Waste of money

Tonight we went to Lonestar Steakhouse in Monroeville and had one of the worst meals in a long time.

I ordered a special called a Garlic Lovers. The picture showed creamy, garlic mashed potatoes, 5 shrimp, and a steak. The steak and shrimp had a nice looking glaze/sauce with small pieces of garlic in it.

What I got was a steak, 5 shrimp piled on the steak, a white gluey mess of pureed garlic and some totally inedible instant potatoes. The garlic ‘sauce’ was incredibly unsubtle and nearly flavorless except for the tang of MSG. The shrimp were ok, once I divested them of most of the garlic, and the steak was definitely medium when I ordered medium rare. The potatoes, well, they were inedible. They were barely warm, and tasted like instant potatoes with no butter or milk, much less garlic. Our waiter offered to get some hot ones, but I knew heating the concoction wasn’t likely to make them any more edible.

My partner got the appetizer chicken strips with buffalo sauce and stated they were uninspired and not subtle at all. Personally, I suspect that buffalo has come to mean HOT, not spicy. Ah well.

The Amarillo fries were pretty good, once we got the dipping sauce our waiter forgot.

Oh, yeah, this meal (with NO alcohol) came to $35. For that I could have gone to Whole Foods and probably bought two porterhouses AND all the fixings!

Needless to say, we aren’t going back for at least 6-9 months, or more. And this may be the perfect reason to get a nice grill for my nice new house…..come mid-spring. I don’t grill at 35F! *brrrrr*