Regular Joe's Guide

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...