Jimbob's San Antonio Restaurant Reviews

2011-07-02T10:39:00.008-05:00

Aldino at the Vineyard
1203 NW Loop 1604 at Blanco
210-340-0000

Big clam sculpture on the bar. Very nice.

Wifey and I were out late and decided we weren't quite ready to go home. We decided to try out a new restaurant. We chose Aldino at the Vineyard.

They refer to themselves as a premiere Italian restaurant. They came thru on that claim.

We arrived about 30 minutes before closing, but we didn't feel rushed and the waitstaff were very courteous and friendly.

I don't remember what I ordered because I procrastinated so long to write this post, but here's a picture of it.

With a serving that big, you'd think there'd be leftovers to take home. You'd be wrong. It was awesome!

The final bill let me know this truly was a 'premiere' restaurant. It was a little in the 'ouch' range. That wasn't a surprise, though. Nor was it a bad thing. We felt the price was well worth the very enjoyable dining experience.

Highly recommend this place for a nice romantic evening with your better half.

If you ate pasta and antipasta, would you still be hungry?

2011-06-19T16:32:00.016-05:00

V's Thai Cuisine
226 West Bitters Road, Suite 124
San Antonio, TX 78216
210.495.0122
www.vsthaicuisine.com

A friend recommended V's Thai to me a couple weeks ago. It's a small, family-owned restaurant next door to the Embassy Theater on Bitters.

I ordered the Pad Thai, something I order at every Thai restaurant I visit. I love Pad Thai. Plus, ordering the same thing everywhere I go allows easy comparison.

As do most Thai restaurants, V's allows you to set the spiciness level of the dish. I went for a four out of five. I've learned NEVER to order the spiciest level on a first visit (a story for another time).

The prices were acceptable--not the cheapest on the planet, but by no means expensive. The service was friendly (something you know means a lot to me!) and prompt. The Pad Thai...well it was different.

I've never had overcooked Pad Thai noodles before, but I think that's what happened. It didn't taste bad. In fact, it was pretty good. But the consistency was definitely different, and there were a couple discolored noodles on my plate--burned maybe?

Anyhoo, I believe everyone is allowed a bad day, so I went back this weekend with Helen to give V's a second chance in my belly. Guess what I ordered.

The portion size is bigger than the picture shows; I forgot to get a pic until I had eaten about a third of what was on the plate. Did I mention how much I like Pad Thai?

This time the Pad Thai was much better. Very tasty. Not as good as Mon's Thai on Broadway, and NOWHERE near as good as Rock San on DeZavala, but easily on par with most other Thai restaurants I've frequented.

Oh, and I ordered spiciness level FIVE. It was a perfect level of heat for me.

Bottom line:
Service great
Price acceptable
Food iffy the first time, much better the second.
If you like Thai, I'd recommend V's before or after a movie at the Embassy. Otherwise, I probably wouldn't drive out of my way to eat there.

Mentioned in this post:
Mon Thai Bistro and Sushi
www.monsthai.com

Rock San Sushi and Thai Bistro
www.rocksanrestaurant.com

The Embassy theater
www.santikos.com/embassyex.php

Is it ok to yell 'movie' in a crowded firehouse?

2011-04-17T11:46:00.007-05:00

Website: http://www.guadalajaragrill.us/

Helen and I spent a night on the Riverwalk and went walking to find somewhere different to eat.

We found the Guadalajara Grill in the heart of La Villita, and we loved it!

The atmosphere was cozy and neat:

The service was exceptional. Very friendly staff and more than one person waited on us (I hate it in some restaurants when waitstaff ignore your pleas for assistance when you're not "their" table!)

The menu was chock full of Mexican dishes that I'd never tried before (and I LOVES me some Mexican food!)

The prices were NOT "Riverwalk prices". Very affordable!

The waiter/manager/owner (not sure which, 'cuz everyone was so helpful!) recommended the Oaxacan mole chicken. Now that's NOT chicken meat with mole meat. It's mole sauce, with an accent over the 'e' in 'mole'. Unfortunately, I don't know how to insert accent marks in this blog.

