Friday NIght Report: Sunset and Vittles...

Okay, work with me here.

We were driving home from a so-so visit to Applebee's (more in a second) and my wife noticed this cool looking scene along Grissom Road with the sun hiding behind some clouds.

Is it just me, or does it look like my big dog and little dog laying down in the back yard sunning themselves? I don't know. You hear about people who get visions of The Virgin in their toast or an appearance of Jesus in a a splotch of bird crap on their car windshield. I see dogs in the clouds.

Oh, before I left for work today, my wife had this idea of hitting Chilis for an early dinner this evening. On the way home, I called to tell her I was inbound and she said we ought to change up things a bit and go see Applebee's.

I don't have anything bad to say about Applebee's, although it does seem like they are revamping their "from the freezer to the microwave to your table" menu about every month or two. I tried the Bruschetta Burger. According to the menu, "This 100% Angus burger is juicy, robust—and like no other. It's crowned with a zesty pesto sauce and fresh bruschetta mix, and set on thick wedges of mozzarella. Served between grilled foccacia bread for a delicious crunch. Crispy garlic fries sprinkled with shaved Parmesan complete this classic."

The French fries seemed to be thrown in a small cup and mixed with shredded garlic bread. I suppose, but the appearance made me think that perhaps some earlier customer had left some fries and another customer had left some garlic bread and some crafty cook in the back mixed them together to make my dinner.

But, not bad at all. My hat is off to the creative genius who recycled that into a tasty treat.

Friday Report: A Few Notes...

So, I need only post a picture and you know the drill. Chili's House Salad with Ranch, a bowl of the Terlingua Chili, and some unsweetened Iced Tea. The trick is that you have to get there by 5PM on a Friday or you will be waiting in line. Don't make that mistake unless you are a glutton for punishment.

After that, we ran into the HEB right next door to grab a few needed supplies (some limes and lemons for the ribs I'm cooking tomorrow) and my wife decided to try an Eco-Friendly approach to shopping by purchasing one of these canvas shopping bags. What a great idea. Now, if we could only train ourselves to bring it with us the next time we go shopping.

Finally, somebody has to know the story on this guy. I have seen him drive up and down Culebra for several years. The top of the truck is full of lights and antenna's (or antenni I guess) and it has some warning about staying back. When I first started seeing this guy, he had even more information plastered on the back window of the camper - stuff about having cameras mounted so as to be able to get the license plates of tailgater's and warnings about calling a direct line to the police if you dare tailgate him. Hey, nobody likes road rage, but geeze, could you make yourself a bigger target for some liquored up hick who wants a little trouble?

If you are this guy or know his story, tell me about it. I'm just curious since I see him so often (of course, how can you miss him?).

Lunch Report: TGI Fridays...is not that good.

You may recall that my wife and I endured a bizarre dining experience at the TGIF's over on 151 and 410 a while back but I wasn't going to simply write it off as a potential dining place based on a single experience.

So today, a freind and I went out to lunch and he suggested Friday's. I had no issue with it and figured, what are the chances that something crazy could happen twice in a row?

I'll keep this short.

I must say that I regret not having my camera or even my cell phone with crappy camera attachment, because what I am about to describe deserves pictures. Remember that movie Office Space where the Jennifer Aniston character is in trouble for not wearing enough, oh what did they call it, Flair or something? Anyway, our waitress, a nice young lady was wearing some sort of weird railroad engineer cap like those popular in the 70's. Oh, is it all coming back into style now? I guess that explains her hoop earrings too. My bad. And there was another waitress wearing some sort of British "Andy Capp" hat, but in red plaid. WTF?

