Lunch: Smokey Bones

I had the opportunity to return to Smokey Bones due to a coworker's going away luncheon. I had the Brisket Lunch with BBQ Beans and fries. This is what I usually get, and with some splashes of their great habanero hot sauce, it was great. The only complaint I've ever had with Smokey Bones is their lack of vegatables.

The service was great, even though we had a table of 10, with even the manager stopping by every now and then to check up on us.

Smokey Bones is the best full service BBQ joint in town, fuhgitabout Country's

Lunch: Fat Man's Smokehouse

Just about the last place I would expect to find good food would be in a gas station convenience store. I've tried my share of quickie burgers and gas station pizza, and they all ended in at the very least, disappointment. Fat Man's Smokehouse is an exception to the rule. They are co-located with a Citgo convenience store off of Cong. Dick and the bypass. This is the second time I've eaten there, and I've left full and happy both times.

SERVICE: N/A, but the folks behind the counter were pleasant to talk to and friendly. The manager even let me have a sample of their rib tips to help make up my mind. There is limited dining available, but no table service.

FOOD: I've had the rib tips and the ribs now. Their lunch combo comes with two sides, and a slice of white bread. They have several choices of BBQ sauce, I liked to mix their Sweet with the hot sauce, it turned out great. The BBQ Baked beans and Potato salad were also great. Drinks were self serve. My only complaint was that the unsweet tea was in an old reused jug, while both tea pots were filled with Sweet Tea. I guess I can't really complain, since everyone seems to like it sweet. Not that I like anything besides Ice in my tea, but I've been given sweet tea before, and it tasted like tea flavored syrup.

If you work anywhere between Coliseum and the Boulevard, Fat Man's is the closest place to go for great BBQ.

Smoking is not permitted, it's a GAS STATION!!!

Lunch: China Dragon

I'm not sure if Chinese take-out classifies as fast food, but it isn't a chain. All I can say is that for 4.25, you get a helluva lot of good General Tso's Chicken. It was served with Fried Rice and a couple of pieces of broccoli.

Food good, Service N/A. Limited dining available.

For good Mu Shu Pork, there is a place off of Perry Hill Rd.

No Smoking.

Dinner: Buffalo Wild Wings

Stay away Larry!

Wow! I would have to say that this was one of the few restaurants that made me want to leave before we even got our drinks. We were sat down for over 5 minutes before the waiters could figure out who would wait on us. Once we did get a waiter, we ordered drinks, which took another 5 minutes. Then before he could leave us again, we ordered an appetizer of Chile con queso, along with our entree's of BBQ Burger, 12 wings with Hot BBQ sauce, and a child's mini Corn Dogs. The Chile con queso was actually Chilli con Queso. It was queso with chilli dropped on top. It was good however. The wings were good too, however, when they say Hot BBQ, they mean HOT! The wife had just one bite of my wings, and her lips were on fire. I like hot, and my nose was running and my lips numb by the time I finished them all. I had a Michelob Amber bock, which is just a watered down version of Shiner bock, but good in a pinch.

Service: Our waiter, Larry, was a total loser. He was unshaven, and the way he waited tables seemed as though they just picked him up off the street. The only time we were taken care of was when other waiters came by to check on us, because they had noticed how long we were waiting with out food, and took pity on us. A manager came buy and apologized for it taking so long, but she couldn't even apologize to the right table.

I can understand opening night snags, but this was a cluster-fsck. I was so agravated, that I don't think I'll go there again. The other wings place has better service.

Lunch: On the Border: Birmingham

Location: Summit shopping center, Birmingham

We swung by because I had heard from a co-worker that OTB was good. I had vaguely remembered eating at one in Houston a long time ago, but figured that if they couldn't stay in business in Houston, then they probably weren't all that good. We ate lunch, and I had Fajitas de Carnita's, the wife had a Chimichanga. Whenever I eat mexican, one of the first things I look for on the menu is Carnitas. It is essentially roasted pork, and it is very good. These fajitas were no exception. The carmelized onions, carnita's peppers and lime on a sizzle plate was great. Brandi's chimichaga was good, but seemed undercooked, as the tortilla was soggy from the sauce, and only tasted like it had been fried. The complementary chips were huge, crispy and well salted, and the salsa was quite good as well.

