The Boy and I had started out going for the "Never-Ending Pasta" special at Olive Garden in Santee last night ($7.95 for all you can eat). Even though it was a Wednesday night and we got a relatively late start (well after 6:00 PM when we left), people were spilling out the front door of the place and we were told it'd be a 45 minute wait.
We walked next door to Mimi's and they said it'd be 10 minutes but since there's nothing on the menu there that does it for me, we decided to walk across the mall to La Salsa, where they make some pretty fair burritos. When we got near La Salsa, the Boy pointed out Oggi's and that I'd never eaten there. He had once before but I can't remember what he said he'd had.
The place is 1-part pizza palace, 1-part sports bar with approximately 2 dozen TV's all around the room and patio, including 3 large flat screens above the bar. They also brew their own beer but not on premises, at least at this location.
We ordered a traditional calzone, hold the ricotta, a side salad with extra bleu cheese dressing, ribeye steak and Portobello mushroom wraps
I also asked the waitress to find out what a pint of their beer costs as it wasn't priced on the menu. They make at least a half a dozen different beers so I was looking forward to checking out at least one of them.
The salad was mediocre at best, like eating a plate of weeds with cheap dressing, for the most part.
When the food arrived, it had obviously been sitting in the window for quite some time as my calzone was warm and when they had cut it down the middle, most of the cheese had run out onto the plate and congealed into a large rubbery mass. The Boy's wraps were also barely above room temperature but the fries were hot (meaning they had let it all sit in the window until the cook finally got the fries together).
The calzone had all of the usual stuffings (parmesan and mozzarella cheese, mushrooms, salami and ham) and would have been pretty good if it had been hot, I was less than impressed with the Boy's wraps but the fries were excellent.
The waitress never did tell me what the beer costs so I didn't get a chance to taste one.
Our total was $27 including a minimal tip (approximately 14%) and I will give them one more chance, when it's not busy and in some other waitresses' section. This time, I'll have the beer (it's $2 a pint during happy hour), the Boy will check out some of their appetizer specials for happy hour and we'll try the pizza as it looked pretty good.
They also serve a cheesesteak but I forgot to take a look at it when they delivered one to the table behind us.
Victoria's Mexican Food: No. 106
This location is on El Cajon Blvd in San Diego. It may be part of a local chain with at least one other location in the run down area of downtown El Cajon, always busy but the tag from the cash register says Silva's Taco Shop (also an El Cajon stand) but the sign says Victoria's so we're not exactly sure which one it is. And this location is new (I was out driving around aimlessly on a Sunday morning, etc)...
I ordered the Beef taco, cheese enchilada plate with rice and beans. It was a good taco (they invariably are down here), good beans, the rice was light and fluffy but the cheese enchilada was cold inside. I think it's from trying to zap it all at once instead of individually then building the plate. I had a Jarrito Mandarin Soda (Hecho en Mexico) to drink.
The total was $7.67
Pinnacle Peak Steakhouse in Santee - No. 107:
This place is situated in a funky old barn of a corrugated tin building, set way back in a dirt parking lot on the edge of town and from the looks of things, it has to have been there since sometime in the 50's, maybe even earlier...
Their gimmick seems to be that they cut off your neck tie and staple them to the walls and ceiling (not that there's anything wrong with that).
The engineer in the Boy came up with various ways to mess with this custom such as a sheet metal tie, carbon fiber tie or chain mail tie...
I wasn't feeling well so the Boy and I split the 15 oz Cowgirl (actual cut undetermined), mesquite grilled.
Our side orders were sautéed mushrooms (over cooked), corn on the cobbettes, a very mediocre side salad (think brown lettuce, etc) with easily the worst bleu cheese dressing I've ever tasted, spongy white bread and little thumbnail sized butter cups, cowboy beans with a good amount of cumin, hot apple cobbler (heavy on the cinnamon) with vanilla ice cream for our dessert, iced tea for me and a Coke for the Boy
Our total was $32 with tip.
And we watched some of their other dishes go by while we waited for our food and this is the kind of place that cooks their ribs over flame (we smoke them first and then bake them very, very slowly at low temperature) and then they slather sauce all over it before serving. We believe in serving the (optional) sauce on the side so we can taste the meat and even more importantly, the great hickory smoke that went into them.
