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Ate: October 21, 2006 Published: October 22, 2006 $$$ Sometimes when we look for a place to review, we like to go away from the action and find the local secrets, other times we dive right into the main tourist drags. This weekend was one of the latter. Given its size and location, it was obvious that Thorny's Steakhouse and Saloon is perfectly positioned to attract and service large crowds of tourists. When we saw the gift shop to the left of the restaurant's entrance, we realized just how tourist-oriented Thorny's is. The impressive amount of kitsch and televisions in every booth make this the type of place where you could easily imagine a weary family coming after a long, day of beach fun. Unfortunately, the slow, none-too-friendly waitress is also another trademark of restaurants like this, and that's the type that we got this evening. Daring to ask if we were still on time for the early bird specials didn't help us out either. Our salads where pretty good, they came with plenty of dressing, dinner rolls, honey butter, etc. But the real star of our dinner was the buffalo shrimp we got for our appetizer. We got a basket full of big, fried Calabash shrimp dripping with buffalo wing sauce. We've gotten shrimp dinner baskets at seafood restaurants that didn't have as many shrimp as we got in our appetizer. Our first bite revealed another very pleasant surprise. We had expected a milder, mass appeal sauce, but what was on these shrimp definitely had a bit of fire to it. You know you've got something good when you're even munching on the sauce-covered pieces of breading left in the bottom of the basket. The dinners, however, didn't live up to the expectations set by the buffalo shrimp. My wife's steak tips were tough, sinewy and nowhere near the medium-well that she had requested. In her words, it was okay for the early bird price, but if she'd had to pay full price for what she got, she would have been unhappy. What she said pretty closely matched my opinion of the blackened chicken breast I ordered. I've never had anything blackened that was as bland as my dinner this evening. There were a lot of spices on top, but none of them permeated into the meat. As one final little jab from our apathetic waitress, we were charged full price for my chicken breast. When I pointed this out, she said, "Oh, well you didn't say 'early bird.'" I guess us asking about the timing and my wife saying "early bird" when placing her order weren't enough clues to allow her to extrapolate. After our dinner, it's pretty clear that Thorny's Steakhouse and Saloon cares more about pumping tourists through the restaurant than about delivering consistent food or quality service at a decent price. If the buffalo shrimp hadn't been so good, we would say that there was no reason to visit Thorny's. However, during the late afternoon, they offer half-price appetizers and discounted drinks if you're seated at the bar. Next time we go, that's what we'll do, and we'd recommend you do the same. But if you do go for dinner and go in time to get the early bird, make sure that specifically tell them you want it, or they'll try and charge you full price. |
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