Izzo's Illegal Burrito January 27th, 2012

This week's restaurant is a new burrito place at the Summit shopping center.  It opened in the fall and always looks busy but never really made it as a final selection for us to try for dinner.  This week, however, PricePunch came out with a $20 gift certificate for $10 to Izzo's which made our minds up for us on what restaurant we'd be trying this weekend.

We arrived around 7pm on Friday night and found the restaurant about half full.  We were greeted by a pleasant young lady who figured out it was our first time to dine at Izzo's and described it as "Subway style" meaning - you select your burrito type (we had plain but they have cayenne, whole wheat and pesto as well!) and size.  Gina had the Misdemeanor (regular) while Jay had the SuperFelony (medium).  The Illegal size was HUGE and can't imagine a lot of people order it unless they want to share.  It would be approximately 2 SuperFelonys and maybe larger.

Jay had steak, beans, rice, grilled onions, shredded cheese, pico de gallo, and guacamole with the cilantro ranch sauce.  Gina had grilled chicken with rice, grilled onions, shredded cheese, pico de gallo and the Illegal (hot!) sauce.  We made our burritos into a combo which includes a drink and chips and either queso dip, guacamole or salsa.  We both had queso.  This came to just over $20.  You get your own drinks from the fountain (coke products and Luzianne tea) and seating is either a few booths or tables.  Of course, we picked a booth.

We decided this place is a cross between Chipotle and Moe's for those of you familiar with these burrito chains.  The food seemed fresher to us at Izzo's.   The ingredients looked appetizing as you walked down the assembly line as your burrito was prepared.  Both of our burritos were great and it was nice to customize our burritos to our specific tastes without asking them to hold this or that from the way the menu says it should be prepared.

We'll go back here if we're near the Summit and are wanting a quick, but tasty Tex-Mex meal.

Mudtown - January 21st, 2012

This week we took the suggestion of one of Jay's twitter friends and a former local news reporter - Chris Pollone - and headed out to Mudtown in Cahaba Heights.  This restaurant is just over the hill from the Summit but tucked away from the craziness that can be the Summit.  However, at 6 pm on a Saturday night, it was packed.  We waited about 10 minutes and a table for two opened up.  There were several larger parties ahead of us and all were seated within 20 minutes.  We also saw several groups go somewhere else due to the wait.

We had perused the menus ahead of time and were pretty set on what we wanted to order.  Jay had the Reuben with onion rings and Gina had the Monte Cristo with fries.  Gina also had the Paradise martini which was Absolut Mandarin, Grand Marnier with raspberry and lime flavors - a little sweet, a little sour.  The martini was very good.  One nice thing was that the water and coke glasses were HUGE.  This is good so you don't have to wait for a refill from a server.  Jay's Reuben was great with the perfect amount of sauerkraut to bring out the flavor of the corned beef.  Gina has had better Monte Cristos -- this one was good but not great.  She believes if they left it on the grill for another 3-4 minutes, it would have been much better. 

While Jay and Gina both enjoyed their meals, its unlikely that this restaurant will make it into the regular rotation given its distance from their house and the similarities it has to other restaurants nearby.  They'll be back - just won't be heading across town and passing up other favorites to dine there regularly. 

Black Jack Grille - January 14th, 2012

This week we were somewhat undecided about what sort of food to eat when we remembered that we had a gift certificate from ALBuys.Com (like Groupon or Living Social) to Black Jack Grille.  It is just off I-459 on Acton Road in the little plaza near McDonald's and Krystal.

We arrived around 6pm and were seated immediately in a comfy booth.  The menu had a good variety of what I'd call pub food and also some interesting pasta and fish entrees.  We each ordered a drink (Jay a Magic Hat on draft and Gina a 21 which was a Midori based drink.)  A sign on our table indicated that it is happy hour daily from 4-7 so we had a little discount on our drinks.  We also started with some potato skins which were great. 

Jay ordered a full rack of baby back ribs with a side of mac n cheese.  His food came with a dinner salad. He got a honey-lime dressing on the salad which was fantastic.  The most impressive thing was the ribs.  They literally fell off the bone when you tried to eat them.  The sauce had a little kick to it to compliment the flavor of the ribs without being too spicy.  Jay said that while the mac n cheese wasn't as good as Jim n Nick's, the baby back ribs were some of the best he's ever eaten.

Gina had a blackened shrimp and spinach salad that came with  carmelized onions and a red chili dressing.  Unfortunately, the kitchen was out of spinach and asked if a substitution of Romaine was okay.  (They offered iceberg too but she wasn't interested.)  The salad was good sized but not huge (which is a good thing, no one needs a platter of salad!)  and was full of flavor.  The salad dressing would remind you of the Thai Chili sauce that you are often served with calamari.  The shrimp were nice sized and tasty. 

We enjoyed our evening out at Black Jack Grille and will be back to try some of their other offerings!

Frio en La Paz - January 7th, 2012

Today we went to Frio en La Paz in the Vestavia City Center in Vestavia Hills for our first "out of the box" dining experience. We are frequent movie-goers and enjoy the Rave that is in this same shopping center and planned to see a movie after lunch. We are frequent diners at other local favorites, including Cocina Superior, Blue Iguana, Chuy's and Superior Grill. Frio en La Paz is the sister restaurant to La Paz in Mountain Brook which is another local favorite but not very convenient to our "Over the Mountain" residence.

We arrived at noon and were taken with the modern decor. It immediately reminded us of our 2006 vacation to Secrets Excellence in Puerto Morelos (near Cancun, Mexico.) We were escorted to a comfy booth which is always our preference by the host. Our server appeared shortly after we sat down with chips and two kinds of salsa -- the typical red and also green. We also ordered a small bowl of queso to share. Jay had the Burrito Gordo with ground beef and Gina ordered the Chicken Quesadillas. The entrees come with your choice of side items and we both had the La Paz Mexican Rice. All of the food was very good and you could tell it was made with fresh ingredients.

This restaurant will definitely go into the rotation when we are in the mood for Mexican fare for both the great food and excellent location.