Okay, to the meat of the story. I order up the Tuscan Portabello Melt. According to the menu, it is " Sliced portobello mushrooms between layers of Provolone and Monterey Jack cheeses, roasted onion and tomatoes on grilled, buttery bread. Served with a cup of Fire-Roasted Red Pepper Soup. "

My friend ordered the Sizzlin' Chicken and Shrimp which is described thusly, " Sautéed garlic-marinated chicken breast with onions and peppers paired with zesty shrimp in a Roma tomato-basil salsa. All served over sizzling American and Mexican cheeses with a side of our signature mashed potatoes."

So just so you are aware, when they say that the chicken is served over sizzling American and Mexican cheeses..., they aren't kidding. His entree came on one of those cast iron plates you get fajitas on at Chili's, and the two kinds of cheeses were sizzled to the bottom of it. I mean, fried and stuck and no chance of getting it off. But, it certainly stayed hidden under the plank of chicken until my friend noticed that there was no cheese - not one kind or two - on top of his chicken, and went digging around for it. But, it was as described in the menu.

And what I got was also on the menu; it just wasn't what I ordered. Instead of getting the Portobello Mushrooms I really was eager to try, I got the Tuscan Chicken Melt which is the same thing as the Tuscan Portobello Melt, but with chicken and no mushrooms.

Of course, I did not know of the error when the nice lady brought out my lunch and asked me if everything was okay, because I had not bitten into it yet.

Don't get me wrong, the Tuscan Chicken Melt was great and I highly recommend it as long as you are willing to take a chance on being served the Tuscan Portobello Melt instead.

No, if you are asking if I sent it back, the answer is always no. If you send something back in a restaurant, you are asking for boogers in your food. Plain and simple, end of discussion. But when the girl finally did come back, I did ask her to check my ticket because I didn't want to be charged for the more expensive chicken when what I ordered was the mushrooms.

Good news, she tells me, we charged you what you ordered, not what you got. Thanks, and with no snot or other residue on the ticket, I'll even leave you a tip for being sure to clear that up.

Look, I hate to sound whiney, but can we please be a little more like the Red Robin over by The Rim? Hat's off (no pun intended) to all you TGI Friday's wait staff and your 37 items of flair, I know it is a tough job but the reason they give you a little pad of paper is so you can write down what people order.

Am I being unreasonable? Tell me about your dining misadventures.

Lunch Report: Red Robin at The Rim...

If they build a Red Robin even one or two miles closer to my house, I will weigh 350 pounds in about six months.

People, we have a situation here. Chilis may wish to restructure their finances, start washing cars or even fold all together. As light as I eat, I'm still good for at least 3 - 4 Chilis visits per month. This could create quite a situation for them.

So my wife had told me several times that she wanted me to go eat at Red Robin one of these days, and I always put things off. Today, there was no excuse as we were both hungry, were already over in the general area of 1604 and IH-10, and what the heck, I needed to get out of the rut of always eating Salad and Chili at Chilis everytime.

When we first walked in, it seemed pretty crowded for being almost 2PM, but then again, they are located directly outside of Fiesta Texas at the entrance of The Rim, so I imagine they are packed all the time. Not to worry, we were immediately seated and I was extremely pleased to see a huge staff of people and managers in action. When we sat down, I noticed a well stocked bar full of people and lots of imaging for the selection of beers and fufu drinks. I also noticed though that the crowd was almost exclusively families with kids, cranky from having been, no doubt forcibly ejected from Fiesta Texas.

As crowded as the place was, our waitress was to our table and taking drink orders immediately. My wife had a Raspberry Iced Tea, and I went with my standard unsweetened variety. Quite tasty and bottomless.

As we looked over the menu, I could not help but notice how the staff seemed to operate like a well tuned machine. Specifically, we noticed that not one person was standing around doing nothing at any time. If a waitress wasn't taking orders, she was helping prepare the sandwich baskets, getting drinks or taking out another table's food. I love to see a manager hit the floor and go table to table making sure people have been taken care of. The guy seemed genuine and not wanting to sit there and say something goofy. It was more like, "Have we taken care of you?" Yes you have. "Great. Thanks." And off he went to the next table.

