Trying New Restaurants: Red Pepper Grill
Apr. 27th, 2024 08:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerWe tried a new restaurant the other night, Red Pepper Grill over in Los Altos, ~5 miles away. Part of my impetus to try it was trying something new. It's over a year now since my 2023 new-year resolution to try new restaurants. We wound up not really trying all that many new restaurants in the area last year so I consider the resolution still in play for this year.
The other part of my impetus was that I had a credit card incentive for the restaurant. Yeah, I've often got multiple plates spinning at the same time. 😅
The credit card incentive was this thing from Chase called Chase Merchant Offers. Each of my Chase cards has a list of about 100 offers from various companies for extra points or cash back on qualifying purchases. Most of them are from merchants I'd ordinarily never buy from, and trifling incentives like "Spent at least $200 at this mail-order clothing shop, get $20 back" are not enough to get me to try them. Several are from restaurants. At any one time there are usually a few from restaurants I'd consider eating at. Red Pepper Grill is a Mexican restaurant, and Hawk and I like Mexican, so we decided a few days ago we'd give them a try.
We rolled up to the restaurant early into dinner hour on a Thurdsay evening. The patio was filled with a birthday party group. Indoors there were plenty of seats available. It was just as well the patio was full as the weather outside wasn't nice enough to be enjoyable. And the party being outside left things quieter inside.
I ordered enchiladas Suizas (photo above), a dish with two chicken enchiladas covered with tomatillo sauce and cheese. Hawk ordered Monterey enchiladas, which were basically the same thing but with cheese filling instead of chicken. I wish I'd known what she was going to order before I made up my mind; I'd have tried something with a different sauce so we could get a broader taste for the menu between the two of us.
The tomatillo sauce was strongly flavored. That was a bit surprising because usually tomatillo sauce has a subtle flavor. The strong flavor paired well with the chicken in my enchiladas but overpowered the cheese filling in Hawk's entree.
The rice was meh, just standard Mexican-style Spanish rice. In other words, filler. The beans were subpar. They were too chunky to be refried beans yet too smooth to pass as whole beans. And the bits of cheddar cheese melted over them only amplified their inadequacy.
Service was spotty. There were 3 people working front-of-house but really only 1 was a full-time server. The others seemed to be managers who occasionally pitched in to help with serving the big party outside but would then melt away to do something manager-y. Assuming the birthday party was booked in advance they should have had more service staff working. Oh, and there were 2-3 hangers-on in the dining room who were family or friends of the owner. They kind of helped out a bit with the party but also created distractions for the employees who were working. One of them was visibly inebriated and creeping on women in the restaurant. Mr. Creepy offered to pay my bill when I humored him with a bit of conversation... then left before paying— either my bill or his own. 😨 The manager came over to me later an apologized, explaining that he told him to leave.
Would we go back? No.
For me the kiss of death for Red Pepper Grill was the cost. Two entrees, a mocktail, and a Coke, plus tax and tip, ran over $80. Our favorite Mexican restaurants in the area run $10 cheaper for the same size order with much better food.
The other part of my impetus was that I had a credit card incentive for the restaurant. Yeah, I've often got multiple plates spinning at the same time. 😅
The credit card incentive was this thing from Chase called Chase Merchant Offers. Each of my Chase cards has a list of about 100 offers from various companies for extra points or cash back on qualifying purchases. Most of them are from merchants I'd ordinarily never buy from, and trifling incentives like "Spent at least $200 at this mail-order clothing shop, get $20 back" are not enough to get me to try them. Several are from restaurants. At any one time there are usually a few from restaurants I'd consider eating at. Red Pepper Grill is a Mexican restaurant, and Hawk and I like Mexican, so we decided a few days ago we'd give them a try.
We rolled up to the restaurant early into dinner hour on a Thurdsay evening. The patio was filled with a birthday party group. Indoors there were plenty of seats available. It was just as well the patio was full as the weather outside wasn't nice enough to be enjoyable. And the party being outside left things quieter inside.
I ordered enchiladas Suizas (photo above), a dish with two chicken enchiladas covered with tomatillo sauce and cheese. Hawk ordered Monterey enchiladas, which were basically the same thing but with cheese filling instead of chicken. I wish I'd known what she was going to order before I made up my mind; I'd have tried something with a different sauce so we could get a broader taste for the menu between the two of us.
The tomatillo sauce was strongly flavored. That was a bit surprising because usually tomatillo sauce has a subtle flavor. The strong flavor paired well with the chicken in my enchiladas but overpowered the cheese filling in Hawk's entree.
The rice was meh, just standard Mexican-style Spanish rice. In other words, filler. The beans were subpar. They were too chunky to be refried beans yet too smooth to pass as whole beans. And the bits of cheddar cheese melted over them only amplified their inadequacy.
Service was spotty. There were 3 people working front-of-house but really only 1 was a full-time server. The others seemed to be managers who occasionally pitched in to help with serving the big party outside but would then melt away to do something manager-y. Assuming the birthday party was booked in advance they should have had more service staff working. Oh, and there were 2-3 hangers-on in the dining room who were family or friends of the owner. They kind of helped out a bit with the party but also created distractions for the employees who were working. One of them was visibly inebriated and creeping on women in the restaurant. Mr. Creepy offered to pay my bill when I humored him with a bit of conversation... then left before paying— either my bill or his own. 😨 The manager came over to me later an apologized, explaining that he told him to leave.
Would we go back? No.
For me the kiss of death for Red Pepper Grill was the cost. Two entrees, a mocktail, and a Coke, plus tax and tip, ran over $80. Our favorite Mexican restaurants in the area run $10 cheaper for the same size order with much better food.
