You might be wondering why I am reviewing SPEC's if they sell liquor, beer and spirits, right? SPEC's is not only a liquor store, but also has a variety of food products. SPEC's also has a deli, which sells a variety of deli sandwiches and burgers. I was hesitant about eating at the deli, because when I think of a deli I think of just a deli meat counter. I never think of a deli as serving food that is good, especially if it comes from a liquor store.
I was overwhelmed by the variety of items that they have on there menu from classic burgers, to chicken salad sandwich and the not too common gyro. It took a while to comb over the menu, but the staff was super friendly and waited patiently while we decided on our items. Being the adventurous type I figured I would get the uncommon item from the menu the gyro and my husband got the reuben sandwich with french fries. I must warn you that the sides and drink all come separately, thus it makes the complete price of your meal a bit pricey.
It took no more than eight minutes for us to get our food, my gyro seemed very appetizing and my husbands reuben sandwich was ginormous. First, my gyro was nice and warm; great start. The gyro meat was a bit on the dry side, but it did pack a lot of flavor. They did however skimp on the all delicious tzatziki sauce, which was very flavorful thus my disappointment with how little came in the sandwich. Overall, the gyro was pretty average, but who am I kidding not too many people know how to make a real gyro in El Paso.
My husbands reuben sandwich was, as I said before, ginormous and being the gentleman he is he offered me a taste. When I tasted the sandwich, I quickly was disappointed that I had chosen the gyro. His sandwich was the best reuben sandwich I have ever tasted! The combination of pastrami, saurkraut, swiss cheese, thousand island dressing and rye bread was delightful. I seriously thought I had died and gone to heaven. I really did not want to give back his sandwich, but he gave me that, I want my sandwich back look, so I had to give it back. After tasting the reuben I had to continue eating my disappointing gyro sandwich, sigh. I must not forget that we also ordered a side of fries, which were good. They weren't out of this world. They were just regular french fries, but I must say they were nicely golden brown and correctly seasoned.
I recommend for anybody to go out to SPEC's and try the reuben or any other sandwich they serve on there extensive menu. And if you are not hungry I encourage you to take a look at there liquors, beers, and spirits or other food items. I must admit that I keep on dreaming about that reuben sandwich so I will be going back pretty soon!
Another food blog, but this one is more like an exploration of the obscure restaurants in the El Paso area.
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Friday, August 26, 2011
Artisan Pizza
Okay, here I am again trying to write another blog about food. I changed the name of my blog, because I believe this suits me a little better than the other title. I am trying to find new restaurants and trying to taste what is out there. El Paso is saturated with Mexican food restaurants and I feel we need more diversity. Believe me we are getting there, but I cannot say that we are a diverse city at this very moment.
One of my co-workers brought a free magazine to work the other day and it had tons of advertisements for different restaurants around the city. I spotted one that would be good to try with my hubby.
Today we went to the Artisan Pizzeria on Thor and I must say it was the best pizza I have ever tasted. It is located in a small strip mall and I first thought it was not going to be good at all. It is a very small restaurant it easily fills up with 12 people. The waitress told us to take a seat and we sat in front of the wood burning oven. We ordered the margherita pizza first it had mozzarella, tomato sauce, and fresh basil.
It is something else to watch someone roll the dough in front of you and take the time to put on the ingredients on your pizza one by one. It was even more spectacular to see the gentleman put the pizza in the oven and see it cook up within seconds of putting in.
The crust is thin and crispy. The ingredients are top quality with such great flavors and the tomato sauce does not over power the pizza, the pizza is not overrun by sauce either. We tried the all meat pizza next which had mozzarella, pepperoni, salami, and sausage. It was as delicious as the margherita pizza.
I really recommend anybody who wants to try a good slice of pie to go to Artisan pizza and try it out for yourself. You will not be disappointed.
One of my co-workers brought a free magazine to work the other day and it had tons of advertisements for different restaurants around the city. I spotted one that would be good to try with my hubby.
Today we went to the Artisan Pizzeria on Thor and I must say it was the best pizza I have ever tasted. It is located in a small strip mall and I first thought it was not going to be good at all. It is a very small restaurant it easily fills up with 12 people. The waitress told us to take a seat and we sat in front of the wood burning oven. We ordered the margherita pizza first it had mozzarella, tomato sauce, and fresh basil.
It is something else to watch someone roll the dough in front of you and take the time to put on the ingredients on your pizza one by one. It was even more spectacular to see the gentleman put the pizza in the oven and see it cook up within seconds of putting in.
