It was high noon and it was time to eat some lunch. It doesn't really matter if you are hungry or not, it was time. As I have been quoted in the past "what does hunger have to do with it?" So we did the Shake, Rattle & Roll to Popeye's. The wifey and me have been here many times before. Up until a few months ago we kept Precious every Wednesday evening, and we would take her to Popeye's with us. You know it was pretty regular because, once we stopped keeping her on Wednesday evenings, the Popeye crew would ask us where she was!!
We especially like the Wednesday special. It is two chicken strips, a side and a biscuit. For two it cost about $8.50, now I like cheap. Of the chicken fast food places, Popeye's is my favorite.
The chicken strips have a heavy breading crust that has a good taste to it. The chicken always has a good taste. Popeye's has a good number of dipping sauces and I have tried a number of them and have liked all of them. Today I chose BBQ sauce. It was some good eats. Givin the chicken a 6.85.
I chose red beans and rice for my side today. This side is ok, but that is about all I can say. We have also tried fries, and mashed taters. It is sad when mashed taters is probably the best of the sides. You would think that as good as they are at making the chicken tasty and spicy if you want it spicy, they would be able to make good sides. Think again, several times. Givin the beans and rice a 4.75.
As good as the chicken is, the biscuit is where it is at. They apparently load the biscuit crust with butter. They are very tasty and flaky. Ask for a honey packet and you got some good luvin there. I have been know to order extra biscuits. Givin the biscuit a 7.25.
Overall Popeye's gets a 6.283
Mitcho
©2014
Wednesday, July 30, 2014
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
McDonalds - Towne Centre and 635
Yeah, I know McDonalds. First of all, I have to reveal that I own a bunch of their stock. You have to take what I say with a grain of french fries (aka salt). These guys are marketing geniuses!!!! There are only 4 reasons I can come up with to eat at McDonalds:
1. The playground for kids (I think they were the first to have a playground).
2. The toy in the kids meal (I think they were first here also). Our CBoss, will beg to go to McDonald's because he has seen a commercial and wants the toy, and grandkids get what they want.
3. They are fast, even when they are slow.
4. You can buy a hamburger or cheeseburger and drive away. You can eat it while you are driving and nothing will fall out on you or all over your seats.
Notice I never said the food was great.
I ordered two cheeseburgers. They do put a full slice of cheese which does add to the taste. Cardboard needs all the help it can get. I just learned recently that one meat company provides hamburger patties to almost all of the fast food hamburger joints. I have to say if Burger King or Whataburger is getting the same patty as McDonalds, they are miracle workers. Overall, the cheeseburger gets a 5.
Then I order two apple pies. McDonald's sells these two for a dollar. These are actually pretty good. They do have a true apple filling, cinnamon and a tasty crust. This is the real reason I go. The apple pies get a 7.5.
One final good thing they do, it at some McDonalds, you can buy any size drink for a $1.00. Have you looked at drink prices lately??? They get a 1/2 point addition for the price of drinks. Of course they serve Coke products (I own Coke also), so that is a plus.
Overall, given that indigestion is coming in about two hours. McDonald's gets a 6 here.
Mitcho
©2014
1. The playground for kids (I think they were the first to have a playground).
2. The toy in the kids meal (I think they were first here also). Our CBoss, will beg to go to McDonald's because he has seen a commercial and wants the toy, and grandkids get what they want.
3. They are fast, even when they are slow.
4. You can buy a hamburger or cheeseburger and drive away. You can eat it while you are driving and nothing will fall out on you or all over your seats.
Notice I never said the food was great.
I ordered two cheeseburgers. They do put a full slice of cheese which does add to the taste. Cardboard needs all the help it can get. I just learned recently that one meat company provides hamburger patties to almost all of the fast food hamburger joints. I have to say if Burger King or Whataburger is getting the same patty as McDonalds, they are miracle workers. Overall, the cheeseburger gets a 5.
Then I order two apple pies. McDonald's sells these two for a dollar. These are actually pretty good. They do have a true apple filling, cinnamon and a tasty crust. This is the real reason I go. The apple pies get a 7.5.
One final good thing they do, it at some McDonalds, you can buy any size drink for a $1.00. Have you looked at drink prices lately??? They get a 1/2 point addition for the price of drinks. Of course they serve Coke products (I own Coke also), so that is a plus.
Overall, given that indigestion is coming in about two hours. McDonald's gets a 6 here.
Mitcho
©2014
Monday, July 28, 2014
The Steak Angus - Belt Line Rd near Downtown Mesquite
It was dinner time once again, so the wifey and me did the Mambo to The Steak Co. We were looking for a locally owned restaurant that I have not reviewed yet. I have eaten here before, but it has changed ownership. For that matter it has changed ownership a number of times in the last few years. This was a Golden Corral restaurant 30 years ago and has been a number of different restaurants since then, but the interior is still a 30 year old Golden Corral, which isn't golden anymore. So the ambiance is a little short here.
In studying the menu, the prices are equal to the big chains. For example Black Eyed Pea is the same cost or less. I don't talk about price much, because I go basically to cheap restaurants. We decided to order the Chicken Fried Steak and split it. This meal came with two sides (pinto beans and okra) and a trip to the salad bar.
I didn't go to the salad bar, but from my seat I could tell there wasn't much variety. Our salad had lettuce, onions (wifey knows Mitcho loves some onion), cheese, Thousand Island dressing and some bacon bits. I like a little more variety of veggies in my salad. Also, the Thousand Island tasted somewhat watered down. Otherwise it was ok, just limited. I am givin it a 5.
The Chicken Fried steak was ok, it was breaded nicely and the steak was not tough (See Mothers Daughters in Forney). So givin it a 6.65.
The pinto beans were basically beans, not much flavor. Of course they were better once I loaded them with salt and pepper. Givin the beans a 6.
The okra was breaded pretty good and had a decent flavor. Givin them a hearty 6.85.
Overall, this meal gets a 6.125.
Mitcho
©2014
In studying the menu, the prices are equal to the big chains. For example Black Eyed Pea is the same cost or less. I don't talk about price much, because I go basically to cheap restaurants. We decided to order the Chicken Fried Steak and split it. This meal came with two sides (pinto beans and okra) and a trip to the salad bar.
I didn't go to the salad bar, but from my seat I could tell there wasn't much variety. Our salad had lettuce, onions (wifey knows Mitcho loves some onion), cheese, Thousand Island dressing and some bacon bits. I like a little more variety of veggies in my salad. Also, the Thousand Island tasted somewhat watered down. Otherwise it was ok, just limited. I am givin it a 5.
The Chicken Fried steak was ok, it was breaded nicely and the steak was not tough (See Mothers Daughters in Forney). So givin it a 6.65.
The pinto beans were basically beans, not much flavor. Of course they were better once I loaded them with salt and pepper. Givin the beans a 6.
The okra was breaded pretty good and had a decent flavor. Givin them a hearty 6.85.
Overall, this meal gets a 6.125.
Mitcho
©2014
Saturday, July 26, 2014
Posado's Mesquite
We have been traveling some the last few weeks and had not been to Posado's in about a month. So at dinner time we both indicated Posado's was the choice at the same time. Like minds work real good together. So we did the twist to Posado's. It has always amazed me about the service in this place. Up until now, the manager, greeters and kitchen staff were pretty much the same people, but there was a different set of waiters/waitresses every time we went. The service here has always been excellent even with constant turnover. However, tonight everyone was different. New managers, new greeters, new kitchen staff (except one we recognized and he tried to bring us two meals that were not ours, so maybe they kept the wrong one), and of course new waiters/waitresses. The amazing days are over.
When we arrived there was a good number of people waiting on tables, however, when we walked in they took us to a table immediately. If it wasn't for the change, I would say they recognized Mitcho. Didn't seem fair but we were there to eat not referee. Not too long after, chips and salsa came. Now this is a plus. However, we waited on a waitress for far too long. We had eaten most of the first bowl of chips and was needing some cold ice tea (it is July you know). You know I had Chipper with me, so it really didn't take that long to eat the first bowl of chips. Finally, the waitress came and took our drink order. We were sitting basically next to the kitchen, so this was not a far trip to get us tea, but it took more minutes than it should have. After a good while she came with our tea with the ice already almost completely melted. I was wanting cold ice tea please! She takes our order. Now the wait really starts. I would assume we had waited 10 to 15 minutes since she took our order and no food (of course the one guy we recognized, during this time did try to give us other peoples food). I will give the waitress credit, after a long while she could tell I was getting testy, chips are only so good so long. Actually we were discussing eating chips and tortillas and heading out and see what they think. So the waitress finally went to the kitchen and retrieved our order and brought it to us. At least she was trying some. After that the service improved some and was not that noticeable the rest of the meal. That is till the check came. The waitress had taken the opportunity to enter a tip before she brought us the ticket. Nine cents!!!!! So what is she telling me here. Of course the service was not this terrible and I could not let that go. So of course I adjusted the tip to a more appropriate number. There has been the time that service in other restaurants was so terrible that the nine cent tip was eight cents too much.
So the service overall gets a 6.
The chips are a pretty good chip, pretty much similar to most mexican food restaurants. Givin the chips a 7.
The salsa has improved in the last year and is now a 7, also.
We ordered chicken fajitas, with charro beans and rice. When the fajitas came the chicken was very tasty and the condiments added to the flavor perfectly. Enjoyed me some fajitas. Givin the fajitas an 8.5.
The charro beans here are my favorite of all refried/charro beans. Loving me some charros. Given em a 7.5.
Rice is rice.
Of course the meal was ended with a sopapilla with syrup and butter. Yum Yum The sopapilla gets an 8 here (she brought me a pretty big one, Mitcho pays attention to these kind of things.
Overall, they get a 7.333 which is pretty good, but this has been a 9+ restaurant.
Mitcho
© 2014
When we arrived there was a good number of people waiting on tables, however, when we walked in they took us to a table immediately. If it wasn't for the change, I would say they recognized Mitcho. Didn't seem fair but we were there to eat not referee. Not too long after, chips and salsa came. Now this is a plus. However, we waited on a waitress for far too long. We had eaten most of the first bowl of chips and was needing some cold ice tea (it is July you know). You know I had Chipper with me, so it really didn't take that long to eat the first bowl of chips. Finally, the waitress came and took our drink order. We were sitting basically next to the kitchen, so this was not a far trip to get us tea, but it took more minutes than it should have. After a good while she came with our tea with the ice already almost completely melted. I was wanting cold ice tea please! She takes our order. Now the wait really starts. I would assume we had waited 10 to 15 minutes since she took our order and no food (of course the one guy we recognized, during this time did try to give us other peoples food). I will give the waitress credit, after a long while she could tell I was getting testy, chips are only so good so long. Actually we were discussing eating chips and tortillas and heading out and see what they think. So the waitress finally went to the kitchen and retrieved our order and brought it to us. At least she was trying some. After that the service improved some and was not that noticeable the rest of the meal. That is till the check came. The waitress had taken the opportunity to enter a tip before she brought us the ticket. Nine cents!!!!! So what is she telling me here. Of course the service was not this terrible and I could not let that go. So of course I adjusted the tip to a more appropriate number. There has been the time that service in other restaurants was so terrible that the nine cent tip was eight cents too much.
So the service overall gets a 6.
The chips are a pretty good chip, pretty much similar to most mexican food restaurants. Givin the chips a 7.
The salsa has improved in the last year and is now a 7, also.
We ordered chicken fajitas, with charro beans and rice. When the fajitas came the chicken was very tasty and the condiments added to the flavor perfectly. Enjoyed me some fajitas. Givin the fajitas an 8.5.
The charro beans here are my favorite of all refried/charro beans. Loving me some charros. Given em a 7.5.
Rice is rice.
Of course the meal was ended with a sopapilla with syrup and butter. Yum Yum The sopapilla gets an 8 here (she brought me a pretty big one, Mitcho pays attention to these kind of things.
Overall, they get a 7.333 which is pretty good, but this has been a 9+ restaurant.
Mitcho
© 2014
Thursday, July 24, 2014
Cheesecake Factory - 75 & Northwest Hwy
The wifey was celebrating 37 years of marital bliss, so we needed to go someplace special. After suggesting steak, the wifey zeroed in on Cheesecake!!!!! Now that's my kind of woman. I have to warn you, this is not a place that caters to rednecks. You have to dress yuppie to get in here. And I do mean this place is full of yukkies. However, did I mention it has Cheesecake?