Anyhoo, you know what I mean. Here's what it looked like for the 30 seconds before I attacked and devoured it:

The sauce had some chocolate and sesame in it. Sounds funky, but it was friggin' AWESOME!

I highly recommend you go there. You won't be disappointed.

I love cooking with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.

2010-08-15T10:16:00.002-05:00

Website: http://www.lemongrassthousandoaks.com

Went shopping at Big Lots yesterday at 281 and Thousand Oaks. My lovely wife had bought a can of Smokehouse Almonds for 88 cents there a few days earlier.

She didn't realize that this was a phenomenal price for some great almonds, so instead of buying every can they had, she bought just a couple and then didn't mention it to me for a couple days.

So, as we were sitting together watching TV the night before, she asked if I liked almonds.

"Duh," was what I almost said. But I was hoping to get lucky, so instead I said, "Of course."

She offered the can and when I saw what they were, I mentioned that these were my favorite.

"Oh, really? I guess I should have bought more. Is 88 cents a can a good price?"

After retrieving the almonds I projectile-hacked across the room in surprise, I explained to her that yes, that's an excellent price. Where'd you get them and let's go get more!

Unfortunately, she had bought them at Big Lots. If you're familiar with that store, then you know that good product that's on sale there doesn't last long. And it had been three or four days since she bought these.

So we went yesterday just to check (I mean, geez, 88 cents PER CAN? I had to at least try!) and there were none left.

But that's not what this post is about. Remember that it's a restaurant blog.

So just a few doors down from Big Lots, we notice a restaurant we hadn't seen before, called the Lemongrass Thai Restaurant.

So I think two things:

1. I am a HUGE fan of Thai food.

2. I'm hungry (remember that we had been out searching for food (almonds) in the first place).

So we stop in and it's awesome! From the outside, it looks like just another strip mall restaurant, but it's not.

Inside was a very mellow atmosphere. The tables had nice cloth table covers. And the cloth napkins were folded in a cool little fancy shape.

Lots of choices on the menu. I had the Pad Thai with chicken. I don't remember what my lovely wife had, but I know it wasn't SMOKEHOUSE ALMONDS! But I digress... wait, it was glass noodles or something like that.

One of the neat things I like about Thai restaurants is that most of them will spice up your food. This place was no exception. You can choose from a spiciness level of one to ten. I chose eight on my Pad Thai. Helen chose four on her glass noodle thingie plate.

I had a bite of Helen's level four plate. Whimpy. VERY whimpy. But she said it was perfect for her. My level eight spiciness was almost spicy enough. We'll definitely go back and I'll try level nine next time.

The food was excellent and the service was great. The waitress was very polite and our drink glasses never got empty.

My only issue was that there wasn't a big enough serving to take any leftovers home. Helen disagreed saying, "Oh there was enough to take home. You just didn't stop eating until the plate was empty!"

Ok, maybe she's right, but you know, I was trying to fill the space in my belly that I had reserved for more almonds.

2010-02-14T09:12:00.005-06:00

A quick review of our Valentine's Day dinner, 2010.

It's a special occasion, so I'm thinkin' that Freddie's Frozen Custard is probably not a good choice.

After a little Googling on fine dining in San Antonio, I find this link:

http://www.mesoneuropeandining.com/

*click* and I'm suddenly reading a review by the S.A. Express News saying how great the place is. This review RAVES about how good the Caesar salad is and how AWESOME it is that they prepare it at tableside. I'm in.

Hey, what can I say? I like C-salad and I'm a sucker for anything prepared tableside

Let me warn you now, they only do the tableside prep of the Caesar salad IF AND ONLY IF two or more people at your table are having the Caesar salad.

Unfortunately, only one person at our table of two wanted the C-salad. My wife detests it. So I didn't get the salad at all. I mean, half the fun is the show, right?

So now I'm kinda bummed, but then I see this on the menu: French onion soup.

Ok, I've been walking this planet for 4+ decades and I likes me sum french onion soup. I've had it in just about every restaurant I've been in and I think I know a good French onion soup when I taste it. So I think to my self, "Self, let's see how good their soup is." Here's the pic:

There are no words in any language on this planet that can describe how wonderful this was on my tongue. I can say no more except that my wife and I had decided, even before the entree arrived, that we were coming back to Meson, if for nothing other than to have another bowl of the onion soup.

