Regular Joe's Guide

Our original location in far north Fort Worth is still open along with one in Arlington. The Keller locale is closed. Latest visit: Dec 2017 (Keller - closed) First visit: Sep 2015 (Fort Worth) We're always on the lookout for high quality street tacos at the RJG, and the Mrs. is a fan of the Salvadoran favorite papusas, so Tacusa came across our radar for a try. This was in 2015, and we were surprised they've recently opened another location closer by. With our local Tacos y Mas now closed up, we thought we'd give Tacusa one more try. While the front of the menu clearly portrays a Mexican taqueria, it becomes obvious quickly this is truly an El Salvadoran eatery. All the same, I stuck with street tacos and tried their carne asada, pollo, and al pastor. Priced attractively at $1.25 and listening to a sizzling kitchen, I felt I could do no wrong. Tacusa features a salsa bar with 4 different sauces, an onion/cilantro mix, lettuce, and other items. Right away I was disturbed w...

Alrighty then... From the time I dropped the Howdy note until now, I've updated all the places we visited in 2017. I've created a new feature for each year - see the page above for the RJG's 2017 recommendations . This will my way of tracking all restaurants, and ensuring pages don't go unread. There were a few places we went for the first time in 2017 that we thoroughly enjoyed, but I didn't put a page up yet. I need to revisit the following: Roscoe's Smokehouse (Keller) Lucy's Lot (Grapevine) Slim Chickens (Keller) El Pollo Loco (Keller) - well we'd been here plenty of times before, but not in DFW! Planet Sub - I was excited to tell you about this sandwich place. I had been a frequent visitor to their location in Denver many years ago (which has now closed), and was excited to see them here in DFW. So I went to the one in Irving earlier this year and it was great! And now it's closed too. Argh. They are still open in Fort Worth though. ...

The Keller location is closed, leaving only the one in The Colony, which we haven't been to. Looks like they went back to their original name of Drunken Donkey. Last visit: Dec 2017 (Keller - closed) First visit: June 2016 (Keller - closed) Apparently the name "Drunken" didn't appeal to the good clean folks in Keller or Colleyville (as opposed to the dirty folks in Lewisville?), so Dallas Craft was born... Nothing else changed that I can see, except for my final note below. We still recommend it! On the last updated post from Funky Baja's, we spoke about how Keller is all grown up. The kid is now in college, and with that... we now have Drunken Donkey . We have longed wished for a Flying Saucer type place in Northeast Tarrant. When Ginger Man arrived in Southlake, it seemed our dreams had come true. Except it didn't. Ginger Man's mentality exists from a time when getting German drafts was still a big deal. We want local, and want the beers to rotate ofte...

May 13, 2022 update: Currently Hoffbrau has 3 locations in the Fort Worth area (Haltom City, Granbury, Benbrook) + 1 in far away Amarillo. Latest visit: Dec 2017 (Haltom City) First visit: 1985 (Dallas) Did I never write about Hoffbrau? Guess not. How funny. Well, not that one needs an underground guide for this legendary institution. It's likely to be found in your hotel hard cover guide to Dallas/Fort Worth (you know, the one on the Formica coffee table...). I did, however, mention the restaurant in our writeup for Bangkok Cuisine, only in that I stated everyone goes to Hoffbrau instead of the Thai concern. In any case, Hoffbrau is a relic of the past - the mid priced steakhouse. The cheapy Golden Corral places still exist, and of course the high end, high margin/markup steakhouses proliferate on the strength of the modern business expense account. Hoffbrau comes from the era of the everyman traveling salesman, when places like Steak and Ale and Stuart Anderson's ruled the l...

Malai Kitchen maintains 3 locations: Southlake, Dallas, and Fort Worth. Latest visit: Dec 2017 (Southlake) First visit: Feb 2017 (Southlake) If Taverna Rossa represents the perfect mix of craft beer and artisan pizza, then how about a Thai brewpub? I mean seriously, are these restaurants tapping into the RJG psyche or what? Strange as it may seem, Thai brewpubs are not unique in the United States. I know of at least two others, one in Denver, and one in Alpine, Wyoming(?!). I'm sure there are more. I've only been to Malai Kitchen twice to date, and had Mrs. RJG in tow on the last visit. Though the restaurant claims Thai and Vietnamese cuisine, it is definitely the former that defines this fine establishment. Usually it's the other way around. While you can certainly get a nice bowl of pho here, I wouldn't waste the visit, when there's so much great Thai food to be had. As always, I dug right into their variation of basil chicken. On my first visit they allowed for ...