So the plan is to share an entree and get our own Cheesecake. So not caring what the entree would be, I allowed the wifey to order this part of the meal. She ordered Crusted Chicken Romano. This was a breast of chicken coated with a romano parmesan cheese crust, served with pasta in a light tomato sauce, or something like that. The crusted chicken was almost the size of the plate and there was enough pasta to feed a family of 4. The pasta had a light taste of sauce and the crusted chicken was pretty good also. Givin it a 7.5
Now it was time to get serious!!! While the wifey was figuring out what entree to order, I was memorizing the cheesecake menu. There were only about 15 that I wanted, but my wallet was telling me one was enough. So I settled for the Dulce De Leche Caramel Cheesecake. The cheesecake had a good solid taste of caramel, which is a fave of Mitcho. It also had two large scoops of very tasty whip cream. There were some almond brickle involved but Mitcho concentrated on caramel and whip cream. The people at the tables around us starred at my dessert for a pretty good while. This was slap your mammy twice good!!! Givin the cheesecake a 9.5.
Overall, the Cheesecake Factory gets an 8.5.
Coming soon a dessert week and you can count on Cheesecake Factory being involved.
Mitcho
©2014
So the plan is to share an entree and get our own Cheesecake. So not caring what the entree would be, I allowed the wifey to order this part of the meal. She ordered Crusted Chicken Romano. This was a breast of chicken coated with a romano parmesan cheese crust, served with pasta in a light tomato sauce, or something like that. The crusted chicken was almost the size of the plate and there was enough pasta to feed a family of 4. The pasta had a light taste of sauce and the crusted chicken was pretty good also. Givin it a 7.5
Now it was time to get serious!!! While the wifey was figuring out what entree to order, I was memorizing the cheesecake menu. There were only about 15 that I wanted, but my wallet was telling me one was enough. So I settled for the Dulce De Leche Caramel Cheesecake. The cheesecake had a good solid taste of caramel, which is a fave of Mitcho. It also had two large scoops of very tasty whip cream. There were some almond brickle involved but Mitcho concentrated on caramel and whip cream. The people at the tables around us starred at my dessert for a pretty good while. This was slap your mammy twice good!!! Givin the cheesecake a 9.5.
Overall, the Cheesecake Factory gets an 8.5.
Coming soon a dessert week and you can count on Cheesecake Factory being involved.
Mitcho
©2014
Wednesday, July 23, 2014
5th St Diner - Great Falls, Mt
So on Tuesday we had to drive from Kalispell, MT to Great Falls, Mt to catch a plane to Denver to get back to Dallas. So I did some surfing on Urbanspoon.com to find a restaurant in Great Falls for lunch. Since we would be flying from 4:00 till midnight, dinner was most likely going to be missed. Now Mitcho does not miss meals. So I needed to find a place to load up for lunch. I find Urbanspoon.com to be pretty accurate in it's ratings. Now I needed to find a place to feed a hungry man, a wife wanting to watch her diet and a kid that basically only eats Pizza. They don't make that kind of restaurant. I found the 5th St Diner which was billed as a 50's Diner complete with seats at the soda fountain. It sounded pretty cute so we swung by. On arrival the Diner was a very cute 50's Diner. It has many pictures, vinyl records, and other 50's items. Very cute place.
Now CBoss was excited about the place because they had Fanta Orange in a glass bottle. It was sooo much better than in a can. So he overlooked the fact that he was served a hamburger instead of pizza.
I ordered the Diner Special. I had no idea what was coming. Oh my gosh. I have never had a hamburger like this. Of course it had a hamburger patty which was ok. On the bottom of the patty was a BBQ sauce that was real tasty. On top of the patty was a scoop of taco meat and a good supply of onions on top. Now you know Mitcho likes onion. The real surprise was the taco meat. It with the BBQ sauce really made this burger tasty. I will be adding taco meat to burgers in the campground. Giving the burger an 8 (yeah it was that good).
The fries was thin cut and tasted like homemade fries. They were very good. I am givin them a 7.
Overall The 5th Street Diner gets a 7.75.
Mitcho
©2014
Now CBoss was excited about the place because they had Fanta Orange in a glass bottle. It was sooo much better than in a can. So he overlooked the fact that he was served a hamburger instead of pizza.
