Phipps Feeding Fiasco

The experience

The Benji tales just don’t stop.  This morning we ended up in the Emergency Room because he was having such severe abdominal pain, and, I, being a pediatrician had to make sure he didn’t have a telescoping intestinal problem.  Turns out he didn’t, but he was still really out of it the whole day.  And, so was Mommy.  You can’t really isolate yourself from your pukey dukey kids when you’re a mom, so as the day wore on, I started having the tummy troubles.  Ugh….I was stationed at my mom’s house with the kids and came close to not even going to dinner, but at the last minute decided I’d go while we left Benji with Lala.  I figured I could handle some soup, so we chose On the Border since it was close, not yet eaten at for childsplate, and we knew they’d have soup.

We arrived and were seated right away.  We looked over the menu while Mina went straight to work on the activities they hand out for the kids.  I found my soup and decided some substance with a salad would work well for me.  I went with the jalapeno vinaigrette after verifying with Ogre that the whole “it burns at both ends” is just a myth.

We put in our drink order and also ordered some queso while Ogre continued to peruse the menu.  The queso came out shortly and Ogre reminded me not to double dip, kind of a moot point since everyone has pretty much had the pukes and dukes on Team Phipps.  I requested a separate bowl for myself anyway.  We ordered our dinner and waited.

Ogre and Mina played Tic Tac Toe.  We decided a lesson in strategy was in order and showed her how to think ahead to try to have two ways to win.  Then when she won, we had to teach her about being a good sport about winning since she was going on and on about how she was the winner, “Oh yeah! Oh yeah! I won! I won!” while dancing.  Ogre used the well-known parables of Wow Wow Wubzy to drive home the point.

During the next game, Ogre won.  I assume it reminded her that it doesn’t feel great to lose, but you feel even worse when it’s rubbed in your face (not that we did that), she sulked for about two seconds then went to the next activity.

By now, our food was arriving.  The fajitas were sizzling and I commented that they smelled good.  But boy!  Get the steam/smoke anywhere near you and watch our for a chemical pneumonitis!  It hurt!!  The server who brought it out had to hold her breath when she was serving it.  That diablo sauce is not benign!

We ate dinner and Mina colored and did great eating without prompt until she finished and had not eaten a bite of her rice.  Then we had to prod her through a few bites of that, which was not too much of an issue.  I ate about half of my food before deciding that I should push the envelope.  I was started to get a little nauseated.  The tortillas actually settled my stomach some, so that was a bonus.  I always get paranoid that I’m going to get hungry later and nothing is worse than trying to sleep when you’re hungry!!

Mina ate up her strawberry “sundae” and we headed back to Lala’s to get Benji.  Good thing we didn’t bring him.  Lala reported that he puked again after we left!  Ugh!!!

The food

Tex Mex: typical appetizers, salads are a little creative, tex mex dishes and southwestern entrees.

We ordered the regular queso as an appetizer, which I didn’t actually see on the menu.  Anyway, it was okay.  Nice and creamy, but a little too littered with peppers for my taste, made the queso have too strong of a green bell pepper flavor to it.

I ordered a salad with jalapeno vinaigrette and the tortilla soup.  The salad was not one of the cool ones, just the house salad.  The jalapeno vinaigrette definitely had some burn to it, but not overwhelming so, and had a a good flavor.  The soup was average.  Hearty.  (I am not a good judge of soups like this because all I really want is the broth, everything else gets left behind).

Ogre ordered Steak Fajitas with Diablo Vegetables and Diablo sauce (with Honey Chipotle sauce on the side).  He said the meat was tender, but he likes his meat more rare.  He thinks that when they first came out, they were the right done-ness, but the heat of the platter cooked them more to a medium.  He said that the Honey Chipotle was better than the Diablo flavor-wise, but that the Diablo was as described -very hot!  He also made sure to mention that the tortillas were good.

Mina had a cheeseburger, which she seemed to enjoy.  It didn’t look dry, but I didn’t try it.

They have the usual suspects on their kids menu and it comes with a kids drink and kids “sundae” (this was really just a scoop of vanilla ice cream with some sauce on it).

The service

Good, not excellent, even though at times he was almost over the top with his cheery, “it was such a pleasure being your server tonight, thank you and come back real soon!”  Really?  Food comes out at pretty good rate, so I don’t really have anything to complain about, I think I’m just in a bad mood.

The kids

It’s kid friendly.  Kids menu, crayons, activity booklet, loud, laid back.

Food is standard, chain-y, but overall good.

The total: high 30 something

Related Fiascos

• Late Night Meet Up at El Chico
• Going to Lunch at Genghis Grill
• Benji’s Lunch at Jason’s Deli
• Bread and Butter BBQ: Spring Creek BBQ
• Steak and Shake and Sundaes, Too