Regular Joe's Guide

May 13, 2022 update: Looks like they now have less locations than what they had in 2015. Even though we label this a DFW chain (5 locations), they still have the one location in the Minneapolis area. The Grapevine store that we reviewed below appears to be closed. Latest visit: Jun 2015 (Grapevine - closed) First visit: Nov 2014 (Grapevine - closed) Baker's Ribs was next on the stack for this blog last November when the RJG decided to take a break. Bad timing I suppose for them. So here we are a few months later, and ready to report after a very recent visit. Solid selection of barbecue meats (brisket, chicken, turkey, ham, sausage, ribs) along with a decent mix of sides. On our first visit, Mrs. RJG reminded me that the St. Louis ribs were tough, but the sausage and brisket were delicious, which all rang true with me. So on this trip, in sticking with my chicken-first theme, I tried the baked half chicken special (no sides). And Mrs. RJG went for a Smoked Turkey sandwich plate ...

And here's the final of the latest submissions from Mr. Music. And this one comes highly recommended! Started with complimentary homemade pimento cheese and flat bread crackers. I’ve never been much of a pimento cheese fan, but since it is homemade, I figured “what the heck”. I’m glad I did because it was very nice! The menu was very interesting and I knew I’d have trouble making a decision! Luckily the waiter came by to tell us about the local craft beers they had on tap . Mrs. Music mentioned they had Live Oak Hefe and I knew my search was over! Mrs. Music decided to check out the Thirsty Goat Amber from Austin’s Thirsty Planet. Neither of us had tried anything from them before; it was nice, but not really my thing. They have about 5 or 6 local craft beers at Jack Allen’s. They source all their food and drink from local sources in Texas. We thought that was pretty cool and decided we’d try a few things. We decided on an appetizer called “Smashed Guacamole” after belab...

Another review from Mr. Music! Thai food is one of my all-time favorite ethnic styles of food. So I go as often as possible! Mrs. Music likes it; she used to love it but sort of lost that love, so we don’t go as often as we used to. Fortunately, music junior and baby music both LOVE Thai food. They love tom kha gai (coconut chicken soup) and pad kee mow (the wide noodles with lots of basil and slightly sweet sauce). There are many Thai restaurants around these days, but I’m all for it! I’m interested in trying each one! We got the chance to try Thai Spoon in Round Rock; rated one of the better Thai places in the area. We didn’t really get to try all the usual items because were weren’t as hungry as usual. Baby music got some dumplings and music junior opted for fried rice with chicken. Both were very good! Mrs. Music and I each ordered a big bowl of Tom Kha Gai and decided to split a salad with ginger dressing. The salad was made with lots of fresh spinach and carrots with ...

The Round Rock location is closed, the other 2 are open. --- As mentioned a few weeks back, we have a fresh round of reviews from Mr. Music and family on a recent excursion down to Round Rock. Let's see how they fared!  Mr. Music is a huge fan of good Al Pastor! Trouble is, I don’t really know where to find great Al Pastor anymore. While down in Round Rock over the weekend with the Music family, I saw that Austin and Round Rock are heavily populated with taco stands! I decided to do a little reading to see if I could find a place. Of course most of the places that were touted as great Al Pastor joints (and there were several!), were all near downtown Austin, East or South. By the time I took up this adventure, we didn’t really have that much more time so I decided to save them for another time and see what I could find on the north end. In comes El Taquito! I read some really mixed reviews about the place, but when I saw that they make Al Pastor using El Trompo, one of those...

Chuy's is still going like gangbusters. Today they have 97 locations. There's one here in Colorado Springs and 3 in Denver. All 3 of our former Tarrant County locations are still open, and Texas remains their stronghold. We'll need to revisit sometime since they're here. Latest visit: Jun 2015 (Southlake, TX) First visit: April 2010 (Arlington, TX) --- Southlake review Some of you may recall my somewhat scathing review of the Arlington location a few years back (I've placed it below this review). It was one of those ridiculous outings where everything that could go wrong - did go wrong. We had a better experience for a business lunch at the Plano location about a year later. But we haven't been back since. Thing is, the RJG  wants  to like Chuy's. Even though Tex-Mex is prominently featured in their name, it is their fascination with New Mexican food that keeps us wondering if it isn't better than we recalled. There's so few places that serve New Mex...