I'm trying (not very successfully) to eat healthier these days, so I didn't order the huge stack of onion rings, but the presentation of the many orders that flew by our table was very cool. The onion rings were stacked largest to smallest, 13 high on a stand which made it look like a pine tree of rings. And they looked great.

The choices were many and the descriptions sounded all very inviting, but when we ordered, I had the 'Shroom Burger. According to the menu, it is "Loaded with fresh, plump, sautéed mushrooms, a hint of garlic Parmesan butter and topped with melted Swiss for that extra Mmmm. A mushroom lover’s dream come true." They were not kidding. The important thing to note is that this burger contained as much sauteed mushroom as it did beef. Awesome!

My wife went for the California Chicken Burger which, again, according to the menu is described as, "A tender, juicy charbroiled chicken breast topped with Monterey Jack cheese, zesty guacamole, hickory-smoked bacon, tomatoes, lettuce, pickles & mayo. This chic combination is beautiful & flavorful!" It looked great and my small sample was incredible.

We both ordered wheat bread which they didn't bat an eyelash at, and the honey mustard we got to dip our thick steak fries in was probably the best version I've tasted in a while.

Okay, so to my amazement, they had our burgers out to us in no time at all. I mean, the people at this place were moving. My glass of tea never made it below half-full and I suck down easily 4 to 5 glasses of tea in any restaurant I go to.

Oh, at the entrance to the ladies' they have an appetizing Costanza portrait, and the restrooms are equipped with TV's, so I'd imagine this place makes a good place to come in during an evening game - not the restroom, but the restaurant itself. They did have TV's everywhere, but it wasn't obnoxious to the point of being a sports bar with TV's taking up every inch of space.

When the bill came due, I will tell you that it isn't McDonald's. The burgers we ordered which by the way are easily enough for two people to share, were almost $9.00 a piece. But I'm here to tell you, they were worth every penny.

On my Tasty Treat Scale, Red Robin gets top marks. Mmmm, Mmmm, Mmmm, Mmmm! (Okay, maybe I need to create a little Icon that says "Tasty Treat").

Lunch Report: Babes on Fred Road

My wife and I, still somewhat dismayed at the lack of a parade for the 4th, decided that we should get out of the house and try something new. She had heard about a Pharmacy over on Fredericksburg Road called Queen's Cottage that was like an old style fountain and malt shop. She wanted to see what all the fuss was about. Supposedly, you can have lunch and purchase some souvenirs and such while you wait for your prescriptions. Though I had none needing filling, I was open to some lunch.

Turns out, they were closed for the 4th. Hello? Queen's Cottage? I'm thinking you need to skip the 4th of July celebration.

Anyway, in spite of the fact that it was raining buckets, we figured that we still needed to get something to eat, so in the same strip center we saw Babe's Old Fashioned Hamburgers.

Two things I liked about it from the word go. First, I like a place where you order your meal, then go pick a seat. You never have to complain about the wait staff, and you don't have to go through the entire song and dance of getting the menu, getting drinks, ordering food, waiting, then waiting and waiting for your check (like what happened to us last week at Chili's on 1604 and Culebra). The other thing I liked was that they had that set-up where the cashier takes your order on a pad, then clips the ticket onto a line and zooms it from the entrance to the grill area. I'm not sure why that entertains me.

So, both my wife and I order up the Guacamole Cheeseburger and we share an order of fries. Another cool thing about this place was that they had flat screen TV's mounted everywhere. I would imagine this place does well during Spurs games. And today, no game to watch, so we enjoyed a good ol' home style spelling bee on ESPN. Since when did spelling become a sport.

Anyway, apparently Babe's may have something to do with Babe Ruth because the tables had enlarged baseball cards to keep you entertained if you had no interest in spelling stuff.

In really no time at all, the grill man yelled out my wife's name and we were ready to dig in. I haven't had a burger in, I don't know, two weeks, and this puppy hit the spot. The bun was fresh and had been toasted on the grill, it was slathered with mayo and the creamiest guacamole, and the fixin's all seemed fresh.

