Pappasitos Cantina

Pappasitos Cantina is our favorite Mexican restaurant in Texas.  However, I think the locations in Houston are better than the ones in Dallas.  The Houston restaurants have a different green salsa than the ones in Dallas and I really like that.

We arrived around 3 p.m. on a Sunday.  The restaurant was not crowded which was nice.  We were seated in a small area that was full though.  Unfortunately, I was seated next to two children.  One child kept stretching and hitting me.  He also leaned over to check out my food and was amazed by Jeff's fajitas.  The other child had a balloon attached to his arm and yes, I was hit with it a few times when he ran around the table.  I was becoming quite annoyed, but Jeff said I should ignore it.

Our waiter was friendly, but so annoying.  His favorite thing to say was "my friend".  Every sentence ended with "my friend".  I wish I would have kept count, but he probably said it twenty or more times.  He also mentioned twice that my food must not have been that good.  He was joking because I ate most of it.  When he brings his customers their bills he says "God Bless".  It doesn't really bother me, the my friend bothered me more, but I can see where some might get upset.

Pappasitos is quite pricey.   I planned on ordering fajitas but their lunch portion was $25.  I decided to stick with a burrito which was $15.  I know, how boring, but most of their items come with seafood and I can't eat that. 

The burrito was good.  It was made with beef and beans, no cheese.  I always think it is odd that they do not put cheese in their burritos.  It was good. Their food is always good.

Jeff ordered fajitas with shrimp, beef  and chicken.  The picture I took is really blurry.  The shrimp were really large.  Again, no cheese or peppers are served with their fajitas.  We are from Missouri and both are included with fajitas.

We enjoyed the food.  My dining experience wasn't all that pleasant due to the kids next to me and our waiter.  I will request a booth the next time.

Big Mommas Catfish & Pies

Big Mommas is a hole in the wall place in Sanger, TX.  We ate here on a Saturday night.  Orders are placed at the counter and then the food is brought to your table.

I read all the reviews before we went and decided ahead of time that I would have their chicken fried steak as most said it was really good.  I chose fried green beans and mashed potatoes as my sides.  A roll or cornbread also come with your meal. 

The chicken fried steak was good, but I have had better.  It was tender, but the breading wasn't all that great to me.  The fried green beans were really good.  The waitress asked if I wanted Ranch dressing as a dipping sauce and I said yes.  That really made them good.

Jeff ordered blackened catfish, baked potato and a salad.  I didn't get photos of his food.  He said it was good.  I tried the catfish and it was spicy.

We enjoyed eating here.  The service was pretty good although the waitresses had trouble delivering the food quickly because they were also taking orders.  We noticed some of the food sat on the counter for a while before it was delivered. 

If we lived in this area, we would make a return visit.

Chicken Express

We have passed by many Chicken Express restaurants, but didn't try one until yesterday.  We always thought the logo was a little strange looking.  It is of a chicken flying through the air.

We went inside to place our order even though we were getting it to go.  I think the person who waited on us was new.  She was very slow and confused.  It took us about 20 minutes to get our order while people in the drive-thru were served much faster.

I ordered the three piece chicken dinner with a roll, fried pickles and slaw.  Jeff ordered the catfish meal with hush puppies.  His sides were fried pickles and slaw.  We both thought the food was good.  We were surprised at the large number of fried pickles that we received.  They were really good.

I would definitely give this chain another try.

Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen

Jeff's favorite seafood restaurant is Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen.  It is not my favorite because they have limited items that I can eat.  I have a shellfish allergy and I am really not a fan of fish.  They seemed to have added a few more chicken items to their menu since the last time we ate at one of their locations.

The first time we ate at a Pappadeaux was in 2012.  I ordered a chicken breast dinner and it was really, really good.  It is no longer on their menu, so this time I ordered the half chicken with mashed potatoes.  It was good, but was it worth $28?  That is the cost with a soft drink and tip.  I have to say no.  (I guess I should mention that we ate here for lunch, not dinner.)  I would much rather have a steak dinner.  Their steak was $38 and I didn't want to pay that much.  Sorry, there is no photo.  I took one, but it seems to have disappeared.

