Lunch at El Paso Chili Company

I went out with some co-workers to a place I've never been to before and was pleasantly surprised. Its a hole in the wall restaurant hidden in an old strip mall off of Lagoon park and the Eastern Boulevard. The servers could all have been your mother or grandmother, always over offering refills.

On the recommendation of a friend, I ordered the cajun burger. It was served on a bun with Lettuce, Tomato, Onions and Mayo, and came with fries. Even without the cheese that I forgot to order, it was very good. My only suggestion would be to update the look of the place, and get rid of the Pepsi products.

Good place for a quick hearty lunch

Aborted dessert.

After eating out at the Olive Room, we were going to stop by Bruno's bakery to bring back a cake to share with our friends. The Perry Hill and Carmicheal location was the closest, so we stopped in around 815pm to pick something up. We spent around 5 minutes looking at each cake, and everyone that had fruit on it looked gross. Either the fruit glaze was turning cloudy, or the strawberries were decomposing.

This is why I no longer buy pastries from Bruno's. Fresh Market is the only way to go.

Dinner at the Olive Room

http://www.noblesandoliveroom.com/OliveRoom/menu.htm

I recently had the opportunity to dine out sans child, and since I've been tired of going to Bonefish all the time at the behest of my significant other, I thought we'd give the Olive Room another try. We've only been there two other times previously, and they've batted about 500. This time was as good as the first time we went there. It was pretty empty when we got there, at 7pm on Saturday night, but with the lighting just barely above pitch dark, it didn't really matter. We could have been alone, had it not been for the Waiter, and the loud cacklings of a party of slightly drunk, obnoxious thirty somethings a few tables away.

For an appetizer we had the Tomato Napolean, which was a tower of lucious thick slices of tomatoes from the farmer's market, bruschetta, bacon, goat cheese, fresh basil, and a warm bacon vineagrette. The S.O. had the Mixed green fruit salad, which was also good.
Dinner consisted of the Duck for myself, and an off menu special of Halibut, prepared in much the same way as the Parmesean crusted Snapper listed on their menu. The duck was well roasted, and the Jicama slaw that accompanied it was also suprisingly tasty. The "fingerling" potatoes served with both entree's were quite dissapointing, and seemed more like quartered new potatoes, instead of the more flavorfull butteryness of whole, roasted fingerlings.

Service was good (not great, but still above par) and attentive enough. We were seated promptly, by our waiter, and drinks were ordered as soon as we sat down, and kept them topped off most of the time. He seemed a little bit scatter brained however, when he couldn't even remember which entree went with which person. There was also no "thanks, come again", or even recognition that we were leaving after we paid the check.

The Atmosphere is still great. The dining room is a small 20'x100' olive drab "closet" which is lit by sparse flood lighting, but mainly tea lights. The Restrooms are cool, featuring a waterfall urinal, and a stainless steel prison toilet with a 6" lucite seat. The portions are smaller than the price, but guess you pay for the quality.

Overall, this is a good place to bring a date, good taste in food, and a full wallet, but not the kids.