T-rex Mex

Cuisine: Mexican-American
Price: $
Coke or Pepsi: Coke
Separate Bar: Yes
Takeout: Yes
Address: 217 West Broughton Street
Savannah, GA 31401
Phone: 912-232-3466
Website: N/A

He says: This T-Rex is about to be extinct if something doesn't change

This place has had their name on the door for what has seemed like forever, but have just now gotten their act together to get it open (first red flag). A buddy at work told me Wednesday that he had gone there for lunch so I thought this would be a new adventure/blog post for Alicia and myself.

It has a very cool atmosphere down in the basement of a building on Broughton. SCAD students obviously had their way with the interior. Even the tables were painted (part of our table was done with glitter paint, which made me wonder if that was a health code violation). The colors are very bright with artwork on the walls and cool light fixtures. They also had good music, and more importantly, at an acceptable level. I hate restaurants with the music so loud that you can't converse with those around you.

First up came the tea, my first impression of the restaurant. It wasn't great. Seemed to be bordering on old. Entrees were limited as far as selection, and reminded me of my college diet - salads, burritos, quesadillas, tacos, nachos - and ranged from around $5-7. The menu was the sorriest wrinkled up 3 pieces of paper and stapled together in the corner. It looked like it had been through the washing machine once or twice. I didn't really want to touch them.

So on top of the tea being sub standard and the menu looking like I need a tetanus shot to go with it, our waitress didn't seemed really enthused about waiting on us. Don't get me wrong, I'm not looking for Brian from Office Space, but when we're only one of three tables in the whole place it can't be that bad...can it? It probably didn't help that she was the waitress/bar tender/and probably cook/microwave user.

I ordered a chicken burrito. Chicken, cheese, beans (in order of what should be most predominant in the burrito). What I got was a bean burrito. Beans, beans, beans, beans, cheese, beans, chicken, and beans. Terrible. Seriously, how do you mess up a chicken burrito? The bean juice made my tortilla so soggy that it basically fell apart as I ate it and ultimately turned into a train wreck. It was so terrible I didn't even bother taking a picture of it.

This woman knows how to make a chicken burrito.

Accompanying my soggy bean burrito was a ramekin of boogers that they insisted was "salsa". Even if this was "salsa", how do you expect someone to dip a large triangular chip into a bowl with a 1.5" diameter?

Needless to say I walked out of there horribly disappointed. I'd go as far as to say it is one of, if not the worst restaurant I've eaten at here in Savannah. If you want a burrito, I'd recommend Moe's. It's cheaper, better and they welcome you the second you walk in the door.

Taste: 0 noms

Plating/Appearance of Food: 0 noms

Service: 1 noms

Cleanliness: 3 noms

Atmosphere: 5 noms

Overall Noms: 1.8

She Says: The food is as confusing as the name

Here's a food code to live by (I think Celeste would be proud): if the name of a restaurant sounds like the owners put little thought into it, or just put words together that simply sound cool but mean nothing, chances are high that the food isn't going to be good. This couldn't be more true for the latest new "Mexican" restaurant in town, T-rex Mex. What does a T-rex have to do with Mexican food? Nothing. Yeah, sure, it rhymes, but so does Dr. Suess - that doesn't mean the Who's down in Whoville know how to make a kick-ass chimichanga.

Needless to say, I was thrown by the name before even entering the basement restaurant. The decor, which had a cool, Spanish-gothic vibe to it, made me forget about the name for a little bit. The exposed brick on the wall matched with brightly colored, morbid paintings made an interesting and artsy atmosphere for sure. It was clear that the owners spent some time on the design. I just wish they would have spent more time on the food.

