Sophia's Place

Sophia's Place
6313 4th St NW
Los Ranchos, NM

You know how on Christmas morning how disappointed you felt when you opened up that beautifully wrapped box under the tree only to find two pairs of new socks in it? That’s what it was like for us when we had lunch at Sophia’s Place. You might know that this restaurant was featured on the Food Channel’s “Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives” and got a rave review from the host, Guy Fieri. We saw that episode and were excited to go to Sophia’s and have a wonderful meal. Unfortunately, our experience and Guy’s were not the same.

The first thing you must overcome when entering the restaurant is the EXTREME rustic nature of the place. It’s small, unorganized, absent any sort of décor, has a soda machine in the dining room, and the bathrooms are outside around the corner – rather like the bathrooms at a gas station. It was clean, but that really is all you can say about the ambience. There were several small Formica tables sitting haphazardly around the small room, the walls need paint and except for the gorgeous beamed ceiling (go figure) the place had no redeeming esthetic qualities.

When entering Sophia’s Place, you walk up to the cash register and order your meal from offerings written on blackboards posted on the walls. After you place your order you may get your own drinks from the soda fountain using a plastic cup (ugh) and find a seat. There is seating outside, which would be preferable, but it was a cool day and we chose to sit indoors.

We ordered the Lamb Enchiladas and the Baja Tacos with salmon. Service was relatively quick and soon we had our plates, which looked appetizing.

The Lamb Enchiladas were a huge disappointment. The lamb was ground lamb, which would have been fine had it not been cooked into oblivion and crunchy. Overall it was like the leavings left in the frying pan after you make hamburgers – those small, hard, pebbly pieces. All the lamb in the enchiladas was that way – tasty, but truly offensive. And there wasn’t much of it between the corn tortillas. There were diced potatoes mixed into it and the whole thing was covered with green chili. The chile tasted sweet and not spicy, and was not delicious. It came with a fresh mesclun salad that had a nice, refreshing vinaigrette, and was very good, and there was a serving of black re-fried beans that were spicy and delicious. The beans were the highlight of the plate and would be the only thing we would want again. 

Under the sea of chile and cheese are lamb enchiladas 

The Baja Tacos were filled with salmon that had been deep fried, had pico de gallo that was fresh and good, but the avocado slice looked old with its black pock spots and stringy texture. On top of that was a scoop of coleslaw and pickled onion. The coleslaw was thick with mayonnaise and way too heavy for a fish taco. It would have been nice if they had just added some cabbage instead. The taco itself was okay, but needed salt and we’ve had better fish tacos many times. The plate came with pinto beans and rice, both of which were dry and flavorless. And it came with the same mesclun salad that was the highlight of the plate.

Baja Tacos with salmon

Twice while were eating Native American hawkers came through trying to sell us jewelry, which was uncomfortable. As we ate we noticed that the empty tables weren’t being cleared and there were several dirty tables awaiting service.  There was only one other party inside and a couple outside. 

Our lunch – without tip – was over $31.00. That’s pricey for lunch, but worth it if the food is really good. Sadly, the food was not, the experience was not fun or even pleasant, and we don’t plan to return. We were so disappointed when we left Sophia’s.  After the stellar recommendation of the Food Network, we can see that things must have changed. There is no way Mr. Fieri would have highlighted what we got on his show!

Tiffany’s - Frankenmuth, MI

Tiffany’s
656 S. Main
Frankenmuth, MI 48734

Located on Frankenmuth’s delightful Main Street, Tiffany’s was originally the Hotel Goetz in 1904 and has been revitalized many times in the last century. With a diverse menu featuring seafood, Italian and American fare, and pub specials, it is uniquely charming and quite popular among tourists and locals alike. Traces of the original architecture and design elements from the Hotel Goetz are still present from the tin ceiling (now painted gold) to the polished woodwork and tiny tile mosaic flooring to the Tiffany chandeliers that gave Tiffany’s its name, old meets new and creates a distinctive atmosphere.

We were drawn to Tiffany’s after hearing about their pasta pizza. Curious about this combination, we elected for the Chicken Portabella Marsala Pasta Pizza as our shared entrée and the Cajun Crawfish Salad to split. Because we were chilled from the persistent rain outside, we also got a cup of French Onion Soup and an order of Pierogies to start.

The pierogies (not pictured) were out first and were filled with potato and cheese. We enjoyed them, though we really liked the potato and cheese filling more than we liked the exterior. It was bland and basically served as a vessel for the filling. The French onion soup was good, but much like the pierogies was devoid of any depth of flavor. The broth had a semi bitter flavor to it and while it served its purpose of warming us up, it wasn’t the best French onion soup we’ve ever had.

