Casa Fiesta Mexican Restaurant – Lenoir City Tennessee

On this evening, we had plans to drive down to Knoxville’s ‘Old Town’ area to sample a Scottish themed pub and restaurant.  But, as it goes, the best of plans often go astray…

As you can see, it was a very rainy, stormy nasty evening.  We decided to avoid the weather related traffic issues and dine closer to home.  Our friends Norm and Linda planned to go with us and when we suggested Casa Fiesta Mexican Restaurant and Grill for dinner, they gave it their enthusiastic endorsement.  It turned out that this is their favorite local Mexican restaurant…

We arrived early, at about 5 PM so Casa Fiesta wasn’t busy yet.  This is the main dining area.  By the time we finished and were ready to leave, the restaurant was packed!  Not bad considering it was the Tuesday after Labor Day…

The other side of Casa Fiesta has a smaller dining area and a small bar.  As with most Mexican restaurants, the décor is colorful and upbeat.

Of course the server automatically started us out with the usual basket of tortilla chips and salsa.  A small dish of bean and cheese dip was also served with the chips.  Except for myself, everyone else at the table loves guacamole so Norm ordered this big bowl of Guacamole Dip for the table. ($4.75) It was enthusiastically consumed down to the last bits…

As usual in a Mexican Restaurant, the menu was huge…with 4 pages loaded with a wide variety of selections.  Linda chose her dinner from the section of new dinner offerings. 

This is the Burrito Texano. ($11.99) It consists of shrimp, steak, chicken and onions with cheese over the top and it was served with lettuce, tomatoes and more guacamole.  A ‘to go’ box was requested so that none of her meal would be wasted…

Norm also picked his entrée from the new dinner selection.  This is the Burrito Norteno. ($8.99) In this instance, we have a flour tortilla filled with eggs, shredded chicken (or beef) and covered with cheese sauce.  As you can see, lettuce, sour cream and rice completed Norm’s meal. 

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts about Mexican restaurants, Laurie loves quesadillas.  She was very happy to spot the Quesadilla Loca on the menu. ($6.99) This tortilla was filled with melted cheese, spinach and mushrooms…and then it was grilled.  She really liked it and said that she’d definitely order it again!

I was happy to note that Casa Fiesta has a ‘sauce’ bar, stocked with everything from a green sauce all the way up to a couple of very hot spicy versions.  I got a cup of one of the hotter versions plus a few jalapeno slices in preparation for my dinner…

My entrée was the Chili Colorado. ($10.99) It included broiled sliced strips of steak in a red chili sauce and it was served with Mexican rice and beans along with 4 soft tortillas on the side.  I’ve had Chili Colorado in at least 4 other area Mexican restaurants…and this was easily the best of them all!

After those big meals plus the chips, salsa and guacamole, sensible folks would have called it a day… We just aren’t sensible folks.  It was dessert time!  Norm ordered the Sopapilla. ($1.99) These deep fried tortillas were topped with honey, whipped cream and chocolate sauce.

Laurie ordered the Flan. ($3.49) The traditional Mexico City style crème caramel was buried under this mound of whipped cream, caramel, chocolate sauce and as you can see, it was topped by a cherry.  Although this seemed to be an unusual way to serve flan, Laurie said that it was very good…

Linda decided to try the Fried Chimichanga. ($3.99) This dessert comes with a mixture of apple or bananas with nuts, butter, cinnamon and sugar rolled into a flour tortilla and fried, then covered with whipped cream, caramel and chocolate sauce.  She cleaned her plate... 

My choice was easy… I love top quality Churros!  Casa Fiesta’s version of this deep fried Mexican treat was especially tasty… They were filled with apples, and then coated with cinnamon and sugar.  Casa Fiesta must have overbought whipped cream, chocolate sauce and caramel…but it all worked well with the churros…

Service was fine, the restaurant was clean and the food was superior.  We will have to visit again to try other items on the menu but my feeling is that Casa Fiesta will become our favorite area Mexican Restaurant!

Casa Fiesta Mexican Restaurant is located at 455 US Hwy. 321 in Lenoir City Tennessee. (Near the Big Lots Store and across from the Ingles Supermarket) Phone: 865-816-1041.  This restaurant doesn’t appear to have a website but you can find them on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/CasaFiestaRestaurantGrill/.  Note: The menu shown on Facebook is definitely incomplete…

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them.

Thanks for stopping by to see what was for dinner!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave