Ottawa Foodies

We were here today for a big sendoff in yet another round of Nortel layoffs. This time around it was half of my department. My manager had been calling them all week long, bumping up the reservation from 15, to 20, 25, 35, and finally 45 then 50! It's good to know at least that our group is popular - being the support guys we touch everyone I guess "but in a good way" as my senior manager said today :-)

Lone Star accommodated us wonderfully, had our orders taken as quickly as could be with such a huge group, had our meals out just as quickly, and finally our bills in the end. Everyone's food looked great and there were no complaints that I heard from the 20 or so people I was sitting near.

Great job Lone Star! A lot of other places would have really screwed this up.

Does Kanata have awful restaurants, or do I have awful luck in Kanata?

This Lone Star was a bit of a 'meh' in some ways -- most notably, pretty grossly dried-out rice, and, most irritatingly, incessant attempts at menu 'upsell.' Both bad enough to -- well, if I'd never been to any Lone Star before, I wouldn't go again. Pretty bad rice, pretty bad waitress. The faux-friendly grates when you're saying 'Thank you!' to the eighth person yapping 'THANKSFORCOMING!' on your way out, too.

We went to this place for dinner tonight. We arrived at 6:30PM and got a table at 6:45PM. (No reservation accepted on the weekend.)

This place is great for family. Most of the Kanata families with many small kids came here for dinner. So, the atmosphere was pretty good. We kept hearing the group of servers singing Happy Birthday songs to customers the Lone Star way.

The reason I picked this place tonight was that I wanted to eat some crispy tortilla chips. Anyway, we ordered their Caesar Salad and Fajitas. See the photos below.

Service was alright. The manager also came to ask us if everything was alright and hope to see us again.

Went for lunch today and the service was not great. Granted they were packed full and that likely had something to do with it. But they had lots of staff so I don't think it's an excuse. We waited a good 30 minutes or so for our food to come after ordering. The table next to us arrived after us but managed to get their food some 10 minutes before us. My beer glass was empty and nobody asked me if I wanted a refill. The burger was good though, see my review under "Hamburgers at ..."

This is my favourite place for crispy tortilla chips (made fresh in house) with salsa. The fajitas with all the fixins are very good too. (if you have a real chip craving and you can't make it to lonestar, the tortilla chips at Farm Boy are a close second)

The servers have names like Dallas and Dixie. Our server pronounced 'Pollo' like it was a kind of shirt. But the chicken enchiladas were very tasty. Overall, probably some of the best texmex I've ever had. I love the salty/oily crunchy chips they bring you at the beginning.

Repeat my last comment for this burger exactly! Darned good job once again. Very enjoyable.

I ordered the plain burger (I forget their name for it, maybe "Ranch Burger"). It was billed as having been smoked with mesquite. It was a pretty big burger when it came, and cooked just right with not too much char black on the outside. Came with ample lettuce, onion, tomato and a big slice of dill pickle. I added a bit of mustard and dug in! The mesquite was subtle but noticable. When I left I noticed a smell of smoke in the air outside so I suspect they do their own smoking on-site.

Thumbs up, I'd order it again.

Originally, we wanted to order the Lone Star Original Fajitas - 1 lb grilled steak fajitas (should be good for 3 of us). However, our waiter recommended us to try their Fiesta. He told us the size for 2 ($29.99) should be enough for us (he said just Trust Him). As shown in the photo, this Fiesta fajitas consists of 4 BBQ ribs, few grilled steak strips, few chicken breast strips, few shrimps, and assorted vegetables (broccoli, carrots, green peppers, and lots of onions). The fajita meat platter arrived at our table sizzling.

We all like the tortillas used to wrap the meat. Very fresh! The BBQ ribs were okay. But the fajita steak and chicken tasted quite bland. (The one I tried in Dallas was way better!) Anyway, we left the place with full stomach.

My co-worker across from me did not want the little dish that came with his meal, so I was very happy to oblige. I absolutely love cole slaw and this one was simply fantastic! Crisp, a bit tangy, and not even a hint of that white sauce junk that some places put into theirs.

Better than the last time I had them here. They were good fries - last time I rated them only "so-so". But they were still not great fries. Nonetheless I cleaned off my plate - of course I'd have done that even if they were crappy fries because I hate to see food go to waste.

Had these with my burger today and would rate them as 'so-so'. I cleaned my plate off but then I always try to just on principle - I hate seeing food go to waste. They were just a bit soggy but not greasy soggy. Not sure what causes that - maybe they'd been sitting around?

We ordered their Large size Caesar Salad ($8.99) to share before we had our Fajitas. The salad looks so good in my photo. However, the taste can't be compared with the one I tried at Fratelli last week. I am afraid that the salad dressing used were not kitchen made.