We perused the new Entertainment Book.
The Entertainment Book is fantastic...you pay something like $20 for it and you get hundreds of dollars of savings at sooo many great restaurants (and other types of establishments as well, but we use it mostly for the restaurant coupons).
Many of my favourite restaurants have coupons in The Entertainment Book (very popular restaurants, too, which doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me, but I guess that's how they get NEW business. I reap the rewards of price-reduced meals, so I'm not complaining!). Not only do we utilize many coupons from the book at our favourite restaurants, but we've also found a whole bunch of previously undiscovered, fantastic places to eat through this resource.
So as we were sitting at home, growing hungrier and grumpier by the minute, we looked to this handy little tome for some inspiration.
We decided to try "Tequila Sunrise" at 212 Adelaide Street (downtown Toronto in the club district), a place we'd heard of and passed by many times, but had never gone in. The coupon was for buy 1 entree, get the 2nd free (up to $10), so we thought we'd give it a shot.
After an incredibly frustrating commute from the High Park area to the Queen/Bathurst area (from the Gardiner to the Lakeshore to an ill-advised detour through the CNE grounds, traffic was BRUTAL!!!), we arrived around 7 pm.
The exterior of this place was not very impressive...which didn't disturb me in the least...I've often found the best Mexican food to be at "hole-in-the-wall" cantinas...the less slick the decor, the more delicious and authentic the food, it seems. So I wasn't worried....yet.
We went inside and there were only 2 people in the whole place (not a good sign). The "table-cloths" were serapes (Mexican blankets)...which could be considered a nice piece of kitchy decorating. However, they were FILTHY...I tried very hard not to be disgusted.
It took our waiter forever to come over so we helped ourselves to a couple of menus.
When our waiter finally approached us (I'm not sure why there was a delay, considering the sparsely populated dining room) he seemed extremely anxious to take our drink order...when we didn't decide right away, he finally said he'd give us a few minutes (phew!).
The menu reflected a very Tex-Mex sensibility, rather than authentic Mexican..lots of dairy (cheese & sour cream). Since we don't eat dairy, we usually specify NO DAIRY when we go out to eat, especially for Mexican, and it's not usually a problem. The entrees were also a little pricey, but were weren't bothered...we assumed the portions would be huge as per the cost being charged. And, as we've found in many Mexican/Tex-Mex places, 1 order of fajitas will generally feed a moderately-hungry family of four, so we weren't put off by the cost.
The menu was somewhat limited for us, due to our dietary restrictions. We decided to order the veggie fajitas (single order: $11.99, double order: $24.99) Since we had the $10 off coupon, we ordered the double order.
While we waited for our meal, I enjoyed invisible nachos and salsa...mmmm! (That is to say, there were no complimentary chips and salsa provided....booo!! Booo!). I will say that the margaritas were quite tasty, however. :)
When our meal FINALLY arrived, I was, suffice it to say, incredibly disappointed. Though we'd specified "no cheese", our beans were covered in cheese. And, not that it mattered, but it was FETA cheese! Feta? What? In a Mexican restaurant? Weird. Anyway, the waiter said he'd bring us some new beans...
I was incredibly disppointed to find out they use sour cream in their guacamole, one of my biggest restaurant pet peeves. I love guacamole! :(
I once incredulously & rhetorically asked a restaurant manager (who was serving us) in a Tex Mex restaurant why anyone would put sour cream in guacamole...he replied, "Because it's delicious!!"
I said, irritated (and probably PMS'ing), "No, because it's a cheap filler..."
He was, apparently, tremendously insulted by my comment as he responded, "Lady, do you know how much sour cream costs?!!"
I replied, "Not as much as avocados."
I'm pretty sure that guy spit in my salad.
Anyway, back to our dinner at Tequila Sunrise...
The grilled veggies were just peppers and onions--no other vegetables were visible. In addition, they were inordinately greasy, which I don't enjoy. And the portion size was laughably small--thank goodness we chose the DOUBLE order! We were not sated at the end of our meal. All this for almost $50 (and that's with our discount).
Needless to say, we won't be going back.
Tequila Sunrise: Don't bother!
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