Blue Agave Interior
I’ve been promising y’all an update on this for a while… I finally had the chance to try Blue Agave (in the former Pizza Hut) in Hernando last Friday. Obviously, since it was a Friday night, the place was fairly busy… although surprisingly, there were still plenty of free tables (something that was not the case at its parent restaurant La Siesta, which we admittedly tried to visit first only to see the number of people waiting, haha!). Nevertheless, the crowd was enough for me to only come out with two good interior shots, both of which you’re seeing here (one is inset bottom right).
The main goal, of course, was to see how much Blue Agave had altered the interior from its previous life as a Pizza Hut. The answer? Again, surprisingly: not much!
Thankfully, we got a very good seat right along the front wall of the building, overlooking the rest of the main dining room. You can see that the flooring has been replaced with that new faux wood stuff, and new booths have been installed as well. Jury’s out on the tables and chairs in the center; I’m not sure if those are new or not – but regardless, they are placed over the former home of Pizza Hut’s self-serve pizza and salad bars. Besides those changes… most everything else here is the same! It’s got a new coat of paint on it, but the bulkhead over those windows on the left of the shot are Pizza Hut leftovers (pun intended :P ). Likewise, the new “bar” up at the front of the restaurant is really just Pizza Hut’s front counter in disguise – with the same checkered tile pattern still present, even!
The inset photo is where things begin to get a bit tricky. It looks from my seat into the side dining room, which lines the right side wall of the building (same wall the entry door is on). It’s clear that much less work went into this room furnishings-wise, seeing as how those are indeed simply folding tables and chairs you see adorning the place! But looks can be deceiving: based on this photo, you can tell that there was a dividing wall somewhere approximately in the middle of that space, which has evidently now been completely removed. So I do think a fair amount of money *was* actually spent in this room, even if all that folding furniture doesn’t quite give off that impression!
As for the food itself? Sorry, but suffice it to say that my dad and I won’t be back :/ My mom had already separately eaten here with a friend of hers before my dad and I tried it… and she had told us she wasn’t that pleased with her meal. I ate her leftovers from that meal, though, and they were extremely good! So my dad and I gave the place a chance anyway. Unfortunately, we, too, weren’t impressed. The service was quick, I’ll give them that. And the cheese dip was good as normal. But the salsa, my dad says, was way too thin – and had no spice to make up for the lack of texture, to boot. He also didn’t care much for the texture of the beef he got or the soupiness of his refried beans. I, meanwhile, ordered shrimp with rice, which I normally get at La Siesta (the menus are virtually identical given that La Siesta owns this place). The shrimp was delicious, but the rice seemed kinda dry or overcooked, and the steamed vegetables also weren’t up to par with La Siesta’s usual quality.
As my dad told me after the meal, it’d be a different story if this were the only Mexican restaurant around. But when we have nearly 30 (!!) to choose from in DeSoto County – five of those in Hernando alone! – and we know that a good number of those are tried and true, there’s honestly no reason for us to come back here for subpar Mexican food. That said, I know for a fact that La Siesta does an awesome job at their place, and since they’re running Blue Agave, they can certainly push for better quality here… so here’s to hoping some positive changes are in this UTBAPH’s future.
(In the interest of fairness: the place seems to be getting only positive reviews so far on Google. Obviously, tastes vary between people, and this post in no way is meant to be a negative reflection on the restaurant…)
(c) 2018 Retail Retell
These places are public so these photos are too, but just as I tell where they came from, I'd appreciate if you'd say who :)
Blue Agave Interior
I’ve been promising y’all an update on this for a while… I finally had the chance to try Blue Agave (in the former Pizza Hut) in Hernando last Friday. Obviously, since it was a Friday night, the place was fairly busy… although surprisingly, there were still plenty of free tables (something that was not the case at its parent restaurant La Siesta, which we admittedly tried to visit first only to see the number of people waiting, haha!). Nevertheless, the crowd was enough for me to only come out with two good interior shots, both of which you’re seeing here (one is inset bottom right).
The main goal, of course, was to see how much Blue Agave had altered the interior from its previous life as a Pizza Hut. The answer? Again, surprisingly: not much!
Thankfully, we got a very good seat right along the front wall of the building, overlooking the rest of the main dining room. You can see that the flooring has been replaced with that new faux wood stuff, and new booths have been installed as well. Jury’s out on the tables and chairs in the center; I’m not sure if those are new or not – but regardless, they are placed over the former home of Pizza Hut’s self-serve pizza and salad bars. Besides those changes… most everything else here is the same! It’s got a new coat of paint on it, but the bulkhead over those windows on the left of the shot are Pizza Hut leftovers (pun intended :P ). Likewise, the new “bar” up at the front of the restaurant is really just Pizza Hut’s front counter in disguise – with the same checkered tile pattern still present, even!
The inset photo is where things begin to get a bit tricky. It looks from my seat into the side dining room, which lines the right side wall of the building (same wall the entry door is on). It’s clear that much less work went into this room furnishings-wise, seeing as how those are indeed simply folding tables and chairs you see adorning the place! But looks can be deceiving: based on this photo, you can tell that there was a dividing wall somewhere approximately in the middle of that space, which has evidently now been completely removed. So I do think a fair amount of money *was* actually spent in this room, even if all that folding furniture doesn’t quite give off that impression!
As for the food itself? Sorry, but suffice it to say that my dad and I won’t be back :/ My mom had already separately eaten here with a friend of hers before my dad and I tried it… and she had told us she wasn’t that pleased with her meal. I ate her leftovers from that meal, though, and they were extremely good! So my dad and I gave the place a chance anyway. Unfortunately, we, too, weren’t impressed. The service was quick, I’ll give them that. And the cheese dip was good as normal. But the salsa, my dad says, was way too thin – and had no spice to make up for the lack of texture, to boot. He also didn’t care much for the texture of the beef he got or the soupiness of his refried beans. I, meanwhile, ordered shrimp with rice, which I normally get at La Siesta (the menus are virtually identical given that La Siesta owns this place). The shrimp was delicious, but the rice seemed kinda dry or overcooked, and the steamed vegetables also weren’t up to par with La Siesta’s usual quality.
As my dad told me after the meal, it’d be a different story if this were the only Mexican restaurant around. But when we have nearly 30 (!!) to choose from in DeSoto County – five of those in Hernando alone! – and we know that a good number of those are tried and true, there’s honestly no reason for us to come back here for subpar Mexican food. That said, I know for a fact that La Siesta does an awesome job at their place, and since they’re running Blue Agave, they can certainly push for better quality here… so here’s to hoping some positive changes are in this UTBAPH’s future.
(In the interest of fairness: the place seems to be getting only positive reviews so far on Google. Obviously, tastes vary between people, and this post in no way is meant to be a negative reflection on the restaurant…)
(c) 2018 Retail Retell
These places are public so these photos are too, but just as I tell where they came from, I'd appreciate if you'd say who :)