Jeff ordered a seafood platter.  It had catfish, oysters and shrimps and rice.  He ordered a side salad.  The cost of his meal with tip was $48. He enjoyed his meal much more than I did.

The food here is really good, but pricey.  The service was really good.  I am sure we will eat here again even though I think it is overpriced.

 
 

Horny Toad Cafe & Bar

It has been forever (April) since I have updated this blog.  It is not that I quit eating out, it is just that I got lazy.  :-(

We are back in the Dallas area.  We have passed by Horny Toad Cafe & Bar several times because it is near a Camping World, but just stopped in this past Monday.

Almost everything on the menu looked good to me.  It was hard to decide what to order.

We started our meal off with an appetizer.  We chose the Smoked Bacon Wrapped Jalapenos.

Smoked Bacon Wrapped Jalapenos

 The jalapenos were stuffed with cream cheese and chicken and wrapped in bacon that was smoked over pecan wood chips.  I thought the first bite was really good and then the heat set in.  OUCH!  LOL  Jeff didn't flinch, but I couldn't wait for my salad to arrive so that I could cool down the burning in my mouth.

My salad which was one of my two sides with my meal.

Hangar Steak and Smashed Potatoes

The hangar steak was really good.  I decided to have it because I had never had one before.  The dip on the side is butter with seasoning.  The smashed potatoes were also good.

Jeff ordered the Pecan Smoked Coffee Rubbed Pork Ribs.  We both thought this sounded like it would be so good.  I tried a bite of it and did not like it at all.  He was also disappointed in it. We did not care for the BBQ sauce at all.  We could not taste the coffee, but the grounds remained in our mouths long after the ribs.

Pecan Smoked Coffee Rubbed Pork Ribs

The service was really good and we felt the prices were reasonable.  This is a place that we would definitely consider visiting again.

Carrabba's Italian Grill

 

I have been wanting to try this chain restaurant for quite a while.  We decided to give it a try on a Saturday night.  We were seated immediately.  It took quite a while for our waitress to come for our drink order, but that was okay because I was busy studying the menu.  The menu didn't have as many pastas as I expected. I didn't see much that I wanted to try.  It took me quite a while to make a decision on what I wanted.

We started out our meal with an appetizer.

Our appetizer: Calamari, Roasted Tomato Bruschette and Mozzarella Marinara

 I wasn't impressed the appetizer. The mozzarella sticks were somewhat greasy.  I didn't care much for the Bruschette.  Jeff said the calamari was okay.

I ordered the Veal Marsala with garlic mashed potatoes and a side salad.

Veal Marsala and Garlic Mashed Potatoes

 The veal and potatoes were both good.

The salad was also good.  It had a few black olives which I liked.

Jeff ordered a pasta with shrimp.  He was not impressed. It was very light on the sauce and didn't have much flavor.

Pasta with shrimp

Would we eat here again?  Maybe.  It is somewhat pricey, but most Italian places are.  My food other than the appetizer was good.  Our waitress was very nice and good.

Freddy's Frozen Custard and Steakburger

Freddy's is a chain restaurant that we have seen billboards for as we have traveled from state to state.  I have been wanting to try it and that chance came on a Saturday afternoon.

It is very much like a Steak N Shake.  However, there is not waitress service here.  Diners place their order at the counter and then pick it up when their number is called.

I ordered the double cheese steak burger and fries.

 Jeff ordered a sandwich and fries, but I forgot to take a photo of his sandwich and half the onion rings were gone before I took a photo of them.

The burger was really good.  The fries were okay, but they do have a fry sauce that helps.  The onion rings were really good.  I think that I like this place better than Steak N Shake, but I may need to try it a few more times to be sure.  LOL

I had hoped to try one of their custard sundaes which looked really good, but we were too full.  Yes, a return trip is necessary. :-)

Stroud's - A Return Visit

We visited Stroud's last November and we liked it so much that we decided to make a return visit.  You can see my first review here.

Stroud's - The building was built in the 1800's.

