Willie’s Grill and Icehouse
Editor's Note: This month, we're proud to bring back The Place to Eat as a regular column, and we also welcome a new writer. She's the mistress of morsels, the baroness of buffets and the empress of enchiladas -- the lovely Connie Gusiada. We hope you enjoy her unique take on eating out.
So my little brother calls me the other day and says he wants to go eat a willie! I was soooo excited! "Bubba!" I said in an exasperated tone, "I'm so glad you decided to come out." He was flummoxed. "Hold on Connie!" he says. "I want to go eat AT WILLIE'S." Pffft! Oh well, a girl could hope that her little brother would grow up to be a big ole queen like his sister, but I digress.
"Willie's," I say. "Let's see if this Willie can wrangle me." We took a drive out to Leon Springs to nosh at the aforementioned establishment. Willie's Grill and Icehouse to be exact. As we walked in, I was greeted by one of my best friends. There was a HUGE cooler of iced down beer. I was in heaven! "We're staying," I shrieked at my brother. I grabbed a refreshing beverage and headed to the counter. Large boards with all kinds of food were on the wall. I leaned in to the little girl and said, "Chips with icehouse queso (it has meat), small order of onion rings, loaded baked potato, fried shrimp and garden salad." What? I have to keep my ghoulish figure. Then I motioned to my brother and said, "and what ever she wants!" Matthew ordered a chicken fried steak, some fried pickles and a Big Willie. I had to chuckle. It's a tall frozen margarita with Midori. Yum, Yum! The little girl hands me a ticket, says thank you and we can sit anywhere we want. I looked at Matt and thought to myself, "Damn! I'm so pretty I didn't have to pay!" Matt knew what I was thinking, grabbed the ticket and said, "We pay after we eat, dizzy."
So we sat, sipped on our refreshing beverages and got whiplash. Now I can't speak for the other two Willie's locations in San Antonio, but the boys and girls at this one are gorgeous. Not that this makes the food better, but it certainly doesn't hurt. On to the food! The appetizers were great. Apparently, I was informed by the handsome manager, Mike, all of the food is fresh, made from scratch and hand battered. And I love a good hand battering. The onion rings (small order, remember) was about a pound and a half. Thick, juicy, tasty... whew! What was I talking about? Oh yeah! They were good. I hadn't expected to be impressed with the chips and queso. I mean, we're in San Antonio. The Chinese restaurant down the street from my flat makes killer queso. But these chips, handmade, and the icehouse queso were pretty dang good. My shrimp was crispy and golden. Not over fried.
Now sister, the baked potato was a papa to die for. When they say loaded, they mean LOADED. Honey, I could have made a sandwich with all the bacon they had on there. I wasn't too keen on the pickles, but that was my fault. They were hot and I mean H O T, Hot. I burned my over collagenated lips and got mad at the little thing and spit it out. Matt did say they were good, so I'll take his word for it. The salad, well, it's a salad. But I can say that the greens were crisp and not wilted like some places. The chicken fried steak Matthew had was pretty good. I've had some chicken fried steaks where the breading created a hard outer shell around a small hockey puck. Not here! The meat was tender and the gravy was awesome. Needless to say there was no more room to fit in dessert. So I guess we'll have to come back soon. Go to www.williesrestaurants.com for more info. Oh! And to my handsome waiter, Hunter, thank you but I'm not the marrying type!
Toodles poodles!
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