When we got the menu, I was shocked, but not in the oh-my-god-these-dishes-sound-amazing way. No, I was shocked in the great-I'm-about-to-pay-for-food-I-could-make-at-home sort of way. The menu, which was extremely minimalist (which isn't a bad thing, as long as the food that's on the menu is something better than what a ten year old could make), only offered basic nachos, burritos, quesadillas and tacos. So there I was, in an artsy, Spanish pub-like atmosphere, named after a dinosaur, ordering Moe's cuisine ... from a waitress. Needless to say, I was confused. I didn't know whether they had just opened and didn't have a large menu yet, or if they just didn't care about the food all the way around. But I did know that paying $8 for nachos with salsa, cheese, tomatoes, and jalepenos on it (it was extra if I wanted chicken or beef) was ridiculously over priced. I could essentially get the same thing at Taco Bell, without having to leave tip.

To make matters worse, the food took twenty minutes to get there. TWENTY MINUTES! Will (who's no Bobby Flay in the kitchen) could have made me better nachos at home in half the time. I'm not really sure what took so long, but I'm guessing it wasn't the cooks because when I got my nachos the cheese was rubbery from standing under the heat lamp so long. I couldn't even finish my nachos, because I couldn't break through the cheese.

I wasn't please with T-Rex Mex at all, and I won't be going back. In fact, if there were RAZZIE awards for restaurants, T-rex Mex would win one for sure. Next time I want a burrito, I'll make sure to go to a place that focuses less on dinosaurs and decor and more on the food.

Taste: 0 noms

Plating/Appearance of Food: 0 noms

Service: 0 noms

Cleanliness: 5 noms

Atmosphere: 5 noms

Overall Noms: 2

Troys Mediteranean Cuisine

Cuisine: Mediteranean

Price: $8 - $24

Separate bar: no

Takeout: yes

Coke or Pepsi Products: Coke

Address: 10510 Abercorn St., Savannah, GA 31419

Phone: (912) 921-5117

Website: http://troymediterraneancuisine.com/

He says: If the food was this good in Troy, Odysseus would never have left.

Troy was what I’ll call a “Google Gamble”, meaning I Googled “Savannah restaurants” and picked one from the list. This was a definite winner. I’ve seen Troy several times tucked away in a shopping center down near all of the car dealerships on Abercorn and just assumed it was some mediocre restaurant the car salesmen go to on their lunch hour. This place was fantastic, and definitely in my top 5 Savannah restaurants and on my short list for favorite restaurants period.

First off, is it just me or does every Greek restaurant look the same? It’s always murals of old bricks and vines on the walls and the usual mass-produced oil paintings of wine bottles and Mediterranean village seascapes. Not that I have anything against that, but they always feel so generic to me.

We walked in and were immediately seated and greeted by our waitress Petya, who was absolutely fantastic. She has become one of only two waiters I know by name and would ask to sit in their section over and over again (the other being Gary from Elizabeth’s on 37^th).

She asked us if this was our first time there, how we heard about the place, found out I was a Geographer and asked me if I knew where Bulgaria is (yes I do, see Figure 1), told us about her home in Bulgaria, and most importantly – knew everything that was in every dish. She easily talked me into the special.

Figure 1

First came the tea, which was excellent, along with a home made garlic rosemary focaccia bread with some kind of garlic/rosemary/red pepper butter that together made a heck of a combination. I ate a loaf and a half by myself.

My entrée was the special for the evening, which was panko-crusted sea bass with a white poblano pepper vinaigrette sauce, spinach and garlic mashed potatoes on top of a spinach and roasted pepper salsa. . .hey, you got a bit of drool there.

This was one of the best dishes I’ve had since I moved to Savannah. The fish was flavorful, moist, and it also had good texture (sea bass is a more steak like fish, rather than flaky). The potatoes were rich and smooth and I wish I could have gotten another scoop. As I shoved the last forkful of fish and potatoes in my mouth, looking for the nearest wheelbarrow to haul me out to the car, Petya just HAD to come and mention dessert.

“OK Will, just listen to what they have and then politely decline and find the nearest Tums,” I thought to myself right before she opened her mouth and mentioned the white chocolate bread pudding with two scoops of vanilla bean ice cream drizzled with white chocolate. Damn. “Yeah, I’ll have that”.

