Asti d'Italia 11/26/2011

Once again we found ourselves at Asti not understanding why the place wasn't packed with people escaping from the crazy Christmas shopping nightmare.

But we sat and ordered and got our crisp warm bread to dip into the olive oil, Balsamic and cracked pepper. mmmmmmm so nice

Kimberly had the Liguini with meatballs and as always the meatballs where moist and tender with just the right amount of spice and the pasta cooked to perfection.

I had the Roasted Turkey and smoked Prosciutto Panini. It comes with a fontina cheese, red onion and an amazing honey mustard aioli. Just the right amount of crunch, spice and sweet all together.

The amazing thing is that all lunches are $9.00 and made fresh with great ingredients. The atmosphere is always nice with some italian music playing quietly in the background while we "people watched" out the window at all the craziness of the shoppers outside...

If you haven't tried this place....its your loss

http://www.astiditalia.com/ is located at the orchard @ 144th and I-25

El Jardin Mexican Restaurant 11/20/11

Great Mexican food! Channel 7 voted El Jardin number 1 Mexican food restaurant, and we know why! We've been eating here for over 25 years and have watched them grown to the point of moving to a new building, and today it looks like they are adding on. Another plus is that they have a member card that tracks your visits which eventually equals free food.

The service was really amazing. Super friendly wait staff- we had 4 different waiters offer to refill our water and chips/salsa.

The free chips and salsa are very good- we prefer more cilantro in the salsa, but all in all it's a quality product.

David and I both thought the food was excellent! I had the Tacos Al Carbon... 3 white corn tortillas with grilled steak and onions, pico de gallo and fresh lime, also comes with mexican rice and refried beans, so amazing!

David had the Crispy Relleno platter smother with green chili with a side of chicharone. The chicharones are always the best we've ever eaten, most likely this food could be cause for cardiac arrest but once in a while it's a real treat.

Now for the only down side we could find. The prices have gone up and they are in need of some basic repairs and maintenance. Booth benches were cracked and the carpet should be replaced.

All in all- every wait staff person has a smile on their face and is ready and willing to serve!

Go check them out!

http://www.iloveeljardin.com/

Oskar Blues 11/ 19/ 2011 lunch

Today we went to Oskar Blues in Longmont Colorado....

We entered and were told it would be a 5-10 minute wait. I could see 7 empty tables and an empty booth. We waited for about 7-8 minutes and were seated......25 minutes after entering we were brought some water and greeted by someone who would not be our waiter. A few minutes later we were waited on and promptly ordered our appetizer and lunch.

The place was fairly busy with a loud atmosphere. The Nebraska Michigan football game was being shown all over the place and we had plenty of time to notice the atmosphere and decorating. Its very 3rd grade art and mixture of posters about music and things...

They brought out the appetizer (fried pickles and a spicy ranch sauce) and we proceeded to take in the amazing taste and texture of the pickles. They are spicy and crunchy and very good. If we would have had a little plate with it we could have kept from making the mess we made all over the table. And we noticed later that others got little appetizer plates with their order. The sauce was a bit runny and we couldn't keep from making a mess. Finally Kimberly was able to get the attention of someone who brought us some little plates..

Twenty seconds later our meals showed up...I had the pulled pork sandwich with fries and Kimberly had a beet and goat cheese salad with a vinaigrette over greens with a bowl of green chili soup...

My fries had obviously been sitting around for a while and were quite rubbery...they remained on the plate after the meal...The pulled pork was absolutely amazing. Obviously smoked and tender and filled with flavor but put on a cheap King-Soopers style bun with only enough sauce to get a tease of what it should be..and I had to wait for almost 10 minutes to finally get someones attention to refill our glasses (or old jelly jars) with only Luke warm water and no ice...

Kim's salad was ok except the Vinaigrette was also short and lacking real flavor..The soup was thick and full of flavor but the flavor was hard to figure out...

Again we waited for almost 15 mins for our check to finally show up so we could bolt out of there....

In conclusion.....Prices were decent and the food could have been amazing but they fell short in too many areas for us to want to return....I think they must have started life as a nice place and forgot about customer service over the years and nobody has filled them in on the art of LIKING PEOPLE and making sure they have a nice experience so they will tell their friends about it....

http://www.oskarblues.com 1555 S Hover Rd Longmont, Colorado