Guest Blog: El Jinete

Today for our guest blog, we have our great friend Dan writing a piece for us.  This is one of my favorite places to go to, and he shares a very fun experience we had and included some of his own special touches. This is definitlely one of my favorite blogs I've read in awhile, I know you will enjoy!  Thanks again Danny.
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I would first and foremost like to thank Kate and Kris for giving me this wonderful opportunity to guest blog. I would also like to thank my parents: my mom for the wonderful dishes she made growing up that gave me my refined palate; my dad for the way he can express the thoughts and emotions that he was feeling and thinking when he was eating my mother’s food.


I met Kate and Ross at El Jinete on Tuesday of this week, Flag Day if you will. Will you? The love of my life Kel Bel was running a little behind because her good friend Allie had just given birth to her first son Camden. For those of you that were wondering what El Jinete means… The Rider. The restaurant is located down by the new Wal-Mart on Red Bank Rd. It is kind of an interesting location in a mini-strip mall with only a few stores and one other restaurant. It was a beautiful Tuesday evening so we decided to sit out on the patio. We chose Tuesday mostly because we wanted to be able to say see you next Tuesday that whole week leading up to it. I have been there a couple times already, so I immediately noticed that they purchased new patio furniture. It is great quality but a little awkward when trying to attack your food or drink. The table makes it very hard to actually scoot your chair in because of the decorative work on the rod iron tables. Then, when you eventually get yourself situated to start eating, the level of the table was a little high. We actually had to get Katy a high chair.

Kate, Ross and I got there at about 5:45 and couldn’t resist starting off with an adult beverage. Carlos, our server, approached our table very quickly and Ross went ahead and ordered first because you could tell he had a stressful day at the office and looked awful thirsty. He went with El Jinete’s signature frozen margarita. He ordered a medium which turned out to be a nice size. When it showed up I think we all naturally stared at it because it was a little greenish blue in color. Kate wanted me to ask why it was like that, but I did not want to come off as being rude. That’s another thing I would like to thank my parents for. I do not know the answer to where the color came from, but if I had to guess, they may have added a little blue curacao to it.

Anyhow, Ross got past the unique color rather quickly and liked the margarita, well enough to order another later in the evening. Kate on the other hand wanted to try something a little bit different and went with a raspberry margarita.

 Her overall experience with it was ok. She thought a little more tequila was needed and did not end up getting another like Ross did with his. I did get a chance to try it and I pretty much agreed with her that it was just ok. I love raspberries, so I was excited to try it. I would not have expected them to use fresh raspberries, but the raspberry taste just was not there. I went ahead and went with the classic Dos Equis Amber. I had noticed someone else enjoying the heck out of it when I walked in and just could not resist. You could tell that it was a fresh keg because boy was it good. About a half hour after we got there, Kel Bel decided to make an appearance and she looked beautiful. She sat down and immediately Carlos was there to get her drink order. Kel Bel went with the large house margarita on the rocks. The straws they bring out with these things are enormous. They are a bit awkward to sip out of, so we had to force Kate to use one, but they are very fun and festive for the ladies. While we were going to town on our drinks, Kate decided to get the queso dip along with the salsa they provide you with. It was a standard Jack cheese queso dip with not much to it but was worth trying. The salsa was above average mostly because you could actually see chunks of onion, tomato and fresh cilantro. Some of the salsa I have had before gets a little runny and therefore not very fresh and flavorful.

After the salsa and queso dip, and a bit of chit chatting, we were all ready to order dinner. Ross apparently thought it was necessary to order first again and ordered the hot and spicy burrito. It was a combination of ground beef and chicken topped with cheese, sour cream and their famous hot sauce. I did not get a chance to try it, mostly because it seemed as though Ross was guarding it with his life. He did get a second to come up for air and answer the question of how is it. Ross is one to go with his first thought on something and immediately gave it a 3. He said it was good but did not stand out to get a 4. Then by the end of his meal Ross came to me confidentially and said that he had made a mistake. It actually deserved a 4 because of the portion size and how full he got.

Kate, the love of my life, and I all ended up getting the same thing, a chicken quesadilla. Asinine I know, but I had gotten it before and was so impressed I had to try it again. Kate then jumped on board and just had to try this scrumptious quesadilla. The way we all got them was with the grilled chicken and grilled vegetables. I would recommend getting whatever meat you like grilled with the grilled vegetable because for a $1.50 more it is well worth it. It is a nice portion size so Kelly and I split ours which is a perfect amount. They give you the Mexican rice with shredded lettuce, tomatoes, guacamole, sour cream and extra cheese on the side. They stuff the tortilla with chicken, jack cheese, red and yellow peppers, onion, tomato and mushrooms. I consider this one of the best quesadillas in town.

Kate thought it was above average but was so stuffed she didn’t give me very good feedback. All she could think about was heading to Hap’s for a cold Budweiser with the American Flag can.

Overall, I thought the El Jinete experience was pretty good. I consider it to be one of the better Mexican restaurants in the city and definitely plan on going back. The drinks were the right size and price, service was good and the menu provides variety and affordability. Put all that with great company and a nice night and it is tough to fail.

Food: 3.5
Service: 3.5
Overall: 4