This Week's Restaurant

I realized the other day that I haven't written about a restaurant in a long time. Truth is, we're (thankfully) been eating at home more. And when we have eaten out, we've stuck with our tried-and-true favorites. Last week, though, Tim and I tried Alvarado's in North Richland Hills while we waited for Nigel to finish his first day of preschool. It's a 24-7 Mexican joint in a converted Taco Bell. I can't vouch for the entire menu, but I can tell you that the breakfast tacos are insanely good! Tim and I each got a chorizo tacos, which included potatoes, eggs, cheese, etc. The chorizo had just enough spice, but not too much kick that it made my eye makeup run. Bonus: quick service and lots of free varieties of salsa.

Last Week's Restaurant

Before Nigel and I moved down, Tim scoured the web for restaurants that I'd like. He found Spiral Diner, but it wasn't until last weekend that we finally got to try it. We went with some new friends prior to a visit to the zoo. This part of town feels a lot like RVA: local restaurants, coffee joints and hipsters on bikes. Not a chain in view. It was one of those moments that made me kinda fall in love with Fort Worth. Spiral serves organic, vegan food. I'm not a big advocate of soy products, so I tried the seitan-based taco salad. I knew I wasn't eating meat, but the spices and the accompanying tahini dressing made it quite tasty. Tim got a portobello quesadilla, while Nigel had an enormous PB&J. The highlights of our meal were eating outside, the agave-sweetened watermelon soda water and the seed bombs (balls of dirt packed with Texas-native wildflower seeds) in an old bubble gum machine. On Sunday, after I took my poor "vintage" iBook to the Apple store for the second time that week, I met two girlfriends at the Container Store for some shopping. I always see its products in magazines, so I was really excited to learn there was one in FW. I got some neat things, but a lot of what's there is over priced or unnecessary. After shopping, we had dinner at nearby Maharaja, my first taste of Indian food that wasn't cooked at home since we left RVA. I had the vegetarian sampler, and it was really awesome! Their saag paneer is the best I've ever tasted. I'd love to go back for their lunch buffet one day.

Last Week's Restaurant

I had a lot of work last week (don't forget to tell your friends about my editing and writing services), so in a moment of weakness I asked Tim to bring dinner home after he took Nigel to the playground on Wednesday. He brought back the most delicious Texas barbecue we've had to date. The spot is Smokeys; Tim read about it in D magazine, and it's gotten rave reviews online. We all had a sampling of meats: roast chicken, pork ribs, beef brisket and sausage. Each item was cooked perfectly; the meat was tender and juicy. Like most Texas barbecue, there wasn't any sauce. The meat was so good I didn't even miss it, though. We also had coleslaw (mayo-based with dried cranberries) and cowboy beans (jalapeno and chunks of meat). I think we've finally found a barbecue place to take guests.

On Saturday, Tim and I dined out sans Nigel. Yep, we have a Texas babysitter now!!! My hairdresser recommended her, and Nigel's smitten. So, while the wee one was in good hands, Tim and I headed to Byblos near the Stockyards. Some of the Lebanese/Greek items we've enjoyed at other Mediterranean restaurants were missing (to coincide with tamer Mid-West palates, perhaps?), but we really enjoyed our meal. My falafel was the best I've ever had. The outside was crispy and studded with sesame seeds, while the inside was still moist. Tim's shawarma platter was thinly sliced sizzling beef served with rice and veggies. The meat was very tender. And everything was served with fresh, hot pita bread. There's also a hooka lounge here, as well as belly dancing (we were too early for the latter).

