Wil Jenny's

Today we went to Wil Jenny's.

This was technically the third time we went there. The first time was a month or so ago, for a Boulevard Beer Dinner pairing with Wil Jenny's chef, and the food was outstanding. Bacon wrapped bbq scallop, sea bass, a divine dessert of filo pastry filled with chocolate ganache and cherries...I forget what else, but it was fantastic.

Last weekend we went back, and again the service and menu didn't disappoint. We started out with the duck quesadilla for an appetizer, and it was really tasty... not too small, not too big, the only drawback was the duck was a little overdone and hard to bite through, and tended to pull out of the tortilla with your teeth.

For the main course, Jon ordered a full rack of their Dr. Pepper BBQ ribs, and it was so much food he brought half of it home, and it only cost $19. I ordered the 3 meat combo and chose ribs, smoked turkey and pulled pork, $15, +$1 if you add ribs. The plates came and the portion sizes were enormous... 4 ribs, 4 slices smoked turkey, a huge pile of pulled pork, and 2 side dishes. It was enough food that I took half the ribs, half the turkey and almost all the pulled pork home, and made a second meal out of it, even after giving Jon 1 of my ribs and half the pulled pork.

The side dishes were also nice. Their cornbread stuffing was tasty albeit a little dense, but the green chile mac-n-cheese was a bit disappointing. It tasted like your average boxed mac-n-cheese, and the green chiles were non-existent in flavor, and visually present only evidenced by the few tiny flecks of green on the bottom side of the noodles. I was hoping for a lot more green chile to be honest. The chardonnay potato dumplings were another story all together: they were FABULOUS. Big, light, gnocchi-like potato dumplings, char-grilled a tiny bit on the outside and swimming in a pool of chardonnay butter sauce. I've not tasted a side dish as delicious before or since, and I crave going back to have them!

I have to say, as good as their food is, their dessert selection could use some work; it seems a bit pedestrian. Chocolate cake, pecan pie, brownies, peach cobbler... nothing nearly as delicious or tempting as that chocolate ganache and cherry filled filo pastry they served us at the beer dinner a month earlier. We ordered the peach cobbler for dessert, and I did enjoy the fact that instead of pie dough the top "crust" appeared to be fried flour tortilla strips rolled in cinnamon sugar. The cobbler was also very large, big enough to share.

We went back to Wil Jenny's today, and unfortunately it was a bit disappointing. It was Father's Day, and so the only "menu" available was their $20 buffet. The biggest disappointment was the lack of chardonnay potato dumplings on the buffet! They were the main reason I wanted to go there! The ribs again were amazing, the smoked turkey and brisket were moist and tender, their rattlesnake pasta was tasty, and so were the enchiladas. The burnt ends of course, were also really tasty. I was however surprised that I didn't really enjoy their chardonnay chicken, I guess maybe I expected it to be like the chardonnay dumplings I love so much, and it wasn't. Dessert was a fruit tray, lemon bars/other bar-cookies, chocolate cake, pecan pie, brownies etc. Not bad, not unique. For $20 per person, I'd rather have ordered off the regular menu.

Summing up in 30 seconds or less:

GET the chardonnay potato dumplings!
Avoid the green chile mac-n-cheese, sounds better than it is.
Might try the chardonnay chicken again sometime when it hasn't been sitting in a chafing dish on a buffet line.
Avoid the buffet dinners on holidays, stick to the menu.
Portion sizes are huge, prices are low, quality is great!