Food for Thought, Texas Dining Guide

Just came back from the most awesomest restaurant you've ever visited, in ever? POST IT HERE!
Just enjoyed the most amazing meal of your miserable life? POST IT HERE!
Just received the worst entrée you've ever tasted with a side of crappy service? POST IT HERE!


This thread is for...
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- Restaurant Reviews (Good and Bad)
- Menu Items to Try
- Menu Items to Avoid
- Quality of Service
- Healthy Food Choices
- Restaurant DOs and DON'Ts
- ...or to simply describe your own restaurant experience.

Open to all restaurants IN Texas and NOT IN Texas.


Got a delicious recipe you want to share? Follow this link here.

Well, last Saturday, I went to a bar for brunch (hence why I missed chat - I promise that this week I'll have a new excuse.), and they have an Uncle Buck pancake challenge. It is a solid six pounds of pancakes, plus syrup and butter. Finish in an hour, and it's free. (Also, you get an Uncle Buck hat.)

I finished only about four pounds, then slept the rest of the day. I need to get back in shape and try again.

That's a lot of pancakes.

Man, that is a lot of pancakes! They looked good though.

Man, we are inspired. And, have a serious hankering for paincakes!

Not me. I'm okay not having another pancake for the next couple of months.

And it's not that many pancakes. It was only five.

If it was only five, I'm sure I could beat it.

That's what you think, but then they get cool, and you realize just how dense pancakes actually are, and then you throw up in your mouth with every bite, and then you decide maybe it isn't worth the pain if you aren't going to be able to finish anyway.

Speaking of which, have you seen the original Uncle Buck pancakes?

We have long been on this quest. We are sure The Holy Grail of Cheeseburgers is out there, we have just yet to find it. However, there are a couple of places that get pretty ding-dangged close. The first is only in San Antonio & New Braunfels - the Longhorn Cafe. The second is a national chain in all but 16 states or so - Fuddruckers.

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Longhorn Cafe
We first discovered the Longhorn Cafe in the late 80s while we were headed out to BFE, Texas for an afternoon drive. It was pretty close to being in BFE itself at the time, but now the city has grown around it and it is now in a bustle area and has added numerous locations as well. It looks about the same now as it did then and so does the menu. That is a good thing. We used to get the Double Meat Double Cheese burger. It would come in a basket along with a healthy handful of freshly cut fries with the skin on. The fries were not crispy by any stretch of the imagination, but they were very potato-y. The burger was unbelievable! It was nothing more than a couple of 4 ounce patties stacked on each other with a healthy amount of cheese. We don't even remember what kind of cheese it was - it was yellow cheese. But that didn't matter, it was so juicy and yummy that you would just go into burger nirvana while you ate it. After the first one and every single time since, we drive straight home and promptly fall asleep. The burgers at longhorn earned the nickname, The Narcotic Burger by all our friends. It was common just to ask if anyone wanted to go get a Narcotic Burger instead of asking of they wanted to go to Longhorn. It was just that good. And you had to plan accordingly. No activities should be scheduled for at least 3 hours after eating that bad boy! Oh, did we mention that they had some of the ice-coldest beer going. It literally was longnecks in a tub of ice. Woo Hoo! Longhorn Cafe really gets close to The Ultimate Burger.

Here is a pix of the original:


Visit their website here:
http://thelonghorncafe.com/index.html

Read a review of the place here:
http://www.sanantonioburger.com/2009/01/re...ghorn-cafe.html

And just drool over their burger here:

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Fuddruckers
About 25 or so years ago, we worked with walking distance of this funky burger joint with a name that mad people snicker - Fuddruckers. It was the flagship store and was kind of unique as burger chains go. At that time, it was not even a chain. There were a couple of them in San Antonio and that was it. Now there are hundreds of them all over the country. What was unique about Fudd's (as we shortened it) is that it has a virtual salad bar of toppings that they called the Produce Bar. It had shredded lettuce, it had whole leaf lettuce, it had tomatoes sliced or diced, ditto the onions, ditto the pickles, sprouts (we are not sure if they even still do) and pickled jalapeños. There were one gallon pumps of ketchup, mustard, spicy mustard and real Hellmann's mayo! And best of all, they had pump crock pots of nacho cheese and jalapeño nacho cheese! And not the chintzy stuff either - real Cheez Whiz! Haven't you always wanted to have control over one of those bad boys when it came time to getting nachos or something? Well, Fuddruckers will let you at it. You can make your burger swim in the stuff! We always did Hellman's on one bun and nacho cheese on the other! But, the best use of the nacho cheese was for the had-cut potato wedges that they were frying up all the time. You put a couple of pumps of nacho cheese in with their spicy fries and it was heaven. Additionally, Fuddruckers, had a bakery right inside the restaurant where they cooked up the buns they used on their burgers. They also baked up fresh chocolate chip cookies and brownies and made you walk by it on the way out. It was hard to not pick up one for the road. And, like most good burger joints, ice cold beer, on ice, and by the bucket! And, they have serious burger sizes too - 1/3, 1/2, 2/3 or 1 pound patties and best of all, they will grill it to order. So if you like a medium rare burger, Fudd's will do it! This place is worth checking out if you never have had one. They get really gets close to The Ultimate Burger.

