I’ve been coming to El Oasis for several years now and am just now getting to a review, what’s that about?  Anyways, I remember going to El Oasis for the first time…  My friend Jacob’s place was just up the street and a group of us were all hanging out around dinner time and he said “Hey man, we should go get some street burritos”.  Street Burritos? In my Lansing? That moniker stuck for quite a while.  This trip however was after a bout of unlucky fishing and spending $30 on cheap plastic and sharp metal.. (lures).  The Dunham‘s is just east of El Oasis so Jacob and I opted to go hit up some street burrito.

You can’t go wrong with street food.  I feel like a vendor who is selling out of a truck or a trailer, or whatever the venue might be, really needs to have stellar food.  There is no real scenery, or decor, or a vibe beyond the neighborhood that the vendor is at.  El Oasis is no exception.  Whatever you get will be excellent.  I love sandwiches so I lean towards the Torta , that said.. the tacos are excellent as well.  There are a variety of meats and you can’t go wrong with any of them… however I prefer to get things that I can’t get at other restaurants.  For instance, Barbacoa which is shredded beef cheek and slow cooked to a tender roast beef-like status.  The Carne asada is also ridiculously good.

The sandwich is a fairly simple affair.  Crusty bread with onions, shredded lettuce, fresh avocado slices.  They also have an assortment of hand crafted salsas, I like spicy so I go with the hot salsa.  Drizzle the salsa on and then dig into the mouthwatering sandwich.  My only beef with El Oasis is that there isn’t any type of seating.  So you’re going to have to eat on the car, or in the car.. or take it home.  A picnic table would be pretty righteous.  Another bonus is that they sell Jarritos and Mexican Coca Cola (with real cane sugar!).  Also this is the first time that I’ve gotten food from the big truck.  Normally there’s just the little cart when I drop by.

**EDIT** I have been informed by reliable sources that there are places to sit.  A couple of stools and a bar around back? Thanks Phil!

Rating: Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars .  Just shy of 5 stars.  The food is always excellent.

In these ‘Economic Times’ I feel it’s an obligation to push out a couple of pauper-esque reviews.  We have daily reminders of our recessed economy in the news, our television programs (What’s that? Dunder Mifflin is declaring bankruptcy?! Oh you sneaky writers for ‘The Office’, making your show so topical), and our daily life.  I am thankful that I do have a job and I can afford to run a semi-comical website that bitches about and praises food.  So, in that vein, a review about a meal had at home!

On a juicy Thursday in September  (it just doesn’t seem to cool down in Tampa until December), my old lady and I decided to cook a hearty homecooked meal.  We chose to create a veritable ‘smörgåsbord’ of Mexican food.  I made ‘Mexican Rice’ on the suggestion from my brother.  Sia made Carne Asada with a side of fresh lettuce, sliced avacados, tomatos, and sauteed onions/garlic/mushrooms.  We also prepared some Pinto beans dressed with finely chopped and sauteed Galric and Onions.

Here you can see a video of my idiotic-ass attempting to take a picture of the ‘Mexican Rice’, I managed to engage the video instead.

List of ingredients in the Rice:
2 cloves of Garlic (finely chopped)
1 white Onion
½ Jalapeno (I kept the seeds in)
2 cups Rice (browned in Oil prior to cooking with water)

Season to your likening with:
Ground Cumin
Salt
Fresh Tomatos
Bouillon

Preparation steps:
Sautee onions, garlic and jalapeno for 5 minutes.
Add 2 cups of rice to the mixture.
Brown the rice without burning it.
After the rice has browned, add 3 cups of water, bring to a boil, turn the heat to low and let sit for roughly 20 minutes.

I did find a recipe that follows the same guidelines and outlines exactly what to do fairly well; you can see that here.  A rule of thumb when cooking rice is typically 1:2, 1 part rice to 2 parts water.  You do need to modify this relationship as you increase the amount of rice you’re cooking.  So when I cook 2 cups of rice I use 3 cups of water.  If I’m cooking 3 cups of rice I’ll use 4 ½ cups of water.  The rice came out fairly well, but I felt it was a little too moist.  I likely needed to brown the rice more prior to introducing the water.

The Pinto beans with Onions and Garlic was fairly easy to prepare.  Sia heated up a sauce pan with a bit of Olive Oil and sauteed the Garlic and Onions.  Next, I turned the heat to low and poured a can of Pinto beans into the pan (I rinsed the beans first). You can focus on the other parts of the meal while this comes to heat.  Prior to serving, I topped the Pinto beans with a bit of Parsley and Cilantro.  The Pinto beans went very well with the Mexican Rice they had a considerable kick from the garlic.

