Alright so first of all the good news...I read a review in the college paper I wrote for last year this past week about Chi-Chi's restaurant and found it so horrible that I felt compelled to write in and whine about it...and too my surprise (though highly edited) they printed it and I will paste the article and my response to it below...I hope you find it as entertaining as I did.
Ballin' on a budget: A taste of Mexican cuisine
By Libby Harris
Staff Reporter
To be perfectly honest, I'm not a huge fan of snow, or cold for that matter. So obviously in Duluth I get a little tired of the consistently unpleasant weather. To make matters worse I recently received some photos from a wedding in Mexico. Seeing these pictures of people having an amazing time on the beach with margaritas and Mayan sand castles made me greatly aware that I needed a break from Minnesota weather. Luckily for me, last week was my friend Al's birthday.
To celebrate, she suggested checking out Chi Chi's. We went on a Sunday night around 5 p.m. and surprisingly, the place was not filled with people. The atmosphere was semi-depressing. For one, the place was freakishly empty. But on top of that, it was decked out in these really cheesy and stereotypical Mexican decorations.
Come on, how many Mexican flags can one place really have? The dining on the other hand, is good. Sure, the authenticity of the food leaves something to be desired, but let's face it: we live in Minnesota and it's not like we actually know what authentic Mexican food tastes like anyway. The menu is pretty much limited to enchiladas, tacos, and burritos. I went with the enchilada tampico, which is basically a cheese and onion enchilada, while everyone else stuck with the chicken enchiladas. The food was debatable, I thought it was a little dry but no one else seemed to think so. Everything is served complete with all the fixings of beans, rice, and corn cake.
They also serve the ever popular, free all-you-can-eat chips and salsa. Our birthday girl was treated to free fried ice cream, which is excellent, but I'm always curious as to how one fries ice cream? Chi Chi's is a little pricey. My meal was $8.99 which is pretty steep for a non-meat entree, although I have to consider that our group did eat A LOT of chips and salsa and the price probably makes up for that. The overall prices are alright, ranging from $7-$15 in value, but I would definitely suggest visiting there during the afternoon for their lunch specials.
How I Did: B. The food was definitely good (if not authentic) and the service was fast. The price seems a bit much but consider that one meal at McDonald's cost about $5, while a decent meal at Chi Chi's is only $3-4 dollars more. It's all about perspective. I'd definitely check it out again.
MY RESPONSE:
Libby, just when I think I can keep my mouth shut in response to Statesman articles, you write an article about Chi-Chi's actually expressing some positive things about the place. Chi-Chi's sucks! And though I wish I could stop there, your article leads me to believe I may actually have to defend my position.
Okay, Chi-Chi's was frequented by me for one reason and one reason only that you failed to mention at all. Cheap booze. I think it was on Tuesday and Thursday nights you could get messed up at Chi-Chi's for around $5. These nights featured half-price margaritas, but I suggest skipping all that sugar and going right for the $1.25 shots of cheap tequila, though for you more sophisticated drinkers you'll just ask for an extra shot in your Margarita.
Okay where was I? The food is horrible! It's all been taken out of the freezer and microwaved and assessed some ridiculous price that comes at the burden of both the consumer's financial situation as well as their stomach lining.
The notion that since we're in MN we can't get authentic Mexican food is the most uniformed sentence of your entire article. Ever drive down E. Lake Street in Minneapolis and see all those places with words you can't understand? Yeah, a lot of those are "authentic" Mexican restaurants. Libby, if you ever find yourself in Minneapolis hungry and single be sure to give me a call and we can patch up this whole mess we've found ourselves in.
Love (SuspecTed)
New Topic:
Open Mic was a complete bust. I went to the place that supposedly had open mic every thursday night at 8 and first off the place was dead empty. Second, there was the most random music playing in the place, and though there was a stage set up with mics and stuff no one in the place ever got up to announce that anything was going on. I just sat and watched some of the workers play battleship for awhile watch a bunch of sketchy people come by the door and..........nothing ever happened.
I killed about an hour thumbing through my notebook when I was pretty much thumbing my ass wondering what I was doing there. Finally after about an hour and a cup of bad coffee I made my way to the door to see the block I had to travel down...sidewalk covered with glass as someone took out the window in the record store a few places down from the cafe' during the time I went in there. I had to walk a gauntlet of thugs who fortunately paid little attention to me as I was in no mood to get my ass kicked after having ventured out here for little more than to realize I will never be back to that place....did I mention the music on the way out was some cheesy folk-singer type guy singing "when you dance, dance for Jesus" what a weird night.
So fortunately for me (perhaps unfortunate for anyone reading this) I will get to use you guys as my audience for awhile until I find somewhere else to get on my soapbox for 15 min..
