Today, all of us had the day off for President’s Day, so we decided to get out of the house for a while to have some family time. We had some thought of hitting the Denver Art Museum, but it’s closed on Mondays, so we went for the second best choice and hit the bowling alley. We eschewed the bumpers this time, and it showed. None of us are comparable to Walter, Donny, or The Dude (though a White Russian might well have helped my rolls). I highly recommend the alley, Chipper’s Lanes, in Broomfield. Very pleasant place to bowl.
After two games, we were hungry. Frankly, we were past hungry and working on cranky. A month or two ago, in a similar state of near-arm-chewing, we tried to go to Jack-n-Grill Restaurant, but the wait was close to an hour, so we bailed and vowed we’d try again one day. So today was the day. We’re late to the party on this place. It’s been around for a good while, and has been featured on the tee-vee. Multiple times. But I’m going to tell you about it anyway.
The food is, loosely speaking, New Mexican. Lots of red and green chile. Sopapillas. Burritos. Enchiladas. The usual stuff of the state just to the south of the Square State. Also, they have burgers. Gazillions of them.
And the other thing about the food is, well, the portions are bleeping enormous. We’re not talking Cheesecake Factory here; we’re talking the scene in Spirited Away where the parents eat so much of the spirit food that they turn into pigs. Go there hungry, then share. Unless you are young and stupid and try to eat one of their 7 pound (that’s 3 kilos for everyone else in the known universe) burritos by yourself, you probably don’t even need a regular size entree per person. By the way, if you do manage that stunt-eating feat, they will put your picture on the wall, presumably as an object lesson in idiocy. But I digress.
Today, we waited about 20 minutes for a table, and spent the wait time looking over the menu so we were ready to order when we sat down. I told you: we were hungry.
Ordering went fine. The server came promptly (and called us “Sweetie” a lot–not sure if that’s the custom of the house or just a verbal tic of hers, but no biggie). For starters, we asked for a small order of “corn in a cup”, a side of fried (not breaded, though) jalapenos, and a basket of sopapillas. For mains, Daniel ordered the kid-sized burger and Eliana, Bonnie and I ordered two entrees to share: the cheese enchilada plate and the taco salad with calabacitas (both vegetarian, since E is a vegetarian and I keep kosher enough not to eat meat out). I should say that D ordered the kid burger because the regular burgers are 10 oz (about 280g) pre-cooked, and he is still a pre-teen and thus still has a teeny amount of sense about how much food it takes to fill him up. In a couple of years, I expect that sense to disappear for a while, at which time our grocery bills will double.
The service broke down a bit after ordering. The drinks took a little while, and there was one mistake, promptly corrected. The starters we ordered never came, and they suddenly brought out our entrees but got Daniel’s wrong (beef tacos instead of a burger). We asked for the sides/starters, which they brought eventually, along with the burger. Well, all except for the basket of sopapillas. The kitchen was apparently not functioning too well, but the server was also not keeping track very well. Everybody was friendly, though, and we enjoyed what we got so much that we weren’t horribly put off.
So let me break down the eats a bit:
“Corn in a cup” is whole kernel corn with butter, lime, parmesan cheese, and chile powder. We got a small, and that was plenty.
The fried jalapenos, which were all for me, are pretty much just whole peppers, fried until they’re hot and the skin loosens up a bit, but still pretty firm. Very simple, with nice chile flavor. The plate is supposed to have 2, but they gave me 3–probably because of the screwups.
The enchilada plate has five (yes, five) of the lovely little rolled up tortillas, plus beans, rice, and potatoes. Plus the usual garnishes. Huge plate. I mean massive. Enough for two people. We had it with red chile, since the green has pork, and it was satisfyingly spicy.
The calabacitas taco salad was also big (no surprise there), but quite a lot of the bulk was lettuce. Not complaining, mind you, since the greens provided some cooling from all the chiles. Calabacitas is a vegetable stew, primarily based on zucchini. The squash was nicely firm, and the heat level was reasonably high for the dish, compared to what I have had other places. This dish is served in one of those fried tortilla bowls, but, honestly, we had so much other stuff to eat, none of us touched the bowl.
The kid burger (with fries, naturally) was still pretty large (do you sense a theme going on here) was tasty, in Daniel’s humble estimation.
I am happy to report that we did not come close to making clean plates. If we had, we would have needed to go on a three-week fast, I’m pretty sure. But also, we would not have had room for dessert (I know, I know). Since we never got our appetizer sopas, we decided to try the sopa bites for a little something sweet at the end. These were a marvel. Little squares of puffy fried tortilla, with a light sprinkling of raspberry sauce and a big pile of whipped cream. Did I mention that the portion was enormous. What a surprise. For five bucks, there was plenty there for all four of us. We finished it, but none of us felt cheated.
Final tab? About 50 bucks including the tip. For all that food, two sodas and a coffee. Pretty reasonable.
Despite the screwups with the order, the food was plenty good enough for us to want to go back. But we might order a little bit less next time.