Service was another story, our waiter seemed stoned. He couldn't remember what kind of tea we wanted, even after we had just told him. He brought our food out, took mine back because there was gum on the bottom of my plate, and then didn't even return for another 5 minutes. At least when he returned, my fajitas were sizzling. The first time he came out he served them Montgomery style, which means, no longer sizzling because they have been sitting out while the waiter was smoking crack.

I didn't have a chance to try their margaritas, since I was driving back to Montgomery, and we were too full for desert, although they looked quite good.

I would have to say that for a Mexican restaurant, they would have to be the best I have ever had... in Alabama. It's a truely sad thing, when what is essentially a Chili's with a stronger accent is good in comparison to all the local restaurants.

Dinner: Charles Anthony's The Pub

Editor's Note: This is pasted from my personal blog, it was originally writen April 30, 2005
Menu
We finally got around to eating at the pub. We never went to it's Montgomery mall location, mainly because the Montgomery Mall location was in the 'hood, and we didn't want our car broken into, or deal with the roving gangs of hoodlums that loitered there. I swear, so called "urban" fashion these days makes grown men look like little boys wearing their daddies clothes.

Anyhow, back on topic, The Pub has a great new location on the fringes of the boonies of Montgomery. We were sat in the bar area, which was cramped, loaded with red-necks in shorts and t-shirts, and detracted from the english pub setting. Perhaps I just think of O'Doherty's Irish Pub in downtown Spokane when I think of pub. We had a round of cocktails to start off. I had a Crown and Coke, and Brandi had a fairly mediocre $7 apple martini. If you are going to charge 7 bucks for a martini, you should use something better than Absolute! Bonefish uses Van Gogh in their $7 Sour Appel Martini. Anyhow, it was just absolut, apple pucker and S&S. I make a much better Apple martini with even cheaper vodka. Our house salads came without croutons, not a big deal. I chose the house dressing, which allegedly was a balsamic vineagrette. I say allegedly because, although it shared the characteristically brown color, it tasted more like steak sauce watered down with malt vineagar. It was not sweet at all, like one would expect. Oh, and save your fork. Even though all entree's are served with salads, you silverware is not served with a salad fork. Brandi ordered the Filet and Crap Cake, and I ordered the Split Beef Tenderloin. Our steaks were both well cooked to order, and even though they were only USDA Choice cuts, they were very tender and flavorful. I chose green beans for a side, and they were quite good. Brandi had a "loaded" baked potato, which arrived late by the way. On thing that I can't stand is when a baked potato is served with less than what god intended it to have, Bacon, Cheese, Sour Cream and Chives. Brandi's only came with butter and sour cream. I went out on a limb and ordered the desert. I tried the bread pudding, which was not bad. It was certainly better than Ryan's left-over yeast roll pudding, but it was very dense, and lacked any visual appeal, since its only garnish was a poof of Whipped cream and Maraschino Cherry.

My final verdict: Not worth waiting more than fifteen minutes for a seat. The price level on most of their better entree's are disparate to the level and quality of service. If you want country service, go to a meal and three, if you want good service to go with your good food, go to Bonefish.

Since Bonefish Grill is my Benchmark for grading restaurants in montgomery, I would have to give The Pub a three quarters Bonefish rating.
Link: http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/ads/thePub/index.htm

Dinner: Red Star Tavern

Editor's Note: This is pasted from my personal blog, it was originally writen June 20, 2005

Red Star Tavern is a new restaurant in town, located in East Chase, where Crepes Egg-cetera used to be. I was initially hesitant to go there because the sign outside is off a martini glass, and I associate taverns with bars, not grills. I would have to say I was completely mistaken.

