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Ate: September 30, 2005 Published: October 9, 2005 $$ With our first ever review down and our confidence building, my lovely wife and I have decided to continue this restaurant review gig. Eating out is always fun, and its even better when we have a forum to give a detailed description of what we did and did not like about our experience. For our previous review, we chose to visit one of Murrells Inlet's older, established restaurants. For a change of pace, we decided that this time, we would check out one small part of the massive new growth in the Myrtle Beach area. Since both of us have a penchant for spicy food, we decided to visit Abuelo's Mexican Food Embassy, situated in the restaurant district of the new Coastal Grand Mall on Highway 17 by-pass. Nowadays, it seem like it's almost impossible to find a place that offers you great food and great service. So when you find a place, you tend to grab hold with both hands. This was our experience with Abuelo's. The two of us were suckers for the advertising and visited this establishment on its grand opening. As you should expect at a grand opening, everything was amazing. Over the last few months, we have been back several times with family and friends. Now that Abuelo's has been open for a while and they are no longer in "grand opening" mode, we felt like we were safely reviewing the real restaurant. Upon entering the restaurant, you are immediately struck by the rich, warm, wooden d￩cor and furniture of the entryway. This quickly opens into a foyer and the main dining room. The look that Abuelo's is striving for is the courtyard of a large Mexican hacienda - all the way down to a ceiling painted to look like a sky with white, puffy clouds. The dining room area is very spacious; allowing the restaurant to serve a large number of people at once without the diners feeling packed in like sardines. Now that this restaurant has settled into its groove and the "new" has worn off, we're a little sad to say that the service has slipped a notch. We found ourselves waiting for drink refills and fresh bowls of salsa longer than we ever had on our previous visits. This time, I don't think it was just our table. Even the group of golfers in the booth next to ours seemed to have to wait for their drinks. But please don't think that our nit-picking about the service is to imply that our service was bad. We had been spoiled by Abuelo's impeccable, spot-on service during their opening weeks. Now, the service may have slipped down from "great" to "good," but that still means we got good service. We sometimes feel like we have the worst luck in restaurants (and hopefully, you'll get to hear some of those stories in later columns), so the level of service we received at Abuelo's is still better than what we've gotten many other places. But enough about the d￩cor and the service, the main reason people go out to restaurants is for the food. And believe me, Abuelo's food did not disappoint. We ordered an appetizer of Fundido del Mar - literally a seafood fondue dip. It included shrimp, scallops, roasted red peppers and poblano chili peppers in a rich, creamy cheese sauce. It was presented with a bowl of thick chips and crostini rounds. The dip tasted every bit as rich and as good as it looked. Our party really didn't have much to say to each other during this time, because we were all too busy smacking each other's hands away from the bowl of dip so we could hog it for ourselves. Shortly after the appetizer dishes were cleared, our main courses arrived, looking every bit as sumptuous as the Fundido del Mar had. Many of Abuelo's main courses have creative names. My blushing bride had ordered one known as the Laredo that consists of a beef enchilada, a cheese enchilada and a crispy beef taco. Both of the enchiladas were large and generously stuffed with their respective fillings. As a nice, thoughtful touch, her taco was sitting atop another half of a taco shell in order to keep one side of it from getting soggy sitting in the red enchilada sauce. In addition to the standard Mexican restaurant side dishes of shredded lettuce, tomato and pinto beans, her meal also came with a wonderful new creation that the restaurant calls Papas con Chile. We have not seen this at any other restaurant in Myrtle Beach and think it is probably the most enjoyable new side dish to come along in a while. It consists of fresh mashed potatoes, complete with bits of peel and small chunks of potato so you know that they didn't come out of a box. To this, they add cheese and diced mild red and green chili peppers. For those of you who may be wary of spicy food, these peppers are mild. They get your attention without smacking you full force in the face. Just about anyone who enjoys good mashed potatoes will enjoy Papas con Chile. My main course was the Chicken Fajita Chimichanga. As the name indicates, this busy, combination dish has qualities of both a fajita and a chimichanga, some parts of it also evoke thoughts of a chile relleno as well. It consists of sliced strips of grilled chicken breast and cheese placed on a sliced-open green chile pepper. The whole thing is wrapped in flour tortilla, lightly fried and plated with a chile con queso sauce. Fajita, chimichanga, chile relleno; they combined all three masterfully. As with my wife's meal, I also opted for the papas con chile as opposed to the rice. The appetizer and the main courses were both very large, so we unfortunately did not have room for dessert. After two reviews, we have yet to review a restaurant's dessert menu. If this keeps up, we'll either have to skip the appetizers to save room, or "take one for the team" and stuff ourselves with a dessert, even if they have to wheel us out of the restaurant. But don't let our lack of a dessert review dissuade you from visiting Abuelo's. With excellent food and good service, the prices are extremely reasonable. If you're going to visit Abuelo's, do yourself a favor and get there early. The line forms quickly. |
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