Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Chuy's Tex Mex, A Chain Restaurant that Gets SOME of the Details Right

    I'm notoriously not a fan of chain restaurants. I make exceptions for small local chains like Neomonde (I love you Neomonde...) and places that pay enough attention to detail and freshness that they don't come across like a chain. For instance, judge me all you want, I like Bone Fish Grill, and I don't care who mocks me for it. They put hearts of palm on their salads, have consistently scrumptious food and damn good sangria to boot, so sue me! Anyway...I digress. A friend recently cajoled me into trying out a new Tex-Mex restaurant called Chuy's that's all the rage in North Hills. Chuy's is a chain out of Austin, Texas, but I figured at least Austin has a solid reputation for great eats. Chuy's was packed! We waited for an hour to get a table, and helped ourselves to the salsa and tortilla chip bar. The salsa was almost the consistency of a pico and tasted extremely fresh (I later found out they make it hourly, so no wonder!) The chips were evidently freshly made as well. The decor was fun, but definitely gave off a chain restaurant atmosphere.  After we FINALLY got a table, I was super excited to see that the tortillas were being freshly pressed. Definitely a good sign! There were a substantial list of homemade sauces to top off your order, so I decided to sample a bunch of different things by getting the "Elvis Presley Memorial Combo" with three types of enchiladas, a crispy beef taco, and somewhat randomly, a couple of tostada chips dipped in chile con queso. Geez Louise what a giant plate of food! It was definitely two meals worth, even for a big eater like me. Everything tasted fresh, but I wasn't terribly impressed with the enchiladas I had. They were fine, but the sauces weren't that great and certainly not enough to sell me on the place. The hard taco was quite good, but not particularly unique. The pre-dipped tostada chips were definitely a mistake, as the chili con queso on them becomes cold and therefore unappetizing by the time it reaches your table. I wouldn't get the enchiladas again, they weren't bad, but I wasn't blown away. I really wanted to like the place more on my first visit, the food was fresh, it wasn't greasy and didn't give me the sickly rock in the stomach feeling that all to often come from some Mexican restaurants, but overall I just didn't get the hype.

      I heard great things about the "chuychangas" and went back to try them with the picky man in tow. There was another hour long wait that he patiently endured for fear I would take him to an Asian restaurant instead.  This time I was more sold. The chicken chuychangas were creamy, rich, and sinfully tasty. The lightly crispy layers of flour tortilla were filled with hand pulled oven-roasted chicken, cheese, cilantro and green chilies. I wish they had more filling inside, but I would definitely get it again regardless. I paid the up-charge to get the queso on top. It came underneath rather than on top, a smart move that kept the chimi from getting soggy.  However the queso was entirely unnecessary, the chimi was rich enough on its own and I'm partial to a queso blanco versus the unnatural velveta looking (although decently seasoned) orange queso served here. There are numerous signature sauces to choose from. I tried the deluxe tomatillo on the side which is a creamy tasty choice for a chicken dish. I'm eager to try the creamy jalapeno sauce and one of their signature green chile sauces on my next visit...which I'm already planning. I'm hoping to take my sister before she moves to Austin next month so she can compare it to the original. I've heard the rumor that it can't compete.  Mr. My idea of Mexican is Taco Bell, ordered the crunchy beef tacos and proclaimed them "yummy." He (unsurprisingly) left his rice and beans untouched, but said he would definitely want to go back.  As for the drinks, the ritas contain fresh lime juice and even though I only got the house version (underfinanced, remember?) my only complaint with the margaritas was that they weren't big enough. So while all menu items are not created equal, this is a chain where they do put some degree of care into the details (although that's hard to gather from the mediocre service.)  Is it Mexican? No not really, so don't go in expecting that. However, if you're craving a tasty Tex-Mex version of a taco or chimi it's a decent place to go, provided you're willing to wait while the hype is still at a high.

Picky McPickerson's Beef Tacos. Don't mind the presentation, he had already started digging in before I took the picture.