All in all it was a pretty healthy meal that allowed us for a post-dinner splurge after some sight seeing and walking around an hour or so later: gelato from Paciugo!!! Paciugo is a chain that started in Dallas and can now be found in several states. I think they have more than 250 flavors, including several that are water-based, soy-based and sugar free. The gelato is made daily on-site; there are about 25 flavors out at any given time. Tim and I each got cups that can hold small bits of up to 4 flavors. I got chocolate coconut curry (sweet with a little bit of warmth at the end), roasted banana cashew crunch and turtle cheesecake, while Tim had peanut butter and cherry vanilla. I cannot tell a lie: I ordered something with coconut so Tim, who is allergic to said coconut, wouldn't be able to mooch. This gelato is just that good. YUMMY! I'd been off sugar for at least a month, so when we got home I was totally wired. Next time we'll take them up on the free samples, because there are just so many flavor possibilities (chocolate chipotle butter pecan is calling my name). You really can't go wrong, though!

Last Week's Restaurant

When Tim was laid off last March, stress eating kicked in. And when we moved to Texas, trying new restaurants was so tempting. Needless to say, our svelte selves are no longer as svelte. But we're getting back on track. We've joined the YMCA, I'm running more and we're cutting back our restaurant visits.

Don't fret, though, we still have a find to share with you: Dickey's Barbecue Pit. Although we've been warned that pulled pork isn't so swell around here, I gave it a shot. I'm really glad I did. It was very lean and tender. Next time, though, I'll forgo the too-sweet sauce. I also enjoyed the jalapeno beans (think spicy baked beans). Just as we expected, there isn't much green on the menu here... just green beans (cooked with loads of salt and bacon, of course) and salad, which Tim enjoyed with his beef brisket and sausage.

Last Week's Restaurant

Last week the weather was so nice — mid-70s every day. On Friday it was actually 87 at 3:45! Since we've been told to take advantage of any day that feels like spring — because it can and will reach 105 before you can blink your eye — Nigel and I picked Tim up from work most days and we all headed to Trinity River Park. The section we go to has a nice playground and there's usually a pretty diverse mix of kids, which is rare here.

So after some playtime on Friday, we headed over to Zeke's on Camp Bowie Blvd. We spotted it a month or so ago and were intrigued since it's gotten good reviews online. For starters, it's small and the interior decor reminded me of some of the chip shops I've seen in England (a sign that read "Hippies are always welcome" made me laugh). Nigel and I washed our hands in the super tiny bathroom while Tim ordered. To get to the bathrooms, which are the size of the ones at Nile, we actually had to walk into the kitchen first. Nigel got a kick out of that.

As in a true chip shop, just about everything here is fried. Tim and I each had the fish combo — one with fried zucchini and fried mushrooms, the other with fries. The fish was very moist, but a bit overpowered by the heavy breading. The cornmeal crust on the veggies was really nice, allowing the flavor of the zucchini and mushroom flavors to shine. The fries were fries, not chips. Nigel enjoyed popcorn shrimp and the attention from our waitress. I thought the food was good, but it's not top on my "must return" list.

On Saturday, Tim and I enjoyed a Nigel-free afternoon (more to come on that later) that ended with dinner at Desta in Dallas. Nigel and I last had Ethiopian food in September when we celebrated Ethiopian New Year in RVA sans Tim; Tim hadn't had it since well before that. Sure, I've been making my ferengi versions of dishes, but nothing beats the real thing.

Desta has only been open for a month or so, but the only thing that gave their newness away was its BYOB policy and absence of Tej. The all-Ethiopian staff was characteristically kind, and the food was amazing. We started with meat sambusas (think, Indian samosas) that were served with a cold lentil dish and chili oil. Tim enjoyed an order of beef tibs with shiro. My vegetarian combination platter included the standard shiro (not too spicy), misir wat, gomen (the best I've ever had), atakilt wat (the cabbage was so buttery and smooth) and kik alicha. But my plate also included two super tasty surprises: green beans and purple cabbage. We left feeling recharged by great food and friendly Habesha people. Desta is a place we'll definitely go back to, perhaps to try the all-day breakfast!

Last Week's Restaurant

Tim was in Missouri most of the week last week, so when he came home on Friday evening, cooking was the last thing on my mind. We all just wanted to spend time together. So, we tossed our one-restaurant-a-week rule and ate out THREE times last weekend (good thing we've joined the YMCA, huh?).