First visit: Dec 2017 Speaking of two-fer-99 cent tacos, how about Tupinamba Cafe? I didn't realize the fried taco had survived the modern restaurant industry. Anyone who has been to Kansas City and eaten at In-A-Tub knows the glories of a greasy fried taco. Sure there's Jack In the Box, but let's be honest here, that's just frozen food dropped in a vat of grease. I want fresh food dropped in a vat of grease! Tupinamba Cafe has been around since 1947, and I remember them vividly (well not since 1947... but since the 70's I think?). Except I never ate there before! No time like the present, eh? We were with our long time friends The B's making a journey over to Dallas to grab some Italian sausage at Jimmy's ( see Mr. Music's review from 5 years ago ), still the best in DFW (along with Kuby's). Anyway Mr. B tells Mrs. RJG and I about these amazing fried tacos. And since Mr. B is a former resident of Kansas City, I'm paying attention! And we all ...

The Great Outdoors maintains 7 locations - 6 in the Dallas area and one in Fort Worth. Latest visit: Oct 2017 (Carrollton) First visit: 1980 (the old Bachman Lake place - long closed) I've started going back to the location in Carrollton (technically Dallas, but I can't get my mind around that). One place that I like to stock up on craft beers is Lone Star Beverages, also in Carrollton. So it's a good lunch stopover. I never get to Addison anymore, so this is more convenient. Nothing else to say really, the below captures my experience. What I said in 2009 holds for 2017. And probably forever. --- It was our place. The place where father and son would go to enjoy a meal, talk freely, and savor the moment. We'd talk politics, religion, school, his job, etc... He wanted to talk with me about girls, but I was never too comfortable with that. Just enough to let him know, you can relax Dad, I definitely like girls. We first discovered the Great Outdoors near Bachman Lake s...

Currently they exist in 9 states with 26 locations strewn about the southern half of the US. Texas remains their stronghold, and our former NE Tarrant location of Hurst is still open. Latest visit: Oct 2017 (Hurst, Texas) First visit: Aug 2004 (Hurst, Texas) We first visited Abuelo's in the summer of 2004, but for whatever reason Mrs. RJG didn't care for it, and we didn't return for a half-dozen years. Then one day last year we were talking with our neighbors about Mexican food, and they said their favorite place was Abuelo's. I figured that may be because they are hardcore West Texas folks and the chain is based in Lubbock. But we gave it one more try shortly thereafter... and we've been going back ever since. 6 years from first publishing this post, that remains true. --- The first thing you notice about Abuelo's is how stunning the restaurant looks - on the inside and out. It's like a Mexican vacation resort (and this remains even after they relocate...

Last visit: Oct 2017 First visit: 2004 OK, so we have an important announcement here for those that don't know: Manit has retired and sold the business. We were there for his last week, and then we visited again the second week the new owners took over. At that time, they had kept the original menus, and presumably recipes. But the food did not taste the same at all to us. The new owner - pleasant as can be - had hinted that she would be bringing her own recipes forth shortly. So with that, this will be the last update for this post. We will return in a couple of months to see if anything has changed. At that point we will start a new post if we feel the food is worth trying. But for the RJG, it cannot be the same without Manit. He WAS Bangkok Cuisine. --- We've been visiting Bangkok Cuisine since 2004, and it remains one of our favorite Thai restaurants in DFW, along with Sea Siam and Sweet Basil. It's just simply exquisite. The owner, Manit (who is always there), will m...

Mar 31, 2022 update: Well this is weird. So it appeared that the Cool River Cafe chain was on its last legs. The remaining Dallas area location (near Love Field) has exceptionally low ratings. The Las Colinas restaurant - which always seemed very popular to me - was the last one to close. They had many other restaurants prior that are now gone, including nearby Denver. Now all of a sudden - out of nowhere - they plan to open up in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania in the summer of 2022. Go figure that one out. Latest visit: Sep 2017 (Las Colinas, TX) First visit: Jan 2006 (Las Colinas, TX) Cool River is clearly geared towards the male business traveler. And on this business visit last week, the four of us dudes fell in lockstep. We started at the bar for cocktails, frozen margaritas, beer (nice selection of craft) and wine. Then we headed over to the billiards room and shot a few games of stick. Then off to dine where we feasted on large mounds of red meat. And finally a trip to the cigar b...

Last visit: Sep 2017 First visit: 2004 We have a love hate relationship with Thai Riverside. I think they're on their 49th owner now. Every time we go, it seems they're back and we're happy. Then we revisit, and it's not the same! No consistency whatsoever. It's not terrible mind you, but it's not what it should be.  We first started frequenting Thai Riverside when the place was known as Thai Rice, sometime in the 2003-2004 era. New ownership brought improvements including an interior spruce-up, an upgraded menu and new flavors. On this visit, our first in nearly two years, we learned that Thai Riverside again has changed owners. Not so many alterations this time around, exceptions being a new menu and a handful of new recipes, though the owner assured us that most everything was "the same". That's unfortunate, since as you may have gathered from the "first visit in two years" comment, Thai Riverside isn't one of NE Tarrant's f...

