My First Restaurant Review

Well, I don't guess it's an official review, but while it's fresh on my mind (and belly), I thought I'd jot a few words down...

We met Mom and Dannie this evening for dinner at the new Nuevo Leon restaurant in Escarpment Village. It's just a hop and a skip from our house, add a jump and it's close for Mom and Dannie too. This was actually the second time we had dined there in as many weeks. Just some quick thoughts...

The decor: Very cute. Minimal and modern. Lots of wood with splashes of pretty turquoise and black. I love the peacock feathers in the bathroom.

The seating: A little cramped for my taste, but adequate. Imagine one single bench that would hold about 20 people, sit about 10 tables there for those 20 people, then put chairs on the other sides of the tables for their dining companions. Last week when we were there, I was sitting seriously just inches to the left of a man I had never seen before. There are also your standard four-top, square tables scattered throughout the place; that's what we were seated at tonight.

The service: Our waitress last week was good. Friendly and attentive without our wanting to shoo her away when she talked too much and lingered too long (you know the type I'm talking about). Tonight our waitress was very young and had too many tables for a Friday night. We ran out of chips for our hot queso dip at one point, a long point, and a manager immediately spotted the problem while making the rounds. I sat with an empty glass that at one time was filled with iced tea for about five minutes.

The food: Good. Not the best Mexican or TexMex I've ever had in town, but it was nice and fresh. They even got it right when I requested the sour cream be removed from my Nuevo Leon Burrito. Some places throw your food on a plate and heat it all up at once. You've seen it: The edges of the rice and beans and entree are all kinda cooked together. Not here. I feel like my plate was put together one piece at a time. Mom had the chili relleno. Dannie and Cole both had the Nuevo Leon plate -- some sorta carne guisada that they both enjoyed.

One note on dessert: Don't get it there. We had dessert there last week just to give it a try. Our waitress made the tres leches cake and Oreo-type cheesecake sound very good. Dannie and Mom ruled the tres leches as boring and didn't finish it between the two of them. The cheesecake was fairly bland and not cold enough. The consistency just wasn't quite right. Cole and I didn't finish that one between the two of us either. Burn a few calories by walking over to Austin Scoops instead.