After we put Nigel to bed on Friday, Tim and I had takeway from Panda Express. The restaurant is a chain, and it wasn't that good. It doesn't hold a candle to Pei Wei.

On Saturday night, the three of us dined at Babe's Chicken Dinner House in Arlington, just a few blocks from Cowboy Stadium. It's been on our radar for a while since it's been featured in Southern Living magazine and on Food Network. And I know of at least two RVA friends who've told us to try it. We got to Babe's right at 5, and there was already a line. Before we were seated we waited outside on the covered patio, where they have heaters and stools made from old tractor seats (left). The interior walls on the inside of the large restaurant are made up to look like an old Western Main Street. The tables and chairs are mismatched and kind of like you'd find in someone's home. It was a very comfortable atmosphere despite the size. At Babe's there is no menu because the selection is very limited. Each person chooses a meat (smoked chicken, fried chicken, chicken tenders, chicken-fried steak, pot roast or fried catfish), and the table shares refillable sides (cream corn, gravy, mashed potatoes, green beans, biscuits and salad). I'm starting to get used to the absence of green things on menus down here, but the salad actually made me laugh — it was just shredded iceberg lettuce with a vinegar-based dressing. Nigel ate some, though (above). The rest of the meal was really good. Tim's chicken-fried steak (below, right) was huge and very tender. Nigel and I had chicken tenders that I think rival the ones at our beloved Lee's Chicken in RVA (the closest Lee's to us now is Tulsa, OK). Another funny moment was when Tim asked for Coke or Pepsi, and the waitress said they only serve Dr. Pepper and RC (Texans are really big Dr. Pepper drinkers). Obviously, it wasn't the healthiest meal we've ever had, but it was really good. Definitely a place we'd take an out-of-town guest.

On Sunday evening, after a really fabulous early Valentine's Day outing, Tim and I had takeaway sushi from Piranha Killer Sushi in Sundance Square. If you'll recall, our previous attempt to discover awesome sushi in FW was a fail. Piranha made up for it. The rolls were formed really tight (I hate when rolls are sloppy and fall apart), and the pricing was fair. Everything was just very flavorful — so flavorful that I hardly used soy sauce at all. The fish in Tim's tuna roll was really fresh, and we both enjoyed some of their signature rolls, including the Forget About It Roll (scallions, shrimp tempura & ginger cream topped with avocado & crawfish). Even the disposable chopsticks were high-quality (read: we didn't get splinters in our mouths). Really excited to have a sushi spot to call our own. FW is starting to feel like home.

Last Week's Restaurant

For the last month I haven't been able to shake the "love sauce" taste — a la Love Shack — from the back of my throat. When Tim made a super quick trip to RVA earlier this month he stopped into Honey Whyte's, our favorite burger joint. Needless to say, I was a bit jealous. So I was really glad to find my fix at Tommy's on Camp Bowie. I got the Wholly Moley burger, which was topped with cheddar and guacamole, and Tim got the Blue Cheese Burger. Tim's onion rings were good (not as good as the ones at Commercial Taphouse in RVA), and my fries did the trick. Nigel really enjoyed his tater tots. And we all loved that we got to take home these cool plastic cups! The service was quick and friendly, too. We'll be back for sure.

This Week's Restaurant

We gave Mexican food another shot last week with La Familia. The restaurant is on Foch Alley in a really cute part of town called So7. This was the best Mexican food we've had so far. Tim got shrimp enchiladas and I got the Tex-Mex enchiladas. Tim's shrimp were perfectly cooked, and my chicken was fabulous. Each of our meals was served with the most delicious soup. My bean soup had a zesty broth with plenty of fresh cilantro. The salsa was stellar! We were also served roasted jalapenos, which Tim couldn't resist trying. Another huge plus here is the staff: Everyone was friendly and Al Cavazos greeted us at the door with a handshake. After our meal we headed over to J. Rae's, which has a huge cupcake on top of its shop, so Nigel could get a treat.

