Regular Joe's Guide

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...