Mi Rancho

Had lunch at Mi Rancho in Bemidji recently.  Another "Authentic Mexican Dining Experience".  Yeah right.

Service was excellent.  Food was good (more on that in a moment).  Decor and atmosphere was great.  Tables were really neat.

That table top appears to be a solid block of hand carved wood, covered and sealed with a thick layer of epoxy.  Gives me a few ideas for a future dining room set when my life gets to that point again.

The food, although good and edible, was singularly bland to my way of thinking.  Probably quite appropriate for the tastebuds of Northern Minnesota, but not for someone expecting fire and spice.

Ah well.  Far better than the Patron of Hibbing, but not up to the measure of El Potro in Grand Rapids.

Senor Patron

Had dinner with a friend a couple of nights ago at Senor Patron, an "authentic Mexican Restaurant" in the Irongate Mall, Hibbing, MN.  Yes, I know I didn't spell "senor" correctly, haven't figured out the code, and since they didn't have it always spelled correctly on all of their stuff I feel less concerned about it.

Food and service wasn't bad, but was, well, different.  It was on Friday evening, so I could cut some slack for that, but the restaurant was not busy by any means.  I ordered a combination plate that included a chile rellenos, my friend ordered a taco salad.  My plate was delivered several (maybe 5?) minutes before the other plate was delivered.   I can't speak for the taco salad, but although I have had several variations on the chile rellenos theme, I have never had one which had ground beef in it.  Or, for that matter, where the seed pod thingy was left in it.  Just a bit strange, I thought.

I think El Potro in Grand Rapids has much better service, and I think that El Potro's chile rellenos combination plate is the best I have ever enjoyed.  Just my opinion, for what it's worth.

Outpost Bar & Grill

Went to the Outpost Bar & Grill in Deer River, MN Friday night. I've kinda wanted to go there since they opened. It's a big log building and looks nice from the outside. Haven't heard a lot about it, either good or bad. So finally the opportunity presented itself (Friday the 13th).

Got there right about 6 PM. Maybe 15-20 people sitting at the tables, which were all bunched up to one side. Apparently, a band was supposed to play later, so they squished all the tables into one half the room. Another 4 or 5 people were sitting at the bar. One bartender and two waitresses appeared to be working. We sat down. Took nearly 10 minutes before a waitress appeared with menus and asked if we wanted drinks. She left after taking about half our drink order and none of our hors d'oeuvres orders. 15 minutes later she reappeared with the half drink order. and wanted to take our order, which we gave her, along with the rest of our drinks and our appetizers. 25 minutes later the dinner and appetizers and drinks showed up, missing about half the salads. After the rest of the meal showed up we saw the waitress one more time when she dropped off the bill.

I had a 1/2 lb burger. It was OK, but would have been better hot. I didn't have soup or salad, but those that had the soup (potato-ham) took one taste and set it aside. My fries were cold. They don't serve Coca-Cola, so I had a Dr. Pepper, which was very much watered.

The ambiance was OK, a bit noisy for my taste, although not as bad as Applebee's. The interior is decorated in an outdoorsy style, with moose and deer and elk and walleye and muskie and pike mounts all over (don't know if real or fake). The tables and chairs were made of actual varnished slabs of wood, no Formica here. The chairs were rather uncomfortable; the seat bottoms had been finished flat and there were no cushions. I suppose since it's a bar they plan on the patrons getting numb enough not to care. The "outhouses" were labeled "Does" and "Bucks".

If they served Coca-Cola it might have qualified as an OK bar, but they are a Pepsi house. We didn't leave a tip, and I'm not planning on returning. A very disappointing evening.