Walking in, you see the atmosphere is wood paneled upscale chop house. Walking through the bar area to the spacious seating area, you will pick up a beat in your step from the classical Jazz and blues playing overhead. It is like an upscale BBQ shack, serving everything from the lowly $12 meatloaf, all the way up to the $33 Porterhouse.

For drinks, I had a golden Cadillac martini, which was essentially, a mini margarita, made from Patron Anejo Tequila, Cointreau, Grand Marnier, and Sweet & Sour. It was served in a stemless martini glass, and shaken and poured directly at my table.

Our appetizer was a sweet pepper cornbread with honey butter. It was really good, the Jalepeno's really complemented the sweetness of the corn bread. I would have to say that this was even better than Smokey Bones' corn bread, witch I like as well.

Dinner was a sesame encrusted Tuna steak with ginger sauce cooked MR for myself, and the Sirloin Stack cooked MW for the wife. The tuna was cooked spot-on, although for $20, I would have like to get more than just 8 oz. The ginger sauce went really well with the tuna, but the sauce on my plate was broken, and was mainly islets of flavor surrounded by butter fat. The tuna without the sauce was unremarkable, and almost tasteless. I would definitely try it again if they could keep a sauce together. I had a Cesar salad and sweet potato fries for my sides. The Cesar was good, but a little different, instead of Parmesan, it tasted like they used blue cheese or gorgonzola and the croutons were toasted chunks of their sweet corn bread. The sweet fries were great. I first discovered them at a place downtown called Noble's, and these are almost as good. The Sirloin stack was a stack of thin cuts of Sirloin interleaved with thick oven roasted tomato slices, on a bed of carmelized onions. The sirloin was tender. The cooking to MW left charred stripes of burnt that detracted from the flavor. The onions were soft, but not carmelized. The mashed potatoes that came as a side were good; had a good balance of both mealy and new potatoes; and had bits of red skins, adding to the texture and presentation.

We had the brownie for dessert. It was truly an abomination of anything even resembling food. It was a homogeneous lump of what looked and felt like solidified slurry of cornstarch and cocoa powder. It broke apart into solid chunks, in almost crystal-like formations of irregular cubes. I think that someone must have messed up that batch, as I don't think any self respecting chef would ever conjure up a recipe so sadistically gross.

The service was spectacular. It was definitely outstanding for Montgomery. We had an attentive waiter that was actually interested in helping us, and at least 3 floor managers that were genuinely interested in our dining experience. The staff was familiar with the menu, although hazy on wine recommendations. Our waiter served my wine with my cocktail, and took a really long time getting my sweet fries out. That by itself did nothing much to detract from the meal, and we left pleased and ready to return.

Overall, on my Bonefish rating scale, I would have to give Red Star 1.50 Bonefishes. Their menu is more varied, the dining area and bar is larger, the ambiance is better, and there are more parking spaces. The Service is on par with, or slightly better than bonefish as well. Red Star is a definite must eat.

Link: http://www.redstartavern.net/montgomery/homeMA.html

Eating Montgomery

I thought that in my first post, I'd try to explain the motivation for writing this 'blog. I've been in Montgomery Alabama for four long years. I have been searching for good places to eat for the same time. Up until recently, the reviews for local area restaurants have been less than helpful. The local rag has switched over to a three critic format, allowing for more diverse perspectives. The only problem is, several of the new critics are just as cheap and tasteless as the previous critic, Betts. I am still on a search for what many ex-pat Texans would consider the Holy Grail, a decent Tex-Mex restaurant.

What makes me more capable to review local cuisine? I have worked in the food service industry for over 4 years, as a highly trained waiter in an upscale restaurant, sous-chef in the same, and Bartender. I am now a practicing foodie, and thoroughly enjoy entertaining friends and family with cocktails, gourmet food and fine wine. I have an insiders perspective of what goes on in the back and front of the house. I bring a depth of experience that most local critics lack.

I do this for the enjoyment I take from eating at good restaurants, and from sharing useful information. I will be posting about every place I eat, every time I eat.