Luby's - Mesquite Thanksgiving Day

When your children have married, they get more Thanksgiving dinners to go to. This becomes a scheduling nightmare for many families. So in our family, we let the kids work out their plans with their other families (aka those other people), then we select a day and time that is left that works for everybody. So many times, our Thanksgiving meal is on Saturday after Thanksgiving. Who knows the Saturday after maybe the real day the pilgrims and Native Americans gathered to give thanks and a little scalping. So what does it really matter if you get all of your family together have a great meal and a great time with the family.

So this year our day is the Saturday after, so I am still in training for the big day. Of course I have already been notified that I am not getting my own personal coconut pie this year. I guess I must have been bad this year. Now compared to how bad I have been in the past and still got a coconut pie, how can that be. Oh well.

So on Thanksgiving the wifey, her mother, and me go to Luby's to celebrate Thanksgiving day. Not too much work involved and we still get miserable. So we get there about 10:45 to get closer in line. In years past, at 10:45 the line was out the door already. This year we went inside and was only 20 or so people from the food!!! They were already serving when we got there, but they were very slow. About 15 minutes into the wait they made some minor adjustments to their serving line and things started to move a little, very little. It took us 25-30 minutes to get to the serving line and we were only 20 or so people from the line when we got there. NOTE to Luby's get your act together.

Now Mitcho is not a big fan of cafeteria turkey and dressing, so I go for a vegetable plate. I am in training for the real deal two days from now. So I got a garden salad, which had lettuce, onion, and broccoli spears with Ranch dressing. They use to have bell pepper and a few other items to add to the salad, but not now. They also now only have 3 or 4 dressing choices. I don't think they even had Thousand Island. Get real. I also got a fruit salad and pinto beans. I added Jalapeno cornbread and cherry pie.

The garden salad was pretty good, but it needed more variety in it. The fruit salad was a pretty good fruit salad, plenty of peaches, apples and bananas. The pinto beans had a pretty good flavor and after covering them in pepper, they were all right. The jalapeno cornbread was spicy with an afterburn. You know Mitcho appreciates afterburn.

Finally we are to the cherry pie. I went for the cherry pie, because the last few times I have been here the chocolate pie had very little taste. How can that be. The cherry pie had plenty of cherries and the crust was a tasty crunchy crust. All in all was not a bad choice.

The wifey reports that the turkey and dressing was just ok. The dressing needed much more flavor and spices.

So all in all, givn Lubys a 7.318 which is much better than the 4 I gave them my last review.

Happy Thanksgiving and if you are a Pilgrim in a foreign country be careful which natives you celebrate with. It might be a scalping party.

Mitcho
©2014

Chili's - Mesquite

Well it came dinner time as usual tonight so we started the negotiation over where to eat dinner. The wifey suggested either Chili's or Spring Creek BBQ. Now I really think you are not going to go too far wrong either way. So the first thought in my head was, "I think I have an e-mail from Chili's giving me a coupon. So I checked my e-mail and sure enough I had a coupon for a free desert with purchase of an entre'. So the negotiation was over immediately.

So Chipper and me did the Yahoozee to Chili's. Our usual order is the Triple Dipper, but that didn't count as an entre, so we had to audible and go for the Big Mouth Bites. We also ordered chips and salsa. I think I like Chili's chips and salsa the best of all of the chips and salsa we eat, and we eat a lot of chips and salsa. Yum Yum. So we plowed through almost two bowls of chips before the entre arrived. The Big Mouth Bites are actually a little disappointing. The bun and meat are pretty good and there is cheese, but not much else. You know Mitcho was looking for the oñion. I would also like some pickles and mustard. Get some gusto going on here!

After going through the required meal items, it was time for the Molten Chocolate Cake. Now when the dessert arrives and me and Chipper are ready, it is like a 100 yard dash, it's gone in a few seconds. The MCC is covered in chocolate sauce, brownie, and a molten lava chocolate on the inside, topped with a scoop of ice cream. Now Mitcho's number one weakness is ice cream. So the waiter dropped the dessert and ran before he lost any fingers. We went at it like the end of time was coming tonight. Poof, it was gone. Man it was lip smacking good.

Givn this trip to Chill dogs a rousing 7.65 (MCC is the score here).

NOTE: The Chill Dogs we go to in Garland allow smoking in the bar. Of course the restaurant is smoke free, however, the smoke from the bar filters over to the restaurant. Yuk. So I don't go to Chill Dogs in Garland anymore.

Mitcho
©2014

The Track Grill & Bar - 9400 Lakeview (Hwy 66) Rowlett

Two friends of ours play in a band they call "The Has Band". They say they play country and rock, but they play the rock country style. They are a very good country band with a good sound and some pretty good singers. I just need them to take a few lessons from Jimmie Hendrix. So The Has Band was playing a gig at the Track Grill & Bar in Rowlett. Now don't kid yourself, this is a watering hole. So we did the zumba tonight to the Track Grill & Bar.  Saw some old friends and made some new friends and had some pretty good eats.