It's a very limited menu with 3 steaks, a hamburger steak, chicken, ribs, a hot dog, approximately half a dozen side dishes to choose from and a couple of desserts, period (not that there's anything wrong with that, either). In fact, the menu is so tightly written that it all fits on one side of their brown paper To Go / Doggy bags. It's one of the few places I've ever said should have a larger menu, with low end and upscale steaks.
This place is a real throw-back to a lot of things I don't like about the restaurant business. I'd have gladly paid a few bucks more for a better cut of meat, the salad wasn't really what you'd call edible, the bread was only good for sopping up the sauce on your plate but that's about all, and I doubt I'll ever darken their doors again but the Boy kind of liked it (he's funny that way sometimes and hey, they have A-1 Steak Sauce)...
El Pollo Grill - No. 108:
We first saw this on a new local channel the satellite just picked up and decided to check it out.
To start off, the Boy and I shared an order of chips & salsa ($1.99). The chips were fresh, hot out of the fryer and thin but the salsa was not really impressive (bland, colorless, we do better at home). I had the beef taco ($1.99), 2 beef enchiladas ($3.99) and the Boy ordered the 1/4 Broiled chicken, beans & rice plate. I couldn't eat both enchiladas and gave one of them to the Boy. The (charro) beans weren't refried (although he could have asked for refried beans) and the Boy really didn't care for them. We had 2 Pepsi's and the total was $18.55.
We both agreed it was a nice little place and will be back again as well as trying out their new location downtown, when we get the chance.
The wife and I made a second visit a few nights ago and I tried the carne asada burrito and refried beans and we ordered a side of guacamole with our chips (of course the wife couldn't resist the broiled chicken even though we'd had chicken the night before). All was pretty good, the wife says she knows where she wants to stop for lunch when we make our monthly visit to Sam's Club in Lemon Grove and our total was $16.
No. 109 - Marechiaro's Fine Italian Food :
This was one of Wild Bill's favorites (Lee recommends it too).
It's right down the street from Tommy's Italian Deli but as you may remember, one of the waitresses there had a nasty habit of putting her thumb in my glass and the iced tea pitcher pour spout. I also watched her grab virtually every other customer's glass around the rim...
And the other, an airhead blonde, had me repeat half of my order 4 times before I walked out, my last time there, several months ago now...
Tommy's has a "Help Wanted" sign in the window now so I'll stop by again soon to see if either of those 2 dim bulbs are still there. The one who sticks her thumb into everything worked the dinner shift while the other one was there during lunch, effectively keeping me out for both meals and costing Tommy quite a few bucks in our business as I'd have pizza there at least once or twice a month and order my sandwich for lunch even more frequently (it is the best sandwich in town, IF you can stand dealing with that dumb blonde...).
Meanwhile back at Marechiaro's: The Darla had the Chicken Piccata (Sautéed Chicken with Butter, Capers, White Wine and a Touch of Lemon. Served with Pasta) which came with a Side Salad, Spaghetti with Marinara sauce and Garlic Bread ($13.50). She ordered hot tea for her drink.
She said it was excellent and we'll have to come back again.
I had the Personal Size Pepperoni Pizza ($7.50), ate the wife's Greek Salad (an extra $1.50 for feta cheese) and had several glasses of iced tea. It was a good pizza at a very reasonable price but I'm still undecided on it compared to Tommy's. And I do have to say that Tommy's has a better Greek Salad as this place doesn't put black olives or croutons on theirs...
And I will visit again soon as their sandwich menu looks promising...
Our total was $35 including tip
A couple of amusing notes: I was sitting in the local Coco's recently and realized I can now order off of the senior menu there.
The second thing was I heard another one of the waitresses at Marechiaro's ask our waitress if I was a "regular" and then made sure my iced tea glass was full all through my meal (I think she was actually flirting with me!)...
See their web site here: http://www.marechiaros.com/
Marechiaro's II:
A couple of days later, the Boy and I dropped by early Saturday for lunch.
