ON THE BORDER - Mexican Grill and Cantina

On The Border - Mexican Grill & Cantina

74 Beacon Dr, Greenville, SC 29615

There's several foods that I like and usually order if they're on the menu - meatball sandwiches and meat loaf being two of my main picks, another is one that doesn't show up as much - empanadas. Even though I'm not big on chains and usually try to avoid them, when I saw On The Border served empanadas,  I decided I had to go.

I ordered a plate which came with two empanadas and a green chile chicken enchilada with the usual rice and beans. The cheese dip you see on the plate was simply Velveeta cheese with Rotel.

My wife ordered the plate with two empanadas and a chicken tinga tostada with the usual sides of rice and beans. The complimentary chips and salsa in the background were acceptable, but we've had much better.

While I really liked the empanadas, the green chile chicken enchilada was lacking and was almost tasteless, making me wish I had ordered something else. My wife did not like the empanadas. She said she could taste the grease they were cooked in, but did agree the beef filling was tasty. However, She really liked her tostada. 

So the verdict about On the Border is split. We both liked one item out of two. While a score of 50 per cent isn't very good, I would still go back - but only for empanadas. On the other hand, my wife said she had no desire to re-visit.

MIKE and JEFF'S BBQ

Mike & Jeff's BBQ
2401 Old Buncombe Rd, Greenville, SC

We've driven past Mike & Jeff's BBQ several times over the years, but just never got around to going there. We finally tried them out this weekend and found passing them by had definitely been our loss.

We both had pulled pork plates, which come with two sides. I chose slaw (since they don't have an option of putting slaw on the sandwich) and hush puppies. The photo above is the small plate (can you imagine how much pork is on the large plate). The bbq is so good it doesn't need any sauce, although they provide a mustard and a red vinegar sauce, which the latter was our preference. The hush puppies were good  and the slaw was made so well it didn't need any salt or pepper.

Above is my wife's plate, she chose baked beans and sweet potato souffle as her sides and both were delicious. They also steam the bun that comes with your meal which is a definite plus.

Mike & Jeff's is a tiny space with a few seats at the bar and a small dining room in the back, I'm guessing the whole restaurant would only seat 25-30 people. We went at 1:30 pm on a Saturday and by 2 pm most of the back dining room was taken plus a few to go orders had been served. 

There is only one other BBQ place where we have eaten which I consider better, and that's by a slight margin,  Bubba's BBQ & Bash in Spartanburg. The main reason is Bubba's meat is a little more moist, but other than that these are my two favorite BBQ spots, with all others in our immediate region paling by comparison. So when I'm in the mood for Q and don't want to make a trek to Spartanburg, all I have to do now is drive to the San Souci section of Greenville.

ZORBA LOUNGE

We've eaten at Zorba's East in Taylors, but we've never been to Zorba Lounge on Washington Street. When I was in high school (back in the dark ages) Zorba had a reputation for having topless waitresses. If that was true, I've never had anyone who could verify that fact, only that they also heard the same rumor. So, I always imagined it was going to be huge inside, but it was actually a fairly tiny place and if there used to be topless waitresses there, then many a person must have got popped in the head with a boob at some point during their visit.

We went to try the cheeseburger, but also saw they had a Reuben sandwich on the menu, and since we are always in search of a good Reuben, we split one of those and also split a cheeseburger with an order of fries. The cheeseburger wasn't a big patty, but they knew the right combination of meat, lettuce and tomato and mayo to put on an onion bun, and it was delicious. The Reuben was pretty good, definitely worth ordering, and it also had the right combination of corn beef, sauerkraut, and Russian dressing assembled on rye bread, it just wasn't as good as the cheeseburger. Add in four Yuenglings in bottles and this was a very satisfying meal. I should also mention the staff were friendly and efficient (something Zorba's East doesn't always have). Zorba Lounge is now on our must visit again list. 

