes later by the waitress. This has been the way they have done their food for 20 years. On a scale of 1-10 the fries are a 3. The oil tastes old and they are nothing special. The green chile burger is delicious and I would give it a 9 on a scale of 1-10. I am only giving it a 9 because if I give it a 10 and the Buckhorn has a better burger I won’t be able to rate them properly. The burger comes with Green Chile, tomato, lettuce, onions, and mustard and the patty is clearly home-made. I discovered this restaurant in my college years and it is always...
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