To Dine or Not to Dine

Where to dine or not to dine – that is the question.

It became apparent, after trying to decide where in the foothills to dine next, that relying on the yellow pages was not a good idea, nor was Yahoo or other paid-for sites. So in case I don’t write enough I thought I would start a little food critic column titled – To dine or not to dine. 

Now here’s the thing, my tastes will be different from others and I readily admit that I have no culinary background, but I do think after being alive for almost 50 years I know when food is cooked correctly or not, whether a drink is poured well or not and especially whether wait staff is first-rate or in need of a career change.

So, tada, here is my first installment of  …

To Dine or Not to Dine

This week I will be featuring the Murphys Hotel. 

Of course my husband and I chose the perfect weekend to be in Murphys for it was the Irish Day Parade. Now don’t let the singular use of the word ‘day’ confuse you…these Murphy folk turn this ‘day’ into an all weekend event. Oh, and did I mention everything was green? Hair, coffee, nails, drinks, clothes, you name it, everything was green, except for the enterprising man that dyed his beard and hair red for the event only to be told the dye was not wash out. He quickly informed us that he would be sporting a shaved head come Monday….brrrr. Oh what some will do to get in the spirit of St Patty’s Day.

So beginning our day at the Murphys Hotel bar we had appetizers, and yes, cocktails – mine was green. My husband feeling a bit daring chose the alligator, I chose the calamari. Both were a wonderful surprise. The alligator was a bit tough on the sinewy side, so hubby whipped out his handy dandy pocket knife and put it to use, however the flavor was excellent. Rich, not gamey at all, with a hearty well seasoned rub. And, no, it does not taste just like chicken. My calamari was a bit on the chewy side – I like mine crunchy - but that little imperfection was forgiven after my first bite. The calamari had been fried, as usual, but then it was lightly tossed in a chipotle cream sauce. Just the right amount of spice and flavor.

We walked a bit to work off our appetizers, that’s my code for shopped – and shop I did! Quickly my husband claimed we had ‘walked’ enough, plus we were soaked by the lovely weather pouring down on us - back to the Murphys Hotel Bar to warm up by the fire and contemplate dinner.

Dinner consisted of more appetizers, soup and some pasta.

We shared stuffed mushrooms that were too good to be true. I would love to tell you what they were stuffed with but the myriad of flavors bursting in my mouth made it difficult to break the ingredients down. Suffice it to say, I will drive to Murphys just to get some more of those. We had French onion soup that lacked flavor and was more of a broth than a soup. There was escargot that I simply stared at with no desire to even poke with my fork. After one bite my husband declared them bland and chewy. A no vote, whew, I was given a reprieve from trying them. And finally the fettuccine alfredo. It was by far the best fettuccine alfredo I had ever consumed ( I inhaled – I didn’t share). The cream sauce was perfection with a hint of Italian spices and the pasta was superbly al dente.

The wait staff was fun and engaging. They were prompt and efficient. The bar staff was also fun and incredibly quick with the amount of people they had to serve.

We came back for breakfast the next morning. We shouldn’t have. Unfortunately breakfast was a disappointment. The food was tasteless and barely warm, the wait staff was unorganized and my mimosa was flat. I probably could have lived with the rest, but a flat mimosa? Never!

Happy eating:)

By, Charity Maness