Review - Atascadero Restaurants

Nuevo Mexico
(7109 El Camino Real)

This restaurant offers a wonderful lunch deal, if you order two meals and two drinks you get one of the meals for free. I should have taken part in this deal, but instead I ordered the fajitas, which I usually order if they are on the menu to test out the restaurant. The fajitas were good, although they were way too expensive for the amount of chicken I got. The tortillas were large, and I probably could (should?) have only made one fajita "burrito". They came with salad, so that was good, and they had free refills on the soda. I would normally have eaten all the chips and taken the beans and rice to-go, but I was dining with some friends and that would have been weird!! I might come here again and order one of the lunch specials. My friends got the enchiladas and they looked good.

Der Weinerschniztel / Tastee Freez (8950 Montecito Ave.)

This place is great!! They support the community and have good food. Their ice cream is nice and solid, for a soft-serve, and whenever I am in the area I stop by. I like their hotdogs, too. They offer some of the alternative sizes and styles, but I like the plain old hotdog with ketchup. I recently discovered their crispy chicken sandwich, which I order with just lettuce and mayo. The prices are a bit high, but their food is unique. One weird thing happened at the drive-thru, they didn't tell the person in front to park while their big order was being prepared. Instead, she brought out my food, and the food for the guy behind me, and we had to wait while the first car's food was being prepared. Unusual, but I just started eating, luckily I wasn't in a hurry. I like that they offer good coupons in the Sunday paper every once in a while, too.

Review - Grover Beach Restaurants

A.J. Spurs (1760 El Camino Real)

I have seen this restaurant off 101 many times, but finally decided to eat there while I was on the frontage road. The decor is decidedly Western, with stuffed heads lining the walls. The service is friendly (at least for me) and they serve meals with a pot of their beef vegetable soup. They offered beans and salsa, which they say you should mix all together with the soup for a taste sensation. I declined the beans and salsa, but the soup was fantastic. I should have ordered some of the beef, but the chicken Alfredo sounded perfect for that day. They allowed me to substitute tortellini for the fettuccine, which I was thankful for. They offer free refills on the sodas and their salad was good. There was so much pasta that I took half of it to-go. They even offer a dessert option (root beer float, scoop of ice cream, or a liqueur). I opted for ice cream, even though I was stuffed full.

The only negative thing I noticed was that the waitress seemed to treat the couple at the next table in a more "neutral" fashion. It was interesting because usually waitresses treat men on dates better because they know they will get a good tip. This time I fear it was due to the fact that the woman was Asian and the gentleman was Black. This is one of the problems I have found in this area, and coming from the diverse Bay Area I find it offensive. Despite this, I will definitely return here in the future. However, if I see this same treatment again I will not return and will certainly say something, perhaps on Yelp.com.

Follow-up: I just checked my receipt and found that they print the amount of possible tip amounts (15%, 18%, 20%) at the bottom. That would be great, if only they used the amount BEFORE tax!! They calculated the tip amounts based on the total bill, including the tax!!