I'm not going to exaggerate and suggest that this is the best burger ever made; it isn't. But it was a damn fine presentation and the atmosphere made lunch comfortable. I would not hesitate to return for lunch, just to try some other the other items on the menu.

Two burgers, an order of fries, one iced tea and a water, and we were out for about $14. Not bad for a tasty treat.

What did you eat for the 4th? Tell me about it.

Adventures in Travel: Part 3

A few final notes about my recent trip to New Jersey and the flight back. I know, I was planning to keep this short, but I sometimes find that I tend to be long-winded after taking in so much new and interesting details of the things that surround me.

First off, a few quick points about New Jersey. Here in Texas and I think in most other places, there seems to be this running joke about how bad The Garden State really is. I mean, the general assumption that everything is run down and the Mob is everywhere (which they may be) and that it is just a bad place to go. Well, let me just say, I found the place to be very beautiful. I can only assume that they pay a boatload of taxes there, or somehow New Jersey is siphoning off way more federal highway dollars than Texas is, because the roads, and the scenery along the roads were so totally superior to my beloved Texas, and especially, San Antonio.

We can’t do anything about the fact that everything here is dry and brown, but the general architecture of the roadways and the fact that they make an attempt to have things look attractive is a huge difference. They have some crazy idea of “no left turns against oncoming traffic” going on to where you have to get off the road on the right hand side and loop around to a light in order to cross the traffic. It sounds awkward, but I fully see and appreciate the safety aspect involved.

They also seem to plan restaurants and places where you have to enter the place from a rear street. This not only makes the appearance from the road nicer, but it also keeps traffic moving because you don’t have ten cars turning into ten different stores one after another. Instead, everybody exits the main thoroughfare and then enters the selected store from the slower off streets.

I did snap a picture of something of historic interest during my trip that, unless you see it in person, you can’t really appreciate the size. This is Golden Boy.

Golden Boy is located at the Global Network Operations Center for AT&T but it has a long and rich history that I find somewhat entertaining; when originally sculpted, Golden Boy (who is nekkid) was given very accurate proportions. So, standing at 24 feet tall, that makes his chin bigger, his wings bigger, his feet bigger… well, everything bigger. When the statue stood at the top of a tall building in New York City, this was not much of an issue, unless you were a pigeon looking for a place to perch, but when the statue was moved to the lobby of a new building, the former AT&T president (even before Ed Whitacre) made the John Ashcroft-like move and had the statue covered until artists could go in and perform a bit of surgery, to make Golden Boy not stand out as much. All I can say is, standing directly below the statue in question, I can only guess they could have done a lot more surgery! You can read more about it here.

So a colleague of mine brought one of those nifty Garmin GPS type systems with him and we used it to find our way around the area; if you have never used one of these puppies, I’m here to tell you, it works! You cannot get lost. I’m searching E-Bay to see what kind of a deal I could get without having to sell the dogs for lunchmeat.

I think Newark Liberty airport is pretty well laid out. But when we dropped off the rental car, there was an awkward smell. One co-worker said it smelled of potato chips. I voted for a combination of stale beer and human urine.

Anyway, from the rental car drop-off to the AirTrain that takes you to the terminals and up to the check-in area was all quite efficient, and there were helpful attendants along the way to make sure you knew where to go. Well done, I say.

When you have some time to kill before your flight boards, not because you got to the airport super early, but because the flight is delayed for about two hours, you take a few minutes in between pages of a book or magazine to observe various things. For instance, I finally realized the difference between coach class and Continental’s OnePass Elite Class: the Elite people get a little piece of carpet to walk on before they enter the plane.

Whoever the genius was who came up with this marketing strategy should get a bonus.

So, the flight home was somewhat uneventful, once we got started.