We also went out to lunch last week. Our new friends that we met at the Ethiopian Christmas gathering invited us to join them at the Swiss Pastry Shop. Tim got some sort of sausage plate and I got a Rueben. My sandwich was pretty good, despite not being served on rye and without much Thousand Island dressing. If we go back I'd love to try the carrot cake sandwich side — two pieces of carrot bread with cream cheese in the middle.

Last Week's Restaurant

The week before last we ordered takeout pizza that was neither good enough nor bad enough to write about. We've been getting our pizza fix via the frozen section at Whole Foods and Central Market. We're really missing Bottom's Up and Mary Angela's.

So I'll tell you where we went this weekend: Riscky's Barbeque. If you've been to Texas or have watched the Food Network, you most likely know that barbeque here isn't a noun so much as it is a verb. It really refers to meat — any kind of meat, really — cooked over an open flame. I'm a HUGE fan of the vinegary North Carolina-style of BBQ, so I didn't think I'd like Texas-style. I also was turned off by the absence of anything green on the menu (a side salad doesn't count in my book) and something called Riscky Dust (the name reminds me of the nasty Love Sauce that I can still taste from Love Shack).

But I have to say I rather liked Riscky's. Having been advised against the pulled pork (since it wouldn't taste anything like pulled pork in Virginia), I got the chopped beef brisket sandwich. The meat was very tender. The sauce was a tad sweet, but not overly. My side of potato salad was more like mashed potatoes with mustard. Not so good. If we go again, I'll get the fried okra or pay extra for a side of green beans. Tim got a meat sampler of some sort and was not in love with his beef ribs. Other pluses: Our waitress was so nice, our food came out pretty quickly and the decor kept Nigel amused.

Last Week's Restaurant

When Tim and I met in 2000, I'd never had sushi before. After a year or so of prodding, he finally convinced me to try it. I've been hooked ever since. Our favorite RVA spots for sushi are Akida and Mai Sushi.

Ever since we arrived in FW we've had a hankering for sushi. Nigel's a very adventurous eater, but we've never given him sushi because it seemed likely that his teeth couldn't cut through the nori part of a roll. So, on Christmas Eve eve we ordered takeaway from Blue Sushi Sake Grill in the So7 district of FW. This way Nigel could try sushi at home; if the experiment failed we could fix him a PB&J.

We talked about sushi all day long, so he was very eager to try it. In fact, when Tim set little plate down on the table Nigel gobbled up the first roll (avocado) in a few bites. Alas, when he picked up the second one he declared he didn't like it after all. He picked at the rice and insides that we scraped out, but he really dug the potstickers.

Our 2 cents on Blue Sushi is that it's more of a bar than a sushi joint. The rolls were no better than what you'd find at Kroger or Ukrop's. The clue should have been the super chic, hip interior and the cheap prices (Lucky Buddha in RVA pulls this off, though, because they have really, really good sushi).

Last Week's Restaurant

We took a break from Mexican food last week and checked out Love Shack a low-key burger joint by Chef Tim Love. If you aren't familiar with Love, he's known for his urban Western cuisine. He got a national nod on Bravo's Top Chef Master's, but he's also been written up in Country Living, The New York Times, Maxim, Food & Wine, etc. He's a vegetarian-hating big deal! His flagship restaurant is Lonesome Dove Western Bistro. The menu here boasts entrees such as Rocky Mountain elk strip loin with lamb bacon-shell bean succotash and garlic sauce; pan-seared Texas quail; hamachi tostados with ponzu, bacon and Serrano peppers; and kangaroo tenderloin nachos. Pretty interesting stuff, but pretty pricey for a meal out with Nigel in tow.

