Restaurant Review

My restaurant choice each week is a combination of research and spontaneity. I try to rotate the types of restaurants ranging from home cooking to cultural cuisine, from fine dining to family fare.

This week, when my dining companion and I found ourselves in Glasgow on a weekday afternoon, we whirled into Tumbleweed Southwest Grill.

The Glasgow Tumbleweed is housed within a strip mall between a Radio Shack and a clothing store, so the atmosphere is different than the Tumbleweed in Bowling Green. There is less wood and warmth, though the owners did their best to give it a Western flair with a touch of home. I especially liked the fact that as of October, it’s a non-smoking restaurant.

Spontaneity took the lead again and we ordered the Arizona egg rolls from the appetizer menu. We considered getting a &#8220best of the Southwest” platter to offer comments on a variety of appetizers, but the photo of the egg rolls was too appealing. Our waitress offered us chips and salsa too. We were excited when we discovered this was free with the meal, but disappointed when the salsa arrived. It was basically tomatoes in tomato sauce, with a hint of fresh cilantro. No onions, chili peppers or any other salsa staples.

On the menu, the photo depicted open-faced egg rolls stuffed with chicken, cheese, Southwest spices, onions and green peppers. When the egg rolls arrived, we were taken aback – which we would be throughout the meal – due to consistently poor plate presentation. Fortunately, the spices, cheese and chicken in the egg roll redeemed themselves after the first bite and the flavor combinations depicted a true Southwestern flare. We would discover, however, as we got closer to the end of each egg roll that they were greasy. And they were served with a chipotle ranch sauce too hot for the average person.

I ordered the grilled mahi mahi instead of the grilled tilapia because the mahi mahi was served over a bed of crab stuffing with a chipotle sour cream that I just had to try. Unfortunately, the crab stuffing was unrecognizable. Honestly, it was so different from what I was expecting I had to look up what I’d ordered online when I got home. It did not taste like crab and looked like mashed, old rice with random spices.

The mahi mahi was cooked well and had a light, moist texture and full-bodied flavor, despite the unattractively dry, pseudo-grilled look. I had to ask for the chipotle sour cream sauce, which was missing on the plate. The mashed potatoes had an acceptable flavor and were whipped well (in the middle anyway), except they were served flattened on the plate that, to me, looked like a large white cow pie. And because they had been flattened, the edges were dry.

The wait staff was jovial, competent and bubbly throughout the meal. She brought our food immediately when it came up, but it did take awhile for the food to arrive, and since the potatoes were dry, I wondered if the food sat somewhere longer than it should’ve.

My companion ordered the peppercorn steak well done. He said it was acceptable, but required the peppercorn seasoning for flavor. We both had a side dish of skillet-grilled vegetables that included broccoli, yellow squash, green beans and peppers. Again, the presentation was a problem. The veggies were crisp, but crammed randomly into a small bowl with too much oil drizzled on top.

I’ve always thought plate presentation was important, but that a meal did not necessarily have to look good to taste good. This meal proved me wrong. By the end of the meal, I just didn’t care to eat even the food I found enjoyable.

In a last-ditch effort to find something that both looked good and tasted good, I ordered a piece of pumpkin caramel cheesecak. Finally, the presentation was acceptable with caramel drizzled over a generous slice of a pumpkin colored dessert with whipped cream on top – and it tasted good too!

It truly wasn’t all bad. A little fine-tuning on the plate presentation would’ve made a world of difference.