Last visit: Jun 2015 First visit: 2003 (Southlake) It appears the restaurant has been renamed to Thai Monkey since we were last there. --- When we first moved to NE Tarrant in 2003, the closest Thai restaurant to us was Thai Chili in the Southlake Town Square. With their traditional Thai cooking, pleasant surroundings, and a "Kill Me" option regarding heat level, it quickly became a favorite within the RJG household. But over time, customer service waned, the cooking was inconsistent, and we were tired of paying for the markups on the wine. So we started going to Top Thai in NRH (sadly long closed), Thai Rice (Grapevine - also closed), as well as two favorites of the RJG for years to come: Bangkok Cuisine (Haltom City) and Sweet Basil (Hurst). When Sea Siam came to Keller, that seemed to end our wanderlust for Thai food. We had 3 favorites all within the NE Tarrant. The last time we dined at Thai Chili was in 2006 before the birth of this blog. And now we return. For their ...

First visit: Jun 2015 We've been looking for some time to supplement our favorite 3 Thai restaurants in the area, and we've now found it! Definitely authentic Thai, and they make sure you know that (a plus in our book). The restaurant has become famous for their Thai Boat noodles, which is not something I've tried before, but I'm most intrigued. On our first visit, I went with my test dish / staple Spicy Basil chicken. It's made with ground chicken and when they say 4 stars is hot, they mean it (even though I'm most tempted to try for their "Thai Standard" of 5 stars). The sauce wasn't quite as tangy as I've had at other authentic Thai places, but it was still very good, and the rice was perfectly cooked. Mrs. RJG had the Sweet Chili with chicken and grocery store's worth of fresh veggies. She was quite pleased overall, and we both lapped up the entire meal. Oh, and the owners could not be nicer. Just a wonderful experience all around. ...

First visit: Jun 2015 (Southlake) The chain fell into debt, tried rebranding (Noon) and finally disappeared. --- VertsKebap is a new chain from Austin, that opened in NE Tarrant for the first time in 2015. They claim to be born in Bursa (Turkey). Perfected in Berlin (hence the name). And jalapeno'd in Austin (lol). A new twist on the more familiar kebab concept. Combining the Chipotle styled assembly line for creating your sandwich/wrap/salad, with the rotating skewers of meat, Vertskebap has tapped into a winning formula. All over Europe, enticing rotisseries of meat are on every corner it seems. And sadly absent from our own culture's daily cuisine. Until now that is. I had the Kebap, which is a Turkish flatbread (known locally as Pide), grilled to crispness and then opened up to place in the ingredients. I went traditional with the beef/lamb combo (generally known as gyro meat), and added veggies, feta cheese, and the Spicy Red sauce. Mrs RJG had the Verts Original with chi...

Latest visit: Jun 2015 (North Richland Hills) First visit: Mar 2007 (Fort Worth) As of May 12, 2022 there are 6 BBQ locations in the Fort Worth region. We first visited this location of Riscky's in March of 2007. It was a cold dark evening, and the place was dreary / ready to close. Probably not the best idea to try the BBQ, but we were hungry, and ultimately walked away disappointed. I never felt we gave Riscky's a fair shake, and so I refrained from further comment or rating, until I had a chance to go back and give it a proper tryout. I never intended that to be 8 years later, but finally I made it back. And I'm glad I did. Well, it's barbecue and all that goes with that. In the past, I would always get a 3 meat platter so I could try as many cuts as possible. And then walk out bloated for the rest of the day... No more doing that! I've taken on a love for smoked chicken, so as I visit various barbecue joints in the area, that will probably be my first test di...

In the first year of this blog, I tied the fortunes (figuratively speaking) of the RJG to Urbanspoon . I liked Urbanspoon because it was blogger friendly. The content was solely mine but it was linked to Urbanspoon. I quickly became a Prime member, and I personally added an extraordinary amount of content to the website, including many restaurant fixes. It was a mutually beneficial relationship. I had access to the folks who ran the site, and could make suggestions that were actually listened to. Over time, the RJG became the #1 blog for DFW on Urbanspoon, which is a badge I displayed prominently. I was kind of proud of it actually. A small reward for hard work. Nothing financial of course, just pride of ownership. While I took the last year off, I still frequented Urbanspoon to see what was new in the NE Tarrant area. And I noticed that they were purchased by a company called Zomato. Some of the features I liked started to disappear, but I figured they were tweaking the site to ulti...