Average Tex-Mex fare. I've had better meals at Matt's El Rancho. Why bother?
Fairly competent TexMex. You can't complain that the nachos had too little cheese on them; in fact, they arguably had too much (or too little time in the oven), as the bottom layers hadn't completely melted. Service was quite attentive, making it far above average for TexMex. On the other hand, I thought my fajitas were slightly on the skimpy side, and my breakfast taco was nothing special. Still, prices were generally reasonable. Not a bad choice if you're in the area.
Romeo's is a nice enough Italian place: much better, in my opinion, than Zio's, for example. The only complaint I can make about the service was that our waitress looked a little too much like a Vulcan: but, hey, she did her job. I liked the calamari, but the roasted garlic could have been roasted a bit longer: I wonder if this batch had actually been sitting around for a while. My scampi was reasonably done, and the cannoli was excellent.
I'd like to see more variety in the menu, and a few more non-tomato based dishes. But Romeo's is good enough and close enough for me.
Romeo's offers fairly good Italian food at pretty reasonable prices. The calamari was good, but the "roasted" garlic, unlike our last visit to the South location, wasn't cooked enough to "squeeze out" onto the bread. The salad was good as well, and they didn't skimp on the dressing (though I would have preferred a choice of dressings). I also enjoyed my Chicken Arrabbiatta, which came in a generous enough portion that I was too full for dessert. Service was generally good as well. While they're not quite in the same league as Reale's, or even Carrabba's, Romeo's is still worth a taste.
A decent enough mid-range steak place. Good sourdough bread, and I think I prefer their "wedge" salad to Outback's Ceaser salads. I also think the steaks are a bit tastier and better prepared than the Outback's (as long as you don't get one over-seasoned with black pepper. Yes, I like black pepper: but there is such a thing as going overboard with it.)
And the nice thing about the 183 location is that you can walk (or waddle, or roll) over to the Marble Slab just across the parking lot for some ice cream (without a side order of attitude).
A steakhouse chain on par with Outback. The first time we visited the 290 & I-35 location, we were less than impressed, but this was a more pleasant trip.
However, be prepared to wait. We got there just before six and they told us it would be 45 minutes until we were seated.. (We actually waited around 20.) It looked liked they had enough empty tables to seat people immediately, but not enough staff to bus them. Once we were seated, however, service was reasonably good (Plus, they passed the Dwight test by serving the bread warm).
We started off with the sirloin nachos and an order of the Texas onion strings. We were contemplating a third appetizer, but our waitress told us two were enough. She wasn't lying. The heap of onion strings they brought out was huge, filling a whole serving platter stacked five or six inches high. They were quite tasty (as was the dipping sauce that came with them) and a heck of a deal at $4.99. The nachos were good as well, but didn't have quite the bang-for-the-buck ratio as the onion strings.
Though the steak at Texas Land & Cattle Company isn't in the same league as Ruth's Chris, it's a whole lot cheaper and one side and a salad are included. The salad was of the "wedge of lettuce" variety, which I find aesthetically appealing, and it came garnished with a generous dousing of real bacon bits. For a side I got fries, which were fine, but by the time I finished my steak (which was fairly tender and flavorful), I didn't have any room left for more than few. We walked over to the nearby Marble Slab for dessert.
The overall dining experience here was very positive. In fact, I would be hard-pressed to chose between TL&C and the Outback. While I prefer the Outback's cheese-fries, the portions aren't as generous as the onion strings, and our last Outback experience was somewhat disappointing. But for a good, moderately priced steak, Texas Land & Cattle Company (at least this location) seems a solid choice.
No conspiracy: Turkey City. No soap: radio.
See the logs for June of 2001.