Once again, I had no fat people or screaming kids to contend with, but we did have a 7 foot tall giant, namely Patrick Ewing, the former Knicks star who was on his way to SAT for game one of the NBA Finals – a Spurs fan, I’m sure. Oh, and there was at least one guy who clearly had not bathed in days. Either that, or he was wearing some sort of Musk as though he might be a Hostess at Chili’s.

I should really brush up on my geography of the East as I hadn’t realized that Newark was nothing more than a suburb of NYC. No offense to the good people of Newark. So we got a great view of the Statue of Liberty just as the sun started to set, and the skyline of the city made me want to visit for more than just a brief layover at JFK on the way to Europe. Aren’t I the world traveler? Your tax dollars; my memories.

Anyway, the good news was, the plane was not full and I was seated in a row with a co-worker in the window seat, an empty seat in the middle and me on the aisle. Across the aisle from me was a Father from the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. We didn’t engage in confession or anything, but I felt confident that should we plunge from the sky, I could sort of grab his coat tails and hope for the best.

Though we obviously didn’t crash, there were several times during the 4-hour flight where, given the option, well, let’s just say that some poor infant toward the front of the aircraft was in desperate need of an Exorcism, yet the good Father seemed totally unfazed by the Devil Child and slept soundly through dinner and two beverage services.

Several times, I thought of Patrick Ewing (who by the way was very friendly to people who passed by him – looking up to smile and acknowledge the giddy little people on the flight) and wished that he would have used his massive size and appearance to hover over the little child and make a scary grimace or some ugly face so as to scare the little child into cardiac arrest, or at least leave him so scarred as to not have the ability to cry, for at least 4 hours. But, I suppose he has some of those fancy sound-canceling headphones and was never bothered by it.

How was your last trip out of Texas? Tell me about it.

Supper Report: Chili's: 1604 & Culebra

I apologize in advance that I forgot to take my camera to dinner, so I can't offer you a look at the vittles I ate.

We are pretty much regulars at this particular Chili's, and in general, when I get those little surveys where they ask you where you eat, I rate any Chili's as a standard for our dining out experiences. Usually very quick, always consistent in the food, and I'd say reasonable.

Okay, so I need to rethink my dining. Ever since I changed my diet for health reasons, I have found what I find comfortable at a particular place, then stick with it. For example, at Bill Miller's, I always get the Baked Potato and Salad combo. Oh sure, I love the other stuff - the chicken, the brisket and what have you, but I always get the same combo. It works for me.

So last night, we go into Chili's and our neighbor comes up and says howdy. I guess he and his wife were having a beer. I should say that Chili's is good for beer too, but I stopped buying it there. Anyway, after brief pleasantries, the hostess motioned for us to follow her and right away, I got the sense that she had bathed in some sort of Musk type perfume. WTF? You can ban smoking in a restaurant but they don't have laws against some little teenage girl drenching herself in recycled scents of the 70's?

So we sit down and our waitress comes and takes our drink order. Strictly unsweetened iced-tea for me, and my wife tried some sort of crazy lemonade combination. When she got it, she said it tasted sort of watered down. I suspect that what they served her was some mixture from the bar, and the only thing missing was three or four shots of good tequila or at least some rum.

Anyway, the girl takes my order and I go with my usual: House salad with Ranch and the Terlingua Chili. My wife spent twenty minutes thinking about the fajitas or whatever other stuff they have, but she finally gave in and had the house salad with Ranch, and the Broccoli with Cheese soup.

When I am in any restaurant, I spend 90 percent of the time looking at other people hoping to catch somebody doing something stupid. I realize this is very juvenile and probably points to some hidden disorder or expensive mental complex I have. Is mental complex even a thing that you have, or is it a place on South Presa?