French Onion Soup

The salad came out next and it was delicious! It consists of mixed lettuce, onions, croutons, and crawfish tail meat. The lettuce was crisp and fresh and the Bayou buttermilk dressing that came with the salad was addicting and richly flavored to complement the crawfish. We hungrily devoured the salad  without getting a picture and were still enjoying the flavor combination of the dressing and crawfish when the pizza arrived.

To describe the pasta pizza is no easy task. Simply stated it is a pizza crust with pasta and sauce on top. We tried to eat it like a regular slice of pizza, but found that the alfredo sauce had made the thin crust soggy, so we ate it with a knife and fork which proved helpful in cutting the pasta. You might recall that we orderd the portabella chicken marsala pizza and we were disappointed that there were very few mushrooms on the pizza itself and very little chicken as well. Mostly we had pasta and alfredo – not marsala – sauce. We ended up eating the pasta portion and the edge of the pizza because the bottom of the crust was a soggy mess. This was basically a mediocre pasta dish (that needed salt) with breadsticks. We liked the creativity of the idea, but felt the execution was poor.

Pasta "Pitza" - a Tiffany's Speciality

What works well at Tiffany’s are the atmosphere and the service. We had an excellent server named Jessica who was friendly, offered suggestions, interacted with us, and made sure our glasses were never empty. The food was marginal – except for the salad which was great – but the atmosphere and service redeemed any shortcomings. Our advice would be to check out this historic site if you’re in Frankenmuth and have a salad or go in for a quick cocktail as you explore Main Street.

Cactus Café

Cactus Café

2912 Juan Tabo Blvd. NE
Albuquerque, NM 87112

The Cactus Café is a relatively new restaurant here in Albuquerque.  It sits facing Juan Tabo Blvd. which is very busy, so location is excellent.   Every window is painted with Saguaro cacti, which don’t grow in New Mexico, but perhaps the idea of the cactus was in keeping with our desert surroundings – at least we think that was the idea.  But here’s the thing – though the name suggests it would be a Southwest restaurant specializing in New Mexican cuisine, it’s not!  The waiter informed us that the restaurant specializes in Greek cuisine.  Saguaro cacti in Greece?  Confusing.

The interior of the restaurant is pleasant.  The lighting is low and relaxing, there was soft Greek music playing and the booths were new and attractive dark velour and patterned vinyl.  There were four TVs on around the perimeter of the room near the bar area, but thankfully the sound was turned down.  The TVs took away from the charming ambience, but were easy enough to tune out.

The Cactus Café seems to be unsure of what market demographic it wants to target.  The menu features Greek dishes such as Moussaka (spelled incorrectly on the menu), and Pastitso, and the waiter said the owner was Greek.  But there were also Italian pasta dishes and New Mexican plates including enchiladas and tacos.  Additionally, there were several steak entrees and the special the night we went was a 14 ounce steak.  The appetizers were classic bar fare – wings, stuffed potato skins, etc.  So, the dishes were all over the place and we asked the waiter what the specialty of the house was.  He said either the Moussaka or the Enchiladas.  And for good measure he also said the steak.  So by now you must be wondering what we were wondering…is it Greek?  Is it Italian?  Is it New Mexican?  Is it a steak house?  We had no idea and we guessed they didn’t either.

We ordered side salads to start while we reviewed the menu.  The waiter told us they were $1.99 each, however, when our bill came, they were actually $2.50 each.  He told us the Greek dressing was homemade every day and we asked for that.   The salads came quickly and were very fresh.  We had to send one back because there were raw onions on the salad and one of us cannot eat them.  We had asked what the salads consisted of before ordering and unfortunately the waiter was not aware that onions were included.  The homemade Greek dressing was not the classic Greek dressing what we had hoped for.  Of the three containers we were served, two had only oil in them.  The third one had vinegar in the bottom of it with some herbs and it was very good.  Apparently the dressing is made up in a larger quantity and the server fills the small containers as needed.  Also apparently, the server neglected to stir the dressing to ensure we actually got dressing and not just oil.  So, the tiny bit of combined dressing we got was good – the rest, being only oil, was disappointing and flavorless.

Side salad with house roll

The salads came with one large dinner roll to share and a tub of whipped butter.  The roll was warm and good – a bit dense, but tasty.  The croutons in the salad had a slightly sweet flavor and were very good.  The waiter told us they were made from the same dinner rolls.

