Two Step Restaurant
9840 West Loop 1604 N
San Antonio, TX 78254
http://www.twosteprestaurant.com/
May 6, 2013
Aesthetically speaking this place is a knockout! See to me that's the problem, looks are indeed deceiving. Two Step Restaurant is nothing if not inviting. This place fancies itself an upscale, family owned, Texas BBQ joint with some Tex-Mex flair. That is a lot for any restaurant to live up to especially one that wants to bridge good BBQ with some San Antonio staples such as chips & salsa as an appetizer. Back to that in a minute. We were greeted graciously by the host who just happened to be walking back inside before we came in. I purposely arrived at high noon and I took in the décor and the beautiful seating areas of the Cantina, Dining and Patio. We were offered our choice and took our place Cantina side. Immediately, our server was welcoming, knowledgeable and they had my favorite beer on tap: Shiner Light Blonde! Whew boy, that was an unexpected surprise and a good one at that--being the beer snob that I am. (Note to self: Flying Saucer Fix later in the week.) The salsa was dynamite but the chips were stale! Our host returned just in time for me to tell him the horrid tale of the chips being stale and he returned moments later with what he called a fresh batch of chips that were equally as stale! Jesus, LOL. I can tell they were put in the micro and nuked to hell! That would be theme of the experience here! Just as you get your hopes high: fast service, great Texas beer and awesome salsa; they kept missing a step or two in other areas. The "queso" we ordered came after the salsa and it looked appetizing but I could make better "queso" with a hearty can of Hot Green Chiles Rotel and some Velveeta and that's no lie! The menu offered a variety of choices that included burgers, seafood and even tacos! I made sure to ask plenty of questions. That's the mantra you should take at any 'new to you' establishment. Ask and you shall know! Special of the day was a steak sandwich on a hoagie! I asked if the catfish po'boy was good and he decided to plug how he was from Missouri and was used to catfish from that region but eventually said it was good here! I convinced myself that any item on the menu should be as important as any other item on the menu and I was going to put this to the test! Again, beautiful presentation but it was a huge let down! Catfish isn't hard to get right but easy to get wrong and it was all kinds of wrong here! My brother didn't fare any better! He ordered the special and I was expecting to see a flank steak on some Texas Toast but he got what looked like a Philly Cheese Steak on the same style hoagie my depressing catfish came in. The scenery of this restaurant made the experience bareable along with Willie Nelson playing in the background. The server who was also doubling as a bartender gave excellent service and to be honest with you, for it being lunch rush hour the parking lot had more cars than the whole establishment! Maybe, no one who works here carpools! Who knows?! I ordered another Shiner Light Blonde to wash down the sorrows that was my catfish which by the way came with pathetic string fries instead of the steak fries the server said came with the sandwich. He did tell me fries here are not fresh but frozen. Point taken but Mr."I'm From the Show Me State" still lied to me but don't worry. I didn't punish him on his tip. He tried to push the dessert saying everything was done from scratch but I didn't feel like pushing my luck! I just couldn't take another let down! At nearly $40 bucks with modest portions on our plates and all the you can eat stale chips, this place is teetering on being pricey! The verdict: I would take two steps to another BBQ joint that looks like a hole in the wall but where the food is the attraction not the property!
Price: Moderate to Pricey
Atmosphere: Excellent
Food: (Presentation: Superior, Taste: Okay to Good)
Portion: Modest to Fair
Customer Service: Superior!
Overall Experience: 3.75 Sombreros out of 5
By: Rey Andrade-Garza, 2013
Two Step Restaurant
Nice review, Mr. Garza! It was highly entertaining and very informative. It is nice to get honest reviews about different dining areas. Thank you, again. I look forward to reading your other blog entries!
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for reading and for supporting The Golden Sentence. We hope to bring you more great written content in the future. Look out for our blogs.-The Golden Sentence
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