Restaurants

My friend did the unthinkable after our scrapbooking club last Friday.

Scrapbooking makes you hungry

Neither of our husbands were home — they were, in fact, together at a Toastmasters speech evaluation contest, which proves there are worse ways to spend an evening than pasting colored paper to cardstock — so I asked if she wanted to get a bite of real food to go with the cheese and crackers and Dove chocolates we’d snacked on for two hours already.

You know how these negotiations go: The first person invites, and the person who accepts has to name the restaurant. She picked (and I heard her the first time, I just didn’t believe it) Qdoba Mexican Grill.

My opinion on this Mexican fast casual chain is well documented here at the Uptake restaurant blog. But if there’s someone out there who hates Qdoba more than I do, it’s my scrapbooking buddy. I wouldn’t be surprised if she makes the sign of the devil every time she drives by one, as she can tell you in explicit detail what she dislikes about every item on the menu. She knows because her tennis group loves the place, so for a while there, she dragged herself there to lunch once a week.

So I thought for a second she’d cut herself with the scissors and was bleeding out on me, reaching the delusional stage.

She was serious. In her desperation to find something to eat after running all over the court for several hours, she stumbled on the pork quesadilla, sans pico. If anyone else had tried to recommend an entree at Qdoba, I would have declined, but this was monumental enough it probably was good.

Qdoba's quesadilla

So we split one, and she was right. It was delicious — salty, cheesy, and cooled off with sour cream. Formerly my beef with the place was that the chicken is dry, the hamburger tastes fake, and the steak is rubbery. But the pork! Ah, it has the juicy flavor every Mexican dish should boast. Not to mention the fountain serves both Cherry Coke and Vanilla Coke, which combined gives you dessert in a cup.

It hit the spot better than the Dove chocolates, and no, I’m not bleeding out.

Photographer credits: Qdoba, karine.imagine, I am the Jeff