It was very interesting how two actors could play19 different characters, including men, women and children just by making costume changes.  With each change, they totally became the character.  I feel like I knew most of the characters personally.

Red, White and Tuna runs through September 5.

210.212.5454

www.cameocenter.com

We always start out with an order of crispy Thai egg rolls because we love them so much.  One order is four egg rolls, so it is nice for sharing.  The egg rolls are served with a house sweet and sour sauce, which has a slight bite to it.

My husband always gets the Clay Pot Chicken, a mix of fried rice with garlic and ginger, cooked in a clay pot topped with shitake mushroom, carrots, and onion.  He usually gets a medium hot version since he enjoys a light to medium sweat.  I enjoy trying different things, and this time I went for the Bun Combo, a Vietnamese noodle salad with vermicelli, lettuce, bean sprouts, cucumbers & cilantro served w/ sweet & sour house dressing topped w/ peanuts.  I usually don’t get any heat on my selection cause I don’t like the sweat.  I just want to enjoy the food.

Thai-Lao Orchid has always been consistent with their food, always fresh, always good and always presented nicely.  It is a good place to try some Thai food for the first time or for someone who loves Thai cuisine.

18410 Hwy US 281 North, STE 115

210.404.9898

Monday thru Saturday open for lunch and dinner

Sunday open for dinner

www.thailaoorchid.com

Red and white-checkered posters and decor along with a short order menu, burgers wrapped in foil and put in paper bags all added to the feel of a time gone by.

What was different was the fresh made to order food that Five Guys served up.  I will say that I didn’t understand the menu lingo at first, but the person taking our order explained everything to us.  I guess she could tell we were new to this burger joint.  We both had the “little hamburger”, a full size burger with mayo, mustard, ketchup, lettuce, pickles, tomatoes, grilled onions and grilled mushrooms.  You can add additional items for an extra charge, but we really didn’t need any more.  We also split a regular fries which was plenty for us, but you can get a large fries if you are really hungry. Our burgers were very juicy and all our food was very fresh.

The menu also offered hot dogs and a few sandwiches for those who aren’t in the mood for a burger.  The only thing missing to make this a real blast from the past was the jukebox and the ice cream shakes.

Five Guys is open 7 days a week from 11AM to 10PM.

1321 N. Loop 1604 East, Suite 105, next to Costco.

210.402.7305

www.fiveguys.com

This turned out to be a magical dining experience just as I had hoped.  As soon as we were seated we were given a complimentary glass of Champaign as a welcome gift.  I had requested a table overlooking the river and was pleased that they were able to accommodate us.   We were actually able to enjoy the river while leisurely sipping our Champaign.  In fact, throughout the entire meal, our waiter was very attentive to us but never made us feel rushed.  We were able to eat at our own pace allowing us to visit while savoring each course of the meal.  The Birthday honoree started off with the warm spinach salad with apple-smoked bacon, hedgehogs mushrooms, cereta cheese and potato gaufrittes.  It was served with a garlic sherry mustard dressing.  She was very pleased with the choice and loved the potato gaufrittes.  My husband had the Romaine hearts salad, red pepper Caesar dressing, little croutons, and a Parmesan tuile (something like a Parmesan cracker).  He was impressed with the Parmesan tuile and loved the spiciness of the dressing.  I had the duck breast salad, which was outstanding.  The duck was perfectly cooked, tender and just the right amount to wet my appetite for the main course.

For the main course my husband had the pan-seared halibut with cream cheese scallion mashers and carrots.  The halibut was so fresh it tasted like it was caught just before it was served.  It was seared to perfection, firm yet flakey, and a flavor that lingered in your head.   The Birthday girl had the grilled beef tenderloin on boulangere potatoes.  It was served with jammy tomatoes, broccolini and a homemade steak sauce.  She said the tenderloin was tender, juicy and cooked to perfection.  It had her giving rave reviews the rest of the evening.

I along with our other guest both had the mustard-crusted Australian lamb rack served with Parmesan scallion polenta cake, Rebecca Creek goat feta cheese, asparagus, trumpet royal mushrooms, and rosemary veal jus.  I am here to tell you we both thought we died and went to heaven.  I can honestly say this lamb was by far the best I have had in years and maybe ever.  It was cooked to just pink inside which left it tender and juicy and the mustard crust added a little crunch and complimented the flavor of the lamb nicely.  I am already thinking about when I can get back for more.

At the end of the meal, our waiter brought out a small birthday serving of Crème Brule with fresh blueberries.  It was a nice touch after a lovely meal

An added bonus, Biga offers valet parking, which made it nice not to worry about parking downtown.

Biga offers private dining options and can accommodate large groups.

www.Biga.com

A Real Flicks and Food experience

The Rialto Cinema Bar and Grill, on the NE side at Loop 410 and IH 35 is one of the original dinner and a movie experiences in San Antonio.

Long before the Alamo Drafthouse came to town, the Rialto has been serving pitchers of reasonably priced beer, margaritas, wine and a large dinner menu, all in a dark, comfortable environment.

If you get to the movies early, you can go sit at the bar, or you can head into the cinema and a server will take your order from you. We keep wondering how the Rialto makes any money. The food is not any more expensive than what you’d find in a local restaurant. You can get a huge mug of beer for $10 the first time, and each time you bring it back, they’ll refill it for $5. We guess they make their money on soda. That’s the only expensive thing on the menu.

The best thing about the Rialto is when the movie starts, it actually gets dark inside the cinema. There aren’t any lights underneath the tables, the lights on the walls turn off. If you can’t eat in the dark, you may come out messy, but at least it’s a dark movie experience, which I like. The staff are super stealth. They’re all dressed in black and are very quiet when coming in and out.

We’ve been going to the Rialto for years. It’s close to our house, it’s a super cheap night out for us and we’ve only ever had one disappointing experience, which they fixed. We had gone to see “Australia” and the sound was bad, but when we told them, they gave us free tickets for the next time we came back. It may not be the same yuppy experience that you’ll get at the Alamo Drafthouse, but we like it that way.

For Showtimes and a menu, see the Santikos Rialto Website.

My husband and I just wanted to go see a movie, and when we looked at the cinema list, we just picked whatever looked like it wasn’t a kids movie.

We didn’t know who was in it, and it wasn’t till the opening credits that I realized that Robert Rodriguez produced Predators.

I used to love Robert Rodriguez. His first movies were fantastic. Then he had kids and let them write his scripts… I lost faith in him for a while. I stopped going to see his films. So it was probably a good thing I didn’t know he had made this before hand. I will say though, that Predators has restored by love for Rodriguez. This movie is back to his action packed best. There’s lots of blood and gore, without it being too gruesome. There’s plenty of twists in the script to keep you guessing.It wasn’t directed by Rodriguez however, that was left to Nimrod Antal.

After seeing Predator versus Alien I wondered if there was going to be a test to see if these guys could all get along, but nope, they’re all just bait. They group includes elite military mercenaries, a rapist on death row, a Japaneze Yakuza, Mexican Mafia and a psychopath. The Predator costumes are great. They didn’t change them up from the original or give them some kind of overhaul. I hate it when movies do that.

Each character battles their own personal demons while battling the Predator.

There’s some bad reviews out there for Predators, but my husband and I really enjoyed it.