KOUNTRY KUPBOARD - Walhalla, SC

Since we're in Walhalla several times a year, we usually eat at The Steak House Cafeteria, but on our last two visits we were a little disappointed with our meals. Their chicken was still great, but all of the sides tasted as though they weren't being prepared the way they were in the past. This led us to try a different place in Walhalla - Kountry Kupboard (located on the left hand side of the road, just as you're leaving the main part of town going toward Seneca). While it's not much to look at on the outside and it's fairly small on the inside, this will be our new "go-to" place in Walhalla. The chicken had a great crust, second in taste only to O.J.'s Diner in Greenville, SC. The above plate is my wife's, mine was the same, except I substituted mixed beans (which was really a mixed bean soup) for the green beans. Everything on our plates was delicious. We got a couple of desserts - banana split pie and coconut pie to bring home and they were equal in tastiness to the food we had in the restaurant. On a final note, adding to our dining experience was the fact that the staff were extremely nice.

BACON BROS. PUBLIC HOUSE

Bacon Bros Public House is located on Pelham Road in Greenville, SC in a strip mall next to Earth Fare. While the menu looked interesting, sometimes that can be misleading. In this case, the food was just as good as it sounded on the menu.

We had a couple of appetizers - Cornmeal fried pickles with smoked onion dipping sauce and a bowl of smoked turkey gumbo with tasso ham, okra, chocolate roux, and gold rice. As you can see from the photo this was a very large order of fried pickles. The cornmeal helped soothe the bitterness of the pickles. I found this a plus, my wife found this a minus. Regardless, they were very good and I would order them again. The smoked turkey gumbo was delicious and my wife, who doesn't really like gumbo, said this was the best she ever tasted and would consider ordering it again.

For our meal we split a corned beef Reuben on rye with a side of beer battered onion rings (which came with sorghum ketchup.). The corn beef was tasty and very tender. The sandwich could have used a bit more sauerkraut for our taste, but overall was a pretty good reuben. The onion rings were made with such sweet onions that they had little taste, unless dipped into the sorghum ketchup, which managed to be both sweet and spicy at the same time. 

I had two pedestrian draft PBR's (reminded me of years back drinking draft at Peaches in Myrtle Beach) and my wife had two Allagash Curieux (triple ale aged in Jim Beam bourbon barrels).

This was a great meal, even if some things weren't quite to our personal tastes. Everything that came to the table lived up to the menu description and the service was always right on time. They even split our Reuben/onion ring order without being asked. This is one place we'll definitely be visiting again.

BUBBA'S BBQ & BASH

 

Did you ever eat somewhere and think to yourself "It couldn't be that good" and have to go back the following week to confirm that it was actually that good. Well, that's what happened to us when we tried Bubba's BBQ & Bash in Spartanburg, SC. I was a little leery of the place, since it was in a brand new building, and usually, it seems, the good bbq joints are in some building that has been re-purposed for a restaurant.
 

The first week we both had bbq sandwiches with their bbq slaw (you have to ask that the slaw be added to the sandwich). This slaw isn't exactly "red slaw" but it's not regular slaw either, falling somewhere between the two. For sides the first week we had hush puppies and macaroni pie. The pulled pork was so good on the sandwiches that they didn't need a bit of sauce. Any type of sauce covered up the great smoke taste in the meat. The hush puppies had onion and pieces of corn and were just right. The macaroni pie was better than O.J.'s Diner and better than Wade's Restaurant and that says a lot about how good it was.

We returned the following week to see if it was as great as we thought it was the first time. This time we got two sides with each meal. My wife had bbq slaw and potato salad and I had hush puppies and onion rings. The potato salad was fine, but it was the mustard based type and both of us prefer a mayonnaise based potato salad. The onion rings were of the very thin variety and cooked to a crispy goodness. Was the pulled pork as good as we thought...YES! Bubba's BBQ & Bash is now my #1 top pick for bbq in upstate SC. The only drawback, it's a 30 minute drive, but I know I'll be hitting Highway 29 and making that trip again SOON!

HENRY'S SMOKEHOUSE

Henry's Smokehouse, 240 Wade Hampton Blvd, Greenville, SC

For my money, Henry's has the best smoked pork in Greenville. Unfortunately, my wife doesn't agree, so we seldom eat there. After trying Pig-Out in Lyman, SC and finding it to be just ok, I wanted some bbq with some taste in the meat, so I headed to Henry's.

We both had a pulled pork bbq sandwich with slaw.

We split an order of fresh cut fries.

The meat was just as I remembered it, moist with a good smoke taste and the fries are always great. My wife's opinion, she's still not impressed...oh well.