Elephant Bar Restaurant

Pleasant atmosphere, as usual.
The salads were quite tasty.   I had an Asian inspired theme and I plan to have it again.
I ordered a Sangria and there was more ice than anything in the glass.   I should always remember to ask for no ice, or very little ice.

Overall it was a lovely dinner.

I got a tiny salmon filet with fibrous asparagus and dry brown rice. My wife got a tiny amount of sea food on her sea food salad.  We are small people, so complaining about portion size is not something I've ever done before, but this time was different. We were both hungry a few hours later.  Not only was the quantity inadequate, but the preparation was amateur.  Really, fibrous ends on the asparagus!  Even beginners know to snap off the ends to prevent that. I was particularly disappointed as all of the other Elephant Bars that I have eaten at were really good.  Apparently Simi is an exception.  Come on Simi, you can do better!

So I signed up for the Elephant Bar email club recently. Earlier this week, I received an email about their lunch specials. Buy one get one free it said. I told lunch buddy we were goin here, and his response was less than optimistic.  But we went anyways.  Knowing it was on the other side of town, and would be a haul from work, I perused the lunch menu and figured out what I'd like so I could call and order while en route.
     Noon arrived, and I launched myself from my cube. Lunch buddy and I walked out to his car.  While he was clearing the shotgun seat of it's various baby paraphernalia, newspapers, and other random things, I dialed up the restaurant and asked to place an order for when we got there.  There was no confusion at all; no 'I'll have to ask my manager" no nothin. Girl on the phone was Aces with my request. Orders placed, I hopped in lunch buddy's vehicle and we left.
    Fast forward twelve minutes later, when we pull up to the Elephant Bar parking lot. I guess we parked in the back, because we had to walk 3/4 the way around the place before finding a 'front door'.  It had an elephant as the door handle, it's shiny trunk formed the door handle. We walked in, and I informed girl behind the counter that we had placed the call-ahead order. She lead us past a life-sized rhino head hanging on the wall to a table right away, and told us our food would be right out. We sat down, and waited a little bit. I looked around, and there were many empty tables. I guess lunch isn't their normal thing? (Why a Rhino? I have no idea.)
    Waiter guy Trevor came out and asked us for our drink requests, and then said again how our food would be right out. He went away to get our drinks...a few minutes later, he came back, completely overwhelmed by 2 plates, and the drinks balancing precariously in his arms. I was honestly a bit concerned for my lunch as he balanced his way out to our table.
    He unloaded his arms, and I got my Wood-Fired salmon in cilantro-citrus sauce placed in front of me. It looked healthy, and also pretty tasty. I'd have honestly preferred a big burger, but I'm trying to be good, so this was the healthier option. I tentatively flaked off some of the salmon, and swirled it around in the sauce. There were a combination of sauces goin on. I honestly missed the flavors of citrus and cilantro, but I more picked up on a peanut taste of some kind. Weird. It was still good though. There was in addition, a small bowl of a  yogurt/cucumber sauce that I wasn't 100% sure what to put on. My veggies were  tasty, but I imagine boiled. The broccoli was not the kind I'm used too. It was actually kinda pretty.
     Lunch buddy was eating his  Macau Shrimp noodle soup stuff and salmon rolls. He said how he enjoyed them both. He followed up with 'I'm glad we came here."  When the check came, it was about twenty bucks, which we split and paid about twelve bucks each. After we finished eating, we hopped back in the Screamin' Honda Civic and drove back to work. I sat down in my cube with 1 minute to spare.

    All in all it was a fairly positive experience. Calling ahead was a breeze, getting there wasn't too terrible, the food was pretty good, and we handled our lunch effectively in a lunch break. Good job Elephant Bar, good job. I may be back for lunch!