I went out to eat at Eva’s Mexican Restaurant tonight as this week is their official Grand Opening, even though they have been open for a couple of months.  Eva’s is located on the cross-streets of Pinal Avenue and Kortsen Blvd coming off of Exit 185 on the I-10 in Casa Grande, Arizona.

I had been to Eva’s one time previously and thought the food was very good, in fact Eva’s is my favorite Mexican Restaurant in Casa Grande beating out Macayo’s, Cafe De Manuel, Christina’s among others.  The building itself is completely brand new and modeled very well, it is a spanish tile plaza where they were hosting a Halloween event with a 20 minute scare maze and everything.  We didn’t pay the extra cover and participate in the Halloween activities, but tonight kids eat free if they went to dinner dressed up in their costumes.  So my oldest went in his Spiderman costume and my youngest went in his spider pajama’s.

Tonight the food was exceptional I had a Taco, Cheese Enchilada and Green Corn Tamale combo, and the Cheese Enchilada’s are some of the best I have ever tasted.  The green corn tamale was very good but I do like Manuel’s Green Corn Tamale’s better in Tempe.  The Taco was great as their shells are very thin and crispy and you don’t taste too much corn flavor with the meat.

The kids liked their Rice, Beans and Chicken Tenders which were very good and not too greasy.  The salsa that comes with the chips is excellent being very mild (I don’t handle spicy well anymore) and the bean dip was good, but was a bit thin and watery and very salty.

The side items such as rice and beans were also very good, the Charro beans were outstanding.  These are whole pinto beans covered in cheese and seasonings and were just delicious.

The food was great, but alas the service was horrible tonight.  It took 11 minutes after we sat before a waiter came up to our table and take our drink and food order.  The original waiter never showed up at our table at all, we waited for a long time for the entree’s and nobody ever came to re-fill my iced tea.  We also waited 8 minutes after we were all finished with our entree’s and nobody came to ask us if we wanted Desert.  I asked one of the passing hostesses to speak with the Manager.

The manager came by and apologized and threw in an order of Sopapilla’s and said she would have our drinks refilled immediately.  I thought the service would be remedied but 16 more minute elapsed, and still no re-fill on any drinks and no Sopapilla’s came out.  I grabbed a hostess and told her to just get our bill that this was rediculous.

The same manager returned again, apologized again and said the entire meal was on the house for our poor service.  The send us away with a togo order of Sopapilla’s and apologized all the way as we were out the door.   Now the food was exceptional, the best in Casa Grande, but the service was lacking.  The manager did a very good job of compensating us for bad service and entice me to come back.

So I did endure service that made a 45 minute meal take almost 2 hours, but I got a $50 free meal out of it, so as my wife told me this evening.  I can be bought, great food and a manager who wants to put things right do sometimes make up for one night of poor service.  As mentioned I had eaten here before and the service was fine, so I chock it up to a bad night.

I still highly recommend eating at Eva’s Mexican Food if you are driving through Casa Grande or you live here.  The food is great, and if your service isn’t up to snuff, go ahead and let the manager know right away so they can put things right.

-Justin Germino

I have so little resistance to good food it is amazing.  My wife made some coffee cake yesterday which the moment my olfactory senses caught the scent of cinnamon and pastry baking in the oven, my tongue was pouring buckets of saliva.  I barely was able to keep from running downstairs and burning my hands on the hot pan.

I shared it with my boys last night as a treat after dinner and scarfed down the rest tonight, sometimes I find myself never feeling full but eating food  until I am gorged.   Times like these I think sometimes I could use an appetite suppressant but I hang in there with willpower alone.

So I have to work out an extra ton over the next 3 days to compensate for eating so much coffee cake, but oooh, it was worth it.

-Justin Germino

Okay, it took way more time to have my hair taken care of than I expected.  I had to work this evening to make up the difference in the amount of time I took off.  I finally got my mini makover, bleached highlights in the top of my head, much shorter cut, the unkempt but on purpose look I was going for.  Toni&Guy Salon’s are all my wife goes to, so I went to her hair stylist and he really is very talented.  He did my five year olds hair and my five year old has highlights, I liked it so much I wanted to try it myself.

I lost much of my time driving, I live almost one hour each way to the Valley, so two hours was lost in drive time, the other two and a half hours were at my hair appointment, then another hour to eat at Manuel’s for Lunch.  This is one of our favorite Mexican Restaurants in Arizona, and it is a local Arizona chain.  You won’t find them outside the state.  They have THE BEST Green Corn Tamales I have ever tasted, but they also have a great Pollo Especial, as a Libra I never can decide which of the two dishes to get there.  They also have better salsa than all the other major chains “Macayo’s, Chili’s, Chevy’s, Garcia’s” You name it, Manuel’s has better tasting salsa in my opinion.

I will post before and after pics of my hair style once I get somebody to take a picture of my new hair style.

-Justin Germino