Prickles

Prickles BYO Restaurant is located in the Parap Shopping Village. The meals range from $19.50 for the Vegetarian Nachos to $29.50 for the Angus Scotch, with the majority of meals being $23.50.

I would have to say that by the time we left this restaurant we were all feeling somewhat PRICKLY!

The night started well with two interesting entrées.
Balls of Fire - cream cheese and jalapeños deep fried, served with capsicum jam and sour cream. $11.50
These Balls of Fire were delicious, even though we were left wondering where the capsicum jam was.
Trio of Dips - guacamole, frijoles, and chili con queso, served with char grilled tortilla bread. $16.50
Two out of three were very tasty. Unfortunately the frijoles was bland, lacking in spices.

Entrées

After seeing the entrées I was feeling optimistic that our main meals would be just as appetising. Little did I know that we had such a huge disappointment in store for us.

Tostada - crispy fried corn tortillas, sauteed vegetables, with a choice of either beef/chicken/chili con carne/ or mashed pinto beans.( I chose chicken and chili con carne.) Topped with melted cheese, salsa and fresh lettuce, $23.50. Mushy chicken,  minced meat! Plus the stodgiest, most revolting rice I've ever come across. The crispy fried tortillas were no longer crispy as they were sitting on this bed of stodgy rice, which by the way, was not advertised on the menu. The only thing that remotely redeemed this meal was the spice in the chili con carne.

Tostada

Fajito - sizzling strips of spicy marinated rump served with 3 flour tortillas, grated cheese, lettuce, salad and sour cream, served on a hot plate, $27.50. Chewy steak, scant salad, small serving. Check out the comments below as I'm sure that SSM will have lots to say about why she did not enjoy this meal.

Fajito

Fajito

Trio of Tacos - combination of beef, chicken, chili con carne, mashed potato beans, topped with a rich tomato salsa and fresh lettuce, $23.50. These tacos were also served on top of that stodgy, revolting rice resulting in soggy tacos. Why is a mexican restaurant making chili con carne with minced meat? Don't they know how to make a traditional chili con carne?

Trio of Tacos

I ate because I was hungry, and having lived in Darwin most of my life I wasn't sure what Mexican food should taste like.  My companions, on the other hand, have experienced the best in Mexican food and both of them were horrified at what was served up. One commented, "possibly the best part of the meal was the sour cream."

We noted that no tea or coffee was on the menu. We also noted that the waitress did not come back to our table to take our order for drinks, the ones we had told her we would order with our meals. No desserts, no drinks - get your meal down and go!

Upon leaving we told our waitress that we were disappointed with the meals. She promptly went to get the lady in charge and left us to explain once again what we didn't like. There was no sorry, no offer of a discount, no offer to come back on another night, nothing apart from an explanation on how the "cook" had been fired and that the owner of the restaurant was now the "cook."  She was surprised to hear that we hadn't enjoyed the meals. My advice to this team is that they should travel down south and try out some authentic Mexican restaurants.

PRICKLES, PRICKLES, PRICKLES!