I ordered the Diner Special. I had no idea what was coming. Oh my gosh. I have never had a hamburger like this. Of course it had a hamburger patty which was ok. On the bottom of the patty was a BBQ sauce that was real tasty. On top of the patty was a scoop of taco meat and a good supply of onions on top. Now you know Mitcho likes onion. The real surprise was the taco meat. It with the BBQ sauce really made this burger tasty. I will be adding taco meat to burgers in the campground. Giving the burger an 8 (yeah it was that good).
The fries was thin cut and tasted like homemade fries. They were very good. I am givin them a 7.
Overall The 5th Street Diner gets a 7.75.
Mitcho
©2014
Sunday, July 20, 2014
The Sizzler - Kalispell, MT
So after hiking in the rain, it was time to load up on some groceries. So it was the wifey's turn to pick a restaurant. So we fire up Urbanspoon to look at the ratings of the local restaurants. So after looking at the 30 or so restaurants that had good reviews she chooses The Sizzler that has no review. We have eaten in The Sizzler in California, Arkansas and I am sure other places. Your expectations don't get too high here.
I usually order a steak type meal with a baked potatoe and it is not too bad. I rolled the dice tonight and ordered the all you can stand salad bar. Snake eyes. I started off with a salad. The choices were pretty limited. The lettuce had more of the bottom of the plant, you know the large solid white stuff, that should be used as a plate, not food. I found some black olives, thousand island dressing, bacon bits and cheese. It all tasted ok, but I have had better selections.
I then chose some spaghetti and meat balls and 2 tacos. The spaghetti was basic spaghetti, not much flavor, but it was ok. The taco meat had a little strange taste to it. It tasted like they tried to spice the meat some, but they didn't get their spice from Texas, that is for sure. The lettuce on the taco bar was far better than the lettuce on the salad bar, go figure. I also added some sour cream and cheese. The tacos were decent, but Taco Bell, Taco Bueno, Taco Casa, etc has them beat hands down.
Finally I finished the meal with some ice cream. First of all, they brought us bowls straight out of the dishwasher. If you had heated the bowls in the oven, they would not have been so hot. So we stuck our tea glasses in the bowls trying to use the cold glass to cool off the bowl. This worked some, but we finally decided we had to get the ice cream and our bowls were still luke warm. The vanilla was empty so we had to get chocolate. Like that is a bad problem, huh. I tried to put some butterscotch syrup on it, but it was empty also. I finally I loaded the ice cream with chocolate morsels. It tasted pretty good, but it melted before I could get back to the table.
Givin The Sizzler a 6.
If you want an all you can eat meal, go to Furrs Fresh Buffet in Garland at 635 and Centerville. It has an amazing number of choices of all things and everything taste very good. It's a Mitcho Good.
Mitcho
©2014
I usually order a steak type meal with a baked potatoe and it is not too bad. I rolled the dice tonight and ordered the all you can stand salad bar. Snake eyes. I started off with a salad. The choices were pretty limited. The lettuce had more of the bottom of the plant, you know the large solid white stuff, that should be used as a plate, not food. I found some black olives, thousand island dressing, bacon bits and cheese. It all tasted ok, but I have had better selections.
I then chose some spaghetti and meat balls and 2 tacos. The spaghetti was basic spaghetti, not much flavor, but it was ok. The taco meat had a little strange taste to it. It tasted like they tried to spice the meat some, but they didn't get their spice from Texas, that is for sure. The lettuce on the taco bar was far better than the lettuce on the salad bar, go figure. I also added some sour cream and cheese. The tacos were decent, but Taco Bell, Taco Bueno, Taco Casa, etc has them beat hands down.
Finally I finished the meal with some ice cream. First of all, they brought us bowls straight out of the dishwasher. If you had heated the bowls in the oven, they would not have been so hot. So we stuck our tea glasses in the bowls trying to use the cold glass to cool off the bowl. This worked some, but we finally decided we had to get the ice cream and our bowls were still luke warm. The vanilla was empty so we had to get chocolate. Like that is a bad problem, huh. I tried to put some butterscotch syrup on it, but it was empty also. I finally I loaded the ice cream with chocolate morsels. It tasted pretty good, but it melted before I could get back to the table.
Givin The Sizzler a 6.
If you want an all you can eat meal, go to Furrs Fresh Buffet in Garland at 635 and Centerville. It has an amazing number of choices of all things and everything taste very good. It's a Mitcho Good.
Mitcho
©2014
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