The problem is, even if I found somebody doing something crazy, I didn't have my camera with me, and this was causing me to be very uncomfortable. So, I can only say that there were a few awkward looking grandparents with very young grandchildren. Either they were grandparents or, they waited until they were extremely fat, old and ugly to have kids, which is okay, I suppose. But imagine the torment of kids in school when you show up for a PTA meeting looking like that. Granted, everybody loves grandparents, even the kids who aren't really the grandchildren, so you can be as creepy looking as you want, and little kids just think that's how grandparents look.

Anyway, these grandparents had clearly just come back from either Sea World or Fiesta Texas, and they bore the evidence of not enough sunscreen. Being the gentleman, Grandpa had removed his hat and now, there was a clear outline of where his lobster-red face ended just above his eyes, and where his pasty-white forehead had been spared from any harmful affects of Global Warming. Egad. And the wife didn't look much better. Some people should just be issued Moo moos when they turn 35, and leave it at that.

Okay, so our dinner comes and I prepare myself for the salad I love so much and I place my steaming bowl of Terlingua Chili next to it and I am ready to go. Suddenly, the hostess comes to seat someone at a nearby table and the entire area is fogged in with this musky perfume that she is still wearing, and I suspect may have even hit the ladies room for another fifty-cents worth. I nearly choked, but I wasn't going to let it stop me from the salad.

And then I remembered that I didn't have my camera. I know this sounds weird, but how can you eat if you don't have a camera? Like I told my daughter when I gave her what is probably her 5th camera in as many years, "You cannot take too many pictures." I mean, especially these days with digital and the fact that you can go to HEB and for 23 cents a copy, print out only the pictures you want. Nobody ever lays on there deathbed and says to their surviving kids, "I took way too many pictures of my life, go throw them all away."

So now, it smells like Musk and I can't take a picture of my salad and my chili. But my tea was good. And when the girl came by to fill it up, my wife asked her if she could try a different beverage, being that the first attempt tasted like a combination of water and something the hostess might wear to the prom.

I have to tell you, I ate my salad in about three minutes. I love how they give you just enough Ranch dressing to cover everything, but not too much that you feel like you are bathing in it. Then, I turned onto the chili. They have this little dab of cheese in the center with a dollop of sour cream and some sort of diced tomatoes on top to give it the appearance of something you'd see on TV. Either way, I just mix it all up and eat it. But at some point, do you ever get the feeling that even though something is good, perhaps you've just done it one time too many? I think I'm going to have to take a break from the salad and chili combo for a while. I mean, I ate it all and it was all good, but I need to shake things up. I tried that Black Bean Burger once, and I confess, it was good and all, but if you are trying to eat healthy, you shouldn't have to slather on a quart of Mayonnaise to get it down. God, I love mayo. I could eat Mayonnaise on peanut butter. But I don't really like peanut butter all that much.

So my wife finishes her salad and starts in on this Broccoli and Cheese soup. In all fairness, there was broccoli in the soup - I could see it. But my wife said that it seemed like she was eating a bowl of nacho cheese. And it did look that way. I guess the presentation didn't work for her, so I took over. But then again, I like nacho cheese. It is especially good with Mayonnaise. And tiny pieces of broccoli if you can get it.

Okay, ever since we got this channel on TV called the Fine Living Channel, I don't watch it.

But one time, I was half-way between semi-consciousness and passed-out and the twitching of my thumb had caused the remote control to skip by the Gay Channel and onto this Fine Living channel. (Seriously, they have special TV channels for everybody). The next thing I know, I am watching some famous butler, a thin version of Sebastian Cabot or something, teaching junior waiters how to wait tables for an exclusive dinner.

Forgive me for taking a moment to ask this, but if it is fine living, why are they programming special shows for waiters? Are people making some outrageous tips that the IRS should know about?

Anyway, this waiter guy shows all the tricks of how to hold the plates, serve from the right, pick-up from the left, balance martinis on your nose and such. One thing he scolded his trainees was, never, ever remove a diner's plates from the table (unless they specifically ask you to). This is more than a good way to get a fork in the hand if somebody looks done, but isn't. I like to lick the bowl of chili clean myself, when I'm at home anyway. But the other reason is, you never want to make your guests feel rushed.

