http://www.lagodelpino.com/
Lago Del Pino is a beautiful restaurant overlooking Lost Pine "lake" a little west of Tyler. The outside construction is beautiful brick and looks like a fancy ranch/resort. The views from the bar are great. They have live music on Friday and Saturday nights. My wife and I have been interested in trying out this place for sometime, although, they have pretty terrible reviews online.
The spread: I'm not sure exactly what cuisine they are trying to model their menu after, but there are various appetizers: Chips and queso, bacon and blue cheese fries, crab cakes, hummus, etc. A couple of salad and soup selections. Their entrees range from Texican burgers, pretzel chicken sandwiches, chilaquiles, fish tacos, enchiladas, shrimp and grits and various steaks and seafood. I tried the bacon and blue cheese fries and the chips and queso.
The verdict: Well, did I mention the view? That is basically all the place has going for it. The dining portion of the restaurant felt loud and a little sterile. The service was below average for the prices, not particularly horrible, but certainly not attentive or friendly. My wife and I only go out occasionally by ourselves, so I promised that we would get a couple of drinks and appetizers and then see if we wanted to order entrees. Well, the bacon and blue cheese fries came out and they were WAY overpowered by the blue cheese. I love the idea, but the execution was lacking. They were memorable in that the the amount of blue cheese made them nearly inedible (a little goes a long way guys!). Then we got the chips and queso. The chips were fine, crispy and well, chips. The queso had a slightly off flavor, like liquid smoke or something like that - not horrible, but not inedible. We decided to try to give the entrees a try seeing as we were already there, but right as I said that I took a bite of my chips and queso and got a mouthful of plastic bag. Needless to say, we decided to skip the entrees and will not return.
Edible Tyler Roses: 2 out of 5 - I would recommend going for live music and drinks (the view is great), but just eat somewhere else beforehand. I also don't see how they will stay in business for very long. Their overhead has to be killing them.
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