I had the 12 inch (One Size Fits All) Torpedo Sandwich ($5.95) and an iced tea. The Boy had the half order of Lasagna and Minestrone Soup for $6.95, and a Coke. He says the soup was generic but the lasagna was great (he liked it better than Tommy's, just down the street). My opinion is that he was spoiled by the chef's minestrone at Green Valley Country Club up north and measures them all against that...
I have no opinion of either place's lasagna as I've never tried them (I'm not a fan).
The roll my sandwich was served on was generic, the sandwich itself needed olive oil, vinegar, black olives. some thinly sliced bell pepper and perhaps a sprinkle of powdered oregano but they charge 50 cents more for each item (I only wanted a taste), so I won't be ordering that again.
It also needed a slice of cheese but the meats themselves were fairly good (ham, capicolla, salami, etc).
I like Tommy's sandwich a lot better (but hate the service there), I like Tommy's Greek salad better and it's sort of a draw when it comes to the pizza so I'll have to come back at least once more for a definitive answer.
Service was prompt and accurate and extra points for service when the server bought an extra glass of crushed ice when she refilled our drinks.
The total was $16 and change, make it an even 20 bucks with tip...
No. 110 - The Original Roadhouse Grill - Steakhouse & Saloon:
This place recently opened (4 days ago) in Santee. It's one of those places where they set bowls of peanuts in the shell on tables and bar tops and you're supposed to drop the shells on the floor. They also features line dancing waitresses who stand around the peanut barrel when they aren't busy, practicing their line dancing waitress moves, eating peanuts and then throwing the shells on the floor....
First up was a fresh baked roll with whipped butter and honey (a little too sweet for my palate and I will ask for plain butter next time). I ordered the Mesquite grilled ribeye steak sandwich with chipotle mayo, fries & iced tea (hold the chipotle mayo, add a side order of regular mayo).
When my food came, the fries were lukewarm, the sandwich roll was generic and the steak should have been cut thinner so it would cook a bit quicker and still be somewhat juicy (I don't eat bloody meat). I had also asked for a few sautéed mushrooms and onions (only a taste. not a full order of either) but ended up paying for full orders of both, I later discovered. My total was $17 including tip
The web site says they have a total of 47 locations but the menu only shows 9 locations in SoCal, 4 in Oregon and 1 in Burnsville, Minnesota, wherever that is...
See their web site here: http://www.roadhousegrill.com/
Roadhouse Grill II:
On service: For the first 10 minutes or more, they essentially ignored us at the bar. And for most of the rest of the meal, service was virtually non-existent (the only reason the food ever actually arrived at our table is that they use the runner system in the kitchen - grab any available person walking by and have them deliver the order). And we really didn't get all of our order, just most of it (no bread, no 2nd appetizers, etc), the fries were cold when they delivered the rest of the food and then the replacement order was lukewarm at best, we had to ask for refills, ask for mayo, ask for mustard and then ask for the check as well. And after making them take off the items they didn't deliver, they overcharged us $10 for the wife's meal. Needless to say, we left a minimal tip (and I actually "stiffed" a waitress for the first time ever, recently!).
Mrs. Uncle Frank had the halibut steak which was mesquite grilled, with rice, salad, and water with lemon (but she never got the lemon either).
She says the fish was excellent (but expensive) and then there was the matter of the lack of service (at least someone in the kitchen was paying enough attention to get the fish out there at the appropriate time)...
Their bowl of chili was actually quite good, my bacon cheese burger was fair, but the Boy says his Cajun burger was only so so at best.
The side skewer of 5 shrimp with garlic butter ($5.99) were OK but we didn't get our other appetizer, the Texas egg rolls.
And it was fun watching the Boy go after the peanuts like an elephant on a diet and then his apparent conflict in dumping the shells on the floor (he was a busser for several years while he worked his way through college) and just couldn't bring himself to do it.
I settled the issue for him by reaching over and doing it myself...
And the whole disaster took forever (the dog no longer recognized us by the time we got home)...
Our total was $47 and change so we left them exactly $51 and that's what we get for going to a recently opened restaurant less than a week before Christmas, we should have known better...
