Serial Food Disappointment on a Saturday Night

Uh boy.....why is it so hard to find any food on a  Saturday night??????

After our several recent taco disappointments, we thought we'd just head out for a quick taco at Catrina's in Oakdale.   On the way, John suggested we try the Market Grill at the HyVee since we didn't give it a try last time.  

It was just around the corner from Catrina's, so we thought, 'why not'?   Well, this is why not:

Strike #1
We walked in to a restaurant that was 3/4 empty.  We thought...great, not crowded....piece of cake.  Then we saw the hostess hand a beeper to the couple in front of us, and we smelled trouble.   But, since we haven't eaten there before, we thought....oh, this must be how they seat people here.  So we signed up and were told that we'd be seated in about 10 minutes.

Wrong again.  We watched as 2 tables were seated in the twenty minutes we waited, with servers standing around everywhere, leaning on tables, and clearly having nothing to do.  We saw 2 plates come out of the kitchen.  

Our 'we should leave now' radar started to kick in.  The manager came up to the hostess stand to take a call where we heard him apologizing profusely and offering a gift card.   So, when he finished his call, we corned him.  Good move on our part.

Apparently, they were lacking 'chefs' in the kitchen.  He said the hostess was supposed to inform the customers of this.  She didn't.  

So we made a hasty exit.  We named the 'place of our first disappointment' because: 1) they're a giant corporation so our opinion won't affect their biz a single iota, and 2) we'll probably give it a try again after they've worked the kinks out of their kitchen issues.

Off to Catrina's.....
Strike #2
Oh, if we'd only stopped here first.  Now it was 8:05 and Catrina's closes at 8 p.m.  If we had skipped the HyVee disappointment, we would have been chowing down on some Catrina food with a couple of interesting salsas.  But, it was not to be.

Strike #3

Posole

Alambre

So, great memory that I have, I suggested the 'other' taco place that Jessica Fleming reviewed for the Pioneer Press.  I actually remembered the name and the general vicinity.  With the help of our electronic friend, the iphone, we drove up and, yes, they were open.  

We entered the colorful and interesting space.  Nice ambiance.  We were seated relatively quickly...the place was mostly empty.  But then we waited for a server.....and waited.   Then the hostess came and took our drink order and brought some chips and salsa.

The chips were tasty, warm, and salty.  The fresh tomatillo salsa tasted fresh....but mostly like raw tomatillos from a blender.  It was a poor contrast to the salty chips....we kept thinking we needed to add salt to the salsa.  Just a bad pairing.

The hostess then came back for our dinner order.  After I ordered, she proceeded to tell me they were out of 2 of the items.   Okay, back to the drawing board.  I chose some pork posole and a carne asada taco.  John had the alambre al pastor.

Well, JessFlem this is strike 3 for your recommendations.  Our rating on a 5 star system is 2.

The posole lacked salt and the pork was fatty, fatty, fatty.  Three quarters of that bowl just stayed on the table after we left.  No need for a 'to go' container.  The carne asada taco was nice on top, but with the classic soggy bottom.  Some of the meat was burnt and hard, interspersed with gristle.  So much for my second choices.

John's alambre had good flavor, but suffered from having burnt meat on one half and sogginess on the other half.  Some of the meat was hard...like a rock : (  The salsa rojas was pretty good, and the tomatillo salsa that came with his dish was the classic tomatillo with a little heat and not the raw stuff that came with the chips.  The hostess asked if he wanted a to go box, but we waited so long for it that we picked a few more pieces off the plate and left it and the to go box on the table.

Many staff, but mediocre service....only 4 parties in the restaurant...and probably the same number of servers.  Many of the staff were in the kitchen drinking sodas.   We heard the guy at the next table ask his waiter to take something off his bill....I guess he had some disappointment, too.

So, again we won't name this place because we can't say we'd recommend it.  But I've come to the conclusion that I'm right and should not follow the recommendations of the food critics (we don't put much stock in most food reviews unless they're based on a number of visits and don't seem to have some ax to grind).

So the taco search continues......