I ordered the trout and my wife ordered the pepper steak. Both were superb. However, being a jaded American with a jaded American palate, I prefer some kick (read: spiciness) in my food. I found the trout to be not as "kicky" as I'd like.

My wife reminded me, as she was grabbing the trout off my plate (SHE loved it; she prefers less kick), that this was "European" dining; less spice taste, more FOOD taste.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever," I said. "If you're gonna eat my trout, gimme your steak."

Turns out it was a good trade. The pepper steak had a FANTASTIC sauce on it, that included cracked pepper (how can you go wrong with cracked pepper on ANYTHING???).

So bottom line: my wife loved the trout (not spicy, but very tasty) and I loved the pepper steak.

We BOTH loved (and would worship with sacrifices of virgin goats if we could) the French onion soup.

The waiter we had was super-attentive and the owner came and visited with us a bit. It turns out that he does not advertise. He gets his business by word of mouth.

So consider this my word of mouth: go there, you won't be disappointed!

2009-08-02T09:51:00.006-05:00

The restaurant is called Two Brothers.

http://www.twobrosbbqmarket.com/

The menu reads like most other bbq joints.

And the bbq is gooooooooooooood (I'd say about an 8 out of 10).

But what I really want to talk about are the smoked stuffed jalapeno peppers.

The pic below doesn't do them justice (thank you, low-end camera phone).

I'll just say they are friggin' AWESOME!

If you don't like bbq, at least stop by and try the peppers.

The folks are very friendly, too. And you know how important customer service/courtesy is to this customer.

GO THERE NOW!

The peppers are wrapped in bacon and stuffed with some kind of cream cheese concoction.

Damn good!

I had the bbq chicken. You can see it in the background there. Mmmmmmmmm.

Can vegetarians eat animal crackers?

2009-06-26T19:18:00.011-05:00

El Papalote Taco & Grill
http://www.elpapalote.com/

OK, it's not necessarily a small-town mom & pop restaurant, but it IS the first one in the United States. That makes it unique to San Antonio and thus (loosely) meets my prerequisites to be included on this blog.

Now that I have used my circuitous logic (WTF is that?) to justify this review, let's talk about windmills.

This is right in front of the restaurant. Yes, Virginia, it's a windmill. Cool! Makes it easy to spot from the highway (or the access road, if you didn't miss the exit...)

They immediately brought some awesomely spiced chips and a variety of sauces (and some little limes, too. How quaint.) Unfortunately, two of the three sauces were green. I don't do green. Ugh. Wife says they were spicy. Too bad. I like spicy, but not green. Who the hell would make food green, anyway? Isn't that Mr. Yuck's color? And brocolli? Gross.

The red sauce was excellent, and the pico in the 4th bowl was great too. Unfortunately, I had to share the pico. What a rip.

Below is the sandwich I ordered. It came with fries. About fries - normally just a quickly-forgotten side dish, they don't often get much attention. However, I am a french fry nut. If my fries come cold or lukewarm, there will be blood. Oh yes there will be blood.

These fries were piping hot (btw, how does one "pipe" hot?) and awesome. This was a good thing. There was no blood.

I forget what the sandwich was called, but I know what it tasted like. AWESOME! Fajita steak, some random kind of cheese (I don't know...swiss?), and onion rings. Killer. I tried to be frugal and just eat half of it and save the other half for later, but...

My wife had a different sandwich, but it looked outwardly the same (different innards). Not gonna waste your time with a pic. If you'd like to know what her sandwich looked like, gaze lovingly upon the picture of my sandwich above. Remember? I said they looked the same...

She said her sandwich was awesome, also.

Great service. I like that. In fact, we had 4 different people hit up our table on separate occasions when they saw we were in need of something. I REALLY like that.

We got out of there for less than twenty bucks for the two of us.

Go eat there before they become an Evil Corporate Beast. Your tummy will thank you (and your love handles might enjoy it too)

Artificial food is expensive. Nothing makes a steak as efficiently as a cow

2009-06-26T15:21:00.005-05:00

Well, if you were planning to join me at Cafeggio's (see previous posts) coffee shop, don't bother.