For entrees, we ordered the Cowboy Pasta which was penne pasta and sautéed chicken medallions in a green chili cream sauce.  The presentation was delightful with fried spaghetti tentacles accenting the plate.  The pasta was served in an enormous bowl and was easily enough to fill two or even three hungry people.  The chicken was moist and tender and the texture of the pasta was perfect.  The cream sauce was an extremely basic white sauce augmented by the green chili, which was spicy and delicious, but needed salt.  Overall this was a good dish, not exceptionally flavorful, but the green chili was good and it was served piping hot.  Most of this entrée was taken home to be consumed at a later time and as we suspected, the flavors had time to settle a little bit overnight and the leftovers were extraordinarily good.

Cowboy Pasta

We also ordered the Moussaka which came with rice and sautéed vegetables.  Again, the presentation was lovely and we were impressed with the design of the plate.  The rice was a yellow color and had some sort of spice in it, but it was so salty we couldn’t detect any other flavor.  It was too salty to eat and after one taste we didn’t try any more.  The Moussaka was a huge portion nearly four inches square.  It had layers of béchamel sauce, ground beef, tomatoes, grilled potatoes, and grilled eggplant.  The layer of béchamel was very thick on top.  The menu said there was red wine in the preparation, but we could not taste it.  The ground beef was plain and very basic, and the potatoes were completely overcooked.  The eggplant was good and somewhat seasoned.  Overall there wasn’t much flavor and it was homey, but lackluster.  After a few bites we didn’t care for any more.  Moussaka can be delicious if it is seasoned well and the layers are cooked perfectly.  Unfortunately this version missed the mark – disappointing given the fact we were expecting excellent Greek food prepared under the advisement of the Greek owner.  The sautéed vegetables consisted mostly of zucchini and one small broccoli floret.   The squash was delicious and perfectly cooked and was the best thing on the plate. 

Moussaka

We also ordered the fish tacos which were Tilapia, shredded cabbage, and tomatoes in fresh corn tortillas.  These were delicious!  The corn tortillas were excellent and freshly fried.  The fish was tender and tasty.  They came with Spanish rice and pinto beans.  Again, the rice was extremely salty and we couldn’t eat it.  The pinto beans were plain and unseasoned, so nothing special.  The tacos were good, but we feel that two small fish tacos are not enough for an entrée and recommend they add a third one.

Fish Tacos

For dessert, the offerings were chocolate cake they admittedly buy prepackaged, homemade bread pudding, Crème Brule, and Baklava.  We chose the bread pudding and the Crème Brule.

The waiter told us the bread pudding came with nuts and was covered with a chocolate caramel sauce.  However, there were no nuts in the dish and it was drizzled with caramel sauce – no chocolate.  It was very heavy and dense, sweet, but not too sweet and swirled with cinnamon.  There were soft, warm raisins and it was served with sliced fresh strawberries and whipped cream.  It was good, but not so good that we wanted to eat a lot of it.  Basically it just lacked flavor.  The best thing on the plate was the strawberries and cream.

Bread Pudding

The Crème Brule was a complete disappointment.  The best part of ordering this dish is the fun of cracking the heavy caramelized sugar layer on top and digging into the soft, creamy custard.  At the Cactus Café it is served in a long, flat, rectangular dish so it was very thin.  The sugar layer on top was so thin and sparse there was nothing to crack, and to make matters worse, the preparation went beyond caramelizing the sugar to flat out burning it.  The flavor of burnt sugar was unappetizing and although the custard layer was good, we were so disappointed by the poor presentation we didn’t eat much of it. 

Creme Brulee

There is a lot of confusion in this restaurant.  When we arrived there was soft, charming Greek music being piped into the dining room.  About half way through our meal, we were suddenly transported to Cuban salsa music which was turned up quite loud!  The menu is all over the place – they can’t seem to pick a country to represent.  The restaurant is said to be Greek, but the name and the Saguaro cactus theme is completely out of context.  There are TVs on all around the room for reasons we can’t understand and overall it seems like the Cactus Café is looking for an identity.  Additionally, there were several typos in the menu and misspellings that are unforgivable.  I mean, if you can’t even spell the dish, you shouldn’t put it on the menu.  However, the wait staff was pleasant and attentive and overall it was a relaxing venue – even with all the confusion.  The last insult was before we left, we noticed a roach crawling on the window sill by our table.  These things happen, we understand that, but it was quite offensive.  Would we go again?  Maybe for the fish tacos or maybe for the Cowboy Pasta, but only if we weren’t planning on eating it until the next day.