So, my better half of She said. She said. will be be on hiatus for a bit because, well….
she had a baby!
Check out the good news over at her other blog for pictures of cute little Sam. :)
Congrats Anne! He’s beautiful!
Now…what should I cook to take over there? Any suggestions?
Chez Pat
I never want to cook on a Sunday night when I return from being out of town, and a few weeks ago was no different. Couple that with the pregnancy oddness involving my appetite and cravings, and I found myself actually asking the husband if we could go out to eat…at Dominguez Mexican restaurant. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against Mexican food. But it’s typically not #1 on my list of types of foods I’m in the mood to eat. But that night some chips and salsa and enchiladas were sounding good, so off we went.
Now, Pat has ordered us some Dominguez takeout on a couple different occasions. Neither one of us had ever before dined in the restaurant however. Dominguez has a smallish seating area, but we were seated right away around 5:30pm and it seemed rather busy. We were pleased to have a table ASAP since waiting around with a two year old can often be harrowing.
I’ve never reviewed a Mexican restaurant before, but I just decided that Mexican restaurants should be rated based on the following criteria:
salsa quality
margarita quality
food quality
ambience
service
are there Mexicans eating there, or just gringos?
Let’s begin, shall we?
Dominguez Family Restaurant
1. Salsa Quality. Rating= POOR
I was disappointed in their salsa. It was basically jalapeno-flavored ketchup. We did manage to polish off an entire basket of chips and a decent amount of the ketchuppy salsa, though. (We were hungry).
2. Margarita Quality. Rating= MOOT POINT.
Damn, a margarita sure sounds good right now. The margaritas *looked* really good; margaritas are served in one of those fun margarita glasses with the cactus as the glass stem.
3. Food Quality. Rating= GOOD.
I thought the food was good. I ordered the three enchilada platter, which came with one beef enchilada, one chicken, and one cheese, each one topped with a different flavorful sauce. All three were good. Served on the side were refried beans and rice- also tasty. Pat had a chimichanga, and I believe he enjoyed his meal. Ryan had the kiddie chicken burrito. Ryan LOVED his meal. Ryan wanted to MARRY his meal. Ryan still requests to “talk about his burrito” weeks after eating this meal.
Was the Dominguez food gourmet Mexican?? No. But it was satisfying, it was tasty, and it was just what I had in mind when my Mexican cravings kicked in.
4. Ambience. Rating=FAIR TO FINE. (just about what you’d expect for this kind of place).
There are some Mexican murals painted on the walls. A sign reading “COCINA” above the door to the kitchen. The tables had ads for Corona and margarita flavors and Mexican sodas. Some latino artifacts were sitting about. It was fine.
5. Service. Rating= FRIENDLY, BUT INCONSISTENT.
As mentioned above, we were seated right away. The person greeting at the front was friendly. The waitstaff were very friendly. The service, however, was quite slow. Our chips and salsa arrived right away (gold star for that!), but it took quite awhile for the waitress to take our order. Then it seemed to take a very long while for our food to come out. Not sure what the hold up was…they did seem very busy, but I don’t think it should take all that long to fill up a couple enchiladas and burritos. Once we were done eating, the waitress came by to see if we wanted anything else, dessert, etc., we replied no, we’d just like our bill please. And we waited and waited and waited for the bill to arrive, which it never did. So we got bundled up and decided that this must be a place where you pay up front on your way out. (It isn’t). We went up to the front, Pat told the guy that we still had to pay our bill (assuming the waitress would produce our tab for us) (she didn’t), and Pat proceeded to have to list off to the guy everything that we had ordered so that he could punch it into his cash register. It was all a bit odd and cumbersome there at the end.
6. Are there Mexicans eating there, or just gringos? RATING=GOOD!!!
There were multiple families of (what I assume to be) Mexicans eating in the dining area, waiting to dine when we left, and coming in to pick up take out. This is a great sign!!
In conclusion…
I give Dominguez a thumbs up! It’s very close and convenient to us, the food was good, and if I continue to have these Mexican cravings I plan to go back.
Dominguez Family Restaurant
3313 E. 50th St.
Mpls, MN 55417
***Before I begin, I need to clarify that it is ANNE writing this post. ANNE HERE!! I do not want to create any confusion; a few readers have mentioned that sometimes they don’t know whether it’s Anne or Jen writing posts. NOTE: If you’re ever wondering who authors a post, just scroll to the end of the post and you will see the word “Categories”. And listed there will be “Anne said” or “Jen said” depending on who wrote that post. Ummmkay?? Because really here, for THIS post, I don’t want to cause any confusion:)***
How shall I put this without coming right out and saying it? How about, I seem to be finding myself in a bit of a ‘delicate condition.’ That works. Okay anyway, this condition has caused my eating/cooking/food-loving tendencies to do a complete 180 over the past 13-ish weeks or so.
Some examples…
Things I’ve craved: red licorice, Campbell’s chicken noodle soup, orange push-ups, PotBelly sandwiches, potato chips, nasty candy, bad restaurant food…
Things that have repulsed me: hamburgers, vegetables, salad, tomatoes, fine dining restaurant food…
Basically healthy eating has gone out the window, quickly replaced by JUST EAT WHATEVER SOUNDS GOOD. And also, the cooking? I’ve never enjoyed cooking, or planning meals, or grocery shopping, but these past few months these tasks have been torture I tell you, TORTURE.
Things are looking up though. (Some) evening meals are sounding appealing again. I ate a salad and lots of veggies over the weekend. And we have a reservation at 112 Eatery this week.
On the flip side, I’m really looking forward to Halloween and the candy I get to raid from my kid’s Trick or Treat haul. I think I could eat at PotBelly every day for lunch if forced. And tonight? Tonight I craved Mexican, and actually asked to dine out at Dominguez Family Restaurant (review to come.)
How does this affect the blog you ask? It really shouldn’t. Although I think I’ll begin a weekly feature entitled “This Week in Cravings.”
***Remember, this post was written by Anne.***
She said. She said. 