They have, like so many other small businesses, succumbed to the economy.

I'm a little sad, because it was a nice place to sit, relax, have something to eat or drink, and surf the 'net. Even more importantly, I knew my money was supporting a LOCAL business.

I'm also sad because just down the street are tons of cars parked at or in the drive-thru of that corporate beast, Starbuck's.

HEY JERKWADS! ARE YOU HAPPY?

Folks, there are more mom and pop, locally-owned coffee shops in San Antonio. Why not get off your lazy asses, find them, and buy THEIR products, instead of giving your money to an uncaring corporate behemoth?

It's a rhetorical question.

Go.

Now.

Tell me where you find them. I'll visit them myself and post about 'em here

So both of my regular readers will know.

Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once.

2009-06-22T20:44:00.015-05:00

Follow up on the previous post about Leticia's Mexican Restaurant.

We went back for dinner today after a brief workout at the gym (right next door - how convenient is that?)

Anyhoo, turns out that they have a pretty good Happy Hour special. EVERY DAY from 5 to 9 p.m. you can get two FREE margaritas with a meal. Now I don't drink, but you can bet I had to drive my wife home after dinner!

Here's some pics of our dinner with my $0.02 for each.

This is the back wall of the dining area. Very nicely done. The whole restaurant has a very cozy, family atmosphere. The human head in the pic was our waitress. Very friendly and super-attentive.

Then came the salsa. Oh man, I loved this stuff, as you'll see later. It's just a little too spicy for my wife, which was perfect for me - cuz I got to eat it all!

One of my wife's two margarita's. She said they were good. I couldn't tell ya. I don't drink 'em. Guess who's hand that is in the picture! (If you said, "Why, good Sir, that must be your wife's hand", then you win! But why would you talk like that?)

My wife had the "Mexican Plate". Which consists of a bunch of stuff that she said was really good. She told me what was on her plate, but I didn't pay much attention (did I mention we are married?)

Before you ask...No, the Mexican Plate didn't come with two bowls of beans. The other bowl of beans came with my plate. I don't eat beans. *Yuck* So my wife not only gets her beans, she gets mine too. Can't understand why someone would eat beans. As I said earlier *Yuck*.

Ah, and here we have MY plate. I ordered the beef fajitas. Man, it was killer. The picture is a little fuzzy, thanks to my generic camera phone, but take my word for it: presentation was mmmm, and the food was delicious. Well except the guacamole. Yet another YUCK item. After this pic was taken, the green goo (as I like to call it) joined my bowl of beans on my wife's plate.

She assures me that the beans and the guacamole were very good.

Note the extra bowl of salsa. Mmmmmmm good! I finished the first bowl and the waitress promptly replaced it.

We got out of there for less than 20 bucks.

Go eat there. Support a mom and pop restaurant!

2009-06-19T19:07:00.003-05:00

Leticias Mexican Restaurant
20330 Huebner Rd

Couldn't find a website. Forgot to take pictures.

However, the food was great!

The price was very affordable.

And the staff was more than professional; they were friendly.

Been there twice for dinner and once for breakfast.

All three trips were well worth it.

That's it for today's (or this week's, or this month's) restaurant review.

If we aren’t supposed to eat animals, why are they made of meat?

2009-06-16T16:57:00.010-05:00

A repeat visit today.

Went to Marioli Meals to Gourmet again. (Remember the italics? Remember why they're there?)

I had this

That's a Berry Good Salad. And it was very good. That's a hunk of smoked salmon on the right side of the plate, wrapped around a gooey cream cheese lookin' mixture. I liked it. Had some strawberries in the salad too. You can't go wrong with strawberries.

And I had this to drink

It's non-alcoholic and it's called Sangria Senorial. There's a couple accent marks in the name. Don't know where they go. Don't care.

It tasted funny. Not like, rotten bad puke your guts up and get an antibiotic shot in the ass funny...just kinda yucky funny. Won't have it again.

OK, I promise the next review will be for a different restaurant. Maybe something Mexican. That is, if I can find a Mexican restaurant in San Antonio.