So the wifey and me both ordered the Track burger (this is their small burger) and onion rings. You know what Mitcho thinks about all things onion. This burger was not a 1/2 pound burger, it was a 1/2 cow burger. OMG, I need a 2nd team to help  me finish it, but I manned up and plowed through it. The burger was huge and had a very good taste. The onion rings had a very tasty batter that is fried up right and the onion was the right consistency. All in all this was a pretty good meal

Givn Track a 7.7721

So watch The Has Band on Facebook and if they are playing truck on down to Track Grill & Bar (since it is country, a pickup is required).

Mitcho
©2014

Cristina's - Forney 548 & Hwy 80

So the wifey decided we would go to the movies in Forney tonight. So she decided to eat popcorn at the movie for dinner. So I decided that it was time to check out Cristina's. It had been in Forney for at least a year, could be two. So we did the The Freak to Forney.

Of course that means even though she was not eating, I had chipper with me, if you know what I mean.

Speaking of chips, these chips were a little different and not necessarily in a good way. Now the salsa was pretty good. Plenty of spices for a spicy taste and plenty of onion. You know Mitcho loves his onion.

I ordered beef enchiladas. The beef was spiced up pretty good. The chili covering the enchiladas was very spicy. The beans were pretty normal refried beans and I prefer charro beans. The rice had a little of spicy taste. I also mixed the left over chili and enchilada meat with the beans and rice which made a pretty good flavor.

Cristina's is a little higher price than the other Tex-Mex hangouts, but it was good.

Overall, givn it a 7.921.

Speaking of the movie we saw Interstellar. Now talking about weird. They went through a black hole near Saturn to another galaxy far far away. Ran short on fuel, tore up the space ship and had to float back to earth to a 5th Dimension in their space suits, no space ship. Of course I would much rather have been listening to The real 5th Dimension, Aquarius/Let the Sun Shine In. Matthew MacC-------
did a great job acting, but it was a little too weird for me.

Mitcho
©2014

Dairy Queen - I-30 & Belt Line Rd

If you look across Texas you will realize that Dairy Queen is the redneck hideout. Nothing is more country than the Texas Stop Sign. This is a regular stop for me and wifey as we are hooked on Blizzards. All being cold outside means is that the ice cream doesn't melt much this time of year. Of course I consider this Dipped Cone season. In the summer months, it is almost impossible to eat a large dipped cone and not drip melting ice cream everywhere. This time of year you can eat one with out any dripping.

So once in a while we go to DQ for dinner. We share the steak finger basket and then have our own Blizzard! So tonight we ordered the steak finger basket. This comes with 4 steak fingers. We get two a piece. I like the breading, and the steak has a pretty good flavor. Put some salt and pepper on it and it can be pretty spicy. The only down side is it is full of GREASE. Talking about grease overload. It also comes with fries and Texas toast. We split the Texas toast which is pretty good, but once again GREASY. I like the fries here pretty good, and yes they are greasy.

After we have eaten the basket, it is Blizzard time. A Blizzard will make you forget all of the grease you have just eaten. The wifey always goes for the French Silk Blizzard. Think massive chocolate and whipped cream. It must be good, because she has been eating them on a regular basis for over 10 years. For me I have eaten every Blizzard on the menu and some that are not on the menu. My favorites are Cookie Dough, Butterfinger and Smores (only available in  the summer months). However, I also like the Strawberry Cheesecake and Banana Cream Pie. Tonight I went for the Strawberry Cheesecake. This full of Strawberry syrup, some actual strawberries (or they at least seem like strawberries) and little squares of cheesecake. Pretty good goo here.

Overall I give DQ a 7.43 (it's all about the Blizzard).

Mitcho
©2014

Truett Cafe - Gaston Ave

So on Friday of last week I was doing some ministry business at Big Baylor (you know there is only one Big Baylor, the rest are imitations). It came to be dinner time, so I did the Hip Hop down to the Truett Café. Now this is a combination short order/cafeteria on a limited scale. You could also call it hospital food. But hey, this is an East Dallas Redneck Blog, and Big Baylor is as East Dallas as you can get.

So I ordered the lasagna and mashed taters. In discussing my meal with nurses after the meal, after I told them I ordered lasagna, their comment was "did it have any meat parts?". Actually it had a decent amount of meat, was very cheesy and the noodles were noodles. All in all, it was not too bad for hospital food. It's definitely not Pizza Getti Lasagne. The mashed taters were your basic mashed taters, it is pretty hard to mess them up, but if you review one of my early Luby reviews, you can mess mashed taters up.

The service was some of the best I have had. I carried my tray to my table without any difficulties and set out my plate and hardware in the exact right places. So all's good.

Overall giving the Truett Café a 6.6985.

Mitcho
©2014