Here is a pix of the place:


Visit their website here:
http://www.fuddruckers.com/

Read a review of the place here:
http://www.sanantonioburger.com/2009/04/re...uddruckers.html

And just drool over their burger here:


Big Tex sez: Check Them Both Out!

Dirty Restaurant Secrets


Saw these tips on a website reporting on but not associated with a show about a famous doctor on tv who comes from the land of Oz. For your consideration...

Dirty Lemons

Secret: Restaurant lemons are often as dirty as the floor. Most restaurants never wash their lemons. They stay in the box that they were shipped in until they end up on your plate. In an independent test, Dr. Oz discovered five out of five lemons from five different restaurants were coated with germs including mold, bacteria, staph and Candida yeast – the type found in the mouth and vagina.

Solution: Always order your lemons on the side and squeeze them into your drink or onto your plate yourself. Make sure that the juice doesn’t touch the germy lemon rind.




Dirty Bathroom = Dirty Kitchen

Secret: A dirty bathroom means a dirty kitchen. Although it may seem counterintuitive to associate a restaurant’s bathroom with their kitchen, these two places often share the same level of cleanliness. If a restaurant can’t be bothered to keep the toilets and sinks clean, then imagine what their refrigeration and workspaces look like in the kitchen.

Solution: Do not eat at a restaurant where the bathroom trashcan is more than half full. This means the bathrooms are not being regularly monitored and cleaned.




Dirty Buffet

Secret: Buffets are breeding grounds for bacteria. Part of the danger of buffets is that the food sits out at inconsistent temperatures. The food on the bottom is burnt, while the food on the top is too cold. Additionally, you don’t always get real ingredients at buffets. A recent test from West Virginia University concluded that scrambled eggs from two restaurant buffets were not made from real eggs. Instead, the samples were made from liquid egg substitutes containing less protein and more water.

Solution: If you want to eat at a buffet, go when it first opens to ensure the highest quality of freshness. For lunch, aim for noon, and for dinner, go at 5 p.m.




Dirty Special

Secret: The daily special is often a bad choice. Restaurateurs know that many diners will order a special, and consequently raise the price. Sadly, the daily special may not actually be special; instead, they are usually made of the food the chef needs to get rid of fast. This includes aging meat and fish, old veggies and leftover sauces – all of which could cause a nasty case of food poisoning.

Solution: If the day’s special appeals to you, don’t be shy about asking the waiter questions about the ingredients.




Dirty Veal Not Actual Veal

Secret: Veal is often actually pork. Veal is expensive meat; often, restaurants will swap it out for pork. Once the meat is pounded and slathered in breadcrumbs and sauce, only a discerning diner can tell the difference.

Solution: Ask for veal to be grilled and never breaded. It’s healthier and you can more easily assess the quality of the meat.




Low Quality

Secret: All-you-can-eat deals contain low-quality foods. When it comes to food, you get what you pay for. Anything that’s all-you-can-eat is usually either low quality or food made from starch or heavy in fat.

Solution: If you want to get an all-you-can-eat option while dining out, order pasta, grains or veggies; avoid any meat.




Coffee w/o Caffeine

Secret: Decaffeinated coffee masks as caffeinated coffee. If you order coffee past 8 p.m., it’s most likely decaf. Restaurants don’t want to wash two pots so they often use one and fill it with decaf. It saves them time and money to serve only one option.

Solution: If you need caffeine, order an espresso or cappuccino. Because these options are made when you order them, there is a better chance they are caffeinated.

We knew there was a good reason not to go out to eat and there are plenty of them right there!

That show Restaurant Impossible on The Food Network reveals some really disgusting stuff too. Lots of people are not the fanatical cleaners they should be when it comes to food service. When serving other people food, one should be fanatical about cleanliness and food safety. You can kill people if you are not.

Thanks for the article Pharaoh.