Our Main Street Meal

Well, as you all can imagine it's getting harder and harder to get out and about these days! With Christmas coming, and having kids, and expecting another (my goodness!) It's hard to find the time to get our night out on the town. However, last night we finally had some Mommy and Daddy time so we bundled up and hit downtown for a quaint (but freezing cold!) evening.

First we hit Viejo's and it was below 40 degrees, so we were eager to sit inside and warm our bones! We ordered a Chicken Quesadilla, a bowl of Tortilla Soup, the new Beef Skewers, and of course the hubby had a little fun with a margarita! (Oh yah, we ordered queso too!) We really enjoyed our meal, and I thought the Tortilla Soup was absolutely scrumptious! It did it's job and we could feel the love in the "homey" atmosphere. After dinner we stopped in at Maxine's for desert and coffee. I had the Chocolate Creme, and he had the Pumpkin Pie. It was the PERFECT way to cozy up before heading home!

Downtown was gorgeous, the shops are starting to decorate their windows for Christmas, and main street is glowing with lamps and snowflakes. I really love our small little main street strip and the truly small town atmosphere we have. It made for a brisk but romantic winter date night! So if you can brave the cold, head downtown...Viejo's is even giving discounts for you brave winter loving souls!

La Hacienda (Bastrop, Tx)

We finally were able to try the ever so elusive La Hacienda restaurant this week, and I must say…based on many of your reviews so far I expected it to be much much worse! In all fairness I think we need to give these folks a chance. As someone said on Facebook earlier “the last thing Bastrop needs is another Mexican food restaurant!” and we couldn’t agree more! They really are attempting to introduce us to another side of Mexican food, and take it from a Southern Californian….Tex Mex is NOT the only way to go!

La Hacienda has a great atmosphere; it’s beautifully decorated and pristinely cleaned! They’ve got high standards, and that’s something that we DEFINTELY need around here! Our server was incredibly sweet, and really excited about working there!  We ordered two entrée’s and one soup, and over all the flavors were great! The major problem that we experienced was that each dish seemed to be missing just a little something. If La Hacienda would make sure to taste their dishes before serving, I think that would help tremendously! We ordered the (and please excuse me if I get something wrong here…) Suiza Pollo Enchiladas (below), a bowl of Pozole (to the right), and I had the Carnitas Pibil. (I think that’s what it was called anyway….). The Enchilada sauce was really tasty, it was some kind of green creamy avocado sauce, the thing we missed was some kind of seasoning on the chicken.  You could tell that the chicken was nothing more than poached with maybe a little salt in the water, and that was it. It definitely needed more. Unfortunately, same story on the Pozole, the richness of the broth was there and it again tasted yummy, but I asked for fresh lime and pico to go with it. The broth is very fatty, and it needed something fresh to help cut through that richness. Lastly, my dish, the Pork Pibil dish…this was my favorite! The meat was well seasoned, and really well cooked BUT again it was missing something. I was not impressed with it’s presentation (pictured below) and the plate could have used some fresh garnishes to go with…like avocado, or grilled peppers, something to help fill up your taco! The sides were good, but again the beans were lacking salt and pepper, you could taste the Shiner Beer, which I really enjoyed and appreciated but it needed more. All in all La Hacienda just opened, and they FOR SURE need to work out some kinks, but if they paid a little more attention to detail, they could become a real asset to our small town community!

Viejo's Tacos Y Tequila

Hey y’all! How’ve you been?? It’s been a little while since we last reviewed a restaurant for you, but last Friday we got to attend a special tasting for Viejo’s Tacos Y Tequila and we wanted to tell you all about it!

First of all we sat at the most incredible table of people, and had an amazing time chatting with everyone and making new friends. Viejo’s definitely knows how to throw a good party! Our server was so sweet, and very accommodating. All of the members of the staff were so eager and excited to serve us, we really felt special! We got served 5 courses from start to finish and to drink they served us what will be their house margarita. (Oh boy, is it a kicker!) So we started with a fresh ceviche that was made with Tilapia, and garnished with fresh tomatoes, cilantro, avocado, and lime juice. I’m not a huge fan of fish, but gave it a taste and actually I found it really yummy. The fish was fresh, (I HATE a fishy taste, if it smells fishy I won’t eat it!) and it looked beautiful too!

Next came the tacos, and we got to try 4 different kinds. They served us a Carne Asada, a Chicken, a Pork, and a Fish taco. Everything had amazing flavor! My absolute favorite was the Chicken, but it does have a bit of an after bite to it, and will kick you in the pants if you aren’t careful! The Pork taco was served with a fresh mango salsa which was amazing! They’ll be making a couple of tweaks here and there before their grand opening this June, but overall the flavors they have created are unique and delicious! Viejo’s will be a great little tapas bar, serving mostly tacos and finger foods with a great bar filled with local Tequila. We can’t WAIT till they open, and will be there with bells on every chance we get!