I have no kitchen in my new apartment, so I have to cook at Jimmy’s place if I want to eat something other than instant noodles made with my kettle. Jimmy and I have been trying to plan our meals for the week, but so far, we’ve only been successful in following one day. Today, we decided to forgo our planned dinner, and go out to Lone Star for some steak instead.
As usual, we were served some tortilla chips and fresh salsa as soon as we were seated. The salsa was spicier than we’ve had in the past, which was unexpected but nice. It was zesty and full of cilantro and lime juice. I loooooooooove cilantro! It’s such a bright flavour!
Although I planned to order steak, I changed my mind, and ordered some chicken fajitas instead. It’s always exciting to see a sizzling platter of yummy-smelling food exit the kitchen. When our server placed those hissing fajitas in front of me, my mouth started watering. “Oh my god, this smells… yum… wow… it’s like… *sigh*… mmmmmm… love….” My brain stumbled all over itself, trying to find the right combination of adjectives. What I ended up saying was something close to: “Yummmmmmmmmmmm.”
The chicken itself was fantastic! It was surprisingly juicy and flavourful. I normally loathe ordering chicken breast because it often comes dry and tastes like sawdust. The rest of the food was great, with the exception of the rice (more on that later). I thought I was going to get a small cup of refried beans (aka the love of my life), but instead, the fajitas came with baked beans. They were okay, but I really wanted the pasty wonderfulness of refried beans. I adore how it spreads in your mouth and then melts away like butter. Mmmm… butter. Lone Star’s refried beans are like the butter of beans. Yummy.
Now, let’s move on to the rice. I have hated the “Mexican rice.” In first-year university when we were forced to get a meal plan, the cafeteria used to serve up a combination of dry rice, beans, and salsa. Imagine eating leftovers that have been sitting in a stinky fridge, slowly absorbing stinky smells, for a month. Sound gross? Did I mention that although it reeked like garbage, it was actually bland? It must be some sort of black magic. Seriously, how is that even possible??!?! Lone Star’s rice tastes like that crap from the cafeteria. That said, I don’t know what real Mexican food is supposed to taste like, but I'm sure the rice served at Lone Star is NOT AUTHENTIC.
Jimmy went for a 10 oz. New York strip loin, with sautéed vegetables and a skillet of mushrooms on the side. He started with a Caesar salad, which is normally quite good, but complained that the salad tasted “old.” The sautéed vegetables were the same. Disappointing. However, he said the steak was delicious. Yay! We always order the mushroom skillet with steak, which I highly recommend, but it’s been hit or miss lately. This time, the flavour of the pepper and onions fully penetrated the mushrooms. They normally use smaller mushrooms than you see in the picture, but that certainly didn’t diminish the taste.
Oh, and I forgot to mention that I ordered a frozen lime margarita! It had soooo much lime and tequila!!! Sour, sweet AND salty! I was a happy girl. Unfortunately, I was too busy stuffing my face with fajitas that I forgot to drink it. It turned into lime-y tequila-y water in the end. Still enjoyable, but not as great as it was when it was frozen.
Overall, I enjoyed the meal. It wasn’t the best that we’ve ever had at Lone Star, but it’s far from the worst. The bill came close to $70.00 (including tip) for the both of us. It was quite the splurge, seeing as we’re both starving university students on a tight budget. We don’t do this often, so it was a nice treat. AND there were two embarrassing birthday songs, which made it a dinner and a show. That’s justifiable, right?
Fin.
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