What has stunned me is the number of
restaurants that are in the book that have gone out of business in the past
year…the Vietnamese Bistro, Sequoyah Grille, Ayala’s, Aegean, Riverwalk Grille at the Carmichael Inn, plus the Silver Spoon moved,
invalidating that coupon. I know that the
restaurant business is tough but this seems like a very high ‘mortality’ rate! One could speculate that restaurants listed in
the book are not doing that well or they wouldn’t participate in the
program. I guess that’s a possible
explanation but we liked the food in several of these places and there are many restaurants in the book that are strong and that
are even opening additional locations…
Moving on… This is La Parrilla Mexican
Grill and it’s located in one of Turkey Creek’s many strip centers along Parkside
Drive, not too far from Campbell Station Road.
The interior of this restaurant is a cut
above average…although with all the signage, it sort of resembles a sports bar…sans
the TV’s. Note the homey touch with the
children’s art work at the cash register…
Here’s another view of the
restaurant. As usual, we weren’t there
during normal dining hours so the place wasn’t very busy.
About the menu at La Parrilla… It is as
big as any Mexican, (or Chinese), menu we’ve ever seen.
There were: Appetizers (Botanas); an A La
Carte menu (with 25 choices!); Ensaladas (Salads); Soups; Fajitas; Pollo
(Chicken); Special Dinners for 2; Seafood; Enchiladas; Tacos; Vegetarian Dishes;
Nachos; Chimichangas; Especialidades La Parrilla (House Specials); Burritos;
and Quesadillas. And then there is a
Make Your Own Combo section; Lunch Specialties;Lunch Favorites; Sides; Postres
(Desserts); a Kid’s Menu (Para Los Ninos)…and there are even 3 sandwiches on
the menu!
Of course, they started us out with the
obligatory basket of corn chips and salsa.
The chips were ordinary and we like them a little thinner. I liked the salsa well enough but Laurie
thought that it lacked any pizzazz!
So after reading the menu for about 15
minutes, we finally made our choices…
This is the pretty photo of Laurie’s
lunch…i.e. as it looked when it came to the table. Yes…it is a quesadilla!
Laurie really liked her quesadilla, so
much so that she would order it again and she wanted to expose the ingredients for this
photo. This is La Parrilla’s Spinach
Quesadilla. ($7.99) It is a flour tortilla filled with melted cheese, spinach
and mushrooms…and then it’s grilled. As
you can see, it’s served with lettuce, sour cream and guacamole.
For my meal, I ordered the Chunks of
Steak Chimichanga. ($9.99) This consisted of a flour tortilla stuffed with
pieces of steak then topped with cheese sauce, lettuce, sour cream and
guacamole. There was a choice of rice or
beans as an accompaniment. I gave my
guacamole to Laurie…not my thing…and I chose the beans over the rice.
The meal was good…although I thought that
the cheese sauce was too thin…almost watery.
Fortunately for me, we had lots of salsa on the table so I was able
spice my food up a bit…
The price was right and the food was a
little better than average. If one is
shopping in Turkey Creek and craves Mexican cuisine for their food break, this
is a good place to stop. La Parrilla
Mexican Grill is at 11639 Parkside Drive in Knoxville Tennessee. Phone: 865-966-3001. Check out their Website and menu at http://www.laparrillaknoxville.com/index.html.
Just click on any photo to enlarge it…
Thanks for stopping by for a visit!
Take Care, Big Daddy Dave
I'm a big fan of quesadillas and order them often - Bev makes some great ones
ReplyDeleteMany times I dont go to a mexican restaurant, I love tacos and nachos!
ReplyDelete