At this point, you could stop and make this a vegetarian day.  The Pinto beans would give you enough protein (as well as flavor) and all I would introduce would be freshly cut veggies as a side.  If you are a ‘Meatatarian’ then you should gladly proceed with making the Carne Asada. I did find a much more complicated version of what Sia did here (the recipe in the link has you add Cilantro and Sugar). We only let the Flank Steak marinate for 45 minutes or so.

Ingredients:
1 or 2 packages of Flank Steak
Salt and freshly Ground Pepper
4 cloves of garlic (finely minced)
2 Jalapenos (kept the seeds in and minced)
1 tsp gound Cumin
3 Limes juiced
½ cup Olive Oil

Preperation:
Score the Steaks lightly with a fork and then put them in a ziplock bag.  Next, add the remainder of the ingredients and give it a couple of good shakes to get everything mixed together.  Make sure to try and remove any excess air in the bag before sealing.  Rest in the refridgerator for 1-2 hours if you have the time.

Cooking:
In a non-stick pan, with a splash of oil, bring the heat to medium-high and cook each side of the steak for a few minutes (until brown).  If you like your meat well down clearly let it cook a bit longer.  Cut and serve.

(you can see our terrible dog hoping for some scraps to fall through the glass to him)

As you can see, the result came out very well.  The marinade helped make the Flank Steak much tenderer as well as infused a whopping amount of flavor.  Each bite had a citrus punch that was refreshing.

Everything went very well together and I would suggest that anyone with some time and a taste for some spice try making this.  If I had a chance to do this meal over I would marinate the Flank Steak a bit longer and make the Pinto Bean dish from dried Pinto Beans.

The meal merited Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars.

-Matt in Tampa

5055 Marsh Rd
Okemos, MI 48864-1103
(517) 347-7188

Food Rating: 3 out of 5 stars – The food is good. Not great, but Chili’s has become pretty popular and all of the marketing in the world can’t cover up awful food.

Service Rating: 1.5 out of 5 stars – This is generally where my distaste from Chili’s comes from. The orders are wrong, nobody seems to give a crap, and nobody seems concerned about our dining experience.

Atmosphere Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars – Gaudy. Not for me, but there isn’t anything really wrong with it.

Price Rating: 3 out of 5 stars – The food is slightly more expensive than I feel it should be, and the beer is considerably more expensive than it should be. But I did get a pretty big margarita for pretty cheap.

Overall Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars – I’m neither here nor there on Chili’s. I probably will continue to avoid them, but I’m not adverse to eating there if that is what other people want to do.

Well, I picked Chili’s because they had been pretty awful the past two times I went there. I decided to give Chili’s a third chance hoping to get a funny story out of the deal. Well, unfortunately for me and fortunately for them the third time was a “charm”.

The first two times visiting this Chili’s were dismal at best. The queso dip was cold with a nice micro-waved film on top, and several orders were wrong. We had to send the server back at least twice per visit because of missing dishes, and on a fairly regular occasion people had to ask for drink refills instead of being asked if they would like more (or, bonus, the server just brings it). The restaurant was slow during these visits, which explains, but does NOT excuse why the food wasn’t fresh, and definitely makes me wonder how the server messed up so much. Both dining experiences were pretty bad.

However, on our third venture to Chili’s they did much better. Our server still seemed like she would have preferred it if we hadn’t come in to dine, and she messed up an order, but once we pointed it out she had it fixed in a jiff.

One thing I was impressed with was a margarita I ordered. The el Presidente or some jazz. I was expecting a regular margarita with a double margarita price. What I got was a decent sized margarita, the shaker with at least another 1.5 refills in it, and a price of like $7. That is OK in my book. Super OK.

As for the food, it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t good either. Kind of generic. People ate up with no complaints.

I ordered some steak and ribs. My steak was ordered rare, and came out pretty close to what I wanted, so I can’t complain. Wasn’t a great cut of meat, but at least they cooked it how I wanted it. The ribs were dry and tasted like generic bbq sauce. As it turns out, I don’t want my Chili’s baby back ribs.

The only weird thing going on was the chips that came as an appetizer. Maybe this is how Chili’s does chips, but I wasn’t a fan. They were thin and kind of soft. Kind of like some fried tissue paper.

Also, the saltines were soggy in the packaging. Weird.

Anyway, I won’t choose to go to Chili’s again despite this not-so-terrible experience. I will sigh and groan if people want to go there, but I’ll probably go if I can’t talk them out of it. Maybe Chili’s are better somewhere else, but it was my understanding that part of being a franchise is to offer the same service no matter where it is. So, either Chili’s of Okemos shouldn’t be part of the franchise, or all Chili’s should be avoided if possible as you run a one-in-three chance of having a mediocre dining experience, and a two-in-three chance of being pissed off. We shall see!