If white wine goes with fish, do white grapes go with sushi?

2009-06-08T13:09:00.006-05:00

If you live in San Antonio

Or any big city for that matter

You may have noticed the rapid destruction

Of traditional "Mom and Pop" businesses

By the big box

Evil

Punk-ass

Corporate entities such as

Wal-Mart

Starbuck's

etc.

I am a nerd (my daughter typed that, not me. She's so cute.)

Who enjoys supporting

Small businesses

Family-owned businesses

What an old prof used to call

"The backbone of American business."

Anyway this isn't going to turn into a rant about how Big Business sucks

(It does)

Or how Big Business doesn't give a whit about you or your neighborhood

(It doesn't)

Or how the American small business really has no voice in Congress

(Senators are expensive, after all).

No this post is about a little Mom & Pop coffee shop that I really love

That is in danger of going under

Due to the economy

Due to a a Starbuck's just down the street

And due to a bunch of lazy-ass San Antonians who prefer their corporate coffee shop to have a drive-thru.

The name of the coffee shop is

Cafeggio Coffee Shop

Here's the website: http://www.cafeggio.com/

Go there (to the website)

And then

Go there (to the coffee shop).

Yes they have wi-fi

Yes they have good coffee.

What they don't have is an

Evil

Corporate

Destroy-All-Who-Stand-Against-Us

Mentality.

They'll make you a panini

And a great cup of coffee

And even a fruit smoothie.

And you won't feel rushed.

And even more importantly to me

After a few visits

They will remember you.

THAT is this old man's definition of customer service.

So fellow San Antonians

Stop lamenting about how our city is losing its small town feel.

Get off your whiny asses

Skip the corporate coffee joints

That sit on every corner in this city

And come on over to Cafeggio's.

If you see me here typing away on my blog

I'll buy you lunch.

(ed note: Since there are only two people on this planet who actually read my blog, and one of them lives in another state, I don't think the free lunch offer is a big danger to my wallet.)

I DARE YOU TO STEP OUT OF YOUR DAILY ROUTINE AND WALK AWAY FROM THE NORM!

All cats have the same name. It’s pronounced exactly like the sound of a can opener.

2009-06-07T14:10:00.009-05:00

Ok.

I'm back.

Hooray.

The name of the restaurant is

Marioli Meals to Gourmet

Note that I have italicized

The "Meals to Go" portion of the name.

I'll leave it to the reader to puzzle out why.

(Um, you're the reader

Puzzle it out)

Anyway, the food is great

The price is VERY reasonable.

'Nuff said.

Oh wait.

I was encouraged to put pictures in my restaurant reviews.

For those who learn better by sight

Than by, you know, learning in a normal way.

So here's a picture

That I hope

Really enhances this restaurant review

From the list of things NOT to say when pulled over by the police: "How long is this going to take? Your wife is expecting me."

2009-06-07T13:02:00.003-05:00

The next installment of

JIMBOB'S SAN ANTONIO RESTAURANT REVIEW

is currently on hold...

I forgot the name of the restaurant.

Rather than spend valuable time searching the Internet trying to find it

I'm just going to go eat lunch there.

More later...after lunch...and maybe after a nap.

2009-06-02T18:07:00.008-05:00

(ed note: this was the first of a flurry of posts about restaurants in the San Antonio area. It led to the creation of this blog as a spin-off of my original blog.)

WTF?

Is it time already for my semi-annual blog post?

Wow

Time flies.

Ok

Let's talk about food.

And let's call it

*drumroll*

(If you didn't hear the drumroll, adjust your speakers)

(If you still don't hear it, keep adjusting your speakers

While the rest of us laugh at you)

By the way

Is drumroll one word

Or two?

Go figure it out yerself (www.dictionary.com)

Cuz I ain't yer little bitch.

Anyhoo, back to

The food

Ready now?

Ok

Let's call it

Wait for it

Wait for it

JIMBOB'S SAN ANTONIO RESTAURANT REVIEW

Ok

Here goes:

I ate at Aldaco's on Stone Oak this weekend.

The food was great

But it was overpriced.

Thank you.

From the list of things things you don’t want to hear during your surgery: "What’s this doing here?"