Twenty minutes later, and absolutely wanting to explode/die (but in a good way), we finally made our way out. When we both got in the car we turned to each other with that “Wow, totally didn’t see that coming” look in both of our faces. We’ll definitely be coming back.

Taste: Five noms

Plating/Appearance of Food: Five noms

Service: Five noms

Cleanliness: Five noms

Atmosphere: Three noms

Overall Noms: 4.6

She Says: A Bright Spot in the Storm

There is nothing better in this world than expecting absolutely nothing out of a restaurant and getting five star cuisine . . . especially on a Thursday . . . after budget cuts have been announced. I'll admit it, I had bitched at Will about the Georgia education cuts so much last week that I'm pretty sure he just took me out to Troy to make me shut up for an hour. I don't blame him really. In fact, I'm thankful.

Troy doesn't look like much from the outside. It's truly forgettable on first appearance. Troy is located on Abercorn in between Oglethorpe Mall and Armstrong University in a small strip mall. I honestly can't even remember the shops that were next to it. But I can remember thinking, great, another Sushi Time Towa.

When we walked into Troy, I still wasn't impressed. The decor was so stereotypical, with paintings of wine and fruit hung everywhere (what Will calls "Asian sweat shop" oil paintings) and the typical maroon and tan color scheme throughout the joint. By this time, I was having bad flashbacks to Mr. Miyagi and was expecting nothing less than imitation Mediterranean food.

Then our waitress came. I was intrigued by Petya (pronounces exactly how it's spelled) from the moment she asked me what I wanted to drink. Her thick accent was beautiful, and her personality was even better. She told us she was from Bulgaria, which made Will's geography ears perk up. To stroke his ego even more (oh yeah, she totally knew who to get her tip money from), she asked him if he knew where the country was located, he quickly answered, and she looked impressed (at about the same time that she imagined a money ball going right in the money basket). All jokes aside, Petya was probably one of the best waitresses I've ever had. She explained all the menu options thoroughly, made sure our palettes could handle the ingredients by asking questions like, "now you do like spicy food, right? Because this dish is going to be spicy," and kept our drinks filled all while telling us stories about herself and asking us questions about our lives.

Before my dinner plate even arrived, we were given rosemary & garlic foccacia bread. More importantly, we were given rosemary & garlic foccacia bread made in house that day. It was fresh, aromatic, and incredibly delicious. Petya even made sure to fill up our bread basket a few times while we waited.

When my seafood stew arrived, I couldn't help but just sit and smell it for a few minutes. Not only did it look lovely, with mussels, calamari, shrimp, scallops, salmon and grouper all covered in spicy tomato sauce base, but it smelled amazing as well. If this is what the Mediterranean smells like, send me on a plane.

The taste didn't disappoint either. I used to think I didn't like cooked seafood, but after eating every piece of seafood this dish had to offer (some of which I had never tried before), I've changed my mind. The calamari wasn't rubbery at all. The mussels weren't slimy like I had always imagined them to be, and my arch-nemesis salmon actually tasted lovely with the tomato sauce (which wasn't spicy while I was chewing it, but heated my throat after I swallowed it). Not one piece of seafood overpowered the other, and I finished my stew NEEDING to know the recipe.

For dessert, I ordered the homemade tirimisu. I love tirimisu, but this one had a little too much sugar and not enough espresso. So I only took a few bites and saved the rest for later.

All and all, Troy was a pleasant midweek surprise. It also didn't break the bank. With Olive Garden-like prices (but way better food quality), our total bill (including two entrees, two desserts, a sweet tea and a glass of wine) came to around 55 dollars. Not bad for a midweek find.

Taste: 4.5 noms (if only the dessert weren't so sweet)

Plating/Appearance of Food: Five noms

Service: Five noms

Cleanliness: Five noms

Atmosphere: Three noms

Overall Noms: 4.5