Last visit: Aug 2017 First visit: Jul 2004 Now here's one we have a long history with, in terms of timeline. According to my personal database, I visited Alvarado's way back in July of 2004, not long after they opened. I didn't have a positive experience, and basically never thought about them much again. Mrs. RJG used to work nearby there in the 2006/07 time frame, and stated they would go about once a week and have a burrito. She said it was good, but didn't think it was worthy of us going together. Year after year, the small old taco building seemed to thrive (despite an awful location), as we drove past it towards the Northeast Mall or to Richland Hills/Haltom City. They had to be doing something right! So we finally broke down and revisited late last year, and were mightily impressed with their street tacos. And we've been somewhat regulars ever since. Either they improved or our tastes have changed. Probably a bit of both, as is often the case. The reason for...

Latest visit: Jun 2017 (Grapevine) First visit: Jun 2006 (Grapevine) They also have a location in Fort Worth. If you're a weary traveler staying near DFW airport, there's a good chance that you'll find yourself tempted to dine on the TX-114 corridor in Grapevine (may we suggest Tolbert's instead for a more "local" experience?). The Main Street and William B Tate exits are a shrine to corporate eateries, many of them publicly traded on the stock exchanges back in NEW YORK CITY (get a rope). Other than the Dallas based Tex-Mex institution known as El Fenix (and probably its worst location at that), the majority of your choices are places you've seen in Anytown, Anystate. The only exception to this, at least for restaurants you can actually see from the highway itself, is Flip's Patio Grill, the lone locally owned restaurant in the area. It wasn't always that way, as Flip's was once a thriving Tony Roma's - a place that seemed to fit perfe...

Latest visit: Jun 2017 First visit: Oct 2015 Finding a quality Vietnamese restaurant in the northern parts of Northeast Tarrant county has always been a challenge. Recently we've been blessed with two new start-ups, and at the current time, we think Pho Big Bowl is the best of them all! Though the other place is very good too, and we'll be reporting on them soon as well. It's a long drive to Haltom City, so we're hoping these places stay around. Pho Big Bowl offers soups, sandwiches, and full dinner entrees, as you would expect. On our first two visits, Mrs. RJG and I tried the pho. In fact, on our very first time here, I was beginning to get a cold, and what better way to knock it out than with a big ol' bowl of meatball soup! Their noodles are fantastic, and the broth is somewhat unique (excellent of course), adding to the allure. On a recent visit, I was most curious how their entrees would stack up. I had the lemongrass chicken stir fry, and Mrs. RJG went with t...

May 13, 2022 update: So it looks like they went back to their original name of Rusty Taco. If I do manage to get to one of the Denver locations, I'll be sure to update the logo. The chain seems to be doing pretty well, and our dispersed through the country. Texas and the Midwest seem to be their strength areas. Last visit: Jun 2017 (Hurst, TX) First visit: Mar 2013 (The Colony, TX) OK, I'm going to move this one forward. The review below was written for their Colony location, that has since closed. It was much more of a dive than our Northeast Tarrant locale, which is actually quite nice in a fast food sort of way. But for whatever reason, it just wasn't as good as I remembered it. Have they changed? I don't know, but I think a revisit is in order for the RJG. Now that I think about it, we didn't have frozen margaritas either. Hmmm maybe it helps with a buzz on? We'll move forward again if our opinion subsequently changes. And in the meantime, they changed their...

Latest visit: May 2017 First visit: 2003 Let's slip in another update here. We tend to frequent Esparza's roughly 3 to 4 times a year. This is one of the few Mexican restaurants left in DFW where I strictly stay with Tex-Mex. I've tried their more "interior" dishes, and remain nonplussed. So, as bolded by me below, Puffed Taco dinner it is. And Mrs. RJG continues to love the vegetarian Chile Relleno. --- We mentioned earlier in this blog that Miguelito's in Hurst was one of our go-to places from 2004-2005. But our very first regular Mexican food fix in NE Tarrant was Esparza's. An old Dallas neighborhood buddy first recommended the place to us, and it was an instant hit at the RJG household. From 2003 to 2004, I'd say we went here more than any other Mexican restaurant. But, as with Miguelito's, the Mrs. began to sour on the place for a variety of reasons. That left Mr. RJG going solo, or with neighborhood friends, on a very infrequent basis. B...

Latest visit: Mar 2017 First visit: Apr 2013 It had been some time since I dined at Jack and Grill, and this visit back in March reinforced the quality. The beer selection has increased their local presence and the food is very good. I need to come here more often. I still haven't brought Mrs. RJG. --- Jack and Grill is the latest venture from the same team that is behind the Bayou Jack's Cajun Grill that we recently covered here on the RJG. Apparently it's the same Jack that once ran a restaurant in Southlake, but we didn't get over there before they closed. Basically Jack and Grill is taking advantage of the nouveau version of a beer bar. An advanced tavern as it were, or what the RJG is now calling a "craft tavern". The food is definitely front and center, and shouldn't be considered an afterthought to the beer. And they certainly have more than beer for adult beverages. But for the RJG, the key is their beer selection, and then does the food quali...

