Reviews

My wife and I got a chance to try out a restaurant we had never visited before, Truffles in St. Louis (technically, a suburb called Ladue, but the address is St. Louis). As you might have guessed, I took this opportunity to try out a Margarita.

I’m not sure why we had never been to Truffles. It is a bit of a hidden gem in St. Louis. One of the really unique things about Truffles is that they have a full butcher shop attached to the restaurant. So if you liked the meat you had for dinner at Truffles, you can stop next door and bring some home!

The meal we had that night at Truffles was excellent. We will definitely be going back again. The Margarita I had that night was good, but not great. It was made with Avion Silver tequila and was nicely balanced, but it lacked enough fresh lime flavor for my taste. I suspect a mix was used but I can’t be sure. So I would rate the Margarita that night just a 7. However, given the caliber of the restaurant, I feel confident that if I had requested a particular Margarita, they would have made to order. So the next time we go to Truffles, I will ask a few more questions and and see if the bartender can work some magic.

Anyone who has read through this blog knows that my wife and I love Five Bistro in St. Louis. One of my favorite things about the restaurant, besides the amazing food, is the fact that they have a great bar staffed by some amazing bartenders. This night Jacob was the bartender and served me a very unique Margarita.

The Margarita I had this night at Five Bistro had excellent citrus flavor and was very well balanced. It didn’t have a lot of sweetness but it didn’t really need it. I asked Jacob what the ingredients were for this Margarita. He made it with fresh squeezed orange juice, lemon juice, of course lime juice, plus Esprit Orange Cognac, along with Sauza Silver Tequila (I suspect it was Sauza Signature Blue Sliver). Perhaps this Margarita was unique because of the blend of orange and lemon along with the lime juice plus the use of orange cognac.  It was definitely a unique and very good Margarita so I give it a rating of an 8.

After a day trip to the zoo, my family and I headed over to The Cheesecake Factory for an early dinner. Another opportunity to try a Margarita!

The Margarita I had this time had good flavor, but it seemed a little heavy on the triple sec or some other ingredient. It had a thick feel to it, almost syrupy. That made it taste like it was made with a mix, although the menu doesn’t list it. So this time, I give the Margarita at The Cheesecake Factory a 7.

I had the opportunity to attend a wedding where the reception was held in the Lemp Grand Hall in St. Louis. The Lemp family mansion and surrounding properties like the Grand Hall are fairly famous in the St. Louis area. The Grand Hall is currently used primarily as a banquet facility and this is the second time I’ve attended a wedding reception here.

The Lemp Grand Hall features a full bar so of course I ordered a Margarita. To be fair, I wasn’t expecting much and sure enough the Margarita was made with a mix. But to be fair, the Margarita had a nice smooth flavor and was pleasant to drink, so a 6.5 is a reasonable rating for the Margarita that night.

I’ve written about the Margarita at Social Gastropub before, but on one particular visit, I discovered that they were offering a variation called the Spicy Cilantro Margarita. It sounded good, so I decided to try it. I was hoping the spicy flavor component wasn’t quite as overpowering as the “Unusual Margarita” I had tried at Cielo’s at the Four Seasons in St. Louis.

Upon tasting the Spicy Cilantro Margarita, the spicy jalapeño flavor was a little hard to pin down. It almost tasted like an artificial ingredient at first. But then the flavor recognition comes through and it comes together in the end. Overall, this drink was basically a good Margarita at heart with the cilantro and jalapeño flavors on top. The spicy jalapeño was nowhere near as strong as the Unusual Margarita at Cielo’s so overall it was a good drink. I would rate the Spicy Cilantro Margarita I had that day a 7.5.

Update: I visited Social Gastropub a few more times over the next couple of months and some of the Spicy Cilantro Margaritas were much more spicy than the first one I had. However, even with the stronger spicy component it was not overpowering. So I would stick with the 7.5 rating.

It was Father’s Day and I got to choose where to go eat lunch, of course. So I chose one of my favorite places, Milagro Modern Mexican. I’ve given their “Top Shelf” Margarita my highest rating to date so obviously I would take any chance I could to revisit them.

One of the things I really enjoyed about Milagro’s Top Shelf Margarita was that you could choose among several different tequilas. This time, however, the menu showed that the Top Shelf was now served with “Milagro’s own Maestro Dobel Tequila”. So that was a little disappointing, but I trusted that this tequila would be of high quality so of course I ordered the Margarita. Overall, the Margarita was still very good, but maybe not quite as good as before. Now, it was Father’s Day and the place was quite busy, so it is possible that the bartenders were not completely on their game, or it could have been possible that the difference in tequila was enough to alter the flavor. At this point, I’m willing to defer judgement on this new Margarita formulation until a future visit. But I would still rate the Margaritas at Milagro Modern Mexican as one of the best, if not the best, in the St. Louis area.