Chuy's on Urbanspoon

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Pizza for Pizza Snobs

       In my extensive realm of food snobbery, my pickiness over pizza ranks towards the top.  I grew up spoiled by good pizza early on in Connecticut, one of the places to claim the original American pizzeria, with simultaneous access to all the great NY pizzerias. While I can appreciate pizza in all of its various forms, deep dish, California style, cheap and dirty, and the big floppy two handed New York slices I fondly recall from my youth, I became increasing spoiled by fantastic pizza in Italy.  While I won't claim a particular preference between NY style or Italian style, I feel I can accurately assess the merits of establishment peddling either style of pie.  I recently joined two close friends on their weekly Sunday pizza night.  Generally they frequent Lilly's or Mellow Mushroom, but were inspired by the recent edition of the Indy to try out the new Pompieri Pizza and see if it was truly the kind of pizza that would make an Italian apply for a green card.
        Pompieri Pizza is the brainchild of the creators of Bull City Burger and Brewery, who have already established a reputation in Durham for well executed comfort food made with local ingredients.  Housed in an old fire house and featuring a wood fire pizza oven, Pompieri aptly translates to "firefighters" in Italian.  Excited for some authentic Italian style pizza, and anticipating the aroma of such, we were immediately thrown off by an unpleasant odor upon entering the firehouse.  We assessed that the smell was emanating from the line of cloudy gold fish tanks separating the ordering line from the dining area.  The tanks appeared to watering the basil plants growing above them.  A neat commentary on interconnectedness and sustainability, but obviously the source of an unpleasant odor for a dining establishment none-the-less. Not off to a great start.   I am a total purist when it comes to good pizza, and immediately ordered the classic margherita with tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, and basil, and "Bobby's" salad.
        The salad amounted to some mixed greens you might get out of a bag from a grocery store, no tomatoes, no cucumber, no cheese and no character what-so-ever. There was only the smoked tomato vinaigrette or straight up oil and vinegar to choose from for dressing. I asked for one of each on the side.  I wasn't a fan of the smoked flavor of the tomato vinaigrette, and nor were my friends.  Some might like it, but more options would be advisable. As for the oil and vinegar...it was hardly worth five dollars to order some baby greens with oil and vinegar and devoid of flavor. The only good part about it was the homemade cracker that came with it. Fortunately, we came for the pizza and not the salad.



         The pizza took a long time, but at least we it came hot and made to order.  The personal size margherita pizza was delicious, the crust was appropriately crisp, the sparing smatterings of fresh mozzarella cheese was true to Italian form, there was plenty of basil, and the fresh bright tasting marinara sauce was truly the star of the show. My one complaint about the pizza would be how greasy it was. They had obviously drizzled olive oil on top, which seemed unnecessary. The pizza still tasted good, but had little pools of oil. My friend Kenny ordered a build your own pizza with pepperoni.  The pasture raised beef pepperoni was not of the factory produced packaged variety, something to keep in mind if ordering for kids (or pickier adults) who might be expecting something familiar only to receive something they don't recognize. He said he prefers Lilly's pizza personally. Notably, Pompieri makes their own spicy Italian sausage in house, in addition to a cured meat of the day!  There are a few different sauce options, even a "porky" red sauce. My other friend Emily (of ice cream fame,) who ordered her sausage pizza with the rich red sauce, found the marinara on my margherita pizza to be highly preferable, and I would agree wholeheartedly.  She found the crumbled Italian sausage to be spicier than she had anticipated, but still quite good, and she echoed my thoughts about the pools of oil. The rich red sauce was more subtle to highlight the toppings, while on the margherita the bright tomato flavor of the marinara sauce is meant to be the star.

       A cute (but also practical) shtick of Pompieri's is to serve each individual pizza unsliced (a la Italia) but with a pair of kitchen shears for the diner to cut their own slices.  Cute. Pompieri also features to yummy natural soda fountain, a bar, and of course, the beers created by their sister establishment Bull City Brewery.  My verdict? Overall, Pompieri is very authentic and worth the trip for a solid Neapolitan style pizza, but do yourself a favor and skip the salad.

Pompieri Pizza on Urbanspoon