Chapps currently maintains 7 locations, all in the Fort Worth area. Latest visit: Feb 2017 (Keller) First visit: 2003 (Keller) We feel that Chapps has the perfect recipe for burgers. Excellent seasoning, on the salty side, with plenty of fresh ingredients as toppings (which you can choose from). I tend to break from the norm, and ask for raw onions over grilled, but otherwise I stick to the usual cheese, lettuce, pickles, and mustard. The fresh baked buns are also quite good. A single cheeseburger is more than enough, and I don't even think they offer a double (believe me, that would be way too much). They have a smaller burger called a Baby Chapps, and naturally Mrs. RJG goes for that, plus the Baby Chapps comes with fries as part of the price (otherwise it's extra). I usually eschew fries in general, and eat a handful from the spouse's plate - and they are hand cut, fried to perfection, and very tasty. They also have very good hot dogs and chicken sandwiches tha...

3 locations (Keller; Bedford; Arlington) Latest visit: Feb 2017 (Keller) First visit: Jun 2012 (Bedford) Back to our own grazing range, it was time to try the latest Mexican restaurant entry in our area. We'd been to the Bedford location once last summer, and it was definitely good, but we weren't really wowed by it. And since Bedford is a bit of a haul for us, and the 183/121 construction is a bit daunting, we just let the restaurant fall through the cracks of the RJG dining agenda. But now they've moved up our way, right near our own ranch land, in nearby Keller. The competition is stiff around here, with Anamia's (Southlake), Mi Pueblo (NRH), El Paseo (Keller), Fresco's (Watauga), and the Baja Grill mini chain (based in Grapevine) all nearby and all excellent. So how did the new Lupe's, opened only a month ago, stack up? Quite well actually. Very well indeed... as in we need to go back shortly. The restaurant setting is very nice, featuring a well decorate...

Latest visit: Feb 2017 First visit: Jun 2015 Reader Michael had suggested this place on our Riscky's feature, and coincidentally Mrs. RJG had requested to go not long after. So here we are for the first time in nearly a year. We had stopped eating barbecue for awhile, but we're back, and this remains our favorite in NE Tarrant. But we haven't tried them all either. That's a disclaimer meaning... we need to go out and eat more BBQ! As alluded to above, the barbecue here is excellent, and not a side show for the entertainment. We've tried many cuts of meat here, and almost without exception, we have come away pleased. The favorite remains the smoked chicken, and it is because of here that it became my test dish for barbecue as opposed to the traditional sliced brisket. In past visits we were quite enamored with the jalapeno cheese and German sausages, Carolina pulled pork, sliced brisket, pork ribs, and the country ham. Only the turkey has disappointed us - but aga...

One of the legendary places to visit while in the DFW area, we've only been to the flagship restaurant in Roanoke. Today there are 10 locations including their newest in our former haunt of NE Tarrant (North Richland Hills) Latest visit: Jan 2017 (Roanoke) First visit: Apr 2005 (Roanoke) --- This is only my second visit to Babe's (2011), the first being over 6 years ago with a former co-worker from my days at Lockheed-Martin in Denver in the late 1990s. Mrs. RJG had been curious about what the fuss was, so we took this day to head over for lunch and get us some fried southern food. Babe's is a now legendary place in the DFW area and it's not an uncommon sight to see large lines on weekend nights. Babe's first opened its doors in 1993 in old town Roanoke, long before anyone else was there. Due to its increasing popularity, Roanoke is now the town that never was, and is a re-creation of a classic old Texas settlement as one might find at the turn of the last century...

Latest visit: Dec 2016 (Fort Worth) First visit: Aug 2004 (Addison) Mar 31, 2022 update: There are currently 12 Flying Saucer's in 4 states, 7 of which exist in Texas. The original Addison location I went to is no more. We celebrated New Year's Eve on our last visit (Fort Worth). There was a time when the RJG had very little use for beer. Unlike many college students, I pretty much eschewed guzzling cheap beer for a cheap buzz. In the 1980s, the US beer industry was all about price. Pale lagers and light beers was all there was to quaff. And at Texas Tech, Coors was the clear winner followed by Budweiser. I didn't dislike the stuff, but I just didn't understand what the big fuss was. Once I started going to Europe later in the 80s, I began to realize what a good beer can taste like. Then my move to Colorado in 1993 opened my eyes up to the craft beer industry. Unfortunately I didn't take advantage of it as much as I should have back then, with only an occasional f...