Tag: arkansas

Food Review: El Sur in SOMA

I’ve been wanting to try El Sur for a while now, and I finally got to around lunch time on Sunday. Here’s the breakdown:

Environment:

El Sur has a great clean and open space. You walk in and order at the counter, then they bring your food to the table or seat at the bar you choose. Water and cups are available for free at the bar, as well as some sauces you can put in cups to bring to your table. My favorite thing, however, was the fresh flowers cutely vased at each table.

Menu and Food

Their menu is found here on their website. Full of many different Honduran and other Latin American foods that you can’t find in many places around central Arkansas, it was hard to pick! I really wanted to try the fried yucca (I know I love that), pupusas, and the pollo chuco.


However, it was brunch time and I felt like I should try something I can only get once a week there. So, we ordered the Torrejas, Honduran French toasts simmered in syprup from dulce de caña, topped with orange zest and choice of two eggs.

The chorizo and eggs we chose were perfect- flavorful, but not too greasy. You can’t go wrong here. The French toast was plentiful and smelled amazing with citrus. If you like your french toast soggy, you’re going to love this. Unfortunately, I do not. So, this wasn’t my favorite dish and I had big regrets not ordering the Pollo Chuco.

On the specials board, the Salpicon sounded amazing and a lighter dish would help level out our meal of French toast. So, the decision was made.

In all honesty, I was a little disappointed when the dish was placed at my table. It looked pretty bland. However, I poured the sauce it came with over it all, as well as a mild and hot sauce from the front counter and everything was pretty good! There’s a great citrus flavor in the beef, though the texture is more like canned tuna, so it threw me off a little. While I enjoyed this, I was still deeply regretting not getting one of the items on the menu I know will be good, like the pupusas.

Overall, I think I need to give this place a second chance with its most popular dishes rather than trying ones that are only available that day. So, if you’ve had any dish there that I MUST try because it is so good, please comment and let me know!

Food Review: Milano’s in Maumelle (take out)

I love Milano’s. It’s the only place in Maumelle you can get a large variety of authentic Italian dishes, where there’s something for everyone. The owners are extremely nice and welcoming as well.

I got dinner for two, to go, since we were in a rush and didn’t feel like getting dressed nicely in order to eat out. The first thing I noticed when ordering online was how this is one of the few places around central AR that hasn’t sky-rocketed their prices these last couple years. I can get delicious pasta dishes for the same price or cheaper than Olive Garden currently offers- and way better!

When I arrived to pick up the order, I noticed the interior has been renovated and it looks amazing! It looks so nice and much fancier than it did in the past. At that moment, I wished we had opted to eat there instead of at home. Next time!

I was very happy to see there were fresh, hot bread rolls with our meals (two per meal), as well as the included side salad with choice of dressing. We opted to try the house vinaigrette. It was tomato based, and was delicious- especially when you dip the bread in it.

For our meals, I got the Veal Florentine ($19.95). I have only had perfect veal from Montana, but have chased that high ever since. Sadly, everywhere I’ve tried veal here in Arkansas, it is flavorless and tough. Unfortunately, the same story was told here. I should have gotten Chicken Florentine instead. Besides the veal, I loved the pasta with spinach and mushrooms. However, I did have to add salt and pepper to really taste the dish.

My husband got the Chicken Milano’s ($16.95), which was both our favorites for the night. The sundried tomatoes added a great flavor, without being overpowering, to the tender chicken and mushrooms and pink sauce. We loved it!

There was more than enough food! We ate until we couldn’t anymore for dinner and finished our large amount of leftovers for lunch the next day. I really feel like we got our money’s worth here, which always makes me like a place a lot more.

Overall, Milano’s is fantastic! I can’t wait to go back and enjoy a sit down meal and try one of their delicious desserts that called my name from the dessert fridge at the front when I went in to pick up the food. Let me know what your favorite dish is so I can try something new next time!