The crust is thin and crispy. The ingredients are top quality with such great flavors and the tomato sauce does not over power the pizza, the pizza is not overrun by sauce either. We tried the all meat pizza next which had mozzarella, pepperoni, salami, and sausage. It was as delicious as the margherita pizza.
I really recommend anybody who wants to try a good slice of pie to go to Artisan pizza and try it out for yourself. You will not be disappointed.
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Food-- Maria Chuchena
What makes food good? Is it the actual food or the experience of the restaurant? Most people would say that it's the food and in all reality I agree with that. Food is the essential component why we go to eat at a restaurant. The atmosphere makes the experience, but at the end of the night, and the day after, the food is what you rave about. I am no food critique. My delicate palate consists of bland oatmeal in the morning, baked chicken with frozen/microwaved "steamed" vegetables for lunch and microwaved popcorn for dinner with a nice refreshing diet coke. What a life?
Despite my sophisticated palate, I do believe I have the inherited knowledge of distinguishing between good food and great food.
I had the pleasure at dinning at Maria Chuchena this week, located at 5860 North Mesa Street, at first glance it looks like an upscale restaurant. The decor was mediocre, trying to be too upscale I believe, but I must admit the ambience was awesome. We were seated pretty fast even though it was lunch time and we were a group of ten. The waitstaff was excellent, no qualms about that, the menu was definitely another issue. When your are given 2 separate menus to look at it and to decide what to eat, in a rush mind you, the customer is rushed even if they are not.
There are too many choices and if you do not know this it is not your typical Mexican restaurant. It's an upscale version, I believe it's heavily influenced by Puebla's typical food, because most of our food was heavily sauced. The menu has your typical Mexican food items tacos, tortas, and enchiladas. But it also has items that I do not remember tasting on my Mexican travels to the south. As you are seated you order your drinks and to my surprise
they make your salsa table side. They make it with the "molcajete" and they ask if you want it spicy or mild. We ordered both versions and none were hot, but it was good salsa.
I ordered the Malinche, a chicken stuffed with corn mushrooms with a squash blossom sauce. My imagination of what the food would taste like was running wild and it seemed like an eternity for the food to arrive.
When I got my plate it seemed simple and when I tasted it was. I was disappointed! I dissect my food and when I removed the chicken from the sauce and removed the corn mushroom; and the chicken was dry. The corn mushroom lacked salt and the squash blossom sauce was extremely bland and if that was not enough the food was cold.
Overall, I was disappointed with my food my high expectations to be blown away were squashed, no pun intended. Maria Chuchena should really concentrate on what they serve and not the ambience. The quality of the food will keep you alive in the restaurant game and like they say one bad customer or unsatisfied customer can ruin you.
Despite my sophisticated palate, I do believe I have the inherited knowledge of distinguishing between good food and great food.
I had the pleasure at dinning at Maria Chuchena this week, located at 5860 North Mesa Street, at first glance it looks like an upscale restaurant. The decor was mediocre, trying to be too upscale I believe, but I must admit the ambience was awesome. We were seated pretty fast even though it was lunch time and we were a group of ten. The waitstaff was excellent, no qualms about that, the menu was definitely another issue. When your are given 2 separate menus to look at it and to decide what to eat, in a rush mind you, the customer is rushed even if they are not.
There are too many choices and if you do not know this it is not your typical Mexican restaurant. It's an upscale version, I believe it's heavily influenced by Puebla's typical food, because most of our food was heavily sauced. The menu has your typical Mexican food items tacos, tortas, and enchiladas. But it also has items that I do not remember tasting on my Mexican travels to the south. As you are seated you order your drinks and to my surprise
they make your salsa table side. They make it with the "molcajete" and they ask if you want it spicy or mild. We ordered both versions and none were hot, but it was good salsa.
I ordered the Malinche, a chicken stuffed with corn mushrooms with a squash blossom sauce. My imagination of what the food would taste like was running wild and it seemed like an eternity for the food to arrive.
When I got my plate it seemed simple and when I tasted it was. I was disappointed! I dissect my food and when I removed the chicken from the sauce and removed the corn mushroom; and the chicken was dry. The corn mushroom lacked salt and the squash blossom sauce was extremely bland and if that was not enough the food was cold.
Overall, I was disappointed with my food my high expectations to be blown away were squashed, no pun intended. Maria Chuchena should really concentrate on what they serve and not the ambience. The quality of the food will keep you alive in the restaurant game and like they say one bad customer or unsatisfied customer can ruin you.
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