So that's why we opted for Love Shack, which has been written up nationally quite a bit as well. I imagined it a place we could take people who came to visit us... brag about having a Top Chef among us. I really wanted to like it because I just loved watching Love on Top Chef, but no dice. The patty was most likely frozen and definitely not hand-formed. My "Love Burger" had a mayo-like sauce that was way too sweet; Tim's "Blue Group" burger wasn't much better. The deviled eggs were kind of runny, and the only thing special about them was crumbled bacon on top. The fries were thin but wide, so they were limp and not crunchy. The onion rings were the only semblance of a saving grace. All of these things can't be chalked up to an "off" night, so I'm really confused about the positive accolades. We expected a step above Honey Whyte's, but got WhataBurger instead. One day we'll try Lonesome Dove — my guess is that's where Love's heart is and the food will be better — but we need to shake this disappointment off.

Last Week's Restaurant

FW has tons and tons of restaurants, so it's really tempting to eat out every single night. We're trying to limit ourselves to once a week, though. Here's where we went on Friday: La Playa Maya. We checked out the one near the Stockyards, but they have several other locations. Sadly, we weren't really wowed yet again. I've had much better guacamole (perhaps we shouldn't have declined the table side version), the queso tasted like Velveeta and the "lighter" section of the menu (their version of vegetarian, I think, although there were chicken dishes listed) only boasted five or six items. Frankly, we're confused about the mediocre Mexican food here. I guess we just assumed that every place would be authentic — why wouldn't it? We picked up a copy of Texas Monthly to help guide us in the future. Next on our list is Salsa Fuego, which made it into the Top 5 of the Top 50 Best Mexican Restaurants in Texas cover story for December.

Exploring Fort Worth via Food

Tim and I are kind of restaurant snobs. Ok, we ARE restaurant snobs. We love trying new places, different ethnic cuisines, discovering hidden gems. We're the kind of people who turn our noses up at chain restaurants and mass-produced food. With that said, we're in a new town — sans babysitters — so we've had to adjust our dining habits a tad.

For starters, when Tim was in Houston he raved about two chain restaurants: Pei Wei and Taco Cabana. In RVA I bent my no-chain rule for PF Chang's. Love that place. Turns out, they own Pei Wei: It's a fast food version of the sit-down joint. We ate there the night Nigel and I flew into town. It was quick and tasty. Taco Cabana is also fast food, but it's way above Taco Bell. The ingredients are quality and authentic.

But don't worry, our detour from locally owned restaurants was only temporary. After all, we're in Texas: land of steak and killer Mexican food. Plus, we're so fortunate that Nigel is an adventurous eater, too. Not long after Nigel and I got to FW, we ate at a small Mexican restaurant (sadly, I can't remember the name) in a strip mall near the new Cowboys stadium. The menu was totally in Spanish, so we thought we were in for a treat. Unfortunately, the food didn't really deliver. We were, however, impressed with Fuzzy's a few weeks later. Tim had a really great fish taco, as well as a crawfish taco. Nigel was into the hot and spicy salsa.

On Saturday we went to Chadra, a Lebanese restaurant near about a million hospitals in downtown FW. The food was amazing. If you come visit us, you can bet your booty we're taking you here. We each got the buffet (I normally run from buffets, but one glance convinced me it was full of homemade items) so we could sample several dishes. Nigel was in a mood (and someone had let him have a treat at Starbucks just before dinner), so he didn't eat a ton. He did like the hummus and falafel (what can we say, he's a chickpea man). There was lamb, dolmas, muhammara, a chicken dish with spinach and bacon, roasted veggies, etc. I really want to go back on Wednesdays when they have a vegetarian buffet.

We've just begun to explore this city's food culture, so stay tuned! There's a lot more to it than steaks and Mexican grub. We've seen dozens of sushi restaurants and Indian chaat houses; sadly, the closet Ethiopian restaurant is in Dallas. We're really excited about trying Spiral, a 100% vegan restaurant that serves mostly organic food, and Ellerbe Fine Foods, a seasonal, local-ingredient joint that was named one of Bon Appetit magazine's top 10 new restaurants in America! (The latter will have to wait until a babysitter is found)