Applebee’s Perfect Margarita – still served in a Martini glass and shaker

When my wife and I were younger, we lived fairly close to an Applebee’s restaurant. So it wasn’t too surprising that we spent many a night sampling the offerings of this restaurant. Also not surprising is that a meal at Applebee’s would also include a Margarita for me, which my usual order would be their “Perfect Margarita.” Calling a drink “perfect” is certainly quite a bold statement, although I my memories of the drink were quite good. As time went by, my wife and I expanded our repertoire of dining and a trip to Applebee’s just didn’t happen quite so often anymore. Then we moved across town and Applebee’s simply wasn’t so convenient anymore. The bottom line was that it had been several years since I recall having a meal at Applebee’s and of course I had not written about the Perfect Margarita on this blog. So when the opportunity came up to eat at Applebee’s, I took advantage of it and of course had to have a reunion with the so-called Perfect Margarita. Given how far I’ve come in my Margarita journey, would the name still befit the drink?

First of all, I was happy to see that Applebee’s still actually had the Perfect Margarita available. They even had a little advertisement on the table highlighting their various Margarita options. So far so good! I ordered their Perfect Margarita which listed 1800 Reposado tequila, Cointreau and Grand Marnier as the ingredients. Certainly a solid list of ingredients to start out with, so I looked forward to reuniting with an old favorite. Years ago Applebee’s had always served the Perfect Margarita in a martini glass and shaker and I found that apparently they still do. So I poured my first serving and took a sip. I must say that the Perfect Margarita was as good as I remember it, although now I could discern the components a bit better. The overall flavor was very good and all the tastes were well-balanced. One thing that sets the Perfect Margarita apart from many chain restaurant Margaritas is that the tequila flavor actually comes through so that you know you are drinking a Margarita and not some generic fruity drink. Now on the downside, overall the drink did have just a bit of a bitter hint to it and while there might have been some fresh lime juice as part of the ingredients, I was fairly certain the Perfect Margarita was made with a mix. However, Applebee’s has certainly refined the art of making a Margarita mix as the Perfect Margarita is an excellent drink. The Applebee’s Perfect Margarita doesn’t exactly fit the profile of a handcrafted, made with all fresh ingredients cocktail that I have found to make the best Margaritas, but maybe it’s a bit of nostalgia kicking in as I rate it a 8.5 given that it just tastes so good!

On our way back from our Costa Rica trip, we had a short layover in the Houston Intercontinental Airport. Wouldn’t you know it, there was a small Mexican-themed eatery smack dab in the middle of the waiting area! It wasn’t really a restaurant, but more like an island bar, however they had food and of course, Margaritas! The Fruteria – Botanero by Chef Johnny Hernandez in the Houston airport is an satellite location of a restaurant located in San Antonio. Interesting concept, to say for sure.

We had some food, which was very good especially considering where we were. Along with the food I had to try a Margarita, obviously, so I ordered their standard Margarita. The ingredients listed were fresh lime, pineapple & orange juice, Cointreau & El Jimador Tequila. Most of the ingredients on this list should make for a solid Margarita, but the pineapple juice was a bit of a twist.  I was curious how it would turn out. Overall, the flavor of this Margarita was good, although I could tell the pineapple juice really added a lot of sweetness. Unfortunately, it tended to drown out the citrus components and ended up being just a bit too sweet for my preference. So it ended up being less of what I would like in a Margarita, and more of a fruit drink. That being said, “The Fruteria” is inspired by Mexican fruit stands so it shouldn’t be surprising that their drink menu leans toward fruit-infused recipes. While I would rate this drink only a 6.5 because it just wasn’t quite what I would look for in a Margarita, if you enjoy pineapple flavor this might be a great change-of-pace to a standard Margarita.

Continuing on our trip to Costa Rica, a little ways down the road from the Punta Leona Hotel & Club was the beach town of Jaco. While visiting it, we decided to find a place for lunch. We stumbled upon Morales House, a fun-looking open-air eatery. Of course, I had to try a Margarita.

The good news with this Margarita was that it had a good flavor, with strong sweet and tart components. However, I didn’t taste much fresh citrus flavor, so I had to assume that it was made from a mix. Which has disappointing because I wanted to test Costa Rican limes. I would give the Margarita at Morales House a 7, as it was good but not great.

If you find yourself traveling through Jaco, I would say that Morales House was a fun place to eat and the food was good overall.

For those of you that don’t know, I was born in Costa Rica. My parents moved to the United States when I was 3 years old and I’ve been here ever since. My parents moved back around 15 years ago, but since having kids and starting my own business, I had not visited Costa Rica in about 30 or more years. So we finally made it a point to go visit my mom in Costa Rica and have her take me and my family on a whirlwind tour of the country. She and some of her family run a cultural immersion program in Costa Rica so they are very familiar with some of the nicer places to visit around the country. Of course while I was in Costa Rica, I had to sample some Margaritas (hoping to find if Costa Rican limes are any different than the standard Mexican limes, among other things).

The first place I tried a Margarita was in a little resort restaurant at the Punta Leona Hotel & Club on the Central Pacific coast of Costa Rica. It was very hot that afternoon and having a refreshing citrus drink certainly hit the spot. Of course, it didn’t hurt that we could see swimming pools and the beach from where we were at. The Margarita I had this day was made with Patron tequila. It was light and refreshing with a good balance of flavors, but unfortunately didn’t have enough fresh citrus flavor to make it great. Overall I rate this Margarita a 7.5.

The Punta Leona Hotel & Club was a nice place to visit and was definitely one of the highlights of our trip. Especially interesting was that we were there during the night of a Costa Rican soccer championship match so there was a lot of partying going on that particular night. Ticos love their football!