Sunday Dinner

My love suggested we go out to dinner.... seemed like a simple enough request and one I was ready and willing to do.  I asked him if he had any place in mind...  "not really" , he said.    He asked if I had any place I wanted to go, I asked what were my options, he said, "anywhere".   Uh oh...  I'm TERRIBLE at making decicsions when I don't have a particular desire in mind..and unfortunately he's the same..  we really should have researched this first, but I don't have my "places to try" list on this computer (its on the broken one), and I was getting pretty hungry already, so when he finally suggested the newish place, Texas Roadhouse, I was game.

Got there just before 5, on a Sunday evening.  I should have known, it was packed.   And there was at least a 20 minute wait.   No thanks..  we drove for about an hour, trying to decide where to go... didn't want fast food, didn't want a sports bar atmosphere, should go to a non-chain place because I feel like local non-chains should always be patronized first, but couldn't think of any nearby off the top of my head without my list.   So we drove...up and down Shaw... up Clovis, through Old Town,...back up Shaw and turned onto Blackstone North, knowing full well that waiting there would be nothing but crowded chains with waiting people.   I thought let's drive through Riverpark proper and see how the parking is, since I was thinking about Dai Bai Dang.  No dice...cars everywhere....  I remembered Mimi's (yes another chain) and how we hadn't gotten to eat there before because it was packed...but the parking lot looked relatively empty near there...so we stopped and went in.   The place was quiet, pleasant, and mostly deserted.   So we asked to be seated.

Service was good, (except the silly waitress correcting my pronunciation of "beignets" (ben-YAY) with her own incorrect "ben-A".  And the food was very good.   We shared the "Asian Sampler" appetizer,  (coconut shrimp, chicken tender, and potstickers all in a delicious sauce on top of  'Asian Slaw').,  my love had the pork chops (perfectly cooked but not much of the advertised "dijon honey mustard sauce), and really good mashed potatoes.   I had the "Asiago Artichoke Chicken" pasta some such thing....it was also very good.  My love enjoyed his Apple Crisp very much for dessert...  as for my "ben-A's", well.. I think the pancake puppies at Denny's are better...  they LOOKED like pancake puppies (not like real beignets") but weren't quite cooked through.   But we will be back now that we know what time to be there... (6 something, Sunday evening).

Most importantly, I got to spend a quiet evening out with my husband, and that alone is worth all the proper New Orleans pastries in the world.