They open on at 11 a.m. on Sundays.  We arrived at 10:45 a.m. and the line to get inside quickly drew.  When the doors opened, there were more people than tables.  We were second in line, so we were seated quickly.

We were seated in the dining room this time and we had a very nice view.  It was a rainy day.

Jeff ordered chicken livers for an appetizer.  I am normally not fond of them, but these were good.

Half order of Chicken Livers.  They come with a big bowl of gravy.

We both ordered chicken.  All meals come with soup or salad, choice of potato, green beans and cinnamon rolls.  I ordered mashed potatoes and Jeff ordered fries.

Side salad - it was so good!

I didn't get a very good picture of our food.  There was so much.

Cinnamon Rolls

The food was so good! Jeff says this is the best chicken he has ever had.  We ended up taking home two bags of leftovers.  I think I enjoyed our meal here this time even more than our first time. The service is great here.   This is a must try place.

A1 Super Buffet

We enjoy trying Chinese buffets.  We have had some really good ones and some bad ones.  This one was a disappointment to us.  When we walked in, I thought it was going to be good.  It is decorated nicely.

The host told us that they have recently changed their menu.  Many Chinese restaurant let you choose your food from the buffet and it is cooked for you.  This place allows you to cook the food yourself or you can choose the cooked food.  The cooked food is $12.99 and the uncooked is $17.99.  We chose the cooked food because the food that is normally on the buffet that is uncooked is not what we like.  We expected to have a nice selection of cooked foods to choose from, but we were wrong.  We had very limited food.  The food sat on a plate under a heat lamp.  It was quite disappointing.  Since I am allergic to shellfish, I was very limited to what I could eat here.  There were just a few chicken dishes and some spring rolls.  The food was not labeled well which is also a problem for patrons who are allergic to shellfish.

Each table comes with a fire pit for patrons to cook their food.

 If we had chosen to cook our own food, I may have a totally different review to write.  We will not be going back to give them another try though.

Razzoo's Cajun Cafe

We ate here on a Saturday afternoon.  We arrived around 2:30 p.m. and the place was packed.  We had to wait about 20 minutes for a table.  We ate at this chain in Houston and then we had to wait about an hour on a Sunday night.  I really didn't expect to have to wait on a Saturday afternoon.

This place is somewhat loud with music and people, but it is not extreme.

We started our meal out with an appetizer of fried pickles.  The fried pickles were very good.

Fried pickles.  I think the red on the dipping sauce is red pepper.

I had a hard time deciding what I wanted to eat.  I considered a cajun pasta.  I decided to try their cajun fried steak.  The steak was okay.  I didn't care much for the breading. It was rather boring.  The gravy was good and it also had the red pepper.  The corn had peppers and it was good.

Cajun fried steak with mashed potatoes and corn

 Jeff ordered the Seafood Combo, but the waitress thought he said Seafood Gumbo.  She brought him gumbo first, but quickly corrected the error.  He enjoyed his plate which had shrimp, catfish, fries, corn and hush puppies.

Seafood Combo

 We enjoyed eating here. The service was good even though there was a mistake with the order.  We definitely would eat here again.

Johnny Carino's Country Italian

We ate here for dinner on a Sunday. The place was almost empty.  This is a chain restaurant which we tried in Missouri City, TX and the business there was also slow and that location has closed.  I am not sure why business is slow because the food and service are both good.

View of the kitchen from our table.

Bread is served with oil and roasted garlic.  It is very good

Bread with roasted garlic

 We started our meal off with an appetizer of fried mozzarella sticks.  The mozzarella sticks were very good.

Fried Mozzarella Sticks

 Our meals came with a salad.  I had mine with a creamy garlic dressing.  The salad was a little light on the dressing.

Side salad

I ordered chicken marsala which was served over fettuccine noodles.  It was good.  I have had better, but it was good.

Chicken Marsala

 Jeff ordered the seafood pasta.  He said it was good.  It was light on shrimp but had other seafood. 

Seafood Pasta

We enjoyed eating here.  They have a nice variety on the menu and the prices are good.  I really don't know why the business is so slow here.