So, last night, I think our waitress was literally watching me from a crow's nest with night vision goggles waiting for me to eat the last piece of brown lettuce from my salad and as soon as my fork left the grip of my hand, she swooped by and snatched the salad bowl away. WTF? I know someone who needs to get UVerse.

Anyway, just as the hostess was coming to seat yet another group of people in our area, somebody, and I am happy to report it was no one at my booth, let loose with an audible ass-burp. Good times. But then it started to smell. And I don't mean maybe.

My wife looked at me and mouthed those all familiar words (with a squinched nose) "Did you fart?"

I don't know who it was, but for the first time in the evening, I wanted that hostess to hang around a little longer so we could get a sniff of her Musk perfume. Sweet mother of Larry, Curly and Moe, somebody was in need of a laxative.

With that, we paid our bill and left. But other than the farting and the stuff my wife didn't like about her dinner, it was all good.

How was your dinner? Tell me about it.

This weekend flew by...

It felt like I got off work on Friday afternoon, took a nap and find myself checking e-mail Tuesday morning. What a whirlwind weekend. A few highlights:

• Spurs lost in Utah
• Spurs won in Utah
• Utah Fans threw trash at Spurs players

• Cooked some barracho beans, some shrimp, some sausage, some chicken, some ribs
• Gained a pound
• Took my son to go look at a new vehicle

• He really wanted this truck
• He will appreciate the mileage and lower car payments of this car
  

• Did some shopping at HEB

• Did some painting around the house

• Did some electrical work

• Ignored the Jehova's who rang the doorbell
  

• Had a salad and some chili to-go

• Sold my Son's truck on Craig's List
  

• Took $203.00 worth of parts my wife found sitting in the garage back to O'Reilly

• I guess I hadn't replaced the brakes on my son's truck afterall
• 
  
• Let dogs sleep

• Got up for work and checked e-mail
• How was your weekend?
  

Lunch Report: Sea Island

I’m no fan of fast food type restaurants, and we certainly have our share of the usual fare around Silver Creek, but I do enjoy the next level up in dining, the chain type bar and grill. You know, Chili’s, Applebee’s, Bennigans etc. It isn’t fast food but you know for the most part what you are getting regardless of which location you go to.

San Antonio has a local chain called Sea Island. As you would imagine, they serve fish. For the most part, they have a good system in place allowing you to order directly at the counter, get your drinks then find a place to sit while waiting for your food to be cooked. This system saves the issue of waiting for a waitress. Though they usually have a person walking around serving refills on your tea, it is also very acceptable for you to go to a drink station and get your own refills. I do like this system and wish say for instance, Chili’s would give it a shot. Especially the parts of letting me refill my own beer!

Okay, so having said that I like their system, I have to confess that as far as fish goes, I am more of a fan of Clear Springs out in Afton Oaks, or better, the one in between New Braunfels and Seguin. But, my wife likes Sea Ilsand and it is near the house. For the price and service, it usually hits the spot. We get the “B Lunch” which is quite a deal with shrimp and fish, hushpuppies and two sides. The cole slaw is okay and if you like fries, they work. Saturday, I tried the black beans and I have to tell you, they were excellent!

So the complaint? For whatever reason, both my wife and I agreed that the fish and the shrimp were in bad form. The plank of fried fish was flat and dry. My wife made the comment that we should have gone to the Fred’s Fish Fry that just opened on Culebra. The shrimp had a really fishy taste to it. Thankfully, the tarter sauce they serve has a good creamy quality and taste, and I was able to drown out the dry texture of the fish.

So, while we were not pleased with the quality (other than the wonderful Black Beans) this time around, I think that we have had enough good experiences at the Bandera Pointe and 1604 Sea Island to recommend it to others – just hope for a good day. Oh, and try the Black Beans.