Another Two for One
Jun 8th, 2008 by Don Ray
This is another post on food, so if you aren’t interested, just click on the next heading.
Yesterday, my friend Jerry and I spent some time together. At lunch time, Jerry suggested TGI Fridays. I think Jerry and I were the first customers at TGIF when it first opened.
It has obviously been a while since I was there, because the prices have gone up. Here is a special that is going on. Now you have to look close to realize how good a price it is. Have a look and see if you can find the reason.
Give up? Look at the main platter (Plato Fuerte). Notice that you don’t get a single pork chop, you get the entire shop. Ok, maybe that was funny only to me.
Here was the lunchtime special. I think when I used to get it , the price was $6.95.
I ordered Roma Chicken Cutlet, soup, flan and a bottomless diet Coke. Photos below:
The soup was good.
The cutlet was ok, but small.
The flan was good, but nothing outstanding.
TGIF helps me to recognize some of the better places to eat, such as Renegados. That is the second of this two for one post. I am sure you must wonder when I will stop posting about Renegados. The answer is when I have tried all on the menu, and I have done that yet. The other day I was there for lunch and I ordered a steak plate. I don’t remember the name. It was yummy.
Another, at the table, ordered the lamb. I tried it and it was outstanding. Had I known how good it was, I would have ordered it. The sauce was to die for.
Now, while eating at TGIF provides a meal, eating at Renegado’s provides an experience. Oh and the plates were around $6.00. The flavor – priceless.
There must be a dozen good comments about a “steal plate” … right up there with “pork shop”
Hi Suze. Thanks for catching my error. But I will correct mine.
While Renegados doesn’t have a steal plate, they have several plates that are a real steal.
Don:
Rengado’s is outstanding. I’ve dined at many restaurants around the world…and in my book Renegado’s is right at the top of my best picks. It amazing that there is a restaurant in David that serves meals that one would write home about. Wolfgang Puck could certainly learn a few things from Bertha.
Thanks Don for such a great recommendation
Dennis
Hi Dennis,
Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment.
Don: I enjoy your restaurant posts a great deal. However, for myself, I don’t eat at TGIF here in the States and I doubt that I would do so in Panama, either.
When I was returning to the States after cruising for six months in Belize and Guatemala I was stuck in Isla Mujeres for a while waiting for a weather window to make the 355 nautical mile passage back to Key West. A girl from another boat suggested we take the ferry over to Cancun to get a Miami Herald to see what the job market was like. After eating great local food for the previous months it was absolutely disgusting to see the Kentucky Fried Chicken, Burger King, McDooDoos, and Pizza Hut franchises everywhere. We were hungry but couldn’t stomach that stuff. Instead we went to the local fruit and veggie market where there were a dozen food stalls. I got a fantastic pollo con mole plate and Liz got a pork plate. There was rice and refried beans, a two inch high stack of tortillas, too. We each had two Tecate brews and the whole meal, INCLUDING tip got us change back from a $10 bill!
I do understand that when you’re living abroad there are culinary items from back home that you crave, but eating at a US-based chain isn’t one of the things I missed living in France, Spain or other countries I’ve spent time in. Hint–Pizza Hut in Marbella, Spain is even WORSE than it is here in Fort Lauderdale.
One of the things I missed when I lived in France was, believe it or not, Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. Funny thing is that I rarely ate it living in the States, but craved it in Antibes. My first year over there one of my brothers asked what I wanted for Christmas. I told him to send me some of the Kraft cheese packets. Forget the macaroni, we had plenty of pasta there. He sent me three-dozen and they came in handy, too. At my favorite ex-pat bars one of the barmaids was from New Orleans and every once in a while I’d leave her a couple of the cheese packets as a tip and she liked that even better than cash.
On returning to the States, though, I went on a Root Beer bender for about two months. That’s something you couldn’t get anywhere.
I apologize for the length of my posts, but, as long as they are, I have to restrain myself from writing more.
Hi Richard. There are a couple of items I used to go to TGIF for. One was the fatjitas platter. Two could eat it and that made the price acceptable. The other was they have one of the better hamburgers. Panamanian hamburgers, typically are very poor.
However, when Las Brasas gets opened again, I won’t have any need to go to TGIF for hanburgers, and I think their other meat selections will beat it also.
Thanks for taking the time to write a comment.
Just came from having lunch at Renegado’s with my boss and a friend. For appetizers we ordered the ceviche de corvina (peruvian style) and the croquetas de pollo. They were very good!
As our main course, we ordered the Paella Arroz Negro. It was super delicious!! And the aioli is the extra fine touch!
Service was outstanding, David and Berta are excellent hosts.
Prices are very reasonable.
We had a very pleasant time, too bad we had to cut it short because we had to go back to work. I highly recommend Renegado’s.
Hi Lilia. Thanks for dropping in and taking the time to leave a comment.